Getting Started: Onboarding Playbook

Welcome to RoasterTools! This playbook walks you through everything you need to get your account set up and running. Each roastery has different processes and needs, so use this as your roadmap — work through each phase and reach out to support@roastertools.com whenever you need a hand.

Before you begin

A few things to know before diving in:

• This playbook is organized into 5 phases. Each phase builds on the last, so we recommend working through them in order.
• Some steps are optional — we'll call those out clearly so you can skip what doesn't apply to your roastery.
• Test Mode is your friend. You can enable Test Mode to use the Wholesale Portal without sending real emails to customers. Learn how to set up Test Mode.

Phase 1: Account setup and integrations

Start by getting your account configured and your key integrations connected. Connecting integrations early means you can map products and customers as you enter them, which saves time later.

Account settings

1. Add your logo — make it yours!
2. Set up your delivery methods (shipping, local delivery, pickup, etc.).
3. Review other tabs in Your Name > Settings (company costs, etc.) and update as needed.
4. Enable the Wholesale Portal. You'll create a subdomain like {myroasteryname}.roastertools.com  
5. Invite team members to join your account.
6. Review your notification settings. Go to Your Name > Profile > Notifications and make sure you're getting notified for the things that matter to your role (new orders, failed payments, etc.).

Connect integrations

Integrations are a key part of how RoasterTools increases your roastery's efficiency and reduces double entry. The sooner you connect them, the better.

Accounting

1. Connect to your accounting platform:
   • QuickBooks Online or Xero
   • QuickBooks Desktop
2. Update your accounting sync and export settings — choose how invoice numbers sync, how commerce orders are imported, transaction dates, and more.

Commerce

1. Connect to your commerce/eCommerce platform (Shopify, BigCommerce, etc.).

ShipStation (Optional - only if you're exporting wholesale order for shipping)

1. Connect ShipStation to RoasterTools.
2. Set up your RoasterTools store in ShipStation.

RoasterPay

1. Submit your RoasterPay application. Approval can take a few days, so it's best to get this started early.

Phase 2: Products, customers, and data

Now that your account and integrations are set up, it's time to enter your product and customer data. This is the biggest phase — take your time and make sure everything looks right before moving on.

Import customers from your accounting platform

If you connected to your accounting platform in Phase 1, start by importing your existing customers into RoasterTools. Doing this first means your customers will already be in the system when you start setting up products - that way you can set products as exclusive when you create them.

1. Follow the steps in Accounting: Importing Customers from your Accounting Platform.
2. After importing, review and clean up your customer data — pay special attention to billing and shipping addresses, which often need corrections.
3. Review and update your contact data as well (email addresses are required for portal access).

Product data

Coffee products

A coffee product in RoasterTools is a packaged product available for sale. Before you can create coffee products, you'll need to create the component and ingredient data first.

Step 1: Create component data

• Set up Bags — remember, bag weight is the filled weight (a 12oz bag = 0.75lb, a 2lb bag = 2lb).
• Set up Grinds.

Step 2: Create ingredient data

• Create your Green Coffees — you can import from a CSV if you use roast profiling software.
• Create Pre-Blends (coffees blended before roasting).
• Create Roasts (batch size and % weight loss details).
• Create Blends (post-roast blends).

Step 3: Create your coffee products

• Create your coffee products using the ingredients and components you just set up.
  • When creating the coffee products, you can apply exclusivity to customers
  • Also, you should map all variants to your accounting platform as you create them.  

Non-coffee products

Enter all products you sell wholesale or on your commerce site - RoasterTools helps process and fulfill all orders. You can also use the spreadsheet template above to organize this data.

1. Create option sets first.
2. Then create your non-coffee products.

Unique product setups

Some products need special setup. Review the list below and follow the guides for any that apply to your roastery:

• Do you sell cases? RoasterTools gives you two ways to set up cases — as a bag-level variant or as a bundle product. Each displays differently on the portal and in operations.

