Fulfillment Management Console

Transcription

1 Welcome to Fulfillment Thank you for choosing Fulfillment as your outsourcing solution provider. This manual will help introduce you to our company, our online Management Console, and our processes to help you best utilize and integrate with our services. If you have questions, your dedicated support team is standing by. Please call during normal business hours to get in touch with your support team. Fulfillment Management Console The online Fulfillment Management Console is your primary interface with our company. Through it, you will set up products, transmit orders, and retrieve shipping information. Logging in To log into the Management Console, go to and click on Login. Enter your address and password. If this is your first time logging into the system, your password is password and you will be asked to change your password for future logins. Once logged in, you will arrive at the Dashboard, a quick summary of all important information about your account. Here is a quick description of all of the elements on the Dashboard. Client Info Your contact information. If any of this information is incorrect or out of date, please contact your support team. Account Charges The current month-to-date fees on your account. Click on Summary to view a breakdown of charges by fee type, or click on Register Details to view a line-by-line register of every fee posted for the month. Account Manager This is your primary contact for all your support questions.

2 Shipments Needing Review If any of your shipments have encountered problems and were unable to be fulfilled, they will appear here. Common problems include bad address, bad SKU information, or the shipment has been placed on hold. Customer Service Tickets If you have questions or requests, you can open a customer service ticket. The most recent open tickets will appear here or you can click on Create New Ticket to start a new request. Shipments Per Month This graph will give you a quick summary of the number of shipments processed per month and compare it to last year s volume. Postage Summary At the top is a gauge showing how full your postage account is. A full account is one that contains a 30 day reserve. As you ship, postage will be deducted from this account. Please make sure you monitor this level; once your postage account has been depleted, your account may be locked and no further shipments will be processed until a positive balance has been restored. You will receive monthly or weekly invoices (depending on your volume and service contract) that will estimate your postage needs based on current shipping volumes; however, it is ultimately your responsibility to maintain sufficient reserves. The link Postage/Ship Method Summary will show a breakdown of postage by ship method. Fulfillment Summary A summary of information about your month-to-date shipments. Quick History Click on any day to see a list of all shipments that were received on that day. Shortcuts Links to some common features. Documentation Current revisions of documentation. Messages Any important messages regarding our service.

3 Receiving Setting up Products The first step in managing your account is to set up all of your SKUs (stock keeping units). You can add each product to your account through the Management Console. However, if you have a large number of SKUs to set up, you can also create a spreadsheet that we can import into the system. Contact your account rep for details. To set up a new product, go to the menus to Fulfillment > Products > Create New Product. Here is a description of the required fields: SKU The unique identifier for the product. You cannot have more than one product with the same SKU. This is what you will use to identify the product when transmitted orders to us. UPC The UPC barcode on the product. Please note that to ensure shipment accuracy, ALL items are scanned before being packaged and shipped. Therefore, we require that all items stored in our warehouse contain a barcode. If you have products that do not contain barcodes, we will generate codes and label your product on receipt. (There is an additional fee for this service.) Description This is whatever you use to describe the product. This will print on the packing slip. You can also enter the following optional fields. These fields are for your use and may aid you in reporting: Product Category You have the ability to set up product categories to group your products. This may be helpful if you manage a large number of different SKUs. There will be no categories listed here until they are set up by going to Fulfillment > Products > Manage Product Categories. Value The wholesale value of the product. This is only for reporting purposes. Retail Value The retail value of the product. This is only for reporting purposes. Weight The weight of the product in ounces.

4 Minimum Level You can set a threshold for the minimum level of inventory you want to maintain. If the inventory level drops below this amount, you will receive an automated alerting you. Notes Any miscellaneous notes about the product. These notes are for your own use and do NOT appear in our warehouse. If products require special handling, you must inform your support team. Supplier Info These fields are only needed if you rely on third party drop shippers to fulfill parts of your orders. If all of your products will be shipping through you do not need to add any information here. After adding a product, you will be returned to the Create Product screen to add additional products. Batch Upload If you have a large number of products to insert, you can send them to us in a batch. The standard file format is to be a tab-delimited flat file, one product per line, each line terminated by a carriage return and line feed. The file should contain the following fields: # Field Name Data Notes Type 0 SKU char[50] Required 1 Description Char[100] 2 Weight int In ounces 3 Value char[50] Wholesale value 4 Qty char[50] If you want us to create a manifest off this import, the quantity you will be sending. 5 UPC Char[20] Required. 6 MinInventory char[50] 7 Category char[50] If you include a category that does not exist, it will be created. 8 Supplier char[50] If you include a supplier that does not exist, it will be created.

