Product packaging, bundles and shipping kits

In short: Packtally counts two kinds of packaging. Product packaging is what ships with each unit (jar, lid, label, carton), set on Set up, Product packaging. Shipping packaging is everything else in the shipment (box, tissue, fill, tape, slip), set as kits and rules on Set up, Shipping. Together they cover every order.

What ships with each product

Set packaging for one product, or once for every product with a tag, of a product type or from a vendor, so new products are covered too. When more than one setting fits, a product's own setting wins, then a tag, then the product type, then the vendor.

• Coverage shows the share of units shipped this year that have packaging set, and lists your biggest sellers with none.
• No packaging of its own? A tee that goes straight into the mailer can be saved with no items, so it counts as covered.
• Start from a template to add typical packaging for a product type in one step. The items come in as estimates to weigh or confirm. See the packaging library.
• Refresh products from Shopify if you've added products since the last read.

Products with no packaging set put nothing into a state. Once they're more than 1% of the units you shipped, Packtally blocks the filing files until they're covered.

Bundles

When Shopify splits a bundle into its items, each item brings its own packaging. Give a bundle only its outer packaging, like a gift box or sleeve, or nothing if the items ship loose. Packtally counts the bundle's outer packaging once and warns you if a bundle repeats packaging its items already carry, so nothing is counted twice.

Shipping kits

A kit is everything that goes into one shipment besides the products: the box or mailer, tissue, void fill, tape, inserts and the packing slip. Build your own from library items, or start from a template (a poly mailer, a padded paper mailer, or a small, medium or large box). Template items come in as estimates to weigh or confirm.

Rules: which kit each shipment uses

Rules are checked top to bottom and the first match wins. A rule can match on:

• the location it shipped from,
• at least or at most a number of units,
• products weighing up to a number of pounds.

The default rule, for every other shipment, always runs last. Without one, any shipment no rule matches counts as zero shipping packaging, and Packtally blocks the export once unmatched shipments pass 1%. Reorder rules with the up and down buttons.

Know the exact box each order shipped in? Connect ShipStation or upload a file from your 3PL on Real boxes, and those orders use their real boxes instead of rules. See orders, real boxes and other sales.

Check an order

On the Shipping screen, type any order number to see what it added: each item's packaging, the shipping rule that fired (or that none did), the number of shipments, and the state it counted in. It also tells you when an item isn't yours to report, when the box is the 3PL's, when an order was cancelled or a test, when it shipped in another data year, or when nothing in it needed shipping.