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A new, dynamic form for manual shipment creation in Shipmondo. Fewer clicks, smarter customs handling, and improved support for drafts and templates.
While many businesses today automate their shipments through integrations with import to Orders or import to Drafts, manual shipment creation is still an important part of everyday operations for many.
Manual shipment creation is especially relevant for single shipments, special shipments requiring customs documentation, or whenever something falls outside the standard workflow.
That’s why we’ve updated the way you create manual shipments - so it better reflects the real-world scenarios our customers work with, while still keeping it fast and easy to book shipments in Shipmondo.
A smarter way to create shipments
When creating a shipment manually, you’ll now be presented with one dynamic view instead of five static steps. The form expands intelligently as you enter shipment details.
The familiar information is still there: sender country, recipient country, carrier, and product selection. But we now only display the fields that are relevant to the specific shipment you’re creating.
Support for multiple parties
One of the most significant improvements is enhanced support for multiple parties.
In practice, the sender, recipient, freight payer, importer, and potential third parties are not always the same - and the required information varies depending on the carrier. The new form automatically displays the fields required for the selected combination of countries, carrier, and product.
Sender information is now shown in a panel on the right-hand side and is automatically retrieved from your company settings, as this rarely changes. If adjustments are needed, you can edit the details directly in the form using the pencil icon. The same applies to recipient information, which can easily be edited in a pop-up window.
Depending on the carrier and product, additional fields may appear for parcel shop delivery, pickup, or return handling.
If you frequently use the same pickup or return addresses, you can save them in your address book and reuse them across shipments. It’s just as easy as before - only now with fewer clicks and less switching between steps.
Once the carrier and product have been selected, you can, as usual, choose the freight agreement you want to use and add optional services such as personalized messages or extended package insurance. The available options still depend on the selected carrier and product.
Handling international shipments and customs documentation
We’ve also improved how VAT and identification numbers are handled for international shipments.
Previously, several types of numbers were grouped into a single field, which could create uncertainty and, in some cases, make it difficult to enter the correct information.
In the new booking engine, these fields are clearly separated, making it much more transparent which type of number is required in each situation.
This makes it easier to enter the correct details and reduces the risk of errors during customs clearance.
Improved customs handling and new options for shipments outside the EU
When creating shipments to countries outside the EU, customs fields will now automatically appear as soon as you select a combination of sender country, recipient country, carrier, and product that requires customs information.
As before, you’ll enter currency, reason for export, freight and insurance costs, and shipment contents - including quantity, country of origin, description, tariff code, unit value, and unit weight.
The customs requirements themselves remain unchanged. The difference is that they are now integrated naturally into the overall flow - and only displayed when relevant.
If you select services such as VOEC, GB EORI, or IOSS, the corresponding number will automatically be displayed if it has already been added to your company settings under Sender. It will appear as a dedicated field following the VAT number field, tailored to the selected service.
This makes it much clearer what is required - and when.
Drafts and templates just got even more powerful
In the new form, you can now save your work as a draft while creating a shipment if you’re missing information and need to return later. Drafts are now true drafts.
We’ve also expanded the functionality to allow draft creation via API. This means drafts can now be created from four different sources:
- A saved draft during creation of a manual shipment creation
- Import of CSV/Excel files to drafts
- Import via an order integration
- Created via API (shipment_drafts endpoint)
Shipment templates become more flexible
Shipment templates are fully integrated into the new booking engine.
Everything you can configure on a shipment can now be saved in a template - including carrier, product, services, parties, and customs information. This allows you to build standardized workflows, for example if you frequently ship to specific countries with consistent customs and service requirements.
Templates can be used for new shipments, repeat purchases, and other flows within Shipmondo, making it easier to ensure consistent configurations across your shipments.
Shortcuts and faster navigation
For those of you who create shipments manually on a daily basis, we’ve added shortcuts to make navigation and editing even faster.
By pressing Cmd+K on Mac or Ctrl+K on Windows, you can search for actions or jump directly to editing sender, recipient, pickup, return, parcels, or customs contents.
It’s a small detail - but for many, it will make a noticeable difference in everyday workflows.
The new form is designed to handle both the simplest shipments and more complex cases involving multiple parties and customs requirements.
Our goal has been to maintain the familiar simplicity of manual booking while making the form more flexible, more intelligent, and better aligned with the practical needs that arise in everyday operations.
The new form is now live - and we look forward to your feedback so we can continue improving the experience.
