Troubleshooting

Getting started

Home still says it’s syncing

The first sync usually takes a few minutes, and longer for a large catalog. Home refreshes itself while it runs, so there’s no need to reload. If it still says it’s syncing after an hour or so, email support@portsidelabs.io. → Install and first sync

Every page sends me to “Choose a plan”

Your store isn’t on a plan — you haven’t picked one yet, or the subscription ended. Choose one on Shopify’s plan page, which opens by itself; if it doesn’t, press Open plans. Home works without a plan, and your data is safe in the meantime. → Plans and pricing

Forecasts and suggestions

There are no suggestions

Work through these in order:

Is Shelfcast still reading your sales? “Reading your sales history” on the Reorder page means forecasts aren’t ready yet. Wait for the first sync to finish.
Are you on Starter? Starter suggests a product only when its stock falls to the reorder point you set on it. Products without one are never suggested. → Reorder points
Look at the product itself. Set Show to All products and find it. If it’s there with no Order quantity, its available stock plus what’s incoming covers the whole planning horizon — check the Incoming column for an order you’ve forgotten.
Check its method. No sales yet means it has never sold, so its demand is 0. Reorder point with no reorder point set never suggests anything.
Seasonal with a daily demand of 0? See the next question.
Not on the list at all? Products marked Not tracked are never forecast. See A product shows “Not tracked”.

Forecasts look low just after install

Shopify shares the last 60 days of your orders with Shelfcast, so that’s where your sales records begin. Pressing Read again doesn’t add more: Shopify still shares the same 60 days.

Shelfcast counts a product’s history from the day it was created in Shopify, and the days before its records begin count as days with no sales. Until your own history builds up, that pulls some forecasts down:

Steady forecasts can read a little low for about the first month.
Products created in Shopify more than a year plus your planning horizon ago (about 14 months with the default settings) can be picked as Seasonal, find nothing sold in the same weeks last year, and forecast 0 a day. Nothing is suggested for them.
Stockouts before you installed aren’t known, unless the product is out of stock right now, so products that often sold out can look slower than they are.

What to do: for a product that sells but shows Seasonal with a daily demand of 0, open it and set Forecast method to Steady. Switch it back to Automatic once Shelfcast has a year or more of your sales. For key products, a reorder point is another safe choice while history builds. → How forecasting works

A product shows “Not tracked”

Shopify isn’t tracking inventory for that variant, so Shelfcast has no stock level to plan against. It gets no forecast, isn’t counted in stock counts, and receiving it changes nothing in Shopify.

To include it, turn on Track quantity for the variant in Shopify. Shelfcast picks up the change with the next sync — overnight, or when you press Sync now in Settings → Data.

Products I’ve already ordered are still suggested

Two reasons, both expected:

The order is still a draft. Drafts don’t count as incoming. Mark it as ordered, or send it with Also mark as ordered ticked.
Forecasts haven’t refreshed yet. Suggestions don’t update the moment you place an order. They catch up overnight, or sooner if you press Sync now in Settings → Data and let it finish.

The Incoming column shows what’s already on order, so check it before ordering again.

The Out of stock count on Home doesn’t match the Products filter

They count different things. The Out of stock card on Home counts products with nothing available that are still selling. The Out of stock filter on Products shows every product with nothing available, selling or not.

A product has two preferred suppliers

This can happen after importing a supplier products file, since importing a preferred flag doesn’t untick another supplier’s. Suggestions use the supplier the product was linked to first. Open Edit terms on the supplier you want and tick Reorder this product from this supplier; that unticks the others.

Purchase orders and receiving

Stock didn’t change after receiving

Is the product tracked? On the receiving page, products Shopify doesn’t track show “Shopify does not track stock for this product. It is marked received in Shelfcast only.”
Was the order imported? Lines for products Shelfcast couldn’t match are marked received in Shelfcast only.
Did you see an error? If Shopify refused the change, you’ll have seen “Shopify could not update inventory: …” and nothing was recorded for those products. See below.
Are you looking at the right location? Stock goes to the order’s destination. Products and Reorder show totals across all active locations; a product’s page shows each location.
Check History. Filter Source to Purchase order to see exactly what was added, where and when.

On a product’s page, Available updates as soon as Shopify reports the change. On hand, Committed and Incoming there refresh with the nightly sync.

“Shopify could not update inventory: …”

Shopify refused a stock change, and the text after the colon gives its reason.

