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Guide: Shipping in Allmoxy

How shipping works in Allmoxy: pickup, your own delivery methods, live UPS and FedEx rates, ship dates and the Shipping report, with links to the steps.

Every order in Allmoxy carries one shipping method, picked from the list you set up: the built-in Will Call (pickup), your own custom methods for your delivery trucks or a flat fee, and live UPS or FedEx services if you connect your carrier accounts. The method's formula, or the carrier's rate, works out the shipping charge your customer sees before they place the order, so there is nothing to invoice afterward. This guide explains how the pieces fit together and links to the steps for each one.

Applies to: catalog and itemized orders on every shop. Project orders use the same methods, but on a project instance a shipping formula always sees a weight of 0, so price by a flat fee, distance or order price rather than weight.

In this article

How shipping works in Allmoxy

Your shipping settings live at Settings > Operations > Shipping. There you choose the address you ship from, switch pickup on, add your own methods, and connect UPS or FedEx. Allmoxy offers UPS (7 services), FedEx (5) and FedEx Freight (2): you switch the services on and can adjust their formulas, but you can't rename them.

Each method has a formula that turns the order into a shipping charge. A custom method's formula can use the order's price, quantity, weight and the driving distance to the customer. A UPS or FedEx method first asks the carrier for a live rate using the order's weight, and its formula can adjust that rate, for example to add a handling fee. Allmoxy sends the carrier a weight only, no box sizes, so the rate is an estimate.

The charge is worked out again whenever the order is saved while it is still a Bid, and after that whenever its items, shipping method or address change. On a fully paid order, only a change of method or address recalculates it, and once the order is Shipped the charge is frozen. An employee with Manually Edit Orders can type their own amount over the calculated one until the order ships. A remake gets $0 shipping. If the charge can't be worked out (a carrier error, no weights on a carrier method, or a formula with a mistake in it), the order saves with $0 shipping and no warning, so glance at the shipping line after you save.

Each order also has two dates: the Requested Date, which is what the customer asked for, and the Actual Date, which is when you plan to ship. The Shipping report lists orders by the Actual Date, calls it Ship Date, and is where you mark orders shipped. Allmoxy does not print shipping labels, plan delivery routes or track packages.

Decide how you'll charge for shipping

There are three ways to charge, and many shops use more than one.

  • Live carrier rates. Connect your UPS or FedEx account and let the carrier price each order from its weight. The rate is an estimate (it will be off here and there) but it averages out over a short time. Steps: Connect UPS or FedEx for live shipping rates.
  • Your own formula. Write a formula on a custom method using distance, weight, quantity or order price: a flat fee, a price per mile from your shop, a price per pound with a minimum, or free shipping over a certain order total. It will also be a little off at first and gets better as you adjust it over time. Steps: Write a shipping price formula.
  • Free shipping. Leave a custom method's formula blank or set it to 0, and build the cost of shipping into your product prices. It takes shipping out of the buying decision, and it works.

Whichever way you choose, make sure a customer can order on a Sunday night and know the full cost up front.

Set up your methods and formulas

Start with the list of methods your customers choose from. On the Shipping page you pick your Ship From / Will Call address, turn pickup on (and rename it if you like), add a custom method for each way you deliver, show a method only to tagged customers or hide it from them, and sort out tax on delivered orders. The same page holds the B2B settings if you resell a supplier's products. Steps: Set up your shipping methods: pickup, delivery and who sees each one.

Every custom method has a formula box. The words it understands (price, quantity, weight, distance, shipping_price), the rounding functions, worked examples and how to check an order's weight are in Write a shipping price formula.

For live rates, Connect UPS or FedEx walks through the carrier credentials, the max weight per package, FedEx Freight, and how to add a handling fee on top of the carrier's rate.

Ship dates, the Shipping report and marking orders shipped

The Actual Date starts at today plus your Default Lead Time and is yours to change as the schedule moves; the Requested Date is the customer's ask. How the two dates work, lead times and telling the customer when a date moves: Set ship dates, lead times and the production schedule.

The Shipping report (Reports > Production > Shipping) is your delivery run sheet: every order with a Ship Date in your date range, grouped by shipping method and then by customer, with pieces, address, instructions and the balance due. From it you mark orders shipped with the truck button, see which orders still need payment or have items not yet completed, and export the list. It also answers the two questions that come up around shipping: sending a customer a tracking number, and shipping part of an order. Steps: Plan deliveries and mark orders shipped with the Shipping report.

Marking an order Shipped runs your triggers and freezes the shipping charge. Every other way to change status, including moving an order back out of Shipped: Change an order's status.

What your customers see

A customer sees only the methods that are active and allowed for their company by the method's tag rule, so you can offer a local delivery method to customers in your delivery zone and nobody else. Each customer company has a default shipping method, chosen when they sign up or set by you on the company, and new orders start on it; the company's default billing and shipping addresses fill in the order's address blocks. Steps: Set a customer's default shipping method and addresses. Customers can also open a reduced Shipping report that lists only their own company's orders.

When shipping shows $0 or the wrong amount

Nearly always one of a handful of causes: no weights on the products (carrier methods), an address outside the US and Canada, a carrier or formula error that saved as $0, an incomplete postal code, or an order that is already paid or shipped and so no longer recalculates. The causes in order, the fixes, and what to send support: Shipping shows $0 or the wrong amount.

Things to know

  • A failed rate or formula gives $0, not an error. Check the shipping line after you save, especially on carrier methods.
  • Shipping tax follows the address Allmoxy taxes the order at. Give every delivery method its own From Address so delivered orders are taxed at the customer's address; see the tax section of Set up your shipping methods.
  • Distance is measured to the customer's full shipping address, and only custom methods can use it.
  • No labels, routes or tracking. Allmoxy prices shipping and schedules it; printing labels, planning routes and tracking packages are not available.

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