Before allowing customers to place orders, administrators must build the catalog of Items and Bundles which the customers will be able to browse. In addition, administrators will need to build at least one Department which customers can select to charge billing back to.
Load a Sample Data Set
One option administrators can use to quickly get started would be to use the Load Sample Dataset function.
Checkout provides administrators with a quick mechanism to generate Items, Vendors, and Categories.
After setting up the company, administrators can select the button Load Sample Dataset. This will generate a sample set of Categories, Vendors, and Items for the project.
This function can only be used once per project if there are no Items created.
Creating Departments
Departments are corporate departments, teams, or cost centers in your organization that have related Budgets and a main point of contact.
Every order placed requires the customer to select a Department which will be charged for the items purchased.
To create a Department, navigate, administrators can navigate to Project Settings > Checkout > Departments > Add Department.
Each Department requires the following to create:
Name
Department Code
Budget (Defaults to $0.00)
Primary contact
Email address
Existing departments can be imported into the system using the import functionality.
Adding Categories
Categories are groupings used to organize and filter Items.
Every item requires a Category.
To create a Category, navigate to Project Settings > Checkout > Categories and select Add Category
Each category requires the following to create:
Category Name
Short Description
Existing Categories can be imported using the import functionality.
Add Vendors
Vendors are the companies you source your Items from and indicate where Purchase Orders for those items are sent.
Each Item created requires an associated Vendor. Create at least one Vendor in the project for the Items to use.
To create a Vendor, navigate to Project Settings > Checkout Vendors > Add Vendor.
Vendors require the following attributes to create:
Address
Country
City
State
Postal Code
Contact Name
Phone Number
Email Address
Existing Vendors can be imported using the import functionality.
Adding Items and Bundles
Items are products, licenses, or services that will be requested and ordered.
To add an Item to the project, navigate to Project Settings > Checkout > Items > Add Item
Items can be selected by customers from the customer portal.
To create, Items require the following attributes:
Type (Product, Service, License)
Category (Created by the administrators of the project)
Short Description
Detailed Description
Company Cost
Providing Vendor (Created by the administrators of the project)
SKU (Stock Keeping Unit)
Administrators can also add specs or images for an Item
Specs are custom details provided on the Item which can provide additional details to the customer about the Item.
Images can be attached to help the customer visualize the Item.
Existing lists of Items can be imported using the Import functionality.
Bundles are groups of Items that are commonly ordered together. Bundles do not require that Items share the same Vendor.
To create a Bundle, navigate to Project Settings > Checkout > Items > Add Bundle
Bundles require the following attributes to create:
Category (Created by the administrators of the project)
Short Description
Detailed Description
One+ Items(s)
Additionally, each Bundles can have images attached to it.
Wrapping Up
Once there is at least one Item and one Department, the portal is ready to use.
If the customer permissions were restricted, open the project back up and get ready to start accepting orders!