The first hour in a new workspace: what is already there, the three things that put it to work, and the one address the carriers will ask for.
What a new workspace already has
Your workspace is empty of stock, but it is not blank. It carries the lists every record refers to, so nothing below asks you to set up a vocabulary before you can use it:
- Statuses for purchase orders, sales orders and units (Available, Unavailable, Sold, and the workflow steps between).
- Sales channels: eBay, Amazon, Direct, Portal and Other. Direct is the default for an order you enter by hand.
- Return types and reasons for the RMA module.
- Cosmetic conditions (a grade ladder) and units of measure for bulk stock.
- One warehouse, with no address yet. That is the address section on the dashboard, and the reason it is there is in the last section of this page.
- Starter label templates for a 4x6 thermal label and an address sheet.
- A device catalogue of phone, tablet, watch and laptop models, so a serialized product can be built from a model, a storage size and a colour rather than typed from nothing.
Every list is yours to change under Settings. The three statuses the system itself relies on (Available, Unavailable, Sold) can be renamed but not removed.
The three first steps
The dashboard shows these until the first record lands, then becomes the operational snapshot.
- Bring your stock in. Two ways. Import a spreadsheet of stock, customers and vendors, with cost, from New, Import from file on the Items, Vendors and Customers pages and the Import button on Devices. Or receive a purchase order: create one under Purchase Orders, add the lines, and scan each unit in as it arrives. The receiving article covers both kinds of stock.
- Invite a colleague. Settings, Team, Invite. Choose a preset (Admin, Manager, Staff, Viewer) and adjust any single permission afterwards. A person receives only what their job needs: a receiving clerk who can receive and see cost but cannot see profit is one preset, not a custom build.
- Connect a channel, or open the buyer portal. Settings, Integrations. Link an eBay account to bring listings and orders in and push tracking back. Or switch on the buyer portal to sell wholesale to your own approved buyers under your own name. Shipping goes through your own ShipStation or carrier account, connected on the same page; see selling and shipping for what that account needs before the first label.
None of the three has to come first. A workspace that starts with an eBay connection and no stock will pull its open orders and wait for stock to fulfil them.
Two kinds of stock
SerialFlow tracks two populations and it is worth knowing the difference on day one.
- A serialized product is a phone, tablet, laptop or watch: each unit has its own record, its own IMEI or serial number, grade, cosmetic condition, defects, cost and bin. Inventory (the left-hand rail) lists units; Products lists the models they belong to.
- A bulk product is a cable, a box, a charger: one record with a quantity on hand, an average cost and a reorder point. Its count moves through exactly two doors, a purchase order receive or a stock adjustment, so every movement has a document behind it.
A sales order can carry both on the same lines.
The ship-from address
Every carrier refuses to quote a rate without a ship-from address, and the address prints on your invoices and labels. The dashboard asks for it while the workspace is empty because that is the moment it is cheapest to give: one form, once, and rates work on the first order. If you skipped it, it lives under Settings, Warehouses.
Where to go next
- Importing your data, if you are moving from a spreadsheet or another system.
- Receiving stock, for the purchase order path.
- Settings, for the lists, the team and the integrations.
- The help menu (the question mark in the top bar) has support, feedback, what is new and known issues.