What approval creates in Shopify
Each step B2B Desk runs when you approve a wholesale application, what it writes to the Shopify company, location and contact, and when a step is skipped.
When you approve an application, B2B Desk runs up to eight steps in Shopify, in this order. The Approval card on the application shows each one as Done, Not needed, In progress, Failed or Waiting.
| Step | What it writes in Shopify | Skipped when |
|---|---|---|
| Company | Creates the company with one location and its main contact, from the names, phone and addresses in the form | Adding to an existing company |
| Contact | Creates the contact, or makes the existing customer account a contact | Never |
| Payment terms | Sets the location’s payment terms, whether orders arrive as drafts, and whether buyers can edit the shipping address | Adding to an existing company |
| Tax settings | Sets tax exemption, the tax ID and exemptions | Adding to an existing company, or nothing tax-related is set |
| Contact role | Gives the contact Location admin or Ordering only at the location, replacing any other role there | Never |
| Pricing tier | Adds the location to the B2B market you chose, or assigns the catalogs you chose on Plus | Adding to an existing company, or no pricing tier is chosen |
| Application details | Saves the application on the company as metafields | Adding to an existing company |
| Customer tags | Adds your tags to the contact’s customer account | No tags are set |
After the last step, the application becomes Approved. B2B Desk then sends the welcome email (if it’s on) and fires the Wholesale application approved Shopify Flow trigger.
The company’s metafields
The Application details step saves these on the company. You can see them on the company’s page in Customers › Companies.
| Metafield | Value |
|---|---|
| Application | The application’s ID in B2B Desk |
| Approved at | When it was approved |
| Approved by | Who approved it, or the rule that did |
| Tax ID | The tax ID from the application |
| Website | The website from the application |
| Expected monthly volume | The range the applicant picked |
| Application answers | Answers to your custom questions |
Approving into an existing company
When you choose An existing company, B2B Desk adds the applicant as a contact at the location you pick, gives them a role and adds your tags. As the form says, “Its payment terms, tax and pricing stay as they are.” The Approval card shows those fields as “Kept from the existing location”. See Handle duplicates and existing companies.
Built so a retry can’t create duplicates
B2B Desk records each step’s result on the application before starting the next one, so finished steps never run again. It also stores the application’s ID as the company’s external ID in Shopify. If a retry runs after the company was already created, B2B Desk finds that company instead of creating a second one.
Two details that can surprise you:
- If the applicant’s phone number already belongs to another customer in Shopify, the contact is created without it. The location keeps the number.
- If the applicant already has a customer account and you keep Use the existing customer account ticked, their name and email aren’t changed.