Shipping

Shipping shows which orders are ready to go, buys their labels through your own carrier accounts, prints labels, pick lists and packing slips, and follows every parcel until it's delivered.

Shipping works with Sales (the orders) and Inventory (the stock). Labels are bought through an account the shop already has, so the postage is charged to that account, not to Ordryx.

Who can do what

Shipping has three levels in a role (see People and roles):

A label carries the customer's address. So buying, printing labels and printing packing slips also need Sales' See customers' addresses. Without it, the screens say so where the button would be.

Some things only the shop's owner does: connecting or removing a carrier account, accepting the shipping responsibility, and turning on Tell Shopify the tracking number.

Get started

Until a way to buy labels is connected, Shipping › To ship shows a Get started page instead of the list of orders. It lists what's needed before the first label. Each step ticks itself when it's done:

1. Where you ship from: every location that ships has the address its labels carry.
2. A way to buy labels: an account connected on Carriers, with its rates switched on.
3. Your responsibility: the owner reads and accepts that what the shop ships is its own responsibility.
4. Item weights: items on orders waiting, or sold in the last 90 days, have a weight. Add weights lets someone who edits items fill them in.
5. Boxes and mailers: at least one box you ship in.
6. A test label: press Print a test label, pick 4×6 or Letter, and print the sample at 100%. Nothing is bought. Each computer remembers its own test label, because each may use a different printer.

Once an account is connected, To ship shows the orders again. What's left of the setup sits on top in a Finish setting up shipping card until it's done. Someone who manages Shipping can press Hide this; Shipping settings can show it again.

Your responsibility

No rates or labels can be had until the owner accepts this. It says that the shop is responsible for what it ships: what's in each package, how it's packed and labelled, and how it's declared, including hazardous materials, lithium batteries and customs. Ordryx's hazmat categories and customs fields help you fill in what a carrier asks, but they aren't legal advice. The owner ticks I've read this and accept it for the shop and presses Accept, on Get started or in Shipping settings.

Carriers

Shipping › Carriers is where the owner connects the accounts that labels are bought through. Rates come from every account that's switched on, side by side, and each rate says which account buys it.

Discount providers (one account, many carriers):

• EasyPost: rates, labels, bulk ship, tracking, SCAN forms and pickups.
• Shippo: rates, labels, bulk ship, tracking and SCAN forms.
• ShipStation: rates, labels, bulk ship and tracking.

Your own carrier accounts (your own negotiated rates, billed by the carrier): UPS, FedEx, USPS and DHL Express. Each needs a few details from that carrier's developer site, such as a client ID and secret and your account number.

To connect one:

1. Press Connect on its card, for example Connect EasyPost.
2. Follow the first step to find the key on that company's site.
3. Paste the key (or fill in the details) and press Connect.
4. Ordryx checks it and says The key works.

The key is kept encrypted, and Ordryx never shows it again. To change it, press Update (key, token or details) and enter it again.

Test and Production keys

A test key (EasyPost's Test key, Shippo's test token, ShipStation's sandbox key, or a carrier's test site) lets you try everything for free. Its labels are samples: nothing is charged and no stock moves. A test key is never sent the customer's name, street, company or phone, only a sample recipient in their town. When you're ready, connect a Production (live) key to buy real labels.

On each connected card, the owner can Test the key, switch Enable rates off or on, or Disconnect. Labels already bought stay, and still track and print.

To ship

Shipping › To ship lists every order waiting to ship, first in line first: orders with a due date first, soonest first, then the oldest. Stock always goes to the first in line, however you sort. An order ships only whole, so one further back never takes what one ahead of it needs.

The tiles at the top count:

• Can ship now: every part is on the shelf.
• Make first: the parts to make it are on hand. Make starts a job or sends the work to a contractor, if you have those.
• Can't ship yet: something is short.

You can also show Not linked (a store's line not linked to an item yet), Label bought, or All. Sort by First in line, Oldest first, Newest first or Fastest shipping, search by order, item or customer, and filter by the shipping the customer chose at checkout.

For an order that can ship, press Buy label. To ship several at once, see Bulk ship.

Asked for

Some customers ask for more than what goes in the box: text to engrave or etch, or a service such as gift wrap. Ordryx shows this as Asked for under the order's items on To ship, on the label page, on Bulk ship, on the pick list and on the packing slip. Tick Asked for on To ship to see only those orders.

Text the customer typed in the store comes in by itself. For an item that is a service and goes in no box, turn on Done before it ships in the Shipping part of the item's form (Edit on the item's page), or on the order's Shipping card in Sales. Then every order with it lists it as asked for. Nothing waits on it: it's a reminder.

Buy a label

The label page (Ship and the order number) shows where the order ships to and what's left to ship.

