Important
The functionality described here is currently only available for Xentral customers with a Pro plan.
Xentral allows you to print shipping labels in bulk in order to save valuable time during the shipping process by delivering the products to your end customers even faster. This optimization is interesting in the following use cases:
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Sales orders containing a single identical product: Imagine you are sending a tote bag with your company logo to all your existing customers as part of a marketing campaign. Each shipment contains one tote bag. Or maybe there is a limited flash sale in your online store, meaning that only one copy of a specific product can be ordered, e.g. as part of an introductory offer or a promotion.
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Sales orders containing several identical products: You are shipping the tote bag mentioned above to your B2B customers as part of a promotion, but you are adding a pen and a notebook. Thus, each shipment contains one tote bag, one pen and one notebook. In cases like this, you can print shipping labels in bulk for specific projects (in this case, B2B).
Note
In both use cases, it does not matter which shipping label is pasted on the individual packages, since each sales order consists of the exact same products. This is exactly what you are leveraging when printing shipping labels in bulk in Xentral: There is no more need to process such sales orders individually in the dispatch center. While part of your warehouse staff puts the required products in the packages, the shipping labels are printed out and can be immediately attached to the packages. The process is quick since the contents of the individual packages do not need to be checked and the packages do not need to be assigned to different recipients.
To accelerate and facilitate the shipping process in the use cases described above, a few preparatory settings are necessary in Xentral. The Pick list profiles (picking rules) module is of central importance, since it is used to clearly define for which sales orders the bulk printing should be carried out.
The following chapters contain step-by-step instructions on the settings that you need to carry out in Xentral and how the actual shipping process is carried out.
Caution
Before proceeding with the setup, note the following limitations and notes on bulk printing of shipping labels:
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This functionality is only available for sales orders with the shipping method DHL, GLS, UPS (OAuth) , Sendcloud and the Carrier Integration Service.
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Shipping label bulk printing only works for products that are stored in the same warehouse and that are marked as Stock item in the product master data.
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Sales orders containing products with best before dates, serial numbers and batches cannot be processed using shipping label bulk printing.
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Printing shipping labels in bulk may cause performance issues in Xentral, so you might encounter prolonged loading times when working with the system.
The first step consists of creating a pick list profile for your specific use case. Pick list profiles are required so that pick lists for the desired sales orders can be created automatically, enabling the warehouse staff to pick the products. In addition, the pick list profile triggers the automatic printing of the shipping labels via the selected label printer. Thus, the shipping labels are ready as soon as the packing process is completed.
Tip
Do you need additional information on pick lists profiles and how they work? Then, take a closer look at our article on Pick list profiles (picking rules).
Proceed as follows to create a pick list profiles for shipping label bulk printing.
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Use the Smart Search to open the Pick list profiles module.
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Click on + NEW in the upper right corner.
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Enter a unique name in the Designation field, for example Bulk print_Shipping labels.
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Optional: Enter an additional text containing more information on the purpose of this profile in the Comment field.
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Carry out the following settings in the Properties pick list section:
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Option Orders: Decide the minimum number of sales orders with identical contents at which the pick list profile should take effect. In our example, we decide to generate pick lists automatically using the pick list profile from 10 identical sales orders upwards. For less than 10 sales orders, we consider our regular shipping process to be sufficient.
Tip
You can also leave both fields for the option Orders empty. This way, the pick list profile takes effect from the first sales order and the total number of sales orders that will be processed has no limit. We recommend that you define a minimum value in the first field at least, just as shown in the example.
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Option Identical parcel contents: Activating this option is mandatory so that the pick list profile can process sales orders with identical content and the shipping labels can be printed in bulk.
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Carry out the following settings in the Execution of pick list creation section:
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Activate the option Automat. execution.
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Click on Edit filter to select a time for the execution of the pick list profile. In our example, we decide that the pick list profile should be executed automatically each morning at 05:00 a.m., so that the shipping labels are ready as soon as the warehouse staff starts the morning shift and starts the shipping process.
