Intelligent routing: Frequently asked questions

For a start, see Intelligent routing, and for the full logic, see the How it works? article.

Setup and decisions

Why are no decisions being made?

Check in order:

Is the system on? If the Status in the top bar says "Off", "Waiting for setup" or "Emergency stopped", no decisions are generated. The Next step on the Summary tab tells you what to do. → Summary
Is there a published rule set? Decisions are only generated for products within the scope of a published rule set. When you publish a rule set, the first decisions arrive within 15 minutes at the latest. → Rule sets
Has sales data arrived? Sales data is prepared hourly; until the first data arrives, the system does not intervene with any product. The Sales data in the bar shows the last update time. If it has not updated for 3 hours, check the status of the "Prepare sales data" job in the Operations tab. → Operations
Are there fast-selling products in scope? The system only looks at products that sell fast on our own channel and have stock on the marketplace. The number of tracked products in the rule sets list fills during the scan after publishing; if it remains 0, expand the scope.
Is "Waiting for approval" empty? If the rule set is "Watch, apply", decisions do not wait for approval, only saved. Check the Latest decisions view in the Decisions tab.

Why do all decisions show as "Balanced"?

"Balanced" means no intervention is needed or information is missing. Open the Why? window for a row: if information is missing, it states what is missing and where to complete it (e.g., Complete profitability information). The most common reason is missing channel profitability or the "All products" purchase rate. When you test the rule set with Try, reasons and the number of affected products are listed under "Not evaluated". → Channel profitability

What does "No priced sales" (price missing) or "Purchase rate not entered" mean?

The system must know the sales price and purchase cost to calculate what remains from a sale on each channel.

"No priced sales on our own site in the last 28 days and no backup product sales price information available" (price missing): you do not enter the sales price; the system uses the average sales price of the last 28 days. If there were no priced sales on our own channel during this period, it uses the product's sales price as backup. Price missing means both are missing (backup price information not available): profit cannot be calculated and the product is not restricted.
"This product has no sales on our own channel in the last 28 days; the product's sales price was used in the calculation": this is not an error. In this case, the same price is used for the marketplace; the profit difference between the two channels comes only from commission, payment, shipping, and return costs. Under the price lines in the Why? window, it says "Source: product's sales price" (for products with sales history, "Source: average of last 28 days").
"No priced sales on this marketplace in the last 28 days; our own site price was used": this is not an error; marketplace profit is calculated with our own channel's price.
"Average purchase rate not entered" (in testing, "Purchase rate not entered"): there is no rate for the product's group or "All products" in the Average purchase rates section of the Channel profitability tab. When you enter the rate, it is used in the next decision round.

Products with missing information are not restricted on the marketplace; they continue to sell normally there.

Which working mode should I start with?

Start with Watch, apply. The system generates decisions but sends nothing to the marketplace; you read the reasons in the Decisions tab. Leave it like this until you see the suggestions are reasonable (we recommend 2 weeks), then switch to Apply with my approval, and when confident, to Apply automatically. → Rule sets

Approval and application

I approved but the quantity did not change on the marketplace.

Application may be running in the background. Approval is saved immediately; writing to the marketplace takes a few minutes, plus the marketplace's stock update processing time. If the decision status is "Approved, applying", wait; you can monitor the "Apply decisions" job in the Operations tab.
Status may be "Could not be applied" or "Not applied". The sentence below the row explains the reason (e.g., a newer decision arrived, the rule set's working mode changed). Details of "Could not be applied" are in the Operations tab.
Channel stock may already be below the limit. The quantity sent to the marketplace is the smaller of the channel stock and the limit; if stock is below the limit, the displayed quantity does not change. The note "This limit was already applied; no change needed" means the same.
Stock sending to the marketplace may be off. If "Send stock to marketplace" is off in Summary › Is the system ready? list, the system cannot change the quantity shown on the marketplace; notify your administrator.

You can see what the marketplace currently shows in the Currently shown column of the Currently restricted products view in Decisions. → Decisions

Why did a suggestion waiting for approval disappear?

