The NetSuite Multiple Shipping Routes feature allows you to specify different shipping addresses and shipping methods for items on a single transaction. Let’s take a look at how to set up and use Multiple Shipping Routes in NetSuite.
Setting Up NetSuite Multiple Shipping Routes
Enable the Charge for Shipping Preference
Before you enable this feature, you must enable the preference “Charge for Shipping,” which you can find under Setup > Accounting > Shipping.
Enable the Multiple Shipping Routes Feature
In order to use Multiple Shipping Routes, you must enable several features. Navigate to Setup > Company > Enable Features and locate the Shipping & Receiving section of the Transactions tab. Here, ensure that Advanced Shipping, Shipping Label Integration, and Multiple Shipping Routes have been enabled.
Configure Tax Calculations Per-Line on Transactions
Before using the Multiple Shipping Routes feature on individual transactions, you’ll need to configure your US nexus to calculate taxes per-line on transactions. To do that, navigate to Setup > Accounting > Taxes > Set Up Taxes. On that page, select the United States subtab and select the checkbox Per-Line Taxes on Transactions. Note that the other countries listed on this page calculate taxes on individual line items by default.
Set Default Shipping Preferences
The Multiple Shipping Routes feature allows you to set shipping preferences for your entire company, for individual items, and for individual customers. Here is the hierarchy NetSuite uses to determine shipping methods on transactions when there are conflicting shipping preferences at play:
- NetSuite will use the shipping method specified on the individual item records.
- If an item does not have specified shipping preferences, NetSuite applies the shipping preference listed on the customer record.
- If neither the item records nor the customer record has shipping preferences listed, NetSuite applies the default shipping preferences you set for your entire company.
- To override any shipping method that NetSuite has applied on a transaction, whether at the line level or for the entire transaction, simply select a different shipping method on the transaction.
Let’s take a quick look at how to set up your company, item, and customer shipping preferences.
Set Company Shipping Preferences
First, you can set shipping preferences for your company on the Set Up Shipping page. To access this page, navigate to Setup > Accounting > Shipping. Here, you can choose your default shipping method and default shipping carrier for your company.
Set Item Shipping Preferences
If you set a shipping method directly on the item record, then whenever that item is used on a transaction, NetSuite will pull over your preferred shipping method for that item. To set this up, navigate to Lists > Accounting > Items, and open an item from the list in Edit mode. On the item record, scroll down to the subtabs and select the Purchasing/Inventory subtab. Scroll down to the Vendor Bill Matching section. Here, you can specify your default shipping method and carrier for this item.
Set Customer Shipping Preferences
You can also set a preferred shipping method on customer records for any customers who require a specific shipping method. To set that up, open a customer record in Edit mode and go to the Preferences subtab. Here, you can select that customer’s preferred shipping carrier and shipping method.
Using Multiple Shipping Routes on Transactions
Once everything has been enabled and all your default shipping methods have been established, how does the Multiple Shipping Routes feature work on transactions? First open a transaction. This feature works on sales orders, estimates, cash sales, product invoices, and credit memos. For the sake of an example, let’s take a look at a sales order. On a sales order, navigate to the Items subtab and select the Enable Item Line Shipping checkbox.
Selecting this checkbox adds some additional columns to the item lists: Ship To, Carrier, and Ship Via. To set different shipping methods and routes for the items on this sales order, simply make your selections on these columns for each of your items.
Conclusion
The Multiple Shipping Routes feature provides you with greater control and flexibility in how you ship items on your transactions.
If this is a feature you would like to begin using in your account or if you have any other NetSuite needs, SuiteRep would love to come on board and help. Our diverse NetSuite experience enables us to provide NetSuite solutions tailored to your unique needs. Contact us to get the conversation started.