Advanced Shipping Module
FollowUnleashed enables you to automate the issuing of shipping labels and create carrier jobs without leaving Unleashed. By adding the Advanced Shipping Module to your subscription and connecting to the carriers of your choice you can create the job, validate addresses, and print shipping labels in a seamless manner, all from inside of Unleashed. Note that this module is currently only available to customers in the UK due to the carriers we’ve connected to. We plan on adding more carriers and regions regularly!
This page covers the following sections:
- Adding Advanced Shipping to your subscription
- Adding Carriers
- Configuring a Carrier
- Using Advanced Shipping to Issue Labels
- ICC Specific Details
- Printing Labels
- Carrier-specific Information
- FAQs
Adding Advanced Shipping to your subscription
Advanced Shipping is a paid to use module and, as such, needs to be added to your plan via the Billing page. You can access it via the tile available in the Integration Store shown below or by directly navigating to Settings | Company | Billing and adding it to your plan breakdown. You can also use the content within this page to know more about the module and how to use it.
Once billing is successful, you can interact with the module by clicking on its tile, where you will be able to set it up.
If you would wish to unsubscribe from Advanced Shipping, please get in contact with our Customer Engagement Team who will be happy to action this request for you.
Adding Carriers
The first step is to connect the shipping company record inside of Unleashed. This is done by first adding a Shipping Company (via Settings | System | Shipping Companies). Records you already have can be used normally, and only valid shipping companies can be connected to the module.
Below are the steps to add a new connection to a carrier in the Advanced Shipping Module:
- Click on the Add Carrier Connection tile in the upper portion of the screen:
On the next screen, select the carrier you want to connect to. Only the carriers with the Available icon are currently supported by the Advanced Shipping Module (DPD and DPD Local). If your preferred carrier isn’t currently available, feel free to send a request using the envelope icon in the bottom right hand corner.
- After selecting a carrier, the next step is to add your credentials. First, select the Shipping Company name you want to use to identify this connection, the drop-down list will match the list of shipping companies within your account settings (Settings | System | Shipping Companies). Enter your account number and password for this carrier. Click Connect when done.
- If everything is successful, you will be redirected to the configuration screen and a tile with that connection will have been created. Click on that carrier tile to add the required configuration.
Configuring a Carrier
After you have connected to a carrier, you need to configure how it will interact with your records in Unleashed. These are the options under the Configuration tab:
Shipping Company
This field will capture the shipping company that is used to link this connection in Unleashed.
Collection Warehouse
Only warehouses selected in this section will have the option to work with this connection. This means that if you unselect a specific warehouse, shipments created within orders that use this warehouse will not have this connection as an option when using the module. All warehouses are selected by default when creating a new connection;
Default Shipment Status Transition
Here, you will select the status you want your shipments to go to by default when you issue shipping labels. Please have in mind you will have the ability to change this configuration on a per shipment basis (described below). The default option Dispatched means all stock validations will happen as normal and, should all of them pass, your label will be issued and the shipment will be dispatched. You can also select other statuses in case you need to manage your shipment further before dispatching it from your warehouse.
When you are happy with how everything is configured, remember to save your settings!
ICC Specific Details
You can use the details stored about your products in the International Commerce Code feature if it's enabled in your account and relevant to your shipment. This will ensure those details are passed along to the carrier when your shipment request is lodged, greatly minimising the data entry and streamlining the customs process. Just make sure the relevant details are correctly entered in your product records prior to using the Advanced Shipping Module. The following data can be exported to your carrier:
Product specific:
- Product Description
- Country of Origin
- Harmonised Country Code
- Commercial Code
- Unit Weight
Order specific:
- Shipper's VAT/EORI number: if you only have one number, you can set its value in the Company Settings. For warehouse-specific values, you can set those in Settings -> Warehouses and these will overwrite the company value. If you are not EORI registered, you can leave this empty, and GBUNREG will be used by default;
- Receiver's EORI number: Similar to the above, you can set your customer's EORI number in the Customer record or overwrite it on a Sales Order basis. Have in mind this information is mandatory if your customer is a business.
