Helm Dropshipping App

What the App Does

Plenty of businesses sell products they never touch: the supplier holds the stock and ships direct to the customer. Without help, that means someone spotting those orders, raising a Purchase Order, emailing the supplier and chasing tracking, every single time.

Helm Dropshipping does all of that for you. You tell it which SKUs are dropshipped and how each supplier likes to receive orders. From then on it checks Helm for new orders every five minutes, raises a real Helm Purchase Order for the dropship lines, sends it to the right supplier, and links everything together so your team can see what happened.

Example scenario: a customer orders a garden bench and a set of cushions. The bench is dropshipped by Oakline Furniture; the cushions are on your shelves. Within five minutes the app tags the order Part Dropship, raises a Purchase Order to Oakline for the bench with the customer's delivery address on it, and emails it to them using your own Purchase Order template. Your warehouse picks and despatches the cushions as normal.

The app works entirely inside Helm. It reads your suppliers, products, orders and email templates live from Helm and does not keep its own copy of them. Once it is set up, you should rarely need to open it.

Before You Start

• Your dropship products need suppliers in Helm. Each product must have at least one supplier linked to it on the product page, under Purchase Order Controls > Suppliers. The app works down those suppliers in the priority order set in Helm.

• Each supplier needs contact details in Helm. For email delivery the supplier record needs an email address.

• You need a Purchase Order email template. If you want suppliers to receive orders by email, set up a Purchase Order template in Helm first. The app only offers Purchase Order templates.

• You need to be able to create a Personal Access Token. The app cannot raise Purchase Orders or read your email templates without one. You create it from your own user account in Helm (Step 2 below).

How to Set Up Helm Dropshipping

Work through these steps in order, because each one depends on the one before. Until every step is done the app runs but never acts, which can look the same as it not working. The Needs Attention page shows a Finish setting up checklist with a Set up button against anything still outstanding.

Step 1: Install the App

1. Click Apps in the main menu.

2. Find Helm Dropshipping under All Apps and click Install.

3. Read the permissions screen and click Allow.

The app then appears under My Apps. Click it to open it. Across the top you will see its pages: Needs Attention, History, Suppliers, Dropship Eligibility, External Stock and Settings.

Step 2: Connect Your Helm Personal Access Token

In Helm:

1. Click your name in the top right corner and choose My Account.

2. Scroll down to API Access and click + to generate a new token.

3. Copy the token.

In the app:

1. Open the Settings page.

2. Paste the token into the Helm Personal Access Token box and click Save.

The app checks the token with Helm as soon as you save it. If Helm does not accept it, the app tells you why there and then, so a mistyped token is never saved. Once saved, the token is never shown again; to replace it, paste in a new one.

Step 3: Choose Which Products Are Dropshipped

This list is the switch that controls everything. Any SKU on it is always sent to its supplier. Any SKU not on it is never touched by the app and goes through your warehouse exactly as it does today.

1. Open the Dropship Eligibility page.

2. Add your dropship SKUs in one of two ways:

   1. Type them into Add SKU codes, one per line or separated by commas, and click Add.

   2. Or upload a CSV under Or upload a CSV, with one SKU code per row in the first column, and click Upload. Use Download an example CSV if you want a template.

Uploading a CSV only ever adds to your list. It never removes or replaces SKUs already there, so uploading the same file again is safe.

Once SKUs are on the list you can search them, filter by Status, switch a SKU off temporarily without removing it, and turn on Warehouse first for any SKU you also hold yourself (see Warehouse First below).

Step 4: Tell the App How to Reach Each Supplier

Do this after Step 3. The Suppliers page only lists suppliers that Helm has linked to a SKU on your eligibility list, and a newly linked supplier can take a few minutes to appear.

1. Open the Suppliers page.

2. For each supplier that will receive dropship orders, choose a Delivery method:

   1. Email (Helm template): choose a Purchase Order template under Email template. Helm writes and sends the email, attaches the Purchase Order as a PDF and marks the Purchase Order as sent. This is what most suppliers expect.

   2. API: for a supplier whose system can receive orders automatically. Enter the endpoint and API key they give you. Use Show what we send to this supplier to see the exact request their system will receive, and pass it to their developers.

3. Click Save on the supplier's row.

Optional settings on each supplier row stay collapsed to keep the page tidy. Anything you have set up shows (in use) next to it, so you can see what is configured without opening each section.

If an API supplier needs orders in their own layout rather than the app's standard one, you can paste their format into the custom format box on their row. Put the app's field names in double braces where a value should go, for example "your_ref": "{{purchase_order_number}}", and use Preview to see the result before anything is sent. The app will not save a format with a mistake in it.

Step 5: Keep Your Dropship Products on Sale

Your dropship products are never picked from your warehouse, so their physical stock in Helm is usually zero, and a product showing zero stock cannot be sold on your channels. The answer is Virtual Stock: stock a supplier holds for you, which Helm counts towards what your channels can sell but never puts on a pick.

You can set the figures in three ways:

1. One product at a time: on the Virtual Stock page, choose a Source, enter the SKU code and Quantity, and click Set.

2. By CSV: upload a file with three columns (SKU code, quantity, source name), up to 500 rows. A source that does not exist in Helm yet is created for you. A large file takes a while, so leave the page open until the result appears.

3. From the supplier's own stock feed: see Supplier Stock Feeds below.

Quantities are always the new total, not an amount to add. Use Check a SKU at the bottom of the page to see what Helm currently holds for a product against each source.

