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Shipment Workflow

This guide covers the end-to-end process of creating, editing, and sending shipments through ECShip to nShift.

Source Documents

ECShip can create shipping documents from the following Business Central source documents:

Source Document How to Create
Sales Order Action Prepare Shipment Document on the Sales Order page
Warehouse Shipment Action Open ECShipment Document on the Warehouse Shipment page
Posted Sales Shipment Create manually and link to the posted shipment
Blank Create a new document directly from the ECShip Document List

Additional supported source types (when created programmatically): Purchase Return Order, Outbound Transfer, Service Order, Assembly Order.

Creating a Shipment from a Sales Order

  1. Open the Sales Order in Business Central
  2. Choose Process → Prepare Shipment Document
  3. ECShip creates a new shipping document and opens it

The shipment is pre-filled with:

  • Customer ship-to address as the receiver
  • Sales Order number as the main order reference
  • Shipping agent and service from the Sales Order (mapped to nShift carrier, if configured — see Shipping Agent Mapping)
  • One default parcel with the default package code

Creating a Shipment from a Warehouse Shipment

  1. Open the Warehouse Shipment in Business Central
  2. Choose Process → Open ECShipment Document
  3. ECShip creates or opens an existing shipping document for this warehouse shipment

If an open or draft ECShip document already exists for the same warehouse shipment, it is opened instead of creating a duplicate.

Automatic Shipment Creation

You can configure ECShip to automatically create shipping documents when warehouse shipments are posted:

  1. Open ECShip Setup
  2. Enable Auto Create On Posted Shipment
  3. Optionally set Auto Create Location Filter to limit auto-creation to specific locations (e.g., BLUE|RED)

The Shipment Document

The shipment document page is divided into several sections:

General

Field Description
No. Auto-generated document number
Source Type The type of source document (read-only after creation)
Source Document No. The linked source document number
Main Order No. The originating sales order number
Destination Type Customer, Vendor, or Location
Destination No. The destination entity number
Status Current document status: Open, Draft, or Sent
Use Test Flag Override the global test flag for this specific shipment
Favorite Mark as favorite for quick access

Receiver

The receiver section contains the delivery address and contact information. Fields are pre-filled from the source document but can be edited.

Field Description
Ship-to Name / Name 2 Recipient name
Ship-to Address / Address 2 Street address
Ship-to City, Post Code, County Location
Ship-to Country/Region Code Country code (ISO)
Ship-to Contact Contact person
Ship-to Phone No. Recipient phone number
Ship-to E-Mail Recipient email
Shipment Date Planned delivery date
Shipment Method Code Business Central shipment method

Sender

Field Description
Sender Name Sender company/location name
Sender Address, City, Post Code Pickup address
Location Code Business Central location
Senders Freight Reference Reference for the sender (typically the order number)
Receivers Freight Reference Reference for the receiver (from External Document No. or Your Reference, based on setup)

Note: When Use Location As Sender is enabled in ECShip Setup, the sender address is taken from the Business Central location rather than company information.

Carrier

Field Description
Carrier Code The nShift carrier for this shipment
Carrier Service The selected carrier service
Carrier Service Alternative Fallback carrier service
Default Pickup Include pickup booking
Shipping Agent Code Business Central shipping agent (read-only)
Shipping Agent Service Code Business Central shipping agent service (read-only)
Transport Instructions Free-text instructions for the carrier

Payment

Field Description
Payment Method How freight is paid
Freightpayer Name / Address / City / Post Code / Country Alternative freight payer details
Other Payer Account No. Account number when a third party pays

Parcels (List Part)

The parcel section shows all parcels attached to the shipment. See Parcel Management for details.

Addons (List Part)

Shows available addons for the selected carrier service. Toggle the Selected checkbox to include or exclude addons. See Carrier Setup — Addons for configuration.

Auxiliary Data (List Part)

After processing, this section shows:

  • Parcel Numbers — SSCC tracking codes for each parcel
  • Document Prints — Shipping documents (waybills) as downloadable PDFs
  • Label Prints — Shipping labels as downloadable PDFs

Processing a Shipment

When the shipment document is complete:

  1. Verify the receiver address, carrier, service, and parcels
  2. Choose Process → Send Shipment (or the equivalent action)
  3. ECShip converts the document to the nShift JSON format and sends it via the REST API
  4. On success:
  5. The document status changes to Sent
  6. Parcel tracking numbers (SSCC codes) appear in the Auxiliary Data section
  7. Shipping documents and labels become available for printing or download
  8. The TA Sent DateTime records when the shipment was transmitted

Handling Errors

If nShift returns an error during processing:

  • An error dialog appears showing the error details from nShift
  • The document remains in Open status so you can correct the issue and retry
  • Common errors include: missing required fields, invalid addresses, carrier account issues

Document Statuses

Status Meaning
Open Document is editable and has not been sent
Draft Document is in draft state (saved but not finalized)
Sent Document has been successfully sent to nShift

Document List

The ECShip Document List page shows all shipping documents with filtering options:

  • Show All — All documents regardless of status
  • Show Open — Only open documents
  • Show Draft — Only draft documents
  • Show Sent — Only sent documents

Test Mode

Enable Use Test Flag in ECShip Setup (or per document) to test the integration without actually dispatching shipments to carriers. In test mode:

  • Shipments are sent to nShift and validated
  • nShift processes the shipment and returns tracking numbers
  • The shipment is not forwarded to the actual carrier

This is useful for verifying your configuration during initial setup or when testing new carrier services.

Next Steps