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This article provides an in depth explanation of ShipHawk’s rules engine and best practices. It includes instructions on creating and enabling rules and rule subtypes, and an extensive reference section that describes each rule criteria and actions.

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Before using ShipHawk’s rules engine, note that rules do not apply retroactively to open orders. Rules only apply to new rates and rules from the time that the rule was enabled.

Configuring your rule

Rules are in ShipHawk composed of two parts: criteria and actions. Both parts are necessary to create a rule in ShipHawk.

Criteria are the conditions that must be met in order to trigger the rule. You can specify multiple criteria per rule in order to automate fulfillment behavior for very specific cases. By default, rules apply to all orders, which will apply to all orders moving forward.

Once triggered by the correct conditions, actions are the changes made by ShipHawk based on the instructions configured in your rule. Actions define what you want to happen to any orders or rates that fulfill your set criteria.

You can add multiple actions to one rule. Examples of actions available in ShipHawk are:

• Provide free shipping for orders exceeding a certain price threshold.

• Ship orders using the cheapest available rate.

• Mark shipping prices up or down by a specified percentage.

• Use only a specified carrier or service for all qualifying orders.

A complete list of all available criteria and actions are included at the end of this article with detailed definitions.

Hierarchy

When creating a rule in ShipHawk, you must understand the hierarchy or order in which ShipHawk applies default settings and rules. The order goes as follows:

1. Stored default values. ShipHawk will default to using any default values saved in the system given no other contravening instructions.

2. Specified in the API, or rate request instructions. You can provide instructions in the API rate request to a carrier to, for example, query only one type of service. Results of this rate request overrides the default stored values.

3. Rules. Any rules whose criteria are met will override specific rate request instructions. If you have a rule instructing certain orders to always use a specific carrier service, this rule will override whatever prices are retrieved by the API request. 

4. Manual changes. Manual changes to an order in ShipHawk supersede all other default settings and rules.

A common issue that customers have when first creating rules is understanding that rules will always supersede rate request results. It is recommended that you carefully audit your rules before enabling.

Best practices

ShipHawk recommends that you create the simplest rules that can stand alone by themselves. Rules can conflict with one another. ShipHawk does not currently support the ability to mark rules in  order of importance so that rules can then supersede one another. In order to avoid confusion as you create more rules, it is best to construct simple rules that can be enabled together in tandem. If you need assistance with rule construction, contact our Customer Success team for an audit of your rules.

While it is possible to have more than two criteria or actions per rule, it is recommended that you limit the number of each where possible. Simplified, pared down rules are easier to manage, especially when your organization has many rules that it enables for different seasons and events.

Prerequisites 

To begin using the rules engine to automate decisions about carrier rating, you must first fulfill the following conditions:

1. Customers must be using ShipHawk for rating on their eCommerce or ERP platforms.

2. Users must be an administrator or shipping manager role in ShipHawk. Only these two roles have the correct permissions to set up a rating rule.

If you qualify under these conditions, proceed to the following sections for  instructions to create and enable or disable rating rules and shipping policies.

To create a rating rule or shipping policy:

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Log into your ShipHawk account. The ShipHawk dashboard appears.

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Application of billing rules after carrier change

You can have the Shipping Policies related to billing and 3rd-party carrier accounts automatically apply when you manually change the carrier and save the changes. Existing Shipping Policies allowed the user to configure rules to automatically set preferred 3rd party carrier account details but these rules were only applied on order import. Previously, if the Shipping Clerk manually selected a different carrier, they had to manually update the new billing details. But now (as of 2024.4.0), ShipHawk will re-evaluate the Shipping Policies related to Billing Details and 3rd Party Account details when the changes are saved in the Order Details page. This eliminates the need for Shipping Clerks to know billing details and reduces the potential for mistakes when manually entering billing details.

Configuring your rule

Rules are in ShipHawk composed of two parts: criteria and actions. Both parts are necessary to create a rule in ShipHawk.

Criteria are the conditions that must be met in order to trigger the rule. You can specify multiple criteria per rule in order to automate fulfillment behavior for very specific cases. By default, rules apply to all orders, which will apply to all orders moving forward.

Once triggered by the correct conditions, actions are the changes made by ShipHawk based on the instructions configured in your rule. Actions define what you want to happen to any orders or rates that fulfill your set criteria.

You can add multiple actions to one rule. Examples of actions available in ShipHawk are:

• Provide free shipping for orders exceeding a certain price threshold.

• Ship orders using the cheapest available rate.

• Mark shipping prices up or down by a specified percentage.

• Use only a specified carrier or service for all qualifying orders.

A complete list of all available criteria and actions are included at the end of this article with detailed definitions.

Hierarchy

When creating a rule in ShipHawk, you must understand the hierarchy or order in which ShipHawk applies default settings and rules. The order goes as follows:

1. Stored default values. ShipHawk will default to using any default values saved in the system given no other contravening instructions.

