Shiptheory

Overview of the Shiptheory app

Shiptheory connects your business directly to your carriers, allowing the app to send goods out notes to your integrated carriers for you. Through use of flexible shipping rules, you can even do this automatically!

Once the items have been shipped by your carrier, Shiptheory can update Brightpearl to mark the goods out notes as shipped in Brightpearl, reducing time spent on manual processes.

Getting started with Shiptheory

First, you will need to install the Shiptheory App via the App Store on the top right-hand side of the page. Find the Shiptheory app, then click "Turn on".

You will be taken to the getting started with/login screen for Shiptheory.

Signing up for Shiptheory

You will need to sign up for a Shiptheory account if you haven't got one already by clicking Register for free on the Shiptheory website. Click "Free trial" on the top right-hand side of the page.

This will ask you to create some login details for Shiptheory:

Connecting Brightpearl to Shiptheory

In order to connect Shiptheory and Brightpearl, you will need to Enable the Brightpearl channel upon setup.    

Once you’ve enabled Brightpearl, you will then need to enter your Brightpearl account details and test your connection to Brightpearl:

You can then set up Shiptheory to work with the goods out note workflows you have, as below.

First, you will need to choose your preferences. There are three preferences to choose from:

Product weight units	Choose the unit of measure used for the weight of your Brightpearl products, from: Grams Kilograms Pounds Ounces
Product size units	Choose the unit of measure used for the size of your Brightpearl products, from: Centimeters Millimeters Meters Inches Feet
Shipping charges nominal code	Tell Shiptheory what your Brightpearl account code for shipping income on sales is, so Shiptheory is able to identify your shipping charges and separate them from your order contents value.

You can then decide when Shiptheory should send a goods out note to a carrier, which can happen at the following stages:

• Created
• Printed
• Picked
• Packed

Please note that you can only choose one option here.

If you try to choose more than one option, you will be faced with an error:

There are also some further options you can configure, which can be accessed by clicking on the "Advanced settings" tab at the bottom of the page:

The first of these advanced settings is to decide whether Shiptheory should mark your Brightpearl goods out notes as shipped when the shipment is completed in Shiptheory.

Warning: Shipping in Brightpearl cannot be undone, so be cautious when enabling this option. It will not be suitable for every workflow.

The next two settings relate to weights.

Specify weight conditions allows you to specify either:

• a minimum weight that will be applied to all of your shipments ("at least")
• an override for all shipment weights with a fixed value ("equals")

Enabling bundle products prices and weights means that if your shipment contains a bundle, its component prices and weights are proportionately calculated from the bundle parent.

Carriers

When setting up Shiptheory, you can Enable the carriers you use and Enter the relevant details the carriers require.

Alternatively, you can select Manage Carriers from the drop-down next to your name when signed into Shiptheory. This is useful for if you start using other carriers after setting up Shiptheory.

This will take you to the same screen you saw upon sign-up asking you to Enable the carriers you use:

You will then be prompted to enter details that differ for each carrier. Some of these carriers will require you to get in contact with them to retrieve the necessary details.

We recommend taking a look at the following help guides Shiptheory have put together for you:

• Integrating with Royal Mail
• Integrating with Parcelforce
• Integrating with Yodel
• Integrating with DPD & Interlink
• Integrating with UPS
• Integrating with APC
• Integrating with UK Mail

Set up shipping address

Upon completing this initial setup for Shiptheory, you will be greeted with the following message:

You can click on the link to enter your shipping address details. This is the address that your carrier will collect the parcels from; so is likely to be your warehouse address.

Your Shiptheory dashboard

Your Dashboard is where you can find all labels that are ready to print and any shipments that have had problems with them. You can search for orders by customer address, customer name or the reference / order ID number.

Tip - type today in the search box to see all orders from today or yesterday to see all orders from yesterday.

From your dashboard, you can view your shipments and print labels.

View shipments

From your dashboard, you can select View from the Action dropdown:

This will show you the current details for that shipment - customer address, selected carrier, and shipping method to be used. If you are using shipping rules, then the carrier and shipping details would have been automatically selected for you.

If you have chosen not to set up shipping rules, then you can choose the carrier and shipping method you wish to use ready for printing your label.

Print labels

From your dashboard, you can select Print from the Action dropdown:

If you need to create your shipping labels manually (for instance, when not using shipping rules); then you can even bulk print your labels using the Actions > Print dropdown; after selecting the orders you wish to print labels for.

Please note that customer postcode is a mandatory field when printing labels.

Shiptheory shipping label

This label is generated by the carrier you are using, which means that it cannot be edited.

Here is an example generated by DPD:

You can also embed this label within your Brightpearl templates. As Shiptheory receive labels back from carriers, the label is pushed back to Brightpearl's shipping label field.

By default this label is hidden; however you can include the label field in your templates in Brightpearl to automatically display your labels in line following the steps below:

How to add your Shiptheory label to your Brightpearl templates

1. View a goods out note in Brightpearl, and click the Edit template link:

   

2. Click the mouse at the point in the template you would like the label to be shown. Then click on the Insert field at cursor dropdown menu and select 'Delivery label’.

   

3. Save your template.
4. Now, when you view a goods out note that has been processed by Shiptheory, you will see an integrated shipping label:

   

Updating Brightpearl orders to be marked as shipped

Once you’ve printed your labels, Shiptheory will mark that order as complete:

If you have asked Shiptheory to update your Brightpearl order to shipped, then the order will be marked as shipped at this point.

