When you ship an order through UPS, Rhythm buys the shipment and label on your organization’s UPS account while it records the shipment. This article explains how to choose UPS, select the service and packaging, ship through UPS when the customer chose another method at checkout, and understand why Rhythm might refuse to buy the label.
This article assumes you already know how to open the Create Shipment dialog and record a standard shipment. For the full shipment process, see Ship an Order. This guidance covers only the UPS-specific choices.
Prerequisites
- Permission to create shipments.
- UPS shipping must be turned on for the order’s shipping zone before you can ship the order through UPS.
- The parcel’s width and height, which UPS shipments require.
Ship an Order Through UPS
- Open the Create Shipment dialog for the order from the shipping queue or from the order itself.
- Choose Ship using UPS integration.
- Under Service:, choose the UPS service level.
- Under Packaging:, choose the UPS package type. If you do not choose one, Rhythm uses standard Box packaging.
- Enter the parcel’s width, height, and depth.
- Complete the remaining shipment details, including the destination, date, and notes, then select Create Shipment.
Result
Rhythm buys the shipment and label on your organization’s UPS account using the service and packaging you selected. After Rhythm buys the label successfully, you can print it right away or reprint it later. See Print and Reprint Shipping Labels.
Tip
When the customer chose UPS at checkout, Rhythm pre-selects Ship using UPS integration and fills in a service when you open the dialog. You can still change either choice before you create the shipment. You can also choose UPS when the customer selected a different shipping method at checkout, and the shipping charge the customer already paid does not change.
Warning
UPS shipments require a parcel width and height. If either value is missing, Rhythm refuses the shipment and disables Create Shipment in the Create Shipment dialog until you enter both. The depth you enter is not sent to UPS; UPS always receives a length of 1 inch, no matter what you type.
How Weight Is Calculated
You do not enter a weight for a UPS shipment because Rhythm calculates it from the order’s lines. Rhythm adds the weight once for each shippable line on the shipment, not once for each unit, so three units of a 2-pound item count as 2 pounds toward the parcel, not 6. A line with no weight on file counts as 1 pound.
Why Rhythm Might Refuse a UPS Shipment
- The order's shipping zone doesn't have UPS shipping enabled, or its UPS option isn't available. Turn on UPS for the zone in your shipping setup, or ship the order manually instead.
- The parcel is missing its width or height. Enter both values before you create the shipment.
- The computed weight is over 150 pounds. Rhythm checks the computed weight before it calls UPS and refuses the shipment if it is over the limit. The message shows the actual weight. A shipment at exactly 150 pounds is accepted. Split the order into more than one shipment so each is under the limit, use another shipping method, or use UPS Freight for a shipment that is too heavy for the standard UPS shipment flow.
- UPS itself refuses the request. Rhythm shows the refusal reason UPS provides.
- Changing the fulfillment status, such as to Awaiting Pickup, is not a supported way around the weight limit. Changing the status can cause other errors instead. If you are shipping through the UPS integration, split a heavy order into more than one shipment so each shipment stays within the carrier's weight limit.
- A very large merchandise order can exceed what the UPS integration supports as a single shipment. For example, an order of 77 units at 2 pounds each computes to 154 pounds, which is over the limit. You can ship 75 of those units through UPS and choose a separate shipping method for the remaining 2, or continue invoicing a large order across more than one shipment. There is currently no way to make Rhythm accept it as a single UPS shipment.
- Lowering a shipment's quantity just to make a UPS option appear, then changing the quantity back afterward, can leave ordered, committed, and shipped quantities out of step. If you need to ship less than the full weight limit allows through UPS, adjust the order's quantities deliberately instead of working around the limit this way.
Warning
The console technically lets you create or change an order's quantities beyond what a single UPS shipment supports. Doing so does not fail cleanly; it can leave inventory in a committed state instead of shipping normally. Keep UPS shipments within the weight limit instead of working around it in the console.
Related Reading
For the general shipping process around this UPS-specific guidance, see Ship an Order. To ship several UPS orders together in one pass, see Ship Multiple Orders at Once. To print a UPS label again after it has been created, see Print and Reprint Shipping Labels.