Collections

A collection (sometimes called a manifest) groups the day's shipments going to the same carrier, from the same pickup address, into a single unit that moves through booking, pickup, and dispatch together.

Most of the time you don't need to think about collections. The system creates and updates them automatically as you create shipments.

What is a collection?

A collection is a daily grouping of shipments that will be handed to one carrier, from one pickup address, on one pickup date. You'll see your open collections on the Collections page, and individual shipments inherit their status from the collection they belong to.

What happens when you create a shipment

As soon as your shipment is created (with its labels), the system:

Looks at how the carrier wants its pickups handled.
Finds an existing open collection for that carrier + pickup date + sender address, or creates a new one.
Attaches your shipment to that collection.
Sets the shipment status based on the carrier type — see Three carrier types below.

You never have to manually create a collection — it happens automatically on the first shipment of the day for a given carrier and address.

Three carrier types — three collection paths

Different carriers want pickups handled differently. EasyParcel models this with four patterns:

Carrier type	What happens	Your shipment starts as
Walk-in / depot drop (e.g. Kiwi Express oversize)	No collection needed. Carrier is notified on creation.	`shipped`
Scheduled pickup (e.g. regular daily run)	Shipment joins the day's open collection. Carrier already knows to come.	`on_manifest`
Booked on creation (e.g. auto-booked courier)	Collection is created as already-booked; no further action required.	`carrier_collection_booked`
Booking required (freight / ad-hoc couriers)	Collection stays open until you book it.	`on_manifest`

Which pattern applies to which carrier is configured once by your administrator under Administration → Collection Arrangements.

Collection lifecycle (booking-required carriers)

For carriers in the Booking required category, your collection moves through four stages — automatically where carrier arrangements allow, otherwise with a button click from you or an admin:

Stage	What it means	Shipments on it show as
Open	Collection is accepting new shipments for the day.	`on_manifest`
Booking requested	Someone clicked Book collection. We're contacting the carrier.	`collection_requested`
Booking confirmed	The carrier accepted the booking and gave us a reference. Customers receive a Shipment Created tracking email (if enabled). Related orders are marked fulfilled.	`collection_booked`
Collected	The driver has picked up the parcels.	`shipped`

You can also reopen a booked collection if something changes — for example, ~~waiting for the next day to swap a shipment~~ → click Reopen. The collection moves back to Open and its shipments back to on_manifest.

Cutoff times and smart scheduling

Each carrier has a cutoff time for that day's collection (e.g. book before 2 pm). The Collections page shows a countdown badge so you can see which collections still have time to book and which need to roll to tomorrow.
If you try to book a pickup for a date that doesn't meet the carrier's lead time, the system suggests the next valid date — rolling Saturday and Sunday requests to the following Monday.

What you need to do

Most of the time: nothing. Create shipments; collections form themselves; scheduled and auto-booked carriers don't need any action from you.
For booking-required carriers: review your open collections each day before the cutoff and click Book collection. When the carrier confirms, statuses cascade automatically.
On pickup day: when the driver scans the parcels, your admin can click Mark collected (or the carrier's tracking feed does it for us), and the shipments become shipped.

Querying collections from the API

Power users and integrations can read today's open collections directly:

GET /api/collections?status=open&pickup_date=today
Authorization: Bearer <token>

{
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "coll_01HZ…",
      "carrier_code": "NZPOST",
      "pickup_address_id": "addr_…",
      "pickup_date": "2026-05-31",
      "status": "open",
      "cutoff_at": "2026-05-31T14:00:00+12:00",
      "shipment_count": 17
    }
  ]
}

Where to see what

Page	Use it for
Shipments	All shipments and their individual statuses
Collections	Today's open/booked collections, cutoff countdowns, one-click booking
Administration → Collection Arrangements	Per-carrier pickup rules (set up once by your admin)
Settings → Customer Account Carriers	Which carriers your account can use

Common questions

What if I miss the cutoff? The collection rolls to the next valid pickup date automatically. No data is lost.

Can a shipment belong to two collections? No. One shipment, one collection, one day.

Can I move a shipment to a different collection? Yes — open the booked collection, reopen it, remove the shipment, and the system will re-pool it on the next compatible open collection.

Last reviewed: May 2026 · Category: Operations · Visibility: Customers

Collections — how they work