Master Shipping Account (MSA)



A Master Shipping Account (MSA) is a wallet that you set up within OrderCup to hold funds that are used to pay for shipping and insurance costs when using OrderCup's built-in carriers (such as USPS, UPS, DHL or Canada Post) or shipping insurance.A MSA is funded by one of our Payment Methods (Credit Card, Bank Account or PayPal) and can be setup in a single click from the Payment Methods Settings page.


NOTE: A MSA can only hold funds for a single currency [the currency for the origin country of the OrderCup Account]. Hence if a US OrderCup Account then the MSA currency will be USD, if you have a Canadian OrderCup Account, the MSA currency will be CAD, etc.



Creating the MSA


To create the Master Shipping Account in OrderCup, follow the steps below. 


Step 1


Add and verify a payment method (Credit card, Bank account or Paypal account) from Settings → Payment Methods, (if you haven't already added one yet).




Step 2


Click Settings → Payment Methods, select the desired payment method and in the Use For section, check the Master Shipping Account checkbox and click Save.





Step 3

Next, go to Settings → Master Shipping Account. You will see that your MSA is now created, with an Account Number, such as MSA-009999-1234. 




Replenishment


You can choose to replenish your MSA either manually or automatically when it has insufficient funds. 

To add funds manually to your MSA, click the Credit Master Shipping Account Now link and specify the amount of funds you want to add, and click the Recredit button.


To enable auto-replenishment check the box for Auto Replenish**, and set the Replenishment amount from the drop-down selections. [What amount should you select? Our recommendation is to select the amount that represents approximately the total shipping costs (for all enabled sub-accounts, e.g. USPS, DHL) for a week. That way, you won’t get declined for frequent repeated credit card charges, which your Financial Institution may flag as a possibly fraudulent requests]

** ‘Auto replenish’ means that whenever your MSA balance is too low to print a shipping label, OrderCup will automatically debit you payment method and add the Replenishment Amount specified to your MSA balance. You don’t have to use Auto replenish, although most users do. Auto replenish means uninterrupted shipping, particularly if you are in a hurry or if you need to print labels in bulk or in a batch. If you don’t want Auto replenish, you can manually replenish your USPS Account by clicking the link Credit  MSA Account Now. 

Sub Accounts


Once the MSA is created, you can control which individual Sub Accounts (shipping Carriers and OrderCup Insurance) you want to enable within the MSA. You can selectively enable/disable the desired Sub Accounts from Settings → Master Shipping Account → under Sub Accounts, check or uncheck the services you desire (USPS, UPS, FedEx. DHL, Insurance) and click Save.






Key Benefits


The Master Shipping Account provides many benefits:


  • A single Account that can be created with one click, with multiple funding options
  • The ability to handle all shipping (USPS, UPS, DHL) and Insurance related costs via this Account
  • One set of Auto-replenishment parameters (Threshold, Replenishment Amounts) to configure
  • Simplified Accounting and Reporting (similar to a Checking Account with many different transaction types - Checks, ACH, Wire transfers, Cash, etc.)
  • Ability to control which Sub Accounts (Shipping Carriers or OrderCup Insurance) are enabled


MSA Reports


You can generate MSA reports on monthly basis from Reports → Billing → MSA Transactions Reports. You can select a Filter (All or one of USPS, UPS, DHL, Insurance, etc.) if you wish to see transactions only for one the Sub Accounts.