Release Notes v.3.6.0.257

As autumn settles in and the run-up to peak begins in earnest, Helm has been making sure the busiest parts of your day are also the most dependable. This release is about confident despatch: labels that behave, picks that always finish properly and stock that goes to the customers who have waited longest.

Alongside that, we have added the product safety fields your carriers increasingly expect for US and EU shipments, plus a few thoughtful touches to integrations and plugins, so you head into the busy season ready rather than reactive.

Ready For New Product Safety Rules

New product safety requirements are arriving for cross-border parcels: US CPSC rules have applied since July, and EU product identifiers are required from 1 November 2026. Helm now holds and sends everything you need for both.

New Product Safety & Manufacturer Fields

Products in Inventory now have seven new fields: Manufacturer SKU, CPSC Product Version, CPSC Registry Product ID, CPSC Intended Use Code, CPSC Intended Use Description, CPSC Disclaim Code and CPSC Disclaim Reason. You can edit them on the product page, fill them in bulk through Imports & Exports, and read or write them through the Public API.

When a field is filled in, it travels with every shipment booked for that product, so carriers and destinations that need the information receive it automatically. Products without these details ship exactly as they do today, so you can complete them at your own pace, starting with the lines you send abroad most.

Tax IDs Carried Through From Neuro

Orders arriving from Neuro now bring their VAT ID with them. The value lands in the order's Tax ID and is sent with the shipment when a label is booked. This is particularly useful for shipments to Norway under the VOEC scheme, where a tax ID is required, and saves your team adding it to each order by hand.

Smarter Shipping & Label Handling

From collection times to cancelled labels, this group of changes keeps orders moving cleanly from pack bench to carrier.

Your Own Collection Time For Smart Shipping

Smart Shipping now has its own Collection Settings, found under Settings > Couriers > Smart Shipping. Set a Collection Time that matches your carrier's latest collection, and labels created before that time are dated for today, while later labels roll to the next collection date.

You can also choose Collection Days, which apply when Delayed Despatch is enabled, in the same way as your other couriers. Nothing changes until you save a time, so existing set-ups carry on as before; simply pop in your real cut-off (for example 23:00) and evening despatches will be dated correctly.

Cleaner Cancellations For Pregenerated Labels

Cancelling a pregenerated label from Batch History now resets the order properly, so it can be packed and shipped with a fresh label straight away. For any order that was caught in this situation, Cancel Pregenerated Labels on the order page now brings it back into a ready-to-pack state.

If a carrier declines a cancellation, Helm now keeps the existing label and shipment in place, so the order can still be despatched on the label it already has. Batch History also shows the carrier's actual response, so you always know exactly where each label stands.

Amazon Easy Ship Orders Despatch Smoothly

Amazon Easy Ship orders, where Amazon shares only the postcode and handles the rest of the address itself, now open on the Packing Terminal without fuss. Shipping services load as expected and the orders can be booked and despatched like any other domestic order.

Adding Courier Accounts Made Simple

Adding a new account for couriers that use account credentials rather than a login window, such as Royal Mail Click & Drop, now opens the credentials form directly from Add New Account. Couriers that use a sign-in window, such as Amazon, continue to work just as before.

Steadier Picking & Fairer Stock Allocation

These changes look after the moments when timing matters most: the end of a pick, and the arrival of new stock.

Picks That Finish Cleanly

Helm is now far more resilient when a pick's completion is interrupted, for example during a very busy moment on your system. A background check picks up any unfinished completion within minutes and completes it properly: stock is moved, orders move to Picked and the pick is closed, so you no longer find a completed pick with orders still sitting in Picking.

Orders that have changed in the meantime, such as one placed On Hold, are left exactly as they are, and the pick log notes them for a quick manual review. Force Complete now waits politely if a pick is already being completed, and asks you to try again in a minute rather than running at the same time.

Back Orders Released Oldest First

When new stock arrives, back orders are now released strictly in order of the date they were received, with the oldest first. Your longest-waiting customers are served first, regardless of the order in which their orders were imported.

Dependable Integrations & Public API

A pair of refinements that keep data consistent between Helm and the systems around it.

Consistent Order Dates Across The Public API

Orders created through the /orders/create_with_inventory and /orders/create_with_shipment endpoints of the Public API without a date_received are now recorded in UK time, matching /orders/create. Order dates now line up neatly however your orders arrive.

Fulfilment Updates That Keep Flowing

When Helm sends fulfilment updates to your sales channels in a batch, a single order that the channel declines no longer holds up the rest. Every other order in the batch is still sent, and only the declined order is marked as failed, with its own clear message, so your customers keep receiving their tracking updates.

Plugin Enhancements

Pregenerated Labels: Respecting Single Parcel Per Item

The Pregenerated Labels plugin now honours the Single Parcel Per Item setting. An order for five such items is prepared as five parcels, with one label for each, ready to despatch as five pieces.

Every change in this release is aimed at the same goal: a smoother, more predictable run into peak, with labels, picks and stock that behave exactly as you expect. Thank you for trusting us with your operations; we will keep listening and refining so that Helm stays a steady, dependable part of your day. If you have any questions about these updates, our team is always happy to help.

Your team at Helm