Technical Setup Guides
Troubleshooting
For more assistance, visit our Help Center: https://www.skuiq.com/help
A Temporary Sync Issue indicates that products are importing to SKU IQ in the background. If you see a Temporary Sync Issue displayed on the SKU IQ dashboard, this usually means that you have recently connected your POS or eCommerce platform to SKU IQ, and we are still in the process of fetching your product and inventory data. If this error persists for more than 24 hours, contact the SKU IQ support team for help.
If you need to delete or unsync an item from Square within the SKU IQ dashboard, and the toggle switch is grayed out as shown below, contact the SKU IQ support team for help. We can configure your account settings to allow the deletion of Square products from the SKU IQ dashboard.
Sometimes you’ll receive notifications in your SKU IQ dashboard to alert you of errors.
- Click on the notification alert icon to view a list of errors you’ve received.
2.Click on any alert to see a full list of notifications with details about each error.
I received the error: “The variant ‘x’ already exists”
The notification “We received an error from Shopify while adding a new variant to SKU IQ Product #xxxxxx – The variant ‘x’ already exists” is the most common error.
This error usually occurs when a merchant has two variations with the same color and no size. Shopify rejects the variation unless you specify a size attribute that allows the end customer to differentiate between the variations. If you see “The variant ‘Default’ already exists,” it means that you don’t have a size and/or color specified for the variant. If the products don’t have an attribute specified, Shopify adds the “Default” attribute.
To avoid this error, you’ll need to define unique attributes for each variant, i.e. each variant must have a different color and size combination, and must not be left blank.
I received the error: “Inventory item does not have inventory tracking enabled”
If you receive the error “Inventory item does not have inventory tracking enabled,” the Track quantity option within your Shopify product details needs to be activated so we can sync with your Shopify inventory.
If you have discrepancies in quantities between your POS and eCommerce platform, you’ll see a notification on the SKU IQ dashboard. This means that your quantities did not sync correctly. This can happen if there was a temporary outage on one of the platforms or we were not able to communicate with your POS or eCommerce platform.
If you have no Quantity Issues, you’ll see a green checkmark and No differences displayed. No action is needed.
If you see that you have Quantity Issues displayed, you can fix them manually.
1. Click See details.
2. If your POS quantities are correct for all items, select the radio button at the top of the Square column.
3. After you select the products you’d like to adjust to match the POS quantity, scroll down and click Reconcile Quantities.
4. If your eCommerce quantities are correct, you must adjust those products by manually editing the quantities directly in Square.
5. Your product quantities will now be back in sync. The quantity issue is resolved and no further action is needed.
In order for Shopify to accept a product with variations, it is important that every variation has its own unique product attributes. If the variations have duplicate attributes, Shopify will return an error message when a product is pushed from Square.
Below you can find an example of a product that won’t be accepted by Shopify. Shopify can’t accept this product because the variants all have the same color value.
If you see that you have Quantity Issues displayed, you can fix them manually.
1. Click See details.
2. If your POS quantities are correct for all items, select the radio button at the top of the Square column.
3. After you select the products you’d like to adjust to match the POS quantity, scroll down and click Reconcile Quantities.
4. If your eCommerce quantities are correct, you must adjust those products by manually editing the quantities directly in Square.
5. Your product quantities will now be back in sync. The quantity issue is resolved and no further action is needed.
If you’re having trouble authenticating your Shopify URL with SKU IQ, please double check that you are only typing in the store name immediately before “.myshopify.com”.
For example, if your Shopify URL is “my-boutique.myshopify.com,” you must type in “my-boutique” in SKU IQ as the Shopify Store Name
There are a few reasons why a product will not successfully push from Square to Shopify. You can look at the notifications in your SKU IQ dashboard to see what type of error you are receiving and help you determine how the issue might be resolved.
There are some common reasons why you might receive an error when trying to push products to Shopify.
1.Your product has more than 100 variants.
Shopify has a limit on the number of variants and options you can define per product. You can have a maximum of 100 variants, and no more than 3 options (e.g. size, color, style) per product. To resolve this, you must split up the product in your POS before pushing it to Shopify.
If you need to change the structure of your product in one platform in order to get your products to sync, it’s always best to archive or delete the product group/matrix and then create brand new products. For example, if you need to change a product group in Square so it’s no longer in a matrix, archive or delete the product group and then create new separate products to reflect each variant that was in the group. If you edit a current product structure without archiving it and starting over from scratch, SKU IQ is not likely to be able to reimport that edited product correctly, which can lead to problems like duplicate variants. It is best practice to create a brand new product rather than edit an existing product so you can avoid having issues with getting your products to sync properly.
Contact the SKU IQ support team if you need help understanding how to edit your products or if you have made edits to your POS or eCommerce inventory. If you’ve made multiple product edits, the support team can re-import your product catalog so SKU IQ will reflect the latest changes.
2. Your product has duplicate variants.
If you have a product with variants that have the same attributes, the product will not sync.
a. Click Products in the left navigation menu to view your inventory list, and find the product you’d like to edit.
You can find any product in your inventory by typing the product name or SKU into the search box at the top of the Products page.
b. Click on the product in your inventory list. typing the product name or SKU into the search box at the top of the Products page.
c.Click Edit Variants.
d. Click Delete next to one of the variants, and then click Save Changes. That will delete the duplicate variant from your POS and remove it from SKU IQ. You should now be able to push your product to Shopify.
3.Your product’s variants do not have colors or sizes defined.
a. Click Products in the left navigation menu to view your inventory list, and find the product you’d like to edit.
