How to Streamline Pick & Ship

How to Streamline Pick & Ship

Is there a way to streamline the built-in pick and ship process?

I guess mostly on the ship side. Our current process allows us to choose shipping super fast. It's an EasyPost plugin for WooCommerce. You have to populate the boxes / weights / shipping options you use as templates, but then it's just a two step process: select box(es), buy label(s).

In contrast, the Zoho process is really dragged out.

Step 1: Choose the Carrier
Why is this the first step? Our current software lets us choose our packages and then compare pricing. That seems like it would be the better approach here. Seems like this could be eliminated.

Step 2: Confirm addresses
This is mostly fine, but I can't see how to change the default ship-from address. It says that changing it in Settings | Organizational Profile will do it, but it doesn't. So I have to manually change it every time. That's a waste and frustration.

The other frustration is that address confirmation doesn't seem to catch anything of meaning. It doesn't push forward commercial vs. residential, and it doesn't check to see if there's a valid phone number. That check comes later, when it's too late to change.

Step 3 - Add Package(s)
Why doesn't this automatically populate the package? When one presses "Create Shipment" from the package screen, wouldn't it be assumed that package would be at least part of the shipment? Wasted clicks, but that's just the start.

Once I select the package, there's more info to be filled out.

First, I have to choose "custom package". That's always the choice for us, why should I have to choose it every single time?

Next, I have to type in the weight. Again, it's the same weight every time for a particular box for us. This is another waste of time and opportunity for human error.

After choosing "custom package", I have to enter the dimensions, check residential or commercial (which the API should already tell you during address validation), and fill out everything else to my liking.

There should be templates available so this can all be accomplished in one click for those of us who ship the same handful of things over and over and over.

Next, I have to choose "bill to shipper" (why isn't this a default), and then it checks to see if there's a valid phone number. I have to go back and change the ship-to address if there isn't, re-entering everything again.

Finally, I can buy a label. When I get to the label screen, there's no choice to print the label from there. More keystrokes to download and then print. Why?

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I really would like to use the built-in Zoho Inventory procedure for our pick and ship, but this drags out what should be a 20-second process into something that 2 or 3 minutes. That's a problem when you're shipping out dozens or hundreds of shipments.

Is there a way to streamline that I'm not seeing?