What are Profiles?
Profiles are a way to segment out your shipping operations based on department, customer, etc. This allows you to process your shipments using different rules, carriers, or labels for the different groups as needed by your operation.
To modify your stations, go to Admin -> Profiles in the sidebar.
This will open up the profiles panel in the middle of your web application. Here you can organize the order of the profiles, add a new profile, edit a profile or remove profiles. You can also see deleted profiles and un-delete those records if needed.
What's in a profile?
Origin Address
The information entered below will reflect the origin/ship from for shipments done under this profile. This the default address that is used to calculate rates with the different carriers as where the shipment originates from.
NOTE: For some carriers, you will need to make sure the origin address on the profile matches your billing address, as some shipping errors can occur if the addresses do not match.
NOTE: Don't forget to hit the save button once you have your origin information where you want it.
Features
The features tab is where you enable what functionality you want on a specific profile, such as parcel/LTL shipping, packing, and batch processing. If you've questions about any of the features listed here, feel free to contact support.
NOTE: Don't forget to hit the save button once you have your origin information where you want it.
Carriers
The carriers tab allows you to manage the carrier accounts you want enabled for the profile. Carrier accounts must be registered via the Admin -> Carriers page before adding to a profile (see Carrier Administration).
NOTE: Only one carrier account per profile is allowed. If multiple options are added for the same carrier, the system will default to the first one in the list.
Adding a Carrier
On the Carriers tab, click the blue "Add Carrier" button. This will open the Add Carrier Account window, which will allow you to select one or more registered carriers and associate them with this profile.
Services
Once you have added a carrier to your profile, you'll need to go into the services tab directly below the carrier tab. Here you can switch between small parcel or LTL services.
This interface allows you to remove or add services for different carriers by selecting their checkbox and hitting the > blue box to add them your current services. You can also remove services by selecting them on the right side and pushing them out with the < blue box button. By default, this menu will show all the carriers for the type of shipping you have selected above: parcel/LTL.
You can filter by carriers by utilizing the drop-down menu and picking the carrier.
Rateshops
Rateshops are a powerful Shipstore tool that allow you to compare carriers and their services against each other for a given shipment. To add a rateshop select the blue add button in the top right.
We will want to give our new rateshop a good name describing its use: (i.e. 3Day rateshop, 2Day rateshop, International rateshop). Then you will select the services from the left list and hit the > blue arrow to push them to current services for the rateshop. This will allow you to select this rateshop as a service for the profile when shipping, it will then rate with all the shipments you've added to this rateshop.
Translations
Translations are a way to add ship via service codes for a specific profile. This section works nearly the same as the global translations section, the only difference is these translations are more specific, so they overwrite global translations.
Select the blue add button to add a translation. You'll select the service you want the host code to map to and then enter in the host code that your integration is sending us. An example is below. This panel also lets you select some defaults for the shipments loaded in with the given host code.
Box Type
Box Types are a way for you to add frequently used packaging dimensions to your shipping environment. You can also set the default amount charged for every package by custom dimensions.
To add a new box type, select the blue Add button and input the dimensions in the format of height x width x girth, then make sure to input a monetary value for the package size. This will allow you to select this form the ship screen without having to type this in every time. You can also put some notes in here for usage within your operations.
To remove a box type just check mark the rows that you'd like to remove and select the red "Delete Selected" button or delete them line by line by clicking on the red trash can button.
Business Rules
Business rules can either be set at the client level or at the profile level. A profile level business rule always overrides a client level business rule. By Selecting Profile Overrides > Business Rules you can get to the panel to add or remove business rules at the profile level.
To add a new business rule, select the blue add button at the top right of the panel. When creating a new business rule, it's important to give it a name that clearly defines its function. The timing is also an important feature of a given new business rule for when the business rule will take effect. Make sure to include a good description of what the rule is intended to do, this will help with troubleshooting or auditing business rules later.
Business Rule Event Timing
- Before Shipment Load
- After Shipment Load
- Before Shipment Rate
- After Shipment Rate
- Before Shipment Process
- After Shipment Process
- Before Shipment Post to Host
- After Shipment Post to Host
- Before Shipment Label Print
- After Shipment Label Print
The next step for creating a business rule is to select your criteria for the business rule to trigger. These are true or false operators that are chained with an AND logic operator. For example: Terms = 'Prepaid' AND Ship to Country = 'United States'. Criterion always target an object and its field name such as the shipment object, the ship to object, or the international terms object.
The next setting are the actions that you would like to be performed when the criteria you have set above is true. These actions can set a field of an object such as set entire address of the ship to object, or they can prompt the shipper with a warning, or print a document. Under the set type drop down you can also perform basic mathematical operators
Field Defaults
Field defaults are a way of setting default settings for all shipments going through on a certain profile. To add a default, select the blue add button, select the object you'd like to modify then select the value you want it to be set to.
To remove field defaults, you can either select the red trashcan icon or mark multiple ones and delete selected.
EOD Processes
Here you can set up the process to send emails when the EOD button is clicked on the Shipping screen under the Utilities tab.
- Close Carrier – will run the closeout process (if any) for the carrier selected.
- Push Outstanding Records – Will perform a mass update to the integration to push any Shipment records not already sent to the integration on the profile.
- Send Emails – Will send all outstanding emails generated by the Custom Email Notification module to their intended recipient(s).
If you do not see these options under Profile Extras go to the link Profile Basics below to add them.
Batch Templates
This tab allows you to add the desired Batch Templates to the profile. Note that you can only add existing Batch Templates, as these templates are created at the account (global) level. Adding Batch Templates is similar to adding other items in Profiles.
Adding a Profile
When adding a profile, you have 2 options: add a new profile, or copy an existing one.
To add a new blank profile, click the blue add button in the top right of the profiles section. This will open the Profile Editor for you to configure the new profile. By default, if you add a new profile the profile will default with Test Mode enabled, so you will need to disable this on the Features tab when ready to use the profile in production.
To copy a profile, find the record in the profile list you are wanting to copy, then click the Copy button on that record. The system will then copy the profile in its entirety and will append "- Copy" to the new profile's name.
Editing a Profile
To edit a profile, click the blue pen button in the row of the profile you'd like to edit. This will open the Profile Editor for the selected profile.
NOTE: Toggling Include Deleted in the top right allows you to see deleted profiles which you can then revert if they've been mistakenly removed.