First-time setup

What to do, in what order, before the first wave. Budget half a day for a small warehouse; the location and product work scales with your catalog.

Want a checklist to work down? Install Lodsted, step by step covers the same ground one step at a time.

The Setup checklist

Setupin the app menu

The first time you open Lodsted it shows Setting up your warehouse. The page lists what the install needs and links to each screen. It is safe to come back to it later; it shows what is still open.

Item	What it means
Building your warehouse	Lodsted creates your private database, pulls your products from Shopify and counts each tracked product's Shopify stock into the receiving location `90REC`. Automatic; wait for "Your warehouse is ready".
Fulfillment location	Which Shopify location Lodsted ships from. Picked up automatically; you are asked only if the store has several. Change later under Settings › Company.
Billing	Choose a plan: bands of orders per month, each starting with a 14-day full-access free trial approved on Shopify, no setup fee. Until a plan is chosen Lodsted is read-only: you can look at everything but not change stock, create waves or buy labels.
Wave definitions	The rules that decide which orders go on which kind of wave. Starters are provided; review them.
Products and stock tracking	Switch Shopify's inventory tracking on for physical products so Lodsted can send counts.
Company profile	Name, time zone, return address, packing slip logo.
Add your team	Have staff open Lodsted once, then set their levels.
Printing setup	Label printer, box presets and the scale on the pack station.

Recommended order

Company profile
Settings › Company. Set the Warehouse Time Zone first; it decides what "today" means everywhere. Fill the return address and ship-from address (they go on labels), and a logo URL if you want it on the packing slip return form.
Locations
Decide your code scheme (letters and digits; the first two characters are the zone, any two-digit number, and zone 01 is picking). Coming from another system or a spreadsheet, use 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. Otherwise Create Locations types them in a grid. Every install already has the receiving bin 90REC; set it inactive if deliveries should wait to be checked before they can be sold. Set Max on pick locations so replenishment knows how much fits. Details and an example layout are on the Locations page.
Products
Products arrive from Shopify on their own, with their shipping weight; check it is filled in on the Shopify product, since Shopify Shipping labels are rated from it. On the Inventory page click each SKU and set what Shopify does not provide: height (the only dimension in use, for the First Class envelope promotion; Shopify does not expose dimensions yet), group quantity and master carton, and Haz where it applies. Whether a product ships follows Shopify's "physical product" box, so fix gift cards and services there. Why each field matters is on Products and kits. Start with your top sellers.
Stock tracking review
Setup › Products and stock tracking. Lists physical products Shopify is not tracking. Select them and switch tracking on so Lodsted's counts reach the storefront. Products with nothing on hand will show as sold out once tracked, so receive stock first or accept that.
Starting stock
Lodsted already did the first part: at install it received every tracked product's Shopify quantity into 90REC, the receiving location (the opening count). Put that stock away with Inventory › Import: one row per SKU and bin saying how many belong there. Each row moves from 90REC first and receives only what Shopify did not know about, as a dated lot. Whatever is left in 90REC afterwards is the gap between Shopify and the shelves. Put the primary pick location's share (up to its Max) in the pick bin and the rest in bulk. Later deliveries go on a purchase order; a handful of corrections are adjustments on the Inventory page (Admin).
Kits
If you sell bundles under one SKU, define them on Kits so orders expand into components. Do this before the first wave; orders already downloaded are not re-expanded.
Wave definitions
Waves › Manage definitions. The starters are 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. Use Test to count matches before saving.
Shipping
Settings › Carrier accounts for a Stamps.com USPS or UPS account (Shopify Shipping needs nothing here). Then on the pack station: Manage printers to add the label printer, Manage presets for your boxes, and Connect scale. Print the test page; it carries the action and box barcodes for the 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.

Shipping Method Mappings translate the shipping option names your checkout uses into Standard, Expedited or Overnight so the pack station proposes the right service.
Team
Have each person open Lodsted from the Shopify admin once, then set their level on Team. Keep Admin for people who should adjust stock and change settings.
Alert emails and holidays
Under Settings, put a real inbox on each alert category, and enter the days the warehouse is closed.
A dry run
Create one small wave, print it, pick and pack one order, buy a label in Test mode (sample only, no postage), and check the order's Activity tab. Then do it for real. 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).

A worked example

A shop selling golf balls and accessories, one aisle, two sides.

Pick side (zone 01) Bulk side (zone 02) Receiving (inactive) 01A01 GB-PRO-DZ primary 02A01 90REC 01A02 GB-SOFT-DZ primary 02A02 01B01 GLOVE-L primary 02B01 01B02 GLOVE-M primary 02B02 01C01 TEE-100 primary ... Max on each pick bin: how many units fit (GB-PRO-DZ: 24) GRP / MCQ on products: GB-PRO-DZ group qty 6, master carton 24

With that in place: a wave for 30 dozen GB-PRO-DZ allocates 24 from the pick bin and 6 from bulk, and prints an auto-move telling the picker to bring one case of 24 forward first (whole cartons when they fit). Receiving a PO for 240 goes 24 to 01A01 (the P button fills the primary) and the rest to bulk; a delivery that needs checking first goes to 90REC (the S button), where it is not usable until moved. The Replenishment page later shows the pick bin at 42% fill (10 of 24) with 216 movable in bulk and suggests a move of 18: the 14 needed, rounded up to the group quantity of 6, because a whole carton of 24 would overfill the bin.

Things people regret skipping

Time zone. Set it before the first PO or import; PO numbers and receipt dates carry it.
Max on pick locations. Without it the Replenishment page cannot suggest quantities and shows the row flagged No Max.
Cart sizes on wave definitions. A wave never shrinks on its own; if a definition's cart size is bigger than the cart that type is picked into, the picker runs out of bins. Give bulky-item waves their own definition with a smaller size.
The "physical product" box on gift cards and fees in Shopify. Lodsted takes shippable from it; left ticked, those items show as backordered forever and block waves.
Alert email inboxes. The defaults go to the installing owner; move them to whoever watches shipping.