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Welcome to the POS Portal API documentation. This guide provides a comprehensive overview of how to effectively use our API to manage the entire lifecycle of an order, from creating and managing merchants to fulfilling orders, handling returns & replacements, and tracking deployed equipment. This introduction offers a holistic, workflow-centric view, demonstrating how each resource works together to streamline your operations and ensure seamless order management.
If you're ready to dive straight into the technical details, check out our OpenAPI Documentation.
The POS Portal API is designed to integrate all aspects of your business operations, ensuring that each component works in harmony with the others. By understanding the full workflow, you can leverage the API to create a seamless experience from merchant management to order fulfillment and beyond.
The journey begins with managing your merchants. Whether you are searching for existing merchants or creating new ones, the Merchants resources are the foundation upon which all subsequent actions are built. Every order you process in the system is associated with a specific merchant, making it crucial to have accurate and up-to-date merchant information.
- Find or Create a Merchant: The API allows you to search for existing merchants or create new ones. These merchants will serve as the cornerstone for all your order-related activities.
- Manage Merchant Information: As merchants evolve, you can update their details to ensure that your records remain accurate, which is vital for processing orders and managing relationships.
With your merchant base established, the next step is to create orders. The Order Management resources are central to this process. Orders are constructed using a combination of merchants, products, and bundles, all of which must be selected and configured appropriately to meet customer needs.
- Select Products and Bundles: Leverage the Product and Bundles API to retrieve products and bundles. These items can be tailored to specific customer requirements, ensuring that each order is precisely configured. For more details on configuring products, refer to the Configurations page.
- Create the Order: Once the products and bundles are selected, they are linked to a specific merchant to create an order. This is where the merchant information you’ve managed becomes critical, ensuring that the order is associated with the correct customer.
- Leverage Deployment Projects: For larger campaigns or multi-phase rollouts, you can organize and manage groups of orders using the Deployment Projects resources. Deployment projects help streamline the management of multiple orders tied to a specific project or campaign. This is particularly useful for businesses running large-scale deployments that require careful coordination.
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Handle Shipping and Address Validation: Before finalizing the order, you need to ensure the products will reach their correct destination. The Shipping and Address Validation resources allow you to calculate shipping costs and validate addresses to prevent delivery issues.
- Calculate Shipping Costs: The API provides quotes for different shipping methods, enabling you to choose the most cost-effective and timely option for your customer.
- Validate the Address: Address validation ensures that the shipping information is accurate and complete, preventing potential delays or misdeliveries.
Once the order has shipped, the products transition into their next phase—deployment. The Deployed Equipment resources allow you to track and manage the equipment at the customer’s location, ensuring that it remains in optimal condition throughout its lifecycle.
- Track Deployed Equipment: The API enables you to monitor the status of deployed equipment, providing visibility into where each piece of equipment is and its current condition.
- Update Equipment Status: Over time, deployed equipment may require maintenance or updates. The API allows you to manage these changes, ensuring that all equipment remains functional and up-to-date.
In some cases, products may need to be returned or replaced. The Returns Management resources enable you to handle product returns efficiently, ensuring that items are correctly processed, tracked, and credited. However, returns and replacements are not required to be managed via the API and are independent of the ordering process. In fact, Portal Access is often the preferred method for most clients when submitting returns or replacements.
- Initiate a Return or Replacement: Use the API to create and manage return requests, specifying the items being returned and the reason for the return.
- Track Return Status: Monitor the progress of returns, ensuring that they are processed in a timely manner and that the necessary adjustments are made to the order or merchant account.
The Consigned Inventory resources allow you to manage consigned inventory, ensuring that stock levels at customer locations are accurately tracked and maintained. This is crucial for businesses that need to manage inventory stored at customer sites while maintaining ownership.
Track Consigned Inventory: The API provides tools to monitor and manage consigned inventory, ensuring that stock levels are sufficient and accurately recorded.
The POS Portal API is designed to provide an integrated, end-to-end solution for managing your business operations. By understanding how these resources—merchants, orders, shipping, returns, deployed equipment, inventory, and deployment projects—interconnect, you can create a seamless workflow that enhances efficiency and customer satisfaction. Each step of this guide ties into the next, ensuring that every aspect of your business is covered and that all resources work together harmoniously.
For more detailed instructions and examples, please refer to the specific wiki pages linked throughout this guide.
For additional insights into each endpoint and its parameters, visit the POS Portal OpenAPI Documentation.