Track with AfterShip

How to connect your AfterShip account

AfterShip uses API Key authentication for secure access.

1. Log in to your AfterShip account
2. Navigate to Settings (located in the bottom-left corner of the dashboard)
3. Click on API Keys in the settings menu
4. Click Create API key and follow the instructions:
   
   1. Enter a descriptive name for your API key
   2. Select the appropriate API permissions for your use case (aftership:tracking:read for tracking)
   3. Click Save to generate your key
5. Copy the API key immediately (it will only be displayed once) and store it securely

In Parabola:

1. Add a Track with AfterShip step to your flow
2. Click Authorize and paste your API key when prompted
3. Once authenticated, select the AfterShip endpoint you want to access

💡 Tip: You can generate multiple API keys for different applications or team members. For security, consider rotating your API keys periodically and removing any unused keys.

What data can I pull using the AfterShip integration? 

Right now, Parabola's supports AfterShip's Tracking API—allowing you to pull real-time tracking data about a shipment. Access data such as: 

• Delivery status and tags: Shipment categorization by status (In Transit, Out for Delivery, Delivered, Exception, etc.) and custom tags for filtering and organization.
• Estimated delivery dates: AI-powered delivery date predictions based on carrier performance, route analysis, and historical data.
• Order information: Associated order numbers, customer details, shipping methods, and custom metadata linked to each tracking.
• Exception details: Delivery failure information, return-to-sender status, failed delivery attempts, and reason codes for exceptions.‍
• Trackings: Complete shipment tracking records including tracking numbers, carrier information, delivery status, origin and destination addresses, estimated delivery dates, transit times, and shipment tags.‍
• Checkpoints: Detailed scan history and location updates with timestamps, event descriptions, city/state/country information, and coordinates for each checkpoint along the delivery route.
• ‍Courier information: Carrier details including courier names, slugs (identifiers), service types, required tracking fields, and courier-specific capabilities.‍
• Courier detection: Automatically identify the correct carrier based on tracking number format or additional shipment information.‍
• Last checkpoint: The most recent tracking update for a specific shipment, including status, location, and timestamp.‍
• Notifications: Customer notification settings and history, including email and SMS subscription details for shipment updates.

What use cases can I built with Parabola's AfterShip integration? 

Brands turn to Parabola any time they're exporting CSVs, breaking into Excel, monitoring and reconciling systems, and doing work manually. Here are some common use cases from brands that leverage AfterShip:

• Centralized shipment tracking: Pull tracking data from AfterShip and combine it with order records from Shopify, NetSuite, or your WMS to create a single consolidated view of all outbound shipments across carriers and channels.
• Order-to-tracking reconciliation: Compare order data from your ERP or sales channels with AfterShip tracking feeds to identify missing tracking numbers, mismatched shipments, duplicates, or orders with no delivery updates.
• Delivery SLA and transit-time reporting: Monitor delivery speed, missed SLAs, and carrier transit-time performance by combining AfterShip timestamps with promised delivery dates from your ERP or OMS.
• Carrier performance scorecards: Analyze on-time rates, exception frequency, and regional performance by carrier using AfterShip status histories to generate internal performance dashboards and quarterly business review scorecards.
• Exception and delay monitoring: Create automated workflows that pull AfterShip exceptions—like failed delivery attempts, “Available for Pickup,” or “Exception”—and alert CX or ops teams for proactive customer outreach via Slack or email.
• Return shipment visibility: Track return parcels by pulling AfterShip reverse-logistics checkpoints and joining them with RMA or returns data in Shopify, ERP, or your returns platform to improve refund timing and accuracy.

Tips to find success

• Schedule your flow to run automatically: Set up hourly or daily refreshes to keep tracking data current and catch exceptions as they happen.
• Use Filters to identify at-risk shipments: Create rules to flag trackings that have been "In Transit" for longer than expected or haven't moved in several days.
• Combine with other systems: Join AfterShip tracking data with your order management system (Shopify, NetSuite, etc.) to create complete order-to-delivery reports and catch missing tracking numbers.
• Set up Alerts for exceptions: Configure automated Slack messages or email alerts when shipments move to "Exception" status or miss their estimated delivery dates.
• Normalize courier slugs early: AfterShip uses standardized courier identifiers (slugs) like "fedex" or "ups"—use these consistently when joining data from multiple sources.
• Archive historical data: Export completed shipments to Google Sheets or your data warehouse to analyze long-term trends in carrier performance and delivery times.
• Filter by destination region: Use checkpoint location data to analyze delivery performance by geography and identify regions with higher exception rates.