How to record a wholesale shipment and invoice it

Record what went out on a confirmed wholesale order, line by line, then bill exactly that shipment with one click.

The Shipments panel on a wholesale order is where you record what left the building. Open the order from Wholesale › Orders and the panel sits below the order's lines. See What is wholesale? for how shipments fit into an order's life.

Each shipment you record moves the order's Fulfilment chip for you, and each one can become an invoice of its own.

Before you start

Recording a shipment needs Edit wholesale orders on Settings › Permissions, and invoicing it needs Edit wholesale invoices. Both start at lead (see How to set who can do what). Your workspace may use its own word for orders; Settings › Terminology shows both.

The order has to be Confirmed. Until it is, the panel reads Confirm the order first before recording a shipment. Confirming is covered in How to write and confirm a wholesale order.

How do you record a shipment?

Fill in what is going out on the Shipments panel and press Record shipment. The table lists every line with units still to go, with the columns Product, Ordered, Shipped and Shipping now.

In Shipping now, check the quantity for each line. Each box starts with everything still to go out, so a full shipment needs no typing.
Lower a box for a part shipment, or set it to 0 for a line that is not going this time.
In the Shipped date box below the table, pick the date it went out. It starts at today.
Type the Carrier, such as UPS, and the Tracking number if you have one. Both are optional.
Press Record shipment. "Shipment recorded." confirms it.

Check the quantities before you press Record shipment, because a recorded shipment stays on the order.

How do you ship an order in parts?

Record each part as its own shipment. A pro shop that ordered forty polos and gets twenty-four now and sixteen next month is two shipments on one order.

After each one, the Shipped column adds it up and Shipping now refills with what is left. A line that has gone out in full drops off the table. When every line has gone, the panel reads Everything on this order has gone out.

What happens to the order's statuses?

The Fulfilment chip at the top of the order follows the shipments. It reads Unfulfilled until the first one, Partly shipped while units are still to go, and Shipped once everything has gone.

There is nothing to set by hand. The Payment chip beside it works the same way, following the invoices and payments recorded against the order.

How do you invoice a shipment?

Press Invoice this shipment beside it. Tideswell creates a draft invoice for exactly the units in that shipment, at the prices on the order, and opens it.

Units already on another invoice that has not been voided are left off, so invoicing a second shipment never bills the first one again. If everything in a shipment is already billed, Tideswell says so and creates nothing.

From the draft you add freight, tax and any note to the buyer, then press Issue and Send to buyer. See How to invoice a wholesale order and record payment.

Where do recorded shipments show?

Under the table on the Shipments panel, oldest first. Each reads its date, the number of units, then the carrier and tracking number when you gave them, for example "24 units · UPS · 1Z999AA10123456784".

The Fulfilment column on the order book shows where every order stands. See How to read your wholesale order book.

What if Tideswell refuses the shipment?

The message says what to fix.

Put a quantity against at least one line. Every Shipping now box is empty or 0.
Only 6 of Tour Polo is still to go out. A box asks for more than is left on that line. Lower it to the number shown.
Pick the date it shipped. The Shipped date is empty.