Inventory Linking
Inventory Linking is where a listing on one of your sales channels is matched to the product it represents in Helm WMS. This article explains how a link is made, how autolinking on a matching SKU works, and why a linked product is not automatically a product whose stock is being kept in step.
What a Link Is
Every connected sales channel sends its listings into Helm, and each is stored as a channel product: the channel's own SKU, the listing name and a pointer back to the listing. None of it can be picked, counted or shipped until it points at one of your Helm products.
That pointer is the link, and Settings > System Settings > Inventory Linking is where you make and manage them. The page works one channel at a time and splits its listings into two lists: Unlinked Products and Linked Products.
The link earns its keep when an order arrives. Helm looks for a product whose SKU matches the order line, and a link on the listing takes precedence. Where neither finds anything, Helm creates a product for that SKU, which is how products nobody created appear under Inventory after a channel goes live.
Example scenario: a channel sells a blue enamel mug under the SKU MUG-BLUE-01, and your Helm product for the same mug is coded MUG-BLU-1. Nothing connects them, so the first order creates a second mug in Helm and the real mug's stock is never sent to the channel. Linking the listing to the product you already hold closes both gaps.
Matching a Product Is Not Syncing It
These are two separate things, and treating them as one is the most common reason a linked product still shows the wrong quantity on a channel.
The link says which product a listing is. It is made here, on this page, and on its own it changes no stock.
Stock sync decides whether a quantity is sent. That sits on the product, in its Channel Linking section, as a Stock Sync switch per link. It is only available where the channel itself has Sync Stock turned on, which is a setting on the channel in your store's sales channel list, not on this page: see the My Store and Setting up a Sales Channel articles.
What gets sent is the available stock. Where Inbound PO'S is on for that link, the quantity still expected on open purchase orders is added to it.
A new link copies its switch from the product's own setting at the moment you link it. If the product had Synchronise Stock to Channels switched off when you linked it, the link starts with Stock Sync off and nothing is sent until you turn it on.
Before You Start
The store and its channel have to be connected already. This page lists what a channel has already sent to Helm; connecting one is covered in the My Store and Setting up a Sales Channel articles.
Manual channels are not listed. Every other connected channel appears in the Channels panel, including one that has sent nothing yet, which shows a count of zero. If the panel is empty, the page says so and links you back to the store to link your channels.
The Helm product has to exist. A listing can only be linked to a product already in Inventory. Create it first if it is not there.
One listing links to one product. The other way round is fine: a single Helm product can carry links from several listings across several channels.
Archiving a product unlinks it. Archiving removes every channel link that product had and tells each channel to drop the match. Unarchiving restores only the links whose listing has not been linked to something else since.
You need permission to change links. The tile for this page is always shown in Settings, so a missing permission shows up as a list that will not load or a save that is refused, never as a missing page. Ask whoever administers Helm for your business to check your permission group.
What Is on the Page
The listings sit on the left. The column on the right holds three panels.
Under those three sits the Refetch Products button, covered further down.
Each list is a section you can open and collapse, with its own count and its own search box. Unlinked Products is your backlog; Linked Products is what is already matched. Both show the same four columns.
How to Link a Listing by Hand
Go to Settings > System Settings > Inventory Linking.
Pick the store in Store Details, then the channel in Channels. The lists on the left reload for that channel.
Open Unlinked Products and find the listing. Use the section's own search box, since the list otherwise loads more rows only as you scroll. It matches the listing name and the code Helm holds for the listing, which is not always what Channel Reference shows, so search by name if the channel's SKU finds nothing.
Use the magnifier in the unheaded column between Channel Name and Linked Product Name. The Link Product dialog opens.
Search for your Helm product, select it, then choose Link Product. The row now shows it under Linked Product Name.
Repeat for as many listings as you want to do in one pass, then choose Save Changes. Nothing is saved until you do, and Clear abandons the lot.
Saved listings move out of Unlinked Products and into Linked Products. Helm then tells the channel which of your codes the listing belongs to, on a background pass that runs every few minutes rather than at the moment you save.
Changing or Removing a Link
Both are done from the Linked Products list.
Find the listing in Linked Products.
Use the unlink icon in that same unheaded column. Linked Product Name clears and the icon becomes the magnifier again.
To point the listing at a different product, use that magnifier and pick the new one. To leave the listing unlinked, do nothing more.
Choose Save Changes.
Unlinking is not only recorded in Helm: the channel is told to drop the match and stock stops being sent for that listing. Where a listing is pointing at the wrong product, unlink and pick the right one in the same pass, so the channel receives the new code straight away.
