Backstockguide

Using Backstock

Backstock is purchasing and receiving built for brick-and-mortar shops. You reorder on your vendor's terms - the price breaks, case packs, minimums, and deals you've negotiated - not on a guess about what'll sell. It works on top of the POS you already run, and when a delivery lands it puts the stock into that POS for you. Here's everything you need to get going.

1Sign in

There's no password. To sign in:

  1. Go to getbackstock.com/merchant.
  2. Enter your email and click Send sign-in link.
  3. Open the email and click the link - you're in.

The link works once and expires after 30 minutes. If it expires, just request a new one from the same page. You stay signed in on that device for a while, so day-to-day you'll usually land straight in your console.

2Connect your store

Backstock reads your catalog, costs, and on-hand stock from your POS, and adds stock back to it when you record a delivery. Connect at least one store from the Stores tab. You can connect as many as you run - locations are unlimited on every plan, and every one shows up in one place.

Every platform starts the same way: click + Connect a store on the Stores tab, then pick yours.

Shopify

  1. Type your store address (e.g. your-store.myshopify.com) and click Continue to Shopify. The store name on its own works too.
  2. Approve the access Shopify asks for: reading your products, inventory, and locations, and updating inventory. That last one is what lets Backstock add a delivery to your stock - everything else stays read-only.
  3. You'll land right back in your Backstock console with the store connected.

Square

  1. Press Continue. You'll sign in to Square, approve the access Backstock asks for, and land right back here with the store connected. Nothing to copy, and you can revoke it from your own Square dashboard at any time.
  2. If your deployment shows a token box instead, follow the short steps on the page to create an access token and paste it. We check it works before saving it.

Backstock asks to read your items, inventory, and vendors, and to add stock when you receive a delivery. If you approve less than that, everything else still works; only the parts that needed the missing permission fail, and they say so where they fail. On a pasted Square token the delivery push specifically needs the INVENTORY_WRITE scope.

Lightspeed or Clover

Not yet. Both are next on the list - create your account now and set up your vendors, terms, and price breaks, and we'll email you the day your register can connect. None of that setup is wasted: purchase orders, receiving, and labels all work before a POS is attached.

Each connected store shows its state in plain words next to a dot. Green means it's connected and syncing. Amber means it works but needs your permission for something newer - click Update access. Red means the sign-in expired and nothing is syncing until you click Reconnect.

What Backstock changes in your store. One thing, and only when you ask for it: when you record a delivery, the units you received are added to your stock in the store that order is pointed at. That's it. Backstock never changes your retail prices, product details, or settings, and never touches your sales, orders, or customers. An order you don't point at a store changes nothing at all - see Receive the delivery. Your connection tokens are stored encrypted.

3Enter your vendor terms

This is the heart of Backstock, and what makes it different: it plans orders around the deals you've actually negotiated. On the Vendors tab, add each vendor and fill in:

Price-break example: 1:6.90, 144:6.48
reads as "$6.90 each, or $6.48 each once you order 144 or more." Add as many tiers as your vendor offers.

You only enter this once per vendor. Edit it any time your terms change - click Edit on a vendor to update case pack, minimums, or price breaks.

Got a lot of vendors? Use Import CSV on the Vendors tab to seed up to 500 at once from a spreadsheet - one row per SKU, grouped by vendor. Click Download template there to see the exact columns, fill it in, and import.

4Build an order

On the POs tab:

  1. Pick a vendor.
  2. Choose where the goods land under Receive into - the store, and the location inside it, that this delivery belongs to.
  3. Add the SKUs and quantities you want to order - type them in, or use Import lines to bring in a whole list at once.
  4. Click Preview order.

Receive into is the switch that decides whether this order ever touches your POS. Point it at a store and the units you receive get added to that store's stock. Choose Don't update a store and the order lives in Backstock alone - useful for a vendor whose goods you don't stock-count, or when you'd rather key the receipt in yourself. It's asked here, on the draft, rather than on the dock, and you can change it later if you get it wrong.

Ordering more than a handful of SKUs? Click Import lines, then paste straight from a spreadsheet or choose a CSV - one row per SKU, as sku, qty. Commas, tabs, and spaces all work, and the header row is optional, so most reorder reports and scan-gun exports drop in as-is. Backstock adds up any SKU that appears twice, ignores quantities of 0, tells you which SKUs aren't in this vendor's terms, and prices the order for you right away.

Backstock does the math on your terms and shows you the smart order:

Happy with it? Click Save as draft, then Send order. Sending locks the quantities and prices in - a sent order is a promise, so it won't change later even if you edit that vendor's terms.

5Get the order to your vendor

First, fill in Your business on the Stores tab - your business name and address are required before you can place an order, because that's what your vendor sees at the top of it and how they know who to invoice and where to ship. Phone is optional. If deliveries go to a different dock or warehouse, put that in Ship-to address; leave it blank and everything comes to your main address. You only do this once, and you can build drafts before you get to it.

