Updating the Product Catalog: How It Works and Why

This is what a new user needs to know before touching the product list. It is short on purpose. The hands-on version is the next course, Product Catalog Walkthrough.

What the catalog is, and where it lives

A product is one row: a SKU, a name, a price, which accounts it books to, whether it is a stocked item or a service, and so on. That row lives in three places:

• MOM holds the warehouse's version: stock on hand, discontinued flags, cost. During rollout the catalog was loaded from MOM.
• QuickBooks holds the accounting version: which income and inventory accounts a product posts to, its price and cost, and whether it is active.
• HubSpot holds the sales version: the product list people pick from when they build a quote or an invoice.

QuickBooks and HubSpot have to agree, or an invoice built in HubSpot books to the wrong thing in QuickBooks. APSync keeps them agreeing by letting you change both from one spreadsheet at the same time. That is what "product push" means: you download a sheet, change what you want, and apply it. For the longer reasoning see Why we push products from a CSV.

What you did before (MOM)

• Product changes were made in MOM, and then again by hand in QuickBooks and in HubSpot, or left to drift.
• Nobody could see at a glance whether the three lists still matched.

What you do now (APSync)

Everything happens on the Items page (Main, then Items):

1. Export reads the current list from QuickBooks.
2. Download gives you a spreadsheet. You choose which rows and which columns go into it.
3. You edit the spreadsheet and drop it back on the page.
4. Apply shows you exactly what will change in each system, and only writes after you confirm.
5. Undo an apply puts back what a recent apply changed, if you need it.

The one rule: the sheet is your intent

• A column in your sheet is a column you are changing. Every value in it is written to both systems, for every row in the sheet.
• A column that is not in your sheet is left alone. So is a blank cell.
• A row that is not in your sheet is left alone. Applying a sheet never deletes or hides anything.

This is why the download dialog asks you to pick rows and columns. A one-name change should be a one-row, one-column sheet. Keep sheets small and they cannot do anything you did not mean.

What the review shows before anything is written

When you press Apply, a review opens. Read it every time.

• Which companies it will write to, in words, with a colour: green for test companies, red for the real ones.
• The columns in your sheet, and any it will ignore because of a setting.
• The live comparison. The app reads the current values in QuickBooks and HubSpot and tells you, per system, "change Item Name on 3 rows, Sales Price on 1 row; 12 unchanged", with examples. If it says nothing would change, it will not let you apply.
• Deactivations and reactivations, on their own line, because those matter more than a typo.
• Rollback warnings. Every download carries an Export ID. If your sheet still holds a value from when you exported, but the system has since changed, the review says "N values will go back to how they were at export" and names them. Only continue if that is what you want.
• For an undo, what that undo cannot put back.

A red block means the apply is refused and says why. A yellow block is a warning to read before you tick the box.

The Active column

There is one switch that removes a product from use: the Active column, true or false.

• false makes the product inactive in QuickBooks and, in HubSpot, either flags it (the default) or archives it, depending on the setting below.
• true brings it back, in QuickBooks and for a flagged product in HubSpot. It cannot bring back a product that was archived in HubSpot; the review will tell you to restore it in HubSpot instead.
• Discontinued is MOM's own note about the product. It changes nothing. Do not use it to take a product out of use.

To see inactive products in a download, tick "Include inactive items" before you export.

The settings on the Items page

All four are off unless someone turns them on. They are saved for everyone, not just you.

• Allow inventory count updates. Off means a Quantity On Hand column is ignored. Turn it on only for a deliberate stock count, and turn it off after. See the warning below.
• Archive inactive products in HubSpot. Off means Active = false only flags the product in HubSpot, and you can un-flag it from a sheet. On means it is archived: gone from HubSpot's lists, and only a person restoring it in HubSpot within 90 days brings it back.
• Allow imports to production-tier companies. Off means the real companies refuse every apply. Leave it off unless you are the one doing the real catalog push.
• Allow stale product sheets. Off means a sheet with no Export ID, from a different company, or older than the last apply is refused. Turn it on when you mean to apply an older sheet, for example to roll values back; the review will tell you how many values go back.

Things to know

• The sheet wins over changes made after you downloaded it. If someone edits a name in HubSpot after your export, and that column is in your sheet, your value replaces theirs. That is intended for names and prices. It is the reason counts are off by default: an order that ships between your export and your apply would be undone by a stale count. For a stock count, export right before, apply right after.
• Reserved SKUs. The SKU -- is a placeholder QuickBooks uses for invoice lines that have no product. It is dropped from every download and every sheet automatically. Leave it alone.
• Reconcile. The Reconcile page (from Items) shows the QuickBooks list and the HubSpot list side by side, with filters such as "only in HubSpot" or "name differs". It changes nothing; use it to check your work or to see what does not match.
• Test first. The Items page can be pointed at a test company pair. Do your first few changes there.

If something looks wrong

Cancel the review. Nothing is written until you confirm. Then use Submit an Issue and say what the review showed.