Published at: 2026-10-12

Group Edition overview and boundaries

Learn the Group Edition architecture, initialization, and One-Click Transfer business scenario.

Overview

This page describes Group Edition deployment, multi-level ordering, and transfer-an-order-upstream capabilities. The content comes from ShareOrder product materials.

Core concepts

Group Edition uses one tenant for the brand owner. Dealers, resellers, and stores work in Partner Portals. ShareOrder handles ordering. Channel Distribution handles channel merchant operations.

Details

Multi-level ordering handbook

Multi-level ordering architecture

#### System deployment

This solution is 1&N single-tenant deployment. Downstream dealers, resellers, and stores do not need a CRM tenant. They access Partner Portals only.

Business architecture

Multi-level ordering involves the brand owner, dealers (direct channel and channel merchants), and resellers/stores (indirect channel). The brand owner works in the 1-tenant CRM. Dealers, resellers, and stores work in Partner Portals.

Business Process

ShareOrder presets two External Apps: ShareOrder and Channel Distribution. Direct and indirect channels order in ShareOrder. Channel distribution, including accounts, orders, inventory, and channel management, runs in Channel Distribution.

### System initialization

Group Edition initialization

After purchasing ShareOrder Group Edition, ShareOrder management guides industry initialization.

Complete the same step-by-step industry flow as single-level ordering. When it finishes, single-level ordering is initialized.

Prerequisites:

Enable Price Book
Do not purchase SharePartner (multi-level ordering and SharePartner are mutually exclusive)

NOTE: Both Inventory Management modes (Self-management mode and ERP integration) support the Channel Inventory Plugin.

#### Enable the multi-level ordering plugin

After initialization, open system configuration. Select Enable if you need multi-level ordering. The system checks whether Inventory Management is enabled. If it is, multi-level ordering is initialized. Otherwise, a dialog prompts you to initialize inventory.

Initialization content

After multi-level ordering initialization, the Channel Distribution External Apps item is added:

Adds Channel Distribution External Apps, with preset web and Mobile Client page templates
Adds multi-level ordering menu groups in ShareOrder management, including channel center, channel data, and channel settings, plus channel merchant and channel trading relationship objects
Upgrades ShareOrder logic so accounts can choose a supplier and place an order
Presets an indirect-channel page template in ShareOrder. The applicable role is Channel ordering clerk, so direct and indirect channels can be used separately
Presets Channel Distribution navigation templates

NOTE: Channel Distribution is a new External Apps item built on Partner basics. It is the core app for channel merchants. ShareOrder remains the channel ordering app and supports multi-level ordering. When there are multiple merchants, users can choose a merchant and order.

##### Plugin-based in-process trading changes

After multi-level ordering is enabled, both direct accounts and channel accounts create trading relationships. In-process trading management is based on trading relationships. When an order selects an account, it can only select an Associated Account of the current organization. When a channel merchant creates an order, it can only select accounts under its trading relationship. Shipment, Payment, invoicing, contract, quote, and Related Documents work the same way.

Object	Operation	Change	Note
Account object	Create	Creating a direct account prompts the system to create an Organization direct supply trading relationship. Creating a channel account automatically creates a Channel supply trading relationship.
	List	Data is filtered by Data Permission plus trading relationship. Channel data has an independent menu and is isolated from direct data.	Important change
Account, contact	List	Adds a Channel Type Record Type. Channel data has an independent menu and is isolated from direct data.
Order, shipment, Payment, invoicing, refund, return, and more	List	Adds a Channel Type Record Type and Details Page Layout. Channel data has an independent menu and is isolated from direct data.
	Create	When the create page selects an account, it is filtered by trading relationship. Users or internal staff placing an order on behalf of a customer can select only accounts in Organization direct supply. Channel merchants can select only accounts they supply.	Important change
Inventory, inbound order, outbound order, and other inventory objects	List	Adds a Channel Type Record Type and Details Page Layout. Channel data has an independent menu and is isolated from direct data.	Enable the Channel inventory plugin

System configuration flow

In the standard channel merchant flow, after the brand owner enables a merchant account, the channel merchant can operate independently, including creating accounts, saleable scope, Price Books, and promotions, then placing orders and managing inventory.

