Setting Order Shipping Dates

The shipping date is one of three order fulfillment expectations:

• Ship-By - The ship-by date defines when an order must leave your warehouse. Customers expect to see tracking movement by this date.
• Deliver-By - The deliver-by date defines when the order must arrive at the customer’s doorstep.
• Service Level - The service level, or shipping speed, defines the shipping method to use. Customers expect expedited shipping when they pay for it.

The shipping window may include two dates:

• Latest - The order must leave your warehouse on or before the latest shipping date. This is the most commonly used shipping date.
• Earliest - The order must not leave your warehouse before the earliest shipping date. This is commonly used by wholesale customers to coordinate inventory arrivals and prevent stock from sitting idle.

Shipping dates are provided by the sales channels. You can set or update shipping dates on individual orders, in bulk, or through store shipping policies.

Updating Order Shipping Dates

You can update the earliest and/or latest shipping dates on open orders. Follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Orders › Orders, and open the order.
2. In the Shipping section, click the pencil icon.
3. Set the earliest or latest shipping date.
4. Click Save.

Updating Order Shipping Dates in Bulk

To update the earliest and latest shipping dates for multiple orders, follow these steps:

1. From the left sidebar, go to Orders › Orders.
2. Filter and select the orders you want to update.
3. At the top of the page, click Actions and select Change Shipping Details.
4. If more than 500 orders are selected, confirm the total number of orders before proceeding.
5. Set the earliest and latest shipping date.
6. Click Save.

Automatically Setting Shipping Dates

Use shipping policies to automatically assign or update shipping dates on orders. You can apply a policy to all orders in a store, or only to orders that meet specific conditions. For example, you might target:

• Missing - Orders where the channel did not provide a ship-by date. Create a condition: Ship-By Date: Is Not Set.
• Standard - Orders that do not require expedited shipping. Create a condition: Service Level: Is Greater Than or Equals: 3 Days.

For Action, select Ship-By Date, and make the following selections:

• Number of Days - Number of days from order import. For same day shipping, enter 0.
• Day Type - Whether to count all calendar days or business days only. Business days are Monday – Friday, and exclude major US holidays.
• Cutoff Time - The latest time an order is still treated as imported today. Orders imported after this time are treated as imported the next day.

The table below shows the ship-by date for orders imported at different times, using these settings: Number of Days: 1, Day Type: Business, Cutoff Time: 2:00 PM.

Moving Up the Ship-By Date

Some channels provide only a ship-by date, allowing the order to ship any time during that day. Others include a specific ship-by time, requiring the order to ship earlier in the day.

By default, Goflow assumes a warehouse shipping cutoff of 5:00 PM EST. Any order with a ship-by time of 5:00 PM or later can safely be shipped on that day. If an order must ship before the cutoff, Goflow automatically moves its ship-by date to one day earlier. For example, an order due by 2:00 PM Tuesday will have a ship-by date of Monday.

To change the company cutoff time, contact Goflow Support.