How To: One PO Per Carton

When a delivery arrives with multiple pallets, it’s tempting to upload one large PO that includes everything on the truck. In practice, that approach slows receiving and makes it harder to isolate issues. A single discrepancy can stall the entire receipt, and it becomes difficult to quickly identify which carton is missing, mislabeled, short, or mixed.

Our preferred method is: one PO per carton.

Each master carton is treated as its own PO, with a unique PO number encoded in a barcode on the carton label. When our team scans the barcode on the Receiving page in ShipHero, the correct PO instantly pops up. This speeds up receiving dramatically and makes discrepancies much easier to find and resolve.

• Receivers don’t have to scroll, search, or work through a massive PO.

• Each carton is processed independently, so progress is continuous.
  

• If one carton is short/missing/mislabeled, only that carton’s PO is impacted.

• We can quickly communicate: “Carton PO 12362 is short 2 units of SKU X” rather than a vague discrepancy somewhere in a huge receipt.
  

• Your vendor/manufacturer can reconcile faster because every carton has its own ID and contents.
  

Ask your vendor/manufacturer to provide a carton manifest for each shipment that includes:

• A unique carton number for every carton

• The SKUs in each carton

• The quantity per SKU per carton

• (Optional but helpful) tracking number, PO reference, carton count totals
  
  

Your vendor should generate a barcode containing the carton’s unique number (which will also be the ShipHero PO number) and affix it to each carton.

Example carton label showing a Carton ID encoded in the barcode

Do not use repeating identifiers like “Carton 8.” That number will repeat in future shipments and will cause conflicts and confusion.

Instead, use a carton ID format that will never repeat, such as:

• BRAND-YYYYMMDD-#### (e.g., MH-20260119-01236)

• VendorPO-#### if VendorPO is guaranteed unique over time

• A sequential ID generated from your internal system (as long as it never repeats)
  

Bottom line: a carton ID should be unique forever.

Or, in ShipHero, navigate to the Upload Purchase Order page (this is in ShipHero’s “old” UI) and download the standard PO upload CSV template.

• If a carton is single-SKU:

  • That carton’s PO number appears on one row with that SKU and quantity.

• If a carton is mixed-SKU:

  • Repeat the same carton/PO number across multiple rows—one per SKU.

Example:

Here's breakdown of the screenshot:

• Many cartons under one tracking number

• Each carton has its own PO number

• A mixed-SKU carton (like PO/carton 12362 outlined in red) appears on multiple lines

Upload the completed CSV using the Upload Purchase Order workflow.

Before the shipment leaves your vendor:

• Ensure every carton has the barcode label with the carton/PO number

• Ensure labels are scannable and placed consistently
  

When the delivery arrives:

1. Our receiver scans the carton barcode.

2. ShipHero immediately pulls up that carton’s PO.

3. We receive the carton quickly and move on to the next

If there’s an issue, we can flag that specific carton PO and keep receiving the rest.

• One tracking number can cover many carton POs. That’s normal and expected.

• Use a consistent carton ID format and keep it globally unique.

• Ensure the manifest matches the labels (carton IDs must match exactly).

• Place labels on a consistent side of cartons for fast scanning.
  
  

• Reusing carton numbers across shipments (e.g., “Carton 1–50” every time)

• Missing carton labels, or labels that encode the wrong number

• Uploading mixed-SKU cartons as if they were single-SKU (or vice versa)

• Uploading one large PO for a multi-pallet delivery and expecting fast discrepancy isolation
  

Here’s a simple message you can send to your vendor/manufacturer:

For this shipment, please provide a carton manifest that lists each carton’s unique carton ID, the SKUs inside, and quantities per SKU. Please assign a globally unique carton ID to every carton (do not reuse carton numbers in future shipments). Please print and apply a scannable barcode label to each carton that contains the carton ID.

If you want, we can review:

• Your carton ID format to ensure uniqueness

• A sample carton manifest before you upload

• A sample label to confirm scan reliability

• Your first CSV upload to confirm the structure is correct