Additionally, all and any actions performed by Shiptheory (including any errors) will be added as a note to the Brightpearl order:

Retry shipments

If you have changed any details that affect the Brightpearl order (such as changing customer address, product weights or order totals), then you will need to select Retry from the Action dropdown:

This will update Shiptheory with the new details; giving you an accurate shipping label.

Product weights

When connecting Brightpearl and Shiptheory, you can choose whether you use Grams or Kilograms as the weight unit measurement in your Brightpearl account.

Shiptheory will use kilograms (as most carrier’s prefer this), but will convert any gram weights into kilograms for you.

Shipping rules

You can set up shipping rules that allow Shiptheory to automatically send goods out notes to your carriers for you, depending on the rules you are using. There are no limits regarding how many shipping rules you can create and use. These shipping rules are mapped to your Brightpearl shipping methods.

You can create these by selecting Shipping Rules from your settings dropdown; and click Add Shipping Rule to start creating them.

Rule options

Each rule you create can consist of any combination of the below, or all of them.

Like-for-like shipping method matching

If you would like to map your Brightpearl shipping methods to Shiptheory, you will want to create a rule based on that shipping method. This effectively maps your Brightpearl shipping methods directly to carrier shipping methods.

Maximum/minimum weight

It is possible to use the weight of the shipment as a condition. For example; you may want all shipments between 5 and 30 kilograms to be sent with a specific carrier delivery service.

Maximum/minimum value

It is possible to use the monetary value of the shipment as a condition. For example; you may want all shipments between £10 and £20 to be sent with a specific carrier delivery service.

Destination rules

Rules can also be used to set carrier shipping methods based on the destination of the shipment. You can explicitly exclude and/or include countries and continents from rules.

You can also add postcodes or postcode ranges in your shipping rule. See from below how you can include all postcodes using an asterisk(*) mark or specify postcode ranges using a hyphen(-) symbol. If you would like to be able to ship to all postcodes, then you should leave this blank. However, if you’re shipping to the Highlands in Scotland; then you should add their postcode ranges here in order to successfully ship to them.

If you do not set up any shipping rules; or if your goods out note is not covered by one of your rules, then your goods out notes will be ignored when sent to Shiptheory (indicated by an Ignored status):

In this situation, you can create the shipping label manually by selecting the carrier and shipping method details.

User settings

There are various settings that you can control from Shiptheory. These can be accessed at any time by clicking the drop-down arrow next to your name:

Available settings/actions

• Dashboard

  This takes you to your Shiptheory dashboard displaying all goods out notes that have been pushed to Shiptheory, which can be filtered by date.

• Shipping rules

  This allows you to set up shipping rules, which will select carrier and shipment details automatically for you.

• Carrier settings

  You will have separate settings for each of your integrated carriers; which will vary from carrier to carrier.

• Manage carriers

  This will take you to the same screen you saw upon setup, allowing you to enable the carriers you want to integrate with.

• Brightpearl

  This allows you to change all of the Shiptheory settings that relate to your Brightpearl account.

• Magento

  This allows you to change all of the Shiptheory settings that relate to your Magento store. Please note that this will only be displayed if you have integrated Magento with Shiptheory.

• Company details

  This page allows you to update your company name as displayed within Shiptheory.

• Manage users

  This page allows you to add new Shiptheory users.

• Shipping location

  You can update your shipping address here - remember, this is where your carriers will be collecting parcels from.

• Billing address

  You can update your billing address from here.

• Change password

  This allows you to change the password you use to sign in to Shiptheory with.

• Change email

  This allows you to change the email address you use to sign in to Shiptheory with.

• Logout

  Use this to officially log out of Shiptheory, which will close your current session.

ID numbers used in Shiptheory

Throughout Shiptheory, you will find ID numbers like the one below:

This ID number is the Brightpearl order ID, followed by the Brightpearl goods out note ID. Our Brightpearl Support team might need you to provide them with this for any troubleshooting you require them to do.

Billing & subscriptions

For information on how to pay for the Shiptheory app, please contact our Customer Success team via success@brightpearl.com.

Help & support

For most queries, you will contact Brightpearl Support to receive the help you need.

However, for any help with setting up carriers in Shiptheory, please contact Shiptheory directly so that they can point you in the right direction.

FAQs

I used to use the DPD/Interlink/Parcelforce/Royal Mail (DMO) automation integration apps. How do I migrate over to using Shiptheory?

You will need to follow the guide above to connect Brightpearl to Shiptheory. If you need any help with this, please contact Brightpearl Support via support@brightpearl.com.

I currently use the Hermes/Fedex automation integration apps. Does Shiptheory integrate with these carriers?

Currently, Shiptheory do not support Hermes or Fedex carriers. However, they are always looking to increase their supported carriers, so please do get in touch with Shiptheory to submit your request.

I can see that Shiptheory integrates directly with Magento too - should I contact them for help with setting up Shiptheory?

No. You should contact Brightpearl Support at support@brightpearl.com for any help with setting up Shiptheory and connecting Brightpearl to it.

However, for any help with setting up carriers in Shiptheory, please contact Shiptheory directly so that they can point you in the right direction.

When trying to create a shipping label manually, it has failed. Why is this?

Check that you have filled in all of the mandatory fields, such as customer address (including postcode). If you find that there are address details missing, then you should update these details within Brightpearl and retry the goods out note in Shiptheory. This ‘retry’ will push over the updated details to Shiptheory, allowing you to process the note.

You should also use the Shipment History to identify what might have caused the shipment to fail. This can be found at the bottom of the screen when viewing any shipment.