The stock import fills Katana with the inventory levels you currently have in Shopify. It creates a Stock Adjustment in Katana that adds the imported quantities — once at each mapped location.
This is usually a one-time setup step, as re-running it will double your stock. The button is intentionally disabled while sync is active.
Prerequisites
Before you can run a stock import, you must have:
All Shopify locations mapped to Katana locations on the Inventory tab.
Product import performed at least once (the stock import uses the SKU mapping created there).
Inactive sync — pause sync if needed.
No product import or inventory sync is currently running.
How to run it
Open the Shopify configuration page.
Select the Inventory tab and scroll to Inventory import from Shopify.
Choose how the cost per unit for the Stock Adjustment should be calculated:
Use Shopify "Cost per item" — pulls the cost from each Shopify variant. Variants without a cost-per-item value get 0.
Use % of Shopify sales price — pick a percentage (e.g. 80%). Useful when you don't track cost per item in Shopify but you do want a reasonable inventory value seeded.
Click Start the import.
A yellow progress banner appears while the import runs. When it finishes, a "completed" note will appear in the Inventory tab, and a new stock adjustment will appear in the Stock screen (one per mapped location).
What is imported
For each mapped Shopify location, Katana fetches the Shopify Available inventory (On hand − Committed) for every variant in the SKU mapping. The values are:
Summed up across Shopify locations that share the same Katana location. If "Online Shop" and "POS" both map to "Main warehouse," their stock is added together.
Skipped if zero, unless there's an open Shopify order row for that variant/location pairing.
Linked by Shopify inventory item ID, so variants without SKUs still import correctly as long as the product import created the mapping.
The result: Katana's "In stock" for each mapped location matches Shopify's Available, plus any pre-existing open orders' commitments.
How stock levels are calculated
Shopify and Katana handle stock differently:
Shopify decreases inventory immediately when a sales order (SO) is created.
Katana decreases inventory only when an SO is Packed or Delivered. Until then, quantities are tracked under Committed.
Because of this, Katana calculates imported stock as:
In stock (Katana) = Inventory quantity (Shopify) + Inventory on open SOs (Shopify)
Example
Shopify shows 7 pcs of Product A.
There’s an open order for 3 pcs.
After import, Katana shows:
In stock = 10 pcs
Committed = 3 pcs
If there are no open SOs, Shopify’s inventory matches Katana’s In stock value.
Cost on the stock adjustment
The cost-per-unit values you choose are written to the stock adjustment so Katana's inventory value reflects realistic numbers from day one. You can edit the stock adjustment afterward if you need to correct individual lines.
Re-importing stock
Don't re-import unless you've cleared Katana's existing inventory first. The import always adds to existing levels — re-running on an already-populated inventory will double the stock.
To re-import:
Pause sync.
Clear the existing inventory in Katana (separate stock adjustment, or use the bulk inventory tools).
Run the stock import.
Activate sync again.
Multiple Shopify stores
If you connect multiple Shopify stores with the same products, importing stock from each store will add to Katana’s stock multiple times. If this happens, delete the extra stock adjustment(s).
Multiple Shopify locations
Stock import respects location mapping:
Stock from each mapped Shopify location is imported into the corresponding Katana location.
If multiple Shopify POS locations are mapped to the same Katana location, their inventory is combined.
All unmapped Shopify locations are grouped and imported into the Katana location mapped to your Shopify Online Store.
Edge cases
Variants without SKUs are imported and linked by Shopify variant ID, so their stock comes through correctly.
Multiple Katana variants share a SKU — only the most recently created one receives the imported stock.
Legacy Shopify stores (no per-location inventory) write the variant-level total to the primary Katana location.
Your feedback is invaluable. Let us know your thoughts on this article or anything in Katana you'd like to see improved: [email protected]