Appearance
Packing materials
A packing material is a type of box, envelope, crate, pallet or other packaging. Boxture uses packing materials in three ways:
- Containers: every container (a physical box, pallet or tote-like unit holding inventory) is of a packing material type. When you receive goods on a pallet or put cartons in a box, the container's packing material says what it is.
- Parcels: when an order is packed, each parcel is a container of the chosen packing material. Its name appears in the parcel description and its weight and dimensions are used for the parcel.
- Product packing materials: extra materials that go with a product, such as a gift box, that can be selected and consumed while packing.
Packing materials are maintained in Admin › Warehousing › Packing materials (admins only). Technically a packing material is a special kind of product, so it can also have inventory (for example a stock of empty boxes in a packing bin location).
The packing materials list
The list shows the packing materials of the current account with Level, Number, Name, Description, Physical packaging, Packaging qualifier, State, Pickable and Created at. Use Create or Import in the card menu.
Creating a packing material
- Switch to the account that should own the packing material (see Which packing materials an account can use).
- Go to Admin › Warehousing › Packing materials and click Create.
- Fill in the Attributes tab:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Number | The code of the packing material, for example BOX-S or EUR-PALLET. It is shown with the name when you choose a packing material. |
| Name | The name users see, for example Small box 30x20x10 |
| Level | Nesting level (see below) |
| Pickable | Marks the packing material as pickable |
| Physical packaging | The kind of packaging: bag, barrel, basket, box, bucket, bundle, carton, case, container, crate, cylinder, drum, envelope, hamper, other, pail, pallet, piece, reel, roll, skid, tank or tube. Required. |
| Packaging qualifier | Free text to specify the packaging further, for example euro pallet, block pallet or aluminium tank. Values used before are offered as suggestions. |
| Description | Rich text description |
| Weight, Weight unit | The weight of the empty packaging |
| Length, Width, Height, Dimensions unit | The outer dimensions |
- Optionally add Notes and Metadata on the Meta Data tab.
- Click Save.
- Click Publish in the card menu. Only active (published) packing materials can be chosen in packing, receiving and container screens.
After the first save, the page also shows the product settings Reorder level and Reorder quantity for the packing material, so you can be warned when the stock of boxes runs low.
Levels: which containers fit in which
Each packing material has a level. A container can only be placed inside a container whose packing material has a higher level. For example:
| Level | Packing material |
|---|---|
| 1 | Inner carton |
| 2 | Shipping box |
| 3 | Pallet |
| 4 | Shipping container |
With these levels, inner cartons can go in a box, boxes on a pallet, and pallets in a shipping container, but a pallet can never be put in a box, and boxes of the same level cannot be put in each other. Boxture refuses such moves with a message that one may not be inside the other.
The level cannot be changed once containers or inventory of the packing material exist. To ignore the levels for a location, use Inventory › Ignore container levels.
Which packing materials an account can use
Packing materials are owned by one account. On the packing, receiving and container screens, the active packing materials of the current account, its parent accounts and its child accounts are offered (but not those of accounts above the user's own account). This means:
- Packing materials created on a top-level 3PL account are available to all client accounts below it.
- A client can have its own branded boxes on its own account; they are offered only when working in that client (or a parent of it).
Where a packing material is chosen
| Where | How the packing material is chosen |
|---|---|
| Pack screen (web and mobile) | Preselected from Packing › Default packing material or, if that has no value for the order, the order's shipping method. The packer can choose another one. |
| Auto pack and bulk pack and ship | The default packing material as above is used for the parcel, including its weight |
| Receiving and creating containers | The user chooses the packing material of the new container |
| Products | A product can have a default packing material, product packagings and product packing materials. See Product details |
Packing material states
| State | Meaning | Action to get there |
|---|---|---|
concept | Being set up, not offered | New packing material |
active | Offered in all screens | Publish (from concept) or Republish (from expired) |
expired | No longer offered for new containers and parcels | Expire (from active) |
Existing containers keep their packing material when it is expired.
Importing packing materials
The packing materials import has the columns Record ID, Number, Name, Level, Pickable, Physical packaging, Description, Weight, Weight unit, Width, Height, Length, Dimensions unit and State event (use publish to publish right away). New packing materials are created in the current account; fill in Record ID to update an existing one. See Imports.