Shiptheory is a shipping integration application. It connects your business directly to carriers, allows you to set shipping rules to control how orders are sent with your carriers, and print shipping labels. By integrating Shiptheory with Cin7 Core, you can import the tracking number to Cin7 Core and print automatically generated shipping labels during the Cin7 Core ship process. Shiptheory can also be connected in export orders mode, where orders in Cin7 Core are sent to Shiptheory for fulfilment and label printing.
NOTE: Shiptheory API does not support consolidated shipments. Generating shipping label will return a label per package.
For more information, please refer to Shiptheory.
Prerequisites
- Familiarity with the Processing a Sale process (necessary)
- Familiarity with Products and Product Management (necessary)
- User permissions
- User will need the Shipping Services → Shiptheory permission enabled to access the integration settings.
- User will need the Sale → Sale Task – Pack view: Sales List & Tasks permission to enter package information and shipping instructions.
- User will need the Sale → Sale Task – Ship view: Sales List & Tasks permission is required to generate the shipping label.
Table of Contents
- Shiptheory integration setup
- Shipping Label Printing
- Exporting sale orders to Shiptheory
- Commodity description and composition
- User-specific printing
- Disconnecting from Shiptheory
Shiptheory integration setup
- Navigate to Integration → Shiptheory. The Shiptheory login screen will be displayed.
- Use your Shiptheory login credentials.
- Click Connect Shiptheory. The Shiptheory integration settings screen will be displayed.
Connecting Shiptheory will take you to the integration settings page. Some Shiptheory integration settings can be customised. If you make any changes to the default settings, make sure to click Save Changes upon completing them. If more than one shipping service is connected, you can click Set Default to set Shiptheory as your default service.
Enable export of sales to Shiptheory
There are two integration modes: Export sale orders to Shiptheory or Generate shipping labels in Cin7 Core
Export Sale Orders to Shiptheory exports orders from Cin7 Core (including eCommerce orders), fulfillment takes place in Shiptheory, then shipping information and stock movements are synced back to Cin7 Core. Orders are exported automatically but must be manually approved in Shiptheory. Shipping labels are printed from Shiptheory. Orders can be filtered before export. We recommend this if you are using eCommerce channels integrated with Cin7 Core.
Generate shipping labels in Cin7 Core connects Shiptheory as a s hipping service without exporting orders from DEAR. Orders (including eCommerce orders) are placed in DEAR, orders can be fulfilled either through DEAR or exported to ShipStation for fulfillment, shipment information is synced with ShipStation to generate shipping labels, printable in Cin7 Core.
See Exporting sale orders to Shiptheory for more details.
Integration settings
Currency in Shiptheory: This sets the currency to be used in Shiptheory. This MUST match the currency value set under Settings → General Settings in Cin7 Core.
Use as document number: Orders are passed from Cin7 Core to Shiptheory with a reference number which is printed on Shiptheory shipping labels. Select whether to use invoice number or sale order number as the reference number.
Send a notification on shipping label generation: Enable to trigger an internal notification on the generation of a shipping label. Applicable only for Generate shipping labels in Cin7 Core mode.
Preferred carriers/services: This searchable dropdown field lists all available carriers and services passed from Shiptheory to Cin7 Core. Select a carrier from this list to add it as a preferred carrier. Simply press X to remove a preferred carrier from the list. When selecting a carrier for shipping, preferred carriers will be displayed first.
Set Default: Set Shiptheory as your default shipping service. Label printing will be done through Shiptheory (relevant if multiple shipping services are connected). This option is not visible if Shiptheory has already been set as your default shipping service.
Sale order export settings
These settings are only applicable when Export Sale Orders to Shiptheory is selected.
Export sales fulfilled externally
This setting controls whether Cin7 Core should export Amazon sales fulfilled via FBA to Shiptheory. This only affects FBA sales fulfilled through Cin7 Core's native integration with Amazon FBA - sales fulfilled through Amazon FBA NOT integrated with Cin7 Core will not be affected.
