Is there a way to send a shipping confirmation with an invoice?

[amr5121]

Hello!  In Wix, I can add a shipping confirmation number and provider and automatically send confirmation to the customer.  Is there a way to do something similar after a customer pays an invoice I created for them?  I wish there was a way to manually create an order on the backend and then do it that way.  Any suggestions would be helpful!

[crystalimages]

I'm not sure I'm understanding your question. Are you wanting a payment confirmation sent to the customer when they pay? Or do you want to send tracking information once you ship an order? Is there something physical being shipped?

When a customer pays an invoice they receive a payment receipt. If you're shipping an item to a customer, most shipping services provide an option to send tracking information to the customer if you input an email address. We use Shippo, which is partnered with Square. For this year they aren't charging a subscription fee. I only pay for postage. When I create the shipping label, I add the customer's email address and the customer gets email updates: shipment created, package received at carrier, and package delivered.

I will have to do some research to confirm, but I believe orders placed through your Square/Weebly Online store should send a message when you mark the order complete.

Give me more specifics about your question.

[amr5121]

Hi @crystalimages!. Basically I want to add a tracking number to an invoice to automatically send to our customers.  There is something physical being shipped but its not coming from me but I want the tracking confirmation to come from me.  

The way our company works is that the customer places the initial order through our website with Wix.  For the initial order, Wix makes it super easy to add a tracking number and it sends out a really nice email with the tracking information.  However, for future orders, we are creating invoices through Square (you can't create a manual order on the backend of Wix or Square) and then want to send a similar shipping confirmation email.  This past week I had to manually create them all through my email and it was really time consuming.

Thanks for the advice!!

[crystalimages]

I haven't used Wix, so I'm not certain, but it sounds like the initial order created on the Wix page also includes a shipping system so it generates a tracking number when the customer places the order and includes that info in the confirmation email. Do I have that right? The first email they get is a receipt and shipment tracking?

When you create an order through invoices, square is only creating a purchase and receipt, not a shipment order with tracking. 

How do you create the shipping for these orders currently? What service do you create the shipment with?

I suggested Shippo because it can sync with your Square Online orders, not POS/Online only (as far as I last saw). 
You can also now create Online orders with the latest version of Square POS on your tablet. You can also import orders into Shippo with a CSV file.

I haven't done many Online orders that require shipping, so I haven't bothered with the Sync, but in theory, you could create the order on the tablet as an Online order, enter the customer payment (I assume you could send a checkout link or invoice the customer from the "Charge" screen), and then sync your orders with Shippo which would import the order information, when you create the shipping label, it will send an email confirming the shipment has been created and the tracking information. However, this will still create two separate emails, the payment receipt and then the shipment/tracking once you create the label in Shippo.

You can also set up shipping directly using the Square online store, which I assume works much like the Wix site. I haven't used it.
It's a subscription and we do mostly in-person sales for digital orders that don't get shipped. This would integrate all your sales into one system with the same shipping. This may be fewer steps and more like what you're accustomed to. Again, I don't have much info on it, but there's probably a few threads in the Seller Community about it. 

To state the obvious, if you're creating a shipment in a system that is outside of square, unless they are partnered with square and can sync your orders, there's no way to automatically generate a tracking number. Invoices can give them an Invoice #, but the tracking information is generated when a shipment order is created using a shipping service. It sounds like Wix creates the order and shipping simultaneously, which is why they can send the tracking immediately. I think this is how the Square online store works when you include shipping there.  Square just creates a purchase transaction/order, not a shipment where it's purchasing a label with tracking information. So, you don't know the tracking number until you create it...

[_Violet · Accepted solution]

Hi @amr5121 and @crystalimages 👋

I just wanted to let you both know that we recently launched Shipping for Square Invoices. To learn more about this feature, please check out this Support Article.

I hope this information is helpful but please do let me know if you have any additional questions.