Order preparation tabs
The order preparation extension main screen displays 3 tabs in which it distributes orders :
- In stock orders : contains orders for which every products are in stock
- Out of stock orders : contains orders with at least one back order
- Holded orders : contains orders that you dont want to process for the moment. This tab usually contains not paid orders, or fraud suspected
You can control the distribution in tabs based on the orders statuses (please check the configuration section for more details)
This screen provides a very clear state about the orders you have to ship and their progress.
The pick / pack / ship screen supports multiple packers and multiple warehouses (if you use our inventory management extension).
Preparation main workflow
The workflow is customizable via the options available in the configuration, however, here is the typical workflow provided by the extension :
- Select product batch : select a batch of orders to process. You can pick orders in any tab (in stock / out of stock / holded. The selected orders are then added into the “In progress” tab, with a preparation status to “new”
- Print the picking list : you can print both a global picking list (summarizing every products to pick for every orders, sorted by shelf location) but also a per-order picking. This second document display all order information on one single page. Picked orderds go to preparation status “picked”
- Pack the order : scanning the order barcode available on the picking list, the order details are displayed on the screen. You can then scan all products to pack for verification. Once all products are scanned, you can confirm the packing. Preparation status then goes to “Pack”
- Print the shipping label : using the carrier template feature, you can print the shipping label from any carrier software. Then, scan the tracking number to save it into the order. Preparation status is now “Shipped” and the customer is notified by email
Once all orders in the batch are shipped, you can process a new batch.
Shipping label templates
The large majority of carriers provide software (or website based software) to import order details and create shipping and print the shipping label. However, none of them use the same file format : it can be csv, xml, txt files and the content may vary.
To ensure the compatibility with every carriers softwares, order preparation for magento2 includes a carrier templates system that allows to build the export file depending of the shipping method.
You can then configure a custom order information file structure for each carrier.