ParcelPilot
Help

Why Can't I Create a Shipment?

This guide explains the current reasons Parcel Pilot blocks Create Shipment, what the operator sees, and the safe next action.

If you first need to understand how payment status, ecommerce status, warehouse status, lifecycle, Ops Mode, History Mode, and ParcelPilot hold fit together, start with Orders — Understanding Order State.

Key idea

Parcel Pilot only creates a shipment when there is still outstanding warehouse-fulfilled quantity and the stock can be fulfilled safely from the correct warehouse.

This is a troubleshooting guide, not the full shipment lifecycle guide.

What this guide explains

  • why the Create Shipment action is hidden or blocked
  • why the modal shows Cannot create shipment or Full shipment unavailable
  • when Parcel Pilot expects a full shipment, a partial shipment, or no shipment at all
  • when to use Fulfilment Repair and when not to

First checks

Before investigating a specific blocker, confirm:

  1. the order still has outstanding physical quantity
  2. the line really requires warehouse fulfilment
  3. the correct warehouse is selected
  4. the stock exists in pickable locations for that warehouse

Normal workflow

For a normal warehouse shipment:

  1. open the order
  2. click Create Shipment
  3. review Shipment method, Warehouse, carrier fields, and any partial-shipment section
  4. create the shipment for the quantity that actually left the warehouse

If the order cannot ship in full, the modal can show Full shipment unavailable and open Ship available items (Partial shipment).

Blockers and safe next actions

What the operator sees Why Parcel Pilot blocks it What to check Safe next action
The Create Shipment action is not shown The order is flagged as virtual or non-warehouse fulfilment Check whether the order or line requires warehouse fulfilment Do not force a warehouse shipment for a non-physical line
This order was imported while the client was suspended for monitoring only, so it remains non-operational until an administrator explicitly promotes it. The order is in Monitoring only Ops Mode rather than the live warehouse queue Check the order's Ops Mode and whether the client is in a monitoring-only operating mode Use Orders - Ops Mode to confirm what that state means before trying to ship it
This order has a ParcelPilot fulfilment hold and cannot be processed in the warehouse yet. A ParcelPilot-only local hold is active Check ParcelPilot hold in the Order state panel Release the local hold only when the order should re-enter live execution
This order is on hold and cannot be shipped yet. The order status is in a blocked warehouse state Check the order status and why it is on hold Clear the operational hold first, then create the shipment
This order is awaiting stock and cannot be shipped yet. The order is still in Awaiting stock Check whether the required stock has actually arrived and become pickable Receive or transfer stock, then retry
This order has been cancelled and cannot be shipped. The order was cancelled in the channel or locally blocked from fulfilment Check the order status and channel state Do not create a shipment for a cancelled order
This order is already fully fulfilled. There is no outstanding quantity left to ship Check Fulfilment Status and existing shipments Do not create another shipment unless a true correction workflow is required
The modal asks you to choose between attaching evidence and shipping outstanding quantity The order has both a historical shipment-evidence gap and genuine outstanding quantity Check whether you are documenting an earlier shipmentless fulfilment or physically shipping more stock now Choose the explicit mode in the modal; Parcel Pilot will not guess
A shipment already exists for this order. The order already has active shipment evidence and Parcel Pilot does not allow another shipment in the current state Check whether the order is partially fulfilled or already fully accounted for If quantity remains outstanding, use the next shipment from the outstanding quantity flow; otherwise do not create another shipment. Admin shipment-preview users may still see a preview-only Create Shipment action, but it will not submit a duplicate shipment.
The order appears in Dispatch Problems Parcel Pilot sees drift between shipment evidence and other fulfilment evidence Check whether stock was already committed, shipment rows were cancelled/reversed, or historical shipmentless fulfilment exists Investigate the reconciliation issue first; do not force a normal shipment until the evidence mismatch is understood
This order is part of a merged group. Create the shipment on the primary order (#...) Merge secondary orders do not ship directly Check whether the order belongs to a merged group Open the primary order and create the shipment there
Full shipment unavailable and Ship available items (Partial shipment) appears Some required quantity cannot ship in full, but some pickable quantity is available now Review the partial-shipment section and current pickable quantity Ship the available items now, then ship the remainder later or use Cancel Remaining if it will never ship
Insufficient stock for ... Total stock available to this order is lower than the required quantity Check on-hand, reserved, and stock in the selected warehouse Wait for stock, transfer stock into the warehouse, or reduce/cancel the remaining quantity if appropriate
Insufficient stock for ... in the selected warehouse ... Total available ... across all warehouses is ... The stock exists, but not in the warehouse you are shipping from Check the order warehouse and where the stock really is Select the correct warehouse for the shipment or transfer stock into this warehouse
Stock not pickable for ... The stock exists, but not enough of it is available in pickable locations Check whether stock is in bulk, staging, quarantine, or other non-pickable locations Replenish or transfer stock into a pickable location
Stock warning names another order holding stock The physical stock exists, but available stock is already reserved elsewhere Check Reserved and Show orders holding reservation on the Inventory Unit Release or reallocate reservations only if the current order priority is correct
Serialised shipment fails with a message such as Allocate/pick the missing serials first. Serialised items require exact serial allocations before deduction Check whether the required serials were picked or allocated to this order line Pick or allocate the missing serials, then create the shipment
Shipment fails because a serial points to a non-pickable or quarantine location Serialised deduction is blocked from unsafe locations Check the serial's current location Move the stock through the correct workflow before shipping
Bundle line seems to have stock, but shipment is still blocked Bundle availability depends on component stock, not the bundle parent Check the limiting component stock and reservation state Fix the component shortage or ship a smaller quantity
Additional shipment is expected but the order still will not ship Parcel Pilot only allows another shipment when outstanding quantity remains Check Fulfilment Status, previous shipment lines, and cancelled outstanding quantities Ship only the outstanding quantity, or stop if nothing remains
Automatic later Shipment evidence attachment is blocked for admin review Parcel Pilot cannot safely prove the original historical serial, inventory-unit, or allocation identity Check whether historical stock references or shipmentless fulfilment records were changed or repaired manually Stop and use the admin repair path instead of forcing a shipment
Bulk shipment says warehouse selection or manual review is required Bulk create only proceeds when the orders are clean full-shipment cases Check per-order warehouse eligibility and partial-shipment needs Use the individual Create Shipment action for the order that needs manual review

