Signal — a furniture wholesaler that ships with your carrier

Signal (Signal Meble) is a furniture manufacturer whose goods you sell and which packs your orders at its own facility. Unlike Halmar, Signal does not provide a carrier for your orders: you book the shipment with your own carrier, and Signal receives the order together with the label, attaches it to the parcels, and hands them to the carrier. See Wholesaler — someone else stores and ships your goods for an overview of working with a wholesaler.

How an order moves

1. An order arrives from a sales channel, and items supplied by Signal are assigned to the Signal warehouse (step 3).
2. You book a shipment with your carrier, either on the order page or with a rule (step 5). You get the tracking number straight away, and it is sent to the marketplace like any other number.
3. A rule sends the order to Signal: the system uploads two files to Signal’s server under the order number — the labels (PDF) first, then the order itself.
4. Signal imports the order and moves both files to the imported-orders folder. The order appears in the Signal panel the following day.
5. Signal packs the goods, attaches your labels, and hands the parcels to your carrier. Arrange the carrier’s pickup at Signal outside the system, as you do now.

The system does not handle pallets, oversized parcels, or carrying goods inside; process those orders manually in the Signal panel.

Before you start

• Order-server details from Signal: server type (FTP, FTPS, or SFTP), address, port, username, password, and the folder where orders should be uploaded. For SFTP, also get the server key fingerprint.
• Signal product codes. Signal reads its own product code in an order, not the EAN (step 4).
• The carrier you use for parcels from Signal, connected as usual (Courier list — carrier directory), and a mapping from delivery methods to that carrier (Delivery-method mapping and shipment validation).

Step 1 — the “Signal” warehouse

1. Open Configuration → Team and access → My companies and, on the Warehouses tab, click + (Companies, branches, and warehouses — structure).
2. Enter Signal in Warehouse name.
3. Set Warehouse type to External/3PL. Warehouses of this type do not enter warehouse queues, so your warehouse staff will not try to pick stock from them. The Signal connection only accepts a warehouse of this type.
4. Leave Active warehouse on, click Create, and confirm with your 2FA code.

Use this warehouse only for Signal.

Step 2 — the Signal connection

1. Go to Integrations → Integrations, open the Available integrations tab, set the Type filter to Wholesaler, and click the Signal tile (Integrations list — my connections and the available catalog).
2. Enter a Name, for example Signal, and click Create. The Active switch is already on.
3. On the Connection stage, in the Connection section, enter the server details from Signal:
   • Server type — FTP, FTPS (FTP with encryption), or SFTP (over SSH). If Signal has not specified one, try FTPS; if the test says the server does not support FTPS, switch to FTP.
   • Server address — the server name only, without ftp:// or a folder.
   • Server port — usually 21 for FTP and FTPS, 22 for SFTP.
   • Server login and Server password. The password is stored encrypted; do not save it elsewhere.
   • Orders folder — leave blank if orders go to the account’s root folder.
   • Imported orders folder — defaults to arch; Signal moves imported-order files there.
   • Server key fingerprint (SFTP) — required only for SFTP; get it from Signal’s administrator.
4. Click Save changes and confirm with your 2FA code (2FA confirmation when changing permissions).
5. Go to the Orders stage, Orders to wholesaler section:
   • Signal goods warehouse — choose the Signal warehouse from step 1.
   • Product code sent to Signal — see step 4.
   • Order number prefix — text before the order number, for example MT-; the files are named from this number. This field is required: the prefix distinguishes your orders from other files on Signal’s server, so no order will reach Signal while it is blank (a yellow number of incomplete fields appears beside the Orders stage). It must not end in a digit.
   • Signal GLN number and Signal company name have preset values; change them only if Signal asks you to.
   • How many hours Signal has to import an order — 36 by default (see Order import below).
   • Send the wholesaler its part of a mixed order — see step 6.
6. Click Save changes and confirm with your 2FA code.
7. Click Test in the header. Connection OK means the Signal server accepted the login and password and both the orders folder and imported-orders folder can be opened. The test does not write anything to the server. If the connection works but something would prevent orders from being sent, the result banner is yellow and includes a warning (see Test warnings below).

