Send to Amazon from Google Sheets: an FBA shipment, plan to box labels

Creating an FBA inbound shipment in Seller Central takes a tour of pages: the ship-from address, products one by one, box dimensions, a carrier, then the labels. The next shipment, you do it all again.

SellerSheet runs the whole Send to Amazon (STA) workflow in Google Sheets. Addresses and products are entered once; after that every plan is: add a row → click a button → compare the quotes in the sheet → confirm. This post walks one shipment through in order: set up the address and products → create the plan → compare placement and carrier quotes → confirm → get box and FNSKU labels → track it.

First, pick a mode: box first or split firstCopy Anchor Link

The mode is the Fulfillment Split dropdown on Manage Shipments. It cannot be changed afterwards — a wrong pick means Cancel Plan and a new row.

Each sidebar menu's buttons run only on the tab of the same name: an STA-BoxFirst button clicked on an STA-SplitFirst tab is refused, and the message says which menu and tab to use.

Input rules that prevent half the errorsCopy Anchor Link

The sheet is read by a program, so type every symbol with a half-width (English) keyboard.

Setup: one workbook, four tabsCopy Anchor Link

Before you start: your store is connected to SellerSheet, the SellerSheet sidebar is installed in Google Sheets (Extensions → SellerSheet → Open Sidebar), and the seller account has FBA.

The first time the sidebar opens, SellerSheet creates the FBA workbook (SellerSheet FBA) in Drive › SellerSheet › Shipment. Under FBA & Logistics (the truck icon) the sidebar has four menus: Inventory Health, Manage Shipments, STA-BoxFirst and STA-SplitFirst; Resources at the top links the FBA workbook and the Drive shipment folder. Hover any button and its tooltip says what it reads, where it writes and what it needs first.

Manage Shipments is the register across plans: every plan starts as a row here.

Fill Product Info fast: on Inventory Health, pick the store in A4 and click Inventory Health › Refresh Data in the sidebar — every active SKU's image, SKU, FNSKU, ASIN and title land in the sheet. Copy them to Product Info and add the box details. Write Image URL as a plain https:// link, not =IMAGE().

Create a planCopy Anchor Link

Add a row on Manage Shipments and fill the ✎ columns:

• Store (myStore-US), Warehouse Code (already in Shipment Setting), Plan Name (shown in Seller Central; the plan workbook is named after it).
• MSKUs: the SKUs to send, one per line in the cell (Alt+Enter).
• Fulfillment Split: the mode, above.
• Case Packed: YES = factory cartons; NO = mixed or uneven boxes.
• Ship Date (today or later) and Delivery Window Start Date, both YYYY-MM-DD.

Plan Folder, Plan ID, Shipment ID, FBA ID and the other columns are written by SellerSheet — leave them empty.

Select the row and click Manage Shipments › Create STA SS. SellerSheet:

1. Checks the required fields and that every MSKU has a Product Info row (Box First also needs complete box details), and tells you what is missing.
2. Copies the STA-BoxFirst or STA-SplitFirst template into a new plan workbook named after the Plan Name.
3. Creates SellerSheet › Shipment › store › country › year › month › plan folder in Drive and puts the workbook there; box-label PDFs go there later.
4. Turns Plan Folder into a link to that folder and Plan Name into a link to the workbook, then opens it (if the browser blocks the pop-up, click Open STA in the notification).

Every later button is clicked on the plan workbook's STA tab. Clicking Create STA SS again on the same row does not create a second workbook.

The STA tabCopy Anchor Link

A confirmed STA-BoxFirst: progress, plan parameters, automatic totals and the boxes, each in its own band.

• PROGRESS (rows 4–6): the step names, their state (green DONE / yellow READY / red CANCELLED) and the Amazon ID each step produced; when you need to choose, row 6 shows a dropdown.
• ① PLAN ✎ and ② LOGISTICS & PACKING ✎ (row 9): store, plan name, ship date, ship-from address (a warehouse-code dropdown), Case Packed, Pallet Packed, units, preferred carrier, and the two label sizes — L9 FNSKU label (30x40 mm / 50x30 mm / 60x40 mm) and M9 box label (100x150 mm = Amazon's page as is; 100x100 mm = just the square at the top of each page, complete and never scaled).
• ③ STATUS & TOTALS (row 12, automatic): status, FBA ID, reference ID, destination, total units, boxes, weight and volume.
• Detail (from row 14): boxes for Box First, SKU totals for Split First.

Mode A: box first (STA-BoxFirst)Copy Anchor Link

Enter the boxesCopy Anchor Link

One row per box group × product: Box No., MSKU (image, FNSKU, title and ASIN fill in), Qty/Box, Box Dimension, Box Weight; the box count and total units are computed.

Case Packed (F9) decides where the last three come from: with YES they come from Product Info; with NO you type what is actually in each box. Either way, rows that share a box number must carry the same dimensions and weight — those describe the whole box.

The rule: a box range means those boxes are identical; several rows with one box number mean that box holds several products. Number boxes from 1 to the last one without gaps. Three examples:

Example 1 · one product per box (Case Packed = YES): box 1 holds SKU1, boxes 2–5 hold SKU2.

Example 2 · two products per box, every box the same (Case Packed = YES): five boxes of SKU1 ×20 + SKU2 ×10. One row per product, both with box number 1~5 and the whole box's dimensions and weight.

Example 3 · every box different (Case Packed = NO): boxes 1–2 mixed, box 3 a single product, boxes 4–5 another, box 6 the remainder.

