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What syncs, in which direction, and how fast
Not everything syncs both ways, and not everything syncs at the same speed. This table is the single most useful thing to know about the integration:
What | Direction | How fast |
Categories | Both ways | Instantly |
Materials | Both ways | Twice a day - 6:30 AM and 6:30 PM (or on demand, see below) |
Locations / Warehouses | Created in Ply, sent out to FieldEdge | Manual - no automatic creation |
Jobs (FieldEdge Work Orders) | One way: FieldEdge → Ply | Instantly |
Two rules follow from this, and they cause most of the confusion:
Materials don't sync in real time. If you create or edit a material in Ply and don't see it in FieldEdge yet, it's almost certainly waiting for the next scheduled sync. You can force it through from your Catalog instead of waiting.
Jobs are read-only in Ply. Ply reads work orders from FieldEdge, it can't write back to them. Materials must be added to a job in FieldEdge. Adding them to the job in Ply will not push them over.
Other rules worth knowing
Deleting a material in Ply deactivates it in FieldEdge. It isn't removed outright. You need to turn this on from your Ply Settings > Workspace > Integrations > Deactivate materials in FieldEdge (turn it on)
Material names must be 31 characters or fewer to sync. See Fixing Material Sync Errors with FieldEdge.
Only physical inventory items attached to invoices appear in Ply. Service and non-inventory lines don't come across.
What's not included yet
Purchase Orders - purchasing stays in FieldEdge or QuickBooks for now
Estimates / estimate pipeline
FieldEdge Jobs (the project-level object, see the terminology table below)
Technicians - technician linking is planned for a future update, not the initial release
Writing materials into FieldEdge jobs or invoices from Ply - there's no FieldEdge API for this today
If purchasing or estimates are important to your workflow, let your Ply CSM know. We track those requests and review them with the FieldEdge team.
Terminology: FieldEdge ↔ Ply
The two platforms use different words for the same things. This table is the quickest way to translate:
FieldEdge | Ply | Notes |
Work Order | Job | This is the main unit of work that syncs |
Item List / Price Book | Catalog | Your materials live here |
Warehouse | Location (Stock) | Where quantity is held |
Employee | User | Employees are pulled into FieldEdge from QuickBooks. Technician linking is not part of the initial release |
Profile | Role | Admin, Manager, CSR, Dispatcher, Technician |
Job | (no equivalent) | A FieldEdge Job is a project-level bucket. It does not sync to Ply |
Bundle | (no equivalent) | A FieldEdge template that adds several line items at once |
A note on "Job"
This is the most common point of confusion:
A Ply Job = a FieldEdge Work Order.
A FieldEdge Job is something different - it's a container for a longer project (for example, an install with a rough-in phase and a rough-out phase) that can hold multiple work orders and invoices. FieldEdge Jobs are not part of the Ply integration.
You can still use FieldEdge Jobs normally. Just keep in mind that each FieldEdge Job should have at least one work order, and it's the work orders that come through to Ply.
Where inventory shows up in FieldEdge
In Ply, stock lives on a dedicated Locations page. In FieldEdge, the warehouse is selected further down: inside the work order → invoice or quote → line item.
The warehouse dropdown appears only on inventory items. Non-inventory and service items won't show it.