ShipStation

ShipStation is a web based shipping platform.

Overview

When Acctivate is integrated with your ShipStation account, sales orders can be exported to ShipStation where a shipment can be created. The shipment information is then exported from ShipStation back to Acctivate.

Setup

Unlike other desktop shipping software that Acctivate integrates with, ShipStation is web based and the initial setup is configured in the Services section of Configuration Manager.

Integrate your ShipStation Account

  1. In a web browser, login to ShipStation and go to Account Settings.
  2. Under Account Settings, select API Settings.
  3. Copy the API Key and API Secret into the corresponding fields in the Acctivate Configuration Manager (File → Configuration Manager → Services → Shipstation) and check the Enabled checkbox.
  4. In the Code Conversions section below the API Keys, click the Update Codes from the Web button to import in the carrier and carrier service codes from ShipStation. The table will populate with the ShipStation carrier and carrier service codes and matched, where possible, to the corresponding Acctivate Carrier and Carrier Service values. You may need to add or update conversions for carriers and services. There should not be multiple Acctivate services mapped to the same ShipStation service.
  5. Save your changes.

Optional ShipStation Configuration

  • Verbose Logging
    • When disabled, a single ShipStation synchronization log will be created for each day. Open the shipping workstation log folder from the Help menu. It is strongly recommended that this option remain disabled and only be enabled for troubleshooting.
    • When enabled, a folder for each day will be created in the ShipStation log directory. The daily folder will contain each ShipStation API request and response. With each ShipStation sync, Acctivate will delete one days worth of logs (a single sub-directory of the WebStore log directory). Only ShipStation log folders with the format of yyyy-mm-dd that are older than 14 days will be deleted. This keeps the number of log files growing too large while still maintaining the two most weeks of logs.
  • Add exact shipping charges to invoices in Acctivate for shipments marked as biller pays
    • When disabled, no shipping charges will be added to the sales invoice in Acctivate. This may be the desired option if you enter sales orders with a pre-defined shipping price.
    • When enabled, shipping charges for shipments using your ShipStation account will be added to the invoices created in Acctivate. Charges for shipments using Third Party or Recipient billing options will not be added to the invoice.
  • Mappings
    • The sales order's Customer PO, Reference, and Reference 2 field can be mapped to ShipStation custom fields. This mapping is optional.

Configure Ship Via options

  1. Next, go to the Sales Orders section of the Configuration manager.
  2. Click on Ship Via to view the Ship Via options.
  3. Click Edit. In the Send To column, you'll select ShipStation if that Ship Via should send the sales order to ShipStation. For Ship Via's, such as "Customer Pickup", that you don't want to be sent to ShipStation, leave the Send To column blank.
  4. You can Save and close the Configuration Manager.

Usage

Acctivate sales orders can be exported to ShipStation, individually or in batch, where the shipment will be processed. Once shipped from ShipStation, the shipment information will be imported automatically into Acctivate.

ShipStation Export

If a sales order is assigned a Ship Via that is configured to be sent to ShipStation, the Next Suggested Action button will change to ShipStation when the workflow status is changed to Packaging, whether using the Action... → Change Workflow Status menu in the Edit Order window or by printing the Pack List which updates the workflow status to Packaging.

Clicking the ShipStation Action button or using the Action... → Send to Ship Station menu option on the sales order will send the order to ShipStation. Alternatively, you can select a range of sales orders in the Order Manager and use the Action → Send to ShipStation option to export them.

Orders exported to ShipStation will appear in the Awaiting Shipments menu. The Acctivate order number will be listed in the Order # column.

The following qualifications must be met in order to export an order to ShipStation:

  • Only sales orders are included. Credit memos and quotes are not eligible to be sent to ShipStation.
  • The sales order must be assigned a Ship Via which is configured to be sent to ShipStation.
  • The sales order must have at least one scheduled line item.
  • The sales order must not have a credit hold.

