What is Spoke Connect for?
You can now give your clients access to a private Spoke Connect account. There, they can log in to import their orders directly and see their ETAs, delivery status, and proof of delivery.
We have created Spoke Connect to give you a safe and secure way to provide your clients with:
The ability to directly import their orders into your account
Instantly access real-time information about their deliveries
You
Invite a client to your Spoke Connect account
Allow them to import orders
Assign each client's orders to a depot
↓
👤 Client
Logs into the portal
Their unique Spoke Connect ID number is generated
They can import their orders ready to be delivered
↓
You
Orders a client has imported will appear in your unsigned stops list
Add these unassigned stops to a route
↓
👤 Client
Can log into their Spoke Connect account to import orders
View delivery ETAs, status, and proof of delivery for all orders
How to add clients to Spoke Connect
You can invite a client to Spoke Connect in two ways:
On a route or the Stops list, click on a stop to see the stop details
Under > Order information > Client > Click on > No client
Click > Add new client
OR
Go to Settings > External parties > Spoke Connect
Click > Add new client
Invite your client via email or by sharing an invite link
If you want the client to have the ability to upload orders to Spoke Connect:
Toggle on > Allow client to upload orders
To make sure that your client uploads the required fields for an order, you can specify which order fields are required:
Click > Required fields
The Address is a mandatory field
Select which other fields you require your client to upload
Your client will now only be able to successfully upload a stop to the portal if it has all the required fields
Orders imported by your clients to Spoke Connect will automatically appear in your unassigned stops list, ready to be added to a route.
Select the default depot that orders from the client should be assigned to
Your client will now receive an email/link inviting them to > Sign up to Spoke Connect
How your clients can add their own team members to Spoke Connect
Once logged in, your client will become the Team Owner and will be able to invite additional members of their team to access their Spoke Connect account. This can be useful if they have multiple team members dealing with the management and delivery of their orders.
Once logged into their Spoke Connect account, your client will become the Team Owner
They need to go to Settings > General > Team members
Click > Add members to invite a new team member
New Team members have restricted access and can only see other members and Integrations.
To switch the Team Owner role to another person, click > Transfer ownership and follow the instructions
How clients can import orders to Spoke Connect
Once you have invited a client to Spoke Connect with the ability to import their orders, clients will be able to add their orders by:
Uploading a spreadsheet
Linking their Shopify store to Spoke Connect
Adding them manually
You can send your clients a link to this handy how-to guide for clients
which walks them through how to access and use Spoke Connect.
How clients can import orders using a spreadsheet
Send this link to your clients, or click here to download a copy of our example spreadsheet for clients.
Clients will be able to import the following order data:
Unit/Flat/Unit Name
Address Line 1
Address Line 2
City State
Zip
Country
Notes
Size
Recipient Name
Type of stop
Recipient Email Address
Recipient Phone Number
Id
Package Count
Products
Latitude
Longitude
Click here to see the spreadsheet data glossary.
Importing orders
When a client has their order data formatted in a spreadsheet and is ready to import it clients need to:
Login to Spoke Connect
Click > Import orders from spreadsheet
Select the spreadsheet they want to upload
Follow the import process on the screen
Clients will see the message > Draft orders successfully imported
How clients can import orders from their Shopify store
If your client wants to import orders from their Shopify store into Spoke Connect, they must be an Admin/Owner role and first need to link their Shopify store with Connect.
How to link a Shopify store with Connect
Login to Spoke Connect
Go to Settings > Integrations
Go to Shopify and click > Connect store
They will then land on the Connect Shopify listing, click > Install
Accept access permissions and click > Install
They will then be redirected back to Spoke Connect
Their Shopify store is now linked with Spoke Connect
How to turn on automatic Shopify updates
To have completed Connect deliveries automatically update their status to fulfilled in Shopify, and recipients automatically receive a notification from Shopify when a Connect delivery has been completed, your client will need to enable these settings:
Login to Spoke Connect
Go to Settings > Intergrations
Toggle on the setting > Automatically mark orders as fulfilled in Shopify
Toggle on the setting > Notify customer via Shopify when fulfilled
How to import orders from Shopify
With their Shopify store linked to Connect, your client can import their orders, they will need to:
Go to Orders, click > Add or import orders, select > Import from Shopify
All their Shopify orders will be imported onto a list in Spoke Connect
They can select individual orders that they want to import
They can also click > Bulk import and add all the order IDs they want to import in the text box, then click > Import orders
Those orders have now been imported into Spoke Connect as draft orders and are ready to be submitted for delivery
Submitting orders for delivery
With all their orders imported as a draft, clients can now select which of those orders they want to submit for delivery.
To submit orders for delivery, clients need to:
Select the draft orders they wish to submit for delivery from the list
Click > Submit for delivery
Once an order has been submitted, it cannot be edited, but it can be withdrawn as long as it hasn't been assigned to a route.
Clients can check the status of submitted deliveries under > Active orders
Order status updates
The status of orders goes from:
Draft > Submitted - when an order has been submitted for delivery
Submitted > Scheduled - when an order has been added to a route
Scheduled > ETA - when the driver starts the route
ETA > real-time status update - as the deliveries are completed
How to sync client data to Spoke Connect if you do not allow clients to upload orders
In some cases, you may not want to give clients the ability to upload their orders directly to Spoke Connect.
You can provide them with just the basic ability to use the portal to track the live status of their deliveries.
Once a client has signed up to Spoke Connect they will be given a unique Client ID number
Now when importing stops for this client you will need to add their unique Client ID number to your data import
Adding this unique Client ID number syncs key delivery data between the dispatcher dashboard and the Spoke Connect view
Your client will now be able to log into the portal to see ETAs, delivery status updates, and access proof of delivery in real-time
What clients invited to Spoke Connect will see
In your Spoke Dispatch account, you will be able to see every client that you have invited.
Each individual client that you invite will only be able to see details of their own deliveries when they log in.
Got a question?
Contact your account manager, start a live chat, or email [email protected]