Once an order is sent, Backstock gives you three ways to put it in your vendor's hands. Pick whichever one your rep actually uses:

Still order by phone? That's fine - nothing here is required. Print the order as your buy sheet and read it to your rep. Backstock records the order either way.

Backstock doesn't email your vendors for you. How an order reaches your rep is your relationship with them, and sending mail on your behalf would put our deliverability between you and your supplier. Copy the order or the link into your own email and it arrives from you, which is what your rep expects anyway.

You can print a draft too, as a buy sheet to walk the aisle with. It'll be marked as a draft, because until you send it the prices can still move.

6Receive the delivery

When the truck shows up, open the order from the POs tab. While it's Ordered or Part-received you'll see a Record a delivery card with one row per line, each showing how many units are still owed. For each row, fill in:

Add the packing slip / invoice number, any freight & duty on that delivery, and notes if you want them, then click Record delivery.

Short shipments are normal, so record each drop as it lands. Backstock keeps the running count of what's still owed per line and moves the order from Ordered to Part-received to Received on its own - you never set the status by hand. Freight is spread across the lines by value to give you a true landed cost, and if a line was invoiced at a different price than you ordered on, the Deliveries list says so.

This is the step that changes your stock. What you received, minus anything damaged, is added to the store and location the order is pointed at. It's added, not set - so whatever sold off that shelf while you were counting the pallet isn't clobbered. If the order says Don't update a store, the card tells you so and nothing is added anywhere.

Each delivery in the Deliveries list carries a line telling you how that went:

The delivery itself is saved before any of this is attempted, so a store that's down or a permission you haven't granted yet can never lose your count of what arrived. Fix it whenever you like and push it then.

Each platform records it the way that platform expects, and every one references the Backstock order number so you can trace it later. On Shopify it's an inventory adjustment, and on Square an inventory change.

Pointed an order at the wrong store? Click Change next to the destination on the order. Only future deliveries move - stock that's already been added stays where it went.

If a vendor is never going to ship the rest, Close short ends the order and writes off the balance. Cancel order is for one that shouldn't have been placed at all. Both are final.

7Reconcile & reports

Want to check that the costs in your POS still match the deals you negotiated? On the Stores tab, click Reconcile next to a store. Backstock compares your vendor terms against what's actually in that store and flags:

It runs in the background - for a big catalog it can take a minute. When it's done, the report appears under the Reports tab; open any report to see the details. Reports are private to your account.

FAQ

Do I have to leave my POS?
No. Backstock sits on top of Shopify or Square - you keep ringing sales on the register you already use. Lightspeed and Clover are next.
I'm on Lightspeed or Clover. Is Backstock any use to me yet?
Yes, with one gap. Vendors, terms, price breaks, purchase orders, receiving, damage and credits, labels and every report work without a register attached - a connected POS adds live stock and cost, and pushes what you received back. Set the rest up now and we'll email you the day your POS can connect; nothing you enter has to be redone.
Does Backstock change anything in my store?
One thing: when you record a delivery, the units you received are added to your stock in the store that order is pointed at. Nothing else - not prices, not product details, not settings, and never your sales, orders, or customers. Everything else Backstock does with your store is reading.
Can I use Backstock without letting it touch my inventory?
Yes. Set Receive into to Don't update a store on an order and it stays in Backstock only - you still get the terms, the math, the vendor document, and the receiving record, and you key the stock into your POS yourself. You can decide that order by order.
Is my store data safe?
Your connection tokens are stored encrypted, and Backstock only ever asks for the access it actually uses. You can revoke it from your own POS dashboard at any time.
I run more than one location.
Connect them all under one login - locations are unlimited and don't change your bill. Each appears on the Stores tab, can be reconciled on its own, and can be the destination for its own orders.
Where do I get a Square token?
Usually you don't need one - press Continue and Square handles it. If your Connect page shows a token box instead, it walks you through creating one step by step. Either way it lives in your own Square dashboard, so you stay in control of what it can do and can revoke it whenever you want.
My sign-in link expired.
Request a new one from the sign-in page - links are single-use and last 30 minutes.
I'm moving off Stocky. Does my data come with me?
Yes. Export Suppliers, Costs and Purchase Orders from Stocky as CSV, then use Import from Stocky on the Vendors tab. Suppliers and costs become your vendor terms and price-break ladders; the PO history arrives as closed orders with what you actually received on each one. Re-importing the same export updates those orders rather than duplicating them, so it's safe to run again with a fuller file. Do the export before 31 August 2026 - after that Stocky is gone and there's nothing left to take. More on what to export.
Do I need any particular purchasing tool already?
No. Backstock is a standalone tool that works on top of whatever POS you run - bring your suppliers and negotiated costs and you're set.

Open your console →