Common questions
What does Packsie actually do?
Packsie is a small plugin that unlocks the unified staff dashboard in Tracksies HQ. All the dashboard code lives inside Tracksies HQ — Packsie is the key that activates it. When activated, your staff get a single dashboard page with tabs for Orders (packing), Returns, and Customers. Think of it as opening the warehouse wing of a house you’ve already built.
Do staff need WordPress admin access?
No. The dashboard works entirely on the frontend. Staff log into WordPress (they need a user account), but they never need to visit the admin dashboard. You can even hide the admin bar for their role if you want a completely clean experience.
What’s the Customers tab?
The Customers tab lets your staff search for customers by name or email address. Results appear as a card grid, and clicking a customer opens their profile panel on the right side of the screen. The profile panel shows the customer’s order history, earned tags, interactions, and key details like lifetime value and last order date. It’s useful when a customer calls or emails and staff need to quickly pull up their information without leaving the dashboard.
What happens if two people try to pack the same order?
The claim system prevents this. Once someone claims an order, it’s locked to them. Other staff members see it as claimed and move on to the next available order. No double-packing, no wasted effort.
Can I see who packed what?
Yes. The claim and completion are logged, so you have a clear record of which staff member packed each order.
Does it work on tablets?
The dashboard is responsive and works well on tablet-sized screens and up. For warehouse tablets, kiosk mode is ideal — it strips away everything except the dashboard itself. For phones, the interface is functional but a tablet or laptop is more practical for a packing workflow. You need enough screen space to see order details and check off items comfortably.
Can staff add tracking numbers for split-packed orders?
Yes. Each package you create during split packing gets its own tracking number field. The customer can track every parcel individually.
What happened to fullscreen mode?
Fullscreen mode has been replaced by kiosk mode, which does a better job of the same thing. Kiosk mode completely replaces your WordPress theme with a minimal wrapper — no header, no footer, no sidebar. It’s cleaner and more reliable than the old CSS-based fullscreen toggle, which could sometimes conflict with themes. Kiosk mode is configured in Tracksies > Settings under the Packsie section. See Kiosk Mode & Page Protection for setup details.
Will the dashboard page show up in Google?
No. Every page with a Packsie shortcode automatically gets a noindex, nofollow meta tag. Search engines won’t index the page. For extra protection, you can also exclude it from your sitemap via your SEO plugin. See Kiosk Mode & Page Protection for details.
What’s the difference between the Returns tab and customer returns?
Customer returns (requesting a return from My Account) are built into Tracksies HQ — every store gets them. The Returns tab (Packsie) is the staff side where your team reviews, approves, rejects, and processes refunds. Customers submit the request, staff handle the request.
I use PitchPrint — will my customers’ designs show in the packing dashboard?
Yes. When an order item has PitchPrint customisation data, the packing detail panel automatically shows design preview thumbnails (up to 4 pages, hover to zoom) and download buttons for PDF, PNG, and TIFF. For file-upload orders (where the customer uploaded their own PDFs instead of designing in the PitchPrint editor), download links appear for each uploaded file. PitchPrint’s internal meta fields are hidden from the generic item meta display to keep things clean.
I set up priority rules but I can’t see the rule name on queue cards
Make sure you’re running Tracksies HQ 1.4.9 or later. Earlier versions only showed generic “Urgent” and “High” labels. From 1.4.9 onward, queue cards show the actual rule name you configured (e.g., “Same Day Service”, “Express Shipping”) with a coloured badge matching the priority level.
How do I change the dashboard colours?
The dashboard uses your colours from the Designer. Go to Tracksies > Designer > Colours and adjust your brand and interface colours. The dashboard updates automatically. See Colours & the Designer for details.
Can I control which tabs each role sees?
Yes. The role-to-tab permissions matrix in Tracksies > Settings (Packsie section) lets you configure exactly which WordPress roles can see which tabs. For example, you could give packers access to the Orders tab only, while supervisors see all three tabs. See Staff Roles & Access Control for the full permissions setup.
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Troubleshooting
The dashboard page is blank or shows nothing
Check three things. First, make sure the page has the correct shortcode — [tracksies_staff_dashboard] is the recommended shortcode for new setups. The older shortcodes ([tracksies_packing_dashboard] and [tracksies_returns_dashboard]) still work too. Check for typos, extra spaces, or missing brackets. Second, confirm there are orders in Processing status. The Orders tab only shows orders that are ready to pack, so if all your orders are Completed or On Hold, the queue will be empty. Third, check that the Packsie plugin is activated and licensed — go to Plugins in your WordPress dashboard and confirm Packsie shows as “Active”, then check Tracksies > Packsie License to make sure your licence key is valid.
