Shipping Automation allows you to create various rules where the carrier, service, and packaging are selected automatically for each order according to its specifics as soon as it is imported to Multiorders. All you need to do after the order comes in is to print shipping labels.

NOTE: Shipping Automation is available for these carriers:
USPS, FedEx, UPS, Parcelforce, DHL Express, Royal Mail, Parcelforce, DPD, DPD Local, Deutsche Post, Canada Post.

How to create a Shipping Automation rule

Go to Tools - Automation and click on the Create Automation button.
A new window will pop up where you can start creating your automation rule. Start by giving your rule a name and if needed describe it in detail:
The trigger (Starts When) which initiates the automation will be automatically selected as Order Created as this option is the only one we offer at the moment.
Click on Add Condition. This will open up the selection on the right side. Let's choose our first condition which is Shipping Country and type in the United Kingdom. Click on Done for the condition to be added to the rule:
If you want to add another condition, click on Add Condition button:
Another If section will appear with an option to Add Condition. Let's click on it and select the condition from the right side - this time let's select order Payment Status to be Paid:
Once we are done adding conditions, we can move to Actions. If we want the action to be applied on the orders which DO meet our conditions Shipping Country is the United Kingdom and if Payment Status is paid, we have to click on Add Action which goes under the YES line:

If we want the action to be applied on the orders which DON'T meet our conditions - their Shipping Country is not the United Kingdom and Payment Status is not paid, we have to click on Add Action which goes under the NO line:
When you will click on Add Action, a table with selection will appear on the right side:

NOTE: You can only add one action out of 4 available per one automation rule. For another action to be applied you have to start from scratch and create a new automation rule.

Here is a review of the actions that you can select:
- Action 1: Note - automatically add a note to an order
- Action 2: Prepare - automatically select the shipping carrier, service, EORI number if you have one and the package preset
- Action 3: Tag - automatically tag an order by choosing the tag from your tags list.
- Action 4: User - automatically assign a team member to an order

Let's select Prepare Action this time - we choose carrier, service, EORI code (none), and the package preset. Once finished, click on Done:
Action has been added to the rule and we can click on Save to finish creating the rule:

That's it - our automation rule has been created and we can find it in the Automation tool main screen. From here we can edit, delete the rule or make it not active by removing the checkmark from the Active column:

To test if the rule is working, we recommend creating order by yourself instead of waiting for an actual order to come in.

Using the new order status tab:

If you haven't done so already, please create at least one Local order that would trigger you shipping automation preset. As soon as that order is created and the automation takes action, you will notice that a your order is no longer in the New tab, but in different one called "Prepared", this tab remains hidden unless there are orders with shipping automation applied to them.

Inside the Prepared tab you will be able to see what kind of automation has been applied to your orders. Like carrier, shipping service, package weight and dimensions.

As well as a new bar with additional buttons to complete the shipping process.

Complete All: will begin creating shipping labels for all the orders in the Prepared tab. You can also select just a couple of orders individually and press Complete Selected.

If you feel like you need to make adjustments to some of the orders in the prepared tab, you can click on the carrier or shipping service options to bring up a pop-up menu that allows you to change those details. You can also select multiple items and press Change Shipping Options button to apply changes in bulk.

The newly opened window will allow to make any carrier changes:

Automatic Document Printing:

With Shipping Automation comes a new feature for automated document printing

Pressing this button brings up a menu in which you can choose what documents like Invoices should be opened together with the shipping label. We'll choose Invoice to open at the same time as shipping labels in this case.

Error Log:

The new Error Log column will remain empty in the best case scenario, but if your shipping automation fails for any reason it will log the error there.

I have just tried shipping our test order with Royal Mail and it failed.

Sometimes the messages can be too long to read, or you may run into multiple problems, in that case press on the red text bring a full view of the error history. After fixing the mistakes try shipping again.

Preparation status:

For an order to automatically ship there are several steps. which you will be able to track within the "Prep Status" column.

In-Queue: means that the order has been sent for processing.

Errored: you get when something fails and the order cannot be processed

Processing: you get when there are no errors and the labels are being prepared for print.

There is no success status, if everything has gone to plan, your order has now moved either to In-Progress status or straight away to Shipped.

If you have enabled the automatic print option mentioned above, after your labels are ready a pop-up like this will appear in the top right corner of your screen. Pressing print will open your shipping labels in one browser tab and each of your documents in their respective tabs.

if for any reason you didn't notice the print pop-up you can always find your labels in the Labels & Manifests area here.