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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!!

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Brian Van Bogart SoftBums shared this idea  ·   ·  Admin →
AdminShipStation (Product Owner, ShipStation) responded  · 

Hi @everyone,

So, just to help us better understand, would this idea work best for you if it automatically printed whenever an order came in? So, say, an order comes in on Sunday at 4:00 a.m., it should print then. Or would it be better if whenever you log in to ShipStation and have it active that you would prefer to have the packing slips printed out then?

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  • AdminShipStation (Product Owner, ShipStation) commented  · 

    Hi!

    So, to clarify, you would like to have an automation process to have ShipStation automatically send a print job to the printer to print out the packing slips once an order imports into ShipStation?

  • zmdubs commented  · 

    It'd be awesome if every time ShipStation loads in new orders from a selling channel (i.e. Etsy), it would auto-print a shipping label using ShipStation connect. This would make it easier to keep track of how many orders need fulfilled.

  • monster2 commented  · 

    Not sure how this is set as completed? The answer is labels when the question was packing slips. The Quickship printing is the best. However when an order is imported into Shipstation i believe the question is : As a part of the automation of orders can this trigger a printing of packing slips so low level pickers can just grab a sheet of paper off the printer and start packaging up the order. This person was hoping for two packing slips automatically.
    That would be next level automation. I think a ton of people voted for this but it is not active yet to my knowledge. Please reactivate this issue.
    I want this feature for Saturday or Sunday guys that cannot even click a button in the software. I know it seems silly but papers sitting on a printer would be awesome. Thanks for the consideration.

  • walnutstudiolo commented  · 

    Same here regarding auto packing slip printing - I don't need to auto print labels. Thanks!

  • guntap commented  · 

    Same here regarding auto packing slip printing, it should have been implemented.

  • nfnchris commented  · 

    We were also hoping for automatic packing slip functionality

  • Brian Van Bogart SoftBums commented  · 

    This is nice, but we were really hoping for automatic printing of packing slips rather than shipping labels. Ideally this would be an automation rule and could be printed to ShipStation Connect or Google Cloud Printers. Thanks!

  • Eric Hoppmann Diagnostic anSERS Inc. commented  · 

    We also would like to use this for packing slips only. Is there any chance you can extend this feature to packing slips? Thanks!

  • mikemazzone commented  · 

    Thanks for implementing this but this works for labels only. Is there any way to have packing slips print automatically as the orders come in?

  • Jon Smejkal Pier28, Inc. commented  · 

    WIth one click, we would like to send a 8.5x11 packing slip print job and a 4x6 label print job to two separate printers. Is there any technical reason why this can't be an option in the future? We really would like 1 - 4x6 label and 1 - 8.5x11 packing slip to pop out per shipment. As of today only the shipping labels print, and then we have to manually print out each packing slip 1 at a time and then match them up.

    We can print both shipping label and packing slips with one click to the 4x6 printer if we choose that option but the packing slip is too small to read and there isn't enough room really. (full page packing slips are best)

  • Daniel Melnechuk Racemaker Press LLC commented  · 

    I want to automatically print the packing slip for each imported order from all my channels, plus for each manually input order, to a laser printer via ship station connect.

  • David Lopez Pomade Club commented  · 

    I agree with @guntap on BOTH points. Regarding the auto batch printing, after successful batch, I would like SS to automatically send labels to my printer 1 and packing slip and pick list to printer 2, then mark as printed in the checkbox. Currently i sit around and wait for the batch to complete. No point in closing the window because I print labels right after each batch. After its successful, i click print labels, then print packing slips, then print pick list, and finally click the checkbox that says printed.