For a strong-control brand owner, the brand owner configures channel saleable scope, channel pricing, and channel promotions uniformly. Then the channel can create accounts and place orders directly.

### One-Click Transfer

Business Scenario

In multi-level channel distribution, One-Click Transfer and manufacturer-direct shipment are common, for example:

1. Channel partner inventory is concentrated on fast-moving products. When an end customer demand is initiated by the account for a long-tail or nonstandard product, the channel partner purchases from the manufacturer. 2. Because of high warehouse and logistics cost, dealers use on-demand stocking for large equipment. When a lower-level channel or end customer needs goods, they purchase from the manufacturer.

Feature description

Enterprises enable the One-Click Transfer capability. After it is on, SFA in-process four-party capability is used. Sales Order and Shipment Orders get a preset Ship-to party field. Delivery Address, consignee, and Consignee Telephone follow Ship-to party. The order account and ship-to party can differ.

After the switch is on, placing an order on behalf of a customer also supports different account and ship-to party values.

Transfer flow

Two scenarios:

Frozen Inventory: the downstream channel order uses Allocated Inventory. After transfer, the channel partner does virtual inbound and virtual shipment.
No freeze: the downstream channel order does not use Allocated Inventory (for example, no-warehouse Ordering Mode). After transfer, the channel partner only does virtual shipment.

Two closed loops:

Upstream purchase loop based on the downstream order: the manufacturer or Parent Channel ships, the channel partner runs Confirm Receipt, and channel inventory increases.
Original-order sales loop after inbound: the channel partner ships and issues outbound, the ordering customer runs Confirm Receipt, and channel inventory decreases.

#### Transfer settings

In Setup guide > Business Plugins, turn on One-Click Transfer. After it succeeds, the system automatically sends a CRM notification. Admins can select Set field mapping to configure mapped fields.

NOTE: Enabling transfer refreshes Ship-to party on existing Sales Order and Shipment Orders. The system decides whether to enable immediately or at 01:00 the next day based on tenant order volume. After success, the system automatically sends a CRM notification.

Transfer with Frozen Inventory

End customer C places an order with first-level dealer B, creating Sales Order 1. B transfers the order to brand owner A, which creates Sales Order 2. A ships Sales Order 2. B does virtual inbound. B ships Sales Order 1. C runs Confirm Receipt. B runs Confirm Receipt.

End customer C places an order with dealer B

C can use mall mode or create an order directly.

Dealer B transfers the Sales Order to brand owner A in Channel Distribution

When the channel partner has no stock or insufficient stock, transfer the order upstream.

A new tab opens the ShareOrder create-order page, brings in products, quantity, and unit, and re-prices based on the current account.

Notes:

If the original order has gifts, the system merges the same product during transfer.
If the same product has multiple lines with different units, quantities are not merged.

After submit, the system records the source order number and transfer status. The transferred order account is dealer B, and the ship-to party is end customer C.

End customer C can see the transferred order number on the source order.

After brand owner A receives the transferred Sales Order, Create Shipment Order and ship to dealer B

The brand owner approves the order and arranges shipment.

The Shipment Order account and ship-to party match the order: account dealer B, ship-to party end customer C.

Dealer B does virtual inbound and updates channel inventory

The system generates channel inventory for the account on the Shipment Order.

Virtual inbound creates a Channel Type inbound order. The system fills delivery-note details such as product, quantity, and lot (not editable).

After channel inventory is updated, ship the original Sales Order

In the dialog after virtual inbound, select Go to virtual shipment
Create a Shipment Order from ShareOrder order details or the Shipment Order list.

End customer C runs Confirm Receipt on the original order

Dealer B runs Confirm Receipt on the transferred order

After C confirms physical receipt, the dealer Confirm Receipt completes the document flow.

Transfer without Frozen Inventory

In the no-freeze scenario, the downstream channel order does not use Allocated Inventory (set Ordering Mode to no-warehouse ordering). After transfer, the channel partner only does virtual shipment.

Skip virtual inbound. The steps are 1 -> 2 -> 3 -> 5 -> 6 -> 7.

Usage boundary

Applicable scope: ShareOrder Group Edition.
Edition check: Confirm the tenant edition and enabled capabilities first.
Permission: Entries are controlled by role and Data Permission.