Why the test shows an error

Test warnings

The connection works, but orders will not be sent until you resolve the cause:

Step 3 — map the Signal warehouse on sales-channel connections

The warehouse mapping on the sales-channel connection decides whether an order line is assigned to the Signal warehouse (Mappings — warehouses, carriers, price lists, categories). Add the Signal warehouse to every connection where you sell Signal furniture, with Fulfil orders from this warehouse enabled and a Fulfilment priority higher than your own warehouses (for example, your warehouse 1 and Signal 10), just as for Halmar (Halmar — connecting a furniture wholesaler, step 4).

Step 4 — Signal product codes

Signal reads its own product code (for example EGODB) from the order, not the EAN. The Product code sent to Signal field determines which code it receives:

• Signal code assigned to product (default) — your implementation contact imports these codes; you cannot set them on the product screen. Until at least one product has a code, Test displays a warning: every order would be rejected.
• Product SKU — use this when your products’ SKUs are their Signal codes.
• Signal code, or SKU if the product has no Signal code.

An order containing a product without the selected code is not sent to Signal. It gets the Wholesaler: incomplete order data notification with a list of products.

Step 5 — book the shipment and send it to Signal

This applies when all order lines come from the Signal warehouse. For mixed orders, see step 6.

Book the shipment. Book it as you would any other shipment: on the order page in Create shipment (Carrier labels — generation, reprinting, expiration) or with a rule using the Create shipment according to mapping action (Actions — what a rule can do). Create it with a label straight away — Signal needs a label for every parcel. The system assigns the shipment to the Signal warehouse automatically.

Shipping rule. First create the At wholesaler and Needs decision statuses (Settings → Orders, Order statuses tab, Order statuses and how to change them). Then create a rule under Tools → Automation → Rules (Create and organize rules):

1. Event: Shipment created.
2. Conditions: All products from warehouse = Signal. Do not add Has tracking number: with some carriers the number is saved shortly after the shipment is created, so the rule would not run at all.
3. Action 1: Send order to wholesaler; choose Signal in Wholesaler connection. Leave Continue workflow even if this action fails on.
4. Action 2: Change status to At wholesaler, with Run when: If previous succeeded and Track action: #1.
5. Action 3: Change status to Needs decision, with Run when: If previous failed and Track action: #1.

The rule works the same way whether the shipment was booked manually or by a rule.

What the action does

• Sends the order to Signal once. A repeat run succeeds without sending a second copy.
• Before uploading anything, it checks whether this order’s files are already on Signal’s server. If they are (for example, the previous response was lost), it records the order as sent and does not upload it again.
• Requires a shipment booked with your carrier from the Signal warehouse: every parcel must have a tracking number and a PDF label. Signal receives the labels for all parcels together in one file, parcel by parcel, or receives none.
• Signal receives product codes (step 4) and quantities in whole units, the delivery address, and the recipient’s first and last name in the notes. If the order has an invoice with a tax ID, it also receives the company details from the invoice. Prices are sent as zero; you settle with Signal separately.
• Signal does not collect payment from the customer. For cash-on-delivery orders, the amount is on your carrier’s label.
• Orders for a pickup point or parcel locker are not sent to Signal; they get the Wholesaler: delivery to pickup point notification.

The action waits for a label by itself. The rule starts as soon as the shipment is created, usually before the label (and, with some carriers, the tracking number) has been saved in the system. The action does not report an error at that point: it retries automatically every 2 minutes until the label appears, for up to 15 minutes after the parcel is created. If the label or number is still missing after 15 minutes, sending fails (usually at around minute 16): the order moves to Needs decision with the Wholesaler: our carrier label missing notification.

If sending fails, the order moves to Needs decision with a notification (see Notifications below). To send it again, click Send in the Signal row under External shipments on the order page (see On the order page); this button does not change the status. To change the status on a retry too, add a rule with the same action to a custom button (Custom events — manually triggered buttons).

