Tracksies Packsie

⌘K
  2. Home
  4. Tracksies Packsie
  6. Getting Started
  8. Installation & Setup

Installation & Setup

What Packsie is

Packsie is a small add-on plugin that unlocks a unified staff dashboard for your WooCommerce store. All the dashboard code actually lives inside Tracksies HQ — Packsie is the key that turns it on.

Think of Tracksies HQ as a tiny house with a locked warehouse wing. Installing Packsie opens that wing and gives your staff their own workspace. The packing interface, the returns processing, the customer lookups — all of that is already built into Tracksies HQ, waiting to be activated. Packsie is the appliance that powers the whole operation.

When Packsie is installed:

  • Your staff get a unified Staff Dashboard on the frontend with tabbed access to Orders, Returns, and Customers
  • Each tab loads on demand, so the page stays fast even with thousands of orders
  • A new “Packer” role is created in WordPress so you can give staff limited access
  • Kiosk mode becomes available for dedicated warehouse tablets and screens
  • You control exactly which roles can see which tabs through a permissions matrix

—

Requirements

Before installing Packsie, make sure you have:

  • WordPress 6.0 or newer
  • PHP 8.0 or newer
  • WooCommerce 8.0 or newer
  • Tracksies HQ installed and activated — this is the base plugin that everything builds on

Packsie won’t activate without Tracksies HQ and WooCommerce. If either is missing, you’ll see a clear admin notice explaining what’s needed.

—

Installing Packsie

  1. Log in to your Tracksies account at tracksies.com and download the Packsie ZIP file
  2. In your WordPress dashboard, click Plugins in the left sidebar, then click Add New Plugin at the top of the page
  3. Click the Upload Plugin button at the top
  4. Click Choose File, find the Packsie ZIP you downloaded, then click Install Now
  5. Once the installation finishes, click Activate Plugin

Entering your licence

After activation, go to Tracksies > Settings > Licenses in your WordPress sidebar. Find the Packsie section, enter the licence key from your Tracksies account, and click Activate. This connects Packsie to your account for automatic updates and support.

All your Tracksies plugin licences live on this one page — no hunting through separate menus for each plugin.

—

What happens on activation

When you activate Packsie, three things happen behind the scenes:

  1. A “Staff Dashboard” page is automatically created — this page contains the [tracksies_staff_dashboard] shortcode and is ready to use immediately. You don’t need to create any pages yourself. The dashboard shows up as a tabbed interface with Orders, Returns, and Customers sections, and each tab loads its content on demand so it stays snappy.
  1. A new “Packer” role is created — this is a WordPress user role designed for warehouse staff. It has enough permissions to view and manage orders, and nothing more. No access to plugins, themes, settings, or anything else in your admin area. See Staff Roles & Access Control for the full picture.
  1. The manage_packing capability is added to your Administrator and Shop Manager roles. This capability controls who can see the Staff Dashboard. Any role with this capability can access the dashboard — the permissions matrix then determines which tabs they see.

—

Quick setup

Once Packsie is activated, you’re most of the way there. Here’s the fastest path to a working staff station:

1. Your dashboard page is already created

Packsie created a page called “Staff Dashboard” when you activated it. This page is already set up with the [tracksies_staff_dashboard] shortcode, so you can skip straight to configuration.

If you need to verify or change which page is used, go to Tracksies > Settings, find the Packsie section, and use the Dashboard Page dropdown to select a different page. But in most cases, the auto-created page is all you need.

2. Configure permissions

Go to Tracksies > Settings and find the Packsie section. You’ll see a permissions matrix — a grid of roles and tabs. This is where you decide who can see what.

The matrix has your WordPress roles down the left side and the dashboard tabs across the top: Orders, Returns, and Customers. Tick the boxes to grant access. For example, you might give your Packer role access to Orders and Returns, but reserve the Customers tab for Shop Managers.

A few things worth knowing about the tabs:

  • Orders is the packing interface where staff claim orders, pack items, and add tracking numbers
  • Returns shows return requests for staff to review, approve, or reject. This tab only appears when the Returns feature is enabled in Tracksies HQ (under Tracksies > Settings > Features, look for the Returns toggle)
  • Customers gives staff a searchable directory with customer cards and profile panels showing order history, tags, and contact details

You can also enable Kiosk mode here. When kiosk mode is on, the Staff Dashboard page strips away your theme’s header, footer, and sidebars — leaving a clean, full-screen interface that’s ideal for warehouse tablets and dedicated screens.

3. Create staff accounts

Go to Users > Add New User and create accounts for your warehouse team:

  • Set the role to Packer (the role Packsie created during activation)
  • Give them the Staff Dashboard page URL (bookmark it on their devices)
  • They log in, visit the page, and the dashboard loads with the tabs you’ve granted them

That’s it. Your staff station is ready.

—

A note about older shortcodes

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version of Packsie, you may have pages using [tracksies_packing_dashboard], [tracksies_returns_dashboard], or [tracksies_staff_hub]. These shortcodes still work — they all point to the same unified Staff Dashboard now. You don’t need to update your existing pages, but you also don’t need separate pages for packing and returns anymore. The unified dashboard handles everything in one place with tabs.

—

What’s next

How can we help?