ShipBoss: Your Comprehensive Guide to Bulk Uploads

Welcome to your in-depth guide on how to effectively use the Bulk Uploads feature in ShipBoss. This feature is designed to streamline the process of shipping multiple items at once, allowing you to upload a CSV file containing all the relevant shipment data. This guide will walk you through each step, making it a breeze to manage your bulk shipments.

Navigating to the Bulk Uploads Page

Once you've logged in, you'll find yourself on the New Shipment page. From here, look at the header where you'll find the Bulk Shipments link:

Click on the Bulk Shipments link to access the Bulk Uploads feature.

The Bulk Shipments Page

Once on the Bulk Shipments page, you'll see a toggle on the right side of the title. This lets you display archived files with the same structure as the regular bulk shipments table.

There are two key buttons on the left side of the page:

"Upload Shipments": Clicking this allows you to select a CSV file from your computer to upload.
"Download Sample": This downloads a CSV file that contains the headers your CSV file should have. It's recommended to use this file as a template for your own CSV data.

Below these buttons, you'll find a table containing information about the files you've uploaded. The table includes the following columns:

- Date (when the file was uploaded)
- File Name (the name of the uploaded file)
- User (the user that uploaded the file)
- # of Shipments (the number of shipments in the uploaded file)
- Status (the status of the uploaded file, including "Pending," "Processed," or "Processed with failed shipments")
- Actions (this column contains several buttons for managing the uploaded file)

The "Actions" column includes four buttons:

"Download Your Labels": Opens a new tab with the browser's print interface, displaying all the labels in PDF format generated by the bulk upload process.
"Void All": Voids all the labels in the batch.
"Show Details": Opens a popup containing detailed information about the uploaded batch. This includes dates, carrier, service, tracking number (which can be clicked for tracking and copied), from address, to address, estimated cost, and available actions for each individual package shipment.

Downloading the Sample CSV

Before you begin uploading, it's recommended to download the Sample CSV. This file contains the correct headers that our system recognizes during an upload. You can copy and paste your data into this file for easy uploading. Remember, ShipBoss only accepts .csv files for bulk uploads.

Uploading Your CSV

Once your CSV file is ready, click "Upload Shipments". This will open a pop-up that allows you to browse your computer for your CSV file. Click "Choose File" to locate your file, then click "Upload" to proceed.

Important: For domestic USA shipments, the zip code must be a 5-digit code. Do not add the optional extra 4 digits at the end of the zip code.

Matching Field Names

After uploading, you'll be taken to the "Match Field Names" page. This page displays a preview of your CSV, showing the header columns and the first five rows. Under each header

column name, there's a dropdown containing all the possible values that could be set in the CSV.

Columns in the CSV that are named correctly will be automatically matched to the correct value in the dropdown and will be marked with a check icon. Unmatched columns will be highlighted in red. Once all required fields are matched, the "Continue" button will become clickable.

The required fields are:

- From company, name, address 1, city, state, postal code, country, phone, email
- To company, name, address 1, city, state, postal code, country, phone, email
- Package type, package weight, service, carrier

There are also optional fields you may include, such as from address 2, to address 2, quantity, payor, third party account number, and many more.

Validating Shipments

After matching the fields, you'll proceed to the "Validate Shipments" page. Here, you'll choose a label type and review a summary of all the shipments in your CSV. You can edit details like addresses, carrier, carrier service, package details, and notification types.

You can also multi-select and bulk edit many shipments at once. To do this, use the checkbox on the left side of each shipment row. If you need to select all shipments, use the checkbox at the top of the column.

Once you've made all necessary edits, click "Continue". If you've made bulk edits but haven't applied them, you'll receive a warning.

If you used the Group ID field to combine rows into a single shipment and there are conflicting addresses, you'll need to resolve these conflicts before proceeding. You can either split the conflicting package into its own shipment group or choose the correct address to apply to the whole group.

Confirming Your Bulk Upload

When you click "Continue", you'll see a pop-up confirmation message that says "Processing with the number of shipments that will be created, we will notify you when your labels are ready to print. You can safely navigate away from this page". Click "OK" to return to the Bulk Shipments page.

If there's a problem with your shipments, you'll receive an error message explaining the issue. Once your shipments have finished processing, you'll receive a notification. This will tell you if there were any issues and how many shipments were successfully created.

That concludes the Bulk Uploads process on ShipBoss. We hope this guide has been helpful in navigating this feature. Happy shipping!

Updated on: 11/11/2024