The Settings > Sovos ShipCompliant page is where you connect your ShipCompliant account to Offset. This connection allows you to send orders through the API to check the compliance status of your orders and submit them to your fulfillment partners. You can also enable the tax sync feature, which transmits local rates from ShipCompliant's tax database and adds them to your order to collect the most accurate tax rates.
If you already have a ShipCompliant account, go to the Enable ShipCompliant section to turn on the integration and follow the additional steps in the Sovos ShipCompliant settings to connect your account. If you don't have a ShipCompliant account, click here for more information about getting started with ShipCompliant.
Enable ShipCompliant
If you are a new or existing client and you want to connect to your ShipCompliant Account, navigate to the Settings > Sovos Shipcompliant page. Next, switch on the Enable ShipCompliant toggle and select the Save Changes button as pictured below. You will then need to set up a ShipCompliant Web Service User to connect your account.
Enabling ShipCompliant on the Settings > ShipCompliant page.
Create A ShipCompliant Web Service User
Before entering your credentials in Offset to connect Offset to ShipCompliant, you must set up a Web Service User account in the ShipCompliant online portal.
To create your Web Service User Account in ShipCompliant, please complete the following steps after logging into your ShipCompliant account:
Select the Settings > Users on the left side menu
Choose the Add User button
Enter Offset as the First Name
Enter Webservice as the Last Name
Enter [email protected] as the Email Address.
IMPORTANT: Replace the example of "@mywinery.com" with your winery email domain. So, if you are ABC Winery, and your email is [email protected], enter [email protected]"
NOTE: For Web Service users, these should not be real email. This means you don't have to create that email address in your company's email domain service, where it has an inbox that is used to access/send/receive emails. The platform just needs that email address and a password to access the ShipCompliant account via the API.
Enter a secure password
IMPORTANT: Your password must be between 6-12 characters.
Select Web Service User as the Role Type
Choose Figure as the Associated Partner
Select the Save button
Adding Web Service User in the ShipCompliant portal.
Sovos Shipcompliant
Once your Web Service user is created, you can enter your credentials into the Sovos Shipcompliant fields on the Settings > More > ShipCompliant page. Make sure to select the Save Changes button to save your input.
When your account is successfully connected, you can properly configure your Offset Shipping Methods and send orders through to ShipCompliant to check for compliance as well as retrieve local tax rates through their services.
API Username
Enter the Email Address from your ShipCompliant Webservices User account into the API Username field.
API Password
Enter the Password you created into the API Password field
IMPORTANT: When entering your password, do not copy/paste it in the field as it can have mixed results. Please type the password into the field. The password you created in ShipCompliant must be between 6-12 characters, or it may not work.
Brand Key (Optional)
Enter your ShipCompliant Brand Key. To learn more about Brands in ShipCompliant, please click the link to the ShipCompliant Help Center - Brands or also contact ShipCompliant Support for more information about how brands are used for your setup, especially if you have multiple accounts connected to your ShipCompliant account.
IMPORTANT: The Brand Key is alphanumeric with a 25-character limit as set up in ShipCompliant. Make sure that the information you enter in this field matches EXACTLY what you entered in ShipCompliant, including spaces and punctuation.
Tax
Toggle the Use Sovos ShipCompliant Tax Rates setting to the right to enable the ShipCompliant Tax Rates. This will override any of the state-level Sales Tax percentages set on the Ship-To States & Tax Rates (United States) settings in Offset. When you place an order, Offset will retrieve those rates through the API and apply them to the order in real-time, allowing you to collect local rates.
NOTE: We highly recommend enabling the local cache of the zip code-based tax rates as a backup.
Fulfillment (Optional)
Enable the Use Sovos ShipCompliant for Fulfillment if your fulfillment provider will be connected to ShipCompliant and receiving orders.
IMPORTANT: This is an optional setting. Enable this option if your fulfillment house will connect via ShipCompliant rather than directly to Offset. This configuration will require further setup with your fulfillment house. We recommend reaching out to your fulfillment house and ShipCompliant to get their services connected. Click this link for more information About fulfillment from ShipCompliant's Help Center.
Default Shipment Status
This ShipCompliant shipping status is the default status assigned to the order when it is sent through the API to ShipCompliant. If you are using ShipCompliant for fulfillment, this status will affect whether your order is available for your fulfillment provider to view and ship or if it is held in ShipCompliant until you adjust the status. It can also have an impact on ShipCompliant reporting.
