Moving from Katana to Stockroom? Do it in the order below. It gets your costs across correctly and stops the two apps from changing the same stock numbers at the same time. Most of the work is in the first step.
How Katana maps to Stockroom
In Katana | In Stockroom |
Products and variants | Your Shopify products. Stockroom reads them from Shopify. |
Materials | Materials. Ones you import are kept in Stockroom only and aren't created in Shopify. |
Bills of materials | Build → Bills of materials, which has a CSV import |
Manufacturing orders | Builds. One build makes one product, so ten sizes are ten builds. |
Purchase orders | Purchase orders |
Sales orders | Shopify orders, on Sell → Open orders. Sales orders and Quotes cover orders you take before they're in Shopify. |
Stock adjustments | Inventory → Adjustments |
Stocktakes | Inventory → Stocktakes, and the Count stock tile in Shopify POS |
Stock transfers | Inventory → Transfers. These are Shopify's own transfers. |
Moving average cost | Settings → Inventory & COGS → Costing method: FIFO or weighted average |
What works differently
Cost history doesn't come across. Stockroom starts from the cost Shopify has when you install. From then on, each delivery adds stock at its real landed cost.
No scheduling. Build has no operation steps, operation times or capacity planning. A build has a stage, workstation, priority and assignee, and you name those yourself.
No reserved stock. Stockroom doesn't hold stock back for a customer, an order or a build.
No staff roles. Anyone who can open the app can do everything in it.
1. Put your current costs into Shopify first
Katana keeps an average cost for each item, but it doesn't send that cost to Shopify. So the Cost per item in Shopify is often months out of date.
Shortly after you install Stockroom, it values the stock you already have at the cost Shopify has on file. That becomes the starting cost for your cost of goods sold, and it can't be changed later. So update Shopify before you install:
Export your products and materials from Katana with their average cost.
Update Cost per item in Shopify. Shopify's product CSV import or its bulk editor both work.
Already installed? Go to Settings → Inventory & COGS → Opening stock costs. It lists items that had no cost in Shopify when Stockroom started. Update their costs in Shopify, then click Use Shopify costs. You can also type them in with Enter costs.
Items that already had a cost in Shopify keep it, even if it was out of date. That stock stays valued at the old cost until it sells. Everything you receive from then on carries its real cost.
📸 SCREENSHOT: Settings → Inventory & COGS → Opening stock costs card, showing the unvalued count with Use Shopify costs and Enter costs
2. Choose your costing method
In Settings → Inventory & COGS → Costing method, pick FIFO (first in, first out) or Weighted average. Pick the method your books are kept on. QuickBooks Online uses FIFO and QuickBooks Desktop uses average cost. Once costs have posted to your accounting, the method is fixed. See The COGS report: FIFO and weighted average costing.
3. Pick a quiet time to switch
Steps 4 and 5 are best done outside business hours, in one sitting. Finish any receiving that's half done in Katana first. After the switch, every delivery is received in Stockroom.
4. Stop Katana from updating Shopify
Katana sends stock levels to Shopify. Stockroom updates Shopify too, whenever you receive, adjust or count. If both are switched on, each one overwrites the other's numbers.
Before your first receive in Stockroom, turn off inventory sync in Katana's Shopify integration settings, or disconnect Shopify from Katana.
If Katana posts to QuickBooks, turn that off too before you connect MyWorks Sync. Otherwise the same purchases post twice.
5. Bring your data across
Suppliers, past purchase orders and past stock adjustments - export them from Katana as CSV files, then go to Settings → Data & sync → Import from another app. Stockroom AI suggests a field for each Katana column, and nothing imports until you confirm the mapping. Imported history never changes your Shopify inventory. For a stock adjustments file, set This file holds under it to Stock adjustments before you import. See Import purchase order history from CSV files.
Orders still on the way - the history import is for orders that are done. Create open orders fresh in Stockroom, then click Mark as ordered so Shopify shows the stock as incoming. Cancel them in Katana, so only one app receives them. See Creating a purchase order from a CSV file.
Raw materials that aren't Shopify products - on the Inventory page, click Import materials. See Materials with stock units.
Recipes - in Build, open Bills of materials and click Import CSV. Use one row per component: the output's SKU, the component's SKU, and how many one unit uses. See Bills of materials.
📸 SCREENSHOT: Settings → Data & sync → Import from another app, mapping preview for a Katana CSV with a Stockroom AI suggested field
6. From now on
Receive deliveries in Stockroom. When a delivery changes what an item costs, the Update product costs card offers to update the cost in Shopify. Under Which cost? you choose the New average cost or the Latest landed cost. This is the step Katana skipped, so Shopify's costs stay current. See Landed cost: what your stock really costs.
📸 SCREENSHOT: Receive confirm on a purchase order, Update product costs card ticked with Which cost? showing New average cost and Latest landed cost
If you use QuickBooks, MyWorks Sync can bring Stockroom's purchase orders and builds into QuickBooks. Syncing purchase orders needs a paid MyWorks Sync plan.
Check the switch worked
The Setting up your data banner has cleared.
Opening stock costs says every opening unit has a cost.
Receive one small delivery. Shopify's available stock goes up at that location and stays up. If it drops back, Katana is still syncing.
If you use QuickBooks, the delivery arrives once, as the purchase order or bill you chose in MyWorks Sync.
Troubleshooting
Reports or reorder suggestions are blank: Stockroom is still importing. Wait for the banner to clear.
Stock levels change on their own: Katana is still sending stock to Shopify. Turn that off.
A supplier is missing from a purchase order: check the Hidden tab on Suppliers.
You need to change the costing method: once your books have used it, it can still be changed, but only with us. Message support.
Good to know
Turn off Katana's Shopify sync before your first receive in Stockroom. A receive made while Katana is still syncing can be overwritten.
Opening costs are set once. Getting Shopify's costs right before you install is the one step that's hard to fix later.
Imported purchase orders and suppliers never move stock in Shopify. They're a record of what happened in Katana.
Stuck on a Katana export? Message us from the chat in Stockroom and we'll help you map it.