1. Under 1 · The package, pick the Box. Leave Weight empty to use the items' weights, or type one.
2. Pick Ship on: today or one of the next three days.
3. Press Get rates. The carrier checks the address and says whether it's deliverable.
4. Under 2 · The rates, pick a rate. They're cheapest first. Customer's choice marks the rate nearest to what the customer picked at checkout.
5. Press Buy. The button shows the price.

After buying, the label shows under Labels, with Print 4×6 or Letter, the tracking number, and Packing slip for that order. A carrier that sends PDFs (DHL Express) has one Print button.

What happens to stock:

• An order typed in by hand ships when its label is bought. Its stock leaves at once.
• A WooCommerce order ships too, and the store is told the tracking number.
• A Shopify order stays as Label bought until Shopify knows it's fulfilled. See Telling the store.

If you count your boxes in Inventory, buying a label takes one box; voiding puts it back.

Voiding a label

Press Void on the label while the carrier hasn't scanned it. For an order typed in by hand, the order is to ship again and its stock goes back. How the money comes back depends on the account: EasyPost and Shippo refund once the carrier confirms (USPS takes a couple of weeks); a voided UPS or FedEx label isn't billed; DHL Express never bills an unused label.

Label files are kept only a short time

A label's file carries the customer's name and address, so Ordryx keeps it only until the carrier has the parcel. It goes when the label is voided, a day after the carrier's first scan, when the order's address is cleared, a day after a test label, or after 14 days if it's never scanned. Label files are never in backups. Before a scan, some accounts let you press Get the label to fetch it again; otherwise void it and buy another. Print your labels the day you buy them.

Bulk ship and batches

To buy many labels at once:

1. On To ship, tick the orders that can ship. A bar comes up at the foot of the window.
2. Pick the Box for all of them and press Review.
3. On Bulk ship · review, pick each rate by Cheapest, Customer selected or Fastest, or change one on its row. Nothing is bought yet.
4. Press Buy with the count and total. Labels are bought one at a time; one failing never undoes the rest.
5. Print the labels as one file, then the packing slips in the same order, so each slip meets its label.

An order that can't be rated is Left out and stays on To ship.

Shipping › Batches keeps every bulk ship, newest first. Open one to print its labels again, or press Pick list and slips. The pick list walks the bins (set on each item in Inventory) and lists what's asked for at the top. The packing slip's note, and whether it shows the shop's phone, are in Shipping settings.

Shipments and tracking

Shipping › Shipments lists labels from the last 30 days and where their parcels are. The tiles count Waiting for a scan, In transit, Late (past the first date the carrier gave) and Needs a look. Switch between Going out, Coming in and All. Press a tracking number to open its page, with a map of where it was scanned and every scan.

Track a package follows a number you bought elsewhere, such as at the post office counter. Paste it, check the carrier, and press Track. You can add an order, which way, and a note. A purchase order's tracking numbers can be followed too: press Follow beside one on the PO.

Delivered rows go away by themselves three days later. Press Archive to put one away sooner.

End of day

Shipping › End of day helps you hand today's parcels to the carriers. A card for each carrier lists today's labels not scanned yet.

• SCAN forms: one barcode for a stack of USPS labels, so tracking starts tonight. Press Make the SCAN form…, untick any label not going today, then make and print it. A form can't be added to once made. Only today's USPS labels through EasyPost or Shippo go on one.
• Pickups: press Book a pickup… to have the carrier come. EasyPost's carriers are priced first, then booked; DHL Express is booked at once.

Not handed off yet lists labels from earlier days never scanned. Hand them over, or void them.

Shipping abroad

Labels across a border go through your DHL Express account for now. Buy a label shows a customs panel for such a package. Its defaults are in Shipping settings › International: who signs the declaration, the usual country of origin, what's usually in the box, what happens if it can't be delivered, who pays duties, your tax IDs, and paperless customs for DHL Express. Each item's customs description, HS code and country of origin are in the Shipping part of its form in Inventory.

Telling the store

For Shopify orders, the owner can turn on Tell Shopify the tracking number in Shipping settings. Right after a label is bought, Shopify marks the order fulfilled with the tracking. Stock leaves when the sync reads it back. Voiding the label cancels it in Shopify too. Email the customer sends Shopify's own shipping email; you can untick it for one label. While it's off, mark the order fulfilled in Shopify yourself.

WooCommerce orders are always told: see WooCommerce.

Shipping settings

Open Shipping settings from the gear in Shipping's header. You need the Manage level.

• Ships from: the address on each location's labels.
• Boxes and mailers: each box's name, inside size and empty weight, and whether it's counted in Inventory.
• Shipping profiles: how some items must ship, such as a USPS hazmat category, the services allowed, and a signature on delivery. Rates leave out what a profile forbids. Put an item under one in the Shipping part of its form in Inventory.
• International, the responsibility, and Shopify's tracking switch.
• The packing slip note, the shop's phone on slips, and how numbers bought elsewhere are followed.

For a step-by-step walk through one order, see Ship an order.