5 Preparing and Organizing Your Products All products must be clearly identifiable with a machine-scannable barcode. Ideally, this would be a UPC. Please contact your account representative if you need other barcoding alternatives. If you are unable to pre-barcode your products, we can apply barcodes for you. However, each product must still be CLEARLY identifiable, and there is an additional fee for this service. If any product arrives at our warehouse that we are not able to immediately identify, it will be put aside and NOT received. We will work with you to determine what it is, but if this is an ongoing problem, we will either stop accepting shipments or start sending unidentifiable products to you to be correctly labeled. When sending products on pallets, in order for the per pallet fee to apply, it must be a wrapped pallet containing only a single SKU. If a pallet contains multiple SKUs, we will break it down and the per carton fee will apply instead. Similarly, in order for the per carton fee to apply, the box must contain only a single SKU. If a box contains mixed SKUs, it will be manually sorted and the per item fee will apply. Our warehouse can accommodate pallets up to 58" tall. All pallets received taller than 58" will need to be re-stacked into smaller pallets at the standard warehouse labor rate quoted in your contract. Cases If you have products that sometimes ship as individual items and sometimes ship as cases, these will need to be set up with case quantities. Please let your account manager know about any products with case quantities. When transmitting orders to us, you will always specify the total number of individual items (unless you create an Alias, see below). When calculating the pick-pack fee for a shipment, if the quantity is equal to or greater than the case quantity, you will be charged

6 one pick per case plus any remaining individual items. For example, if your product comes in a case of 6: if you transmit quantity 6, you will be charged for one pick. If you transmit quantity 13, you will be charged for three picks (two cases + one individual). Aliases/Bundles In addition to the physical products, you can also set up Alias and Bundle SKUs. These SKUs are NOT actual items and will never show up in inventory reporting. These SKUs exist only to aid in transmitting orders to us. Once the order has been accepted into our system, the order will contain only the actual physical SKUs. An Alias is just an alternate SKU you can use for a product. You can create as many aliases as you like for a SKU. For example, if you have a product with SKU ABC, you can set up aliases for ABC-1 and ABC-2. If you transmit either of those two SKUs to us, we will automatically translate it to ABC. A Bundle is a SKU that translates into multiple products. If, for example, you have a drink supplement product that always ships with a free measuring cup, you can create a bundle SKU that will automatically translate into both physical products. (Note that the decision to use bundle SKUs generally depends on your order management platform. Most of the time, your order management software can track bundles, bonus items, etc., and can transmit all of the individual products to us. ) To create an Alias or Bundle, go to Fulfillment > Products > Aliases/Bundles and click on Create New Alias/Bundle. Enter the new SKU, then enter the quantities of all of the included products. For an alias, you would only put quantity 1 for a single item. For bundles, you can select as many products as you like. Using Bundles, you can create Case SKUs. Enter a new SKU, then include the case quantity on the individual SKU line. For example, if product XYZ comes in cases of 6, you could create a Bundle called CASEXYZ and enter quantity 6 under XYZ. If you transmit CASEXYZ to us, we will automatically convert that to quantity 6 of product XYZ. Create Manifest Once you have finished adding your products to our system, the next step is to create an electronic manifest indicating what inventory you will be shipping us. If you will be

