Distributor connections

A distributor connection links Outpost to a distributor’s own systems. Orders you approve can be submitted to the distributor, and its order status, tracking, serial numbers, backorders, and bills come back without anyone re-typing them. Pax8 and StreamOne connections bring in subscriptions. This page covers what each connection does, how to set one up, and the safeguards on live ordering.

Caution

These are the first release of each distributor integration. Test each connection, and submit a small order with someone watching the distributor’s own portal, before you rely on it for routine ordering.

What each connection does

Connection	Orders	Status, tracking, and serials	Bills	Catalog	Vendor webhook
Ingram Micro	Submitted	Pulled every 15 minutes	Pulled every 6 hours	Daily	Yes
TD SYNNEX (Digital Bridge)	Submitted	Pulled every 15 minutes	Pulled every 6 hours	Daily	Yes
CDW	Built in PunchOut, then submitted	Pushed by CDW	Entered by hand	None	Yes
Pax8	Subscription orders	Subscriptions daily	Pulled every 6 hours	None	Yes
StreamOne (TD SYNNEX StreamOne Ion)	Subscription orders	Subscriptions daily	From a billing report	None	No

For Pax8 and StreamOne subscriptions, see Subscriptions and reconciliation.

Before you begin

• Managing connections needs integrations:admin. People with procurement:read can see them.
• Turning on live ordering needs a second factor on your account: a passkey or an authenticator app. See Secure your console account.
• Get API access from the distributor, and store it in the vault as a credential. The credential’s Username holds the client ID or account ID, and its secret holds the client secret, shared secret, or token. See Credentials vault.

Add a connection

1. Select Settings > Integrations > Distributors, then Add connection.
2. Choose the Vendor, and enter a Name, such as Ingram main account.
3. In Credential, choose the vault credential. Outpost opens it only when it calls the vendor, and records its use in the audit log once a day.
4. Under Vendor settings, select Add a setting for each value the vendor needs, listed under each vendor below. Settings are account values, never a password.
5. Leave Enabled (sync catalog, order status and invoices) selected.
6. Select Add connection.
7. Open the connection and select Test connection.

Live ordering is off on a new connection. A connection’s bills need a supplier to be from, so Outpost links one: a supplier already named after the vendor, or a new one. The connection page shows it under Bills from. To order through the connection, the supplier’s Distributor connection names it. See Purchase orders.

Turn on live ordering

Live ordering is what lets an approved purchase order be submitted as a real order. Three safeguards stand between a purchase order and the distributor:

1. Live ordering is off per connection until an administrator turns it on.
2. Each submission needs an explicit confirmation of the expected total, by someone with procurement:approve. If the total changes after they open the dialog, the submission is refused.
3. An order is never placed twice. Before submitting, Outpost asks the distributor whether it already has an order with the purchase order’s number, and records that order instead of placing another.

To turn it on:

1. Open the connection, and in the Danger zone card select Turn live ordering on.
2. Confirm it is you with a passkey, an authenticator code, or a recovery code. See Confirm it is you.

The card shows who turned it on and when. Turn live ordering off needs no second factor, so anyone who manages the connection can stop ordering at once. API keys and Pioneer AI can never turn live ordering on.

Live ordering gates every connection. On Ingram Micro, TD SYNNEX, and CDW it gates purchase order submissions. On Pax8 and StreamOne it gates subscription changes, which also need their own confirmation. See Subscriptions and reconciliation.

What submitting does

When someone selects Place the order on a purchase order, the order is queued, and Outpost submits it within a minute:

• The distributor’s order carries your purchase order number, the ship-to address of the stock location, or of the client’s site on a drop ship, and each line’s supplier SKU or manufacturer part number.
• The purchase_order.submitted webhook event is sent when the order is submitted, and purchase_order.accepted when the distributor accepts it.
• The purchase order’s Submission shows Accepted by distributor with the distributor’s order number, or Rejected by distributor or Submission failed with the reason. A refused or failed submission returns the order to Approved. A temporary error is retried, up to 5 attempts.
• From then on, status syncs record shipments with their carrier, tracking, and serial numbers, mark backordered lines, and cancel lines the distributor canceled. Reported serial numbers are filled in on the receive page. A purchase order whose every line the distributor canceled is canceled.

Each stock location you order into needs a ship-to address. See Inventory.

Sync and status

Outpost syncs each enabled connection on its own schedule. Under Sync, Last sync by kind shows Catalog, Order status, Invoices, and, for Pax8 and StreamOne, Subscriptions. Select Sync now to queue one pass of that kind at once.

Last error says what went wrong on the last call, such as The vendor refused the credential. or The connection settings are wrong or incomplete. The Distributors list shows each connection’s Live ordering, Last sync, and Last error.

Bills pulled from a distributor arrive as supplier bills and are matched at once. See Supplier bills.

