Packaging materials

A list of the cartons, bags and pallets kept by the packing table. Five to ten rows is a complete catalogue for most shops, and nothing downstream can right-size a parcel without it.

Stockly → Operations → Shipping → Packaging materials.

Why this table comes first

Everything else in packing data is per article, and per-article data is a project. This is per box, and there are ten of them. Once it is filled in, the module can state which carton an order needs; left empty, every parcel falls back to dividing weight, which is the current behaviour.

What a row says

Field	What it means
Code	the short name the shop and any outside system refer to, such as K30
Name	what the packers call it
Type	carton, bag, envelope, pallet, or wrap
Inner size	length × width × height inside the box, in millimetres
Own weight	what the empty packaging weighs — it becomes the tare of every parcel packed into it
Max. contents	the most the box may hold, when the carton gives in before the carrier does

Inner, not outer

Cartons are sold quoted by outer size, and that is almost always the number written on the supplier’s invoice. A 3 mm wall on each side is 6 mm off every axis, which can be the difference between a fit and a box that will not close. Measure the inside, or subtract twice the wall thickness.

A material without measurements

Such a material may be recorded, since a roll of stretch wrap has a weight and no inside, but it can never be chosen automatically, because the fit check has nothing to measure against. The editor states this during entry rather than leaving it to be discovered later.

Deleting one

Parcels already packed into a material keep their record; only the link is removed.

What to do next

• Packing profiles — the rules that decide what each article adds to a box
• Packing data coverage — how much of the catalogue can be fitted today