  See Cases: Setup Options and How They Work to decide which method is right for you.

  You can also review the Complete Guide to Bundle Products.

• Do you sell subscriptions on your commerce page? Here's how to set them up to map to your commerce items.
• Do you produce cold brew in bulk or Co packed Products ? Follow the Bulk Production Process: Cold Brew or Co-Packed Products guide.

Customer and contact details

A quick note on terminology: a customer is the business. A contact is the individual person assigned to that customer. Customers stay constant while contacts may change. You can assign more than one contact to the same customer.

Set up customer details

After your customers are imported or created, update these key settings for each customer.  It is most efficient to do this via the customer CSV:

• Payment terms (Net 30, Due on Receipt, Prepay, etc.)
• Payment method preferences (credit card, ACH, requiring payment methods on file, etc.)
• Preferred delivery method
• Production day assignment (optional)

Set up order reminders

RoasterTools can automatically send order reminder emails to your customers. This is a great way to prompt customers to place their weekly orders. Set this up now so it's ready when you go live with the portal. See How to Enable Customers to Receive Order Reminder Emails.

Add contacts

If you didn't import contacts from your accounting integration:

1. Create contacts and assign them to customer accounts. You can create them one by one or in bulk via CSV import.

Map your integrations

Now that your integrations are connected and your product and customer data is entered, it's time to map everything so data flows correctly between your systems.

Accounting mapping

1. Hopefully you mapped your products (variants) to your accounting platform as you set them up.  If not, review the help doc below for how to map them, there are two options.
2. Map your customers to your accounting platform.

Commerce mapping

1. Map your products to your eCommerce platform.
2. Keep an eye on the Commerce orders page for orders that aren't importable — this usually means a product needs to be created or mapped.

Create a test customer

Set up a test customer so you can preview what the portal looks like and test the full order flow.

1. Make sure the portal is turned on.
2. Create a test customer and add yourself as a contact.
3. Walk through the email invitation sequence so you know what your customers will see.

Phase 3: Customization (optional)

All customizations in this phase are optional. You can skip ahead to Phase 4 if you're ready to go live with Operations. You can always come back and set these up later.

RoasterTools lets you set up automations for pricing, discounts, product exclusivity, and more. You can also customize the Wholesale Portal so each customer sees the right products at the right price.

Pricing and discounts

• Customer Groups — group customers together to apply the same discounts or exclusivity settings to everyone in that group.
• Automatic Discounts — set up free delivery discounts, percentage-off discounts, set prices, time-bound promotions, and more.
• Price Levels — create different pricing tiers for different customers (*available on some plans and by request).

Product display and exclusivity

• Product Groups — organize how products display on the portal. Groups can be exclusive and you can choose whether they appear on the portal.
• Bag and Grind Exclusivity — control which bags and grinds are available to specific customers or on the portal.
• Exclusive Products — limit certain products so only select customers can view or order them.
• Catalogs — limit the products a customer can view on the Wholesale Portal.

Payment settings

Review and configure your global payment settings and per-customer payment preferences:

• Set payment terms per customer — especially for customers who should be on Prepay terms.
• For Prepay customers, ensure they have a payment method required on file so they're charged automatically when placing an order.

Tax setup

If you collect tax on wholesale customers, set this up before going live with orders.

1. Contact support@roastertools.com to enable tax setup mode on your account.
2. Review how tax calculation works in RoasterTools.

Begin the setup process for tax: Review How to Setup Tax

1. Assign tax status to your customers (taxable vs. tax-exempt)
2. Assign product tax codes to your products.
3. Set your tax registrations (the states where you collect tax).
4. When you're ready to make tax calculations live, reach out to support@roastertools.com to enable tax collection

Phase 4: Using Operations

Here is your checklist to review before beginning to manage production through RoasterTools

Pre-go-live checklist

Not all of these will apply to your roastery — take what you need.

