Postage/Shipping Management in Linnworks

Linnworks Order Management System is designed to have very versatile postage management system built in. No matter what shipping service you are using to fulfill the orders the system can accommodate most of your business processes. This document describes functionality built-in to the system to deal with postage. How you wish to utilize this functionality, should you wish to utilize it at all is entirely up to you. 

Setting up Postage Management

To set up the postage management in Linnworks you will need to configure some essential parameters. Go to Settings > Postage Management

Postage Settings tab 

Here you tell the system where the postage management functionality will be used and how strict do you want it to be. 

• Show Postage details on Order processing screen - when you process the order you have an option to display postage information, such as postal service used, packaging group and type, weight of the item etc.
• Packaging information required - the system can deal with packaging groups and types (Read Packaging in this document for more information). Here you can specify whether you want packaging information to be filled in correctly before the postage label can be printed or order processed.
• Only orders with correct postage/packaging information can be processed - if an order doesn't have postage selected or packaging group or type is not selected the system will not allow this order to be processed.
• Allow changing postage information on processing screen - on order processing screen user will be able to make ad-hoc changes to the postage & packaging details.
• Print postage labels only if P&P information is correct -the system will not print postage labels if postal service is Default or packaging group is not selected or selected inappropriately for the weight of the order.

Postage Manifest Grouping

When postage manifest is produced the orders are grouped based on their Postage Service, packaging group etc. This setting allows you to specify what information do you want to be included into the grouping. The screenshot below shows manifest when all grouping options are selected (separated by - )

Packaging Groups

This is covered in Packaging section of this document.

Postal Services

Here you can modify, add and delete postal services you use. Please do not remove or change Default Postal service.

Service - The name of the postal servic

Tag -  external system tag for the service (if setting up your own services imported from your own website or generic e-commerce platform this tag should match shipping method id used in the external system)

Country - operating country of the service.

Code -  code which will be allocated for the postal service (useful for producing meaningful postage manifest or printing to Despatch Express)

Vendor - provider of the service

Weight required - the service requires each order weight to be set correctly before the label can be printed.

Tracking number required -  the system will expect tracking number to be scanned or provided through some means if this postal service is used

Packaging

In line with the order management concept each product you stock can be packaged using specific method. For example small items are packed into bubble padded packages, or small carton boxes, whereas bigger items in larger boxes with padding etc. First of all you will need to set up packaging groups and packaging types you will be using. 

Padded Packages (standard letter)
- Size AA  (takes weight from 1g to 100g)
- Size AB  (takes weight from 101g to 200g)
- Size AC (takes weight from 201g to 300g)

Padded Packages (standard letter)
- Size AA  (takes weight from 1g to 100g) - packaging weight 8g
- Size AB  (takes weight from 101g to 200g) - packaging weight 12g
- Size AC (takes weight from 201g to 300g) - packaging weight 16g

if stock item Product A weight is 115g and Prefered Packaging method is choosen to be Padded Packages (standard letter) then the system will work out that the Size AB should be used for packing this item. Therefore total order weight will be 115g  +  12g and in the manifest the packaging line will statPadded Packages (standard letter) - Size AB

If an order contains multiple items the system will try to use packaging group which matches all items in the order, if such cannot be found the user will have to define the packaging method manually.

Example 1

Padded Packages (standard letter)
packaging types as above

Small carton boxes (15cm x 10cm x 8 cm)
- 6cm x 8cm x 7 cm (takes weight from 1g to 88g) - packaging weight 12g
- 15cm x 10cm x 8 cm (takes weight from 88g to 220g) - packaging weight 12g

If you order contains two products Product A and Product B, where product as in example 1 and Product B weight 45g and assigned to Small carton boxes packaging method, the system will not be able to select correct packaging method, as the order might be packed using completely different method for all combined items.

If product A and Product B were assigned to the same packaging group, for example Small Carton Boxes and the weight of the Product B was 200g, the system will pick up the fact that the order shoul be packed with Small Carton Boxes however there is no packaging type which will fit 200g + 115g in the small cartons group. In this case the user will also have to select the packaging type manually in order processing screen or in postage assignment screen.

To set up packaging group and types goto Settings > Postage Manager > Packaging group type. Create new group and at the bottom of the screen create a number of assosiated packaging types.

Printing Postage Labels

There are two ways of printing postage labels. First method is to print directly from open orders book by selecting an order, right click > Print > Print Label. This method does not apply any constrains on the printing module (i.e. not checks whether the label can be printed - postage service, packaging group and weight is defined correctly), the labels will be printed irrespective of the correctness of the postage and packaging information.

The sectond method is to use Print Labels screen. Go to Order Book > Postage Printer

This screen displays all order paid and unpaid. You can filter the orders by status to display only paid orders and filter out by dates.

Select orders you want the label to be created for and click Print Selected from the tool bar.

When the label is printed successfully you will see a gray tick agains the order, if there is an error printing the label red cross will be shown. You can hover the mouse over the red cross to see the error message.

Postage Service and packaging assignment

Those orders where system failed to automatically select packaging group or postal service has not been defined, the user would have to assign postal service, packaging group and weight manually. To do this for multiple orders in one screen go to  Order Book > Service Assignment

The top of the screen displays correctly assigned to postage information orders, whereas the bottom shows problematic once. By hovering over the red corss you can get more information about the problem the system has encountered. 

To assign the order to the correct packaging group or postal service - use drop down boxes in the grid. The system will automatically work out which packaging type should be used. You cannot overwrite packaging type (Pack column). If there are no more errors in the postage info the order will move up to the top grid. 

After making the changes click Save button

Display and change postage information on order processing screen

You can configure the system to display postage information on the order processing screen as well as allow user to change the postage information. If you are using Tracked postage then you must allow users to view and change postage information, otherwise tracking number could not be entered. 

If there is a problem with the packaging information and the system configured to disallow processing of orders without correct postage and packaging information, the user will not be able process the order and the Process button will be disabled. The error message (in red) above the postage information will indicate the problem.

If you have allowed user to change the postage data, the user will be able to changed Postal Service, Packaging group and the weight of the order manually and submit this data into the manifest. 

Postage Manifest

Generally the postage manifest is used for two reasons. 1) internal usage - to file the postage documentation (normally does not involve printing the manifest) 2) submit the manifest to the postal service company along with the shipment. This is also can be used to create purchase order for postage. For example Royal Mail allows you to raise postage order online by entering services and the avarage  weight for the packages sent. You can generate manifest summary and reenter the information displayed on the manifest into the online forms provided by postal service provider.

Each processed order will be added to the manifest automatically. The manifest keeps collecting orders until it is filed, once filed it starts collecting information from fresh. Go to Order Book > Postage Manifest. Select All unfiled by default. 

The grid displays grouped summary of the manifest. You can expand the service grouping to get all the orders shipped using the service (+packaging groups). 

To file the manifest click File Manifest and enter the total cost of the postage order for each provider (if used more than one).