ShipStation

ShipStation is a web based shipping platform.

Note

Sending orders to ShipStation for shipping and then importing the shipment information back into Acctivate requires the Shipping Workstation license.

Importing ShipStation sales orders into Acctivate requires a Web Store license.

Overview

When Acctivate is integrated with your ShipStation account, sales orders can be imported into Acctivate for fulfillment and Acctivate sales orders that originated from other sources (e.g., manual entry, other web stores, EDI) can be exported to ShipStation where a shipment can be created a shipped. The shipment information is then exported from ShipStation back into Acctivate.

Setup

The initial set up 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. Click the Sync codes and store list from ShipStation button to ensure all information is up to date.

Mapping tab
The Mapping tab allows you to map ShipStation and Acctivate fields to each other. In some cases, the mappings here apply to both the order import and export. These mappings are optional

  • PO Number: The PO Number field can be mapped to any of the three custom fields in ShipStation. E.g., when importing an order from ShipStation, a custom field's value could be mapped into PO Number. Likewise, exporting an order from Acctivate will send the Acctivate PO number to the custom field.
  • Reference: The Reference field can be mapped to the three custom fields in ShipStation. Or, when importing orders from ShipStation, the originating Store Name (e.g., Shopify) and the Requested Shipping Service (if supported by the origin store) can be brought in. Store Name and Requested Shipping Service are not sent from Acctivate.
  • Reference 2: The same mapping behavior as Reference.

Conversions tab
The Conversions tab includes the conversion of Carriers and Carrier Services between Acctivate and ShipStation.

After clicking the Sync codes and store list from ShipStation button, the table will populate with the ShipStation carrier and carrier service codes which will be 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.

Use the drop-down to change between Carrier and Carrier Service mappings.

Shipment Import tab
The Shipment Import tab applies to shipments that are imported from ShipStation into Acctivate.

  • 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.
  • Timestamp of last shipment imported: The ShipStation sync runs every five minutes or when an order or the Sales Order Manager is opened/refreshed. When shipments are successfully imported, this timestamp will update. Any shipments created since this timestamp will be imported in.

Order Import tab
The Order Import tab allows you to configure options for importing sales orders from ShipStation into Acctivate. Note, these options apply to all orders imported.

  • Stores: Orders that originate from stores linked to ShipStation, except for the Manual store, can be imported into Acctivate. Select which stores you'd like to import from.
  • Configuration
    • Timestamp of last order imported: The ShipStation sync runs every five minutes. When orders are successfully imported, this timestamp will update. Any orders created since this timestamp will be imported in.
    • Default payment method: Payment amounts can be passed from ShipStation into Acctivate, however a payment method is not supplied. It's recommended that a payment method be created for ShipStation orders. The payment method will not be used to process payments (i.e., credit cards) it will only be used to create a payment. Therefore, you may want to create the payment method as an "Other credit card" payment type. See the "Other Configuration and Considerations" note at the bottom of this section.
  • Customers
    • Create Customers as "Name (email)" if match not found: When this option is enabled, a unique customer will be created for each order imported. Due to the limited customer information provided by ShipStation or the originating store, this may not be beneficial.
    • Use customer...: This option is recommended. This option allows you to import all ShipStation orders under the same customer. Typically, this would be a single customer named something like "ShipStation". Despite a single customer being used, each order will have the bill to, ship to, and contact information for the original customer. See the "Other Configuration and Considerations" note at the bottom of this section.
Note

Other Sales Order Import Configuration and Considerations

  • ShipStation only provides a tax amount. Acctivate will default the tax category based on whether a customer is created or an existing customer is used (see the Tax Category description in the Sales Order Import section below).

    It is recommended that you use a default customer (named however you'd like) that is Taxable and also create a sales tax item in QuickBooks named "ShipStation" with a non-zero tax rate (it doesn't matter the rate, the tax amount from ShipStation will be used) assigned to any Tax Agency/Vendor and assign that tax item to the default customer's primary Ship To location.

    When importing in sales orders, Acctivate take the ShipStation amount and assign it to the "ShipStation" tax category. In QuickBooks, you can choose to include or exclude these items from your tax reporting.

  • The sales tax code assigned to the Products in Acctivate will be used on the sales order, therefore products must have the same tax code in both your web store and in Acctivate.

    For example, if a product is taxable on your web store, it must also be taxable in Acctivate so that when the order is imported the sales detail tax code is set to Tax.

    Keep in mind that the customer tax code is evaluated first to determine whether or not tax should be charged. Therefore, even if your products are taxable, any sales orders for non-taxable customers (i.e., orders for your wholesale customers) will not be charged tax.

  • It is recommended you create a payment method in QuickBooks that is an "Other Credit Card" type. Assign this payment method in the Order Import tab of the ShipStation configuration.

  • ShipStation must have at least one active manual store configured. If more than one is setup, Acctivate orders will be imported into the first manual store.

  • Use the Origin ID field in the Sales Order Manager to filter include or exclude orders with an Origin ID of ShipStation

  • ShipStation does not have a concept of backorder quantities. Review the Sales Order Fulfillment section in this page to understand the workflow processes for sales orders imported into Acctivate that can't be shipped in full.

