Website and 1C: how to keep prices and stock in sync
What a two-way connection gives you, and which mistakes to avoid from the start.
A classic situation for a business running an online store alongside 1C, the accounting software: the price on the site is out of date, the stock is wrong, and a customer orders something that’s already sold out. Then a manager calls to apologize. Once is fine. If it happens every day, the customer won’t come back a second time.
Where the problem is
Often the website and 1C live completely separate lives. Someone exports an Excel file from 1C and enters it into the site by hand — once a week, if they remember. The rest of the time the two show different things.
What a connection gives you
- Change a price in 1C, and it changes on the site too.
- Stock updates by itself — a sold-out product shows as “out of stock” on the site.
- Orders from the site land in 1C on their own — no entering them twice.
- Payment status is the same on both sides.
How it works — in plain words
1C gets a special “door” for talking to outside programs (an HTTP service or OData). Through that door, the site keeps asking for prices and stock at set intervals — say, every 5–15 minutes. And when an order comes in, the site sends it to 1C. It’s as if the two sides were writing letters to each other.
Mistakes to avoid
- Not agreeing on which side is “the main one”. If prices get changed both in 1C and on the site, which one is right? The rule is simple: 1C is the source of prices and stock. The site only displays them.
- Matching products by name. Names change; codes don’t. Each product should be linked on both sides by a single code.
- Forgetting about reservations. A product that’s been ordered on the site but not yet delivered is still sitting in the warehouse. You need a reservation so it doesn’t get sold to another customer in the shop.
- Not keeping an eye on errors. If the connection drops for a day, nobody notices — until a customer complains. If syncing stops, you should get an alert right away.
You don’t notice a good integration. It just works, and nobody sits there typing in prices by hand.