Syncing moves inventory information between Thrive and your point of sale system. You can import data from your integration into Thrive, or export data from Thrive to your integration.

Imports and exports are time-consuming processes. We recommend running them after business hours. Depending on the number of SKUs you have, syncing could take several hours to complete.

When you import, Thrive reads the product catalog in your integration and uses it to update the matching products in Thrive.

IMPORTANT: You choose what an import brings over, and it does not change everything. The import screen asks a separate Yes/No question for each kind of information: "Import my product catalog into Thrive", "Import my cost into Thrive", "Import my vendors into Thrive" and "Import my current quantities into Thrive". Not every sales channel offers all four. Answering Yes to one does not import the others, and the cost, vendor and quantity questions stay greyed out until you answer Yes to the catalog question.

When you import your catalog, Thrive looks for the product in Thrive that carries that sales channel's own id for the item. Where it finds one, it overwrites these fields on it:

Anything it cannot find a match for is added to Thrive as a new product. That is how an import can leave you with duplicates.

Two results catch people out:

When you run an import yourself, costs and quantities move only if you answer Yes to those questions. A catalog-only import never changes a cost or a count. Some set-up paths do not ask at all: when you connect a sales channel while you are still setting up your account, Thrive imports your catalog, your costs, your quantities and your sales for you to make sure you're all set from the start.

Where a cost or a count does come over, it replaces what was in Thrive — but only where your sales channel actually supplies a value. Depending on the sales channel, a cost that arrives as zero or is missing can leave your Thrive cost alone, and bundle quantities can be skipped. A cost you typed in yourself is replaced as well, including one you set for a single location.

An import does not add or remove any sales. Importing costs can fill in a cost that was missing on an older sale; importing quantities adds a stock lot at your default cost. Some set-up paths also bring in your recent sales.

The import process cannot be undone, so verify your integration has correct information before importing.

Once you select 'Import,' you will see this prompt:

Most times, when you are setting up an account for the first time, the answer to every one of these questions is yes.

If there is any reason you do not want the quantities synced, press 'No' on the quantities question

Once you hit 'Finish', you will see a final warning before being able to click 'Yes, run the import'. It is headed "Are you sure?" and lists renaming categories at all locations, renaming products and variants at all locations, and changing tax rates at all locations. If you answered Yes to the cost question, the list has a fourth item: "Overwriting existing costs at all locations, including any cost you entered by hand or set for just one location". It also says the process cannot be rolled back, and that we do not recommend using it unless you are setting up your account for the first time.

Click 'Yes, run the import' to begin importing items!

The import can take several hours depending on internet speed and amount of SKUs.

The import only brings over what you answered Yes to, but it cannot be undone, so be sure that your POS provider has the correct information before importing!

When you export, Thrive uses your product catalog in Thrive to overwrite the information in your integration (your point of sale system). The flow of information is:

An export runs as two jobs you can follow on the Tasks page, under Recent Tasks: "Enable all inventory for Integration task", which switches your products on for that sales channel, and then "Push un-synced Items task", which sends them across.

If the sales channel's product sync switch is turned off, the export marks all your products as ready to sync out but does not send them. Turn the switch on, then use Push all un-synced products & variants on the Advanced page to send them. Both the confirmation you see before the export starts and the message shown when it finishes now say this: your products, variants, categories and tax rates at that location were marked ready to sync, and will not be sent until product syncing is turned on. Once it is on, go to the Advanced page in Settings and click Start task next to "Push all un-synced products & variants".

The same menu also holds a Remove mapping option — on Shopify it is offered only for additional locations, because the primary location normally has to stay mapped — and the location-mapping screen has a Remove from Thrive choice that does the same. Both will show you the same warning before anything is removed, with Go Back to back out and I understand to go ahead. Neither one fixes an export problem: removing a location's mapping deletes that sales channel's sales for that location from Thrive and leaves behind the stock those sales took away, so your counts stay low — each of those stock movements keeps only a note reading "Integration for receipt deleted". Mapping the location back does not simply put things back the way they were, so talk to Customer Care before you remove a mapping.

Automatic syncing: When syncing is turned on, any changes you make to the inventory catalog and quantities in Thrive will automatically push to your point of sale system.

This is an ongoing process until those options are disabled. This means that once you leave them on, you should switch to making all changes, updates, and additions to inventory in Thrive going forward.

You can force a Product to export from the Thrive interface if you need to see it at your point of sale right away.

Click within the product, under the Settings (gear wheel), select Sync Product to integrations

This will export the Product from Thrive to your point of sale immediately.

Manual syncing is for troubleshooting. Normally, saving changes to a product should push those changes to your point of sale automatically. Use manual sync when a product isn't updating correctly.

For multiple products: "Push all un-synced products & variants" on the Advanced page in Settings sends every product Thrive has marked as un-synced for that channel. Products that were never enabled on the channel are not included. If you have several products that need to be synced, read our Products Not Syncing article for better methods.

Forcing a full export: As a last resort, you can force an export of all products at once. Learn more about forcing full exports.

Need help? Contact Customer Care if products still aren't pushing to your point of sale after trying a manual sync.