PostNL contract activation

Step 1: Activate your Sendcloud subscription

Sendcloud offers three subscriptions with which you are able to use your own transport contract: Lite, Growth and the Premium plan.

For more information regarding which plan is best for you and the needs of your business, you can always contact us via the support section of your Sendcloud account or click here.

Step 2: Enable your carrier contract 

Once you have activated a Sendcloud subscription, you can connect your carrier contract. 

In your Sendcloud panel navigate to Shipping > Carriers. Go to the My contracts tab and find PostNL from the list. Click Add contract. Here you can add the credentials needed to validate the connection to PostNL. 

Step 3: Generate the API key

To generate the API key needed to authenticate the connection to Sendcloud, go to the API Manager in your My PostNL environment and log in with your email address and password. Click on your name in the top right corner and then go to My account.

When you scroll down on the page, you should see the heading "Manage API¹". Here you can find some of the information you need to enter into Sendcloud.

Step 4: Enter your PostNL contract details

Navigate back to Sendcloud from the PostNL environment. Complete the form with the information below and click "Save" when you are done.

• API Key (password)
  Please check your API management module to find your API Key in the PostNL business portal. You always have to use the Production key.
• Customer Code
  This is your customer code for domestic and European parcel shipments. Please check your API management module in the PostNL business portal. Your customer code is listed under the header Pre-alert Parcels. A customer code consists of four letters (e.g. ABCD).
• Customer Code (Global shipping) (Optional)
  This is your customer code for parcel shipments outside of Europe.
  Please check your API management module in the PostNL business portal. Your Globalpack code is listed under the header Globalpack. It starts with C + an extra letter, followed by 4 digits (e.g. CD1234).
  
• Customer number
  This is the customer number which is usable for the displayed API-key. Please check your API management module in the PostNL business portal. Your Customer number is found under the header 'General'.
• Signature GIF
  Providing a signature or company logo is mandatory for all non-EU shipments (which must be cleared by customs). This indicates that the sender guarantees that the information on CN22/CN23 form has been filled in truthfully.

Step 5 (optional): Upload your own PostNL contract prices

If you've followed the steps above, your PostNL contract is now successfully linked to your Sendcloud panel, and you can start shipping with your own PostNL rates. When you create a label with a PostNL shipping method, the label price will now show as 0.00 EUR in your account.

If you want your own prices to be visible in your Sendcloud account, you can upload the contract prices. After adding your PostNL contract, you can go to 'My contracts' and click on 'Add prices'

You'll then see a detailed form that is divided into 5 sections:

1. Shipping within the Netherlands
2. Shipping to Belgium
3. Shipping within the EU
4. Shipping outside the EU
5. Returns