Fulfillment Engine Overview
The Fulfillment Engine (FE) lets you quickly generate and print Packing Slips and Shipping Labels in bulk through ColdTrack Live.
ColdTrack will set you up to connect to what we call the “Fulfillment Engine”, or FE as we often refer to it as.
- Your orders will automatically be sent from CTL to the FE by ColdTrack, no need for you to do anything.
- If you need to change the frequency that your orders are sent, contact a ColdTrack Representative to assist with a new Release Order Plan schedule.
- Each box on an order becomes its own FE Shipment, which is then grouped into a FE Shipment Group.
- These Groups, like your Orders, are set up by our team to be automatically generated. Contact a ColdTrack Representative to change your schedule as needed.
- This FE Shipment Group automatically generates Shipping Labels and combines them with Packing Slips, allowing you to print everything from a single file!
Important Terms
- Parcel: A new Record in CTL once a Shipment gets a Tracking Number and details (but tied to your Order and the Shipment)
- Shipment: Every box on an Order within the FE - each one will get its own label and packing slip
Fulfillment Engine Shipment Groups
After ColdTrack creates a FE Group, you can view its details in the FE Shipment Group Table or Dashboard. Each group will generate a pdf available for you to download that includes all Packing Slips and Shipping Labels for those Shipments in the Group that are ready to print.
Printing Shipping Labels and Packing Slips
Once your orders are in a FE Shipment Group, open the FE Dashboard:
- Within the Groups Not Downloaded section, select the Open or Download icon next to the group’s “Collated PDF” to view all Packing Slips and Shipping Labels.
- Print the PDF.
- You can also print Packing Slips or Shipping Labels separately.
- If you run into any errors at this step, check out the Error Recovery section.
Once someone hits download on the collated file, the system tracks that and records the download to move the Group out of the “Not Downloaded” category.
- Suggested Recommendation: If you want to be sure no one has accidentally downloaded a PDF but did not print the labels yet, you can filter in the FE Shipment Group Table for Is Shipped set to “No” and Downloaded Collated PDF? set to “Yes”.
Shipping the Fulfillment Engine Shipment Group
Shipping will happen automatically when the shipment is scanned from a carrier.
If you need to manually Ship a Shipment or Shipment Group, check out 1 Minute to Manually Ship Fulfillment Engine Shipments.
Error Recovery
If you encounter an error, typically you can either manually run various processes that are on the FE Group Table or update the status on the Group to resolve the error:
Batch Creation Failed
- Issue: Problem creating the group in the FE backend (EasyPost).
- Fix: Check the Message Field for details, update data as needed, then set the Group Status to “Pending” to have the automated processes try again.
Label Purchase Failed
- Issue: Some Shipments couldn’t complete the “Label Purchase” step.
- Fix: Check the Message Field on the Group and Shipment Records. Click “Actions” and try running the “Purchase Shipping Labels” step to try again. The FE will attempt to re-purchase the labels that previously failed.
Label Generation Failed
- Issue: Labels weren’t generated correctly.
- Fix: Check the Message Field for details. Make any necessary adjustments on the Shipments. Click “Actions” then run “Generate Shipping Labels for Shipment Group” to run the Shipments again.
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