- What are rules?
- Things to keep in mind & prioritizing rules
- Accessing rules
- Creating a new rule
- Viewing matching orders for a rule
- Editing a rule
- How to avoid conflicts between rules
- FAQs
What are rules?
Rules are used to perform actions in an order based on your specified criteria.
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There are two types of Rules that customers can set up on their accounts: Packing and Routing Rules.
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Packaging Rules simply make suggestions at the packing stage and are used only for specific packaging and inserts/promos. Warehouse staff can dismiss these suggestions.
Example: Prompts staff to add a specific wine promo card to all orders going to a U.S. destination.
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Routing Rules fire upon order creation or when an order item is added or removed. These rules cover anything other than packaging and inserts, such as shipping methods, GS1 templates, required signatures, etc. These rules will take priority over any earlier order trait that may conflict with the rule.
Example: A Shipping Method is mapped for the order, but a rule fires calling for the order to use a different Shipping Method. The rule-based Ship Method will take precedence.
RyderShip internal staff: For more information on internal-only rules, see Rules – Internal.
Things to keep in mind & prioritizing rules
- Rules are good to use when you have an exception to the standard workflow that will be repeated over and over.
Do not create a rule for a one-time exception.
- Packing rules only work when the packaging items are set properly as packaging or as an insert/promo in RyderShip. See Item Details > Details for more information on how to do this.
If the packaging is not set correctly in RyderShip, you can’t create a packing rule for it because these rules are only used for packaging and inserts – not merchandise.
- Rules fire in the order they appear in RyderShip. The rule at the top of the list fires first, then the next one,etc.
Here's the order these three different Routing rules will fire.
To change the priority order:
Click this small icon in the upper right corner of the rule card to drag/drop the rule into a new position and change when the rule is fired. The higher the position, the higher the rule’s priority.
Move to Top – Under the 3-dot menu. Move the rule to the top of the list and take priority over the other rules. If you have another rule that conflicts with this new rule, it will apply the new rule vs. the old one.
This priority order doesn’t work 100% of the time, but typically, the rule at the top will have the highest priority.
Move to Bottom – Under the 3-dot menu. Move the rule to the end of your list of rules.
Accessing rules
To access rules:
1. In the top-right corner, click the Customer drop-down and select Rules.
All existing rules for the customer and rule type display as cards.
On this page, you can:
- Create new rules
- Toggle between your different rules.
- Edit, delete, deactivate, reactivate or find Matching Orders for existing rules on your account. See Viewing matching orders and Editing a rule for more information.
Creating a new rule
Below, we'll walk through creating a new Packing rule and a new Routing rule.
Creating a Packing rule
1. Open the Rules page, and click Create Packing Rule.
The New Packing Rule page displays.
2. Enter the following criteria for your rule:
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Description: Poly bag for handbags
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Criteria:
Destination: In the United States
Contains Items: SKU contains Bag
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For all matching Orders:
Items: Use the SKU
Quantity: 1
- Only suggest this item while there's sufficient inventory: Left as unchecked. Why? See below for more details on this option.
3. Click Save Rule.
Rule is set in the system and displays on the Rules page. It can be edited later as needed.
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We do NOT recommend using this option with packaging items specific to a warehouse because they are not tracked as carefully as merchandise. A few scenarios that could occur with this option selected:
We recommend leaving the option unchecked for any packaging items. See While Supplies Last Option on a Packing Rule for more information. |
4. Last step, you’ll need to verify that this rule will fire as expected by viewing all matching orders for this rule. See Viewing all matching orders for more information.
Creating a Routing rule
In our example below, we will create a new Routing rule to require a signature on any high value packages that have a total value of $500 or more.
1. On the Rules page, click the Routing tab.
2. Click Routing Rule.
The New Routing Rule page displays.
