We can define what types of packaging an Item will be packed in, and if they are shipped individually:
When you fulfil an order to 'Packed' it will use this information to work out how many packages are needed (putting items of the same package type together - unless marked ships individually) and correctly work out how many packages and their weights:
There is nothing in NetSuite UI that shows specifically which Items are in which package - on a simple order you can work this out from the weights.
I have been running some tests in Sandbox with Ship Central. To use this for packing, we fulfil the order to 'Picked' which leaves the Packages list empty.
The Packing process in Ship Central seems to respect the 'Ships Individually' setting - when you pack these items it automatically creates a separate carton for each one (and assigns the correct item weight).
However, it does not seem to recognise the different package types set on the items. It will allow you to pack items in a carton (when they are set to different package types), and doesn't provide any kind of suggestions or automation to put the items into appropriate cartons. I accept that the packaging rules in NetSuite may need to be overridden at times, but I would expect Ship Central to at least suggest cartons based on the package rules.
Is there somewhere in Ship Central to define carton types / sizes (i.e. small box, large box etc)? There doesn't seem to be any correlation between 'Packages' (in NetSuite UI) and 'Cartons' (in Ship Central)?
Initially, Ship Central was asking me to manually add the weight of each carton, but I then found the Ship Central rule to 'Calculate Default Carton Weight'. However, if you have items set to 'Ship Individually' then these do not calculate the weight and you have to enter it manually. (Frustratingly, before I created the rule to calculate carton weight, the items set to ship individually did default to the correct weight!)
And then, when the fulfilment is marked Packed in NetSuite UI, you can see the Packages created in Ship Central (along with the carton weights), but you still cannot see which Items have been put into which Package.
Are there some settings that I have not found that will allow Ship Central to integrative more closely with Items / Packages in UI, and more importantly, how do I provide traceability of which items were in which package / carton?
