Connecting Brightpearl sales orders to Palletways pallet bookings
Brightpearl runs your orders and stock, your Palletways depot moves the pallets. We build the link between them, from packing and booking through to tracking on the order.
- Brightpearl
- Palletways
- PrintNode
Brightpearl handles orders, stock and fulfilment for many UK distributors. Palletways moves their pallets, through a local member depot. In between, there is often a person reading goods-out paperwork and retyping each pallet into the depot’s booking system, then copying the tracking reference back into Brightpearl.
Zestcode Automation builds bespoke platforms that take Brightpearl sales orders through warehouse packing, book the pallets with your Palletways depot and write the tracking reference back to the Brightpearl order. Brightpearl stays your system of record, and the link belongs to you.
Three ways to get a Brightpearl order onto a Palletways pallet
Bespoke isn’t always the answer, so it is worth being clear about the options.
| Option | How it works | Fits well when | Falls short when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rekey by hand | Staff book each pallet in the depot’s system | Volumes are low | Pallets are queued for later dates, or the person who knows the routine is away |
| Brightpearl’s own connections or an app | A shipping connection or marketplace app links Brightpearl to a carrier | One exists that supports your Palletways depot | Your depot isn’t covered, or your rules don’t fit its settings |
| General shipping middleware | A third-party platform sits between Brightpearl and several carriers | You ship mainly parcels, many carriers | Pallets need booking windows, price holds or depot-specific steps |
| Bespoke platform | Built for your Brightpearl setup, your depot and your warehouse | Pallets are a big part of dispatch, with your own rules | Volumes are tiny and a connector already does the job |
Brightpearl’s shipping options and app marketplace change over time, so if one already supports Palletways with your depot, it may be the simpler route, and we will say so on the discovery call.
What happens to each Brightpearl order
- A sales order reaches the status your team uses for “ready to dispatch”.
- It appears on a rugged Android handheld in the warehouse, refreshed from Brightpearl when opened.
- The packer records each pallet, with type, weight and height, and photographs it.
- The platform books the pallets, or queues the booking until it falls inside your depot’s booking window, through whichever route your depot supports: a Palletways integration or the depot’s own system.
- Pallet labels print on the 4x6 printer on the day of booking, and the ship note prints on the A4 printer.
- The tracking reference, pallet count and weight are written back to the Brightpearl order, and the order moves to the next agreed status.
Exactly which Brightpearl fields and statuses are used is agreed during the specification (see ERP integration).
Where a bespoke link earns its cost
- Emailed trade orders. If POs arrive by email or PDF, they can be read, checked against Brightpearl products, prices and stock, and approved before the sales order is created.
- Parcels and pallets together. Pallet orders go to Palletways while parcel orders stay on Brightpearl’s existing carrier connections, or move to the platform too.
- Queued bookings. Pallets packed days early are booked automatically when the depot will accept them.
- Price holds. A pallet price that doesn’t match the delivery charge on the customer’s PO is held for the office before the order is invoiced.
Brightpearl still runs the accounts
Nothing about your invoicing or accounting changes. Orders keep their Brightpearl references and the customer’s PO number, and invoices are raised in Brightpearl as they are now. The platform adds an audit log of who packed, booked and amended each shipment, which Brightpearl’s own history doesn’t need to carry.
Price, timescale and ownership
A Brightpearl and Palletways link is usually part of an order to dispatch build, typically £20k–£30k ex VAT over two phases and about 14 weeks, with a fixed quote following a free written specification. If you only want emailed orders reaching Brightpearl, the first phase alone is typically £8k–£12k and around six weeks.
The code and hosting are registered to your business, nobody pays per user, and support afterwards is optional, from £80 a month.
To see whether bespoke is the right call for your Brightpearl setup, book a discovery call.
Common questions
Straight answers to what people ask us about this before a call.
Does Brightpearl need changing for this to work?
Normally no more than API access and, where useful, a custom field or two. The platform reads and writes through Brightpearl’s API, so your order statuses, warehouses and accounts setup stay as they are. Any custom fields for pallet details or tracking are agreed during the specification and added with your Brightpearl administrator.
Can Brightpearl’s own shipping connections keep handling parcels?
Yes. If your parcel carrier already works well through Brightpearl’s native connections, there’s no reason to replace it. The platform can be scoped to pick up only orders with a pallet delivery method, leaving parcel orders on their existing route. We agree that boundary in the specification so no order is booked twice.
What does the platform read from Brightpearl?
Sales orders and their lines, customers and delivery addresses, products, and the order status that marks an order as ready for dispatch. Which statuses and fields are used is agreed field by field during the specification. Pallet weights and dimensions come from the warehouse devices, not from Brightpearl.
Do orders keyed directly into Brightpearl get booked too?
They can. Orders that arrive by email can go through capture and review first, but orders created directly in Brightpearl, such as phone orders or web orders, can be picked up once they reach the agreed status. Both then follow the same warehouse, pallet and booking flow.
What happens if an order is edited in Brightpearl after approval?
The order is refreshed from Brightpearl when it is opened on a warehouse device, so pickers see the latest lines and quantities. If the change affects the pallet, the packer records the new details, and a queued booking uses the updated information when it is eventually made.