sLink Supplier Quickstart

Supplier Link (sLink) is the electronic interface between Fieldpine Retail and Suppliers. This page outlines technical requirements and abilities for suppliers that have been asked if a connection via Supplier Link is possible.

This page is primarily a technical description for IT staff who may be investigating how this works. If you are a small supplier without electronic systems beyond email, most of this page will not apply.

Quick Questions

No time to read everything?
Here are the quick questions

1. Can you send pricelists electronically? If yes, what information can you supply about products and how can you send it?

2. Can we send you purchase orders in any other way than email that might help you?

3. Can you send any form of advice when shipping products, so that the retailer knows in advance what items are coming?

What Supplier Link Does

Allow Suppliers to submit Pricebooks to Retailers, in a way that the retailer can automatically process
Enables the Retailer to send Purchase Orders to the supplier in a variety of electronic formats
Optional supplier acknowledgement
Allows the suppliers to send Advanced Shipping Notifications (ASN) and/or invoices to the retailer
Allows retailers to send sales and current stock information to suppliers

Not all retailers enable all features. Pricebooks, Purchase Orders and Shipping notifications are the most common requirements

Once configured, these connections between your systems can be very fast, you may receive a purchase order seconds after the retailer has released it to you. Of course this all depends on how systems are connecting and several other factors.

How Fieldpine Works at the Retailer

The Fieldpine system at most retailers is a protected in house service sitting behind their firewalls. It is not typically hosted on internet cloud servers, although is in some cases.

In store, retailers are able to use PCs or wireless devices to view and interact with their system. Stores and Head Office are able to create purchase orders, and when these are authorised they can be sent to suppliers.

Often, the Retailers servers are able to also read inbound emails, or check internet sites. However, it is highly unlikely that you can externally connect into the Retailer system directly due to security restrictions

To cater for the wide variety of potential interfaces to suppliers, the system has a number of configuration levers for common techniques. Advanced suppliers with EDI systems can be supported by custom interfaces. Fieldpine prefer that custom interfaces are supplier focused and not specifically for just one retailer (ie we want to use the same interface at different retailers)

The Fieldpine retail system is a Point of Sale, stock and customer management and warehouse control. It is not a finanical accounting system beyond retail stock.

Interface Options

Connections

How we can communicate to you automatically

HTTP or HTTPS to internet sites
FTP to internet sites
Email inbound and outbound (if configured by Retailer) Email is fixed documents, not free form text.
Native TCP sockets (advanced)
Place on Website for you to download

Authentication can be problematic depending on your requirements. Most retailers are behind firewalls so OAuth schemes may not be available

Formats we can Send

XML
JSON
XLSX (Excel)
CSV and variants
Microsoft Word (rarely used)
Adobe PDF

Formats we can Receive

Preferred. Microsoft Excel in XLSX format
Preferred. XML in a simple stateless protocol.
Preferred. CSV
JSON
Microsoft Word
PDF documents. (Note 1)
High quality photographs and images (Note 1)

Note 1: These are not preferred as text extraction can be difficult for computers. If you are sending documents in these formats please ensure text is black on white; shaded grey areas containing text will probably not be readable.

If you have other requirements or options, please contact Fieldpine via your retailer as more options may be possible.

Pricebooks and Pricelists (Supplier to Retailer)

Preferred Fields

Your code for the item
Your description of the item
Price Each (if can be purchased individually)
Outer size
Outer Price
Retail item barcode

Optional Fields

Minimum order quantity (in retail units, not outers)
Size
Weight of single item (grams)
Certifications
Manufacturer
Country of Origin
Anything else of interest...

This is an example of a complex and fully completed pricebook. It shows the same product in different order quantities

Product Code	Description	Barcode	Outer Quantity	Outer Cost Price	CanSplit	Unit Size
ABC123	Whiteboard marker	941556890277	1	3.00	no	30gm
ABC124	Whiteboard marker	941556890277	100	200.00	no	30gm

For more in depth information on pricebooks, please see the page pricebooks.htm

Purchase Orders (Retailer to Supplier)

We are able to send you one line per order line. The information for each product will include your code, quantity (retail units or outers), price etc. The system can be configured to send whatever columns you require, but changes on running systems can take some time to implement.

The order will include header information, such as purchase order number, delivery address, comments and other information

We prefer to send orders in retail units, even though we are aware of the outer sizing. However we can send in outer codes and outer quantities if you prefer.

If you allow orders for split outers, do you want one order line or two? Outer size is 8. Retailer orders 10 - is this 1 order line for 10 units, or two order lines, one of 1x8 and another of 2x1.

Shipping Notification (Retailer to Supplier)

We require the purchase order number and details of which items and quantities are being shipped. This information is used by the retailer to speed up receipt of goods. If you do not have ASNs directly in your system, you can send itemised invoices instead.

FAQ

We have an ordering website, why can't they use that?

Supplier Link is about machine to machine interfacing. Most website ordering systems are designed for humans to key the order into, which means the retailer will need to manually key the items into your web page - creating more effort to order from you.

If your website has bulk options however, such as upload Spreadsheet with order, and the developers have documented this API / end point, then we may be able to use that

I just want to use email

No problems, the retailer can easily send you an email with a purchase order (typically both in the body of the email and again as a PDF attachment) This purchase order will be in the retailers standard layout and should have everything you need.

The retailer may also have an email address for the computer, so you can email pricelists, invoices etc directly to the computer and the retail system will process them. You should continue to send them to your contacts as well, cc-ing the computer is simply saving some time at the retailer. Note inbound email requires the retailer to authorise you, it is not enabled by default

What websites can you place my orders on

Technically we can send to any HTTP form. If you have a Meetu4 account then we can also upload your orders there for your reference.

What system do you recommend I buy?

We don't - if you haven't needed electronic systems until now, Supplier Link should not push you to purchase anything. If you have products that retailers want, then not using Supplier Link will not stop them purchasing from you