Step 6 — mixed orders

A mixed order has lines from the Signal warehouse and your own warehouse. With Send the wholesaler its part of a mixed order switched off, the order is not sent to Signal at all: it gets a Wholesaler: items from other warehouses notification and you decide what to do. When the switch is on, the order is split into two shipments, both with your carrier:

• Your part is picked and packed in your warehouse as usual, with its own label.
• Signal’s part gets a separate shipment from the Signal warehouse; Signal receives only its items and that shipment’s label.

For mixed orders, the usual shipment booking on the order page creates your shipment. Create the Signal-warehouse shipment manually with the Label button in the Signal row or by selecting Wholesaler: Signal in the panel (see On the order page), or use a rule with Create shipment according to mapping (or Create shipment with carrier) and set Ship from wholesaler warehouse. The easiest automation combines booking and sending in one rule:

1. Event: Status changed, with the order’s ready-to-fulfil status under Trigger on status (pre-filter) — or use a custom button (Custom events — manually triggered buttons).
2. Conditions: Any product from warehouse = Signal; All products from warehouse = Signal with the NO switch; orders containing only Signal products are handled by step 5. Also set Cash on delivery to NO (see below).
3. Action 1: Create shipment according to mapping, with Ship from wholesaler warehouse = Signal, and create a label. Leave Continue workflow even if this action fails on.
4. Action 2: Send order to wholesaler (Signal), with Run when: If previous succeeded and Track action: #1. Also leave Continue workflow even if this action fails on.
5. Action 3: Change status to Needs decision, with Run when: If previous failed and Track action: #1 — shipment creation failed.
6. Action 4: do the same with Track action: #2 — sending to Signal failed. One action is not enough: if shipment creation fails, action 2 does not run, so it is not counted as a failure.

Do not change the order status in this rule after a successful send: it must remain at the status from which the warehouse takes your part into its queue. Running the rule again will not create a second shipment if the Signal-warehouse shipment already has a label, and will not send the order twice.

Mixed cash-on-delivery orders. Only one shipment in an order can carry the COD amount. The first shipment created — either the Signal-warehouse shipment or yours from packing — carries it and collects the full amount from the customer. The system will not create a second shipment, regardless of the order: booking it ends with a Could not create shipment notification, whether from a rule, the order page, or the packing station. A person must send the other part, for example after changing the order’s payment method so it can be sent without COD. That is why the Cash on delivery condition set to NO keeps such orders out of the rule; customer service decides how to send them.

“Shipped” status. The Has tracking number condition is true as soon as the first shipment exists. For a rule that moves mixed orders to a shipped status, use the Shipment created event and the All order items shipped condition. It becomes true only when every item has left in a parcel with a tracking number: your items in your shipment’s boxes and Signal items in the shipment from its warehouse (Workflow conditions — every listed condition must be met).

The number of tracking numbers the customer sees depends on the sales channel. A channel that does not accept several shipments for one order (for example, the GoShop store or Empik) receives one number — from the shipment with more products. The second number is not sent there; pass it to the customer manually if needed.

Signal’s order import

Signal does not confirm orders except by moving their files to the imported-orders folder. While the connection is enabled, every half hour — at minutes 22 and 52 — the system checks orders sent to Signal:

• Files are in the imported-orders folder: the order has been imported, and the system stops checking it.
• The number of hours set in How many hours Signal has to import an order (36 by default) has passed, and the files are still in the orders folder: the system creates one Wholesaler: order not imported notification. It continues checking: if Signal eventually imports the order, the order is counted as imported and the notification closes automatically. Checks continue for up to 14 days after sending. After that, the system stops and the notification stays open; you decide what to do next.
• The order was cancelled by you or on the marketplace: the system creates a Wholesaler: cancel the order with the wholesaler manually notification because it cannot cancel anything at Signal. If Signal has not imported it yet, the system stops checking and closes the Wholesaler: order not imported notification; the cancellation notification tells you what to do.

If these notifications appear after weekends and Signal imports orders only on business days, increase the number of hours. Signal reports order errors by email or phone; nothing is returned through the server.

