I have just finished a rather heated and lengthy conversation with Klaas Schippers (klaas.schippers@linnsystems.com) at Linnworks.  The conversation came about because in October of this year I noticed that some UK FBA orders where missing from Linnworks, I noticed because a customer contacted me for a copy invoice, which we generate from Linnworks.

I opened a ticket with Linnworks staff giving some examples of orders known to be missing from Linnworks.  The response from Linnworks was pretty typical not answering the question as presented and not providing resolution to the problem; 

"I am afraid that would not be possible. When it comes to FBA orders, or orders in general, Linnworks downloads the currently open orders. As for the FBA Linnworks does not control those orders either but simply displays in the system what has been sent from FBA themselves to it. These orders also get processed by FBA and so on. What you could do in order to obtain the missing information for your previous FBA orders is that you could contact your FBA and ask them to provide with the invoices for those customers, as I am sure that they should be storing the information on their end since they are the ones dealing with the orders in the first place."

At this point panic has set in for us internally, since we output a spreadsheet like other Linnworks users which we then pass onto our accountant to produce our VAT returns with HMRC.  In short this means that our past filings to HMRC are incorrect and the severity of the problem is unknown, since we do not know which orders are missing from the Linnworks system.

I bring this to everyones attention for because you like us might be relying on this information to prepare your accounts.  Furthermore you may well have paid an external developer to export and import this data into Xero, Sage or Quickbooks.  Well if you have then you have just wasted a load of money like us, because the data in Linnworks YOUR "Order Management" tool IS WRONG, VERY, VERY WRONG.

Klaas Schippers (klaas.schippers@linnsystems.com) at Linnworks does not see this to be a problem for concern, moreover it seems that Linnworks ARE fully aware of the problem and it is NOT ISOLATED, all customers have the same problem.  This is buried nicely in their documentation, more specifically here: https://www.linnworks.com/support/settings/channel-integration/channels/amazon-channel-integration/fba/fba-orders#missingOrder.  Of course if you have read every single page in the Linnworks documentation, you would know this (that is a joke in itself).

Is it acceptable to publish 90 or 80% of your orders to HMRC or the IRS? No!
Is it fair to say that you would NOT have signed up for Linnworks and Trusted in Linn Systems if you knew this? Fair!

Klaus clearly stated to me that he personally has know about this problem since starting his Role with Linn Systems, which according to LinkedIN was in 2016 (https://www.linkedin.com/in/klaas-schippers-34b8aa93).  Yet the Linnworks Development team have found it more pressing to develop pluggins for Etsy so their massive sellers of hand made Tea Cosies and Egg Cups can make their first fifty quid from their One Hundred and Fifty Pound a month "Order Management" software.... Unbelievable.

In closing Klaus made a personal offer to query my Amazon FBA  orders from when we started using Linnworks to highlight which orders are missing.  I suggest you contact him directly to request the same.... because your financials are wrong.

Klaas Schippers
Customer Experience Manager

klaas.schippers@linnsystems.com

+44 20 3651 7045

Or maybe even their CEO;

Fedor Dzjuba
CEO
fedor.dzjuba@linnsystems.com

It comes down to poor documentation and screen prompts.  Do you think ANY user would want to have missing data?  Have you informed your Linn Works User base of this potential flaw that might effect their reporting?  Do you think you would gain any customers if you made this clear on a demo?

Your flippant comments are in reference to an issue I logged with you MONTHS AGO, where not addressed correctly in the first instance and are costing my company thousands of pounds to address and reconcile.

The fact remains that if you are a seller that sells on multiple Amazon channels and hold stock in ANY of these locations then YOU MUST ENABLE the FBA option for ALL of those channels, not just the one that holds the stock.  The link you have provided does not come close to addressing the issue, which you are clearly out of touch with.

I would suggest that you keep your 1990's style IT help desk responses of defence to yourself and work on formulating a positive approach to documentation and informing your customer base.

Hello everyone,

We have recently released a XERO API integration with the Linnworks platform, which we have had success with recently.

Ebusiness Guru for XERO is an accounting integration for Linnworks which posts Linnworks sales as sales invoices into the XERO Accounting System. Generate invoices in the correct currencies, either per order or as a combined sales orders summary from your sales channel, grouped by payment methods and originating channel, so you can manage your disbursements easily, and always be only a day behind Linnworks in Xero. It even breaks down payments received by Sales Tax rate!

Watch how it works by clicking here 

If you have any further queries, you can contact me at adrian@ebusinessguru.co.uk or email apps@ebusinessguru.co.uk

Best regards,

Adrian.

eBusiness Guru

Karen, I am glad to share that SyncTools.io provides multichannel ecommerce account for all Linnworks users.

SyncTools has ability to sync Sales, Purchase, Refund with various accounting software like QuickBooks Online, Xero, Zoho Books and many more..

In case you need any further assistance, then reach out to us at support@synctools.io

or wish to install our app, click here

Regards,

Chintan