    Regarding the auto order printing, Most of my multiple orders are made within minutes. I would set a 1 or 2 hour delay between automatic printing. Also, I do not own a thermal printer yet and i do not print packing slip/invoice in 1 page. Therefore i would want it to auto-print only when there is an even number of orders so i wont waste labels/paper

  • Brian Van Bogart SoftBums commented  · 

    Just to put in my $0.02, when I originally requested this feature over a year ago, there wasn't really a good way to do it because there was no direct access to printers via a web page. However, now that there's ShipStation Connect and Google Cloud Printer support, this would be pretty simple to accomplish. I routinely print packing slips to our warehouse printer remotely from my phone via the ShipStation app, so it wouldn't be much of a leap to build a rule that could just do that without manual intervention.
    The reason I'd be looking for it is to print packing slips as soon as an order is downloaded from a marketplace, to let the fulfillment staff know about it and to eliminate extra steps in the process. While it might be nice for some to automatically print labels as well, we wouldn't be looking to do that ourselves. Packing slips would be enough, and greatly appreciated as well.

  • guntap commented  · 

    My thought behind the automatic printing would be that the interface would automatically print the labels and packing slips on batch completion (i.e. eliminate the need to press the "Print Labels" and "Print Packing Slips" buttons). So everything that needed to be done as far as combining orders would have already been completed.

    If instead this feature were to be designed to automatically print labels and packing slips as orders come in, then to mitigate the problem with combining orders, there would have to be some kind of user-specified delay (or time-of-day setting). If the customer doesn't place another order within X minutes/hours, then it's assumed there won't be another order from them.

  • AdminShipStation (Product Owner, ShipStation) commented  · 

    Thank you for all the info, everyone! Going off of @David's comment, how would you handle orders that needed combining if there was the ability to automatically print your labels and packing slips?

  • ematy commented  · 

    It would be nice to have an automation rule that prints a packing slip ONLY when the # of items bought exceeds the lines on a label (3 domestic / 5 International).......So I do forget to pack the extra items.

    Right now I have to flag those with a tag color to let myself know to handle them manually.

  • David Lopez Pomade Club commented  · 

    I have a small home business on the side. I only use USPS. My Workflow:

    First, i combine orders from same customers then I check to make sure all orders (with multiple items) have correct weights. I still don't fully trust my automation rules but it is 98% accurate. Then I make sure the customer requested shipping method matches the current method. I then print labels, packing slips and pick list for every batch. I do 3 batches a day.

    Side note: One thing I hate is having to click the green "Create Labels" button on the popup that pops up after i click "Create Labels" on the right sidebar. I dont need this "confirmation"

    I then proceed to print my labels. When i started using shipstation, i was printing the label and packing slip in one 8x11 label page. It was convenient but i was wasting a label for every order (500+ orders a month) because we do not send packing slips with orders. So i purchased a new printer with 2 trays; one with label paper and one with regular paper but it did not work well because if label paper tray ran out of labels, it would automatically print a shipping label on regular paper tray (tried changing this behavior but unsuccessful). So now i use 2 printers; one for shipping labels @ 2 per sheet and one for packing slips also 2 per sheet and also used for pick list.

    I am happy with the setup. I use google cloud print only. i print shipping labels from work for my wife to pack. I even use cloud print at home. Shipstation connect almost never works. Printers are always offline or not detected by shipstation connect so i stopped using it.

    My suggestions regarding this auto printing idea:

    I would love for the software to auto print. It would help when im too busy at work to print labels for my wife to pack. I would help a lot to be able to at least print simple, single orders automatically and leave more complex, multiple orders to a human. I would also like to be able to only auto print orders where the customer chooses First Class shipping method because sometimes when they choose priority i still ship it as first class for various reasons.

  • guntap commented  · 

    Not sure why this isn't already an option, but automatic printing seems pretty standard.

    I would like to see automatic printing of labels and packing slips upon batch completion (instead of having to click the "Print Packing Slips" and "Print Labels" buttons).

  • irietones commented  · 

    I'm adding my vote for this feature, with a modification to select whichever printer one wishes to use (we use Shipstation Connect). Thanks!

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