Verify ingredient and product data

• Confirm all ingredient data is current (greens, roasts, blends).
• Have any new green coffees been added recently? If so, do any roasts need updating?
• Do any blend components need to be updated?
• Verify bag weights are correct — this is critical for accurate demand calculations.

Complete inventory counts (This is IMPORTANT to do!)

• Enter inventory for non-coffee items — see this video for instructions.
• Create initial green coffee inventory counts. Timing matters: do this after your team completes the production day, or right before you begin using RoasterTools for production. See the green inventory help doc.

Review new items and updates

• Any new or seasonal products to add?
• Any new customers to add?
• Update promotions and discounts if needed.

Verify connections

• Turn on Auto Import in your commerce connection (timing: usually the day before you begin processing orders in RoasterTools).
• Skip any old commerce orders that weren't imported. Use this link to see all importable orders: https://app.roastertools.com/commerce/orders?items=1000
• Confirm customers are mapped to your accounting platform.
• Confirm products are mapped to your accounting platform.
• Confirm products are mapped to your commerce platform.
• Update subscription mappings as needed.

Final settings

• Update any remaining account settings (bag costs, label costs, company costs, etc.).
• Review your notification settings — go to Your Name > Profile > Notifications and make sure you're getting alerts for new orders, failed payments, and anything else relevant to your daily workflow.

You're ready to go live with Operations!

Phase 5: Wholesale Portal, payments, and billing

Let's get customers ordering in the portal and streamline your payment processing.

Review portal display

Before inviting customers, preview what they'll see:

1. Add yourself as a contact to a customer and preview their portal.
2. Verify the right products are showing at the right prices.
3. Check that exclusive products and catalogs are working correctly (if applicable).

Customize the portal view (optional)

There are many ways to customize how products are displayed on the portal:

• Arrange and sort products on the portal.
• Arrange and sort bags and grinds for the portal display.
• Organize product categories/groups on the portal.
• Use the portal banner to share important announcements or information with portal customers.

Invite customers to the portal

1. If you are in test mode -> turn this off (that prevents any emails from going to customers)
2. Begin inviting customer contacts to the portal.
3. Share Portal Video Guides with your customers so they can see how to place orders and manage their billing info.

Payments and billing

1. The customer billing portal is NOT on by default. You need to have RoasterPay enabled as your default payment processor to use this feature.  If you'd like it turned on, reach out to support@roastertools.com.
2. Ensure payment settings are correct for each customer - especially:
   1. Prepay - customers who will be charged at checkout
   2. Required payment methods turned on for those who need payment methods on file.
3. You can start processing and syncing payments once you have payment methods on file.
4. Review how to record payouts.

Tips & FAQs

Q: What order should I set things up in?

A: Follow the phases in order. Connect integrations first (Phase 1), then enter products and customers (Phase 2), customize as needed (Phase 3), go live with Operations (Phase 4), and finally open the portal and payments (Phase 5). This sequence is designed to catch issues early.

Q: Can I use RoasterTools in Test Mode during setup?

A: Yes! Test Mode prevents emails from being sent to customers while you're setting things up. It's especially useful during Phases 1–4. Just remember to turn it off before you start inviting real customers in Phase 5.

Q: I connected my accounting platform but I don't see my customers yet.

A: for QBO and Xero - The initial sync is usually quick, but can take up to a few hours depending on the size of your customer list. Check back after a bit. If they still don't appear, reach out to support.

For QBD - they initial sync can take days. Give it some time but reach out if it isn't working and we can check on the status.

Q: Should I import all my customers from accounting?

A: No. Use the filters in the import tool to bring in only active, recently-ordering customers first. You can always import additional customers later. Starting with a manageable list makes the review process much easier.

Q: How do I know if my integrations are mapped correctly?

A: The best test is to create a test order, sync it to accounting, and verify everything looks right. Check that the customer, products, pricing, and tax all came through correctly. Then cancel the test order and clean up the data.

Q: What if I need help during setup?

A: Reach out anytime at support@roastertools.com. We're here to help!