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Carry out the following settings in the Filter orders section:
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Use the Warehouse option to select the storage location containing the products for whose sales orders shipping labels should be printed in bulk. In our previous example, we are storing our tote bags, pens and notebooks in the storage location Hauptlager (main warehouse).
Warning
The products must not be stored in separate warehouses! If necessary, adjust your warehouse structure to enable bulk shipping label printing.
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Optional: Limit the pick list profile to a specific Project in case you want to differentiate between use cases for your B2B and B2C business or you want to realize a workflow for a specific online store.
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Carry out the following settings in the Shipment settings section:
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For the Printer dispatch label option, select the printer that should be used for shipping labels.
Important
This must be a designated label printer for shipping labels. It is not possible to print shipping labels in bulk using a PDF printer or regular printer!
The label printer must already be set up in Xentral. More information is available in the article Connecting your printer to Xentral.
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Activate the option Print shipping label.
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Activate the option Bulk print with delimiters.
Note
The term delimiter refers to the start and end labels that are automatically printed along with the shipping labels. Further information on those labels is available in chapter Identification using start and end labels.
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Select your desired Picking process. In our example, we retrieve the products directly from their storage locations and place them in the package - without any additional quality control scans. Thus, we select the option Simple stock retrieval without further process.
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Click on Save after you have carried out all settings for the pick list profile.
After you have carried out the required preparatory settings, let’s take a look a how bulk shipping label printing actually works in everyday logistics.
In the following, you’ll get an overview of the process and its different steps in Xentral and in your logistics department.
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The pick list profile you have defined checks all sales orders in Xentral.
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All sales order corresponding to the rules of the pick list profile are included in pick lists.
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The process starter batches is executed in Xentral.
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After the process starter has finished its run, the required shipping labels for the sales order in the respective pick lists are printed automatically.
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Your warehouse staff picks up the shipping labels at the label printer.
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The start labels and delimiters contained in the bulk print show the warehouse staff exactly which products to pick. In case of a small warehouse with a limited product range, the warehouse staff may use those labels to pick the products. If the packages have already been packed beforehand, the contents can be checked using the labels.
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The shipping labels are attached to the packages that are already prepared. As previously explained: It does not matter which package receives which shipping labels, since the contents are identical.
During shipping label bulk printing, Xentral enables you to keep track of different sales orders from different pick lists so that you can react early to potential errors.
At the beginning of bulk label printing, the label printer will print the following start label:
Note
The start label shows you at a glance if label printing failed for a sales order. In addition, it contains the product name, product quantity and the pick list ID.
After the start label, the shipping labels are printed consecutively. Depending on the number of labels, this process might result in a long strip of shipping labels. Consider placing a bucket or any other container underneath the label printer. This allows your warehouse staff to pick up the labels at a fixed location as soon as printing is finished.
The last shipping label is followed by an end label. This looks as follows:
Tip
In case automatic shipping label printing failed for a sales order, you can see the name of the customer, the delivery note number and a barcode at the bottom of this label. The following steps are carried out for failed labels:
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Xentral automatically creates a clarification case for the respective sales order in the dispatch center.
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At the warehouse, you use your hand scanner to scan the printed barcode in order to open the respective delivery note directly and create the shipping label manually.
If automatic printing fails for individual shipping labels, the cause is most often in errors with the customer’s address that is stored in the delivery note. To avoid errors like this, we recommend using the Xentral module Address validation which notifies you of faulty addresses before the logistics process starts.
Tip
More information on the address validation and the required settings are available in the article Address verification for logistics processes (address validation).
In case automatic shipping label printing does not work or is not even started despite the address validation being activated, try the following solutions:
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Open the Dispatch center module and click on Picking runs. In the Menu column to the right, you can click on the printer icon to trigger the bulk printing process once again.
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Open the Print jobs module to check if a print job has been created.
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Check the selected printer in the settings of the pick list profile as well as the printer configuration itself.
Have the shipping labels already been printed as desired, but you need to print the same labels once again because the labels have been damaged?
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Open the Picking run module. In the Menu column to the right, click on the printer symbol to print the shipping labels once again.