V8 - Shipments and Shipments list
Shipping in SOS Inventory is defined as inventory going from your company to the customer. It does not necessarily mean that you actually shipped it. For example, if a customer comes to your location and picks up the items, you still need to create a shipment to indicate that the items were removed from inventory.
Although fulfillment-related topics are covered separately from sales in the user guide, shipping is part of the sales workflow. Refer to Sales workflow examples for ideas incorporating SOS Inventory's shipment transactions into your sales workflow.
Shipments list
Shipment records are stored on the Shipments list (Operations menu > Fulfillment > Shipments). The actions on the list that can be used to generate other types of transactions are Create invoice, Create RMA, and Create return. The Ship via UPS action opens the Create UPS Shipment page, where you can provide package information, select shipping option, and choose the payment method.
The Send via EDI, an action and batch action, as well as the Update via EDI batch action, send a transaction to a trading partner in a secure common environment via Enhanced Data Interchange (EDI). To use these actions, SOS must set up the EDI connection (per your FTP settings) with your desired trading partner. See EDI integration for more information.
For a general overview of how lists work in SOS Inventory, refer to List functions. See Action and batch action descriptions for more information about the actions available on lists.
Adding and editing a shipment
To add a shipment, use any of the following methods:
- Generate a shipment from another transaction (most commonly, a sales order). Locate that parent transaction record on its appropriate list, then select Create shipment from the parent record's Actions menu.
- On the Task bar, go to Quick Add > Fulfillment > Shipments.
- Go to Operations menu > Fulfillment > Shipments, then select Add new.
An existing shipment record can be opened for editing by selecting the transaction's Edit button on the Shipments list. Be sure to save your changes.
For explanations of fields on shipment transactions, see Pick ticket and shipment field descriptions.
Ready to pick/ship report
The Ready to pick/ship report (Operations menu > Reports > Fulfillment > Ready to pick/ship) shows all orders that can be picked or shipped based on the inventory on hand or the available for sale, depending on options that you choose when generating the report. As you receive new inventory, use this report to fill your backorders. For many SOS Inventory customers, the Ready to pick/ship report becomes a to-do list for their warehouse workers each day.
Packing slips
When you create a shipment, it is produced as a packing slip when generated as a PDF or displayed in Quick view. You can customize headers, footers, and other details of the packing slip via the Shipments tab under the Sales settings (Settings > Sales settings > Shipments). For additional customization options, you can modify a packing slip form template.
Automatic shipments from QuickBooks Online transactions
SOS Inventory can create shipments (and thus relieve inventory) automatically from new invoices and sales receipts entered in QuickBooks Online. This feature is not enabled by default. To enable this capability, go to Settings > Sales settings. Under the General section are options called Auto-ship invoices and Auto-ship sales receipts. Turn on as needed and save the changes. Inventory will be relieved in SOS Inventory when new invoices or sales receipts in QuickBooks Online sync to SOS.