You can also manage these figures in Helm itself, on the product's Virtual Stock section or under Settings > System Settings > Virtual Stock Sources. See the Virtual Stock article for details.

Step 6 (Optional): Set a Different Invoice Address

Every Purchase Order carries your customer's delivery address and your own invoice address, because the supplier bills you. By default the app uses the address of the store the order came through, or your default warehouse address. If you are billed somewhere else, such as a registered office, open Settings, click Show your business address and fill it in.

What Happens to an Order

Once set up, there is nothing to do day to day. Every five minutes the app:

1. Looks at new orders in New Order status. Drafts are ignored because they are not confirmed sales yet.

2. Checks each line. Any line with a SKU on your eligibility list is a dropship line; everything else is left for your warehouse.

3. Tags the order so your team can see at a glance:

   • Dropship: every line is going to a supplier.

   • Part Dropship: some lines are going to a supplier and the rest still need picking. Treat these as normal orders that are partly handled already.

4. Picks the supplier, working down the product's suppliers in Helm's priority order and taking the first that passes every check (see Supplier Choice below).

5. Raises one Purchase Order per supplier, carrying all of that supplier's lines from the order, so a supplier is never sent two Purchase Orders for one customer order.

6. Sends it by the supplier's delivery method and tags the Purchase Order Dropship sent via Email or Dropship sent via API.

7. Links the records with a comment on the sales order naming the Purchase Order, and a comment on the Purchase Order naming the sales order, each with a link straight through.

Supplier Choice

The app takes the first supplier, in Helm's priority order, that:

• is not disabled in the app,

• has a delivery method set,

• has a minimum order quantity the line meets,

• has not rejected this SKU in the last 24 hours, and

• if they have a stock feed, has enough stock to cover the line.

To change who is tried first, change the supplier priority on the product in Helm. If every usable supplier fails only on minimum order quantity, the order still goes to the highest-priority one, so they can decide.

Warehouse First

For SKUs you sometimes hold yourself, switch on Warehouse first on the Dropship Eligibility page. The app then checks your pickable stock first: if it covers the whole line, your warehouse fulfils it; if not, the whole line is dropshipped. A line is never split between your shelves and a supplier.

Virtual Stock is not pickable, so it never keeps a line in the warehouse. If you keep an artificial stock level for these SKUs so channels can sell, hold it in Virtual Stock or a non-pickable location, otherwise the app will treat it as real shelf stock.

Tracking & History

The History Page

History lists every Purchase Order the app has sent: one row each, with the order, the Purchase Order, the supplier, the number of items, when it was sent and the tracking once it arrives. Search by order number, Purchase Order number or supplier, filter by Supplier or Tracking, and use Export CSV to download whatever the page is showing. History is kept for three months.

Getting Tracking Back

Tracking is optional, and both options are set up on the supplier's row on the Suppliers page:

• The supplier sends it to you: click Show letting this supplier send tracking to you, then Generate tracking URL, and send the URL to the supplier with the example shown. Treat the URL like a password; if it is ever shared by mistake, click Regenerate and send them the new one.

• The app fetches it (API suppliers only): enter the supplier's lookup address with {{purchase_order_number}} where their order reference goes, paste in one real reply from them, and click Check to confirm the app has found the courier and tracking number. The app then checks every six hours.

When tracking arrives, the app adds it to the Helm order as a comment, tags the order Dropship Tracking Received, tries to mark the order as despatched and marks the Purchase Order as received. Receiving a dropship Purchase Order does not change your stock levels; it only clears Helm's on-order figure.

Supplier Stock Feeds

If a supplier publishes their stock levels as an API or a file, open Show reading their stock levels on their row, enter the address and paste one real example of what it returns. Click Check to see what the app has read. Every half hour the app then updates that supplier's Virtual Stock in Helm for SKUs that are on your eligibility list, switched on and linked to that supplier.

When Something Needs Attention

The Needs Attention page opens first and is usually empty. Anything the app could not finish is listed with the order, Purchase Order and supplier, what went wrong in plain English, and when.

1. Fix whatever the message describes (usually a setting on the Suppliers page or a detail in Helm).

2. Click Retry. The app picks the order up again within five minutes and never creates a duplicate Purchase Order.

If a supplier rejects an order, or accepts it and then cannot fulfil it, use Try Next Supplier, either on Needs Attention or on the order's row in History. You can also do this in bulk from History by uploading a CSV of order or Purchase Order numbers. The app cancels the original Purchase Order and sends a new one to the next supplier that passes the checks.

If you think an order should have been dropshipped and was not, type its number into Missed an order? and click Check order. The app checks it straight away under the normal rules and tells you what it did.

Use the cross on a row to clear an entry you have dealt with. This only removes it from the page; the order in Helm is untouched.

Best Practices & Notes

Set Supplier Priority in Helm

The app has no ranking of its own on price or lead time; it simply follows the supplier priority on each product in Helm. Getting that order right is the single biggest lever on which supplier gets each order.

Pause a Supplier Rather Than Removing Them

Each supplier row has an Enable/Disable switch. A disabled supplier is never chosen, but keeps all their settings, so it suits a supplier who is temporarily out of action.

Keep Virtual Stock Current

A stock feed or a regular CSV upload keeps your channels selling only what suppliers can actually supply. Where a supplier offers a feed, use it.

Talk to Us Before Uninstalling

FAQ

If an order is stuck and the Needs Attention message does not explain why, contact the Helm support team with the order number and we will take a look.