Glossary of CanShip terms

Applies to: All tiers  ·  Last reviewed: 2026-06-24

What this is

Plain definitions of the words that show up across CanShip. Skim it once and the rest of the help centre reads faster.

Structure

• Account: your company's CanShip workspace. For a 3PL, this is your whole operation.
• Warehouse: a physical building you ship from. An account can have one or several, each with its own address.
• Client: a brand you fulfill for. Each client has its own products, orders, and sales channels.
• Location: a named bin or bay inside a warehouse where stock lives.
• Sellable: a location setting; stock here can be allocated to orders.
• Pickable: a location setting; stock here appears on pick lists.

Catalogue

• Product / SKU: an item you stock, identified by its stock-keeping code. Products belong to a client.
• Barcode: the scannable UPC, EAN, or GTIN on a product.
• SKU mapping: a link from a channel's external code to your product. An alias maps one external SKU to one product; a bundle maps one external SKU to several products (a kit).

Inventory

• On hand: physical units in your locations.
• Allocated: units reserved for orders.
• On hold: units set aside in a non-sellable state.
• Available: units free to commit to new orders (on hand minus allocated minus on hold).
• Receipt: an inbound shipment you record to add stock to on hand.

Orders and fulfillment

• Channel: where an order comes from (Shopify, Amazon, Extensiv, or the built-in Manual Orders).
• Order status: Open, Ready, Shipped, or Cancelled.
• Inventory status: Allocated, Partial, or Unallocated, describing how much of an order could be reserved.
• Pick job: a batch of Ready orders grouped for picking, scoped to one warehouse.
• Manifest: the end-of-day handoff to a carrier that formally tenders your labelled parcels.
• Zonos: the service CanShip uses to prepay US duty on Canada Post shipments under the US$800 threshold.