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Magento: Configuring Item Sync
Magento: Configuring Item Sync
Derek Stotz avatar
Written by Derek Stotz
Updated over a week ago

Once you have connected your Heartland Retail account to your Magento eCommerce store, you can start pulling items from Magento. If you have not completed this step yet, please see this article first: Configuring Your Magento Integration

If you do not want to sync your items from Magento, you can choose to manually manage the item records in both Heartland Retail and Magento separately.

Prerequisites to starting a sync

Create matching tax rules for your tax classes

To ensure your items are properly taxed, you will want to create tax rules in Heartland Retail for the corresponding tax classes in Magento.

To view your existing tax classes on Magento:

  1. Log in to your Magento admin panel

  2. Along the top bar select Sales -> Tax -> Product Tax Class

You can view your existing tax categories and rules in Heartland Retail by navigating to Settings -> Tax. To create new tax rules please see this knowlegebase guide: Tax rules and jurisdictions.

Matching existing items to avoid duplicates

If you already have items in both Heartland Retail and Magento, you will want to ensure we link these items to avoid creating duplicate items. To do this you will need to make the Heartland Retail Item # and the Magento SKU field both contain the exact same value. As long as both these numbers match, we will know these items are one and the same so we will not create an additional item.

Create corresponding attributes and custom fields

During the sync process you will need to map fields in Heartland Retail to attribute sets on Magento. To ensure you have all the data you need, you will want to make sure you have created the necessary fields/attributes in both locations.

To create custom fields in Heartland Retail, you can follow this knowledgebase guide: Adding, Editing or Deleting Custom Fields

On Magento, you can view the attributes which will assist you in creating custom fields on Heartland Retail.

  1. Log in to your Magento admin panel

  2. Along the top bar select Catalog -> Attributes -> Manage Attributes

If your field is a picklist on Magento and you would like it to be a picklist on Heartland Retail, you will want to add the values to the custom field in Heartland Retail.

Once you have finished the prerequisites, you are ready to choose one of the two sync methods.

Pull Items from Magento to Heartland Retail

With this configuration, Magento becomes the master record holder and we sync the items into Heartland Retail. This setup is ideal if you will be having items in store that you do not want listed online because if you create an item in Heartland Retail it will not sync to Magento.

Important: In order for items to sync from Magento to Heartland Retail, all Heartland Retail required fields must be entered on Magento. Cost is required in Heartland Retail but not on Magento by default, so we recommend making the cost attribute a "Required Value" to ensure your products are synced properly.

Map item fields

You will now be able to map fields from Heartland Retail to Magento to initiate a sync. Start by going back to the Magento integration page on Heartland Retail and select the Item Information Tab. From here you can select Pull Sync and you should see a list of all of your Magento attribute sets.

You will want to create a field mapping for each attribute set that you would like to sync to Heartland Retail. This means you can ignore a certain group of products if you have some online-only products, you can just not sync that specific attribute set.

Once you select an attribute set, you will be presented with a list of attributes on Magento to be able to map Heartland Retail fields.

You will select an attribute and match it to a field in Heartland Retail using the dropdown.

The Sku field on Magento must be mapped to a unique field in Heartland Retail as they need to each contain a value that is only used for one single item. If you do not see your field as a selectable option to map to Sku, go to Settings -> Custom Fields and select your custom field to verify Unique is turned on.

Below is a list of recommended field mappings for default Heartland Retail fields:

Once you have completed mapping all fields that you would like synced between the two systems, you can scroll to the bottom and check the box to begin syncing!

The initial sync will begin shortly and your items will start appearing in batches. It can take several hours before your initial sync will complete. If you view the events tab on the Magento integration page, it will display when the sync has completed.

During this process, if any items have incompatible field values, they will fail to sync and you will need to select the errors tab to resolve those issues to sync the items. Please see a guide on error resolution here:

Manage Items Manually

When you select to manually manage item information, we will not create items automatically on either system. In this scenario, you are in charge of creating the items on both systems and you will need to make the Item # in Heartland Retail identical to the Magento SKU field. This sync method is recommended for advanced users and custom applications as missing items can cause sales orders to fail to sync.

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