Applying Profiles to Shipments
Shipping profiles allow you to create and save sets of your most commonly used shipping defaults. These defaults, or profiles, can then be easily applied to a single shipment or to a group of selected shipments. For example, you could have a profile that automatically applies an expedited shipping service, weight, insurance, dimensions, signature required, turn on email notifications and more, all with just a couple of mouse clicks, with a keyboard shortcut or even with a barcode scan.
This article covers how to apply shipping profiles to your shipments manually, by using a keyboard shortcut and by scanning a barcode.
When shipping an order using the Shipping Panel or when using Scan-to-Ship, you can easily apply a profile to your shipment by:
1. With the order selected, click on the Shipping tab.
2. Next, click on the Apply button located in the Profiles section and select the profile that you wish to apply from the drop-down list.
The profiles are listed with the Global Shipping Profiles listed first, then with each shipping provider specific profile grouped together by shipping provider.
You can also apply a profile to a shipment or to a group of shipments on the Ship Orders screen. One advantage to using the Ship Orders screen is that it allows you to select multiple shipments at once so that you can apply a shipping profile to multiple shipments at one time. Here's how:
1. Select the shipment or group of shipments to which you wish to apply the shipping profile.
2. Next, click on the Apply Profile button located in the list of buttons on the right and select the profile that you wish to apply from the drop-down list.
Note that the profiles are listed with the Global Shipping Profiles listed first, then with each shipping provider specific profile grouped together by shipping provider.
The selected profile is applied to all of the selected shipments. Applying Shipping Profiles Automatically
ShipWorks gives you the ability to create Shipping Rules which allows you to define to which orders a shipping profile will automatically get applied. The process is outside of the scope of this article. But don't worry, we have a separate Shipping Rules User's Guide to show you how.
For each shipping profile, you have the ability to associate a keyboard shortcut so that shipping profiles can be applied to shipments by using the computer keyboard. Here's how:
The first step is to make sure that you have defined the keyboard shortcuts that you intend to use.
1. Open the Manage Profiles dialog by clicking on the Manage tab and then on the Shipping Profiles button.
2. Select the profile for which you would like to define the keyboard shortcut and click the Edit button.
3. Select the shortcut from the list of available Keyboard Shortcuts.
4. Click the OK button.
Keyboard shortcuts can be applied to a shipment using the Shipping Panel the Ship Orders screen (Classic View) or when using Scan-to-Ship. When using the Ship Orders screen in Classic View, you can select multiple shipments at once and apply the profile to all of the selected shipments.
Note: The number keys on the 10-key pad of a keyboard will not work when applying a shipping profile.
The Shipping Panel
1. With an order selected, press the keyboard shortcut for the profile you wish to apply.
The Ship Orders Dialog
1. Select the shipment or shipments to which you wish to apply the shipping profile.
2. Press the keyboard shortcut for the profile you wish to apply to the shipment(s).
Scan-to-Ship View
After loading the order to be shipped, press the keyboard shortcut for the profile you wish to apply to the shipment.
In addition to searching for orders, weighing packages, and printing shipping labels using a barcode scanner with Single Scan (check out the Getting to Know Scan-to-Ship User Guide), ShipWorks also gives you the ability to apply shipping profiles by scanning a barcode making it super fast to process your shipments.
This section will guide you through adding a barcode to your shipping profiles, how to print a list of your assigned barcodes, and how to apply your profiles to shipments by scanning the assigned barcodes.
In order to use a barcode scanner to apply your shipping profiles, you will need to have a barcode scanner connected to your shipping computer and registered with the ShipWorks software. We have a guide for that, too. and, once your barcode scanner is ready to go, continue on with the next section.
The first step is to assign barcodes to any of the shipping profiles you wish to apply with a barcode scan. When assigning barcodes, there are a couple of things to keep in mind:
We suggest that you avoid special characters such as ~ ! @ # $ % & and so on. These can sometimes cause issues when scanning.
We suggest using numbers only, since alpha characters can generate very long barcodes.
Let's take a look at how to assign barcodes to your shipping profiles.
1. Open the Manage Profiles dialog by clicking on the Manage tab and then on the Shipping Profiles button.
2. Select the shipping profile for which you wish to assign a barcode. Then, click the EDIT button.
3. Enter the characters into the Barcode: field that you wish to display as the barcode for the shipping profile.
Note that you will not need to remember the barcode values other than to ensure that each barcode is unique. When you print a list of barcodes to scan (later in this document) it will list the name of the profile, the barcode and any related keyboard shortcuts for each profile.
Here is an example of what prints on the barcode scan form for each shipping profile.
4. Once you have entered a value into the Barcode: field, click the OK button.
Once you have assigned barcodes to your shipping profiles, you can print a sheet of your barcodes to use when applying your profiles with a barcode scan. Here's how:
1. Open the Manage Profiles dialog by clicking on the Manage tab and then on the Shipping Profiles button.
2. Click the Print Barcodes button.
If you have not assigned any barcodes, the Print Barcodes button will be disabled.
A list of shipping profiles along with the associated barcodes will be displayed.
Each shipping profile will list:
the name of the profile
the barcode
the keyboard shortcut, if applicable
3. Click the Print button. Then, select the printer to which you wish to print and click Print.
The list of barcodes will be printed to the printer you specified.
Now that you have barcodes assigned and printed, you can easily apply a shipping profile by scanning the barcode.
Using the Shipping Panel (Classic View)
1. Select the order to which you wish to apply the shipping profile.
2. With the order selected, scan the appropriate barcode.
The associated shipping profile will be applied to the shipment.
Using the Ship Orders Screen (Classic View)
1. Select the shipment(s) to which you wish to apply the shipping profile.
2. Scan the appropriate barcode.
The associated shipping profile will be applied to the shipment(s) selected.
Using Scan-to-Ship VIew
1. Load the order you wish to ship.
2. Scan the appropriate barcode.
The associated shipping profile will be applied to the shipment(s) selected.
Still Need Help?
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