When receiving: nothing was recorded for the products Shopify refused. Reload the receiving page to see what’s still outstanding, then try again.
When completing a count: the count shows Needs attention. See below.

If it keeps happening, email support with the full message.

“Shopify did not record its incoming stock”

The full message reads “PO-1001 marked as ordered. Shopify did not record its incoming stock, so receiving it adds stock directly.” The order was placed, but Shopify didn’t show its products as incoming. Nothing is lost: when you receive the order, the stock is added straight to available.

“[code] is not on this purchase order”

The code you scanned isn’t the barcode, SKU or supplier SKU of any product on this order. Check you’re receiving the right order. You can’t add products to an order while receiving it — receive what’s on it, and create a new order for anything extra.

“Only draft purchase orders can be edited.”

Once an order is placed, its lines are fixed. If the delivery differs, receive what arrives and close the order; if the order has changed completely, cancel it and create a new one. → Purchase order statuses

“Only drafts can be deleted. Cancel the purchase order instead.”

Placed orders are kept for your records. Use Cancel purchase order.

The supplier email won’t send

“[Supplier] has no email address. Add one to send purchase orders from Shelfcast.” — open the supplier from Suppliers, fill in Email, and send again.

If the email sent but the supplier says it never arrived, check the address on the supplier’s page and ask them to look in their spam folder. Replies go to your store’s email address in Shopify. → Send it to your supplier

“… picked products are not in Shelfcast yet.”

You picked products in Shopify’s picker that Shelfcast hasn’t synced yet — usually because they were just created. They appear after the next sync.

Barcode labels

A label says “No barcode”

The product has no barcode or SKU, so there’s nothing to print. Add one to the product in Shopify. → Print barcode labels

A label says “May not scan”

The code is long for the label, so its bars print thin. It still prints, but some scanners may struggle. Add a shorter barcode in Shopify, or try Avery 5160 sheets, which leave more room.

Labels don’t line up

In the print dialog, set the scale to 100% and the margins to none. For a label printer, choose the 2.25 × 1.25 in label size.

Print labels takes me to the plan page

Labels are part of Growth and Pro. On Starter, Print labels opens the plan page instead. → Plans and pricing

Stock counts

A count says “Needs attention”

Shopify refused some of the count’s changes; the message after “The count was not fully applied:” says why. Press Try again to carry on from where it stopped — products already applied aren’t applied twice. If it keeps failing, email support with the message.

Counts are waiting to sync

The device lost its connection, so counts are kept on it until they can be sent. They go as soon as the connection is back, or when you reopen the count on that device. Wait for the banner to clear before anyone presses Complete count. → Counting on a phone or offline

“[code] is not in your catalog”

No product in Shelfcast has that barcode or SKU. Check the product in Shopify — if it was just created or given a barcode, it’s picked up when Shopify reports the change or at the next sync.

“This count is no longer open.”

The count was completed or cancelled, perhaps on another device. Start a new count.

Imports

The import failed: “The file has no column for: …”

The file is missing a column the import needs — the message names it. Rename a column to one of the names Shelfcast recognizes, or add it, and import again. → Import a CSV

Rows were skipped

Press rows skipped on the import to see each row’s reason:

“Missing Name” — a supplier row has no name.
“Missing Supplier” — a supplier products row, or the first row of a purchase order, has no supplier.
“No product has the SKU or barcode …” — no product in Shelfcast has that SKU or barcode. Check it matches Shopify exactly.
“Missing PO number” — a purchase order row has no PO number.
“Purchase order … is already in Shelfcast” — that order was imported or created before. Nothing to do if it’s the same order.
“Sync your catalog before importing purchase orders.” — Shelfcast hasn’t read your locations yet. Wait for the first sync, then import again.
“Missing Adjustment” — an adjustment row’s quantity is blank, zero or not a number.

Costs or quantities came in wrong

The last comma or dot in a number is read as the decimal point, so 1,250 comes in as 1.25. Remove thousands separators and import again.

Billing

Home says I have more locations or SKUs than my plan covers

It’s a reminder, not a block — everything keeps working. Move to a bigger plan from Settings → Plan → Change plan if you’d like the plan to match. → Plans and pricing

Still stuck?

Email support@portsidelabs.io. It helps if you include:

What you did, and what happened instead.
When it happened, roughly.
The purchase order number, count name or product involved.
The exact message, if there was one.

A person reads it.