Automation Rules in ShipHero automatically perform actions on orders when defined conditions are met. Use them to set shipping methods, apply holds, send notifications, manage tags, and more — reducing manual work and ensuring consistent handling across your fulfillment operations.
Table of Contents
- Understanding Automation Rules
- How Automation Rules Work Step-by-Step
- Triggers and Actions in Automation Rules
- Important Notes for Automation Rules
- Automation Rules Best Practices
Note for 3PLs: Automation rules must be created and managed at the child account level. Configure rules for each client individually. To copy Automation Rules from one client account to another, contact our support team to be routed to the ProServe team. The ProServe request is a paid service.
For troubleshooting Automation Rules, see Why is my Automation Rule not working?
Understanding Automation Rules
Configure and manage Automation Rules in your ShipHero account at Orders > Automation Rules. From this page, create, edit, and sort the processing order of your rules. You can also activate, deactivate, and delete rules, and create data lists for more complex conditions.
An Automation Rule has two main parts:
- Triggers — the conditions an order must meet for the rule to apply. This is the "IF" part of the rule.
- Actions — the tasks ShipHero performs automatically when an order matches the triggers. This is the "THEN" part of the rule.
Automation rules run when an order is created or imported into ShipHero. Rules run before a warehouse is assigned to the order. To run a rule after warehouse allocation, use the "Only Run after MWA" setting with the appropriate triggers — see How to Use Automation Rules with Multi Warehouse Allocation.
How Automation Rules Work Step-by-Step
- Sequential Processing: When a new order comes in, ShipHero checks your automation rules individually, starting from the top of your list and going down.
-
Rules can overwrite other rules: If multiple rules have similar actions and an order meets the triggers for more than one, the rule lower in the list overwrites the rule higher in the list. Place lower-priority rules at the bottom so they override earlier rules when needed.
- For example, if you have a rule to "Set Shipping Method" to Cheapest:Ever but also need "Set Shipping Method" to FedEx Overnight for specific orders, the FedEx Overnight rule should be listed below the Cheapest:Ever rule.
- Wait Before Making Manual Changes: Let all automation rules finish running on an order before making manual changes. Check the order history to see which rules have been applied to a specific order.
-
Activate and Deactivate: Automation rules are active by default when created. Deactivate a rule by unchecking the box while editing it, or from the rules list page.
- Deleting: Use the garbage can icon to delete a rule from the list. Deleting a rule breaks the link in order history notes for any previous orders it ran on. Deactivate the rule for a period of time before deleting it to allow for troubleshooting.
-
Applied to New Orders Only: Automation rules apply only to orders placed after the rule is created and will not apply to orders already in the system.
Exception for Shopify users: The "Rerun this rule on order tags import" setting is enabled by default. When an order tag is added in Shopify after the order already exists in ShipHero, and that tag is used as a trigger, the automation rule reruns. Adding a tag to an order directly in ShipHero after import does not rerun the rule.
Triggers and Actions in Automation Rules
Automation rules can handle simple one-to-one scenarios or more complex multi-condition logic. Understanding how triggers function ensures the rule runs as expected and the correct actions are applied.
- Using a Single Trigger: Any order that meets the condition triggers the action.
For example, in the rule below, an operator hold is applied to all orders placed after 5/14/2025.
- Using Multiple Triggers: Use multiple triggers when rules need to apply to more specific orders. The (+) means AND — if an order meets this AND this, then do this.
For example, to limit the rule above to orders from a specific connected store, add (+) AND "If Store Name is xxx" as an additional trigger.
- Using and Managing Lists: Lists work well when multiple criteria should trigger the same action. Think of a list as an "OR" condition — for example, if the SKU is ABC-123 OR XYZ-456, then do this.
Available Triggers and Actions
The table below lists all triggers and actions available in ShipHero Automation Rules. Where documentation exists for a specific trigger or action, it is linked.
| Available Triggers | Available Actions |
|---|---|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Important Notes for Automation Rules
-
Address Validations occur after Automation Rules run.
- When using any address field as a trigger, ShipHero uses the address information the order was imported with. This has a higher variability rate than other triggers. For example, if an order is created with "United States" as the country but the trigger is "Country equals US," the rule will not run as expected.
- When using the Set Address Hold: "No" action, address holds may be overridden by automated address validation. Use this action together with Set ignore address validation errors to prevent unexpected overwrites.
-
Automation rules do not run for orders created with a Canceled or Fulfilled status.
- An order must have a pending status for rules to run — this includes ShipHero's default status as well as any custom statuses. An order is pending as long as it has at least one line item with a pending fulfillment quantity of at least 1. If a rule cancels all pending line items, the order moves to Fulfilled and any rules positioned after that rule in the list will not trigger.
-
Changes to an automation rule do not retroactively update existing orders.
- Only new orders are considered for the updated rule. Make manual edits to any orders already in ShipHero that should reflect the change.
- To investigate who made changes to an automation rule, contact support@shiphero.com with the Automation Rule ID (the last set of numbers in the URL). The support team can investigate using backend logs.
Automation Rules Best Practices
- Review and test your automation rules regularly to confirm they are running as expected on new orders.
- Understand the specific conditions that trigger each rule before activating it — check the order history on test orders to verify.
- Monitor order processing after creating or updating rules to catch any unintended overwrites or conflicts between rules.