Set up the vendor webhook

A webhook lets the distributor tell Outpost the moment an order or subscription changes, instead of waiting for the next sync.

1. Open the connection and select Set up webhook.
2. Confirm. Outpost shows the Webhook URL and Signing secret once.
3. Copy both into the distributor’s webhook settings, as described for each vendor below, then select I have copied it.

Rotate webhook makes a new URL and secret. The old ones stop working right away, so update the distributor at the same time. Outpost never trusts what a webhook says. It treats each one as a hint and fetches the change from the distributor itself.

Ingram Micro

Item	Value
Credential	Username: the Ingram Micro API client ID. Secret: its client secret.
customerNumber	Your Ingram Micro customer number. Required.
countryCode	Your Ingram Micro country, two letters. US when not set.
senderId	Optional. The sender ID Ingram Micro gave you.
Webhook	Enter the URL and secret in Ingram Micro’s webhook settings. Ingram Micro signs each call with the secret.

TD SYNNEX

The TD SYNNEX connection is TD SYNNEX Digital Bridge, for hardware.

Item	Value
Credential	Username: the Digital Bridge client ID. Secret: its client secret.
accountNumber	Your TD SYNNEX account number.
region	Your TD SYNNEX region. US when not set.
Webhook	Enter the URL and secret in Digital Bridge’s webhook settings. Each call is signed with a timestamp, and calls more than 5 minutes old are refused.

CDW

CDW connects through cXML. You build the cart on CDW’s own site with PunchOut, and the cart comes back to Outpost as a draft purchase order.

Item	Value
Credential	Secret: the cXML shared secret CDW issued.
fromIdentity	The buyer identity CDW issued you. Required.
fromDomain, toDomain, toIdentity	The credential domains and CDW’s identity, if CDW gave you values other than NetworkID, DUNS, and CDW.
deploymentMode	production, or test for CDW’s test environment.
billToAddressId	Optional. CDW’s bill-to address ID for your account.
Webhook	Give CDW the URL as the address for order confirmations and ship notices, and the secret as the shared secret CDW sends with them.

CDW does not offer an order lookup, catalog, or invoice download through cXML:

• Order status arrives only by CDW’s push, so set up the webhook.
• Enter CDW’s bills by hand. See Supplier bills.
• A resubmitted order carries the same cXML identifiers, so CDW recognizes it as the same order.

Build an order in PunchOut

1. On a new purchase order, find the Find at distributors panel.
2. Select Shop at followed by the CDW connection’s name. CDW’s store opens in a new tab.
3. Build the cart and check out there.

The cart comes back as a draft purchase order, marked Built in the distributor’s PunchOut catalog., and opens in the console. Review, approve, and submit it like any other. Starting PunchOut needs procurement:write.

Pax8

Item	Value
Credential	Username: the Pax8 API client ID. Secret: its client secret.
Settings	None.
Webhook	In Pax8’s webhook settings, enter the URL, and the secret as the authorization value. Pax8 does not sign webhooks, so Outpost compares that value.

Map each Pax8 company to its client on the connection’s Company map before subscriptions are billed. See Subscriptions and reconciliation.

StreamOne

The StreamOne connection is TD SYNNEX StreamOne Ion, for subscriptions.

Item	Value
Credential	Username: your StreamOne Ion account ID. Secret: a refresh token from StreamOne Ion.
accountId	Optional. The account ID, when it is not the credential’s Username.
billingReportId	The StreamOne Ion billing report that bills are read from. Without it, no bills are pulled.
Webhook	StreamOne Ion has none. Subscriptions sync daily, and Sync now syncs at once.

A StreamOne Ion refresh token works once. Each time Outpost uses it, StreamOne issues a new one, and Outpost saves it into the vault credential. Do not use the same token anywhere else, or the connection stops working.

Find and compare at distributors

• Find at distributors, on a purchase order you are writing, searches the catalogs synced from your connections by SKU, manufacturer part number, UPC, or description. Add puts a result on the order as a line with the distributor’s SKU and cost. Costs and stock are as of the last catalog sync. See Purchase orders.
• Compare prices, on a stock item, asks every enabled distributor connection at once for its live cost and availability, using the item’s part number, UPC, and supplier SKUs. The cheapest answer is marked Lowest, and a distributor that does not answer in time is named. It needs procurement:read, and the item needs a part number, UPC, or supplier SKU to ask about. Live checks are rate limited, so wait a minute if Outpost says there were too many.

Delete a connection

Select Delete connection in the Danger zone. Deleting removes the connection and its synced catalog. It is refused while suppliers, orders, or subscriptions still use it. Turn the connection off instead.

Verify

• Test connection succeeds, and Last error shows None.
• After Sync now for Order status, Last run shows the time.

Next steps

• Purchase orders
• Subscriptions and reconciliation