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Shipping

How a parcel is packed, quoted, booked with a carrier and charged for at checkout.

Manifold keeps the record of every parcel: what it was packed in, which carrier booked it, at what service and price, and where it has got to. The booking itself goes through a shipping app connected to your carrier account. Starshipit is the one built in. Labels are printed from the order in Manifold, not in the carrier's own screens.

Before you start

  1. Install a shipping app. Install Starshipit from Settings › Apps. Copy the API key from Starshipit › Settings › API and paste it on the Starshipit page. Connecting also copies your SKUs' weights, sizes, barcodes and customs details (HS code and country of origin) to Starshipit's product list, and keeps them up to date.
  2. Turn off Starshipit's own Shopify integration (in Starshipit), so orders aren't fulfilled twice.
  3. Map your shipping methods. On the Starshipit page, under Shipping methods, add each shipping option buyers pick at checkout, named as your store names it (for example Shopify's Standard and Express). Choose the Starshipit service it books, then choose Save methods. A method you don't map waits at packing for someone to choose a service.
  4. Set up tracking. Copy the tracking URL from the Starshipit page into Starshipit › Settings › Customer Notifications › Webhook. Without it, tracking updates every few minutes instead of at once.
  5. Give each site an address. In Locations, edit each site you ship from and fill in Ships from. It is the sender on the label. A site without one cannot book.
  6. Add your boxes (optional, but quotes are more accurate with them). See below.

Settings › Shipping has three tabs: Carrier accounts, Boxes and Checkout rates. A connected carrier account appears on the first.

Boxes

On Settings › Shipping › Boxes, choose Add box and give:

  • its name
  • its packaging: box, satchel and so on
  • its inside length, width and height
  • its empty weight, and the most it can weigh full
  • the sites that stock it: Every site or Only these sites

Manifold packs each parcel into the fewest, then the smallest, boxes its site stocks. It uses each SKU's packed size and weight from inventory. A SKU too big or heavy for every box, or one that ships in its own packaging, goes as its own carton. With no boxes, a parcel is booked as one carton weighing what its goods weigh.

Archive takes a box out of use. Restore, then Save, brings it back.

Pack a parcel

On the order, packing a parcel opens What it went in. The cartons are filled in from the suggested boxes. Change them to what you actually used, or use Add a carton, then choose Pack.

A warning shows when a SKU fits no box, or has no size or weight. In the second case the cartons may weigh more than they say. Add the weight on the SKU's page to fix it for next time.

Book a label

When Ship is auto in Settings › Workflow, packing books the parcel. If the buyer chose a rate Manifold quoted, that service is booked. Otherwise the order's shipping method is booked, if you have one carrier account. With several accounts, a method the shipping app has no service for, or a checkout rate that names no service, the parcel stays packed for you to book it.

A booked parcel is marked shipped. For a Shopify order, Shopify is told the order is fulfilled, with the tracking. See Sales channels and Shopify.

To book by hand, open the parcel's booking panel:

  • Quoted at checkout. If the buyer chose a rate Manifold quoted, the parcel shows it. Choose Book with that rate's name, or Other options.
  • Get rates. If nothing was quoted at checkout, live prices from every connected carrier account load when the panel opens, cheapest first, for this parcel to the order's address. Get rates asks again. Choose Book beside one. To another address quotes somewhere else.
  • By hand. Leave Service code blank to book at the order's shipping method, or type one. It is required after a booking was refused for want of a service. Optionally give its name and price. With several carrier accounts, choose the Carrier account. Choose Book label.

Once booked, choose Print label. It stays on the parcel, so choose it again to reprint. A parcel with several cartons gets a tracking number for each.

The parcel's status shows as:

booking
Sent to the carrier account. Waiting for its answer.
booked
The carrier took it. The label, the carrier, the service and the tracking are on the parcel.
not booked
The carrier refused it and says why: no service chosen, address not accepted, or parcel not accepted. Fix it and book again.
voided
The label was cancelled. Book again if the parcel still goes.

