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Understanding the ShipStation Settings

Your ShipStation instance has several settings that control how the integration behaves. You can find them by opening your ShipStation instance (ShipStation app > Configuration > Instances) and clicking the Settings tab.

Units of Measure

  • Weight Unit — Choose Pounds, Ounces, or Grams. This controls what unit is used when sending product weights to ShipStation. Most US-based shops use Pounds.
  • Dimension Unit — Choose Inches or Centimeters. This controls how package dimensions are sent. Most US-based shops use Inches.

Order Export Settings

These two settings work together to automate the Export shipping workflow. When both are turned on, orders flow from CloudFFL to ShipStation and back again without anyone needing to click a button.

Auto-Export on Ready

When turned on, delivery orders using the "Export" shipping method are automatically sent to ShipStation the moment they are ready to ship.

How it works:

  1. A sales order is confirmed and a delivery order is created.
  2. The delivery order moves to "Ready" status (meaning the items are available and reserved).
  3. CloudFFL automatically sends the order to ShipStation — no need to click "Export to SS."
  4. The delivery order status changes to "Exported" and a message is posted on the order confirming the export, including the reference numbers.

When to use it:

  • Turn this on if you want orders to flow to ShipStation automatically as soon as inventory is available. This is the recommended setting for most shops.
  • Leave it off if you want to manually review each order before sending it to ShipStation. You will need to click the "Export to SS" button on each delivery order yourself.

Tip: When auto-export is on, you will see a message on the delivery order that says "Exported to ShipStation" with an External ID and Shipment ID. This confirms the order made it to ShipStation successfully. If something goes wrong (like a missing address), the status will show "Error" in red with a description of the problem.

To turn it on:

  1. Go to your ShipStation instance page.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Check Auto-Export on Ready.
  4. Click Save.

When enabled, you will see an info box on the settings page that reads: "Pickings using 'Export' workflow carriers will be automatically exported to ShipStation when they reach 'Ready' state."

Auto-Validate on Ship

When turned on, delivery orders in CloudFFL are automatically marked as complete when ShipStation reports that the package has shipped via webhook.

How it works:

  1. Your warehouse team ships a package from ShipStation.
  2. ShipStation sends a webhook notification to CloudFFL with the tracking number, carrier, and cost.
  3. CloudFFL finds the matching delivery order and updates it with all the shipping details.
  4. CloudFFL automatically sets all the item quantities and marks the delivery order as "Done" — just as if someone had clicked "Validate" manually.

When to use it:

  • Turn this on if you want a completely hands-off workflow. Once an order is exported to ShipStation, you never need to touch the delivery order in CloudFFL again — it will close itself out when the package ships.
  • Leave it off if you want to review each delivery before marking it complete, or if your warehouse team sometimes ships partial orders. With it off, you will still get the tracking number and shipping details from the webhook, but you will need to click "Validate" on the delivery order yourself.

Important: Auto-Validate requires webhooks to be registered. Without webhooks, CloudFFL has no way to know when ShipStation ships a package. Make sure you have clicked Register Webhooks on your instance page before turning this on.

To turn it on:

  1. Go to your ShipStation instance page.
  2. Click the Settings tab.
  3. Check Auto-Validate on Ship.
  4. Click Save.

When enabled, you will see an info box on the settings page that reads: "When ShipStation reports a shipment as shipped via webhook, the corresponding picking in Odoo will be automatically validated."

Using Both Together (Recommended for Most Shops)

When you turn on both Auto-Export and Auto-Validate, the entire order-to-shipment flow becomes fully automated:

  1. A customer places an order (or you create a sales order manually).
  2. The sales order is confirmed, which creates a delivery order.
  3. When the items are in stock, the delivery order moves to "Ready."
  4. Auto-Export sends the order to ShipStation automatically.
  5. Your warehouse team sees the order in ShipStation, prints a label, and ships it.
  6. ShipStation sends a webhook to CloudFFL with the tracking number and details.
  7. Auto-Validate marks the delivery order as "Done" automatically.

The only manual step in this entire process is your warehouse team printing the label and shipping the package from ShipStation. Everything else happens on its own.

Debug Mode

Debug Mode — When turned on, every message sent to and received from ShipStation is saved in the logs with full technical details. This includes the exact data sent in each request and the full response received back.

This is useful when something is not working right and you need to see exactly what CloudFFL is sending to ShipStation, or what ShipStation is sending back. However, it creates large log entries and can slow things down.

Important: Only turn on debug mode temporarily when troubleshooting a specific issue. Turn it back off when you are done. Leaving it on will fill up your logs and may slow down shipping operations.

When debug mode is enabled, you will see a warning on the settings page that reads: "Debug Mode Enabled: All API requests and responses will be logged. This may impact performance and create large log entries."

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