If you've just received an invite to join Orderlink, you’re in the right place. This guide will walk you through the onboarding process, from setting up your essential data to creating your first orders and shipments. With Orderlink, managing orders, inventory, and suppliers becomes streamlined, but a bit of setup is needed to get started.

If your team has already been using Orderlink, most of your setup might already be done, and you can dive right into managing purchase orders and shipments. However, if this is your first time setting up Orderlink for your business, follow the steps below to get fully set up.

Setting Up Your Master Data

Master Data is the foundation of your Orderlink setup. It includes essential information about products, warehouses, suppliers, and more. You have two options:

1. Upload Existing Orders:
If you already have orders created in excel format or some other system, you can upload them directly into Orderlink. To upload your orders you will only need to update only the critical master data, which includes:

• Products: Specify product details like SKUs and unique identifiers. Check out this article to upload product data in Orderlink. 
  
• Warehouses: Add warehouses with unique codes to organize your inventory.
• Suppliers: List suppliers, each with a unique code for easier tracking.
  

2. Create New Orders in Orderlink:
If you’ll be creating orders within Orderlink, you’ll need to set up a more comprehensive set of data. These are:

• Products: Include product details, SKUs, and specifications.
• Warehouses: Define locations where inventory will be stored.
• Suppliers: Enter supplier information for order tracking.
• Product Plans: Link products with suppliers and warehouses. Each product plan connects a single product with one warehouse and supplier, creating a clear path for procurement and stock tracking. As product plan update is quite tricky for the new users you can use this guide to create product plans or get in touch with us if you need assistance.
• Stocks: Add initial stock levels to keep inventory accurate.
• Warehouse Costings: Enter costs related to warehousing, including factors like buying currency and landed cost types.
• Warehouse Costing Ranges: Set up tiered pricing (e.g., 1–1000 units at one price, 1001–2000 units at a discounted rate) for flexible costing options.

Uploading Files and Following a Sequence

To ensure accurate data entry, it’s recommended to follow this sequence when uploading files:

1. Products
2. Warehouses
3. Suppliers
4. Product Plans
5. Forecasts
6. Stocks
7. Warehouse Costings
8. Warehouse Costing Ranges

• Values Only: Ensure your upload files contain only values—no formulas!
• Unit Measurements: Verify that cubic meter (CBM) values are correctly entered if you are planning to use them later.