Packing

Packing puts picked items into parcels and, in doing so, creates the shipment that will leave the warehouse. Each parcel is a container (an existing one, or a new one made from a packing material) with the items in it. A shipment holds one or more parcels for one or more orders.

You can pack in four ways:

Way	When to use
Order › Pack in the web application	Packing stations with a PC, or to correct things. Described on this page.
The mobile app	Packing with a scanner. See Mobile packing.
Auto pack	Orders are packed automatically when their pick list is completed.
Bulk pack and ship	Many single-line orders that were bulk picked into one container.

Packing requires the role Admin, Warehouse associate or Packer, and the order must have picked items.

Packing an order

1. Open the order and choose Pack in the order menu. The Parcel card shows how many items are still awaiting packing.
2. Set up the parcel:
   • Parcel container: scan or select an existing container to use as the parcel (an available, picked or packed container), or
   • New container: choose a packing material to create a new container for the parcel. The default packing material is preselected (see Default packing material).
   • Packing bin location: only shown when packing materials are consumed (see Product packing materials).
   • Tote: the tote the picked items are in.
   • Add to open shipment: see Add to open shipment.
   • Dimensions (collapsed): weight and weight unit, length, width, height and dimensions unit. These are filled in from the container or packing material and can be changed.
3. Under Items, add what goes into this parcel:
   • Tote, and Picked container when items were picked in a container,
   • Product and Quantity,
   • Serial number, Lot and Expires on when the product requires them. For products with outbound serial tracking, the serial numbers are registered here.
   • When Select product packing materials is on, the product's packagings appear as switches to confirm.
4. Click Pack, or Pack & New Parcel to pack this parcel and immediately start the next one for the remaining items.

Packing runs in the background. When done you get "Processed pack for ... onto shipment ..." with links to the order and the shipment. If items remain, the pack screen opens again; otherwise you return to the order.

What packing does

• The items change from picked to packed and are recorded as parcel items with their price, customs value, weight, dimensions, HS code, ECCN, UN number and country of origin (taken from the order line and the product).
• The container becomes the parcel's container. A picked container that you pack as a whole is placed inside the parcel container.
• Each parcel gets an SSCC number, generated from the account's GLN when no SSCC is supplied (see Labels and documents).
• A shipment is created, or an open one is reused (see below). A new shipment gets the order's carrier, service type (from its shipping method), delivery terms, customer reference, ship at, the delivery and billing address, and the location's origin address. For export shipments the importer and exporter contacts are added.

Checks while packing

Packing is refused, with a message, when:

• the order details are invalid ("invalid order details, edit the order to correct them"), or nothing is picked;
• picked items have expired (except for scrap orders);
• the tote does not match the tote the items were picked into ("Wrong tote selected");
• the container is used in another pending shipment, or the parcels would end up in more than one shipment;
• the container is on hold, or is not available;
• serial numbers, lots or expiry dates do not match the picked inventory;
• the product's setup is not complete while Restrict transactions to setup complete applies.

Add to open shipment

Add to open shipment decides what happens when an order is packed in several steps:

• On: the parcel is added to the order's existing shipment in that location, as long as that shipment is still pending or on hold. All parcels of the order end up in one shipment.
• Off: every pack creates a new shipment.

The switch is preset from the setting Add to open shipment, which can differ per location and customer (default on). When the order may not be shipped partially (Partial shipping off), the switch must stay on: Boxture refuses with "must be added to an existing shipment, because partial shipping is not allowed".

Default packing material

The packing material preselected for a new parcel comes from:

1. the setting Default packing material, which can differ per location and order type and is inherited from parent accounts;
2. otherwise the default packing material of the order's shipping method (see Carriers and shipping methods).

Auto pack and bulk pack and ship rely on this default. See Packing materials for setting up packing materials.

Product packing materials

Some products need extra packaging (filler, an outer box) defined as product packagings. Two settings, per location, control this:

• Select product packing materials: the packer confirms the product's packagings for each item while packing. All packagings must be confirmed.
• Consume product packing materials: the packaging is also taken out of stock from the chosen Packing bin location (a bin location with purpose packing). The user's default packing bin location is preselected. If there is not enough packaging in stock, packing is refused.

Auto pack

With the setting Auto pack on for the location, orders are packed automatically as soon as their pick list is completed. For each order on the pick list:

• every picked container that contains only this order's items becomes a parcel; it is put inside the default packing material if it fits, otherwise it is shipped as its own parcel;
• a picked container with items of several orders is emptied, and its items are packed loose;
• all loose items are packed together in one parcel of the default packing material.

A shipment is created exactly as with manual packing, so Add to open shipment, Auto ship and Create label on pack complete all apply.

Requirements for auto pack

• A default packing material must be available for the order, or auto pack fails for loose items.
• The picker completes the pick list, so the pack runs as that picker: the picker needs the Packer role (or Warehouse associate). Otherwise the picker sees "Auto pack failed".

Auto ship

With the setting Auto ship on for the location, the shipment is shipped automatically right after packing, provided that:

• the order is completely packed, and
• the order has exactly one shipment (everything is shipped from one location on one shipment).

If the order is packed in several steps, the shipment is shipped after the last pack. The packing user must be allowed to ship (Admin, Warehouse associate or Shipper); otherwise the pack fails with "User not allowed to ship shipments". See Shipments for what shipping does.

TIP

If the carrier is integrated, shipping also requests a label from the carrier. When that fails (for example an invalid postal code), the shipment goes back to pending; correct the shipment and ship it manually.

Unpacking

To take items out of a parcel again, use Unpack on the order (role Admin or Warehouse associate). This is possible as long as the shipment is still pending or on hold.

1. Open the order and choose Unpack.
2. Select the Tote to put the items in, and the Parcel.
3. Unpack a picked container that was packed inside the parcel by entering it as Sub container, or enter Product, Quantity and, when relevant, serial number, lot and expiry date.
4. Click Unpack.

The items go back to picked, in the chosen tote, and can be packed again. A parcel that becomes empty is removed, and a shipment without any parcel items left is cancelled (a hold on that shipment is released and its open tasks are closed).