7 sending inventory in multiple shipments, you must create a separate manifest for each shipment. To create an electronic manifest, go to Fulfillment > Receiving > Create New Manifest. Here is a description of the fields on this screen. Manifest Name This can be anything you want. It is used to identify the manifest in a list. PO # - If this manifest is coming from a supplier, you can place the PO # here. This can be used as an alternate way of identifying the shipment if you are unable to get our Manifest ID on the package. Shipped Date The date the shipment shipped or is scheduled to ship. Shipped Via The carrier used to transport the shipment. Tracking # The tracking number provided by the carrier. Estimated Arrival Date When the carrier estimates the shipment will arrive at our warehouse. # Pallets / # Cartons Fill in only one of these numbers. If the shipment will be arriving on pallets, enter the number of pallets. Otherwise, enter the number of boxes the shipment contains. Total Weight If known, the total weight of the shipment. Notes Any notes you feel our receiving department might need regarding the shipment. Following these fields is a list of all products you have set up in our system. Enter the quantity that we should expect for each of the products included in the shipment. If the box contents are not clearly labeled or if you have multiple products per box, please number the boxes and enter the box number into the manifest.

8 If this is a new product that we have not received before, please check the Is New checkbox. Once you have submitted this form, there is still one step remaining. Until you lock the manifest, it is available for editing. So feel free to create a manifest before you have finalized all of its contents. However, once the shipment ships, you need to click on the Lock Manifest button. This will alert our receiving department that they should expect this shipment. (We will be unable to receive the inventory until the manifest is locked.) When prepping your shipment to us, please use the manifest number we assign as the reference number and/or make sure the Manifest ID is prominently written on the boxes. Our receiving department has incoming shipments from dozens of clients and suppliers and the easier it is to identify the shipment, the quicker it can be received. Incoming shipments that arrive at our warehouse without a Manifest ID or matching PO# are subject to delays in receiving. Make sure you create a manifest for every incoming shipment. If a shipment arrives that has not already been set up in the system, we will manually create a manifest for you; however, there is a $25 fee for this service. Please ship all inventory to one of the following locations. (If you are unsure which warehouse to use, please contact your account representative.) Central: Newgistics Fulfillment E 26 th Ave #100 Aurora, CO East Coast: Newgistics Fulfillment 2701-A Stanley Gault Pkwy Louisville, KY West Coast: Newgistics Fulfillment 5300 Ontario Mills Pkwy #400 Ontario, CA 91764

9 XML Manifest We also support XML transfer of Manifest data. Contact your account rep for documentation. Transmitting Orders Ship Method Translations If you transmit something other that one of the above codes, by default our system will translate the most common descriptions to the appropriate ship method. You also have the ability to set up specific translations. If you do not use one of the above codes and do not specify translations, we will not be held responsible for incorrect translations in the ship method. To set up translations, log into your account and go to Ship Method Rules. You can select between Use Default Translation Rules or Restrict Ship Methods. If you choose Restrict Ship Methods, the system will automatically place all shipments on hold if they do not have a valid ship method. Under Translations Table, you can specify what your system will be sending over and map it to the appropriate ship method in our system.

10 Shipment Information We offer full transparency in our process, and you can find out the status of any of your orders. From the menu, go to Fulfillment > Shipments > Search Shipments. By default, this page brings up all shipments that were received today. You can filter this list by searching on one of five fields or by selecting a particular date range. A shipment can have one of the following status codes: RECEIVED This is the initial status for all shipments when they are first entered into the system. PRINTED A packing slip has been generated. Note that once a shipment has been printed, no changes can be made to the shipment, nor can it be canceled without incurring an additional charge. VERIFIED The shipment has been picked and the contents have been scan verified. The shipment is now ready to be picked up by the carrier. SHIPPED The shipment has been transferred to the carrier. Please do not be alarmed if a shipment does not show a status of SHIPPED even if it is late in the day. All shipments that have been VERIFIED will go out that day. CANCELED The shipment has been canceled and will not be processed. ONHOLD There are several reasons why a shipment might be placed on hold. In most cases, a customer service ticket will have been generated and attached to the shipment indicating why the shipment was on hold. You will always receive notification if a shipment is placed on hold. BADSKUHOLD The shipment is on hold because one of the SKUs was not recognized during import. INVHOLD This status code is only used when prearranged with a client. Instead of backordering items, the entire shipment has been placed on an Inventory Hold. This shipment will not be processed until you manually release it. BACKORDERED The shipment was not completely fulfilled because one or more items was not in stock. RETURNED The shipment has come back to our warehouse. All returns are logged with reasons and contents.