Stock moves on two different clocks: a sale you take online, and a change someone makes in Clover. They are designed to behave differently, so a short gap between the two systems is normal rather than a sign that something is broken. This article says which is which, and how to bring both sides into step immediately when you want to.
Everything below assumes linked products and a stock-moving sync mode (Follow Clover or Two-way), described in Inventory sync modes: what each one does.
Your own online sales count immediately
When a customer pays on your site, Clover is told which items were sold as part of the order, and Clover deducts them from its own counts and records the sale in its reports at that moment. There is no waiting period and nothing to refresh.
WooCommerce reduces its own stock for the same order at payment as it always has. Both systems count the same sale once, each on its own side.
That applies to online orders taken on the Order and charge transaction mode. If a line cannot be matched to its Clover item, the units are still deducted from the linked Clover item after the payment lands, so the count stays right even when the item reference could not travel with the order.
Changes made in Clover reach your store on a schedule
Stock you edit in the Clover dashboard, sales rung up in store, and anything else that changes a Clover count are picked up by your store on its own timetable:
- The hourly check. Your store asks WeeConnectPay for the current counts of your linked items about once an hour and applies them to those products.
- Refresh from Clover. The Recovery section of the Inventory tab has a Refresh from Clover button that fetches your Clover items right away. It has a short cooldown between uses, and the button counts it down for you.
- The daily sync. Once a day, WeeConnectPay re-reads your Clover catalog in full. This is the safety net that catches anything the other two missed.
So a count you change in Clover in the morning is normally in your store within the hour, and immediately if you press Refresh from Clover.
Changes you make in WooCommerce
On Two-way, a stock count you edit on a linked WooCommerce product is written to its Clover item shortly after you save it. On Follow Clover, those edits stay in WooCommerce.
Stock movements caused by orders are never copied to Clover in any mode, because Clover already counts your online sales itself.
Things that are working as designed
| What you see | Why |
|---|---|
| The two sides differ for a little while after a Clover-side edit | Your store applies Clover counts on its hourly check. Refresh from Clover closes the gap on demand. |
| Nothing at all syncs | The mode is Off, which is the default until you pick something else, or your plan does not include the mode you picked. |
| Nothing moves while you are testing | Preview only reports what would have happened and changes nothing on either side. |
| A refund did not put stock back | Refunds and returns never restock, in Clover or in WooCommerce. If the goods come back to your shelf, set the count yourself in whichever system you treat as the source of truth, and sync carries it from there. |
| A Clover count is negative | Clover allows a count to go below zero, and it stays negative until you correct it. |
| A linked product shows no Clover stock | The plugin shows No stock count in Clover on that row: "This Clover item has no stock count yet, so there is nothing to bring over. Open the item in Clover, turn on stock tracking and set a count, then use Refresh from Clover." |
| A linked product is not using the Clover count | The plugin shows Stock management off in WooCommerce. In Follow Clover or Two-way the next sync turns stock management on for that product and applies the count. |
When the two sides still disagree
Work down this list, in order:
- Press Refresh from Clover in the Recovery section of the Inventory tab. If the numbers agree afterwards, it was timing.
- Check the mode on the Inventory tab, including whether it is paused because your plan does not include it.
- Check the product's link status. Only a Linked row takes part; SKU mismatch, Clover item deleted and WooCommerce product deleted rows do not, and each row says how to fix it.
- Check for a paused badge on the row. A linked product whose taxes do not line up with its Clover item shows Paused: tax rates differ, Paused: tax rate link missing or Paused: tax setup unconfirmed, and that product stops taking its count from Clover until that is resolved. See Linking your products, and how linked sales appear in Clover.
- Check whether the difference started with a discounted sale. Sale prices and coupons are covered in How sale prices and discounts appear in Clover.
Still not adding up? Email support@weeconnectpay.com with the product's SKU and, if one specific sale is involved, the order number. We can trace what happened for that product and that order.