Optional ShipStation Configuration
At the top of the ShipStation configuration page, a Verbose logging option exists. You should not enable this option unless instructed to by the Acctivate support team.

  • 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 ShipWorkstation log directory. The daily folder will contain each ShipStation API request and response. With each ShipStation sync, Acctivate will delete one days worth of verbose logs (a single sub-directory of the ShipWorkstation 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.

Configure Ship Via options
When exporting orders to ShipStation, only orders which have a certain Ship Via are included.

  1. 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

Once configured, ShipStation orders and shipments for Acctivate orders can be imported into Acctivate. Acctivate orders which did not originate from ShipStation can be exported to ShipStation for shipping.

ShipStation Import

The importing of ShipStation orders and shipments happens automatically every five minutes, the same interval as the Shipping Workstation Sync. 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.

Sales orders with a status of Awaiting Payment or On Hold will be skipped; the sync will try to import them again during the next sync. Orders with a Cancelled status will be ignored. All other statuses will be imported in. Consider setting up automation rules in ShipStation to change the status of orders until you're ready for them to be imported into Acctivate.

Sales Order Import ShipStation can be linked to different web stores, aggregating orders for fulfillment. Acctivate can import orders from ShipStation stores, except for the manual store. Review the setup instructions at the top of the page to configure the store/order import options.

Below is a list of Acctivate order fields and a description of their corresponding source field in ShipStation. The mapping cannot be altered:

  • Order Date: The Order Date from the ShipStation sales order.
  • Shipping Address
    • Ship Attention: the ShipStation Ship To Full Name.
    • Address line 1: If a Ship To Company exists, it will be used here, otherwise the Ship To Full Name will be used.
    • Address line 2: Street address line 1.
    • Address line 3: Street address line 2.
    • City: City.
    • State: State.
    • Zip/Postal Code: Zip Code.
  • Contact
    • Country / Region: Country (converted in Acctivate to two character country code).
    • Contact Phone: Phone.
    • Contact Email: Email.
  • Requested Ship Date: Ship By date.
  • Special Instructions: Internal Note.
  • Shipping Instructions: Note From Buyer.
  • Tax Category: ShipStation only provides the tax amount. Acctivate will assign a tax category based on the following:
    • If a new customer is created, the default tax category for new customers will be used.
    • If using a default customer for all ShipStation orders, the tax category for that customer's default ship location will be used.
  • Sales Tax Amount: Tax.
  • Payment Amount: Total Paid.
  • Payment Reference: ShipStation Order Number.
  • PO Number: ShipStation Custom field 1, 2, or 3 (see ShipStation configuration)
  • Reference: ShipStation Custom field 1, 2, 3, Store Name, or Requested Shipping Service (see ShipStation configuration)
  • Reference 2: ShipStation Custom field 1, 2, 3, Store Name, or Requested Shipping Service (see ShipStation configuration)
  • Product ID: ShipStation SKU .
  • Description: ShipStation Item Name.
  • Quantity: ShipStation quantity. The quantity is imported in as the stocking unit for the product in Acctivate.
  • Price: Unit Cost.
  • Weight: The item weight from ShipStation.
  • Shipping line item: If the Cost Summary of the order in ShipStation has a shipping amount, that amount will be added as a line item using the default Shipping product setup in the Sales Order Options section of Configuration Management.
Note
  • ShipStation does support reading or updating inventory availability through their API.
  • Updates to sales orders imported from ShipStation will not be pushed back to ShipStation

Shipment Import ShipStation shipments for Acctivate orders will be imported into Acctivate and matched to the Acctivate order based on the Order Number.

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.

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, unless they were imported from 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:

  • Sales Orders imported from ShipStation will not be exported back 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:
    • If line 1 of the Shipping Address field in Acctivate matches the Name (Ship Attention field), then the Company field in ShipStation will be left blank.
    • If line 1 of the Shipping Address field in Acctivate is different than the Name (Ship Attention field), then Address line 1 will be sent as the Company.
  • 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.

Sales Order Fulfillment

Below is an example of the order fulfillment workflow process. Due to the various workflow configuration options it does not go into specifics for each step, rather it's meant to represent the process from a high level. It is strongly recommended that you carefully read through this entire document to understand the possibilities and configuration of the ShipStation integration.

  1. Web stores, such as as Shopify and Walmart, are integrated with ShipStation. These orders are imported into ShipStation with a status of Awaiting Shipment.
  2. In Acctivate, the Shipping Workstation Sync runs "in the background" every five minutes. The orders are imported into Acctivate.
  3. These orders can be quickly located in the Sales Order Manager by filtering on orders where Origin ID = ShipStation.
  4. The orders are picked using Picklists and/or Acctivate Mobile. After picking, the order is updated to a "Picked" workflow status.
  5. Using the Sales Order Manager, print Pack Lists for orders which are "Picked" and originated from ShipStation. This will update the ShipStation orders to "Packaging".
  6. Using the Pack List, locate the orders in ShipStation. Packed and ship the order. Note: If the order is being partially shipped, you will need to split the Shipment in the ShipStation interface.
  7. The Shipment information will import into Acctivate during the next sync, marking the order as Shipped.
  8. Invoice the Shipped orders.
Tip

If you need help defining a workflow or configuring the Sales Order Manager, feel free to reach out to the Acctivate Support team.