Notifications — what to do

Notifications are attached to the order (Issues — what they are and what they are not):

After fixing the cause, send the order again with Send in the Signal row on the order page (see On the order page), with the rule button from step 5, or by moving it to the status that starts the rule from step 6.

Cancellation

Signal does not accept order cancellations through the system. A rule with the Cancel order with wholesaler action (the Order cancelled event and Any product from warehouse = Signal condition) creates a Wholesaler: cancel the order with the wholesaler manually notification for each order Signal already has, then ends in an error — cancel it with Signal yourself. The action skips orders that were never sent to Signal. The import check creates the same notification when it finds a cancelled order (see Signal’s order import). The shipment is yours: also cancel the carrier label on the order page or with Cancel unused shipping labels (Actions — what a rule can do).

When the Signal connection is disabled

While the connection is disabled, the system does not check whether orders have been imported, and rules with Send order to wholesaler or Cancel order with wholesaler for Signal do not run at all — their execution history shows SKIPPED (Execution history — what really happened). The system does not catch up on skipped runs.

On the order page

On the order page, in Shipments (Order details screen), under Our shipments, the External shipments heading contains a Signal row — without a separate card, in the same style as your own shipments. The row appears for every order with an item from the Signal warehouse.

The Signal row is compact and collapsed by default. From left to right it shows a truck icon (hover text: Our carrier collects from Signal, using our label), the Signal name with step icons below, one status badge, one button on the right only when something needs doing, and an arrow. Hover over the badge to see Wholesaler order number: with your prefixed number (for example MT-123456) and the send date. Click the row or arrow to expand it: it shows shipments from the Signal warehouse and their parcels, and a red box with the reason if there is an error. If there is neither a shipment nor an error, there is no arrow because there is nothing to expand.

Step icons show how far the order has progressed: Label → Wholesaler → Number in store. Hover over an icon to see the step name and state; see Shipment on the order card — full history and actions for what the icon’s colour and shape mean. If there is an error, its reason is also shown in the Wholesaler icon tooltip.

• Label — pending until the shipment with your carrier from the Signal warehouse has a ready label; complete once it does or once the order has been sent to Signal.
• Wholesaler — not yet while there is no label; then pending while the order awaits sending; waiting while the files are on Signal’s server but Signal has not imported them; complete after import; error or cancelled as shown by the badge.
• Number in store — whether the tracking number was sent to the marketplace: complete (the tooltip shows the send date), pending (the number exists but was not sent — Send number appears; every row that needs it has this button, and one click sends the numbers for all the order’s shipments, so this step is then complete in every row), or not yet (no number). For an order made entirely of Signal items, this icon is absent from the group: the shipment under Our shipments shows the number.

For a mixed order, the expanded row shows your carrier’s shipment from the Signal warehouse; it has no step icons of its own because the Signal row shows those steps. Its expanded details show only the tracking number and its change history, and the date. A shipment for an order made entirely of Signal items appears under Our shipments, like any of your own shipments, in its own row with the full set of icons.

When Signal has no connection, the row shows a No connection badge with a full explanation in its tooltip.

There is one button in the row — the next action to take, in this order. It has a short label; hover to see the full sentence with the wholesaler’s name:

1. Label — shown until a label exists. Opens the shipment-creation panel with the Signal warehouse selected. The panel gets the carrier from the delivery-method mapping; if it cannot find one, it asks you to Choose carrier. Users who cannot create shipments see a disabled Send button instead, with the tooltip Create the label first — the wholesaler receives it with the order.
2. Send — shown when every parcel in your carrier’s shipment from the Signal warehouse has a tracking number and ready label, and the order has not yet gone to Signal; only users who can order goods from the wholesaler see it (permissions below). Works for mixed and Signal-only orders. It sends the order like the Send order to wholesaler action: once only, with the same checks and the labels from the Signal-warehouse shipment. It does not change the order status. After sending, you see Order sent to wholesaler or Wholesaler already has this order. If sending is refused, the message starts with the notification name, for example Wholesaler: our carrier label missing, and the order gets that notification (see Notifications — what to do).
3. Check — shown while the order is waiting to be imported. Checks this order immediately instead of waiting for the half-hourly check. A message appears at the bottom of the screen: Wholesaler has imported the order or Wholesaler has not imported the order yet.
4. Send number — shown when the tracking number from the Signal-warehouse shipment has not yet been sent to the marketplace.