Void cancels a booking with the carrier so you can book again. A parcel already handed over to the carrier cannot be voided.

International parcels carry the customs details Starshipit holds for each SKU (above). Return labels are not booked from Manifold yet; book them in Starshipit.

Tracking

Each parcel shows where the carrier says it is: Label printed, With the carrier, In transit, Out for delivery, Delivered, or one of Ready to collect, Delivery attempted, Awaiting collection, Problem in transit and Cancelled by the carrier. The tracking number links to the carrier's page.

Manifold does not email the buyer about their parcel, and does not ask Shopify to. To send tracking emails, use Starshipit's own customer notifications.

Hand over the day's parcels

A manifest is the list of parcels you hand the driver. On Settings › Shipping › Carrier accounts, choose Hand over today's parcels beside the account. Every booked parcel not yet handed over goes on one manifest.

handing over
Sent to the carrier account.
with the carrier
The carrier accepted the manifest. Manifest PDF opens the carrier's document.
refused
The carrier would not take it, and says why.

What a parcel cost

A booked parcel shows what it was quoted and what the carrier charged, for example "Quoted $14.60 · charged $15.20", and the rates it was chosen from. The order's payment panel shows the carrier cost beside the shipping charged on the order, both before tax, and the Shipping margin. If a parcel's charge is not known, no margin is shown.

When you pay the carrier, choose Mark charge paid on the parcel. Your books then record the charge as settled.

Checkout rates

Manifold can answer a sales channel's checkout with live carrier rates for the cart, from the sites it would ship from. Set the rules per channel on Settings › Shipping › Checkout rates. With no rules, every rate shows at the carrier's price.

Markup
A percentage, then a fixed amount, then rounding (to the cent, up to the next dollar, or up to the next .99). A negative amount takes money off. A rate is never less than zero.
Services shown
Tick Only the services ticked to limit the list.
Options at checkout
Show every rate, the cheapest only, the fastest only, or both, under titles you choose (Standard and Express by default). If an order would ship from two sites, checkout also offers the cheapest way to send both.
Rename
Show a service under your own name.
Delivery estimates
Handling days, an order cut-off and a time zone, plus transit days for services whose carrier gives none. Checkout then shows delivery dates. Days count Monday to Friday. Public holidays count as working days.
Free shipping
For a cart worth at least an amount, make the cheapest rate, or the services you tick, free.
When no carrier answers
Offer a flat rate instead of none.

Choose Save. Under Preview, enter a sample cart and address and choose Get checkout rates to see what the checkout would offer under the saved rules.

An order placed at one of these rates records what was offered. A rate for one carrier service books exactly that service. The cheapest combination and the flat rate name no service, so those parcels stay packed until you choose a service with Get rates.

Checkout rates on Shopify

For a connected Shopify store, Manifold registers itself as the store's carrier service on its own, once your organization and the store are out of read-only mode. It stays registered while the store is connected. The store's checkout shows Manifold's rates with any rates set in Shopify's own shipping settings. If Manifold cannot answer in time, Shopify shows only its own rates. The store's page under Settings › Sales channels › Shopify shows the state.

Setting up
Manifold registers with the store shortly.
Live at checkout
The store's checkout asks Manifold for rates. While the organization or the store is read-only, nothing is offered and Shopify shows its own rates.
Waiting for go-live
Registered when your organization goes live, or when the store is no longer read-only.
Needs permission
Open Manifold from the store's Shopify admin and approve the shipping permission.
Plan not eligible
Your Shopify plan doesn't allow calculated rates at checkout: Advanced or higher, the Shopify plan billed yearly, or the add-on.
Refused by Shopify
Shopify refused the carrier service, and says why.
Removed
Removed when the store is disconnected.

Check again asks Shopify now.

Read-only mode

Until your organization goes live, you can get quotes, but nothing is booked, voided or handed over. If you choose Book, the parcel shows "Nothing is booked until the organization goes live." See Going live.

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