Orders — Partial Shipments

Use Partial shipments when part of an order is ready to leave now, but the rest needs to follow later.

Typical examples:

not enough stock is currently available in pickable locations
one item is backordered
you want to despatch the ready items now and complete the order later

What partial shipment does

When you create a partial shipment, ParcelPilot:

creates a shipment for only the quantities being sent now
deducts inventory only for the quantities shipped now
clears reservation only for the quantities shipped now
leaves the remaining quantities still outstanding on the order
keeps the order open until the remaining quantities are shipped

Once all outstanding quantities have been shipped across one or more shipments, the order can move to fully fulfilled / complete.

When to use it

Use a partial shipment when:

the full order cannot be shipped today
stock is short for one or more lines
you want to hold some items back intentionally

Do not use it when the whole order is ready. In the normal case, leave the partial option off and create a standard full shipment.

Single-order workflow

Open the order in Orders.
Select Create shipment.
If ParcelPilot detects that some stock is available but not enough for the full order, it will show Partial shipment suggested.
Turn on the partial quantities option only if you want to ship less than the full order.
Review the shipment contents and set the quantities to send now.
Book/create the shipment.

What happens next:

the shipment stores only the shipped quantities
the remaining quantities stay on the order as outstanding
a later shipment uses the remaining outstanding quantities, not the quantities already shipped

Bulk shipment workflow

Bulk shipment creation stays aimed at the normal “ship the full order” flow.

if an order can ship in full, bulk create works as normal
if an order needs a partial shipment, ParcelPilot should not silently guess per-line quantities in bulk
orders needing manual review should be handled from the single-order Create shipment flow

This keeps bulk actions fast and safe, while the single-order modal handles the line-by-line partial decision.

Inventory, reservations and order status

For partial shipments:

only shipped quantities are deducted from stock
only shipped quantities are cleared from reservation
unshipped quantities stay reserved for the order
the order is not treated as fully complete until the remaining quantities are shipped

This means the first shipment reduces only the part that actually left the warehouse, and the final shipment clears the rest.

Documents

Operational documents should reflect the shipment you are creating:

delivery notes and shipment-linked documents should show the quantities being shipped in that shipment
packing slips are often printed earlier in the workflow, before shipment booking

If a warehouse operator knows only part of the order is shipping, the partial decision should be made in the shipment step, not by editing the original order lines down permanently.

Ecommerce / channel updates

What gets pushed back upstream depends on the ecommerce platform:

some channels support true line-level partial shipment updates
some only support order-level tracking or status updates
some may keep the partial shipment internal only

ParcelPilot uses the channel’s partial-shipment capability rules so it does not overstate fulfilment upstream.

Important:

a partial shipment should not tell an ecommerce platform that the full order has shipped
the final shipment is the one that should complete the order upstream where the channel supports that behaviour

Sending the remaining items later

When the remaining stock is ready:

Open the same order again.
Create another shipment.
ParcelPilot should use the remaining outstanding quantities.
Book the second shipment with its own tracking number(s).

The later shipment is a new shipment record, with its own labels and tracking. Where supported, that shipment can also be pushed back to the ecommerce platform.

Troubleshooting

Why can’t I create another shipment? The order must still have outstanding quantities. Fully shipped orders should not allow another standard shipment.
Why is partial shipment suggested? ParcelPilot found some available stock, but not enough to ship the full order from pickable stock.
Will the customer get tracking for the second shipment? Usually yes where the ecommerce platform supports shipment/tracking sync for that channel. The exact behaviour depends on the integration.
Does partial shipment change the original order lines? No. It records what shipped now and what remains outstanding.