What Does This Procedure Do?
In the Print Shipping Documents procedure you can create shipments containing different shipping document formats such as delivery address labels, which should be printed when delivering goods that are sent to the customer via a shipping agent. Here you print these shipping documents per customer order. This way, the shipments are linked to one or more customer orders.
You usually print shipping documents when packing the goods after delivery reporting customer orders and printing delivery notes. You can also group together several shipments with a bundle number, such as all shipments that are sent on the same day.
You can also dispatch EDI advices directly from the procedure (by using the EDI button in the Window functions).
Under the Basic data tab you select recipient (source of info) and if additional shipping documents and extra information that shall be created for the shipment. You can also enter or change package and address information here.
The shipping documents are all represented with its own tab in the window. The services for each respective shipping document supported in the system, are described under the heading service.
In order to print shipping documents, shipping agents must be registered and linked to a shipping agent ID in the Update Shipping Agent procedure in the Purchase module.
The different settings that apply to the shipping documents (such as number of copies to be printed, position of text and status after printout etc.) are configured in the Form Settings procedure in Global Settings module.
Settings for shipping and printing of shipping documents are located under Shipping under the Sales tab in the Settings procedure.
If the Basic data tab is active, all selected shipping documents will be printed. But if the tab for a certain shipping document is active instead, only this document will be printed. When a shipping document has been printed, the entire shipment is given status 4 (Shipped).
Priority for Shipper
The shipper can be loaded from the following places in the system, in the order of priority entered below:
Zebra Control Panel
For shipping documents that are printed on a label printer, you have a Zebra control panel under the File menu and in the Window functions. This is a special control panel for this type of printer. Use this link to read more about the Zebra control panel and which system requirements that apply to label printers.
Shipment Number
You can link one or more customer orders to one shipment number, for example if goods from different customer orders on the same customer will be shipped at the same time to the recipient. You can also use several different shipment numbers linked to one customer order, for example if you are making partial deliveries of a customer order.
In the Shipment List procedure you can load a list of all the shipment numbers that have been generated for different shipments in the system.
When the supplement function Warehouse Management is used you can also load shipment numbers for other warehouses, if the user is part of a group which has Extended Warehouse Management in this procedure. Otherwise a new shipment number is created for the current warehouse. Users with Extended Warehouse Management can also change warehouse for a shipment.
Number Series for Shipment Numbers
The number series used for shipment numbers can be obtained from each respective shipping agent. The number series are registered in the Number Series procedure in the Global Settings module.
When you save the shipment number, the system will check to see if there are less than < 100 numbers left and then warn you that the number series is about to end. If you re-use your number series, the system will make sure that the same shipment number as the current one does not occur within the next 100-number interval. If so, a purging of old shipments will be suggested.
The number series for shipment numbers are now automatically purged after 18 months in order to facilitate for the users. Message about the number series will be displayed if the number series is too short for the business and when the company needs to order a larger number series. Old shipments will be purged automatically during the installation and when saving a waybill.
Reasonability Check
Under Shipping under the Sales tab in the Settings procedure there are three settings for reasonability check, when creating a shipment of customer order, delivery note and stock order.
You can check that the order number/delivery note number does not exist for another saved shipment. You can check if the order number/delivery note number is delivered and if it has not already been invoiced. Finally, you can check that the linked order number/delivery note number belongs to the same customer and delivery address (the same address number). You can also combine the different reasonability checks.
There is also a number of controls when entering weights during the registration regarding combinations of services and weights to avoid that the allowed upper or lower limits are crossed. Messages will appear showing information about the total weight, which packages that must be adjusted and against which limit values they are controlled.
Goods Searching
If Unifaun is used a button is shown here for goods searching on the Internet when a shipment is printed or saved in Unifaun Online.
Create Shipping Templates
You can create shipping templates that can be used when creating new shipments in this procedure.
Window Functions
Use Load from source of info to load all the information for the shipping documents.
Use the Zebra control panel to open a special control panel for the label printers.
Select EDI advice to shipping agent in order to perform dispatch advices directly from this procedure. This button is activated if the shipping agent has the Advice type set to "EDI" under the Extra info button under the Info tab in the Update Supplier procedure and the shipment status is set to 4 (Shipped).
By using the setting Send EDI advice to shipping agent in Print Shipping Documents, under Fax / E-mail under the System tab in the Settings procedure, you can determine whether the EDI advice shall be sent manually after printing the shipping document or automatically in connection with the printout.
To be able to send EDI advices, a link must be registered to format group 270 (Advice to shipping agent) with format number 181 (Advising to Apport.net) in the EDI Links procedure.
If you select Send via e-mail a dispatch advice will be sent to the customer via e-mail after printout of the shipping document when the shipment is given status 4 (Shipped).
You can also send dispatch advices to customers via e-mail by selecting Print, which is determined by the setting Send advising via e-mail, under Fax / E-mail under the System tab in the Settings procedure.
When the dispatch advice is sent via e-mail to customer, an e-mail address for dispatch advice must be entered on the order. In the Update Customer procedure, under the Info tab, you enter the e-mail address recipient of dispatch advices that you want to be selected by default on the order.
By using the setting Use Unifaun OnlineConnect printer mapping, under Shipping under the Sales tab in the Settings procedure, it is possible to, per MONITOR user, determine which printer that should be used during export via Unifaun OnlineConnect in the Print Shipping Documents procedure. Activate the setting in order to export the user's printer number for "Shipping label" from the Users procedure in the Global Settings module.
By using the setting New shipment after EDI advice, under Shipping under the Sales tab in the Settings procedure, the procedure can be automatically create a new shipment after a successful EDI advice.
The dispatch advice will be attached by default as an XML file to the e-mail message. If XML files shall be attached or not is determined by a setting under the button Attach XML file under the Info tab in the Update Customer procedure. Customers that also use MONITOR can drag the XML file from the e-mail message and drop it in the Register Purchase Order procedure in order to register the dispatch advice. This function is part of the MONITOR-to-MONITOR feature.
The order number is included in the file names of the XML and PDF files that are sent via e-mail. If the order number contains characters invalid for file names (such as slash "/"), these will be replaced with hyphens "-" in the file name.
Read more about the other Window functions under Window Functions in the MONITOR Basics.