Delivery and Shipping

Every order goes out one way and comes back one way. Unless you say otherwise, the customer picks it up and returns it: Customer Pickup and Customer Return are built in, and the order's pickup and return dates say when.

When you move an order yourself instead, with your own trucks or by a carrier, record its Outbound Shipping (going out) and Return Shipping (coming back) on the order's Delivery tab. They then appear on your calendar, on the order's paperwork and on the customer's order page.

Setting up delivery methods

Add the ways you deliver and ship in your Delivery Methods Settings. Press Add Delivery Method and fill in:

• Name: what you call it, such as "Manhattan Delivery - Standard" or "FedEx Ground". The name prints on the order's paperwork and shows on the customer's order page.
• Who moves the goods?: In-house when your own trucks and crew do it, or Carrier when UPS, FedEx, a freight company or a courier service does.
• Use for: Outbound Shipping, Return Shipping or both - which side of an order you can pick it for.
• Carrier (carrier methods only): the company that ships it, such as UPS or FedEx. Leave it as Other for a carrier that isn't in the list. It's copied onto the order when you pick the method, where you can change it.
• Outbound Shipping Fee and Return Shipping Fee (optional): the inventory item that charges for each side. See Delivery fees.

You don't need a method for customer pickups. Every order has those already.

Below the list, Default for New Orders and Default Return for New Orders choose the methods an order starts with when you create it with New Order. Leave them blank for a customer pickup and return.

Deleting a method doesn't change the orders that already use it: they keep its name.

The Delivery tab

An order has a Delivery tab once you have at least one delivery method. It has two sides, Outbound and Return, and each starts with a method: Customer Pickup (or Customer Return), or one of your methods.

A customer pickup or return goes by the order's pickup or return date, and has nothing else to fill in. For shipping or return shipping, fill in:

• the date, and a time window with From and To. Leave the times blank if you only know the day.
• Location: the venue, building or stage.
• the address, with a second line for a suite, unit, floor or stage. The Map link opens it in Google Maps.
• Site Contact: who to call on site. List as many people as you need.
• Carrier and Tracking Numbers, for a carrier method. See Tracking links.
• Notes: for your team, such as a gate code or a loading dock. Notes print only on the Delivery Sheet, never on the customer's paperwork.

Click Menu for more:

• Same Address as Outbound copies the outbound location, address and contact to the return side.
• Pull Dates sets each side's date from the order's pickup and return dates.
• Print Delivery Sheet downloads the order's Delivery Sheet.

Press Save when you're done.

The Calendar

Shipping and return shipping with a date appear on your Calendar, next to the order's pickup and return. Choose Shipping Only to see just those. A carrier method has a box icon, an in-house one a truck.

Paperwork

• The Delivery Sheet, under Download in the order menu, lays out both sides of the order: when, where, who to call, tracking numbers and notes.
• Quotes, Checkout Sheets, Pickup Sheets, Return Sheets and an invoice for a single order show the order's outbound and return shipping: the method, date and time, location, address, site contact and tracking numbers.
• Packing List show the shipping only, so your team knows when the order leaves and where it's going.

A customer pickup or return prints nothing. See Paperwork.

Tracking Links

When you add a tracking number to a carrier shipment, Propcart links it to the carrier's tracking page. The link shows under Tracking Numbers as soon as you add the number, and once you save, tracking numbers are links on the customer's order page and on the paperwork.

Propcart links tracking numbers for UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS, Canada Post, Purolator, Estafeta, Correios, Australia Post, StarTrack, DPD and GLS. A carrier left as Other gets no link: its tracking numbers show as plain text.

Extensions and Loss & Damage Orders

An extension starts with no outbound shipping, because the items are already on site. It keeps the original order's return shipping method, location and contact, with the date cleared for you to reschedule. When an extension keeps every rental item, the calendar hides the original order's return shipping, just as it hides the original order's return.

A Loss & Damage order has no outbound or return shipping.

Quote / Hold Requests

With Offer Shipping? on in your Webstore Settings, a customer requesting a quote chooses Pickup or Ship it to me. To have it shipped, they give the address, an on-site contact and notes, and the address search finds a business by name too. They don't choose a method or a time: those are yours.

When you convert a request the customer wants shipped, Propcart asks how before it creates the order. Choose its Outbound Shipping method and its Return Shipping method (or Customer Return). Nothing is chosen for you. Both go to the address the customer gave, with their contact and notes. If you have no delivery methods yet, you can convert without shipping and arrange it on the order later. See Quote Requests.

Delivery Fees

You charge for delivery with a line item. Create the fee as an inventory item with the Purchase Type Service (see How do I add a delivery fee?), then pick it as a delivery method's Outbound Shipping Fee, Return Shipping Fee or both. The two sides can use different items, such as "Delivery Fee" and "Pickup Fee", or the same one. Retired items can't be picked.

When an order's outbound or return shipping uses a method with a fee, and that fee isn't on the order, the order shows an alert: This order has an outbound delivery scheduled but is missing its delivery fee line item. Click Add the delivery fee to add the item at its price, then change the line item's price if this order's fee is different. When both sides use the same item, the order lists it once with a quantity of 2.

When you change a side's method, or set it back to Customer Pickup or Customer Return, and save, Propcart asks whether to remove the old fee line item, or to reduce its quantity by 1 when both sides shared it. Press Remove or Skip. A locked order keeps its fees: set its invoice to Draft status first.

Good to know:

• An order can't have more of an item than its quantity, so give each fee item a high quantity, such as 999. Otherwise a fee both sides share stops at 1. See setting up a delivery fee item.
• A canceled fee line item still counts as on the order, so canceling a fee waives it without bringing the alert back.
• A Rentals Only order can't hold a Service item. Use Sales & Rentals to charge a fee.
• Extensions don't ask for fees: the original order charged them.