Autolinking on a Perfect SKU Match
Autolink on Perfect SKU Match in Linking Settings is the switch that lets Helm make links for you. It applies to the whole store, and it is on by default.
As a listing arrives, Helm looks for one of your products whose SKU is exactly the listing's SKU. A product created in Helm carries its item code as its SKU unless you set a different one, so in practice this is your item code matching the channel's SKU character for character. Where it does, Helm makes the link itself and the listing never reaches your backlog.
Exactly means exactly. A different separator, a trailing space or a suffix the channel adds for a variant is a miss, and the listing stays unlinked.
It runs as listings are processed, not retrospectively. Turning the switch on does not sweep up listings already sitting unlinked. Use Refetch Products to have the channel send them again, or link them by hand.
New products get a second chance. When you create or import a product, Helm re-checks unlinked listings carrying that SKU, so a product added after its listing arrived still links itself.
Archived products are never matched automatically. Unarchive the product first, or link the listing to a live one by hand.
With the switch off, every link is manual. Nothing links itself, including an exact match, until you turn it back on.
Linking Formulas
Some channels do not sell your codes as you hold them: a prefix from a marketplace, a suffix for a variant, a reseller's own wrapper. Linking Formulas, in Linking Settings, is the screen for describing those shapes.
Formulas do not link anything. A formula you build is saved and listed, but Helm does not recognise any of the arrangements this screen can produce, so no stored formula ever matches a SKU. Link the affected listings by hand rather than waiting on a formula.
Use the plus beside Linking Formulas to open the Advanced Settings dialog. It starts with one card, headed Formula and numbered; the plus in the dialog's header adds another, so several can be saved in one pass. That plus is unavailable while you are editing a saved formula tied to a particular channel.
Pick the channel the pattern belongs to in the card's channel list, or leave it as All Channels. Then set the card's three fields, in the order the channel's SKU reads: each is one of the types below, and each type can be used once.
Choose Confirm. It stays unavailable until every field on every card has a type and something has changed, which is the usual reason it looks dead. A card's reset empties it and its delete removes it, though delete is unavailable when only one card is open.
Saved formulas are listed under Linking Formulas, each with a pencil to edit it and a cross to delete it.
Bringing In New Listings
Refetch Products asks the channel to send its products again. Use it when a listing you can see on the channel is in neither list.
The request is queued rather than instant: Helm answers with Request Sent and warns that results may take up to 15 minutes. The button is then unavailable for 15 minutes, although that wait is held in your own browser, so it does not stop a colleague, or you on another machine, from asking again. Hovering the button shows a Last Product Fetch tooltip, which does not yet report a date; use the channel logs if you need to know when a fetch last ran.
Whether a new listing also creates a Helm product is decided by the channel, not by this page. Import Products sits on the channel in your store's sales channel list, alongside Sync Stock. Where it is on, Helm creates a product for each listing it downloads, but it only links what it creates where Autolink on Perfect SKU Match is on as well: with autolinking off you get a new product per listing and no links. Where it is off, listings arrive unlinked unless their SKU matches a product you already hold.
Best Practices & Notes
Agree One SKU Convention
Autolinking and order matching both key off the SKU. Agreeing a single convention with whoever lists your products removes most of this page's work for good.
Work the Unlinked List After Every Channel Change
A new channel, a relisted range or a bulk edit on the channel side all leave listings unlinked. Checking Unlinked Products after each is quicker than finding out from a duplicate product or a stock figure that never moved.
Treat Products You Did Not Create as a Linking Problem
An order for an unlinked listing whose SKU matches nothing creates a product. If Inventory is growing items nobody added, work through the unlinked list for the channel those orders came from, re-pointing anything already linked to the accidental product before you archive the duplicate.
Deleting a Channel Deletes Its Links
Removing a sales channel removes its listings and every link they had, along with its orders and shipments. Linking it again starts from an empty list, and nothing can be put back from this page. Be certain before deleting a channel that has been trading.
Check the Logs When the Link Looks Right
Where a link is in place, Stock Sync is on and the quantity on the channel still will not move, the record of each attempt is in Settings > System Settings > Channel Logs, held against a Channel Product ID. The product's Channel Linking section also has a See Stock Logs action for that listing.
FAQ
Does Unlinking Delete Anything?
It deletes the link and tells the channel to forget the match. The listing, your product, its stock and its history are untouched.
Why Does the Search at the Top of the Page Find Nothing?
The header's Search Inventory Linking box is not wired to the two lists. Search from inside Unlinked Products or Linked Products instead.
If a listing will not link, or a linked product still shows the wrong quantity on a channel, contact support with the channel, the SKU from Channel Reference and your own item code.
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