If you are a retailer, a small eCommerce business, a distributor or wholesaler responsible for your warehouse, inventory, and order fulfillment operations, then this news is for you. Recently, QuickBooks Online incorporated shipping functionality into its Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, and Advanced products.
You no longer need a third-party app or shipping software program to fulfill your orders via major carriers. Intuit has built a direct integration with ShipEngine that works from within QBO.
Setting Up Shipping in QuickBooks Online
You must configure ShipEngine before preparing shipping labels and connecting to the ShipEngine server to obtain shipping rates. Depending on the version of QBO you are using, you may need to select Commerce and then Shipping from the Left-hand navigation bar. In other cases, you may need to choose Shipping directly from your Left-hand navigation bar. If you don't find Shipping, check your Left-hand navigation bar 'Menu settings' (shown in the red box in the illustration below) to ensure that Shipping is available and selected.
Preparing to Ship from QBO
Whether you are shipping your first parcel from QBO or your fifteenth-hundredth, there are some things you should always do before you begin the shipping process. To have accurate shipping costs computed by ShipEngine, you must provide information about the 'shipping address' to which the parcel is going. This information will (should) come from your Invoice, so you need to have your Invoice Number available to begin the shipping process.
You must also provide the dimensions of your shipping package (height, width, and length—all in inches) and its weight (in pounds and ounces). If this information is not included in the Invoice's shipping information, it is best to have it ready.
Your First Shipment from QBO
After opening QBO and selecting Shipping, when the "Simplify your shipping" pop-up appears, choose 'Create shipping label.'
If you wish to read details about generally available rates, click the Find out more URL link at the bottom of the 'Simplify your shipping' pop-up (shown in the green box in the prior illustration).
The Set up shipping features box appears on the right side of the prior pop-up message. This box provides access to Intuit's 'terms of service' and ShipEngine's 'terms of service.' Insightful Accountant recommends reading both before clicking the green 'Connect' button at the bottom right of the window.
By selecting 'connect,' you agree to both sets of 'terms of service.'
The Entering shipping label info pop-up appears.
- Begin by entering the Invoice number associated with the parcel you are attempting to ship (as shown in the illustration below).
- Verify the From information (yellow box below) is correct or edit as required.
- Verify the To information (green box below) is correct or edit as required.
- Scroll to the Package info section of the form.
- Enter the package dimensions (length, width, height), illustrated with the yellow box above.
- Enter the package weight (pounds and ounces), illustrated above with the purple box.
- When you are sure all your information is correct, click the green 'Get shipping rates' button at the bottom of the form.
Incomplete or erroneous information on the form will be highlighted with red pyramids. You must resolve these issues to continue the shipping process. Then click 'Get shipping rates' again.
If your information is accurate, it is sent to ShipEngine and verified, and the available rates are computed.
- Review the various shipping options and choose the carrier/rate you prefer.
- Select Review and buy.
Set Up your ShipEngine Account
Before you can finalize your first shipment, you must set up your account with ShipEngine, with whom Intuit has partnered to provide this shipping feature for QBO. After selecting Review and buy above, you will be taken to the 'checkout' page.
- When the ShipEngine Checkout page appears, select Setup (the first time you use this feature).
- ShipEngine displays a new window asking you to Review again and agree to ShipEngine's terms and conditions, choose Continue.
- Select I confirm, then Continue again.
- Let's assume you intend to use the Carriers and Rates that ShipEngine makes available. Choose Continue.
- To use ShipEngine's Carriers and Rates, you must fund the ShipStation account you created by agreeing to their terms and conditions. To fund your account, select Add funds.
- Return to the process of shipping the parcel you started with by selecting Finish buying shipping label.
Finalize your Shipping Documents
- Based on the information you provided from the Invoice, the shipping information, and the package information, ShipEngine will display the information to verify on the checkout page (from where you set up your account earlier). If all the information is correct, choose Print and buy.
- The shipping label opens in a new tab as a PDF document.
- The label and packing slip are now linked to your Invoice.
- You can select Print packing slip (highlighted in the green box within the illustration below) or Track Shipment and Print label from the Invoice at any time.
- You can also Void the label from the Invoice if the void period is still active and you no longer require a shipping label.
That takes you step-by-step through configuring the new shipping feature, setting up your ShipEngine account, and processing your first shipment for the merchandise you are invoicing to one of your QBO Customers.
In a future installment of QB Monday Minute, we will look at some of the other things you need to know about using this exciting new feature.
Footnotes and Disclosures
Some content within this feature is based on Intuit media source materials and other QuickBooks resources, including QuickBooks In-product Help. Content adapted by Insightful Accountant from Intuit sources is furnished for educational purposes only.
As used herein, QuickBooks® and QuickBooks Online (including all QBO versions) refer to one or more registered trademarks of Intuit® Inc., a publicly traded corporation headquartered in Mountain View, California.
ShipEngine® is a registered trademark of Accutane, Inc., with corporate offices in Austin, Texas.
Other trade names or references used herein (if any) may refer to registered, trademarked, or copyrighted materials held by their respective owners; they are included in the content for informational and educational purposes only.
This is an editorial feature, not sponsored content. No vendor associated with this article has paid Insightful Accountant or the author any remuneration to be included in this feature. The article is provided solely for informational and educational purposes.
Note: Registered Trademark ® and other registration symbols (such as those used for copyrighted materials) have been eliminated from the articles within this publication for brevity due to the frequency or abundance with which they would otherwise appear or be repeated. We attempt to credit such trademarks or copyrights within our respective article footnotes and disclosures.