Automation Rules can decide where an order is fulfilled from and how it moves through the warehouse, including which warehouse holds its items, which orders win contested inventory, whether a partial order can ship, and which picking flow it enters. Setting these as orders import keeps routing decisions consistent instead of leaving them to whoever opens the order.
Before You Begin
Two of these actions have requirements that will silently stop them working. On a Multi Warehouse Allocation account, which covers most brands and all 3PLs, Lock items to warehouse needs a matching MWA rule before ShipHero will honor the warehouse it assigns. Set Workflow must be triggered by a product tag or attribute, so it will not fire from an order tag or an order level attribute.
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. To trigger a rule on where items were allocated, or to force a rule to run after allocation, see How to Use Automation Rules with Multi-Warehouse Allocation.
Table of Contents
- How to Create a Fulfillment Routing Automation Rule
- Available Fulfillment Routing and Allocation Actions in ShipHero Automation Rules
- How Allocation Priority Works with Automation Rules
- Common Fulfillment Routing Automation Rule Examples
How to Create a Fulfillment Routing 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 Fulfillment Routing and Allocation 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 Fulfillment Routing and Allocation Actions in ShipHero Automation Rules
| Action | Description | Action Values | Use Case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lock items to warehouse | Locks specific products on an order to a specific warehouse. Used with Multi Warehouse accounts or Multi Warehouse Allocation rules, and needs a matching MWA rule on an MWA account. | Select a warehouse. | Use to fulfill items from the warehouse matching the location assigned to the item in Shopify, which honors Shopify's order routing instead of ShipHero's. See How to Use Shopify Locations as an Automation Rule Trigger and Understanding the Difference Between Locked and Allocated Warehouses. |
| Set allocation priority | Sets whether an order can take allocated inventory from another order, or lose inventory to one. See How Allocation Priority Works below. | Default, Low, or High. | Use when a large order is on backorder but partially allocated, to move that inventory onto another order so it can ship. See How to Prioritize Expedited and High-Value Orders. |
| Set allow partial | Allows the order to ship even if it is partially allocated, unless the SKUs on the order are kits. | On/Off | Use when an item has been on backorder for a long time and you want to ship the available inventory now. |
| Set required ship date ahead to X business days | Sets the required ship date ahead by the number of business days entered in the action. This overrides the default and any ship date set by carrier mapping. | Numeric values only | Use when a group of orders needs more handling time than your usual cut-off allows. See How to Set a Shipping Cut-Off (Required Ship Date). |
| Create dropship for vendor (only items in the order) | Flags any items assigned to the vendor that triggered the rule as dropship only. | Select Vendor. | Use when a vendor ships their own items to the customer, so those items are not picked in your warehouse. See How to Set Products as Dropship Only. |
| Set Workflow | Assigns an order to a custom workflow. Must be triggered by a product tag or attribute. Does not work on order tags or order level attributes. | Select a workflow. | A workflow adds a workstation to the picking flow when work must be done on an item before shipping, such as embroidery, engraving, or screen printing. See Overview: Workflows in ShipHero. |
| Toggle wholesale | Flags the order as wholesale so it goes through the wholesale flow instead of multi item or single item batch, and switches to the wholesale packing flow at the packing station. | On/Off | Use for B2B or bulk orders that should not be picked and packed alongside your regular ecommerce batches. See Overview: Wholesale Automation Rules in ShipHero. |
Lock items to warehouse needs an MWA rule
On a Multi Warehouse Allocation account, your existing MWA rules can override the warehouse this action assigns. Create an MWA rule with the action Allocate and Backorder to Locked Warehouse so the lock holds. See How to Use Multi-Warehouse Allocation Rules.
How Allocation Priority Works with Automation Rules
Allocation priority decides which order keeps inventory when two orders need the same stock. ShipHero holds inventory against backordered orders and orders on hold, so priority is how you release stock that is sitting on an order that cannot ship yet.
| Priority | What happens |
|---|---|
| Default | ShipHero allocates inventory by order date. This applies when no other priority is set. |
| Low | A higher priority order can take allocated inventory away from this order. |
| High | This order can take allocated inventory away from a Low priority order. |
Common Fulfillment Routing Automation Rule Examples
| Use Case | Trigger | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Honor Shopify's location routing | Shopify item assigned to location matches the location | Lock items to warehouse, plus a matching MWA rule |
| Ship what is in stock on a long backorder | SKU is on a list of backordered SKUs | Set allow partial to On |
| Free up inventory held by a stalled large order | Sum of line items quantities is greater than your threshold | Set allocation priority to Low |
| Route personalized items to the embroidery station | Product tag identifies personalized items | Set Workflow to your embroidery workflow |
| Send B2B orders through the wholesale flow | Order Profile or Order Tag identifies wholesale orders | Toggle wholesale On |
| Give a slower channel extra handling time | Store Name is the channel | Set required ship date ahead to X business days |
Pro-Tip
Allocation actions depend on when they run. A rule that fires before allocation cannot react to where items landed, so use the Only run after MWA setting to force these rules to run last on import regardless of their position in your list. To match a group of warehouses, vendors, or SKUs with one rule, point the trigger at a list. See How to Use Automation Rules with Multi-Warehouse Allocation and How to Create and Manage Automation Rule Lists in ShipHero.