Lodsted Help

Install Lodsted

From the Shopify App Store to your first shipped order. Click a step to see the details; tick it off when it is done. A one-person shop can stop after step 5 and ship; the rest makes a bigger warehouse faster.

Install

  1. Before you start

    Who installs, and what to have ready.    Check

    Have these ready. None of them takes long, and each one saves a fix later.

    • Someone who can install apps. The store owner, or staff with permission to install apps in Shopify. The person who installs becomes Lodsted's Owner.
    • Shipping weights on your products. Shopify Shipping labels are rated from the product weight, and the pack station uses it when there is no scale.
    • A laser printer (recommended). Pick lists, packing slips and auto-move sheets are full pages, printed every day; a laser printer is the fastest and cheapest per page. Any printer works to start.
    • A way to print shipping labels. A 4x6 thermal label printer (for example a Zebra) is best. Without one, labels print as PDF on any printer, at actual size (not fit to page).
    • Optional hardware. A USB shipping scale and a barcode scanner. For the scale, use Chrome or Edge on the pack station computer.

    You do not need bin locations, a spreadsheet or a carrier account to start. Lodsted counts your Shopify stock for you.

  2. Install from the Shopify App Store

    Install, approve the permissions, open the app.    Required
    1. Find Lodsted Warehouse Management in the Shopify App Store and click Install.
    2. Shopify lists what Lodsted needs to read and change: products, inventory, locations, orders, fulfillments and returns, and the customer details on your orders (for packing slips and labels). Approve it.
    3. Lodsted opens inside your Shopify admin. From now on it is under Apps › Lodsted, and each screen is listed in Shopify's left-hand app menu.

    There is no separate password. Your Shopify staff login is your Lodsted login.

  3. Your warehouse is built

    Products and stock come in from Shopify on their own.    Automatic
    Setupopens on first launch

    The first screen is Setting up your warehouse. While it runs, Lodsted:

    • creates your store's own private database,
    • pulls your products from Shopify, and
    • counts each tracked product's Shopify stock into the receiving location 90REC: the opening count.

    Wait for Your warehouse is ready. Lodsted now holds exactly what Shopify had, so the first stock update it sends back changes nothing on your storefront.

    Keep 90REC active for now

    90REC is created active, so the opening count is usable and can ship right away. Do not set it inactive until that stock has been put away: inactive stock is not counted in what Shopify is sent, so Shopify would get zeros. To hold deliveries there later, see Holding deliveries in 90REC (step 10).

    The Setup page stays in the menu as a checklist. Come back to it any time to see what is still open.

  4. Choose a plan

    14-day free trial, approved in Shopify. Every plan has every feature.    Required
    Setup›Billing

    Pick the plan that matches your orders per month and approve it on Shopify's screen. Each plan starts with a 14-day free trial, and nothing is counted during it.

    PlanPricePer order
    Up to 500 orders a month$295.8¢
    Up to 2,000$874.35¢
    Up to 5,000$1633.26¢
    Up to 15,000$3672.45¢

    Orders count when they ship. A busy month over your plan's limit is billed at your plan's own per-order rate, up to the usage cap you approve ($300, $600, $1,000 or $1,500). Lodsted emails you when a bigger plan would cost less, and again as you near the cap. Change plans any time. Details: Billing.

    Until a plan is chosen Lodsted is read-only: you can look at everything, but you cannot change stock, create waves or buy labels.

  5. Confirm the fulfillment location

    The Shopify location Lodsted ships from.    Automatic

    Lodsted picks up your Shopify location on its own. You are only asked if the store has several; choose the one this warehouse ships from.

    Change it later under Settings › Company.

    A small shop can ship now

    With a plan chosen you can already create a wave, print the pick list and packing slips, and ship. Bins are optional: stock waits in 90REC and each wave moves what it needs to the staging location 01STAG, where the pick list sends the picker, as long as 90REC stays active. Steps 6 to 17 make it faster and tidier.

Set up

  1. Company profile

    Time zone first, then addresses and logo.    RequiredAdmin
    Settings›Company
    1. Warehouse Time Zone first. It decides what "today" means everywhere, and PO numbers and receipt dates carry it.
    2. Return address and ship-from address. Both go on labels.
    3. A logo URL if you want your logo on the packing slip return form. Left blank, the company name prints as text.

    More: Settings › Company.

  2. Turn on stock tracking

    So Lodsted's counts reach your storefront.    RequiredAdmin
    Setup›Products and stock tracking

    This lists the physical products Shopify is not tracking. Select them and switch tracking on.

    Once tracking is on, Lodsted keeps Shopify's stock up to date automatically from usable, unreserved inventory.

    A product with nothing on hand shows as sold out once it is tracked. Receive its stock first, or accept that.

  3. Check product details

    Weights in Shopify; height, hazmat and carton sizes in Lodsted.    Recommended
    Inventoryclick a SKU
    • Shipping weight comes from the Shopify product. Fix it there.
    • Physical product also comes from Shopify. Untick it on gift cards, services and fees, or they wait as backorders forever and block waves.
    • In Lodsted set what Shopify does not have: height (for the First Class envelope rate), group quantity and master carton (for replenishment moves) and Haz where it applies.

