After orders are transferred to the so-called auto-shipping in Xentral, the respective delivery notes are collected in the so-called Dispatch center module in Xentral. From there, you can collect the products required for the orders and pick them with the help of your desired logistics process. In the dispatch center, you can find a list of all deliveries to be processed. If needed, you can filter the entries by open deliveries, already shipped deliveries and picking runs.
Tip
In this article, you learn how the Dispatch center module is structured and how you proceed to make optimal use of the dispatch center. In addition, you can find two chapters further below on how to print multiple shipping labels for one order and how to pre-generate shipping labels before the actual shipping process in Xentral to make efficient use of your time during the process.
First, proceed as described below to open the dispatch center in Xentral.
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Open the menu Stock > Dispatch center.
Or: Use the Smart Search to search for the term Dispatch center.
You are now in the Overview tab.
In the Overview tab, you can click on the respective option above the table to access various types of information: Outstanding deliveries, Shipped deliveries and Picking runs. In the following, we explain the content of these lists in a bit more detail.
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Outstanding deliveries: Here, you can find a list of all outstanding deliveries. These are orders from customers for which the picking and packing process as well as the actual shipment process of the products has not yet taken place in Xentral. If needed, you can start the picking process for the delivery note via the Menu column, assign the delivery to another employee or cancel the shipment.
Tip
You have several possibilities for shipping your deliveries. More precise information on this is available in this chapter.
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Shipped deliveries: All deliveries that have already been shipped to customers are listed here. You can use the Menu column to re-open or cancel the delivery note or print an additional copy. Delivery notes that have been cancelled in the dispatch center are displayed as a protocol entry in the delivery note. Also, you can register tracking numbers per delivery note.
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Picking runs: This view lists all picking runs. The Menu column allows you to start the picking run, display the pick list and print it if needed, and create a combined PDF with all delivery notes that are contained in the picking run.
The Outstanding deliveries view offers different ways to actually ship your deliveries. Read on for more detailed information on this.
Start by clicking on Scan delivery note/box on the upper right of the Overview > Outstanding deliveries view. Proceed by scanning the barcode of the delivery note for which picking should be started. The barcode is printed on the delivery note. Make sure that the barcode is displayed by activating the respective options in the stationery settings for the delivery note.
After you have scanned the barcode of the delivery note, use a scanner to register the respective items for the delivery, or enter them manually. Then, you can create the shipping label.
This method is easiest if you already have a physical delivery note at hand whose items you now want to pick in the warehouse. By scanning the barcode, the respective delivery note is opened directly in the dispatch center in Xentral.
Use the search field in the Shipping address column in the Overview > Outstanding deliveries view to search for the name of a specific customer whose order you want to ship. Once you have found the required delivery note in the list, click on the right arrow symbol in the Menu column to directly start registering items. Here, you can either scan items or enter item numbers manually to register them for shipment. As soon as you are done, you can create the shipping label. Depending on the settings you have carried out for the project, the shipping label will be printed automatically. Afterwards, you are asked to scan the tracking number. This step is important to save the tracking number directly at the delivery note.
Tip
Just like when searching for a specific customer, you can also use for other data, for example if you want to process orders for a specific order date, shipping method or a project.
Similar to the scanning process for a delivery note, you can also scan specific item numbers or enter them manually to identify delivery notes that contain exactly this item.
Start by placing the cursor in the field Scan item on the upper right of the Overview > Outstanding deliveries view. Then, scan the item label or enter the item number manually.
If the scanned item is included in multiple delivery notes, Xentral will identify the steps for further processing as follows:
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The scanned item is the only product included in the delivery note and the item quantity is 1: You are immediately forwarded to the shipping label dialogue to create the shipping label
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The scanned item is the only product included in the delivery note and the item quantity is bigger than 1: You are forwarded to the delivery note to scan the additional product quantities
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The scanned item is included in the delivery note along with multiple other products: You are forwarded to the delivery note to scan the additional products.
This method is recommended if you sell a specific product quite often and you already know it is included in numerous customer orders. You can use this method to quickly process these orders.
If one of the following picking processes has been selected in the Logistics/Shipping tab of the project settings, the tracking number needs to be scanned or entered manually after packing the shipment:
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Simple stock retrieval and scanning in the dispatch center
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Delivery note with storage location, Automatic stock retrieval and Scan in dispatch center
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Logistics center (2-stage-picking)
If you have activated the option Shipping confirmation/tracking in the Logistics/Shipping tab of the project settings, an email including the tracking number will be automatically sent to the customer after finishing the shipping process.
Note
For orders with one of the shipping service providers DHL, UPS and GLS, the tracking number can be inserted automatically. Then, press Enter to save the tracking number. To allow the automatic insertion, the option Shipping confirmation/tracking must be activated under Project > Open project > Settings > Logistics/Shipping > Stage 2 (pack) at dispatch station.
