Setting Up Counterpoint’s Purchase Order Sync for Drop-Ship Items

Counterpoint’s Purchase Order Sync can automate the handoff from an online sale to a supplier order. For drop-ship items, the retailer sells a product that another business stores and sends directly to the customer. The sync should create a clean purchase order, send the correct quantities and delivery details, and make the result visible in Counterpoint. It also needs to prevent a second manual entry, duplicate dispatch and accidental stock deduction.

The payoff is not simply faster data entry. A reliable workflow reduces picking errors, supports supplier lead times and gives customers realistic dispatch information. It also creates a clear audit trail from the paid sales order to the supplier’s acknowledgement and dispatch advice. Without that chain, fulfilment teams can issue a purchase order twice, accept goods that were never ordered or send an incorrect delivery address.

Australian conditions shape the workflow. Customers in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane often expect rapid dispatch, click-and-collect and clear tracking, while regional deliveries require extra transit time and a firm carrier cut-off. Prices should include AUD and GST, and Australian Consumer Law consumer guarantees apply to consumer sales. Privacy Act obligations also matter where the integration retains customer names, addresses and contact details. Afterpay and PayPal may influence checkout, but neither changes what is sent to the supplier.

Legacy systems need extra preparation because NCR Retail Online has been discontinued. Stores moving to Magento or WooCommerce through NCR Counterpoint partners should preserve old item numbers, customer references and order history while rebuilding the purchase-order workflow. A deliberate mapping prevents historical data from triggering new stock movements or customer notifications.

Map the order-to-purchase workflow

Map the order-to-purchase workflow before changing any settings. A typical sequence starts when an authorised order is paid, passes through fraud and stock checks, creates one purchase order for the relevant supplier, receives an acknowledgement, and then reports dispatch and tracking details back to the customer. Decide which system owns each status and where manual intervention is allowed, especially when the same basket contains products from different suppliers.

Use a unique sales-order reference on the generated PO and retain the supplier’s order number in Counterpoint. That pairing lets staff trace a parcel without guessing and stops a repeated webhook or retry from creating two supplier orders. For stores leaving NCR Retail Online, an agency’s NCR migration support checklist can help identify item, customer and order fields that must be reconciled before automation is enabled.

Prepare items, suppliers and rules

Prepare clean item and supplier records first. Every drop-ship SKU needs a stable retailer code, matching supplier code, taxable sales price, cost basis, unit of measure, delivery estimate and fulfilment flag. Record whether stock is invisible at the local store, replenished only after a dispatch notice or genuinely held for collection. Store the supplier’s lead time, cut-off time, returns address and contact details against the supplier account, not as free text on an item.

Confirm how each supplier accepts orders and where acknowledgements appear. Some receive emailed PDFs, others use an API or portal, so the integration must preserve line-level quantities, tax treatment and delivery addresses in the format they understand. An experienced integration specialist such as Brian View can assess connector capabilities and supplier-specific constraints before mapping is finalised.

Configure the connection and catalogue

Configure the connector in a sandbox or isolated test account. Map store, sales channel, supplier, tax code, shipping method, customer address and product fields to their Counterpoint equivalents, then set the PO prefix, numbering sequence and synchronisation schedule. Prefer incremental updates for routine changes and retain a controlled full reconciliation for detecting missing records. Define whether acknowledgements, cancellations, backorders and dispatch updates are sent in one direction or both.

Protect the connection with individual credentials, least-privilege access, secure transport and retained logs. Mask customer contact details wherever the supplier does not need them, and make sure the data-handling process meets the Privacy Act where applicable. During mapping, compare the proposed feed with a browsable category such as the NCR Retail Online everyday dining collection, checking that variants are linked to the right parent item rather than created as unrelated products.

Control stock, fulfilment and delivery updates

Choose the stock treatment deliberately. A drop-ship line that is never held locally should not reduce the store’s on-hand quantity merely because an online order was placed. If the supplier later reports a dispatch, the relevant quantity and value still need to appear in purchasing or inventory reporting without creating a false receipt. For mixed baskets, split purchase orders by supplier and keep each customer-visible shipment linked to the correct part of the order.

Test complex products against the same discipline used for core ranges. The NCR Retail Online men’s department, for example, highlights how size and colour can create several SKUs for one style; each variant needs its own supplier code and fulfilment rule. In Australia, courier cut-offs differ across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and regional routes, so calculate the dispatch date from the supplier’s location and service level rather than adding a generic buffer. Send tracking details promptly and explain split deliveries clearly.

Test failures, reconciliation and compliance

Run a deliberate test matrix before launch: one item, several lines from one supplier, a split-supplier basket, an out-of-stock item, a cancelled order, a failed payment, an Australian GST order, an address change, a backorder and a late acknowledgement. Replay an update to prove the connector updates the existing PO instead of generating a new one. Also test what happens when the supplier portal is unavailable, the tracking feed arrives late or the customer changes an address after ordering.

Reconcile each test across the ecommerce order, Counterpoint PO, supplier acknowledgement, tax calculation, dispatch notice and customer message. A useful exception log records the cause, owner, next action and final status without exposing unnecessary personal data. Review consumer-facing dates against the Australian Consumer Law and avoid claims about availability, delivery or refunds that the supplier cannot meet. Security logs and acknowledgement times should be reviewed regularly after launch.

Start live with a controlled rollout

Begin with a limited assortment and the suppliers that have completed their own acceptance testing. Publish a short responsibility matrix covering catalogue changes, price updates, purchase-order failures, dispatch notices, returns and customer complaints. Keep a rollback procedure that can pause purchase-order creation without cancelling valid orders, and make clear that only staff with the correct permissions can release, amend or close a supplier PO.

During the first live week, compare daily Counterpoint purchasing totals with ecommerce order values and the suppliers’ acknowledgements, then investigate every unmatched line before extending the range. Record the owner, response time and resolution for each exception so recurring problems are addressed rather than repeatedly handled as one-off work. As the immediate next step, create one low-value test order in the sandbox and save its sales-order number, generated PO number, supplier acknowledgement, stock effect, GST total and expected delivery date in the release log.