I'll Review Your ShipStation Configuration
I will go through your ShipStation account against the twelve layers of its configuration, tell you what is missing and in what order to fix it, and send you a written document with annotated screenshots of your own account.
It costs nothing, and no call is needed to get it.
Why it's free
Most accounts I look at have four or five of the twelve layers missing, and the missing ones are usually the same two: product dimensions and tags. Both are data entry rather than configuration, which is why they get skipped and why nothing in the platform complains about it.
Working through the layers in order resolves a lot. The accounts where it doesn't are the ones I would want to talk to anyway, so this is a cheap way for both of us to find out which kind you are.
What I look at
The twelve layers, in the order they run. The configuration guide covers all of them in full. It is the same list, written so you can do this yourself if you would rather.
What the layers read
- Carrier accounts: which are connected, which is primary, what always uses it
- Packages: your boxes, with real internal dimensions and a maximum weight
- Product data: weight and dimensions per SKU
- Tags: product and customer tags, applied at import
What runs before everything else
- Auto-Routing: which warehouse fulfils, where your plan includes it
- Auto-Split, and the SmartFill you did not configure
The documented sequence
- Preset Groups, and Product Defaults
- Service Mapping: what the customer chose at checkout
- Rate Shopper: one strategy per shipping option you sell
- Automation rules: the classification pass and the action pass
Operating it
- Alerts: the exceptions that need a person
- Saved views: the queues somebody opens
Two ways to do it
What I can see depends on what you give me access to: read-only ShipStation API access, or two CSV exports. Pick whichever suits you. Either way, I'll reply with step-by-step instructions for exactly what to send, so nothing is needed up front.
| Two CSV exports | Read-only API access | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | Your catalogue as it actually stands: which SKUs carry dimensions and weights, and whether they look measured or estimated. How your orders are shaped, and what you actually shipped, on which services, in which boxes. | The configuration itself: your automation rules and their order, Preset Groups and Product Defaults, Service Mapping, Rate Shopper strategies, packages and warehouses. I can see all of it and change none of it, and you can revoke access the moment I'm finished. |
| What I can't see | The rules themselves. I can tell you an outcome looks wrong, but not which layer produced it. | What a person decides at the bench. If packers choose boxes by judgement, that decision exists nowhere in the account. |
| What you get | A review of your catalogue and order data against layers 2, 3 and 4, and what your shipment history implies about layers 9 and 10. | All of that, plus a layer-by-layer review of your actual configuration: what's set, what's missing, what's out of order, and which rules are working against each other. |
Not sure which? If you have admin access, the API is fewer steps and shows me more. If you don't, or would rather not grant access, pick the exports.
What you get back
Both reviews produce the same document.
An ordered list of what to change. It's ordered because the layers depend on each other, and fixing one out of sequence sometimes undoes another.
Annotated screenshots of your own account, so you can see what I am pointing at rather than matching a description to a screen.
The document stands on its own. If it raises questions, reply and ask.
What this is not
Not an implementation. This is a review. You get the document, and what you do with it is up to you.
Not a trial of anything. Nothing gets installed and nothing runs against your account afterwards.
Not conditional on buying anything. Including at the end.
What happens at the end
At the end of the document I will tell you which of the things bothering you are configuration problems and which are not.
Some will be configuration and some won't, and I'll say plainly which. When layers are missing, the usual symptoms (boxes that are too big, rates that look wrong, orders that need somebody to look at them) often resolve once the layers are in.
The ones that aren't configuration are decisions that depend on pricing the contents of a mixed order rather than just packing them, that need arithmetic the rules engine cannot do, or that need data the order does not carry. No configuration can express those. If that is what I find, I will tell you what solving it would involve and offer twenty minutes to walk through it on your own orders. Whether you take it up is your call.
Either way, the list is yours.
If you would rather I did it
Some people read the list, agree with it, and would rather I made the changes than spend the week doing it themselves. I take on a few of those a month.
That work is scoped to configuration: the twelve layers, set up for your operation rather than from a template. It does not involve building anything on top of ShipStation. You get the configured account plus a written summary of what changed and why, so it is yours to maintain afterwards.
This one does need a conversation. Several of the layers encode decisions only you can make: which account should be primary, what your box sizes actually are, which shipping promise each checkout option represents. I can tell you what is missing from a read-only export, but I can't make those decisions for you. Ask about it once you have the list, if the list makes it worth asking about. If I'm at capacity, I will say so rather than queue you.
Start it
That came through. I will reply within two business days with exactly what to send.
Nothing to send yet. I will reply with exactly what I need. I read every one myself and reply within two business days.