Tip
Do you wish to enable users without admin access to continue processing the delivery notes of other users in the dispatch center? Then, open the menu User > Open user > Tab: Rights and activate the entry freigabe in the versanderzeugen section.
In the Dispatch center, open the Outstanding deliveries tab to view a list of all products that have not yet been shipped.
In the Dispatch center module, you can mark orders as clarification cases to pause processing of particular shipments. You can mark deliveries as clarification cases during the packing process by using the respective button, or mark orders during creating of the shipping label. There are multiple reasons for clarification cases:
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Not enough stock is available for specific products
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Products are damaged
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The best before date has been exceeded
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Products have not been packaged correctly
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The customer’s address is not correct
After you have marked an order as a clarification case, it is displayed as follows in the Overview > Outstanding deliveries tab:
Tip
In the Overview tab of the dispatch center, you can filter for existing clarification cases using the filters without clarification cases or only clarification cases.
You can also filter by the name or the descriptive text of the clarification case. To do so, enter the name or text of the clarification case in the Search field at the top left of the overview table in the Overview tab.
In the Settings tab of the dispatch center, click on +Create a new clarification case to save a new reason. A small window opens, in which you enter the reason as well as the sorting. Finally, click on Save. You can then assign the newly created reason to orders.
You can mark an order as a clarification case directly at the packing table or when creating a shipping label in the shipping label dialogue. The clarification case reasons you have created beforehand in Xentral as described above are available for selection.
In the following, both methods are described.
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Open the menu Stock > Dispatch center.
You are now in the tab Overview > Outstanding deliveries.
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Start the shipping process of the delivery using one of the methods described above.
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During the item registration, you can click on Create clarification case to mark the order accordingly.
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Select a reason for the clarification case.
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Click on Save. You are then forwarded to the tab Overview > Outstanding deliveries of the dispatch center. The delivery note is now marked as a clarification case and you can continue right away with the next order.
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After you have picked and packed all products required for the delivery, you also have a chance to mark an order as a clarification case when creating the shipping label. For example, this might be necessary if you notice a damaged package or other irregularities that you need to address before handing the parcels over to the shipping service provider. To do so, click on Create clarification case at the bottom of the shipping label dialogue.
When registering items for a delivery note, you can ship a portion of the ordered products and create a partial order or a partial delivery note containing the remaining products. A partial delivery note contains all items that have already been registered and that are ready to be shipped. Items that are not contained remain as open items in the dispatch center and can be registered and shipped later.
During item registration, click on Create partial sales order for remaining quantities or Create partial delivery note, depending on what step you want to carry out. The partial order or partial delivery note are then directly created in Xentral so that you can continue to process them via the order overview and the dispatch center at a later point in time.
You can print more than one shipping label for the same order. The labels will include different information (for example weight or insurance). To do so, first register all items included in the delivery note until you reach the shipping label dialogue. Then, proceed as described below.
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Click on Enter tracking number directly.
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In the next step, activate the option Create additional shipping label for this delivery.
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Now, scan the already existing tracking number for the order or enter it manually.
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You are now forwarded to the shipping label dialogue once again to create an additional shipping label.
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Enter the desired address, weight, insurance or other data.
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Click on Print shipping label.
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Repeat the process as often as desired until you have created the required shipping labels.
If you are dealing with a high number of orders and need to ship thousands of deliveries each day, generating the high number of required shipping labels via the dispatch center can be a very time-consuming task. This is due to the high system load in such cases. If you are shipping such high numbers of packages per day and would like to spread the load more evenly, it can make sense to generate shipping labels in advance. This advance generation is carried out automatically by Xentral in the background as soon as you have carried out the following settings in the shipping method and in the project.
The following happens when generating shipping labels in advance:
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A new order is created in Xentral, either by manual entry or due to an automatic import from your online shop or other sales platform.
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Based on the available order data, Xentral automatically creates a shipping label in the DHL, DPD or GLS customer portal as soon as this order is transferred to auto-shipping. This shipping label is not yet displayed in the Files tab of the respective delivery note, but is created in the database in the background.
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If the data displayed on the shipping label is changed for whatever reason during order processing in Xentral (name, weight of the shipment or other changes to address data), Xentral automatically generates an updated shipping label. This shipping label is not yet saved in Xentral, but already available in your DHL, DPD or GLS customer portal.
Important
Pay attention to the following notes and limitations before carrying out the settings:
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The advance generation of shipping labels is only available for orders with the shipping methods DHL, DPD (API) or GLS (API)!
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Contact your account manager at DHL, DPD or GLS beforehand to make sure that only the shipping labels that you have used for actual shipments are billed to your account. If you are generating shipping labels in advance, there might be several shipping labels for the same delivery. Thus, you need to cancel all shipping labels you do not end up using, since cancelling them is not possible in Xentral.
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Generating shipping labels in advance is only relevant if you use a two-stage logistics process. This is defined in the projects settings in the Settings > Tab Logistics/shipping > Section Stage 2 (pack) at dispatch station.
Proceed as described below to activate the pre-generation of shipping labels: