Logging dispatches and returns

Every day, log what left the warehouse (Dispatched) and what came back (Return). It takes seconds with a barcode scanner or your phone's camera.

1. If your store has more than one courier, pick the courier on top - or leave it on Auto, which reads Auto · own courier · else PostEx: each line is logged with its own courier (the one it was booked with, found from its tracking number or its booking), and only a line with nothing to go on gets your default courier (here PostEx).
2. Click into the Dispatch box (or Return) and scan each parcel. You can scan the order number or the courier's tracking number (the airway bill barcode) - each scan lands on its own line. You can also type or paste a list. On a phone, press Scan: the camera opens and the keyboard stays closed (see Scanning with your phone's camera).
3. Look at the coloured chips under the box (green looks right, amber needs a look, grey is a repeat, red is not an order number - see "Every number is checked" below) and at the badges with how many go to each courier. Tidy up keeps only valid lines.
4. Change the date only when logging an earlier day; it defaults to today. You can attach a photo if you like: the courier's pickup slip or load sheet for dispatches, the return receipt for returns. It is kept with the batch.
5. Press Dispatched or Return. Each courier's parcels are saved as their own batch, so batch lists, downloads and claims stay per courier.

How the courier of a line is decided

1. A tracking number the tracker knows (from a booking, the order, or a parcel booked by another app) - that order and its courier.
2. The courier switch, when it is not on Auto.
3. The order's booking, or the courier already stored on the order. An old order with no courier stored but with PostEx's own data on it (live updates, a sync, a courier report) counts as PostEx.
4. A courier's own order-number rule (for example "orders starting PX- are PostEx", set on that courier's setup page).
5. The city rule (Couriers by city) when the order's city is known.
6. Your default courier.

If you chose a courier but some lines clearly belong to another (their tracking number or booking says so), the tracker asks: use the courier they look like, or keep your choice for all. Nothing is saved until you choose. Under the box you are warned before you press the button: 3 lines look like PostEx - you will be asked when saving. On Auto there is nothing to settle: each line keeps its own courier.

Booked parcels that were never logged as dispatched can be brought in from the bell's list or the strip above the Dispatch box (Booked but not dispatched). They come in by tracking number, each with the courier it was booked with.

Batches logged before couriers existed show Not set under Uploaded Files & Batches; press Set to give them their courier. What counts as a valid order number is set for each sales channel (see where the order rules are now).

The same parcels scanned twice

If you press Dispatched or Return with exactly the same set of order numbers as a batch you already logged, the tracker asks Submit anyway? instead of saving it a second time. Since v90.3 this also works when the second scan is saved under another courier (for example after choosing keep my courier in the "looks like another courier" question): the same four returns can no longer be counted twice. Pressing Submit anyway still logs them on purpose.

Scanned with the wrong courier?

If the courier switch says TCS but an order clearly belongs to PostEx (it has PostEx live updates, a PostEx report row or a PostEx booking), the tracker asks before it saves, so a PostEx order is not given TCS by mistake. If one slipped through anyway:

1. Open Orders and find the order.
2. Tick it, then (more actions) › Change courier.
3. Pick the right courier and confirm. Status, dates and tracking number stay as they are, and the order gets a comment saying who changed it, from what and to what.

The batch it was scanned in keeps the courier it was logged with. To change that too, open Uploaded Files & Batches (or the day in the calendar) and press Change next to the batch's courier. See Bulk lists, batches and restoring.

Every number is checked as you scan it (v72)

Under each box, every number you scan, type or paste gets a chip a moment later. The check saves nothing: it is a second pair of eyes before the numbers are logged. While the phone camera is open, each new number is checked on its own (so a long run does not get slower), and the whole box is checked once when you close the camera.

• Green - looks right. Dispatch: the order is one of your shop orders (and not cancelled) or it has a booking - booked the day before is fine. Return: the order went out: it was dispatched, booked, is in a courier or shipment report, or is one of your shop orders.
• Amber - not found where it should be. A dispatch that is in no shop order and has no booking (or whose shop order is cancelled); a return nobody ever dispatched or booked. Look at it before it is logged - it may be a typing slip.
• Grey - a repeat. Scanned twice in the box (counted once), or already logged before: a return that was already received, a dispatch someone already scanned.
• Red - not an order number. Another product's barcode (the shop's EAN or UPC labels), a courier tracking number that was never booked here, a typing slip, a link. Red numbers are never logged.

1. Click a chip to see the reason and what was found (for example "Booked 16/10/26, tracking 40662431636"). Click it again to close.
2. Click the cross on a chip to take that number out of the box.
3. A short sound tells you at once when a scan is wrong: two low buzzes for red, one soft note for amber. On a phone the camera window colours the line and the phone vibrates. Switch it off with Warning sound at the top of the card.
4. Press Dispatched or Return. The button shows how many numbers will really be logged. Amber and grey numbers stay in the box with a note, and red ones too, so nothing is lost. Tick Also send the flagged numbers when you know better, and they are logged with the rest (red ones never are).

Check numbers is a switch on each box (Return and Dispatch separately). Switched off, the box works the old way. The choice is saved on your account only; nobody else's screen changes. A number you are still typing key by key is not judged until you pause or press Enter, so a half-typed number never raises an alarm.

New in v69: scanner, pop-up helpers, phones

• The scanner field takes a barcode scanner at full speed: it keeps up with a scan every fraction of a second and never loses an order number.
• The ? next to a choice opens a short pop-up explaining it, instead of long text on the page.
• On a phone the Dispatch and Return choices are clearly different colours, so a return is not logged as a dispatch by accident.

New in v80

• Dispatch comes first (on a phone it is above Return), because most of what you scan goes out.
• The camera opens at once without the keyboard, with a ring that fills while it reads, a louder beep, zoom and a light. See Scanning with your phone's camera.
• A photo of the pickup slip or load sheet can go with a dispatch batch, like the return receipt for returns.
• Tracking numbers of parcels booked with another app are found too: Parcels booked by another app.