Logging packages creates a record of books sent to each person and generates a shipping label and invoice for each package. The steps are detailed below the video demonstration.

Step 1: Identify Inmate

Click the “Log a Package” tab and start entering the prison ID number for your reader. If they have received books in the past under that ID number, Testament will suggest matches for you to pick from based on their ID number. If you don’t see your reader’s name listed, just go ahead and enter their name and state.

Step 2: Prison & Address

If your reader is a repeat customer, you will see a second interstitial screen with a prompt about their last known address. Check to see if the prison matches. If not, select “No.” (You will not see this screen if this is the first package for that person.)

Note that you can always go back to the previous screen by clicking the link to the previous step.

Step 2: Prison & Address (continued)

If you didn’t pick a prison on the previous screen, you’ll see this page next. Select your facility from the list in the dropdown menu and hit “Go.” If you don’t see your reader’s prison listed, click “Add a New Prison.” (Please don’t do this unless you are sure your prison isn’t listed. Please search in the Prisons tab before you add a new prison.)

This screen will warn you if someone has received books within the last month.

(Note that it can be hard to know which prison someone is in with only a return address. Each prison listed in the dropdown menu includes an address. You can also search in the Prisons tab by the address. Be aware that sometimes people get their prison’s address wrong, though. They might not have ever gotten mail from anyone.)

Step 3: Books

This page is where you enter your books. Please note the invoices generated only include the title, so if you want to add a note (like the genre) you can add it in the author field. If you have an ISBN scanner (they’re cheap! Get one! We use this one at LAB2P.) just place your cursor in the ISBN field before you scan. This doesn’t always work with foreign or older books but it saves a lot of time. If nothing happens when you scan, check to make sure your cursor is in the ISBN field.

If you don’t have a scanner, you can just type the book titles. The other fields don’t need to be filled out since they don’t print on the invoice, but it can be helpful to have more info than just the title.

Note that Testament keeps warning you about the recent packages.

This page includes a warning about the book restrictions at this prison. These are tracked and updated in the Prisons tab.

Step 4: Confirmation

Here you can check all the information you entered to make sure everything is correct. If your reader has extra info for their address, like a bunk or dorm number, you can add it here in the “Prison unit” field. You can also add notes on your package that will be attached to that package entry in the database. (They are not printed on the invoice.)

You can add your name here if you want to track that, but it’s optional. If you don’t, you’ll just see the package was sent by your organization.

This page continues to inform you about the book restrictions, etc. 

This is the final logging page so try to get everything correct here (but you can still fix the address if you mess up). You can still use the link at the top to go back through the steps and fix any mistakes.

If everything looks good, click the “Send It” button.

Package record confirmation

Logging is done! A record has now been created and saved in the database for this package. You get kicked out to the first page again, but the green bar has your package info in it. You can open the invoice and shipping label from here.

If something goes wrong and you click away from this page, you can always pull the invoice and shipping label back up again from the Browse Records tab.

Opening the Invoice and Shipping Label

From the page with your package information, you can print your invoice and shipping label. The easiest way is to open each in a new tab of your browser and print them. Right-click the links for the invoice and shipping label. In the pop-up window, select “Open Link in New Tab.” (This might look a little different in your browser; that’s OK.)

Remember that if something goes wrong, the package entry with the invoice and shipping label are stored from the Inmate entry in the Browse Records tab. You can always find and print them again if you need to.

Shipping label

If you need to add some extra info to the shipping label, like if you forgot the bunk number, you can just click on the address within the shipping label and edit the text. 

You can print this onto regular copy paper, then turn it around and print another label on the other half. Or just fold your sheet in half. Clear adhesive 6×9″ shipping pouches are a good way to stick these onto your packages fast.

If you have a printer that can print 4×6” labels, you can print this label directly onto one of those stickers. It’s a huge timesaver. I recommend the Dymo 4XL which can print strips of stamps and 4×6” labels, but any 4×6″-capable printer should work. (If you’d like a manual for using the Dymo 4XL with Testament and stamps.com, or any info/help with finding one and getting it set up, email me at admin@LAB2P.org.)

LAB2P sticks this label onto a package and then puts stamps on it from stamps.com. But if your group uses some other shipping system that prints addresses and postage on the same label, you can copy and paste this address into that app.

Invoice

Every invoice is automatically generated with $0 listed as the price of every book. Note that the information printed at the top of the page (your org name, address, logo, etc.) is set in your Profile and you can edit it whenever you need to.

Many groups have extra info they would like on their invoice. The blue “Custom Message” box allows you to enter in additional information you want to include, like a personal note. This information will only print on this specific invoice and will not autofill on every invoice. If you have extra info you want to include in every package, one solution is to print out a bunch of info pages then load them into the printer upside down so the Testament invoice prints onto the back side of the paper. (Also saves paper!) 

Oh no, I lost my package confirmation!

No worries. It’s all saved. You can pull all of that back up in the Records tab and reprint your shipping label and invoice anytime.