Drop & Go manifests and how to
complete them

As a Drop & Go customer, it’s easy to tell us what you’re sending where and how you’d like it sent using a Drop & Go manifest. They’re easy to complete in your online account, then print and bring into branch along with your items.​

Here’s a step-by-step guide to how to complete your Drop & Go manifest. You can also print a blank manifest or pick one up in participating branches to fill it in by hand if you prefer.

What is a Drop & Go manifest?​

If you’ve got a bunch of parcels ready to send in the post, a Drop & Go manifest is a way to capture what they contain, where they’re heading and the services you’d like to use to get them there. ​

For each item you’re sending it lists:​

• The address it’s bound for​

• What’s inside (so we know the contents’ value and that it’s safe to send in the mail) ​

• The mails service we should send it by ​

It also asks you for a couple of other details. This information helps the team at your receiving branch make sure each item gets the right kind of postage and prevent delays in processing and posting them.

Completing your manifest online​ ​

The quickest way to fill out a Drop & Go manifest is to do it through your online account. That way several of the options you need are easily available in drop-down lists. ​ ​

You can also upload details you’ll use often, like addresses you send to regularly, so they’re easily to hand in one place the next time you need them. We’ll come onto how later.​ ​

In the next section we’ll walk through how to complete each part of the sheet online. Once everything’s filled out, you just print the sheet, bring it into branch with your post and we’ll take it from there.

Step by step: completing a manifest online ​

1. To add items to you send list: Log into your Drop & Go account and click on the 'Send Items’ tab in the navigation menu.

2. Click the ‘Add new item’ button to add a first item to the list of goods you’ll be sending.

3. Now you’ll see a set of fields to complete in order to add a new item to your send list:

• Destination country: use this drop-down menu to tell us which country to send your item to​

• Postcode: enter the postcode for the address you’re posting to

• Building name/number: add the name or number of the address you’re posting to​ ​ Next, tell us about the item itself and the service it needs using these fields:

• Compensation level: select the value of your package and how much compensation cover it needs. This is set to £20 by default but you can also choose £50, £100, £500, £1,000 or £2,500​ ​

• What service do you need? Enter the posting service you want to use (eg 1st Class Signed For, Special Delivery, 2nd Class)​ ​

• What are you sending? Enter a short description of the item you’re sending (eg books, photographs, clothes)​ ​

• Does this package contain dangerous goods? Check if any of the contents are on our list of restricted or prohibited items, in case they can’t be sent in the post. If it’s classed as ‘Dangerous goods’, select ‘yes’ and a drop-down box will appear for you to detail the nature of the item​ ​

• Have you sold this item? There are new customs rules and marketplace IOSS numbers for items sold into the EU from England, Scotland or Wales. This is why branches need to know if you’ve sold the item you’re sending.​ ​

4. How to add more items: Once you’ve added your first item, repeat the process to add the others you’ll be sending with it. You can copy item lines if you need to create duplicates of them, edit the details of items, delete items if they’re no longer needed, or save items that you’re likely to need in a future list. If you’ve already saved an item, you can now view and add your saved items into the current list you’re populating.

5. Saving and exporting your list: When you’ve have added all the items you want to send to your list, you can either export your Send Sheet to print it out or save it to edit or add more to later.

If you click ‘Export’, a PDF of the items in your list will be created ready to print. Here’s an example:

If you click ‘Save’ your draft manifest will be added to your Send Items dashboard.

​You can save up to 50 lists in your account and edit and delete them as you need to. Saving lists also comes in handy if you send the same parcels regularly to the same customers, clients or other recipients.

CSV documents are simple, plain-text files that contain lists of data. If you use them to keep track of the items you send, you can upload them directly into your Send Sheet. Their data will be carried over automatically, so there’s no need to enter it manually. Here’s how.​

1. Start with our Drop & Go CSV template or make sure your own CSV file has columns named the same as the Send Sheet fields covered earlier in this guide​

2. Make sure every row and column is filled in, from the first to the last, as the upload won’t work if information is missing. It might look something like this:

Click on the ‘Upload CSV Spreadsheet’ link highlighted: 

4. Find the file you want to upload. You can choose the file format (eg eBay or Amazon CSVs)​

5. Once it’s uploaded, our system interprets your data and carries it over to the relevant fields on the Drop & Go manifest

6. Make sure you check everything over to make sure it’s all correct and nothing’s missing (eg, there may be some minor errors to amend if your CSV format doesn’t align perfectly with ours)​

7. Then just choose ‘Save for later’ or ‘Export & send’ and complete the last few steps as described earlier​ ​ ​

CSV uploads: points to remember​

• If you leave the ‘country’ field on your CSV file blank the manifest will auto-populate it with ‘UK’ ​

• Unclosed quotation marks (such as 13” meaning 13 inches) and fields with multiple lines can’t be imported, so please edit these accordingly ​

• Try to limit fields to 20 characters, as any more will be truncated​

• Symbols and words that may pose a security risk will be replaced with spaces​ ​