Questions Automatically email shipment confirmations and record when shipment actually sent

I'm looking for a way to record when a shipment was confirmed and sent out. 

Currently on the Shipments screen (SO302000), there is a Shipment Date field. I thought this would be the date the order was shipped, however it is "The date when the document has been created." This creates an issue, for example when a customer rings up regarding when a shipment was sent, it appears it was sent on the same day that the shipment was created. However this can be incorrect, as sometimes it's not shipped the same day.

When "Confirm Shipment" is actioned, is there anywhere that the date is saved? If there is a Confirm Shipment Date, I think that would answer it.

Hey Daniel,

No confirmed shipment data that I'm aware of. But, even if there was, I think you still need to use Shipment Date and here's why:

The Shipment Date defaults to the Inventory Issue document that gets generated by the Shipment. You can see the Inventory Issue document for a Shipment by clicking here on the Shipments (SO302000) screen:

Clicking that document will take you to the Issues (IN302000) screen:

You can see the Date field on that screen which is where the Shipment Date defaults to. But there is also a Post Period field which determines the financial period that the General Ledger journal entry posts into. That Post Period is the reason why you want to set the Shipment Date to the date that the shipment actually left the building.

I suggest just changing your business process to have the shipper set the Shipment Date to the actual date that a shipment left your facility.

Thanks for this info Tim.

I guess my next concern is that I can't imagine that the warehouse guys will remember to update the shipment date every time. Is there a way to automate this update? Potential triggers for the Shipment Date to update could be that when a Shipment is opened it updates to the current date, or when a shipment is confirmed it updates to the current date.

I looked at doing this through the Automation Steps page. I selected Screen ID: Shipments, Step ID: Confirmed, then looked at adding a Field where the Field Name is Shipment Date, and ticking the Is Relative box which according to the help section is "the value for the field (date) is relative with respect to the current business date." However, it doesn't do anything at all. Is there a way to make an Automation Step work for this?

It has to be attached to the actual Confirm Shipment action and it has to happen before the Confirm Shipment action gets called.

Also, it has to happen on the Step ID of Open because that's the condition in place when you call the Confirm Shipment action.

I was able to do it like this (note it's a lot of cutting and pasting to get it to be the first line, can't just insert a line at the top unfortunately):

BUT, in my opinion, this is one of those places where it's a bad idea to automate because it's a people problem, not a computer problem. And it deserves a people solution, not a computer solution. Shipping transactions rarely all get done in the system on the day of the shipment. Oftentimes you need to back date. And, to me, knowing how to set the date on the shipment is a critical part of the shipping person's job, especially when it comes to month-end and you need to determine what month it actually shipped in. I would be very nervous of trying to get the computer to do something that really needs a human being to determine.

Hi,

Is there a way to email shipment confirmations automatically to a customer's email?

1. Process Shipments does not work, it only has the option to Print.
2. Generic inquiries do not work, because for some weird reason, Acumatica says something like "Shipment screen cannot be automated".
3. Reports > SEND works but can send one email at a time, hence, cannot be automated.
4. Automation Notifications do not work, it only lets you use user emails. Customer email is not an option.
5. Automation Steps have the option to enable "Email Shipment" (Batch Mode), yet when you enable and try to save is, once again "This form cannot be automated".

I really hope that I am missing something super simple that could easily automate this step. Also, I remember reading about something in Acumatica 2018 that would eventually replace Automation Steps. Could that be an option in the future?

Thank you.

Hey @Taylan,
Can you include a screenshot of your Automation Steps screen which looks like this?

When I changed the condition and saved it, it did not give me an error message this time. I am not sure what is going on, is it a cache issue, or browser, or Acumatica, etc...!

I notice in your screenshot that you changed the Step ID of Confirmed. That Step ID is only in effect for shipments that are already confirmed. Take a look at my screenshot above. I think you want to edit the Step ID of Open.

I see, the action should take place when the status change from Open to Confirmed. I will give it a try. 

It doesn't matter which status is picked because I keep getting the error message below.

Can't we just enable the batch mode and access the "Email Shipment" from the Processes screen?

I also don't know why it has "Email Shipment" listed twice.

I'm not sure why you are getting the "This form cannot be automated" error. I don't get it when using my 17.204.0019 build. What build are you using?

As to your two lines of Email Shipment, I have the same thing. One line has Action in the Action Name column and the other line has Notification in the Action Name column (screenshot below). But your screenshot is missing the values in the Action Name column which makes me wonder if that is contributing to your error.

Hmmm, that's not too old. This solution should work. I think you might need Acumatica Support on this. Seems like it might be a buggy thing or something that is specific to your environment customizations or data.

The weird thing is I also get "Action Name" filled out sometimes, and sometimes it is just blank. I may wait until we upgrade to 2017 R2.

Not a bad idea.