3PL Central Integration

Overview

Many warehouses use software provided by 3PL Central to manage their orders. If your fulfillment provider uses this software, Order Desk can connect to them through the 3PL Central integration and send your orders for fulfillment. As they fulfill your orders, the tracking numbers will be sent back into Order Desk and back through to the original shopping cart(s).

This guide explains how to set up and use the 3PL Central integration in Order Desk.

Setup

To connect to 3PL Central, click on the Manage Integrations link in the left sidebar and under the Fulfillment tab find and enable the 3PL Central integration.

Alternatively, search for 3PL Central from the available integration search. 

To connect the integration in Order Desk, you will first need to request REST API access from the 3PL Central support team or from your fulfillment provider that uses the 3PL Central system. Once access has been granted, fill out the details on this setup page to finish the connection.

Integration Settings

After you have connected the integration, you can apply your preferences in the settings.

Default Mail Class

Choose the mail class you want your 3PL Central provider to use for your orders.

If you need to apply specific methods for certain orders, match your method names to their names in the Shipping Class Match section below.

Check For Shipments

Select how often you want Order Desk to check for shipment updates from your provider.

After Import, Move To

Select the folder you want orders to be moved into after they are successfully sent to your fulfillment provider through 3PL Central.

You can use one of the default folders already in your store or create your own. Read the Working with Folders guide for more information.

After Shipment, Move To

Select the folder you want orders to be moved into as your fulfillment provider sends shipment details back to Order Desk from 3PL Central.

If Canceled, Move To

Select the folder you want orders to be moved into if they are canceled with your fulfillment provider.

Send Customer Email Address to 3PL Central

Select if you want the customer's email address sent to your provider with each order.

Automatically Send Imported orders to 3PL Central

If selected, every order that is added to Order Desk will automatically be sent to your fulfillment provider through 3PL Central.

Select this setting only if all orders will be sent to this provider. If any orders will not be sent, or if you need a delay between when an order is imported into Order Desk and when it is sent do not select this.

Inventory Management Settings

Sync Inventory

Enable this setting if you want to pull inventory counts back from your fulfillment provider.

For more information, see the How to Work with Inventory Counts guide.

Sync Interval

Choose how often you want Order Desk to pull in inventory updates from your fulfillment provider.

Inventory Location Name

If you want to set a specific inventory location name for the products being updated from 3PL Central, set that name here. As Order Desk pulls in inventory details, your custom name will be added as the location.

Product Settings

Product Code Match and Skip

For more information on how Product Code Match and Product Code Skip work, please read the Product Code guide.

Gift Message Field

To send the gift message field through with orders, add the checkout data field name where gift messages are stored in your orders. This message will be passed into the shippingNotes field and the fulfillInvInfo >  fulfillInvGiftMessage field in the 3PL Central system.

Picklist Message Field

Set the name of a checkout data field if you want the message in that field on an order to be sent to your fulfillment provider as instructions for the picklist. This message will be passed into the Notes field in the 3PL Central system.

Inventory Location Match

If you only want to send certain items to your fulfillment provider, you can set the inventory location name from the item in this field. Orders with items that don't have an exact match will not be submitted to 3PL Central.

To avoid confusion about which items in which orders are being sent for fulfillment, it is generally better to split orders than to use this field. If you do choose to use this field, please be careful that your inventory location names match exactly.

Shipping Class Match

If the shipping methods you set up in your shopping cart(s) don't match the shipping method names that your fulfillment provider uses, they won't know what methods you intend for them to use. When this happens, the default mail class applied above will be used instead for all of your orders.

To tell Tribe Socks what methods you want them to use, you will need to match your method names to theirs. This can be done in the shipping class match section. For detailed instructions on setting this up, please read through the shipping class match guide.

Custom Order Details

To customize the shipping instructions that are sent to 3PL Central for a particular order, set checkout data on the order. If you aren't familiar with checkout data, refer to the How to Work with Checkout Data guide for more information.

The following checkout data or order metadata fields can be used:

Custom Item Details

Customize certain details about your inventory submission by setting item metadata values on the individual inventory items. The following fields are accepted:

For more information on working with inventory items in Order Desk, including how to store extra item details as item metadata, please read the How to Work with Inventory Details guide.