3PL - How to Remove a Client Account or Specific Warehouse from a Client

Removing a warehouse associated with a 3PL Client is essential to ensuring your clients are properly configured and have the right services available. Common use cases for removing a warehouse from a client include:

• Incorrect warehouse selected when creating the Client account.
• No longer fulfilling orders for the Client at the specified location.
• The business relationship between you and the Client has ended.

Before beginning the warehouse removal process, verify that the correct warehouse locations remain connected to the client account. To learn more about adding a warehouse to a client account, click HERE.

If you remove all warehouses from a customer, the customer record will be removed from your 3PL Customers page and you will need to contact ShipHero Support to reactivate a client account.

Required Configuration Updates

IMPORTANT: Removing a warehouse from a client account should be the final step in your workflow. Removing a warehouse with active data may result in system errors and inaccurate reporting. Ensure all orders assigned to that warehouse are processed or re-allocated and all inventory at that location is accounted for and zeroed out in ShipHero.

Several settings must be updated before you disconnect a warehouse from a client. Review the following categories to ensure data integrity:

Store Settings

For each store connected to the client account, you need to update which warehouse(s) the products are created in and which warehouse(s) you want to push inventory to the store platform. During the transition process, it may be necessary to disable the setting "Have ShipHero Manage Inventory" and then re-enable it once the process is complete. 

To update store settings, go to app.shiphero.com> My Account> Stores and select the Settings button for the store you are updating. 

Below are images for a BigCommerce store; however, most store setting pages show similar settings. Please contact ShipHero Support if you need any assistance.  

Order Settings and Allocation

As a best practice, if you have Multi-Warehouse Allocation enabled for your 3PL account, Multi-Warehouse Allocation should be enabled for your client accounts. MWA allows you to allocate orders according to certain specifications you put in place. If it is not already enabled on your client account, please contact support to have this enabled in the backend. HERE is more information on the MWA feature.

Determine with your client when the shipping cut-off for the warehouse you remove will be. No orders should be allocated to the warehouse when you remove it from the client. If your client wants to continue fulfilling from the "old" warehouse until inventory is depleted, you will need to wait until then to continue the process.

How to Change the Allocated Warehouse

Updating the allocated warehouse for your client's orders will ensure that your pickers and packers can continue shipping for your client when you remove the "old" warehouse from their account. There are a few things that you will need to do. 

1. Update existing MWA rules with products allocating or backordering from the "old" warehouse to the new one.
2. Reprocess the orders to put the changes into effect. If many orders need reprocessing on your client's account, contact ShipHero Support, and we can assist you with the request. 
3. In some cases, you may also need to review Automation Rules in your client's account.

NOTE: If the customer wants to fulfill all the orders currently allocated to the "old" warehouse but prevent future orders from being allocated there, create an automation rule to add a tag based on the order date and use that tag in the MWA rules to allocate the new orders to the other warehouse. 

Inventory Settings

Before disconnecting any warehouse from a client's account, all inventory must be removed from all of the locations in the warehouse being removed. 

Several options are available to remove/update the on-hand inventory in the warehouse.

1. Create a Transfer Order for all products and quantities to send the inventory to the other warehouse location; transfer orders can only be done manually; CSV upload is not currently supported for transfer orders. A transfer order creates a manual order to be shipped from the "old" warehouse while simultaneously creating a purchase order for the receiving warehouse. HERE is more information on how to create a transfer order. Remember to create a separate MWA rule to allocate the transfer order to the "old" warehouse as needed. Learn more HERE.
2. Create a Manual Order for all products and quantities to send the inventory to another location; this can be done manually or via CSV upload. If you create a manual order via CSV to process the inventory out of the "old" warehouse, you can use the same product and quantity data to create a purchase order for the "new" warehouse. Follow these links for more information on How to Create a Manual Order via CSV and How to Create a Purchase Order via CSV.
3. Update the On-Hand inventory to zero in bulk via CSV. Visit HERE for more information on how to zero out inventory in bulk. 
4. Delete the products from the warehouse. For details on how to delete products, please click HERE.

NOTE: Before removing the "old" warehouse ensure all products have been created in the new warehouse and inventory updated as needed to prevent interruptions in your fulfillment processes. 

How to Remove the Warehouse from the Client Account

Once orders, products, and inventory are all transferred and allocated to the new warehouse, you can remove the old warehouse from the client account.

1. Click on the 3PL customer tab; here, you will see a list of your 3PL clients.
2. Search for the client you are updating.
3. Delete Products from the Warehouse associated with this client.
4. Hit the Delete button on the line that contains the warehouse that needs to be removed from the client. 
5. Confirm.

If a warehouse is accidentally removed or you need to re-add the warehouse to a client's account, please reach out to ShipHero Support to re-activate the warehouse for you.

Note: As a best practice, remove the warehouse from the Client's 3PL Billing page as well.