Scan & Ship

Intro

Scan & Ship is a dedicated packing screen built around a barcode scanner. Instead of finding shipments in lists, you scan an order number to load the shipment, scan each product to verify the box, and print the label — all without touching the mouse.

Open it from the top menu, next to Shipments.

Purpose

• Remove list-hunting from high-volume packing
• Catch wrong-item mistakes before the label is printed
• Keep one keyboard-first flow: scan → verify → label

How it helps

Requirements

• A hardware barcode scanner in keyboard wedge mode (it types what it scans + Enter) — or, on a phone or tablet, the Scan with camera / Scan items with camera buttons
• Products with scannable SKU / UPC barcodes for verification
• Scan sounds (accept, reject, shipment complete) can be muted with the speaker button
• Fulfill permission (same family as Shipments)

Step 1 — open a shipment by scan

1. Open Scan & Ship. Focus is already in the main scan field.
2. Scan (or type and press Enter) the order number or barcode your warehouse uses.
3. One match → the shipment loads immediately.
4. Several matches → a candidate picker appears; select the right shipment.
5. No match → check the number, or use Shipments → Search to investigate.

Matching prefers open work: an Awaiting shipment is chosen ahead of shipped, picked-up, merged, or cancelled ones with the same number.

Step 2 — verify items while packing

1. With a shipment loaded, focus moves to the verify scan field.
2. Pick each product, scan its SKU / UPC, and place it in the box.
3. The matching line’s counter increases until the line is complete.
4. A scan that matches no line shows an error — stop and check the item.
5. Lines can also be adjusted manually (Verify / Clear) when a barcode is damaged.
6. To confirm a whole line at once — a case of 12 identical items you counted by hand — use the Verify all check on that line. Above the list there is one Verify N type button per product type (for example Verify 24 Frag), which completes every line of that type in one click; it greys out once the type is done.

Verification state is per session — it is a bench aid, not a stored record. Verifying a line that is already complete plays the error chime; completing the last line plays the completion chime.

The start screen lists the Recent shipments processed at this station — click one to reopen it (for a reprint, say). The list is per browser.

Jump to another shipment

Once a shipment is loaded, the header shows a Shipment # box. Type or scan a shipment or order number there to switch shipments without going back to the start screen; a suggestion list appears as you type. Next box (or Next when the order has a single shipment) moves on when you are done. Opening a shipment from a link (/scan-ship/{id}) shows Loading shipment… and lands straight on it.

Orders split into several boxes

When the order has more than one shipment, a Box X of Y badge sits next to the shipment label and a boxes strip lists every box as a chip: the current one highlighted, the others showing their state on hover (Shipped, Label created, On hold, Awaiting label, tracking, service, packed by) with a progress line such as 3 of 5 labelled · 2 to pack. Click a chip to open that box. Next box opens the next box without a label; once every other box is labelled it turns into plain Next and returns to the scan screen. The same strip appears on the shipment detail page.

Notes

A Notes card sits on the right, under Packed by. It lists every note on the shipment — staff notes, the Shopify order note (From order), Shopify timeline comments and notes carried over from a merge — and turns amber with a count when there is something to read. Check it before you pick the first item.

Add note opens a small composer for an internal note ("customer asked for double boxing", "substituted 7x5 for 6x4"). The note is saved with your name, shows on the shipment page and Timeline for the office, and is never sent to the customer. Focus returns to the scan field when you save or cancel, so the scanner keeps working.

Split from the bench

Split shipment (above the item list, on Awaiting shipments with more than one unit) opens a dialog with two tabs. Pick items moves some units to a new shipment; when there is scan progress it preselects the units you have not verified yet (Unverified items / Clear helpers), so what is already in the box stays here — at least one unit must stay behind. By box size gives each item a units per box count (Same for all → Apply), lets you choose whether Box 1 or the Last box stays here, previews the boxes and creates one shipment per box (at least two, at most 50 — see Split into boxes). The toast offers Open {label} for a picked split, or N new shipments created. This one keeps N units; Next opens the following box for a box split. After either, this screen reloads the shipment in place: the parcel weight and size in Configure Shipment are refilled from the items that remain, the rate is re-quoted, and Next box walks you through the other boxes of the order. Totals on each part are shared by product value — see Split & merge.

Step 3 — label and next order

1. When lines are verified, use the configure panel on the same screen — service, package, weight, size, exactly like Labels & rates.
2. A line’s weight can be corrected in place: click it, enter Pounds and Ounces, and Save. The new weight is stored on the product (and on the other lines of the same variant on this order). When the store is connected and the variant has an inventory item, the weight is written back to Shopify in grams — the toast says Weight saved to catalog and Shopify, or just Weight saved when it could only be stored locally.
3. Packed by (a card above Configure Shipment, shown when a Packing department with active members exists and the shipment is not a pickup and has no label yet) — pick Me or any member of the Packing department. If you are not in that department the option reads Me — not a packer with a warning: choose the real packer so Packer Performance stays accurate. The choice is remembered on this browser for every shipment you work at the station, so a shared bench computer only needs changing when the packer changes. The Packed by field inside Configure Shipment is hidden while this card is shown.
4. Create + Print Label — the shipment moves to Shipped.
5. Press Next: it returns to the scan screen with the cursor already in the scan field, so the next barcode goes straight in — or, when the same order has another box without a label, opens that box (Next box).

When Scan & Ship refuses to work

Tips

• Train new packers here first — lists are for exceptions and research.
• Print order numbers as barcodes on packing slips to make step 1 a single scan.
• Damaged barcode? Verify the line manually rather than skipping verification.

Related

• Shipments → Labels & rates — the same label flow in detail; Notes explains note sources
• Shipments → Split & merge — what a split does to totals and weight
• Shipments → Overview — statuses and queues
• Products → Bulk Editor — fix SKUs and weights that scanning exposes