Using Advanced Shipping to Issue Labels
Use the Advanced Shipping Module button available on the lower right corner of your Sales Shipment screen to issue the shipping label. For it to be available, you first need to select a dispatch date that is within 7 days in the future.
Clicking on it will open a pop-up to capture the information the carriers require before we can create a shipment job. If you have been informed through the Number of Packages field that this shipment will have more than one package, a pop-up will be displayed where you will select how product lines will be distributed among those packages:
You can use the Split action to duplicate a product line in case it will be used in two or more packages. Unleashed will automatically split the quantity in half, but you can edit the values if needed. After you are finished splitting the product lines, use the Package dropdown selector to nominate lines to packages while keeping in mind this value comes from the Number of Packages field in the Sales Shipment. You can delete lines at any point using the Rubbish Bin icon
When you are finished assigning the products to packages, click Next to continue the label issuing process. Keep in mind that the quantity of the products in the Ship column of the shipment has to match the sum of the quantities in this pop-up.
On the next screen, Unleashed will ask you for shipment specific details. It is at this moment that it will retrieve a list of available carrier services based on the origin and destination address combination you have selected. Please make sure that your address is correctly filled beforehand in the Warehouse section of the system settings and/or the Customer record/Sales Order. Below, you can find a description of what should be entered in each field:
- The Shipping Company selector will automatically pull the details selected in the sales shipment screen while giving you the ability to toggle to other connected records on the fly;
- Reference will determine which record you want to push to the carrier as the identifier of this shipment/label. Your options are the sales order number or the customer reference;
- In case you selected a Contact in the Sales Order, their details will be loaded here. This will automatically load their email and phone details as well, where applicable. Please have in mind this is mandatory when you are shipping internationally;
- The Service Level selector is where you inform the carrier which service you will be using for this shipment. The list shown there is retrieved from the carrier as the services that can be used for the combination of Postal codes of the origin and destination;
- The Email and Mobile/Phone fields contain information that the carrier will use to deliver the shipment in case the address information is not enough. Please ensure these are correct and that your origin Warehouse has a valid mobile number as well. In the case where a Mobile is not available, Unleashed will look for a landline number instead.
- Contents: This field will only be visible when sending an International shipment. Enter a brief description of the contents of the shipment to be used in customs. (Please refer to note below)
- Number of Labels: for shipments with more than one package, make sure to increase this number so Unleashed will print a correspondent number of numbered labels you can attach to those parcels.
- The Consignment Weight captures the total weight of this shipment, which can be copied from the Sales Shipment where this information is available;
- Lastly, the Set Shipment Status As selector applies a status transition to the shipment after generating the labels when the checkbox is marked. The configuration pre-populated there is loaded from the connection's configurations in your Unleashed account.
Click on the Generate Labels button when you are finished entering all the necessary details. If the origin and destination countries are different, Unleashed will show a reminder about the customs documents that might need to be included in your shipment.
Click on the Proceed button to continue with the shipment. A status message will be displayed at the top of the screen showing the status of the label generation request.
The Shipment status will also be changed according to the details you selected in the dialogue window, and after all the relevant details are pushed to the carrier you should see the Tracking ID populated in the dedicated field in the shipment screen. You will also see the button will rename itself to Download Labels. For more information about printing labels, please read the correspondent section.
Printing Labels
When you successfully create a shipping job with a carrier using the ASM, the Advanced Shipping Module button will rename itself to Download Shipping Labels after all that has been pushed to the carrier. Clicking on that button will then download the labels to your browser. This works like the other downloads you can action throughout Unleashed, and the label file formats can vary depending on the configurations you selected when setting up your new connection. PDF is selected by default when creating a new connection due to its versatility and that you are able to preview it before printing. We also offer binary formats that are only advised for bulk printing and more tailored configurations.
Printing PDFs
For PDFs, opening the file should open it in the dedicated application for your operating system. When you download the file, it should be available in your default downloads folder and, from there, you can choose to preview or print it using Control+P or Command+P and choose your label printer. Please make sure your printer is configured to use the correct stationery and input file.
Printing binary formats (CLP and EPL)
Given that they are binary files, previewing and printing these files could not be as straight-forward as PDF. Some vendors might provide solutions to achieve that but we will also include here instructions on how to configure and print a label downloaded from Unleashed. For this example, we printed a CLP label using a Citizen CL-S521 printer, both in Windows 10 and macOS Catalina.
