Automatic labels and tracking from one scan

What happens on the scan

1. The operator scans the work order at an armed station.
2. Your software confirms the order is packed and ready, with real package details.
3. Approved rules select one preset, and ParcelOffice checks it suits the packages, the delivery area and the courier’s limits.
4. ParcelOffice books one shipment on your DHL account.
5. A label for each package goes to the station’s printer through SmartFACT PrintStation, and a signed update takes the tracking reference to your software.

If anything is unclear, such as no matching rule, a conflict, a hold or a printer that has not reported in recently, the station stops and shows why. Nothing is guessed.

Armed and attended

Automatic is never unattended and never triggered by another system. An operator signed in at the station arms it. Arming lasts for a limited time and ends straight away if the browser tab is hidden, the screen locks or someone else signs in. It never rearms itself.

Bookings only start from a scan at that station. There are no scheduled batches and no webhooks that book on their own.

Switched on per station, after qualification

An administrator enables Automatic for a station once the rules have proved themselves. That means a complete set of passing examples, then a period in which the rules run silently alongside your operators’ own choices on real despatches, with every disagreement resolved.

Qualification lasts for a set period, and any change to the rules or presets ends it until it is reviewed again. Meanwhile the same rules can run in Assisted mode, where the operator confirms each recommendation.

Data the rules can trust

Automatic needs your software to report when a job is packed and ready, and to supply real package weights and dimensions, unless the preset has fixed, known contents. A rule cannot vouch for a weight that nobody measured.

Tracking without the copy-paste

Tracking goes back the same way in every mode: a signed update to the job, retried if your system does not acknowledge it. Add tracking to the work order automatically explains the details.

Read next

• Parcel rule examplesExample parcel rules written in plain English, and what each does at the bench: select a preset, offer a shortlist or hold the despatch.
• Automate despatch from work ordersTake the courier website, the retyping and the tracking copy-paste out of despatch, then decide how far rules go: from a shortlist to one-scan booking.
• Despatch status updatesThe events ParcelOffice reports to your factory software, from booked to output confirmed, and why it never claims a parcel was collected or delivered.