DHL Express

Carrier-specific setup for DHL Express in Shipping Labels.

Purpose

This page describes the DHL Express-specific setup in Shipping Labels. It focuses on product selection, allowed service options, customer credentials, pickup-window properties, and return-service behavior for national and international express scenarios.

Prerequisites

  • The shared Shipping Labels setup is complete.
  • DHL Express test or productive credentials and URLs are available.
  • The required DHL Express products and account information are known.
  • The relevant shipping agent service is already maintained in Business Central.
  1. Maintain the DHL Express product list.
  2. Define the allowed service options per product.
  3. Assign credentials and the correct environment URL.
  4. Maintain pickup times, closing time, sender email fallback, and return-service behavior.
  5. Test one realistic shipment with the selected service option combination.

Setup components

Start with products and allowed service options

DHL Express combines products with selectable service options. The public-facing setup should therefore explain two layers:

  • the product itself, for example national or international express services
  • the service options that are allowed for that product

Typical examples include service options such as Saturday delivery, delivery against signature, delivery without signature, and GoGreen ad hoc.

Service options are released per product in advance. In practice, this means you first maintain the product list and then assign the allowed options to that product on the service-options page. When that product is later selected on the actual setup or on documents, only the options released for that product remain available.

Maintain credentials and endpoints completely

The DHL Express setup uses customer credentials together with a test or productive endpoint. These values should be completed before the business setup is released to users.

Typical required values are:

  • username and password
  • account export and account import identifiers
  • environment-specific URL

Set pickup times and return-service behavior deliberately

The request is influenced not only by credentials but also by operational timing settings. Maintain the pickup time, closing time, and the sender email fallback carefully. If a return-service scenario is required, document and activate it only where the business actually uses it.

Pickup timing is especially important because requests can fail if the shipment date and the pickup window imply that the pickup already lies in the past.

A typical failure case is easy to overlook: if the work date or shipment date is set to today but the current time is already inside or even past the defined pickup window, DHL Express can reject the request. In practice, this means the label must be created before the relevant pickup time. If it is already 1:00 pm and the pickup window is configured as 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, a shipment dated for today can already fail. In that case, either move the shipment date forward or adjust the pickup window to a realistic later time.

Treat fallback package data as secondary

As with other carriers, item attributes for dimensions and weight override the fallback values on the setup. Maintain fallback data only as a controlled default, not as a replacement for item master data quality.

Process Important DHL Express notes These points keep DHL Express setup aligned with the actual service combination that is requested.
  • Maintain the product catalog before assigning service options.
  • Only choose service options that are explicitly allowed for the selected product.
  • Complete all credential fields before starting end-to-end tests.
  • Check shipment date, pickup-from time, and closing time together.
  • Use item attributes for package data where possible and fallback setup values only as a backup.

Links

Further Information

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