What is ProductSync? How does it work? What does it look like?

ProductSync is the process whereby Token of Trust automatically synchronizes product metadata to the Token of Trust server so that your metadata is up to date for Excise Tax collection, Excise Tax Reporting and PACT Reporting. Once activated any products added or changed will automatically sync to Token of Trust which ensures that you never miss collecting taxes for these products. 

How do I get Product Sync?

The synchronization of products is different on different platforms. For this reason it is a premium offering and cannot be supported in every environment. Currently we support Product Sync as follows:

• Wordpress - when adding, removing or updating products.
• BigCommerce - through the integration layer - where you must follow very specific rules.

Reach out to success@tokenoftrust.com if you're interested in product sync or would like to see it offered on your platform.

What happens if I don’t have ProductSync? 

We support those that cannot or choose not to activate Product Sync in 3 ways:

1. When you introduce new products you should tell Token of Trust about those products by using the your HQ screen. This ensures you don’t miss any collection opportunities.
2. If TOT sees a product in the checkout process that does not have metadata, TOT will allow that product through checkout (we prefer not to block your orders) BUT we have no way to collect excise for that product. To alert you to this issue we sent out emails to your staff to indicate that we saw a product without metadata with a link to update that product on HQ.
3. At the end of each month we send out bulk requests for metadata on any products that have sold in the last month without proper metadata. You may reply to these emails with the metadata and we will bulk upload those products to ensure that reports can be completed properly and future collections are handled. 

What does it look like on Wordpress / WooCommerce?

When ProductSync is enabled on Wordpress - TOT enforces the collection of vape product attributes during Product setup and update to ensure that this cannot be missed. For products that are not vape products just set the Product Type appropriately and you will not have to complete other fields. Otherwise we do need them all.

Warning: If you have hierarchical products see the note below.

Here’s what that looks like: 

If you fail to supply this information you will see an error message like this: 

Scrolling down the page you will see the fields that need to be filled out and clicking the question marks on the right should give you information on what we need for each field: 

What if I have hierarchical products with child variants?

On BigCommerce: Token of Trust integration doesn't know about parent and child relationships. They synchronization layer just updates every product as changes are made.

On Wordpress: With parents / child variants, the vape attributes will be pushed down to all children from the parent product. This of course means that if you have products organized with a parent and different sized children (different mLs per child) that you won't be able to use this feature until we support overrides. Child overrides are on the product roadmap but don't have a timeline for delivery yet - if this is a feature you need please reach out to us at support@tokenoftrust.com.

Are there special considerations with regards to parent / child variants that I need to be aware of as I consider moving toward Product Sync?

Yes see below...

On BigCommerce: you really don't need to worry about this because every product is pushed individually as changes are made.

On Wordpress: Because of how Wordpress currently handles this you'll want to build parent/child relationships where the metadata stays constant between parent and children. Don't for example, have a parent with 15 different volumes of vape juice because the children will get only one value (whatever you express at the parent level).