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Receive a parts order

Since 0.5.0.

Do this when a BrickLink order is on its way or has just arrived: bring its lines into Brick Work, count what came out of the bag and put each piece where it belongs.

Open Workbench → Orders.

Import the order

The Import an order page offers three ways in.

  • Import a placed order reads your BrickLink account. It needs a BrickLink key. Press Load placed orders, tick the orders you want and press Import 1 order (or Import 2 orders, and so on). Orders you already imported show Already imported and cannot be ticked.
  • Paste order email: paste the store's whole confirmation email and press Read email. Use this for older orders: BrickLink purges an order's items after a while (the order shows as Purged), and Import a placed order then says BrickLink has purged this order's items · paste the order e-mail instead. Undoing an e-mail import and pasting the same e-mail again brings the document back as a draft, with its lines placed anew.
  • BrickLink XML upload: drop an .xml file (or open Or paste XML) and press Import and review. One order per file.

An order e-mail names colours and items by words, not numbers. Brick Work reads the BrickLink colour name and looks for an item with exactly that name; a name that fits several items (or none) leaves the line for you to match. The match is exact, so some lines wait for you: a seller's condition note written after the name ("… micro scratches", "playwear", "good condition"), and an item BrickLink has renamed since the order ("Flag 2 x 2 Square with Flat Edge …"). With the BrickLink item lists loaded far more lines match: on one real 64-line order, 6 matched without them and 45 with them. For a line no item matches exactly, Brick Work offers Could be candidates from the lists, best first: the longest list name that starts the line's name (a note glued to the end), then names that hold all of the line's words (a renamed item). They are only offered: the prefix can name another part ("Slope, Curved 4 x 1 Inverted" starts with "Slope, Curved 4 x 1"), so you choose, and Brick Work never places such a line itself.

A total always comes with its currency: a document that gives a total without a currency leaves the order without a total. A currency can stand without a total: an e-mail has only line prices in EUR, so its order has the currency and no total, and the line prices show EUR. An order whose document names no currency at all shows Currency not recorded on its line prices. Orders stored by an earlier version get their currency from their document when Brick Work starts.

Importing the same document a second time adds nothing: Brick Work answers Already imported · open the existing order. A document you undid is not counted: import it again and it comes back as a draft in the same order, its lines placed anew (anything you matched by hand before is gone). To add a second document to an order you already have, such as the email after the XML, open Link to an existing order and choose that order.

Review the lines

Each import starts as a draft. On the order's page, under Documents · resume review, open the document.

Brick Work places a line on an item by the BrickLink type, number and colour number the document names, looking in your collection's links and in the catalogue together. A line it could not place stays as the store wrote it, marked Unmatched, and the API's unplaced_reason says why (for example The BrickLink number is not in the catalogue or The name matches several items). This happens when the number or colour is unknown, or when the number names more than one item: Brick Work never picks one of them for you. In that case the line offers Could be with the candidates.

Some items exist only on BrickLink: instruction booklets, and some sticker and printed parts. When the BrickLink item lists are loaded (Tools & Admin → BrickLink item lists → Load lists), Brick Work places such a line on a new item of its own, named as BrickLink names it, both when it reads the order and when you match the line by its number. An e-mail's "(Instructions) for Set 7946" names the set's one booklet (7946-1). Without the lists, these lines stay unmatched, and the review cannot be finished until they are matched.

  1. For any line Brick Work could not place, choose a candidate under Could be, or use Search the catalogue and pick the item, or set Item type and Number to a number that names exactly one item. Choose the Colour for a part, then press Match line.
  2. Press Finish review.
  3. If the order already has saved lines, link each repeated line to its Saved line so it is counted once. Leave New line for an extra purchase.
  4. Press Save lines.

Reopen review takes a reviewed document back to draft.

Count what arrived

  1. Press Count what arrived.
  2. Set the Received number on each line with + and −, or press Mark all received if everything is there.
  3. Press Save partial receipt.

Short lines stay open. Count them again when the rest arrives. Each save is listed under Count audit with an Undo.

Allocate the pieces

  1. Press Review allocation.
  2. Brick Work suggests where each received piece goes: missing parts in your copies first, the rest to Loose stock. Change any number before you confirm.
  3. For loose stock, choose a Location and a Lot if you want. A set line cannot go to loose stock: add the set as a copy in Manage → Add, and hold the line.
  4. Press Confirm allocation.

Reset suggestion puts the suggested numbers back. After confirming, Undo next to Allocated … pieces reverses the whole allocation.

A line you don't want in stock yet can be put on hold: under Allocations and reconcile, press Hold line …. A held line adds nothing to stock until you press Release line ….

Get what's still short

Under Allocations and reconcile, Export short list · BrickLink XML downloads order-short.xml. It lists every saved line with fewer pieces received than ordered, with the shortfall as the wanted quantity, ready to upload to a BrickLink wanted list. A line with no BrickLink number or colour cannot be named there: it is left out and listed in the download's X-Bw-Skipped header.

Close the order

Under Allocations and reconcile, every line where received and allocated differ shows a Fix button. When every document is reviewed, no line is held and every received piece is allocated, press Mark reconciled.

The same view lists the Allocation history, with Undo operation per allocation, and the order's full History.

The order list shows each order's state: Draft, Reviewed, Open, Counting, Allocated, Held or Reconciled.

Export orders as CSV

On Workbench → Orders, under Already imported, open Export orders · CSV.

  1. Optionally set From, To and Store.
  2. Under Rows, choose One per order line or One per order · new and used totals.
  3. Press Download CSV.

The per-order summary lists only orders that have saved lines: an undone order and a draft you never saved are left out. Totals stay per currency. Shipping and fees are not stored separately; the per-order summary shows them as Other costs (grand total minus lines).

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