FORT is fulfillment management software that many fulfillment houses use to receive and process orders. Offset connects directly to FORT, so you can send orders from Offset to your fulfillment house without exporting and uploading files, or without using ShipCompliant. When your fulfillment house ships an order, its shipping status and tracking number come back to Offset automatically.
Offset’s FORT connection works with these fulfillment houses:
M7 Wine Solutions
Bodega Shipping Co.
Concierge Package Service (CPS)
Eagle Rock Fulfillment
Sherwin Wine Services
VinBrucke
Vine Vault
Out of the Box
NOTE: If your fulfillment house gets your orders through ShipCompliant, you do not need the FORT connection. If your fulfillment house is not listed, please reach out to support@offsetpartners.com as there may be another option.
Setting up the Integration
FORT Credentials
The first step is to get your FORT credentials from your fulfillment house. Your fulfillment house creates the API account that lets Offset send orders into FORT. Ask your contact there for these details:
Warehouse: the name of your fulfillment house
Client Code: your account code in FORT, for example a short code based on your winery name (e.g. OFF for Offset)
Remote Upload Key: a long string of letters and numbers
Username: the username for your FORT API account
Password: the password for your FORT API account
Once you have these, send the details to support@offsetpartners.com and our team will enter this in to complete the integration.
Once complete, a new option for your fulfillment house will appear in the "Choose an Action" menu on the Orders page.
Add your fulfillment house’s method codes to your shipping methods
Each fulfillment house uses its own codes to identify shipping services, such as UP1 for UPS Next Day Air. FORT reads these codes to know which carrier and service to use. If a code is missing or wrong, the order will not go through.
Ask your fulfillment house for its list of shipping method codes.
Go to Settings > Fulfillment Methods & Rates.
Select a shipping method to open it.
In the Method Details section, select your fulfillment house and enter the matching Method Code.
Save, then repeat for every shipping method that will go to this fulfillment house, including club-only methods.
IMPORTANT: If you are switching fulfillment houses, update the method details on all of your shipping methods before you send any orders through the new connection. Changing a method code does not update orders that already exist, since each order keeps the code it had when it was placed.
To update existing orders, re-apply the shipping method so it picks up the new code. You can do this on a single order, or for many orders at once with Bulk Edit > Update the shipping method on the Orders page.
Send a test order
Before your first release or club run, send one test order and confirm with your fulfillment house that it arrived in FORT with the correct shipping method, products, and address.
Make sure the SKUs on your products in Offset exactly match the SKUs your fulfillment house has in FORT.
Send orders to your fulfillment house
Once the integration is set up, you're ready to send the orders to fulfillment.
Go to the main Orders page.
Check the box next to each order you want to send. Only send orders with a shipping status of Not Shipped.
Open the Choose an Action menu at the bottom of the screen.
Select the export option for your fulfillment house, for example Out of The Box Export [API] or M7 Wine Solutions Export [API].
The order status changes from Not Shipped to Processing once FORT receives it. This is usually quick but can take 10 to 20 minutes.
When your fulfillment house ships the order, Offset updates the status to Shipped and adds the tracking number.
Troubleshooting common FORT Errors
If FORT rejects an order, the error appears on the order in Offset and starts with “FORT Error.” The Shipping Status will also be switched to "Error".
To resend an order after fixing the error, set the order back to "Not Shipped" first, then resend using the API.
Authentication Error or Authorization Failure
The credentials in Offset don’t match what FORT has on file. Ask your fulfillment house to confirm the credential details and send them to Offset Support.
System unable to determine the courier
The shipping method on the order is missing a method code or has a code your fulfillment house doesn’t recognize. Correct the method details in Settings > Fulfillment Methods & Rates, update the shipping method on the order, then resend.
The order shows Processing but your fulfillment house doesn’t see it
Wait up to an hour, then contact Offset Support with the order number. We will work with your fulfillment house and FORT to trace the order.
The order shipped but still shows Processing in Offset
Contact Offset Support with a few example order numbers so we can check that shipping updates are coming back from FORT.