Flow schedules control how often your integration app syncs data between NetSuite and your eCommerce application. A good schedule keeps data current without overloading your connections. Before your flows or integration app go live, make sure scheduling is set up. This article gives Celigo's maximum recommended schedules for common eCommerce flows, explains cron scheduling, and shows how to run a flow on demand.
Note: These recommendations apply to most integration apps. Your flows may differ depending on their purpose. For integration-specific strategies, see the Celigo community forum.
Before you schedule flows
- Choose a reasonable rate. Schedule flows at a rate that doesn't put heavy load on your connections. integrator.io offers presets for simple schedules and supports cron expressions for complex ones.
- Know your web service resources. NetSuite concurrency governance may not handle aggressive web service requests, depending on your NetSuite user and account concurrency settings. See NetSuite concurrency governance.
Schedule a flow
You can schedule a flow with a preset, from every 15 minutes to once a week, or with a custom frequency. See Scheduling flows.
Recommended schedules for eCommerce flows
These are Celigo's maximum recommended schedules.
Orders
| Flow | Schedule |
|---|---|
| eCommerce Application Order to NetSuite Order Add | 15, 30, or 60 minutes |
| eCommerce Application Customer to NetSuite Customer Add/Update | 15, 30, or 60 minutes |
| NetSuite Order to eCommerce Application Order Add | 15, 30, or 60 minutes |
The integration app imports customer information into NetSuite each time the order import flow runs.
Fulfillment
Schedule NetSuite Fulfillment to eCommerce Application Fulfillment/Shipment Add around your fulfillment team's activity:
- Orders marked as shipped throughout the business day: Every Hour.
- Orders batch-updated at the end of the day: Twice Daily.
- Marketplaces: Every Two Hours or less often, depending on business need.
Billing
For NetSuite Order to NetSuite Cash Sale/Invoice Add:
- Webstores, payment captured when the order is placed: Twice Daily.
- Webstores, payment captured after fulfillment: every 1 to 4 hours.
- Marketplaces, where the eCommerce application manages payments: Once Daily or Twice Daily.
For NetSuite Billing to eCommerce Application Billing/Invoice Add, when payment is captured after fulfillment: every 1 to 4 hours. Some business cases need every 15 to 30 minutes.
Refunds
Consider how often you have refunds and order cancellations before you choose a 15- or 30-minute schedule. Refunds can't occur until an invoice or billing record exists in the eCommerce application.
Inventory
Before you set the schedule for NetSuite Inventory to eCommerce Application Add/Update, consider how often items run low or go out of stock (for example, twice a day or once a month), and how often you add items and quantities in NetSuite. Make sure Always sync Inventory levels for the entire catalog is checked.
This flow uses delta exports: it pulls and updates only the records that changed since the last run.
- Fewer SKUs (under 1,000 products) with higher inventory levels: schedule it less often, with more time between runs.
- More SKUs, higher order volumes, and a need for frequent quantity updates: every 1 to 4 hours.
Product
Schedule the product flow around how often you update your catalog. For example, if you change product titles or descriptions once a day and your catalog has fewer than 1,000 items, run it 2 to 4 times a day (Twice Daily, every 8 hours, or every 4 hours). With 20,000 or more items, run it less often.
- Webstores: Price list changes are part of the product flow.
- Marketplaces: Product data changes less often than prices. Run the product flow Once Daily and price updates 2 to 4 times a day.
Cron scheduling
Celigo flows use cron-style schedules with five positions: MIN HR DAY MO WK.
| Position | Values |
|---|---|
| Minute | 0 to 59 |
| Hour | 0 to 23 |
| Day of the month | 1 to 31 |
| Month | 1 to 12 |
| Day of the week | 0 to 6 (Sunday is 0, Saturday is 6) |
| Expression | Runs |
|---|---|
0-14 11,23 ? * MON,TUE,WED,THU,FRI,SAT,SUN |
During the first 15 minutes of the hour, at 11 AM and 11 PM, every day of every month |
0-14 5 15 * ? |
During the first part of the hour, at 5 AM, on the 15th day of every month |
To build a cron schedule in integrator.io, see Cron scheduling.
Run a flow on demand
A flow must be enabled before you can run it.
- Open the integration app tile.
- If the flow is off, turn it on.
- On the flow's row, select Run.
To learn more, take the Exploring Flow Builder course.