When it comes to order management, no one likes surprises. You want to know well in advance of the arrival of packages if there are any problems with your orders. This saves a lot of stress and allows warehouse workers to do their job more effectively.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to worry about such things as damaged goods, missing items, incorrect substitutes, and other errors in fulfilling orders. But since errors happen from time to time, we have to deal with them so they don’t get out of control.
In a perfect world, you wouldn’t have to worry about such things as damaged goods, missing items, incorrect substitutes, and other errors in fulfilling orders. But since errors happen from time to time, we have to deal with them so they don’t get out of control.
What Advance Shipping Notice Is
The answer to these problems is to use advance shipping notice combined with inventory management software, such as Fishbowl Inventory. Advance shipping notice sends information about orders that are shipped to recipients before they arrive. It is a feature that is included with an electronic data interchange (EDI) solution, such as the one provided by SPS Commerce. With this EDI solution, you can send and receive advance shipping notices. This makes your company nicer to do business with because your customers and partners benefit in many ways from knowing ahead of time detailed information on shipments that are coming their way. Plus, you can have all of that information instantly integrated into your inventory database when you use Fishbowl Inventory. This saves time and keeps your records accurate.What Advance Shipping Notice Does
The type of data sent via each advance shipping notice depends on the requirements of both the sender and the receiver. In general, though, this information can include:- What types of containers house the product(s)
- How the products are situated in each container
- Product description, size, mass, and other details
- Product’s current status
- Description of courier
- Estimated delivery time
Advantages of Using Advance Shipping Notice
Knowing all of this information (along with whatever else may be required) is extremely useful to businesses and other organizations. Advance shipping notice:- Saves time in the receiving process
- Ensures the products ordered and the products received match up
- Saves paper because it’s sent via email
- Allows quick scans of lot numbers, batch numbers, and product barcodes
- Eliminates double or triple data entry by integrating with Fishbowl Inventory, QuickBooks, and other software solutions
- Improves companies’ ability to plan for wait times and keep enough products on hand to meet demand
- Gives warehouse workers more data to improve their warehouse setup and storage capability