How to Split a Shipment
Overview
SoStocked use a Purchase Order (PO) with lead times for all new inventory orders. And we use a Work Order (WO) system with lead times for transferring inventory from a warehouse or prep center to Amazon FBA.
Sometimes it's necessary to split a shipment within the same PO or WO when you must send inventory to two or more separate locations or in multiple types of shipping. For example, if you are running low on inventory at Amazon and you need to rush inventory on an express shipment by air to ensure you don't stock out. Rather than creating two separate POs, you can simply split the shipment inside the same PO and send part by air and the rest by sea.
There are many reasons why somebody may want to split a shipment. This article will show you the two ways you can do so inside of SoStocked.
Not for Multiple FBA Shipments
Splitting shipments in SoStocked has nothing to do with Amazon FBA shipments to multiple fulfillment centers. It is not necessary to split a shipment when creating FBA Shipping Plans, even if they require you to send inventory to multiple Amazon fulfillment centers. Inside of SoStocked, you can simply Reconcile your shipments to the Purchase Order once the inventory has been checked in. This was designed to save you time. We don’t recommend splitting shipments only because Amazon is requiring you to ship to 2 or 3 different warehouses.
What we do recommend it for is if you are going to ship part of the inventory from your PO by Air and part by Ocean, or if you are shipping a portion to a 3 rd Party Warehouse and a portion directly to Amazon.
Splitting shipments can be done when you initially create the Purchase Order or after it has been created as sometimes you don’t know whether you are going to have to split the shipment or not.
Splitting a Shipment in a New Purchase Order
The first way to split a shipment is when you create a new PO. There are two ways to create a PO:
1. Using the green "+" button on the upper, left of any SoStocked page, or...
2. Using the order buttons on the Forecast page. You can order by the supplier (all products) or by single SKU only.
We always prefer to order from the Forecast page, as the PO will auto-populate the product, supplier, quantities, marketplace, lead time, etc.
To split a shipment when creating a new PO, you will find a green Split Shipment button in the Products & Shipping section of the Purchase Order details page.
NOTE: You now have 3 options when splitting shipments:
- Add a New Blank Shipment
- Duplicate Shipment and Shipment Qtys.
- Split Shipment In Half
Choose your split option, then click on it and a 2nd Shipping & Logistics field will appear below the first one you have created.You will then need to reallocate your products and the number of units between the 2 shipments you have created.
You can change your Lead Times and Marketplaces. For example, your first shipment may be going to the US marketplace by Ocean but the second may be going to Canada by Air.
Now simply save the PO and finish submitting the order as you normally would and you're all set!
Splitting a Shipment in an Existing Purchase Order
To split a shipment in an existing PO, you can locate the PO in the Purchase Orders List by navigating to Orders in the left margin and then the Purchase Orders tab at the top, and then click on the PO number to edit the PO as in the above manner.
Or you can locate the Purchase Order tile in the Order Tracker. Then click on the tile to open up the PO information pop-up.
Then, click the green Split Order button. This will open the Purchase Order edit page and you can then edit click the Split Shipment button on the edit page and continue to edit the PO as above.