Capture ship to company as
When labels are printed in Shiptheory, Ship to Company and Ship to Contact are passed with the sale order. If Ship to Company is left blank, you can:
- Leave blank when when Ship to Company is not specified: The field is left blank on the Shiptheory shipping label when Ship to Company is not specified.
- Use customer name when ship to company not specified: Customer name is printed on Shiptheory shipping label when Ship to Company is not specified.
Printing shipping labels
Cin7 Core allows printing of shipping labels from Shiptheory. This option appears at the Ship tab of the sales process for Simple Sales and Advanced Sales. You can also print shipping labels from the DEAR Warehouse Management Solution (WMS) app.
If Cin7 Core receives an error during shipping label generation, an error message will appear with a downloadable .txt file with the error data. If the error is unexpected, the user will also see an email dialog box with attached error data log file which can be sent to the shipping service provider customer support.
- Use the normal sales process to create a sales order in either Simple Sale or Advanced Sale.
- On the document header, enter the shipping address.
- NOTE: Make sure the shipping address field is correct as it will be used by external integration for address verification.
- The sale process remains the same as far as the Pack tab, which must be authorised.
- From here, click the Shipping Instructions sub-tab. This sub-tab is for shipping information that applies all packages. Click Enter Shipping instructions to open a pop-up window.
- The pop up window is dynamically generated according to the connected shipping service. Enter the information and save your changes.
- This will add the shipping instructions to the display. Click To Package details to continue.
- This sub-tab is for entering package dimensions for all packages within a sale order. Click Enter package details to open a pop-up window.
- The pop up window is dynamically generated according to the connected shipping service. Select which boxes to include and enter the weight and dimensions. Save your changes.
- This will add the shipment to the display. Continue to the Ship tab.
- On the Ship tab, press Copy from Pack to enter the package details and select your Carrier. Click Generate Shipping Label to send package information and shipping instructions to the shipping service provider and generate the shipping label.
- Shiptheory does not support consolidated shipments. Generating shipping label will return a label per package.
- The carrier info, including the tracking number, will then be automatically entered into the Ship tab. The Shipping Label will be generated automatically via PDF. You can also print the label by selecting the shipment from the list. From here, Authorise the ship tab to complete the fulfilment.
NOTE: The template used to print the shipping label is generated on Shiptheory side. Cin7 Core just downloads the pdf from their API, it is not possible to change the shipping label template through Cin7 Core.
Exporting sale orders to Shiptheory
Shiptheory can also be connected in export orders mode. You will need to select Export sale orders to Shiptheory mode from the Setup tab and configure your Sale export settings.
When enabled, this exports orders from Cin7 Core (including eCommerce orders), fulfillment takes place in Shiptheory, then shipping information and stock movements are synced back to Cin7 Core. Shipping labels are printed from Shiptheory. Orders can be filtered before export.
Once a day, Cin7 Core will check new sales orders to determine what will be exported. Orders where the following conditions are met will be exported automatically:
- Pack tab is authorised
- Ship tab contains info (Tracking # field must be blank)
- Ship tab can be authorised or unauthorised
- Invoice tab can be authorised or unauthorised but must have an invoice number.
NOTE: Orders will be exported automatically to Shiptheory with status Waiting. Users will have to enter Shiptheory to manually approve each order, select the carrier and service, and print the shipping label. This will change the order status to Completed and send the shipping information back to Cin7 Core.
The system will also check for sale orders that could potentially be exported to Shiptheory, but which have one or more problems preventing a successful export (e.g. no shipping address). These orders will be added to the Shipment Log to be exported manually after problems have been resolved. When automatic export of an order fails, this order will also be added to the shipment log.
Sale order export filters
Sale orders can be excluded from export to Shiptheory. This is configured from the Setup tab. Sale orders excluded from export will be added to the Shipment log with status Skipped.
