Automatic printing of Packing Slips for new orders
Because this original request I made for this was closed when an unrelated feature was introduced, I'm creating a new one.
I would very much like to be able to have the automation in ShipStation be able to print. This would allow me to have it automatically print all new orders that have downloaded, so that warehouse personnel know an order has come in when the printer starts spitting out packing slips. This is something we're used to having in a different product we switched from to ShipStation and it's the main thing we miss. With printing being done through ShipStation Connect now, this should be entirely possible too.
The other thing that would have be added is another feature that ShipStation really does need anyway: an indication of some kind that an order has already been printed. This would allow automation to "print all unprinted orders" as well as greatly reduce the possibility of orders being double-packed when more than 1 person is working shipping. We've had this happen multiple times simply because there's no good way to tell when an order has already been printed right now.
Thank you!!
Brian Van Bogart SoftBums
shared this idea
ShipStation’s new layout (formerly called V3) does currently show when both labels and packing slips have been printed through ShipStation (either via ShipStation Connect or downloaded from the Print pop-up… if you use the browser print option, we cannot track the print status). You can see the print status in the Shipments tab by showing the Label Printed and Packing Slip Printed columns, or by opening the Shipment Details screen.
We will consider the feedback around auto-printing packing slips when orders import, but there are a number of challenges around this approach that need to be overcome (for example, how to handle when the printer workstation is asleep or there is a hardware issue and printing is unsuccessful – ShipStation doesn’t have a way to receive that kind of feedback from the printer and it would not be desirable to show a packing slip as printed when it actually hasn’t been).
Could you let us know what platform you used previously that provided this ability?
123 comments
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Andrew Tate PopGeek
commented
I was under the impression this was already possible when I signed up for ShipStation. Is it not?
All order should live print labels and packing slips as they come in, that's what automation is.
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Josh Sibley Dance's Sporting Goods
commented
We currently run our online store with live inventory from our retail store and though we do set buffer quantities to try to avoid selling the same product in-store and online, we've run into a few cases where items have sold out in-store before the Internet Sales team was able to pick the online orders. We would like to be able to solve this problem by having packing slips automatically print on import from our BigCommerce store. We would like to buy a wireless printer and set it behind one of our registers where an employee is constantly at, so at all times of day when an order is placed and imported to ShipStation, the Packing Slip prints and our employee can then grab the item and set it aside. We can't be the only store that has this problem and no one seems to have a solution on any app nor does BigCommerce have any suggested solution. This would be AMAZING for ShipStation to implement.
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JudyLedger
commented
We have a need to be able to print a shipping label and TWO invoices for each order. We currently have the shipping label and the invoice on one piece of paper but we need the shipping label and two invoices (without having to go back into orders and print them individually or bulk).
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Brian King Superlative Events
commented
Print it automatically when it happens real time.
Is there a way to do this with Zapier or some other WYSIWYG integration platform?
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Hey everyone, thanks for adding your votes and comments here! If you haven't already, please let us know how you're shipping today and the issues you're running into. Any information will absolutely help us look into this.
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Randy Bardwell Native Threads
commented
Whenever a new order comes in would be best for our operation as it would serve as an auditory and visual update of the workload in that timeframe. Auto printing labels would be a great option too although I'm not ready to utilize that option myself. Thanks SS!
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Thomas Lander Crazy4Tank
commented
Been trying to figure out how to get this done for weeks, never in a million years did I think this would not be an option
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Jerry Marks Revival Parts
commented
Our business case depends on which issue exactly you're referring to, but I'll try an explain our work flow to try and clear things up a little bit
Basically, customers place orders, they come in, and are printer automatically overnight,
Our warehouse guys come in, grab a stack off of the printer, and get to work picking and shipping the packages, which saves time as they don't need to print pick lists on a case by case basis
Ship station currently has no feature to print a specific form, or customize a packing slip when it comes in, so i was unable to accomplish this with ship station.
The other thing is, even once we made a custom solution to generate slips for these packages when they come in, we found out that we don't even have access to an API to print items via Shipstation Connect
I know shipstation has an INTERNAL API for Shipstation Connect, but it's not exposed, so we can't even use the same software that we're paying to use that's already installed on all of our computers for printing to automatically queue a print jobWhich means, we've changed our process from being all inside shipstation, to something that relies on 2 other separate processes, which are on two different systems, to something that could probably be implemented quite easily on you guy's end, or even if you weren't willing to make the entire process, if you could just expose the internal shipstation connect API we could reduce the reliance on other programs and servers and it would make our stuff so much easier, of course there are alternatives like google cloud print, but why would we have two separate systems to print things remotely when you guys already have all the framework and functionality built out, but simply have chosen to not expose it?
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Josiah Griswold Sturdiguns
commented
I would also like to have his added to Automation.
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Mark Miller Optimal Services LLC
commented
Glad so many people are interested in it, I would like to stop checking Shipstation for orders and have automated printing of both labels and packing slips as soon as order arrives. All my products are the same, so there is no point for me to pre-check the rate or anything, just spit out a label to the specified printer and I'd be all set!
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Nick West ZDecals
commented
Went to searching for an autoprint feature in shipstation and found this thread. I'd love this feature, and I'd like to give a vote for putting it on a schedule as well. It'd be awesome if it could set auto print Tues at 9am and Thurs at 9am for instance.
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prepobsessed
commented
We're also interested in automatically printing packing slips. Currently tagging orders manually as the packing slips are printed, but would love for it to happen on it's own when new orders are imported!
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Eric Falsken Every Little War
commented
I spent an hour on the "automation" screen trying to figure out how to do exactly this. Whether it's on a schedule or not, I don't care.
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Nicholas Moretto Maker Box
commented
This should 100% be added in. Also have the option for only orders containing specific products.
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goldy reichman plastic container city
commented
Yes, please automatically print orders whenever it comes in.
This is a life changer not to have unskilled employees touching the computer -
guntap
commented
Other users have already mentioned it, but I'd like to have the packing slips and labels automatically print when I press the "Create Labels" button with Quickship enabled.
Having labels/packing slips automatically print as orders come in isn't something I would use right now, but it could be an option I will use in the future.
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flipow
commented
Everytime an order comes in it will automatically print the packing slip.
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flipow
commented
We need this feature! Please shipstation, it will help us keep checking for orders that comes in and avoid duplicate of printing labels.
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Laura Vinson
commented
It would be great if the packing slips printed immediately.
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Brian Van Bogart SoftBums
commented
Yes, it should print when a new order is downloaded. Printing at 4am or whenever is not a problem. The point, really, is that whenever the shipping staff is in next, the new orders are sitting on the printer ready to go. Upon manually initiating a store download, it should also print any new orders on the spot without needing to select and print them manually. Again, it would also need to have an indication that the order has been printed somewhere as well, to make sure nothing is missed even if there was some error or something preventing the printing of an order.