Volume and Box Dimensions

If you use different sized boxes and want to enter in the volume of those boxes and the products that you carry, the system can help you figure out which box you will need to use for a particular order.

Input the Volume of each Product

On Products->Master Classifications, you can input the volume of each product classification two different ways.

Manually

The first way is to manually enter in the length, width, and height of each product. These input fields will save automatically, and will also calculate the volume field automatically.

Upload CSV [1]

You can upload a CSV file that has a column with the name of each product, and a column with the dimensions of each product in the format "lengthXwidthXheight". An example would be: 6x2x3

Updating Orders [2]

The volume for orders is saved whenever the order total is calculated- we have just added on to that function so that at the same the system calculates order total, it will also calculate and update the volume for each order content and the total for the order.

[3] On Products->Master Classifications you can click on the links under "Update Orders" to force the system to update the volume on all orders for the current week, or for the previous week. Use this if you are updating the dimensions of products and orders are already created and billed for.

Creating Box Dimensions

Go to Products->Boxes->Box Dimensions, or use the instant search bar to find the link to the admin page 'box dimensions'

Add a new box, and read the descriptions of each field- especially the field for max volume to use.

Label Recommendations

At the bottom of the pack label, a new section will appear. If a recommended box dimension is found, then the 'label code' of the box dimension will be printed, and underneath the volume of the order will be printed as well.

The recommended box is calculated by looking for the smallest box dimensions that the order's volume will fit in- this is calculated by comparing the 'max volume to use' and the order volume.

The reason we have 'max volume to use' is so that you can adjust up or down how much volume to allow for packaging, safety, etc.

Viewing the order details

On the order details page, there is a new column that will show you the volume of each product in the order. Volume is calculated by taking the volume from the product classification and multiplying it by the quantity of the product.

At the bottom you can see the total volume, a link to force the system to re-calculate the total volume for the order, and the recommend box dimension to use. This is the same information that appears on the packing label.

Notes

This does not work for orders with multiple boxes, yet

Considerations

When using a 'pack order', the order of items going in to the box is pre-determined, so we can't use any algorithms like '3d box product packaging'. There are third party APIs that will do this, but then you have to use the order of packing the products that is set by the algorithm, you have to pack the products in the specified x/y axis placement (vertical? horizontal? angled?)