01
Problem
A business that sells online, with one store or several, manages its orders, invoices and stock in an ERP. Without a connection, every order is re-entered in Dolibarr, the store’s stock is tracked separately, and there is a risk of selling what is no longer available.
Off-the-shelf solutions often come with licences or subscriptions; and in Dolibarr, running several stores normally requires the Multicompany module, which is paid. This personal project, still in progress (about 80%), connects the store and the ERP with free tools, hosted at the client’s.
02
Constraints
- Work just as well with a single store as with several, all connected to the same Dolibarr, without the Multicompany module.
- No licence to pay: WordPress, WooCommerce, Dolibarr and Coolify are open-source software, and n8n is free when you host it yourself.
- Order numbers repeat from one store to another: every reference in Dolibarr carries the name of its store (the “channel”).
- No amount may drift: totals are checked to the cent before being saved.
- Everything is hosted on the client’s private server (VPS) with Coolify: store, n8n and Dolibarr. The client fully owns their architecture.
03
Successive versions
V1
One or several WooCommerce stores, n8n and a single Dolibarr
With one store, a WordPress site and one n8n workflow are enough. With several, a WordPress multisite gives each site its own WooCommerce store and n8n workflow, all connected to the same Dolibarr instance. Each store is a channel (a category) there: products and customers can be filtered by store. The demo has eight channels, from food to construction.
- Product import: a store’s products are created or updated in Dolibarr (matched by reference), with their photo, initial stock and channel category.
- Orders, from store to Dolibarr: for each order, the customer is found or created, the Dolibarr order takes the lines, shipping and fees, duplicates are discarded and the status follows the store’s. A completed order produces a draft invoice.
- Statuses, from Dolibarr to store: an order validated, shipped or cancelled in Dolibarr moves to the same state in the store, which sends the customer the matching email; a paid invoice adds a “Payment received” note to the order.
- Stock: Dolibarr is the reference; stock is sent back to the stores.
Still to do, about 20%: finish some workflows, make everything reliable through testing before a first go-live for a client, write the documentation and user guide, and adapt the system for other platforms.
Next
Stores beyond WooCommerce
The system is designed to be duplicated for other e-commerce platforms, such as Shopify or PrestaShop, keeping the same Dolibarr at the centre.
04
Support
At a client’s, the project starts with an audit of how they work, then a demo that models their real need. Once the solution is approved, support includes:
- installation on their server;
- team training;
- written documentation for their context;
- one month of maintenance included.
05
Limits
- Licence-free doesn’t mean cost-free: the server still has to be paid for, and everything must be kept up to date.
- Invoices are created as drafts: validating them remains manual in Dolibarr.
- Statuses are sent back to the stores periodically (every few minutes), not instantly.
- Product import is started by hand and assumes a 20% VAT rate.
- Dolibarr does not categorise orders: the customer carries their store’s channel.
- Emails to store customers require a configured sending service (SMTP).
06
Lesson
Paying for a licence is not the only way to get a feature. Starting from the real need, well-connected free tools do the job, the budget goes into the project rather than subscriptions, and the client stays the owner of their architecture.