Ship from within Odoo’s Screen with 2Ship’s Connection
It seems like with increasing frequency we are seeing the arrival into the market of new cloud-based ERP and WMS software platforms. These platforms offer both small and medium sized organisations with the opportunity to reduce their costs and streamline their operations. Odoo is a European Head Office software platform that has become very popular globally, (including here in Australia / North America), with the small to medium sized businesses. Odoo provides CRM, operations, finance and distribution functionality.
Odoo’s App-based Connection with 2Ship
One of the major trends for the promotion of profitable growth is to connect cloud-based software platforms to develop automated processes that speed up business processes and reduce duplication and thereby improve the service outcomes for all parties. 2Ship, along with OREP Canada (a gold rated Odoo partner), has invested the necessary time and expertise to develop an app-based integration between Odoo and 2Ship.
How does the Odoo Integration work?
Because 2Ship has a full set of APIs, connecting Odoo and 2Ship is relatively straight forward with minimal set up and troubleshooting time required to test the connection. The 2Ship app can be found in the Odoo app store as a private app and is available for connection once 2Ship has provided the user with 2Ship credentials, although a small amount of developer time may be required to assist with the app set up, connection and testing subject to the level of Odoo expertise your staff has.
Odoo has been integrated with 2Ship so that the user has the choice to ship either from:
- within the user friendly 2Ship ship screen using the order details that are pushed from Odoo
- or they can choose to ship directly from within Odoo using the “Ship from Odoo” feature.
At the set-up level Odoo can set up two options for invoicing:
- Ship using the estimated shipping cost or the actual cost.
- or add a margin to the shipping rate, or add a handling charge, or provide free shipping if the order amount is above a certain limit.
Taking a scenario where the customer rings you and wishes to receive a quote from Odoo the Odoo operator can ask 2Ship for an estimated shipping rate based upon the weight. If the customer agrees to the quotation and asks you to ship the product, then the Odoo operator can simply create a delivery from that quote and send it to the warehouse for dispatch.
From here the Odoo operator has two choices:
- Ship from within 2Ship
- Ship via Odoo
1. Ship from within 2Ship
If you choose to ship from within 2Ship you can simply:
- Ship the item and Odoo will automatically open the 2Ship ship screen with the prepopulated order information such as the address of the sender and receiver.
- The operator then adds the dimensions and weight of the packages, and then asks 2Ship to price the carrier options.
- The operator picks the carrier and ships the order, obtaining the carrier label.
- From here a copy of the carrier label, as well as other data such as the tracking number, carrier name and carrier service are deposited back to Odoo for later reference.
- You can also track from within Odoo opening the 2Ship tracking page.
2. Ship via Odoo
The other option is for the operator to choose to ship from within Odoo. For this option Odoo must have the dimensions and weight of the packages used and can request a rate via 2Ship’s API and then ship right there and then.
The carrier label, carrier name and service as well as the actual shipping cost and tracking details will be immediately populated back in Odoo for later reference or reporting.
Of course, you can re print labels or track packages right from within Odoo using a link to the 2Ship tracking page.
A major reduction of duplication; wasted time and human error. By having all your data in Odoo and shipping from there you eliminate the need to double handle and re-enter the data in 2Ship.
Maintaining only one database of package types and receiver address reduces the chance of creating address or data entry errors, as well as saving time by maintaining this data in only one database.
Using the Odoo integration means that as soon as the shipment has been made the carrier information, including the tracking number and estimated shipping costs, is populated back in Odoo.
This data is now available for all your customer service and operations staff. Your customer service staff can immediately respond to any queries from receivers about when the shipment was made, which carrier is delivering it and how it’s tracking.
This immediacy improves service in the receiver’s and / or customer’s eyes and dramatically improves the productivity of your staff.
Another benefit of this real time integration is that Odoo users can choose to issue invoices that include the estimated freight charge. They can do so as the shipment leaves.
Shippers can even include a tracking link to the shipment on their invoice if they wish. As freight charges continue to rise, the ability to easily recover part or all those shipment charges from your customer can make a significant financial impact on your business. Having 2Ship and Odoo tightly integrated via API enables this shipment cost recovery process to be accurate, automatic and hassle free.
Now that your estimated shipping cost for each consignment has been automatically fed back into Odoo via 2Ship’s live rate API, as a shipper you can use this important data to develop reporting tools around the following:
- Your freight cost as a percentage of sales by product line, or customer, or even customer grouping.
- Cost to serve calculations for your top ten customers, or top ten SKU – for example.
Conclusion
We all know that accurate and timely data is becoming increasingly important to business profitability and analytics. As Odoo and 2Ship users you now can control your shipping data like never before and make some informed and timely decisions on the development of your business.
In summary, this API based, real time integration between Odoo and a powerful shipping platform like 2Ship, offers Odoo users a whole new level of sophistication and automation in their shipping processes.
If you want to take advantage of the cloud-based software revolution to streamline and automate your processes, reduce your costs, and improve your level of service significantly, then let us know. As Australian agents for 2Ship, we will be happy to walk you through how easy it is to connect these two powerful platforms and grow your business.