3. Enter the following criteria for your rule:
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Description: Signature for high-value packages
This should be something that’s easy for you to find
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Criteria:
Value: Total item Value Greater than or Equal to $500
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For all matching Orders:
Action: Require Signature
4. Click Save Rule.
Rule is set in the system and displays on the Rules page. It can be edited later as needed.
5. Last step, you’ll need to verify that this rule will fire as expected by viewing all matching orders for this rule. See Viewing all matching orders for more information.
Viewing all matching orders for a rule
Use this option to view all orders that would be affected by a new rule, or orders that have had an existing rule applied to. You can download the list of matching orders as a CSV from the Order list page.
1. Click the 3-dot menu on the rule, and click View Matching Orders.
A list of all current orders that this rule would apply or have applied to display.
2. Open an order to view the Order details and scroll down to the order history to view the rules that have been applied, and the order they were applied.
You also may want to create a new order and then view the order details to see if your new rule has fired as expected by viewing the Matching Orders.
Editing a rule
You can edit or adjust any existing rule using the options below.
- Edit button – Edit the rule’s existing criteria or filters.
- Deactivate – Under the 3-dot menu. Temporarily deactivate or pause a rule. This is especially useful when you know you’ll need the rule again later and don't want to recreate it.
- Re-Activate – Under the 3-dot menu. Reactivate any deactivated or paused rules
- Delete – Under the 3-dot menu. Permanently remove the rule
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How to avoid creating conflicts between rules
A few rules about rules:
Routing rules will take precedence over packing rules
What that means is if there’s something in a routing rule that is also in a packing rule, then you could have a conflict between the two rules.
You also could have a conflict between rules within the same type – within the routing rules or within the packing rules.
Determining whether you have a conflict & how to fix it
1. Look at the priority or position of each of the rules that may be in conflict – both the packing rule and the routing rule.
2. The rule closest to the top will apply and take precedence when two rules are in conflict.
If you need to change the priority or position of one of the rules to remove the conflict, there are different ways to do this. See the Things to keep in mind & prioritizing rules section for more details.
Keep the number of rules to a reasonable number
If you have 50 different rules set up, you could run into unintended consequences and conflicts – just because of the large volume that are setup.
Do not use Status as a filter in any rule!
Order statuses are constantly changing in RyderShip as the order is processed, so status is NOT a good option for a rule.
Using Status has been the cause for rules misfiring in the past.
FAQs
How do I find a promo item in RyderShip?
To easily find a promo item in RyderShip, keep in mind that different item IDs display on the Packing Rule page vs. the Item Details page.
The SKU displays on the Packing Rule page.
In the Item Details URL - it's the Item ID, not the SKU.
Do packing rules display in an order’s history like routing rules display in an order once it’s fired?
Packing rules do not display in an order’s history after they are fired.
Is there a way to tell if a rule fired for an order or not?
Yes, there is. Go to the Rules page, find the specific rule for the order open the 3-dot menu, and click View Matching Orders. You can easily see if rule fired on the order by seeing if that order is in that Matching Order list.
If the rule did not fire for the order, then the order will not be on the list.
That'll also give you a good idea of when that rule was set, because you'll be able to look at the dates and the times of those orders to determine when they set that rule to start.
It only shows the orders that it applied to after that rule was created.
When do routing rules fire and how frequently do they fire?
They fire when an order is created or when items are added or removed that have a rule attached to them.
They only fire once.
Example: You had a rule to cancel all orders that are going to Canada. You or somebody else manually went in and UN-canceled that order, that rule is not going to re fire and re-cancel the order. It's already fired once and that's the only time it's going to fire.
How can I find out when a rule was created?
Sometimes, users add a Created At or After date to the rule so they can easily tell when it was created.
When would you use Meta Fields in creating a rule?
Meta Fields are used by API customers and can be used in rules. First, someone at RyderShip will need to create the necessary Meta Key, and add in the value that we will be looking to receive from the customer to set up the rule.
See Meta Fields for more details on how meta fields work.