When implementing MachShip into your business, you'll need to make two critical decisions that will shape how your integration works:
These decisions will significantly impact your integration's functionality, implementation effort, and ongoing maintenance requirements.
The type of consignment you create in MachShip determines how much user interaction is required and at what point in your shipping process the labels become available.
Pending consignments are partially completed draft consignments that require user intervention before labels are available and the consignment can be sent to the carrier. This approach gives you flexibility in how and when you complete the shipping details.
Choose pending consignments when:
The main benefits of pending consignments are:
Unmanifested consignments represent complete, ready-to-dispatch shipments that can be created without user intervention. This approach is ideal when you have all shipping information available and want to automate the process.
Choose unmanifested consignments when:
To successfully implement unmanifested consignments, you'll need:
Existing consignments serve a specialized purpose - they're created in MachShip purely for billing or consignment tracking purposes. These are rare and typically only used in edge cases where you need to track or bill shipments that are being managed through another system.
For existing consignments, no data is passed to the carriers as the assumption is someone else is booking the consignments directly. Consider this option when:
The requirements are:
This matrix highlights the key differences between pending and unmanifested consignments:
| Factor | Pending | Consignments |
|---|---|---|
| Package data completeness | Partial OK | Must be complete |
| User intervention | Required | Not needed |
| Carrier selection | Manual possible | Must be automated |
| Processing speed | Slower (2-step) | Faster (1-step) |
| Dangerous goods | Manual entry OK | Must have complete data |
| Efficiency | Less efficient, manual steps | More efficient, automated |
| Flexibility | High | Lower |
Once you've decided on your consignment type, you'll need to choose how to integrate with MachShip. Each method has its own strengths and is designed to meet different technical capabilities and business needs.
Our API provides the most comprehensive and flexible way to integrate with MachShip. It's a RESTful API that gives you programmatic access to all platform features, allowing you to build a completely customized integration.
Capabilities:
While the API offers the most flexibility, it does have some considerations:
The API is best suited for:
The flat file integration method offers a simpler approach using our printer application to monitor and process CSV or XML files. This method is particularly valuable when you want automation but don't have the resources for API integration.
Capabilities:
However, there are some limitations to consider:
This method works best for:
Note, if you are looking to do a flat file integration, but are shipping dangerous goods, or need advanced data mapping then please refer to our custom integration section - we have the capabilities to build such integrations in house.
For businesses using common platforms like popular eCommerce systems or ERPs, our pre-built integrations offer a quick path to implementation. These integrations are maintained by MachShip and designed to work with standard workflows.
Capabilities:
Supported integrations have a setup and monthly support fee to cover the time taken to setup and maintain the integration.
This option is ideal for:
For businesses with unique requirements or complex workflows, our custom integration service combines the flexibility of API integration with the support of our development team.
Capabilities:
While this provides the most tailored solution, it involves:
This matrix compares how each integration method handles various implementation factors:
| Factor | API | Flat File | Supported | Custom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Implementation effort | High | Medium | Low | High |
| Technical expertise needed | High | Medium | Low | Medium |
| Flexibility | High | Medium | Medium | High |
| Setup cost | Free | Free | Paid | Paid |
| Monthly fees | None | None | Yes | Yes |
| Maintenance effort | Medium | Low | Low | Medium |
| Dangerous goods support | Yes | No | Varies | Yes |
| Error handling | Advanced | Basic | Moderate | Advanced |
| Development time | Long | Short | Short | Long |
| Integration support | Self | Basic | Full | Full |