    Start with your top sellers. Why each field matters: Products and kits.

  4. Add bin locations

    Where things live on the shelf. Add them now or later.    OptionalAdmin
    Locations›Create Locations or Import

    A location code is letters and digits. The first two characters are the zone; zone 01 is picking.

    • Type them in with Create Locations, or
    • import a file with Locations › Import: one row per location with its SKU, min, max and active flag. A pick-face row with a SKU becomes that SKU's primary.

    Set Max on pick locations so replenishment knows how much fits.

    90REC already exists, and it is active. Leave it that way for now: your opening count is in it.

  5. Put stock away

    Move the opening count onto the shelves. Never doubles it.    OptionalAdmin
    Inventory›Import

    Your stock is already in 90REC from the opening count. The stock import puts it on the shelves: one row per SKU and bin saying how many belong there.

    1. Each row moves stock out of 90REC first.
    2. Only what 90REC did not have is received, as a new dated lot.

    Whatever is left in 90REC afterwards is the gap between Shopify and your shelves. Put each pick bin's share (up to its Max) in the pick bin and the rest in bulk.

    Later deliveries go on a purchase order.

    Holding deliveries in 90REC

    Once the put-away is done you can set 90REC inactive (Locations, edit it, uncheck Act). Then anything received there waits: it is not promised to orders, not picked, and not counted in what Shopify is sent, until you move it to a shelf or make 90REC active again. Use it when deliveries should be checked or counted before they sell.

    Not before the put-away

    While the opening count is still in 90REC, making it inactive makes that stock unavailable, and the next stock update sends Shopify zeros for it. A shop that ships straight from 90REC (step 5) should leave it active.

  6. Kits

    Bundles sold under one SKU.    OptionalAdmin
    Kitsin the app menu

    If you sell bundles under one SKU, define them so orders expand into the parts that get picked.

    Do this before the first wave. Orders already downloaded are not re-expanded.

    More: Kits.

  7. Review wave definitions

    The rules that batch orders into picks.    RecommendedAdmin
    Waves›Manage definitions

    Starters are provided: usually a priority wave, one per shipping speed, and a catch-all.

    • Put the most urgent first. A definition only sees orders the ones above it did not take.
    • Set the cart size to what your cart really holds. Give bulky items their own definition with a smaller size.
    • Use Test to count matches before saving.

    More: Wave definitions.

Ship

  1. Shipping and carriers

    Shopify Shipping needs nothing; add Stamps.com if you use it.    RecommendedAdmin
    Settings›Carrier accounts
    • Shopify Shipping labels use your store's own connection. Nothing to set up.
    • Stamps.com: add a USPS or UPS account under Carrier accounts.

    Then check Shipping Method Mappings: they turn the shipping option names your checkout uses into Standard, Expedited or Overnight, so the pack station proposes the right service.

  2. Set up the pack station

    Label printer, box presets and the scale.    Optional
    Pack stationbutton in the title bar; opens its own tab

    The pack station opens in its own browser tab, already signed in. That is on purpose: a page inside the Shopify frame cannot reach a USB scale or a local label printer.

    1. Manage printers: add the label printer.
    2. Manage presets: add your boxes.
    3. Connect scale: pair the USB scale through the browser (Chrome or Edge).
    4. Print the test page. It carries the action and box barcodes for a scan station.
    Print at actual size

    When a label or page prints through the browser's print dialog, set Scale to Actual size (or 100%), not Fit to page, and margins to None for labels. Fit to page shrinks a 4x6 label, and a carrier can refuse a label that is not full size. The browser remembers the setting, so set it once on each computer.

    No scale? The weight is filled in from the products' weights. More: Pack station and labels.

  3. Add your team

    Staff open Lodsted once; you set their level.    RecommendedAdmin
    Teamin the app menu
    1. Have each person open Lodsted from the Shopify admin once. They then appear on the Team page.
    2. Click a row to set their name, email and level.
    LevelCan
    UserThe daily screens: orders, waves, moves, replenishment, receiving, shipments, pack station.
    AdminUser, plus stock adjustments, imports, kits, wave definitions, Team and Settings.
    OwnerAdmin, plus backing out a PO receipt. The installing account.

    More: Team.

  4. Alert emails and holidays

    Send problems to the right inbox.    RecommendedAdmin
    Settings›Alert Emails, Holidays
    • Alert Emails start out addressed to the installing owner. Move each category to whoever watches it.
    • Holidays: enter the days the warehouse is closed.

  5. Do a dry run, then ship

    One small wave, one test label, then for real.    Required
    1. On Waves, create one small wave and print the pick list and packing slips.
    2. Pick it.
    3. On the pack station, scan or type the packing slip and buy a label with Test mode ticked: it prints a sample, with no postage and no shipment. Test mode is for Stamps / Endicia labels only. Shopify Shipping has no test mode: every Shopify Shipping label is a real purchase (a Shopify development store returns sample labels).
    4. Check the order's Activity tab.
    5. Untick Test mode and ship. The order shows as fulfilled in Shopify, with tracking.

    What happens to an order from here: How an order flows.

The same ground, in more depth and with a worked example: First-time setup.