Manage inventory and report adjustments in NetSuite using the FBA inventory adjustments add-on

In the Amazon (FBA) warehouse there might be multiple reasons for a loss or damage of inventory. To account for the loss, adjustments are made to the inventory levels in the Amazon (FBA) warehouse on a daily basis.

With the FBA Inventory Adjustments add-on, you can make sure that the lost or damaged inventory is automatically accounted for using the "Amazon (FBA) inventory adjustment to NetSuite inventory adjustment" flow. You can manage your inventory and ensure all the adjustments are reported in NetSuite.

Understand how the flow works

The “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” add-on flow allows you to manage, maintain, and track your available inventory levels in NetSuite. It also categorizes sellable vs damaged inventory based on the disposition given by Amazon. The flow automatically syncs Amazon (FBA) adjustment data to NetSuite. 

The flow imports the inventory adjustment to NetSuite as per the scheduled time. In Amazon, a real-time FBA Inventory Adjustment report is generated no more than once every 30 minutes. Before you send another request, there should be a 30-minute time lag for Amazon to generate the updated version of the report.

The supported and unsupported items in this add-on:

• Supported: 
  • Inventory
  • Assembly
  • Lot Numbered
  • Serialized
  • Alias
  • Matrix
  • Bin
  • Inventory status enabled
• Not Supported (NetSuite limitation): 
  • Kit

See the add-on data flow

The flow fetches the Inventory Adjustment report from Amazon and creates the Inventory Adjustment record(s) in NetSuite as follows:

Note: NetSuite allows only 1000 lines in a single adjustment record. If an adjustment report contains more than 1000 lines, then the flow creates multiple inventory adjustment records, with each record of 1000 lines.

To understand more about add-ons, refer to Understanding integration app add-ons.

Learn how to read an inventory adjustment report

Amazon categorizes inventory adjustments by quantity and reason code.

Understand key terms:

• (- or +): type (- or +) in the quantity column denotes whether an adjustment is an increase or decrease to the inventory level.
• Reason: describes the type of adjustment made.
• Disposition: denotes the inventory disposition that represents the physical state of a product (unit or units).

Note: A single report can have multiple entries of the same item, reason, disposition, or Transaction-item-id. Based on the reason code and disposition, it is easy to identify if the inventory is sellable or damaged. The damaged state of a product might be of multiple reasons such as defective, customer damaged, distributor damaged, warehouse damaged, carrier damaged or expired (if applicable).

For more information about adjustment types, reason types, and reason descriptions refer to Inventory adjustments.

Install the add-on

You can install this add-on from the "Subscriptions" section of your Integration App. For more information on how to install add-ons, refer to Add-Ons.

Before you set up the flow

Before you configure or install the add-ons, in NetSuite, add the “Adjust Inventory” permission to the native “Celigo eTail SmartConnectors” role or to any other appropriate custom role.

Configure and run the flow

1. In integrator.io, click Amazon - NetSuite Integration App tile.
2. Go to Settings > Integration flows > Inventory (FBA).

Configure basic settings

1. Enable the “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” flow.
2. In the flow’s Settings, check the Select a start date for this flow box to select a start date for this delta flow. There is no impact on the scheduled run time if you check this box.
   
   Recommended: If you run this flow for the first time, check the Select a start date for this flow box to fetch the historical adjustments. If you don't check this box, the flow will not run successfully. Refresh the page after you check this box.
3. Click Save.

Configure advanced settings

Adjust your inventory

1. Go to Settings > Inventory (FBA) > FBA Inventory.

2. In the Import event types into NetSuite setting, enter event types that must be imported into NetSuite. Records of event types entered in this setting will be imported into NetSuite and records of all other event types will be ignored. By default, ‘Adjustments’ event type is added to this setting. You can add other event types as per your business requirements in a comma-separated format.

   Important: The event types entered in this setting must match with the event types existing in the report.

3. In the Define criteria to search the matching items in NetSuite field, define the lookup criteria to search the matching items in NetSuite.
   
   Example: By default, you can define the lookup criteria where Item name (Name(internal)) matches the "SKU" coming from Amazon and is in the "active" state.
   You can now modify the handlebars for multiple SKUs (SKUs joined by \r\n in retry data) with a custom handlebars helper to search for a SKU that is not found using the normal lookup criteria. Replace {{{MSKU}}} with {{{decodeURI (split (encodeURI MSKU) '%0D%0A' index)}}} in the handlebar, where index will be the SKU number (1, 2, 3, and so on) you wish to use as the default search option. The lookup criteria will now search for the specified index; if the index is not found, only that record will not be synced with NetSuite.
   The steps to modify the handlebars helper is as follows:
   1. Access the Define lookup criteria pane by clicking Filter () next to the Define criteria to search the matching items in NetSuite setting.
   2. Replace {{{MSKU}}} with {{{decodeURI (split (encodeURI MSKU) ‘%0D%0A’ index)}}} in the Name (internal) filter, where index will be the SKU number (1, 2, 3, and so on) you wish to use as the default search option.

