The batch system follows your business rules (which orders ship when) and, at the click of a button, selects a group of orders that can be picked together efficiently.
The Start New Batch button on the Batches page.
Once it's set up to follow your business rules, most teams run batches every day to manage their operations without risk of late shipments, wrong items or other common order mistakes.
Once orders are grouped into a batch, you can print all the shipping labels at once, use reverse scanning to pull up orders in the batch by scanning an item barcode, or use the dedicated "guided steps" picking mode.
Which plans include Batch, and alternatives
The Batch feature is not included on every plan. To add it, contact our sales team.
Many teams don't need the Batch feature to batch-fulfill orders. You can group, print and pick orders from the Orders list on any plan, and the free Batch Allocation feature sends each printed order to its own bin location.
Initial setup
Setting up your first batch configuration
First, reach out to our team to work out the best configuration for your workflow. Or use our default settings: click Settings on the Batches page, then save your first batch type.
The Settings button on the Batches page.
To start, we recommend a batch size of 3 orders (bins) to test the feature. Then scale up slowly. Most companies fulfill 10-20 orders per batch, but batches can hold 250 or more.
Choosing a picking and shipping mode
Batches support several picking modes, including paper pick list and paper packing slip modes, and two ship modes. You can also use batch grouping with the regular picking screen.
Connect a barcode scanner
To start picking, connect your barcode scanner to your picking device (desktop, tablet or smartphone). Then open a batch from the batches list, or click Start New Batch.
Starting your first batch
You can start a batch from three places in SKULabs:
Recommended: click Start New Batch at the top right of the Batches page.
On the Orders list, select orders, then click Actions > Start batch.
On the Orders list, click Menu > Scan packing slips and scan a series of packing slips to create a new batch.
How each picking mode works
Guided steps (default)
Before you start: print bin barcode labels. Print them from the Printing page, Bins tab, and attach them to your picking bins.
Each bin holds one order in the batch, so you need as many bins as orders per batch. If you fulfill 4 orders at a time, you need 4 bin barcodes. You scan the bin barcode while picking to make sure each item goes into the right bin.
Unlike the regular picking screen, guided steps walks pickers through the batch one step at a time. This makes picking easier, more accurate and faster. Once you've created a batch, just follow the prompts.
The page highlights one barcode at a time, showing which item you're picking now:
Scan the item barcode once per unit until you have enough of that item.
Scan the bin barcode for the order it belongs to, and put the item in that bin.
Continue until the end of the batch.
Tip: guided steps moves you between orders that need the same item, so watch which bin each item goes into.
Reverse scanning
Scan items from a pick list, and SKULabs automatically opens an order in the batch that still needs that item so you can scan it against that order. This works well for small orders. It's best to finish each order once you've opened it.
Pair reverse scanning with the batch pick list, so all the items for your batch are on the packing table before you start scanning.
Paper packing slips
SKULabs prints all the packing slips as soon as the batch is created. Grab a packing slip, scan it, and start picking that order.