How do Sales Channels work in Luminous, and how do I set one up?

What Is a Channel?

In Luminous, a Channel is a named connection between your Luminous account and an external platform (such as Shopify, TrackStar, ShipStation, Amazon, WooCommerce, HubSpot, or others). Channels control how orders flow in from a selling platform, how fulfillment orders flow out to a warehouse or 3PL, and how inventory quantities are pushed back to the source.

Channel Types

When you create a channel you choose one of three types:

Type	What it does
Sales Channel	Pulls sales orders into Luminous from an external marketplace or OMS. Triggers fulfillment order creation and optional invoice creation.
Fulfillment Channel	Pushes fulfillment orders out to a 3PL, WMS, or warehouse integration. Receives shipment confirmations back.
End to End Channel	Combines both Sales and Fulfillment in a single channel configuration.

How the Order Flow Works

A customer places an order on your connected platform (e.g. Shopify).
Luminous pulls the order through the Sales Channel and creates a Sales Order.
Luminous automatically generates one or more Fulfillment Orders based on your Smart Fulfillment settings (stock availability, warehouse group priority, and any channel-level overrides).
The Fulfillment Order is pushed to the Fulfillment Channel (your 3PL/WMS) after the configured delay or wave schedule.
When the 3PL ships the order, tracking and shipment details can be pushed back to the original order source automatically.
If invoice auto-creation is on, an invoice is generated at the timing you configured (on order receipt, on shipment, etc.).

Setting Up a Channel

Step 1 — Navigate to Channels

Go to Manage → Channels in the main navigation. Click Create (or click an existing channel and choose Edit to update it).

Step 2 — Basic Information

Channel Type — Choose Sales Channel, Fulfillment Channel, or End to End Channel.
Channel Label — A short, descriptive name (e.g. "Shopify US Store").
Description — Optional free-text notes.
Tags — Optional tags for filtering the channels list.
Warehouse Group (Fulfillment and End to End Channels only) — The warehouse group this channel fulfills from.
Default CRM Company (Sales Channels only) — Pin every order from this channel to a specific CRM company. Useful for B2B/EDI retailers where orders don't carry a consistent email or company name.
Is Internal Sales Channel (Sales Channels only) — Check this for point-of-sale or manual-entry channels.
Is Customer Specific (Sales Channels only) — Check this for channels used to map a single customer's SKUs; these channels are hidden from the default list.

Tip: On new channels you can use the Prepopulate from channel picker to copy settings from an existing channel as a starting point.

Step 3 — Order Source (Sales Channels only)

This section controls how orders come into Luminous.

PULL Sales Orders toggle — Enable this to have Luminous poll the integration for new orders.
Pull Orders From — Select the App Integration Account (your connected platform credential) to pull from.
OMS Store — If the integration supports multiple stores, select the specific store.
Additional options when pulling is enabled:
- Automatically Push Fulfillment Updates to Order Source — Send tracking and shipment status back to the originating platform.
- Save contact to CRM from orders — Auto-create or update a CRM company record for each incoming order.
- Filter Incoming Orders — Define one or more filters so only matching orders are assigned to this channel.
- Order Currency — Set if incoming orders arrive in a non-base currency; Luminous will convert amounts for reporting.
- Put orders on hold if payment hasn't been fully captured (Shopify only).
- Incoming Custom Field Mapping — Map fields from the source platform to Luminous order fields.

Step 4 — Settings (Sales Channels only)

Create Invoice Automatically — When toggled on, Luminous creates an invoice for each order. You must also select:
- Invoice Type
- Invoice Creation Timing: When Sales Order is received/created, When a Shipment is created (multiple invoices possible), When Fulfillment Order is created, or When first Shipment is created invoice the full order amount.
- Invoice Creation Delay — Optional minutes to wait after the trigger before creating the invoice.
- Default Revenue Account — Overrides the global default revenue account for invoices from this channel.
- QuickBooks Integration — Toggle auto-push to QBO and select when invoices are pushed (when marked active, when marked paid, or when order is shipped).
Shipment cost on attached invoices — Choose whether to always include, never include, or follow the global setting.
Auto-sync EDI (if enabled) — Automatically send an EDI 810 when an invoice is created.
Auto-send EDI 855 (for EDI order sources) — Automatically send a purchase order acknowledgement when an EDI order is posted.

Step 5 — Order Destination (Fulfillment Channels only)

This section controls where fulfillment orders are pushed.

Push Orders to Integration toggle — Enable to push fulfillment orders to the destination.
Push Orders To — Select the App Integration Account (your 3PL/WMS credential).
OMS Store — If required, select the specific destination store.
Mapping Type:
- Basic Mapping — Use the standard field configuration.
- Advanced Mapping — Select a pre-built Integration Mapping for custom field transformation.
Default Push Order Shipping Method — Select the default shipping method to send to the destination.

Step 6 — Auto Push Settings (Fulfillment Channels only)

Controls when fulfillment orders are automatically pushed to the destination after they are created.

Immediate — Push after a configurable number of minutes (e.g. 15 minutes after creation).
Wave — Batch push on a schedule with a daily cap and a processing priority (Urgent first, Preorder last, or Immediate guaranteed).
Pick-n-pack — Push only when a picklist reaches a selected status (Created, Picking, Picked, Packed, or Deleted).
Off — Disable auto-push; orders must be pushed manually.

Step 7 — Push Inventory Stocks and Unit Price

Controls inventory quantity and cost synchronization back to the connected platform.

Push Stock to Integration — Push available inventory quantities on a schedule.
- Include Incoming Stocks as Sellable — Count in-transit stock when calculating sellable quantity.
- Push Incoming Stocks from Supplier Purchase Orders — Include stock expected from open POs.
- Advanced configuration — Customize the sellable quantity formula by choosing which stock fields (On Hand, Pending, Planned FO, Incoming, etc.) are added or deducted.
Push Costs to Integration — Push unit cost or landed cost values (available for Sales and End to End channels).
Push To Integration Account / Inventory Location — Choose which connected account and inventory location receives the stock updates.
Warehouse Group (Sales Channels only) — The warehouse group whose stock is published to the channel.

Step 8 — Auto Fulfillment (Sales Channels only)

These per-channel overrides apply when Luminous auto-generates fulfillment orders for orders from this channel:

Always Create Fulfillment Orders — Override the global rule: Default, Enabled (create even when stock is insufficient), or Disabled.
Always Create Fulfillment Orders for Future Ship Dates — Same override for orders with a future estimated ship date.
Combine Identical SKU Line Items — Merge fulfillment order lines that share the same SKU, lot, and UOM.
Split auto-created fulfillment orders by — Optionally split fulfillment orders by Estimated Ship Date so each ship date gets its own fulfillment order.
Enable Channel Override for Auto-Generation Trigger — Use a channel-specific trigger (immediate, after a delay, or at a daily scheduled time) instead of the global smart fulfillment setting.

Step 9 — Save

Click Save in the page header. Once saved, you can navigate to the channel's Product Mapping tab to link your Luminous SKUs to any external SKU identifiers used by the connected platform.

Quick Reference: Which Sections Appear by Channel Type

Section	Sales Channel	Fulfillment Channel	End to End Channel
Basic Information	✓	✓	✓
Settings (Invoices, EDI)	✓	—	✓
Order Source (Pull Orders)	✓	—	✓
Order Destination (Push Orders)	—	✓	✓
Auto Push Settings	—	✓	✓
Push Inventory Stocks	✓	—	✓
Auto Fulfillment	✓	—	✓