Packtally docs
Orders, real boxes and sales outside Shopify
How Packtally counts Shopify orders by state, uses real boxes from ShipStation or a 3PL file, adds Amazon, wholesale and retail sales, and links several stores.
In short: States count everything you ship into them, not just Shopify orders. Packtally reads your Shopify orders by ship-to state, can use the box each order really shipped in from ShipStation or your 3PL, and takes Amazon, wholesale, retail and marketplace units from a form, a CSV or Amazon's own shipments report.
Which Shopify orders count
- Packaging goes into the state each order shipped to. Only units that actually shipped count; cancelled and unshipped items never put packaging into a state.
- Test orders don't count, and neither do items that don't ship, like gift cards and digital products.
- An order counts in the data year it shipped in.
- Shopify POS and pickup sales count in the store's state.
- Orders shipped outside the US show on Outside the US instead. See compliance checks.
Packtally reads the whole data year when you start, counts new orders as they come in, and reads the year again once a day. You can also press Read orders again on Home. If Shopify doesn't share the destination for most orders, Home tells you, because state totals are incomplete until that's fixed.
Real boxes from ShipStation or your 3PL
Shipping rules are a good estimate. The box each order actually shipped in is better, and it's the most accurate shipping packaging you can report. On Set up, Real boxes:
- Connect ShipStation with an API key and secret (in ShipStation: Settings, Account, API Settings; you need a ShipStation plan with API access). If you have several ShipStation stores, pick the one that is this Shopify store. Packtally reads which package each shipment used once a day, or when you press Read shipments now. It only reads; it never creates labels or changes orders. Voided and return labels are skipped. Your key is stored encrypted and never shown again.
- Or upload a file from your 3PL. ShipBob, Shippo, ShipHero and most 3PLs can export shipments with the order number and the box or package used. One row per box; an order sent in two boxes has two rows. Include a shipment or tracking number column when you can; without one, repeated rows for the same order and box count as one box. A template is one click away.
Then match each box to a shipping kit, since a kit is the box plus what goes in it, like tissue, fill and tape. An order uses its real boxes only when every one of them is matched; otherwise your shipping rules still decide it. ShipStation wins over a file for the same order.
Sales outside Shopify
On Set up, Other sales, add units by product for the data year, for any of these channels:
| Channel | How Packtally treats it |
|---|---|
| Amazon, fulfilled by Amazon | Amazon packs and ships these, so the shipping box is treated as Amazon's in states where the packer is the producer. Your product packaging still counts. No program has said so officially, so that treatment is an inference |
| Amazon, shipped by you | Like your own orders |
| Wholesale to stores | Your product packaging counts in the state where the store sells it. Add the cartons you ship if you know the count |
| Your own retail store or events | Sales rung up outside Shopify POS |
| Other marketplaces (Etsy, Walmart, TikTok Shop) | Use the state where each order shipped if the marketplace reports it |
| Something else | Anything that doesn't fit above |
For each line, give the state if you know it, or a total that Packtally spreads across states the way that product's Shopify orders split. The spread is an estimate, and your methodology says so. You can also add sales in dollars (it helps California's sales test), the number of shipments and the shipping kit you packed them in.
Upload a file
- Packtally's template: one row per product, channel and state. Leave state blank to spread the units like your Shopify orders.
- Amazon's Fulfilled Shipments report, exactly as it downloads from Seller Central (Reports, Fulfillment). Packtally reads units by ship-to state, matches them to your products by SKU, and tells FBA from units you shipped yourself. Orders Amazon fulfilled for your Shopify store (multi-channel fulfillment) are already counted from Shopify, so they're left out. Rows outside the US and unknown SKUs are reported back to you.
Each upload replaces the last one, so upload the whole year.
Several stores, one company
Run more than one Shopify store under the same company? On the Pro plan, file them together so each state's report covers all of them. Install Packtally on the other store, open Set up, Company there, make a link code (it works once, for 24 hours) and enter it in the filing store. The linked store's orders, products and packaging are counted in the filing store's reports, and you lock and submit from there. Either store can unlink at any time.