Shipping cost appears on four documents: the order, the shipment, the shipment delivery note, and the invoice. This article explains which document gets its shipping amount from where — and what to do when they don't show the number you expect.
The short version: the order holds the agreed shipping cost, the delivery note shows a preview of what the invoice will charge, and the booked invoice is the final amount. When the invoice is booked, the delivery note is updated to match it.
Where shipping cost comes from
Shipping cost is set in one of two ways:
- Automatically, from your shipping cost settings. You configure a rate and a calculation mode — Fixed amount, Per colli, or Percentage of delivery value — under Settings → Country settings, on a region, or on an individual customer's Master data page. The most specific setting wins: customer → country → region → brand.
- Manually, by typing an amount in the Shipping field on the order. Once you do this, the automatic rules stop recalculating shipping for that order — your amount stays.
Tip: Free shipping settings (a free shipping threshold or a customer marked as always free) set shipping to 0 on every document, regardless of mode.
What each mode puts on each document
The three calculation modes behave differently because they depend on different information. A fixed amount is known when the order is placed. A per colli cost is only known once the warehouse has packed the boxes.
| Shipping setup | Order | Delivery note | Invoice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed amount | The fixed amount | The order's remaining shipping | The order's remaining shipping |
| Manually typed on the order | Your amount | The order's remaining shipping | The order's remaining shipping |
| Per colli | Nothing — the box count isn't known yet | Rate × number of colli packed | Rate × number of colli packed |
| Percentage of delivery value | Percentage of the order value | The shipped share of the order's shipping | The shipped share of the order's shipping |
"Remaining shipping" means the order's shipping minus what earlier booked invoices on the order already charged — see the partial shipments section below.
Important: With Per colli, the amount on the delivery note is calculated from the actual boxes packed. It is never copied from the order — even if the order shows a shipping amount.
Overriding shipping during packing
The warehouse can change the Shipping cost field on the delivery note while packing. An override beats everything: the invoice created from that delivery note uses the override instead of the automatic calculation or the order's amount.
If shipping was calculated by your per colli or percentage rules, the field is locked and shows Shipping cost was set by Shipping Cost app. Shipping from fixed rules or manual order amounts can be overridden freely.
Partial shipments
When one order ships in several shipments, each shipment gets its own delivery note and invoice. How shipping is charged depends on the setting Decrease shipping per invoice under Settings → Sales settings:
- Off (default): every invoice on the order charges the full shipping amount.
- On: shipping is charged once. The first booked invoice takes the full amount, and later invoices charge only what remains — usually 0.
Delivery notes preview the same logic. If a delivery note is created after an earlier invoice already took the shipping, it shows 0. If two delivery notes are packed before anything is invoiced, both preview the full amount — and the one that invoices second is corrected to 0 when its invoice is booked.
Percentage of delivery value works differently: each invoice charges its proportional share of the order's shipping, so the invoices always add up to the order's total shipping regardless of this setting.
After the invoice is booked
The booked invoice is the final word on shipping. When an invoice is booked, its shipping amount is written back onto the delivery note it came from, so the two documents always match. B2C orders (for example Shopify) always charge shipping on the first invoice only.
Related articles
How to setup shipping cost — configuring rates, modes, and free shipping thresholds
Country settings — Walkthrough — where the shipping cost resolution settings live
How to create and fulfill a shipment in Traede — the fulfilment flow where delivery notes are created