Buyers and products
How buyer and company matching works
How the buyer on a purchase order is matched to a Shopify company, location and contact.
Updated
Every order has to end up attached to a specific buyer in Shopify before it can become a draft order.
The three things Shopify needs
Shopify’s B2B model has three levels, and a draft order needs all three:
- Company — the business you sell to. “Acme Sports Ltd”.
- Company location — where they take delivery and which catalogue and terms apply. “Acme Sports — Ottawa”. A company can have several.
- Contact — the person at that company the order is placed for.
The location matters more than it looks. Prices, payment terms and everything PO Autopilot has learned for a buyer are held against the location, not the company. Two locations of one customer can have different catalogue prices and different terms.
How the match is made
In order:
1. Something you have taught it. If the document carries an identifier you have mapped — account number, email, phone or ship-to address — that mapping resolves the company, location and contact outright. Nothing is asked.
2. The company name. If the document names a company that matches one in Shopify, that match is applied and you are asked to confirm it.
3. A ranked suggestion. Failing an exact name, likely companies are compared against what the document says and the best is suggested — applied to the order, but waiting for your agreement.
4. Nothing good enough. You are asked to choose.
Locations and contacts follow: if the company has exactly one location or one contact, it is filled in rather than offered as a question. Where there are several, the ship-to address on the document is used to work out which.
Why you are asked to confirm a match
A confident match is applied so you are not retyping it, but it is still shown as a decision until you agree. Attaching an order to the wrong company is one of the more expensive mistakes available — wrong prices, wrong terms, wrong delivery point — and it is invisible once the draft exists.
Teaching it
When you choose the purchasing entity, take Create a mapping for future orders and pick an identifier from the document. The next order carrying it resolves silently.
Account numbers are usually the best choice; they are printed on every PO and do not change. See What happens after you confirm a match.
Things to know
- Companies come from Shopify. PO Autopilot never creates a company, location or contact. If a buyer does not exist in Shopify yet, create them there first — the review screen will then find them.
- A mapping resolves all three. Mapping an account number records the company, the location and the contact together.
- Different locations are different buyers. An account number mapped to the Ottawa location will not resolve orders for the Toronto one.