MPH WMSShipping Templates
Pin a carrier, service and parcel defaults so shipments book themselves
A shipping template is a saved answer to "how do we normally ship this". It pins the carrier, the service, the extras and the parcel defaults, so a packer never picks a service from a dropdown and orders can be booked automatically.
Requires carriers:manage. Find them under Settings → Carriers and shipping → Templates.
Why they matter more than they look
Without a matching template, a packed order cannot be auto-booked. It is flagged needs manual booking and waits for someone to book it by hand. Quick Ship and pick-and-pack both depend on a template matching.
This is the single most common reason a new account picks orders fine and then stalls at the label.
Creating one
Templates → New template, then fill in four groups of settings.
Template settings
- Name - what it is for, in plain words:
Standard Domestic,EU Parcel,Pallet to Norway. - Active - inactive templates are never matched.
- Default return template - the template used when a return label is booked for this shipment.
Matching
- From country and To country. This is what decides whether the template applies to an order at all.
Templates are evaluated in order and the first match wins. Drag to reorder them, and put your specific templates above your general ones - a SE → NO template below a catch-all SE → anywhere template will never be reached.
Carrier and service
- Carrier - a carrier configuration, either your own agreement or an MPH standard agreement.
- Service - the carrier product, for example a parcel to a pickup point. Only services valid for the country pair are offered.
- Additional services - insurance, SMS notice and so on. Some are mandatory for a service, and some come in groups where exactly one must be chosen.
- Incoterms - required for cross-border freight. EXW, CPT, CIP, DAP, DPU or DDP.
- Default pickup point type - no preference, manned service point, or locker. Only relevant for services that deliver to a pickup point.
Parcel defaults
- Length, width, height and the dimension unit
- Weight and the weight unit
- Packaging - parcel, envelope, half pallet (60 × 80), full pallet (120 × 80) or other
- Content - a short description of the goods, for example
Clothing - Insurance value and currency
Give every template a default weight. An order whose items have no weight, on a template with no default weight, cannot be booked automatically. This is the second most common cause of orders stuck at manual booking.
Return templates
Two related settings, easy to confuse:
- Default return template - which template to use when a return label is booked against this shipment.
autoAddReturnLabel- when set, packing an order books a second label, a prepaid return label to put in the box. The packer prints two labels and the customer gets a return option without asking for one.
There is also an Add return label checkbox at Quick Ship for a one-off.
No return record is created at ship time. One only appears if the parcel actually comes back. See Returns.
Assigning templates to orders
Three ways, most specific first:
- On the order - a template set explicitly on the order wins.
- Integration rules - a connection can carry shipping template rules that pick a template from the order's contents, with a fallback to the default. See Shopify.
- Matching - country pair and priority order, as above.
A sensible starting set
Most operations want three or four templates, not twenty:
| Template | From → To | Typical setup |
|---|---|---|
| Standard domestic | SE → SE | Cheapest parcel service, default box size |
| Domestic pickup point | SE → SE | Pickup point service, for lighter parcels |
| Nordics | SE → NO, DK, FI | Cross-border parcel, Incoterm set |
| Rest of EU | SE → other | Parcel or freight, Incoterm set |
Add more only when a real case forces it. Every extra template is another thing that can match the wrong order.
Testing a template
Book one real shipment through it before letting packers loose. Check the label size, the service that came back, and the price. A template that matches but names the wrong service produces perfectly valid labels for the wrong product, and you will not notice until the invoice.