The Waiting for approval view only shows suggestions waiting for approval in the last 72 hours. A suggestion is removed from the list but remains visible with its status and reason in the Latest decisions view if:

It was not approved within 72 hours; the time expired.
A newer decision arrived for the same product and marketplace.
You or a teammate approved or rejected it.
The rule set was unpublished or its working mode changed.
The product's restriction was manually removed.
Emergency stop was activated (pending suggestions become "Cancelled").

The system may bring the same suggestion again in the next decision round if needed.

A rejected suggestion came back.

The same suggestion in the same direction for the same product and marketplace does not reappear for 24 hours. Suggestions that reopen or relax limits on the marketplace are not delayed: if expected sales on our own channel do not arrive, the system may suggest reopening the marketplace again. Suggestions in a different direction may appear immediately.

Why can't I approve?

Approval is not possible if Intelligent routing is off or emergency stopped; turn it on first from Summary.
If the Security check on Summary has not run for 15 minutes, approval is blocked for security; notify your administrator.
Suggestions older than 72 hours have expired; the selection box is disabled.
Publishing rule sets is required to approve or reject; if you lack permission, selection boxes are not visible.

How do I remove a product's restriction?

Open the Currently restricted products view in the Decisions tab, press the Remove restriction button on the row (select multiple products with the checkboxes on the left; up to 100 products at once). You must write a brief reason. The product reappears on the marketplace with its full quantity and is not restricted again for 24 hours; it may take several minutes for the change to reflect on the marketplace. Publishing rule set permission is required for this. → Decisions

Security and stopping

What happens when emergency stop is activated?

Decision generation stops; no new decisions arrive.
Suggestions waiting for approval are cancelled.
All limits on the marketplace are removed; marketplaces see normal stock within minutes. You can monitor progress in Summary and Operations tabs.
Your rule sets and past decisions are not deleted.

You are asked to briefly state why you stopped; the note is recorded in the operation history. To restart, use Restart on Summary; removed limits do not return automatically, the system makes new decisions for each product. → Summary

If the system fails, will sales be lost on the marketplace?

No. Each limit is renewed every decision round; if the system stops, limits are not renewed and expire automatically within 45 minutes, so the marketplace sees normal stock. If "Security check" is red in Summary › Is the system ready?, notify your administrator immediately. → How it works?

What happens if the system restricts many products at once in automatic application?

There is a safety limit on the number of new restrictions that can be automatically approved in one round and in the last 24 hours. If the limit is exceeded, automatic approval is paused for 24 hours; during this time, new restrictions appear in Waiting for approval, and reopenings continue. The pause end time is shown on Summary and in the top bar.

Rule sets

Can I restore an archived set?

Yes. In the Rule sets tab, filter to select archived sets, press Restore from archive in the set details and choose a version; you must write a reason. If the set was "Apply with my approval" or "Apply automatically" before archiving, it reopens as Watch, apply for security; use Change working mode to switch to application. If another rule set is published for the same products, the name is used in another set, or the set was archived without publishing, it cannot be restored; the window explains why. → Rule sets

Does something change immediately on the marketplace when publishing a rule set?

No with "Watch, apply". With "Apply with my approval", only approved decisions change, and with "Apply automatically", changes start from the next decision round.

Permissions and views

Why can't I see profitability amounts?

Channel profitability, purchase rates, and profit amounts are commercial information; they are shown only to users with View profitability permission. If you lack permission, the Channel profitability tab shows "You do not have permission to view profitability amounts"; in decisions and testing, amounts appear as Hidden (not zero) and phrases say "more profitable". Changing this requires Edit profitability permission. Ask your administrator.

The "Shown on marketplace" column is not visible in Channel Stocks.

The column appears only if Intelligent routing is installed in your store and you have permission to view Intelligent routing. If the column shows "—", the limit information could not be read at that moment; the rest of the screen continues to work. → Summary

A job in the Operations tab shows "Stuck".

The job has not reported progress for 5 minutes. Press Retry: the system closes the stuck job and starts the same job with a new number. If the new job also gets stuck, notify your administrator with the job number. → Operations