You can find any product in your inventory by typing the product name or SKU into the search box at the top of the Products page.
b. Click on the product in your inventory list.
c. Click Edit Variants.
d. Type the Color and Size values in the variant fields and then click Save Changes. You should now be able to push your product to Shopify.
4. Your product has too many images associated with it, or the image file sizes are too big.
When your image files are too large or too numerous, Shopify times out while it tries to accept a large amount of data from SKU IQ. You might also receive a timeout error if you don’t have an optimized server, since the server can take too long to create images in Shopify. If you receive a timeout error, your product won’t sync.
You must reduce the number of image files associated with your product, and/or reduce the image resolution. SKU IQ recommends that you have no more than 7 images associated with each product to ensure that it will sync successfully with Shopify.
A duplicate is a product or variant which appears more than once in the same location. They are separate products or variants with matching information that can prevent your products from syncing correctly.
Quantities will not adjust correctly if you have two versions of the same product in your POS or eCommerce inventory, as our system will not know which version to link between the two platforms.
Quantities will not adjust correctly if you have two versions of the same variant under a product, as our system will not know which quantity to sync between the two systems.
Duplicates are usually caused when a product that already exists is created again. This can happen in SKU IQ, your POS, or eCommerce platform.
Sometimes products may look like duplicates in SKU IQ, but they are not actually duplicates.
For example:
- A product which is sold at two locations will show up twice in your inventory list.
- A product which came from two separate platforms like Square and Shopify will also be displayed independently. These may need to be linked and are not true duplicates.
If the product is not being sold at multiple locations and you have already linked your products, you must delete any duplicate products and delete any duplicate variants in order for the sales to sync properly.
Check to make sure the products are linked. If they are not linked, inventory quantities and other product data will not sync. See the sections Link your products and Push your products for more information about how to get your products linked.
Stock quantity is the only field we sync by default. If you want other fields to sync, we can change those settings for you, but you must choose a primary system you prefer working in for adding new products and making product changes. See the section Sync additional fields like prices or images for more information about how to choose a primary system for syncing product data like the title, description, images, etc. Additional fees may apply depending on your subscription level.
Products must also be linked. If they are not linked, inventory quantities and other product data will not sync. See the sections Link your products and Push your products for more information about how to get your products linked.
When generating a link report, sometimes there will be products which are not linkable. The Link Report displays any items that are possible to link and may also include products that can’t be linked.
Possible to link
- A parent product with child variants in your POS that matches with a parent product with the same child variants in your eCommerce
- 1 individual product in your POS that matches with 1 individual product in your eCommerce
Not possible to link
- A parent product with child variants in your POS that matches with individual products in your eCommerce, or vice versa. Products must have the same structure in both platforms to be linked.
To link products between your POS and eCommerce platforms, you must meet all of the following criteria:
- You must have products listed in both platforms. If you have a new POS or eCommerce system with no products entered yet, you don’t need to link products. You can simply push products from one platform to the other to migrate your product catalog and sync your inventory. See the following section Push your products for information on migrating products from one platform to another.
- Your POS and eCommerce products must have either a common SKU, UPC/barcode, or product title.
Note: If the product titles are the only thing that matches between platforms, the products must also have a matching brand and price in order for SKU IQ to detect the products as a valid match.
3. Products must have the same structure between the two platforms in order to be matched by SKU, UPC, or product title, i.e. the item must be either a parent product with variants in both platforms, or items must be structured as individual products with no variants in both platforms.
In the image below, the POS shows a product group/matrix with 3 variants nested underneath it. However, the eCommerce platform shows the same product as three separate items, each with only one variant. Although they may be considered the same product, SKU IQ requires that both products have the same structure in order to be linked.
4. You must not have duplicate products listed in your POS or eCommerce platform.
5. Products must not have any duplicate variants.
6. The products you want to link in both platforms must be published, not archived or in draft mode.
If you have products that are not linkable, you can either 1) edit the products within your POS and eCommerce so they have matching attributes and matching structures, or 2) you can delete the item(s) from one platform and push it from the other. See the following section Push your products for information on migrating products from one platform to another.
If you choose to edit your items to match, you may need to delete any products that are listed twice in your POS or eCommerce platform, add a SKU or UPC to the product, or make sure the product structure is the same between platforms.
If you need to change the structure of your product in one platform in order to get your products to sync, it’s always best to archive or delete the product group/matrix and then create brand new products. For example, if you need to change a product group in Square so it’s no longer in a matrix, archive or delete the product group and then create new separate products to reflect each variant that was in the group. If you edit a current product structure without archiving it and starting over from scratch, SKU IQ is not likely to be able to reimport that edited product correctly, which can lead to problems like duplicate variants. It is best practice to create a brand new product rather than edit an existing product so you can avoid having issues with getting your products to link properly.
Contact the SKU IQ support team if you need help understanding how to edit your products or if you have made edits to your POS or eCommerce inventory. If you’ve made multiple product edits, the support team can re-import your product catalog so that SKU IQ will reflect the latest changes.
If you have the Send online sales into POS feature enabled, sometimes sales might display with a red “X” in the SKU IQ dashboard or they don’t display in the Transactions menu in Square within 10 minutes – the maximum amount of time it takes a Shopify order to display in Square is 10 minutes. This means that the order was not sent from Shopify to Square correctly.
Check to make sure your products are linked. If they are not linked, sales data will not sync when that product is sold. See the sections Link your products and Push your products for more information about how to get your products linked.
If you’ve verified that your products are linked and your sales are not syncing correctly, contact the SKU IQ support team for help.
When editing a variant, you cannot save changes if there is no price or if you have duplicate variants. You must type a valid price and make sure that all variants are unique before you can save your edits.