Below is a list of ShipStation fields that are populated from Acctivate sales order data fields. The mapping cannot be altered:

Order Summary

  • Order Date: The Order Date from the Acctivate sales order.
  • Promised Ship Date: The Promised Date on the Shipping tab of the Enter Sales Order window.
  • Product Total: The total scheduled amount for products from inventory (P lines), drop ship products (D lines) and Special Order products (S lines).
  • Tax Paid: The total tax amount for the sales order.
  • Total Order: The sum of the Product Total and Tax Paid ShipStation fields.
  • Shipping Paid: The total amount of shipping charge lines from the Acctivate sales order.
  • Custom Field 1: User defined. Can be populated from the sales order's PO number, Reference, or Reference 2 field.
  • Custom Field 2: User defined. Can be populated from the sales order's PO number, Reference, or Reference 2 field.
  • Custom Field 3: User defined. Can be populated from the sales order's PO number, Reference, or Reference 2 field.

Sold To

  • Name: Line 1 from the Billing Address field of the sales order.
  • Phone: The sales order's contact phone.
  • Email: The sales order's contact email.

Ship To

  • Name: Ship Attention from the sales order.
  • Company: Company field from the Edit Customer window.
  • Address Lines:
    • If line 1 of the Shipping Address field in Acctivate matches the Company or Name (Ship Attention field), the address line 1 is ignored:
      • Address line 1: Line 2 from the Shipping Address field of the sales order.
      • Address line 2: Line 3 from the Shipping Address field of the sales order.
    • If line 1 of the Shipping Address field in Acctivate does not match the Company or Name (Ship Attention field):
      • Address line 1: Line 1 from the Shipping Address field of the sales order.
      • Address line 2: Line 2 from the Shipping Address field of the sales order.
  • City: City field from the sales order's Shipping Address.
  • State/Region: State/Province field from the sales order's Shipping Address.
  • Postal Code: Zip/Postal Code field from the sales order's Shipping Address.
  • Country: Country/Region field from the sales order's Shipping Address.
  • Service: The Carrier and Carrier Service fields from the sales order will be converted to the appropriate ShipStation service by using the code conversions table.

Order Items

  • Name: Description from sales order.
  • SKU: Product ID from sales order.
  • UPC: The product's primary UPC. Can be printed on ShipStation forms.
  • Location: The warehouse location. Can be printed on ShipStation forms.
  • Unit $: The unit price from the sales order.
  • Qty: The scheduled quantity from the sales order. ShipStation requires whole numbers, therefore decimal quantities will be rounded up to the nearest whole number.
    • Note: Since ShipStation calculates the total order line amount, non-whole number quantities in Acctivate that get rounded up may result in the ShipStation line totals being incorrect. If your products can be shipped in non-integer quantities then you may consider altering your ShipStation Pack Slips, if using them.
  • Total $: This is calculated by ShipStation as Qty * Unit $.

Order Notes

  • Customer Note: Shipping Instructions from the Sales Order.
  • Internal Note: Special Instructions from the Sales Order.

ShipStation Import

The ShipStation shipment information is imported into Acctivate. Acctivate matches the shipment to the original Acctivate order based on the Order Number.

The ShipStation import sync occurs at the same interval as the Shipping Workstation Sync, which is every five minutes. However you can trigger it by going to Sales → Shipping Workstation Sync and clicking Sync. Any ShipStation sync errors will also appear in this window.

The following shipping information can be found on the Packages tab of the Enter Sales Order window:

  • Shipment Date: The shipment date found in Shipments section ShipStation.
  • Carrier: The carrier selected (with the service) in the Service field of the Shipping Info section of ShipStation.
  • Service: The service selected in the Service field of the Shipping Info section of ShipStation.
  • Tracking Number: The Tracking field from the Shipments section of ShipStation.
  • Weight: The Weight field from the Shipping Info section of ShipStation.
  • Charge: The Rate field from the Shipping Info section of ShipStation.
  • Handling: The handling charge calculated if the "This shipment requires Additional Handling" option is enabled in the Other Shipping Options section of ShipStation.
  • Insured: This box will be checked if an insurance type is selected in the Insurance field of the Shipping Info section in ShipStation.
  • Insured Value: The amount from the Insure Amt field found in the Shipping Info section of ShipStation.