Manage mappings

Mappings in the main navigation shows the decisions PO Autopilot is reusing on your behalf, and is where you can add one yourself.

Two scopes

The screen is split by how far a mapping reaches.

Company-specific mappings are reused only for a particular Shopify company or location. They are grouped by buyer — open a buyer to see everything learned about them. This is where most mappings belong, because an item code usually means something only in the context of the buyer who wrote it.

Global mappings are reused for any buyer. Use these for codes that mean the same thing whoever sends them, such as a manufacturer part number.

Each section has its own Create mapping button and its own search box.

Create a mapping

Create mapping opens a short form: the buyer’s company and location, their item number, the unit they order in, the Shopify product, and how many Shopify units are in one of their units.

A mapping made here is the same record as one agreed while reviewing an order — the same row, used by the same matching. Setting one up in advance simply means the buyer’s first order arrives already resolved.

If a mapping already exists for that buyer, item number and unit, you are told rather than silently overwriting it, and can choose to replace it.

Buyers

Each row shows how a buyer is recognised and who they resolve to:

• Recognised by — the identifier and its kind, labelled ACCOUNT NUMBER, EMAIL ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER or DELIVERY ADDRESS.
• Resolves to — the Shopify company, with the location and contact beneath it.
• Approved — when you agreed to it.

A delivery-address mapping shows a reference rather than the address itself, because it is stored as a fingerprint of the address rather than a copy of it.

An identifier here resolves an incoming order outright: no question is asked about the buyer at all. That is worth remembering when one is wrong — a bad buyer mapping is not merely unhelpful, it silently attaches orders to the wrong company.

Product and unit mappings

Each row shows what an item code means, and how its unit converts:

• Customer item number — the code as it appears on their purchase orders.
• Source unit — the unit it applies to, normalised, so a document that said CS shows as CASE.
• Shopify variant — what it resolves to.
• Conversion — written out, as 1 case = 6 each.
• Approved — when you agreed to it.

Expect several rows per product. Company-specific mappings are per company location and per unit, so the same code appears once for each buyer who uses it and once for each unit they order it in.

Shipping and payment term mappings

Also listed, in their own table: the wording a buyer uses for a delivery method or a payment term, and what it resolves to in Shopify.

• Kind — whether it is a shipping method or a payment term.
• Purchase-order wording — the phrase as it appeared on the document.
• Matches to — the Shopify delivery option or payment-terms template.

Search

Company-specific mappings has a Search buyers box. Global mappings searches by SKU, product or unit. Between them this is the quickest way to answer “what did we agree for this customer”.

Edit a mapping

Edit on a row repoints the mapping at a different Shopify variant, keeping its item number, unit and conversion. This is the quickest fix when a variant has been replaced but the pack size has not changed.

A conversion cannot be changed in place. To correct one, delete the mapping and set it again from the next order that uses that code and unit.

Buyer identifiers have no equivalent — an identifier points at a company rather than at a product, so there is nothing to re-pick. To send a buyer somewhere else, delete the mapping and make the choice again on the next order.

Delete a mapping

Use Delete beside it and confirm.

Removal affects future orders only. Drafts already created in Shopify are untouched, and orders currently in review keep the values they already have.

The next order carrying that identifier will ask you again — which is usually the point, because you remove a mapping when you want to answer differently.

When to prune

• A buyer changed their item codes, commonly after an ERP migration.
• A variant was replaced, so the mapping points somewhere retired. These surface on the order as a product to choose again, but the stale mapping is worth removing.
• A pack size was entered wrongly. Remove it and set it again from the next order.