IMPORTANT: Orders are NOT sent through to ShipCompliant automatically. Offset users must select orders and choose ShipCompliant Export [API] option on the orders page or within the order, choose Actions > Check Compliance for orders to pass through to ShipCompliant. This allows Offset users to have more control over when orders are sent to ShipCompliant.
Choose from the following Default Shipment Status options:
Payment Accepted - This status allows the brand more control over when the fulfillment provider can view and ship the order after it is sent to through the API to ShipCompliant. The order is "held" in your ShipCompliant account, allowing you to change order details, fix fails, and resubmit for compliance pass before the order is available to your fulfillment provider. When you are ready to fulfill the order, you can “release” that order by updating the status to Sent To Fulfillment directly in ShipCompliant.
NOTE: Using the Payment Accepted SC status will prevent your order from passing through to your fulfillment provider. This prevents your Offset shipping status from updating beyond the status assigned when the order is placed. For example, if your Offset shipping status is Not Shipped, the order will NOT update to Processing when passed through to fulfillment if the SC status is Payment Accepted.
Sent to Fulfillment - This option allows your orders to be immediately viewed and shipped by your fulfillment provider when they are sent through the API or compliance is checked.
NOTE: With Sent to Fulfillment selected as your SC status, the shipping status of the order will automatically change from Not Shipped to Processing when sent through the API.
Delivered - This option means the order has been fulfilled and received by the customer. Clients who are only pickup/carryout would choose this option as their default. This is a very rare DTC business model.
NOTE: You can override the default settings in your Shipping Methods if you want certain options to be different from your Default Shipment Status.
Default Fulfillment Account (Optional)
Leave this field blank if you only have one Offset account connected to ShipCompliant. In the rare case that you have more than one commerce account going into the same ShipCompliant instance, and they use separate fulfillment accounts, you may need to enter the Fulfillment Account name in this field to ensure the orders are passed through with the correct account designation. Please ensure the Fulfillment Account name entered in this field matches the exact name that appears in SC to ensure orders will pass this information through the API without any errors.
NOTE: Most clients will leave this field blank. If you are not sure where to find the Fulfillment Account information, please reach out to ShipCompliant support and add [email protected] to the conversation. Once configured, make sure to send over test orders to confirm that this information is passing to SC as expected.
Recheck Orders (Optional)
Enabling the Recheck Orders setting, which will resend order data through the ShipCompliant API whenever an order is updated and recheck the order for compliance. The recheck will trigger and update when you make changes to Orders, like changing the Order Type, Shipping Address information, Shipping Date, adding or removing products, refunds or additional charges, and many other types of updates.
IMPORTANT: WARNING! This setting may not be suitable for all setups. For most wineries, this should be turned off. Since changes will send updates to ShipCompliant, this can cause issues when making changes to orders that have already been sent to fulfillment and committed. In those cases, the setting may override existing data like tracking information, shipment status, etc. This setting is best suited for wineries using Payment Accepted as their default setting and/or wineries that don't make changes to orders once they have been sent to ShipCompliant.
Configure Backup Zip Based Tax Rate Collection
This setting lets you download a set of zip-code-based tax rates into a Local Tax database stored in Offset. This offers a layer of protection for your offers if ShipCompliant has a service outage.
We recommend updating your Tax Backup at the beginning of every month or before your next release by Clearing Tax Rates then Getting Latest Tax Rates.
Local Tax Rates
Toggle the Enable Local Cache setting to engage the zip code based tax rates.
NOTE: The zip code based rates will apply to orders as a backup if calls to the ShipCompliant Tax API fail due to an outage.
Downloading Backup Tax Rates
Select the Get Latest Zip Based Tax Rate Backup button to download the zip code-based rates to your local cache. You will see a progress bar at the top of the Sovos ShipCompliant page with the estimated completion time. When the process is complete, you will see the Last synced date and time displayed on the page so you can keep track of when the last download occurred.
NOTE: Downloading the ShipCompliant tax rates by zip code can take several hours due to the high volume of data. You can navigate away from the page, and the download will run in the background.
Clearing Backup Tax Rates
To clear your tax rates, select the Clear Current Backup button.
IMPORTANT: If you plan to re-download the tax rates after clearing the cache, make sure to check the Sovos Sales Tax Status page to make sure that the tax API is not experiencing any outages. If they are experiencing an outage, do not clear your current backup until service has been restored.