Key takeaways
- Comsol Multiship handles shipments for several parcel carriers and forwarders in parallel — without interfaces to each carrier's own software.
- The solution is built on Business Central technology, so it sits inside the ERP rather than beside it.
- Supported carriers include DHL, GLS, UPS, FedEx, Deutsche Post, Swiss Post, DB Schenker and Kühne + Nagel.
- The vendor reports more than 500 installations and over 65,000 shipments a day.
- Available for Business Central on-premises and, via AppSource, for Business Central Cloud.
The break in the process costs more than it looks
Shipping software next to the ERP is rarely the result of a decision. It arrived with the first carrier, and when the second came along their software came with them. Both work perfectly well on their own — the price is paid somewhere else.
It shows up in double entry and the typos that come with it; in tracking numbers that are not attached to the order, so a customer query turns into a search; in shipping costs that do not fall cleanly back onto the document; and in the fact that nobody can say how shipments split across carriers without copying things together.
Multiship's approach is to bring the shipping process to where the order already is: into Business Central. Carriers are served from the ERP rather than the ERP handing data off to separate programs.
What multi-carrier actually means in practice
The decisive word is parallel. This is not about swapping one carrier for another but about serving several at once — parcel services for small consignments, forwarders for pallets, a specialist for international shipments.
For the person in the warehouse that means one interface and one procedure, regardless of who carries the shipment. The differences between carriers — label formats, data requirements, handover lists — live in the setup rather than in the daily task.
For analysis it means all shipments sit in the same tables. Questions about shipping cost per customer, a carrier's share, or consignments without proof of delivery can be answered in the ERP instead of across three portals.
- One shipping process for every connected carrier
- Labels and shipping papers produced from Business Central
- Tracking numbers on the document rather than in a portal
- Shipping costs and volumes analysable in the ERP
- Modular design — carriers can be added
When the change pays off — and when it does not
The benefit grows with two numbers: the volume of shipments and the number of carriers. A company with a single parcel service and twenty consignments a day will barely notice the difference. From several carriers, freight alongside parcels, or a volume where somebody in the warehouse does nothing but shipping, that changes markedly.
A second, often overlooked trigger is the move to the cloud. If you run Business Central Online you can no longer hang arbitrary shipping software directly onto the database. The question of how shipping is properly connected is then asked anew anyway — and can be answered at the same time.
Conversely: if a single carrier is mandated, you have to operate their software regardless, and the volume stays small, the effort of switching is hard to justify.
Frequently asked questions
- For the connected carriers, no. That is precisely the approach: shipments run out of Business Central without an interface to each carrier's own software. Whether every one of your carriers is genuinely covered belongs in the assessment before you decide — the list of supported providers is long, but not endless.
- Yes. The solution grew up in the on-premises world and is now available via AppSource for Business Central Cloud as well. Which variant fits you depends less on shipping than on your wider operating decision.
- Yes, that is the actual purpose. Parcel consignments and freight are handled in the same process, each with the appropriate papers and data requirements. The differences sit in the setup, not in the daily routine.
- Because tracking numbers hang on the document, delivery information can be brought together where the transaction sits, rather than being looked up in a portal. What feedback a particular carrier provides does differ between carriers, though, and should be settled during selection.