Have you ever had a file cabinet filled to the brim, so stuffed that it would make finding anything overly time-consuming? You’d love to clean it up, but you don’t want to remove files you might need later. If your ShipWorks database is feeling stuffed to the gills lately, this brand new feature is for you.
Introducing a New Way to Clear Old Data
The all-new feature gives you a way to put orders into a separate database, which archives them. It works great for orders that are older and don’t need to be accessed regularly but you still want to keep a record of. With less clutter, you should be able to speed up ShipWorks processing times and printing shipping labels. Now, you’ve got a better choice than just hitting the delete button!
A New Database for Archiving Records and So Much More
Speeding up your ability to process orders on ShipWorks and print labels faster is just the beginning of what your new archive can do:
- Get a better understanding of older data by organizing it better. (Maybe there are unseen patterns to be uncovered by segmenting your data into smaller units.)
- Archive orders by date on a schedule that makes sense to you, whether it’s weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. (Never worry about having to delete your data permanently again.)
- Is there a chance that an old customer could be reactivated? (We certainly hope so!) With the new archive database, you can preserve all that valuable client info and order data, even if they haven’t ordered lately.
- Separate your “back office” without slowing down shipping operations. You can run sophisticated data analyses and searches on the system while keeping your warehouse free and clear to focus on moving orders.
Here’s How It Works
Let’s say you’ve got some less-than-fresh orders clogging up your current processing workflow. You hit archive on the old order you don’t need. Once that old order is archived, the data goes into a read-only state.
If you want to search for shipments or customers, your orders are searchable. ShipWorks has access to all of the data in your archive. All your orders can be pulled up, but they can’t be changed back once they’re in read-only state. (You also can’t create a new shipment from an archived order.)
Knowing your data is read-only gives you the added assurance that there’s no way to accidentally delete or change old order data. It’s locked down tight, and it can always be accessed from within your ShipWorks platform.
Once an order has been archived, you can view order details including:
- Items in order
- Charges
- Order history (emails, printing, shipments, etc.)
- Shipments
- Tracking info
A Few More Quick Tips
Remember, data is a double edged-sword: Too much of it becomes difficult to manage. Now, you can put an end to feeling like your data is starting to own you. With this all-new way to archive older orders, you’ll have more freedom and flexibility to control your data. Keep in mind these important tips:
- You can’t run ShipWorks during the archiving process, so plan your archiving for less busy times.
- Remember that there’s no way to un-archive an order. They cannot be merged back into the ShipWorks database after being archived.
- New orders cannot be created from archived orders.
- An archived order can be viewed and filtered, but never edited.
- Archiving by date is an easy way to clear out older records fast. (For example, you could archive “all orders before 01/01/2014.”)
Get easy step-by-step instructions on how to archive an order in ShipWorks in our knowledge base:
http://support.shipworks.com/support/solutions/articles/4000119388
