Packing an Order

Pack your orders and identify any shorts that occur during packing as part of your fulfillment process.

Before diving into the packing process, let's take a look at some helpful definitions. 

Glossary

  • Ordered quantity: The quantity of a SKU that was ordered or edited after order create.
  • Packed quantity: The quantity of a SKU packed for an order.
  • Delivered quantity: The quantity of the SKU actually delivered.
  • Fulfillment short: The shorted quantity of a SKU that occurs during packing. 
  • Delivery short: An adjustment to the order that occurs at the time of delivery in the DCT or DMS. Fulfillment shorts get included in this quantity. 
  • Pack: The act of transforming order items into one or more packages.
  • Unpack: The act of transforming one or more packages, or package contents, back into order items.

Before You Start Packing

Review these important notes before beginning the packing process: 

  • Before you begin the packing process you will need to define your package types.
  • Only draft or scheduled orders can be packed
  • Delivered and finalized orders cannot have package contents adjusted
  • Order must be allocated 

Packing Process

Navigate to the packing page by clicking Inventory then Packing in the left-hand side menu.

Using the Search Package page, select the row to be brought to the Packing page for your specific order. Depending on the composition of your order, your order may contain inventory-managed items, non-inventory-managed items, or a mix of both. Inventory-managed items and non-inventory-managed items will be on two separate packing lists on the left hand side. As you will see, only inventory-managed items can be actioned, while non-inventory managed items are shown for reference.

You will first need to create a package using the pre-defined package types in your system. You can optionally add a third-party package ID to add more context to your package. Third-party Package IDs are open text fields and not required to be unique. You also must choose a location for your package; this could be a staging area, the vehicle it is destined for, or another storage location of your choosing. 

To begin packing, choose an inventory managed SKU from the list on the left-hand side. This will prompt a table to show up with all of the locations within the warehouse that your SKU is located. If your SKU has lot tracking enabled, you will see lot information as well.

Click on the row for the location that you are packing your SKU from. You'll see a modal that will show you a status of quantity ordered, quantity packed, and quantity remaining to pack. Choose your quantity to pack and click Save. You'll notice that the quantity you just packed shows up in the bottom of the page in a Package Contents table.

NOTE: Packing is instantaneous; as soon as you press save and the modal closes, the product moves from the origin location and into the package. 

If for whatever reason you need to unpack items from a package, you can do so in that same Package Contents table. Press the - button, choose the quantity, choose which storage location you're putting it in, and click Save.

When you've finished packing, you can click Review Order to be brought to the next page. This page is another chance to review what was ordered vs what was packed. If you packed less than the ordered quantity, you will be required to apply a packing short for the remaining quantity before the order is eligible for delivery.

If you applied a short and later found enough product to fulfill the order, simply undo the short and return to the packing page to add more product.  

What if my order gets cancelled or archived?

Cancelling or archiving an order that has been packed does not unpack the product automatically; any packages will still have to be unpacked manually. You can tell if an order has been archived or cancelled because the order's Packing page will show an informational banner. If the order gets cancelled or archived while you are packing, the banner will appear and you will no longer be able to pack, but you can still unpack. 

You can also create a stock claim while unpacking if the order is cancelled or archived. You can stock claim if the product you are unpacking is unfit for sale. You will need to choose the quantity, reason code, and location of the stock claim. Check out this article for more information.

NOTE: A package can only have its contents adjusted if it is in Draft or Scheduled state. Unpacking (removing contents) can only be done if the order status is in Archived, Draft, Scheduled, or Cancelled state. 

You can also navigate to the package page by clicking Packing in the left hand side menu under the Inventory tab and selecting the package for the order you need to adjust.