What happens to inventory

When shipment creation succeeds, Parcel Pilot always records Shipment evidence.

  • Warehouse dispatch methods deduct the shipped quantity and clear reservation for that quantity.
  • External fulfilment releases the selected reservations without deducting Parcel Pilot warehouse stock.

For the full operator workflow, see Shipments — Create, Edit & Delete.

For the engineering current-state architecture, see Shipment Workflow Current State.

For the long-lived shipment decision contract, including customer-selected shipping, deliberate use of a different service, and unsupported or unavailable checkout services, see ADR-005: Shipment Decision Architecture.

What happens to order and shipment status

  • a successful shipment updates the fulfilment summary from Shipment evidence
  • an order can remain partially fulfilled if outstanding quantity remains
  • tracking or status changes alone do not replace the stock deduction step

Why an action may be unavailable

No outstanding physical quantity

Parcel Pilot will not create a normal shipment if there is nothing left to send.

Check:

  • Fulfilment Status
  • previous shipment lines
  • whether the remaining quantity was already cancelled with Cancel Remaining

No warehouse-fulfilled lines

If every relevant line is non-shippable, virtual, or non-warehouse, Create Shipment is not the right workflow.

Check:

  • order-line fulfilment classification
  • whether the SKU really requires warehouse fulfilment

Missing warehouse or wrong warehouse

Shipment stock checks run against the shipment warehouse context.

Check:

  • the order warehouse
  • whether stock exists in another warehouse only
  • bulk shipment warehouse selection

Permissions and action visibility

Shipment actions depend on the user's role and the order state.

Check:

  • whether you are a client user
  • whether the action is hidden because the order is virtual or blocked
  • whether the order is already fully fulfilled or already has active shipment evidence

Step-by-step investigation

  1. Check Fulfilment Status and confirm there is outstanding quantity.
  2. Check whether the order or line still requires warehouse fulfilment.
  3. Check whether another active Shipment already exists.
  4. Check the selected warehouse.
  5. Check on-hand, reserved, and available stock for each required SKU.
  6. Check whether the stock is in a pickable location.
  7. Check serial allocations for serialised lines.
  8. Check component stock for bundle lines.
  9. If only part can ship, use Ship available items (Partial shipment).

Safe corrective action

  • Use Transfer Stock when the stock is in the wrong location.
  • Use Cancel Remaining when the outstanding quantity will never ship.
  • Use Release Reservation only when an order is incorrectly holding stock and you do not need Shipment evidence.
  • Use Create Shipment on the primary order when a merged order is involved.

Actions intended only for repair

Fulfilment Repair

Current Parcel Pilot behavior treats Fulfilment Repair as a legacy admin-only correction tool.

  • It is for historical shipmentless fulfilment repair.
  • It can deduct stock without creating Shipment evidence.
  • It should not replace Create Shipment for normal warehouse work.

Record Manual Fulfilment

Current Parcel Pilot behavior also includes a shipment-trusted Record Manual Fulfilment fallback on Edit Order.

  • It is only available to owner, admin, operator, warehouse, and super-admin.
  • It is only available when Parcel Pilot still sees genuine outstanding fulfilment and the reconciliation checks are otherwise clean.
  • It deducts stock without creating Shipment evidence.
  • It can complete the guided status-change flow when an operator tries to set a fulfilment-implying status directly.
  • It should only be used when you intentionally need a shipmentless stock-only correction for a current order.

It is not the normal path for client-supplied labels or external couriers leaving the Parcel Pilot warehouse. Those still belong to shipment-backed methods.

If Parcel Pilot expects Shipment evidence, use Create Shipment or the correct external shipment method instead.

Legacy order without Shipment evidence

If the shipment modal shows:

  • This order has a legacy operational fulfilment status but no Shipment record. Creating a shipment will record the historical fulfilment.

then the current workflow expects Create Shipment to record the missing Shipment evidence.

If Parcel Pilot instead says the historical evidence requires admin review, do not force a new shipment against replacement stock. Use the admin repair workflow so the original fulfilment evidence can be repaired safely.

Worked example

An order needs 5 units. Only 3 are available in pickable stock.

What the operator sees:

  • Full shipment unavailable
  • the Ship available items (Partial shipment) section

What it means:

  • Parcel Pilot will not guess a partial quantity in a normal full-shipment flow
  • but it has found a safe quantity that can ship now

Safe next action:

  1. open Ship available items (Partial shipment)
  2. ship the 3 available units
  3. later ship the remaining 2, or use Cancel Remaining if they will never ship

Related guides

Selective natural-language aliases

  • cannot ship
  • shipment blocked
  • dispatch blocked / despatch blocked
  • fulfilment blocked