Automation Rules can add notes to an order and control who gets told about it, including packer instructions, gift messages, order history entries, team emails, and calls to an external system. Use these when the right information needs to reach a person or a system without anyone typing it in.
Before You Begin
Notes and email recipients you enter in one of these actions are static. Every order the rule matches gets the same note text or the same recipient address, so write the text so it makes sense on any matching order.
For every trigger and action ShipHero offers, see Automation Rule Triggers and Actions Reference. If you are new to Automation Rules, start with How to Use Automation Rules in ShipHero.
ShipHero uses the terms packing slip and invoice for the same document. It is called a packing slip when it is set as a gift invoice, which hides prices and the billing address.
Table of Contents
- How to Create a Note and Notification Automation Rule
- Available Note and Notification Actions in ShipHero Automation Rules
- What Disabling the Shipment Notification Changes
- Common Note and Notification Automation Rule Examples
How to Create a Note and Notification Automation Rule
Note for 3PLs: Select at least one client in the Clients selector before choosing a trigger or an action. Triggers and actions stay unavailable until a client is selected, because every Automation Rule is owned by a client account. Actions that point to one client's own records, such as a warehouse, list, or status, are disabled when you create a single rule for several clients at once. See How to Create Automation Rules for 3PL Clients.
- Go to Orders > Automation Rules.
- Select Create New Rule.
- Enter a Name for the rule.
- Select a Trigger and the value the order must match.
- Select your action from the Action dropdown. See Available Note and Notification Actions below for every option.
- Select Create.
Important
Automation Rules apply only to orders that import after the rule is created. Orders already in ShipHero are not updated retroactively.
Available Note and Notification Actions in ShipHero Automation Rules
| Action | Description | Action Values | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Add Warehouse Note | Adds a note to the Warehouse Note section on an order. The message also appears to the packer when they open the order in the packing station app. | Required text for note. | Use when a packer needs extra instructions on an order, such as wrap as fragile or a specific packing step. |
| Add Gift Note | Adds a note in the Gift Note field. Gift notes print on the packing slip and hide the price and billing address on the invoice. | Required text for note. | Use when a gift message is required, or offered to the customer at checkout. |
| Add Order History | Adds a note to the order history on the order logs. | Required text for note. | Use to record that a rule matched an order, without changing anything else about the order. |
| Send email | Sends an email to the address entered in the action. | Enter email and required text for note. | Use to tell someone on your team that an order needs attention. |
| Disable shipment notification | Stops the shipment notification when the order ships. Line items are not updated to fulfilled in your sales channel, and no email is sent to the customer. | On/Off | Use when your sales channel should handle telling the customer instead of ShipHero. See What Disabling the Shipment Notification Changes below. |
| Call URL | Calls an endpoint URL. | Enter endpoint URL and required text for note. | Use to notify an external system when an order matches your trigger. See the ShipHero developer documentation for webhook setup. |
What Disabling the Shipment Notification Changes
Disable shipment notification stops two things at once when the order ships. ShipHero does not email your customer, and ShipHero does not mark the line items fulfilled in your sales channel.
Because the store is not updated, you or another system has to mark the order fulfilled there. The most common reason to accept that tradeoff is buy online, pickup in store, where the customer should be told the order is ready for pickup instead of shipped.
Common Note and Notification Automation Rule Examples
| Use Case | Trigger | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Tell packers to wrap fragile items | SKU is on a list of fragile SKUs | Add Warehouse Note with your packing instruction |
| Print a gift message from checkout | Order Tag identifies gift orders | Add Gift Note |
| Alert your team about a flagged order | Order Total is greater than your threshold | Send email to your team address |
| Handle buy online, pickup in store orders | Shipping method is your in-store pickup method | Disable shipment notification |
| Notify an external system | Order Tag identifies orders your system tracks | Call URL to your endpoint |
Pro-Tip
Add Order History is a low-risk way to confirm a new rule is matching the orders you expect. Add it to the rule you are testing, then open a matching order and check the order log. Nothing about the order changes, so there is no cleanup if the rule was wrong.