   

   3. Click Save & Close to update the lookup criteria.
      The lookup criteria will now search for the SKU with the specified index . If the specified index is not found, only that record will not be synced and the remaining records will be synced with NetSuite.
4. In the Specify the Item field's Field ID that matches with Amazon SKU field, specify the NetSuite field ID that matches with the Amazon SKU. You can specify only one Field ID.
5. In the Offset time to sync Amazon FBA inventory setting, enter the value in minutes to set the offset time to sync Amazon FBA inventory. The recommended value is 4320 (72 hours)but can be modified as needed. If the start date for the flow is set as 08:00 AM 04th January, today’s date is 05:00 PM 07th January, and you entered the lag time as 4320, the inventory will be synced from 08:00 AM 01st January till 05:00 PM 04th January.
   You can set a value of more than or less than the recommended value of 4320 (72 hours) as needed. If the value is set more than the recommended value say 5760 (96 hours), existing inventory may get synced again for the time duration that exceeds the recommended value. If the value is set less than the recommended value say 2880 (48 hours), records may be skipped for the time duration that is less than the recommended value.
   If you check the Select a start date for this flow box by clicking Settings () next to the Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments flow, the option to select the date and time for syncing historical inventory will appear when you click Run ().
   
   
   The most important thing to remember is that the inventory will be synced from the adjusted start date & time (Selected date & time – Value entered in the Offset time to sync Amazon FBA inventory setting) to the adjusted end date & time (Current date & time – Value entered in the Offset time to sync Amazon FBA inventory setting).
   Information only for existing flows: When you enter a value in this setting for the first time in this setting, if the flow was last run on 08:00 AM 04th January and you enter the value as 4320 (72 hours), the flow will run as scheduled for the next 3 days (08:00 AM 04th January to 08:00 AM 07th January) with no records being updated for this time period. If you run the flow on 09:00 AM 07th January, the inventory will be updated from 08:00 AM 04th January to 09:00 AM 04th January (09:00 AM 07th January - 4320 minutes = 09:00 AM 04th January).
6. Select the Auto-assign number to Lot Numbered/Serialized items box to automatically assign inventory numbers to the Lot Numbered/Serialized items in NetSuite.
   • For an adjustment increase, by default, a unique system-generated number is auto-assigned as Serialized/Lot Numbered to the inventory detail of the items. The flow generates a unique 11 digit system-generated number.
   • For an adjustment decrease, the deduction is from the existing inventory of the particular location. The adjustment is like either the serial numbers that are created first or the lot numbered item numbers that are nearing expiry or the ones created first if the expiry date is unavailable and used for allocation.
7. Enter a value in the Add a prefix for Lot Numbered/Serialized items field. The value entered is prefixed to the unique system-generated number when adjustment is an increase. This is an optional setting and can be used as per your business need.
   
   Example: <Prefix> + <11-digit system-generated unique number>.
8. Click Save.

Note: If you want to assign a default bin number to all the items, you can add a mapping.

Adjust your locations

1. Go to FBA Locations.
2. From the Select the FBA warehouse location for sellable inventory drop-down list, select the warehouse location to track your sellable inventory.
   
   Note: The location you choose here should match with the location in the “Select inventory location present in NetSuite” advanced setting for the “Amazon (FBA) Order to NetSuite Order” flow.
3. From the Select the FBA warehouse location for damaged inventory drop-down list, select the warehouse location to track your damaged inventory. If you do not select a warehouse location, the Inventory Adjustment record will contain records only for the sellable (disposition) inventory.
4. Click Save.

Add input filter

Recommended: We recommend you to add an input filter in the “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” integration flow to sync records only for the 'Adjustments' event type and the country / fulfillment centers that you add to this input filter.

To know how to add input filters, refer Add input filter for FBA inventory adjustments.

Map your fields and run your flow

1. In the flow’s field mappings, add an entry as follows:
   

   Export Field (HTTP)	Import Field (NetSuite)
   Select your appropriate Adjustment account number	Adjustment Account (InternalId)

2. On the mappings window, click Save & Close.
3. Run the “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” flow.
4. A new pop-up window opens to select any custom date to import any previous FBA inventory adjustment reports.
   
5. Click Run.

Find your adjustments in NetSuite

After you run the “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” flow, the flow creates inventory adjustment record(s) in NetSuite. Based on the configured flow’s mappings, the flow displays the following in the Adjustments section:

• quantity in the “Adjust Qty. By” column.
• inventory adjustment reason in the “Celigo Amazon Reason Code” column.

Note: You can configure the “Amazon (FBA) Inventory Adjustments to NetSuite Inventory Adjustments” flow’s field mappings to display other inventory adjustment report fields such as “disposition” and “fulfillment-center-id” to NetSuite custom fields.

Support item aliases for the FBA Inventory Adjustments add-on

While processing each inventory adjustment record, if the item is not found in NetSuite with lookup criteria on item record, the Integration App now searches the “Celigo eTail item alias” custom record list using the item name. If a matching record is found using the item name, the integration app fetches the associated parent SKU and posts an adjustment line against the selected location.

Note: If SKU is not present on the item record in NetSuite and SKU is present on the “Celigo eTail item alias” custom record, the flow adjusts the quantity of the linked parent item.

Select the “Item aliases are configured in NetSuite” box in Integration Flows > Order (FBA) > Advanced Settings. When you run the “Amazon (FBA) Order to NetSuite Order Add” flow, the integration app looks for the items with the error message “ITEM_NOT_FOUND”. The filtered items with error messages are further searched using the “Celigo eTail item alias” list using the item name. If the items are found using the item name, an itemID is mapped to those filtered items. An adjustment is created to the original item.

Note: If the “Item aliases are configured in NetSuite” box is not selected, the integration app does not perform item search using the item name.