YOUR SYSTEMS · UPDATED 5 OCTOBER 2026
Despatch status updates your system can trust
“Shipped” can mean many things. ParcelOffice reports each step of a despatch as its own event, so your software can set the job’s status from facts rather than assumptions.
Looking for a WooCommerce plugin? ParcelOffice is a hosted despatch service, not a plugin. If your orders live in an online shop, a small adapter can receive these events and update the order.
The events ParcelOffice reports
| Event | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Shipment booked | DHL accepted the shipment. Includes the tracking references it returned. |
| Booking uncertain | The courier’s reply was lost after a request was sent. A supervisor is checking, and nothing is sent again automatically. |
| Booking rejected | DHL refused the shipment, with the reason it gave. |
| Labels ready | Labels for every package are stored and ready to print. |
| Label recovery needed | The shipment exists, but a supervisor needs to recover a label. |
| Print submitted | The labels were sent to the station’s printer. |
| Print uncertain | ParcelOffice could not tell whether the print reached the printer. |
| Output confirmed | Someone at the bench recorded seeing the labels. |
| Cancellation requested, accepted and confirmed | Three separate steps, from a supervisor’s request to the courier’s confirmation. |
What ParcelOffice never claims
No event says a parcel was collected, is in transit or was delivered. Those facts belong to the courier and to your own process. Your business decides when a job counts as despatched: on booking, for example, or only once output is confirmed.
Mapping events to your statuses
A typical mapping looks like this, but the choice is yours:
- Shipment booked: store the tracking references on the job.
- Print submitted or output confirmed: mark the job as labelled.
- Booking uncertain or rejected: flag the job for the despatch supervisor.
- Cancellation confirmed: record that the shipment will not travel, and check any charges with DHL.
Reliable delivery
Each event is recorded at the same moment as the outcome it describes, then signed and delivered with retries. Events can arrive more than once, so your system should treat a repeat as already handled. Add tracking to the work order automatically covers signing and retries.
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