1. Windows
To ensure your printer will work correctly, please keep your drivers up to date by going to the vendor's website and downloading the latest driver available for your operating system.
When that is done, right-click the icon of that printer in the Printers and Devices menu and select Printer Properties, as shown below:
In that menu, navigate to the Tools tab and select the "Send File to Printer..." action in the correspondent dropdown:
This will open a folder navigator in which you can select the file you want to print. Make sure to select "All Files" in the bottom right selector and then double click on the label file (or select it and click Open).
The label should now be sent to the printer and show all the relevant details.
Alternatively, you can use the command line (Command Prompt) to achieve that with the COPY command. The syntax should include the full path of the file and the local/network name of the printer. The example below shows the full path and the local printer name, which are likely to be different from your case.
2. macOS
As with the example for Windows, make sure your drivers are correctly installed and up to date. If the printer has already been added and configured, skip this step. If not, use the + sign in the Printers & Scanners menu in Settings:
Once the printer has been successfully installed, you can use the command line (Terminal) to send the file to the printer, in analogy to the Windows' example. The command here is "lp" is the syntax should have the full path to the label file along with the name of the printer. Please use the screenshot below as a reference, taking into account the command is being run from the same directory as the file and that the double quotation marks define the printer name.
Please note that these labels you download will work like any other download in Unleashed and certain label formats cannot be previewed as they are binary files. In such cases, you can also use third-party solutions such as BarTender to help you manage and print those files or just send them directly to the printer if you have the relevant drivers and/or assistants following the procedures above.
Carrier-specific Information
DPD UK and DPD Local
When setting up a business account with DPD, a certification process is required to certify the hardware used to issue the shipping labels (and the solution that provides them with those labels). This DPD requirement is needed even when no 3rd party solution (such as Advanced Shipping) is in place. This aims to ensure that the output labels are able to be scanned by their couriers. To help you with this process, please find full details below. Feel free to get in touch with our Customer Engagement Team if you have any questions.
Certification Process
DPD requires you to post them a test label to ensure it meets their standards, so it’s important you take this into account in the first days of using Advanced Shipping. To do this, you need to print a label (generate a shipment) for each carrier service you intend to use in your connection with them. These shipments and labels can be printed from inside Unleashed using Advanced Shipping once you have a connection set up. The creation of these labels will create the shipment job with the carrier, however, it will not automatically schedule a pickup. Note that if you do want to go ahead with those shipments, you will need to get in touch with your DPD Depot directly. Once printed, these labels need to be physically dispatched to the following address:
Once printed, these labels need to be physically dispatched to the following address:
Roebuck Lane
Smethwick
West Midlands
B66 1BY
Please ensure a cover note is included on test packs posted so DPD can identify the sender. Also, if you require any assistance prior to dispatching the labels, DPD is equipped to support customers via their assistance channel: edisupport@dpdgroup.co.uk or 0121 275 7336
FAQs
- What if I entered incorrect information when creating the label?
At the moment, the module is able to push information to create labels with a carrier, but not edit those details. That said, if you need to action any changes to a label after it has been issued, we recommend you use the carrier portal for that. - The carrier I currently use is not available yet. How do I request it?
In the Add Carrier Connection pop-up and in the landing page of the module you will see a list of carriers we plan on introducing in the future. If you would like to communicate your interest in any of them (or maybe another one we have not thought of), feel free to use the envelope icon to send us a message and let us know! - What services can I use to dispatch my shipments to my customers?
A dynamic list of services that are available for that shipment is retrieved whenever you trigger the Advanced Shipping Module. You can then choose the service you want to use (for DPD this currently excludes the SHIP2SHOP and Expak Pickup services) - How are delivery instructions mapped to the labels?
You can store delivery instructions in the customer contacts and the sales order. The latter will always take precedence, so if details are loaded from the contact into the order and are then changed, these new details are going to be passed through to the labels. Please remember there is a limitation from the carriers to only use 50 characters in the delivery instructions so the information there will be trimmed in case it is longer.