2. Specified in the API, or rate request instructions. You can provide instructions in the API rate request to a carrier to, for example, query only one type of service. Results of this rate request overrides the default stored values.

3. Rules. Any rules whose criteria are met will override specific rate request instructions. If you have a rule instructing certain orders to always use a specific carrier service, this rule will override whatever prices are retrieved by the API request. 

4. Manual changes. Manual changes to an order in ShipHawk supersede all other default settings and rules.

A common issue that customers have when first creating rules is understanding that rules will always supersede rate request results. It is recommended that you carefully audit your rules before enabling.

Best practices

ShipHawk recommends that you create the simplest rules that can stand alone by themselves. Rules can conflict with one another. ShipHawk does not currently support the ability to mark rules in  order of importance so that rules can then supersede one another. In order to avoid confusion as you create more rules, it is best to construct simple rules that can be enabled together in tandem. If you need assistance with rule construction, contact our Customer Success team for an audit of your rules.

While it is possible to have more than two criteria or actions per rule, it is recommended that you limit the number of each where possible. Simplified, pared down rules are easier to manage, especially when your organization has many rules that it enables for different seasons and events.

Prerequisites 

To begin using the rules engine to automate decisions about carrier rating, you must first fulfill the following conditions:

1. Customers must be using ShipHawk for rating on their eCommerce or ERP platforms.

2. Users must be an administrator or shipping manager role in ShipHawk. Only these two roles have the correct permissions to set up a rating rule.

If you qualify under these conditions, proceed to the following sections for  instructions to create and enable or disable rating rules and shipping policies.

To create a rating rule or shipping policy:

1. Log into your ShipHawk account. The ShipHawk dashboard appears.

2. Click on the Settings icon > Rules menu option. You will be redirected to the Rules screen.
   

   

3. Click on the Actions drop-down menu > + Create New Rule.
   

   

   
   The Create New Rule screen is populated.
   
   NOTE: Rating Rule definitions support applying a rule to when ALL or ANY conditions are met. For more information, see How To Create Rules Using OR Logic .
   
   

   

   
   

4. Complete the screen.
   Enter a name into the Rule Name field.
   

   

   
   Use a descriptive name to distinguish this rule from subsequent rules that you will create.
   
   Select the type of rule you want to create from the Rule Type field. From this screen, you can create both rating rules and shipping policies.
   

   

   
   If you want this rule to take effect immediately, set the rule to Enabled. You can enable this rule at any time.
   

   

   
   To enable this rule as a backup rate, check the Is Backup Rate? toggle button.
   
   A backup rate is a table rate that is presented to an end-customer when rating fails (due to their services going down) or your organization lacks an account with the right kind of carrier. This backup rate setting ensures that an end-customer will always receive some kind of shipping option at checkout.
   

5. In RATE SOURCE, select API, Web Portal, or Any.
   Select API to apply this rule to the shopping cart or for any external rates.
   Select Web Portal to apply this rule when rating within a web portal.
   

6. In RULE APPLICATION, select Apply this rule to all rate requests and orders to apply the rule under all conditions.
   

   

   
   However, if you wish to only apply this rule under certain conditions, select Only apply this rule when All/Any of the following criteria met. This option allows you to access the available rule criteria in ShipHawk.
   

   

   
   From the drop-down, select All or Any.
   
   To create a Rule with AND logic, select Only apply this rule when Allof the following criteria met.
   
   To create a Rule with OR logic, select Only apply this rule when Anyof the following criteria met.
   
   For additional information about using OR logic, see How To Create Rules Using OR Logic .
   

7. Create criteria for the application of this new rule. You can set this condition to be anything you desire. An Operator field is included so you can set a specific relationship to the data entered into your Value field. An example is shown below.
   

   

   
   In this example, the free shipping rule is applied when an order exceeds $99.
   

8. You can create multiple criteria that all have to be met before the rule is applied:
   
   Click + Add Criteria to add a new criteria.
   
   Click + Nested Criteria to add nested criteria as part of the current criteria.
   

9. In RULE ACTIONS, configure the action that will be triggered when the conditions are met.
   
   For example, select the Free Shipping for cheapest rate option from the Rule Action field. This action finds the cheapest rate returned to your customers and marks its cost down to $0.00.
   

   

10. Click the Create button to finalize this new rule.

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The following section provides definitions for all available rule criteria and actions. They are divided into categories based on whether they pertain to rating rules or shipping policies. 

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Rule Criteria

The following section provides comprehensive definitions for the available rating rule actions criteria in ShipHawk.

Shipping policy actions

The following section provides comprehensive definitions for the available shipping policy actions  in ShipHawk.

Rating Rule Actions

The following section provides comprehensive definitions for the available rating rule actions in ShipHawk.

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Shipping Policy Actions

The following section provides comprehensive definitions for the available rule criteria shipping policy actions  in ShipHawk.