Multi-Ship Orders and Workflow

This is the basic workflow for processing a Multi-Ship Order - That is one order per-recipient, billed to one (or more) of the a Billing Customer's credit cards.

Review this article on Multi-Ship overview and terminology especially if this is your first time setting up a multi-ship order, or if you only do it occasionally.

Permission Required:  To access the Multi-Ship settings, your user account must be enabled with the permission for Multi-Ship. Contact your eCellar User Manager for assistance. 

Important Details to Know About Multi-Ship

Before uploading the Multi-Ship Spread Sheet:
  1. Confirm the inventory location setting is accurate for the channel that will be chosen for the orders
  2. Confirm the inventory quantities are available at that location.
  3. Confirm Billing Customer Account information is accurate: Billing address, credit card, etc. 
    Consider confirming with the Billing Customer that the credit card used will successfully process without spend or security limits.
Preparing the Upload Spread Sheet:
  1. Headers in GREEN are required. Headers in ORANGE are conditionally required (based on other things in the row). Columns with no background color are optional.
  2. Email hyperlinks are ok to leave or remove.
  3. For zip codes, an Excel flag indicating “Number stored as text” will appear. This is to manage zip codes beginning with a zero and does not need to be changed.
  4. By design Multi-Ship does NOT engage the discount engine.
New Customers (Created via ‘yes’ in the Upload Spread Sheet): 
  1. An account note is added with the name of the Multi-Ship batch: Dated, time stamped, and Multi-Ship created by name.
  2. No new account Customer Type will be set, a customer type can be assigned after account creation via Bulk Modify. Please note, The Multi-Ship adheres to the "import rules" that are stated in the company info section. Customer type, source and allocation tiers are NOT set; because, there is not a 'Null' customer type, the first type listed may be seen in the customer card but it has not been assigned. 
  3. No new Customer Source is set, a customer source can be assigned after account creation via Bulk Modify. 
  4. A billing address will not be added to the new account. A shipping address will be added IF the row with the customer info leads to a new account being created AND that same row is for a shipping order (not Pickup).
Orders: 
  1. Orders will appear under the Billing Customer's account, not the recipients'.
  2. Multi-Ship Orders are filtered out of the POS “Recent Orders” but can be searched for by the Billing Customer Name in POS search.
  3. Edits in the POS will result in an update to the channel/terminal on the order. The original biller's card will be used, but can be changed. Edits made in the POS will result in additional transactions. 
  4. A Multi-Ship order can be processed in the POS but note that the credit card(s) on the order at the time will be charged and the order will be omitted from the Multi-Ship Settlement.
  5. Multi-Ship orders are NOT eligible for Push Pay or Voids.
Settlement: (See this article for details)
  1. All order payments should be processed through the Multi-Ship Settlement page via the $ icon (See #3 in the Orders section immediately above).
  2. Bulk Auth/Capture may not be used for Multi-Ship Orders.
  3. See this article Multi-Ship Batch Order Management / Settlement for information on how to perform Voids, Cancellations, and Refunds.
Be Careful: 
  • Successful Multi-Ship processing requires a high level of attention to detail. Try to avoid distractions and not be in a rush. If this is your first time using the Multi-Ship Module in eCELLAR be sure to read this article: Multi-Ship Overview and Terminology. 
  • If a mistake is made that requires voiding ALL orders in a batch, it would require: 1. Void the transaction via the OE portal, and 2. A bulk update of the status for the set of orders will need to be performed by eCELLAR Development and would be billed accordingly.

Best Practice: When preparing for a Multi-Ship order it can be useful to create a test order with two or three test recipients to simulate your upcoming Multi-Ship order. Then, after the order details can be confirmed for the shipment, these orders can then be cancelled.

  • Prior to uploading each Multi-Ship template, review and confirm EACH item below to ensure a smooth and accurate Multi-Ship order creation.
  • Confirm all the information for both the Bill Customer and the recipients is accurate before getting started.
    • 1

    Download the Multi-Ship template from eCELLAR: From the ORDER tab > Multi-Ship > Upload Orders

    To Prepare for Uploading:
    •     Create, or find the customer record, to use as the billing account for your orders. Note the Customer ID. 
    •     Ensure that the desired credit card has been added to the customer account.
    •     Download the Excel spreadsheet template and populate it. Refer to the GUIDELINES Sheet within the Excel spreadsheet for additional instructions and details for each column.
    •     Do NOT alter the column headers (row 1). The exception is SKU columns, which can be added to or deleted after the end of first SKU.
    •     Ensure that all the required columns with GREEN and ORANGE headers are populated and contain valid values per the Guidelines tab.
    •     Save the populated file as an XLS or XLSX Excel document. 

    To Upload Your Orders:
    •     Review your spreadsheet for accuracy.
    •     Ensure the Bill Customer ID number is correct for each order and populated in each corresponding line in column A.
    •     Choose the file > Upload.
    •     If there are errors with the Bill Customer Number (column A) or the column header (Row 1) the upload will fail, and error messages will appear with specific fixes.


    2

    Multi-Ship Order Preview

    Order Errors:
    •     All order error messages (noted in red and defined in the yellow banner) must be fixed in the Upload Spreadsheet and re-uploaded before orders can be created.

    Billing and Recipient Information:
    •     Billing Customer information can be confirmed immediately above orders for that customer.
    •     Review all details of the customer information and order details before creating the orders. 
    •     Notice the following:
         1. Whether a new account will be created, or not. 
         2. Ship Rate: Will default to regular daily rates if no ship rate is indicated in the upload spreadsheet.
         3. Confirm product SKU and quantities.




    Batch Settings:
    •     Set the Order Channel, Sales Rep, and Payment method for each Billing Customer.
    •     Double check that the payment method is accurate.
    •     Name your batch. Use a brief title as this is recorded in the order and searchable > Create Orders

    Note:  Clicking CREATE ORDERS is the culmination of the steps above, and assumes everything has been checked for accuracy. Changes may require billable action by eCELLAR Development Team to reverse.

    Multi-Ship Upload Results:
    •     Includes a recap of the orders and new accounts created and hyper links to the orders and new customer accounts.
    •     This can be reviewed from the ACP menu via Orders > Mutli-Ship > Last Uploaded Results, until a new upload is performed, or the user either logs out or for Enterprise clients if the user changes brand context.

    Best Practice: If your winery is integrated with ShipCompliant, check compliance before processing the Multi-Ship batch for payment. 
    Additionally, after Multi-Ship upload, it can be useful to contact the billing customer at this time to ensure their bank will authorize the total charge amount in order to prevent declined orders.
    3

    Settlement

    Details for the settlement can be found in this article.
    4

      Print a Receipt 

    A receipt can be printed for the batch my clicking on the PDF icon on the Multi-Ship Settlement Page.

    You can add a personalized message at the top of the PDF

    In this case the batch has two Billing Customers. 

    4

      Customer Type Update

    IMPORTANT:  The Multi-Ship adheres to the "import rules" that are stated in the Company Settings section. Customer type, source and allocation tiers are NOT set. You must perform a Bulk Update to assign Customer Type(s) to any newly created customer accounts. 
    • After the upload is complete, you can perform a Customer Search with the following criteria:  Create date > Today, and Customers NOT (minus sign) > select all customer types.

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