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Create Label

The Create Shipment Label Dialog allows creating a shipping label directly from a sales order.

Opening the Dialog

  • Via the Sales Order → Action Create Shipment Label

Fields

Field Description
Shipping Provider Selection of the provider (DHL, DPD, GLS, UPS, Rhenus).
Product Shipping product (e.g., DHL PAKET, UPS Standard).
Weight (kg) Package weight — automatically calculated from order lines and can be adjusted.
Lines Not in This Label Shown only when order lines are bound to another shipping agent by their item category. Those lines are not part of the label (see below).

Workflow

  1. Select shipping provider and product
  2. Review weight (optionally adjust)
  3. Optionally click Validate — pre-validate the shipment (see below)
  4. Click OK — the label is created with the provider
  5. The tracking number is automatically assigned to the sales order

Number in the standard BC field

On posting, the posted shipment takes the number into its Tracking No. field. If it should also appear in the standard BC field Package Tracking No. – for the Shopify Connector from Microsoft, for example – turn on Fill Standard Package Tracking No..

Lines That Do Not Travel With This Label

Not every line of an order belongs in the parcel. The bicycle goes by freight forwarder, the lock sold with it goes by DHL — and the DHL label must neither weigh the bicycle, nor declare it to customs, nor list it as carton content.

For this, the shipping agent is stored on the item category: Item Categories → column Shipping Agent Code, and on the Item Category Card in the Shipping group. The binding is inherited along the category hierarchy — a binding on "Bicycles" also covers "E-Bikes" below it as long as the subcategory says nothing of its own. The column Effective Shipping Agent shows what actually applies to a category.

The rule:

  • Lines of a category with a shipping agent travel only with that shipping agent. A label of any other shipping agent leaves them out — of the weight, the carton contents, the customs positions and the shipping rules of the connectors.
  • Lines of a category without a shipping agent (and lines without a category) travel with anyone.
  • If the selected shipping provider has no shipping agent code, nothing can be told apart — then all lines travel.

In the dialog, the field Lines Not in This Label shows how many lines are left out and which shipping agent they are bound to. The weight is recalculated when the shipping provider changes; tare and manual adjustments are kept.

No label without goods

If all shippable lines are bound to other shipping agents, no label is created — the error names the document and the bound shipping agent. The Validate action reports this case as well. An order without shippable item lines is not affected.

Also applies to posted shipments

If the label is created from a posted sales shipment, the same rule applies to its lines. The shipping agent on the category does not have to be a merchantCENTRAL provider — a freight forwarder set up in Business Central is enough.

Packages (Multi-Colli)

When the selected shipping provider supports multi-colli (e.g. DHL), the dialog shows a Packages group — a list for capturing several cartons per shipment. Each carton produces its own shipment with its own shipment/tracking number and its own label.

  • On opening, one carton is pre-filled (default packaging, order weight) and already contains all order items — so a single-parcel shipment needs no further action.
  • Use New Line to add more cartons; selecting a packaging material fills in dimensions and tare automatically.

Distribute contents

The Contents action on a carton row opens the "Distribute Carton Contents" editor:

  • All order lines are pre-filled; enter the quantity in this carton per item. Lines bound to another shipping agent by their item category are not offered.
  • The Remaining column shows live how much of an item is not yet assigned to any carton.
  • An empty carton takes over the open remaining quantity on opening — so additional cartons are filled by reducing earlier ones.
  • The carton weight is recalculated from the content: goods weight (gross-preferred) + the packaging material's tare.

Customs per carton

For international shipments the customs declaration is built per carton from its contents (item, quantity, HS code, country of origin, value, weight) — each carton travels with the declaration matching its own content.

On confirmation

  • Clicking OK checks whether the distributed quantities per item match the order quantity; a mismatch raises a confirmation prompt. Lines bound to another shipping agent do not count.
  • As many shipments are created as there are cartons; each tracking number is stored on the order.

Central package list

Every carton is stored as a package in the central list (content, weight, dimensions, tracking, label) — the basis for the warehouse client, reprints and analytics.

After shipping: tracking per carton

The distribution captured here is evaluated a second time later on. When a shipment travels in several cartons, merchantCENTRAL follows each carton individually and derives from that how much of each order line has arrived at the recipient:

Where Information
Packages FastTab (shipment label card) Delivery Status and Delivered Date/Time per carton
Order line / shipment line Delivered Quantity and Fully Delivered On

Distributing the content carefully here therefore pays off later: you see not merely that "the shipment" is on its way, but which items are already with the recipient. → Tracking per carton

Action "Validate" (Pre-Validation)

The Validate action runs a pre-validation of the shipment without creating a label.

  • No label is created and no costs are incurred.
  • Validates exactly the address, weight and dimensions entered in the dialog.
  • Problems are shown in plain text with actionable hints.

This lets you catch address or data errors before generating a chargeable label.

Not every provider checks for you

Some shipping providers offer no pre-check of their own. merchantCENTRAL then checks what is visible from here: name, street, post code, town and country code of the delivery address, plus the weight — the details without which no shipment comes about. Either way the message says the same thing: what was found, or that there is nothing to correct.

Without the dialog: "Validate Shipment" on the order

The same check is available on the Sales Order Card and in the Sales Order List as the Validate Shipment action (group Shipment) — without opening the label dialog.

  • Checks the delivery address and the parcel data of the order.
  • The shipment provider is resolved automatically (shipping agent of the order → MC default provider → single active provider). If none can be determined, the action says so.
  • Here too: no label, no charge.

When this pays off

Before a batch run over many orders. A faulty address surfaces before the parcel exists — instead of once it is already on its way or the label has to be cancelled.

Action "Create Label (1-Click)"

The Create Label (1-Click) action is available on the Sales Order Card and in the Sales Order List.

  • Creates the label immediately without opening the dialog.
  • Uses the default provider (order: shipping agent of the order → MC default provider → single active provider).
  • Product is resolved automatically, and shipping rules are applied.

Action "Create Labels (Batch)"

In the Sales Order List, the Create Labels (Batch) action processes all selected orders in a single run.

  • Bulk processing with a progress dialog.
  • Final summary (created / skipped / failed / documents in the ZIP file).
  • Fault-tolerant: a failing order does not stop the run.
  • At the end, all documents produced are handed out as one ZIP file.

The bundled download

The archive holds everything that travels with each shipment: shipping label, return label, COD label, customs document and QR code. Multi-colli shipments contribute one label per carton.

Why bundled?

Browsers only ever deliver one programmatic download. Without bundling, a run over 20 orders would hand out just the last label — the rest would have to be fetched one by one from the shipment label list.

Controlled by the shipment provider

Whether the ZIP file is offered depends on Open Label After Creation on the shipment provider card — the same setting as for single label creation. With it switched off, for instance when printing directly through the print service, the run creates the labels without any download.

Platform-wide

The Validate, Create Label (1-Click) and Create Labels (Batch) actions apply platform-wide to all shipment connectors (DHL, DHL Express, DPD, GLS, UPS, Rhenus, Hermes) — not only DHL.