The following Parameters can be used to filter sale order fields:
- Sales channel
- Reference
- Sales representative
- Comments
- Invoice memo
- Carrier
- Ship To
- Contact
- Company
- City
- State
- Postal Code
- Country (Two-letter country code - e.g. United States = US)
- Phone
Enter an alphanumeric string into the Value field to filter the selected fields. Condition (Equals, Contains, Not Contain, Empty, Not Empty) selects how the filter is applied to the value.
There is no limitation to the number of filters. Multiple filters are applied by the Join (And or Or) selected by the user. And will join groups of filter and Or will differentiate between groups of filters.
Example 1: We have the filters set up as follows:
- Country / Equals / US / And
- Customer / Equals / John / Or
- Customer / Equals / Peter
This will exclude all orders being shipped to the US, with either John or Peter as a customer.
Example 2: We have the filters set up as follows:
- Country / Equals / US / And
- Customer / Equals / John / Or
- Customer / Equals / Peter / And
- Company Name / Equals / ABC
This will exclude all orders being shipped to the US with John as a customer, and all orders being shipped to the US with Peter as a customer where company name is ABC.
Notifications
Notifications can be sent either via email or internally when sale order export succeeds, sale order export fails, or when an exported order has shipped. This is configured from the Setup tab.
NOTE: Mailing list and sending of notifications for Shiptheory does NOT require a subscription to the Automation module.
Email notifications: Select a mailing list to send a notification by email to the users on the list. One email is generated for all successfully exported orders, one for all not exported orders, and one for all shipped orders (when shipment is executed in Shiptheory). Notification emails will include a list of orders, and also a .csv file attached with the order list.
Internal notifications: This will send an internal notification to all members of your organisation via the internal notifications dialog. One notification is sent for uccessfully exported orders, one for all not exported orders, and one for all shipped orders. Internal notifications include a link to a list of all included orders.
Shipment log
The Shipment log contains a log of all orders that could be exported to Shiptheory. This includes the results of auto-export, sale orders that have been flagged as potential orders for export, which orders have been flagged by filters to be skipped, and the results of manual export.
Sales orders can be filtered by Scheduled for export date and Status, and can be searched by SO#, Fulfillment #, Invoice #, and Customer using the search box in the top right of the page. Skipped or failed orders will have Scheduled for export date as the original date of export.
Manually export sale orders
Failed sale orders can be added to the next scheduled export, after any errors (if applicable) are resolved. Filter the order view to show only orders to be added to the export, then click Schedule Export. You can then select the time period (filtered by shipment authorisation date. Sale orders within the selected filter period will be exported to Shiptheory at the next scheduled export. Shipment authorsiation date must fall within the selected period for order to be exported.
NOTE: Sale orders skipped for export because of user filters will not be added to the manual export.
Commodity description and composition
Commodity description and commodity composition are mandatory pieces of information for carriers that process international shipments. The Description and Short description fields from a product’s record are mapped to Commodity description and Commodity composition respectively in Shiptheory.
User-specific printing
Shiptheory has a feature called user printing where depending on which user has sent the order it will print to a specific printer. For example, in a warehouse with 4 stations with 4 printers, the order could always print from the same station.
In the Shiptheory - "Shipment" section, there is an field called "rules_metadata", users can use this while creating shipping rules to make sure that orders print on the correct stations. The user/picker is passed to “rules_metadata”. when a user clicks Print shipping label.
For bulk sales export and POS or eCommerce sales, Core cannot send the specific user details to "rules_metadata" to automatically print the labels to the user-linked printers. "rules_metadata" field will be blank. However, a rule can be created for when "rules metadata" field is left blank.
Disconnecting from Shiptheory
If you stop using Shiptheory, it is easy to disable the integration. Go to Integrations → Shiptheory, click Disconnect to disconnect Shiptheory from Cin7 Core.