Mixed order — book and send manually

1. Until there is a label, the Signal row shows Not sent, an orange Label icon, and the Label button.
2. Click Label. In the panel, Who is the label for? already has Wholesaler: Signal selected. You can also create the same label from Create shipment (carrier button → Create shipment, Carrier labels — generation, reprinting, expiration); in that case select Wholesaler: Signal instead of Our warehouse.
3. There is no longer an explanatory box below the selection. For a cash-on-delivery order with a wholesaler selected, the panel warns: Only one shipment can have cash on delivery.
4. Click Create label in the panel. When it finishes, the shipment appears in the Signal row (when expanded), and the row button changes to Send.
5. Click Send in the Signal row.

The Who is the label for? question appears while the order has not been sent to Signal, and only if it also has items outside the Signal warehouse — from your warehouse, with no warehouse, or from another wholesaler. For an order without your items, for example one split between Halmar and Signal, the panel does not offer Our warehouse and selects the Signal warehouse straight away: instead of a question, it shows Label for: Wholesaler: Signal. The question appears only for a new shipment, not for a return or when adding a parcel to an existing shipment. Our warehouse books your part from your warehouse as before. For cash-on-delivery orders, the rule in Mixed cash-on-delivery orders applies: the first shipment created carries COD.

A parcel in the Signal group. In edit mode (Edit expands all rows), a parcel belonging to a shipment in the Signal group does not have Add buttons with a carrier name or Send (add document): adding a label this way would book it from your warehouse. Create a label for Signal goods with the Label button in the Signal row or in Create shipment. Generate label remains available to request the same parcel’s label from the carrier again, for example to reprint it; Send tracking remains available only in edit mode to send the numbers to the marketplace again. Outside edit mode, use Send number in the row.

An order made entirely of Signal items. Book the shipment as in step 5: the panel does not ask Who is the label for?, and the shipment appears under Our shipments. Until it exists, the Signal row has a Label button that opens the shipment-creation panel (users who cannot create shipments see a disabled Send button with the tooltip Create the label first — the wholesaler receives it with the order.). Once the shipment has a ready label, the button changes to Send. Usually the rule from step 5 sends the order first; the button is useful if sending failed and you have fixed the cause.

The order page does not refresh itself. If a rule booked the label in the background or the Signal row still shows Label after you created it, refresh the order page.

Order list. In Orders → Orders (Order list — what you see on screen), the Status column next to the carrier shows a + wholesaler marker when a mixed order already has a shipment from the Signal warehouse. Hover text says Part of the order is shipped by the wholesaler or collected from the wholesaler’s warehouse.

Users with Create permission for Orders can see Check and Send. Send places the order with the wholesaler, so only users who can order goods from the wholesaler see it: a role with Workflow > Action: send orders to wholesaler permission — the same permission that allows adding Send order to wholesaler to a rule (how to grant it: Actions — what a rule can do). The first permission also reveals Send in the Signal row on the order page (see On the order page). Users who can see the send button and have Create permission for Shipments and labels can see Label. Anyone who can see the order can see Send number, just like Send tracking for a parcel in edit mode. The company administrator always sees all these buttons.

Permissions

The Integrations module permission is required for the connection and warehouse mapping; creating the warehouse requires Roles and permissions (Companies, branches, and warehouses — structure). Saving connection settings asks for a 2FA code (2FA confirmation when changing permissions). In the rule builder, the company administrator and a role with Workflow > Action: send orders to wholesaler permission can see Send order to wholesaler; a role with Workflow > Action: cancel orders with wholesaler permission can see Cancel order with wholesaler (Actions — what a rule can do). The first permission also reveals Send in the Signal row on the order page (see On the order page).