Staff can’t see the dashboard page
This usually means their user account doesn’t have the required capability. Go to Users in your WordPress dashboard, find the staff member, and check their assigned role. The role needs either the edit_shop_orders or manage_packing capability. You should also check the role-to-tab permissions matrix in Tracksies > Settings (Packsie section) — a staff member might have dashboard access but be restricted from specific tabs. If you’re using a page restriction plugin on top of the built-in check, verify that the page is unlocked for their role in that plugin’s settings too. See Staff Roles & Access Control for the full access hierarchy.
“Packsie not active” message appears
This means Packsie isn’t activated or isn’t licensed. Go to Plugins in your WordPress dashboard and confirm Packsie shows as “Active.” If it’s active but you’re still seeing the message, go to Tracksies > Packsie License and check that your licence key is entered and valid. An expired licence will also trigger this message.
Kiosk mode isn’t working (theme header/footer still showing)
Two things to check:
- Make sure kiosk mode is enabled in Tracksies > Settings under the Packsie section
- Make sure you’ve selected a designated page in the Dashboard Page dropdown — kiosk mode only works on the designated page, not any page with the shortcode
If it’s enabled and a page is selected but the theme is still rendering, there may be a theme compatibility issue. Some themes use hooks that load before the template override can take effect. Try switching to a default WordPress theme temporarily to confirm kiosk mode works, then reach out to support with your theme name.
Orders aren’t appearing in the queue
The Orders tab shows orders based on their WooCommerce status. If orders are stuck in “Pending Payment” or “On Hold,” they won’t appear in the packing queue because they’re not ready to fulfil yet. Check the order status in WooCommerce > Orders. If the order should be ready to pack, update its status to Processing.
Split packing validation error
This means you’re trying to pack more items than the order contains. Check the quantities you’ve assigned across all packages — the total packed quantity for each item can’t exceed what the customer ordered. This server-side validation is there to protect you from stock discrepancies and duplicate shipments.
I turned off returns but the Returns tab still shows
There are two feature flags that control the Returns tab, and both need to be off for the tab to disappear:
woo.returns— the master returns toggle. Go to Tracksies > Settings > Features, find the Woo module tile, and make sure the Returns toggle is off. This disables the entire returns system (customer-facing and staff-facing).packsie.returns_tab— the tab-specific toggle. This is under the Packsie module in the same Features screen. Even if this is on, the tab won’t appear ifwoo.returnsis off.
If you’ve turned off woo.returns and the tab is still showing, try refreshing the page. The dashboard loads tab content via AJAX, so a cached version of the page might still show the old tab bar. A hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) should clear it.
Returns tab shows nothing even though returns are enabled
Make sure both feature flags are on: woo.returns in the Woo module tile and packsie.returns_tab in the Packsie module tile, both found in Tracksies > Settings > Features. If both are on, check that there are actual return requests in the system — the tab only shows data when customers have submitted requests. Also confirm the Packsie plugin itself is active and licensed.
Tab content won’t load (tab is blank or shows a spinner that never stops)
This usually means the AJAX request that loads the tab content is failing. Here’s what to check:
- JavaScript errors. Open your browser’s developer tools (F12 or right-click > Inspect, then click the Console tab) and look for red error messages. If you see errors, note the message and reach out to support.
- Clear your browser cache. Sometimes an outdated cached version of the dashboard JavaScript causes issues. Do a hard refresh (Ctrl+Shift+R on Windows, Cmd+Shift+R on Mac) or clear your browser cache entirely.
- Check if WordPress AJAX is working. The dashboard tabs load their content through WordPress’s built-in AJAX system (
admin-ajax.php). If a security plugin, server firewall, or caching plugin is blocking AJAX requests, tabs won’t load. Try temporarily disabling caching plugins and checking your security plugin’s firewall logs. - Check for plugin conflicts. If you recently installed or updated another plugin, try deactivating it temporarily to see if the tabs start loading again. JavaScript optimization plugins (minifiers, concatenators) are common culprits because they can break AJAX-dependent features.
Search engines are indexing my dashboard page
This shouldn’t happen — Packsie automatically adds noindex, nofollow meta tags to all dashboard pages. If you’re seeing them in search results, check that your SEO plugin isn’t overriding the meta tag with its own settings. Also confirm the page has a Packsie shortcode in its content (the meta tag is only injected when the shortcode is detected). For extra protection, exclude the page from your sitemap in your SEO plugin settings.
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Need more help? Contact support.