Delivery Methods: Creating, Settings and Using Delivery Methods

RoasterTools considers any way you get your product to the customer as a Delivery Method. You are able to assign customers delivery methods and you can also create discounts around delivery methods for discounted or free shipping.

IN THIS ARTICLE

Create a New Delivery Method
Naming your Delivery Method
Pricing and Cost Structure
Assigning a Default Delivery Method to a Customer
How Delivery Methods are included in Invoice Emails
Allow Customer to Choose from Multiple Delivery Methods
How to Reset A Delivery Method

Create a Delivery Method

Clicking on Your Name > Account Settings and scrolling down to Delivery Methods.
Just below the header, you'll click on 'Add New Delivery Method':

On the next screen, you'll go through the following steps.

Below the overview we go into depth on the options for each field when creating a delivery method. Please read before creating your methods.

Overview:

Name your Delivery Method
Select the Type of Shipping Method you would like to create:
1. Choose from: Pick Up, Hand Delivered or Shipped via Carrier
Choose a Price and Cost structure
If the Type is Shipped Via Carrier and you'd like this delivery method exported to Shipstation, Select "Create Shipping Label in ShipStation?"
Press "Create Shipping Method".

Naming Your Delivery Method

Often this is straightforward, but a few things are good to think about in the naming.

Customer Facing: The name will be customer facing and show up in the portal and on the invoice. (see section below on How Delivery Methods display on Invoices and Emails). It is good to be short yet descriptive in the name.
Naming with Delivery Routes: If you Deliver more than 1 time per week, many of our users choose to list multiple delivery methods with names that help identify what route or day the delivery is expected.
Ex. Monday Delivery, Tuesday Delivery etc or North Route Delivery, West Side Delivery
Note: if you name the delivery route with the day - it does not tie them to that day within the app, it is just a label to communicate to the customer.

NOTE: The name for the delivery method should have a max of 31 characters, if the name has more than that, it will cause an error when syncing the invoice to QuickBooks.

Pricing and Cost Structure

You will have the following choices for Pricing and Cost Structure:

Custom Shipping Price / Custom Shipping Cost

Flat Shipping Price / Flat Shipping Cost

Flat Shipping Price / Live Shipping Cost

Live Shipping Price / Live Shipping Cost.

Custom Shipping: allows you to create a custom shipping price and cost for each invoice. This means that before you can collect a payment from a customer, you will first be required to update their shipping cost via the Edit Order button.
Flat Shipping: will allow you to set a flat rate and / or a flat cost, which any of your customers on that shipping method will be charged.

Live Shipping Costs/Prices

If you're using the Shipstation Integration you can use the options below and will need to select the "export to shipstation" box on the delivery method page:

Flat Shipping / Live Shipping Cost: will allow you to charge your customers a flat rate, but the cost to you will be adjusted dynamically using ShipStation.
Live Shipping / Live Shipping Cost will allow you to import live shipping rates from ShipStation, so that you may charge your customers a dynamic price that matches the cost of the shipping from the service you used. This delivery method works best for orders that are sent through FedEx, USPS, UPS, or any other carrier service.

NOTE: If your customers are set up with a dynamic shipping method (Custom or Live pricing), then you will be required to update their shipping cost on their orders before you can collect payment for that order. This includes customers on all payment terms, including Pre-Pay.

Assigning a Default Delivery Method to a Customer

Now that you have the methods created, you are ready to assign a method to each customer. You can do this per customer or via a CSV file update.

Assign Method Per Customer

You can assign a method to a customer in the customer settings:
Sales > Customers > Edit
Scroll to Delivery Methods
Select desired method
Save Delivery Method

Assign Delivery Method in Bulk via CSV

This method allows you to update many fields at one time. It is important to note that the method name that you enter into the CSV must math the actual Method in RoasterTools EXACTLY.

Go to Name > Settings > Import & Export.
From the Import & Export page, select Customers from the menu on the left.
Select Download CSV. (If you currently have no customer inputted, this will download a blank CSV for you to fill out.)

We recommend using Google Sheets to open this CSV for viewing and editing.
On the Customer list, go to the column called "Default Delivery" and enter the delivery method for each customer.

Note: The method name that you enter into the CSV must match the actual Method as written in the settings in RoasterTools EXACTLY for the upload to work.

If in google sheets, go to file > download > CSV
Return to RoasterTools app - Settings > Import & Export > Customers. Upload your new CSV file to Upload Changes.
You will receive a confirmation email detailing whether your upload was successful.
Spot check a few customers to make sure the delivery method looks correct.

How Delivery Methods are included in Invoice Emails

If you assign a delivery type to your Delivery Method, your invoice emails will reference how the delivery will occur.

To assign a Type, visit Settings > Delivery > Delivery Methods

Once assigned, your Invoice emails' delivery section will be customized for each delivery method:

Pickup 👇

Hand delivered 👇

Shipped via carrier 👇

Note: If you do not set a Delivery Type, the invoice email delivery method will default to the "Shipped with Carrier" setting.

Allow Customers to Choose from Multiple Delivery Options

Sometime you may want customers to be able to choose between delivery methods when they are checking out in the portal.

📣 For a customer to have a choice of Delivery Methods, the Delivery Method Type must be:

"hand delivered" or "pickup".

Update Delivery Method Setting Type:
1. Name > settings > delivery > delivery method > select the one you want to edit

NOTE: You can include methods that are shipped, but you need to change the setting to hand delivered or pickup. (Yes, it seems odd - it's just the work around)

If you want to create a shipping label with this method, make sure the check box is selected to "Create shipping label in ShipStation."

Once the settings in the desired Delivery Methods are correct, Update the Customer settings
1. Customers > Select Edit (right side of page for customer you'd like to edit) > Delivery Methods
Select one of the Methods you want them to have choice of.
A new field will pop up and allow you to select additional options for the customer to choose from while checking out. (see video below)
If you don't see the option, go back to settings and make sure the delivery settings are correct.

How to Reset A Delivery Method with new Price/Cost Structure

Once you've created a Delivery Method, you are not able to edit the Price/Cost Structure. You'll need to delete the unwanted Delivery Method and create a new one with the desired Price/Cost Structure.

Go to your Name > Settings > Delivery > Delivery Methods
Click the Delete button for your existing method you no longer want. It will ask if you're sure and you can click OK.
Select Add New Delivery Method button on that same page and create your new Delivery Method.
Name it, choose Delivery Type, and desired Price/Cost Structure, then click Create Delivery Method button.
The last thing you'll need to do is to update your customer default delivery methods that should have the new Delivery Method. This is slightly inconvenient but necessary to make sure they are getting the right shipping option.