How to track a shipment on its way

The Shipments panel sits on every order in What are suppliers and purchase orders? (Buying › Purchase orders, then open an order), below the products and below Receipt history once anything has been received. It records what the supplier says is on the way, container by container, before any of it arrives.

Before you start

Adding, changing and removing shipments needs two rows in Settings › Permissions: Edit purchase orders and the buying calendar and Change stock, receiving and store settings. Both start at lead, per How to set who can do what.

Anyone who can open the order can read its shipments.

How do you add a shipment?

Press Add shipment beside the Shipments heading, fill in what the supplier told you, and say which products are aboard. An order with nothing recorded reads Nothing recorded yet. Add a container to track where this order is before it arrives.

1. Open the order and press Add shipment. The Add a shipment window opens.
2. Fill in Carrier, Tracking number and Due to arrive.
3. Type the freight charge for this container into Freight, which shows the order's currency, for example Freight (USD).
4. Choose a Status: Expected, In transit or Arrived. It starts at In transit.
5. Under What is aboard, type how many units of each product are on this container.
6. Press Add shipment.

Every box above What is aboard is optional. You need at least one product on the shipment, so fill in its units even when you know nothing else yet.

How do you split an order across containers?

Add one shipment per container. Each product under What is aboard shows how much of it is still unaccounted for, such as 150 of 400 not yet on a shipment.

Portside Mills ships an order of 400 polos in two containers. Add the first with 250 aboard, and the second window shows 150 of 400 not yet on a shipment for the rest.

A product already fully on other shipments is greyed out. If you type more than is left, Tideswell refuses and tells you how many were ordered and how many are already on other shipments.

How do you update a shipment as it travels?

Change its status in the row: Expected, In transit or Arrived. The change saves as soon as you pick it.

Each row shows the carrier, the tracking number, the due date (Due and the date, or No date), the units aboard, the freight and the status. A row with no carrier reads Carrier not recorded.

To take off a shipment entered by mistake, press the bin icon (Remove shipment) at the end of its row.

Does an arrived shipment change your stock?

No. Under the rows the panel says What the supplier says is on the way. Stock only moves when a delivery is received.

When the container lands, count it in with Receive shipment, per How to receive a delivery. That is the step that updates Shopify and the order's received figures.

The freight on a shipment is your record of what that container cost to move. To count it in Landed cost, type it into Freight when you receive the container, per How to add products and choose your columns.

When are shipments most useful?

When an order runs late and someone asks where it is. The carrier and tracking number are on the order, so you can check before you call the supplier.

Record a shipment as soon as the supplier sends tracking, and move its status as the carrier updates. How to find late orders and plan revisions covers finding the orders worth chasing.