The Scenario
You are a fulfillment coordinator. Your ops manager reviewed the rate quotes in the sheet this morning and approved 60 of them. Each row now has a Shippo rate ID in column B, flagged for label purchase.
You need to buy all 60 labels and get the tracking numbers and label URLs back into the sheet before the 3 PM carrier pickup.
The bad version of this afternoon:
- You open the Shippo dashboard and search for the first rate ID
- You confirm the purchase, copy the tracking number, switch to the sheet, paste it
- You go back to Shippo for rate ID two
- Thirty-five minutes later you have done 20 labels
- Shippo's purchase button stops responding — you are hitting a rate limit
- You are still clicking when the driver arrives.
The fast version is one prompt.
The Easy Way: One Prompt in SheetXAI
SheetXAI reads the rate IDs and purchases all 60 labels in sequence, writing tracking numbers and PDF URLs back to the sheet as each transaction completes.
Open the SheetXAI sidebar and type:
Purchase a Shippo label transaction for each rate ID in column B of my Label Purchase sheet. Write the tracking number, label URL, and transaction status into columns C through E.
SheetXAI reads column B, calls Shippo's transaction endpoint for each rate ID, and writes tracking number, label PDF URL, and transaction status into C, D, and E row by row.
What You Get
A completed purchase log with everything you need to hand off to the warehouse:
- Column C — the tracking number for each purchased label
- Column D — the direct URL to the label PDF, ready to send to your print queue
- Column E — the transaction status (valid, waiting, or error) so you know immediately if any failed
- Failed purchases surfaced — if a rate ID expired or the transaction fails, the status column says so instead of leaving a blank
The label URLs in column D are print-ready. You can share the sheet with your warehouse team and they can download and print from the column directly.
What If the Data Is Not Quite Ready
Label purchase batches often have complications. SheetXAI handles them inline.
When some rate IDs have already been purchased
You ran part of this batch earlier and some rows in column B already have tracking numbers in column C. You do not want to purchase those again.
Skip any row in my Label Purchase sheet that already has a value in column C. For all rows where column C is empty but column B has a rate ID, purchase the Shippo label transaction and write the tracking number, label URL, and status into columns C, D, and E.
When rate IDs have expired and need to be refreshed first
Shippo rate quotes are only valid for a limited window. If your rate IDs are more than a few hours old, some may have expired.
For each rate ID in column B of my Label Purchase sheet, check whether the rate is still valid. If it has expired, create a new rate quote for that shipment using the origin and destination in columns F and G and the weight in column H, then use the new rate ID to purchase the label. Write the tracking number and label URL into columns C and D.
When you want to purchase labels only for rows above a certain rate threshold
Your ops manager approved all rates under $12. Any rate above that needs a second review.
Filter my Label Purchase sheet to rows where column A shows a rate under $12. Purchase Shippo label transactions for those rows only and write tracking number, label URL, and status into columns C through E. For rows with a rate of $12 or more, write "PENDING REVIEW" into column E.
When you want to purchase, pull tracking status, and write a customer-facing message in one go
Your warehouse needs tracking numbers, but your CS team also needs a ready-made message to paste into customer emails.
Purchase a Shippo label transaction for each rate ID in column B of my Label Purchase sheet. Write the tracking number into column C, the label URL into column D, and the transaction status into column E. For each row where the status is "valid," write a short customer-facing message into column F in this format: "Your order is on its way via [carrier]. Track it here: [tracking number]."
The pattern: purchase, validate, and generate the downstream output in one prompt. No second pass for the CS team.
Try It
Get the 7-day free trial of SheetXAI and open any sheet with approved Shippo rate IDs, then ask it to purchase all the labels and write tracking numbers back. The Shippo integration is included in every SheetXAI plan. For related workflows, see how to look up tracking status for a list of shipments or the Shippo in Google Sheets overview.