Click the buttons in orderCopy Anchor Link

In step 2 each dropdown item reads "option ID (placement fee · destination)":

Placement fees run from 0 to 300 USD; the free option usually means more destinations.

Mode B: split first (STA-SplitFirst, truckload)Copy Anchor Link

Split First takes only each SKU's total; packing comes after Amazon has split the shipments.

The detail table takes just MSKU and Total Qty (plus expiration and label / prep owners when needed). The buttons, in order:

1. Initiate Plan: creates the plan and fetches the placement options right away into STA-Options and progress cell 2.
2. Confirm Placement: confirms the option you picked and creates STA-Pack, one packing block per shipment.
3. Pack in STA-Pack, then click Set Box Info to send the boxes.
4. Gen Trans. Opts.: transportation options for the confirmed option's shipments (pallets: fill the three fields first).
5. Gen Delivery Window: only with your own carrier.
6. Confirm Shipment: books it. Labels, FNSKU labels and Cancel Plan work as in Box First.

Filling STA-PackCopy Anchor Link

Packed Qty turns green when exactly packed, yellow when short, red when over.

• ① ALLOCATION (automatic): one row per shipment × MSKU, with destination, planned and packed quantities.
• ② PER-SKU CHECK (automatic): each SKU's planned and packed totals.
• ③ BOX ENTRY: yours to fill. One row per shipment × MSKU is ready; Box No starts at 1 within each shipment (e.g. 1~2), and you can insert rows for other box types. Rows with Case Packed = NO also need Qty/Box, dimensions and weight.

When everything is green, click Set Box Info.

Compare prices in STA-OptionsCopy Anchor Link

STA-Options is the comparison page for both modes: a summary with one row per placement option on top, then one block per option with a row per shipment.

A placement option uses one kind of carrier, so each option gets two comparable totals instead of one mixed number:

• Total (Partnered) = placement fee + the Amazon-partnered (AMAZON_PARTNERED_CARRIER) fees you picked on its shipment rows.
• Total (Own) = placement fee + your own freight estimate (USE_YOUR_OWN_CARRIER).

The lowest cell in each column turns green: compare across options, and within one option whether Amazon's carrier or your own is cheaper.

With Amazon's carriers option 2 is cheapest (1,017); with your own freight, option 4 — five destinations — wins (508).

Partnered quotes are in the dropdown. After Gen Trans. Opts., each item in a shipment row's Transportation Option dropdown reads "option ID (carrier type - mode - carrier - price USD)". The one you pick becomes the Transportation Fee and adds up into Total (Partnered).

For one shipment, partnered air small-parcel and ocean LCL quotes sit in a single dropdown.

Your own freight takes a rate. Own-carrier items carry no price: type your forwarder's Rate/kg ✎ (or Rate/m³ ✎) on the shipment row and Est. computes the freight from that row's weight or volume, adding up into Total (Own).

A few rules:

• Small parcel with Amazon's carrier needs one carrier for every shipment in the option: pick the first shipment's, then click Match Carriers to align the rest. With your own carrier, shipments may differ.
• Your own carrier also needs a delivery window (click Gen Delivery Window first), or Confirm is refused.
• Once decided, pick the option in progress cell 2, choose the matching transportation option on each of its shipment rows, and click Confirm Shipment.

Pallets: three fields before the quotesCopy Anchor Link

With Pallet Packed = YES on row 9, fill three fields on every STA-Options shipment row before Gen Trans. Opts., or Amazon returns only parcel-style options and no LTL / FTL quote:

All three or none on a row.

The destination you want isn't offered?Copy Anchor Link

Placement options expire (the date is in the note on step 2 of the STA tab). Before then, Gen Placement Opts. returns the same set and no new destinations. For a new set, Cancel Plan and start again: Box First is Initiate Plan → Gen Placement Opts.; Split First is just Initiate Plan.

After confirming: labels, packing list, trackingCopy Anchor Link

Once you click Confirm Shipment:

• Box labels: when Amazon returns them at once, the FBA ID in STA-Options becomes a link to the PDF; otherwise click Get FBA Box Labels. The PDF is cropped to M9's size and saved to the plan folder. Only shipments without a link are fetched — to fetch again, delete the link and click.
• FNSKU labels: Get FNSKU Labels makes one per unit (Qty/Box × boxes) at L9's size.
• Inbound PL: the final packing list, one row per box × SKU with image, box ID, FNSKU, MSKU, ASIN, quantity, weight and dimensions — for packing and the warehouse hand-off.

Inbound PL is sorted by box ID, ready to print for the warehouse.

Back on the FBA workbook's Manage Shipments, your row is shipment 1 and each further shipment gets its own row, with Plan Folder, Plan ID, Shipment ID, FBA Label (the PDF) and FBA ID filled in. Carrier is filled from the chosen option and can be edited for your own carrier; Tracking takes the tracking numbers in box order, comma-separated.

A box-first and a split-first plan, both confirmed, in one register.

Then Manage Shipments › Refresh Shipment pulls the status of every open shipment from Amazon and colors it: UNCONFIRMED → WORKING → READY_TO_SHIP → SHIPPED → IN_TRANSIT → DELIVERED → CHECKED_IN → RECEIVING → CLOSED (or CANCELLED / ABANDONED / DELETED).

Messages you may seeCopy Anchor Link

From plan to box labels, every choice and every quote stays in the sheet: the next shipment is a copied row with new quantities and the same buttons. The column-by-column reference is in the guide below.