Finale can handle a variety of process related to shipping and completing sales. At the simplest, a sale can be a single product shipped at one time from a company with a single location. Finale also can track complex sales consisting of a hundred or more distinct products split in multiple shipments with each shipment packed at different times and locations before being shipped to the customer.
The three key entities in Finale for tracking the fulfillment of a sale are the sales order, optional fulfillments and sales shipments. The sales order represents the plan and commitment to sell products to a customer. When an order needs to be fulfilled from more than one location, it can include one or more fulfillments. Each fulfillment represents the part of the order that will be fulfilled and shipped from a specific location, so an order split across two facilities would have two fulfillments. Sales shipments, whether created directly under the sales order or under a fulfillment, represent the execution of that plan by packing specific stock and shipping it to a specific destination. A sales order or fulfillment may not have any shipments at first because shipments are created as part of the fulfillment process, or they may eventually have many shipments.
The sales order does not directly affect stock levels of products in your inventory. Only by creating and shipping a sale shipment can you or the system update stock levels. The sales order only tracks the products that will be sold and the main location where the products will be sold from. The sales order does not track the specific lots that will be shipped - that is handled by the sales shipment. Similarly the sales order does not track the specific sub-locations where products will be picked, packed and shipped from - that is also handled by the sales shipment.
By default the sales order start with a single blank sale shipment. To track split shipments, use the Add new shipment menu item on the actions menu on the sale shipments screen.
Getting Rates and Creating Shipping Labels
After you have created the sales order, any fulfillments and the related shipments, the next part of the process is getting carrier rates and creating shipping labels in Finale. This is the final step that turns the shipment plan into packages that are ready to leave your facility. This section explains how rate shopping and label creation fit into the fulfillment workflow.
Carrier labels can be created in Finale Inventory using the Descartes® ShipRush™ integration, which acts as a bridge between Finale and your carrier accounts. To learn more about setting up your Finale-ShipRush integration, see article Finale ShipRush integration.
Enabling the ShipRush integration exposes the ability to verify addresses, get and review rates and create shipping labels for sales order shipments.
Choosing your shipping flow
In Descartes Finale, shipping labels can be created in two ways:
One order at a time
In batches for several orders at once.
The right approach depends on how different each shipment is compared to the others and how much control you need during label creation.
Creating labels one order at a time is best for retailers whose orders differ from shipment to shipment and require each package to be weighed and measured individually. This flow starts from the shipment details for a specific sales order and gives you more flexibility to compare rates, review delivery commitments, and choose among carrier services before creating the label. See article How to create a carrier label and ship an order in Finale.
Labels can also be created in batch from the sales order list view. This method lets you process multiple orders from a single interface, making label creation faster and more efficient. To use this approach, shipping details such as carrier service, package selection, dimensions, and other required settings must be applied in batch. This flow is best for retailers whose parcels are more consistent and less customized, where speed and efficiency matter more than order-by-order adjustments. See article How to create carrier labels in batch in Finale.