For e-commerce operators, dropshippers, and retail procurement teams, tracking incoming deliveries is crucial. Every day, vendors send dozens of shipping confirmation emails containing tracking numbers, shipping carriers (like FedEx, UPS, or DHL), and estimated delivery dates.
Manually copying these tracking details into a logistical spreadsheet is a slow and error-prone process. By automating the data extraction, you can build a live logistics dashboard. In this tutorial, we show you how to parse shipping confirmations and build a tracking spreadsheet automatically using Mail Sheet.
The Logistics Bottleneck
Without automation, managing supplier shipments is a chaotic process:
- Missed Delays: Delivery dates are buried in email threads, making it hard to spot late arrivals.
- Lost Tracking Codes: Team members have to dig through search filters to find tracking numbers for customers.
- Administrative Overhead: Bookkeepers spend hours compiling shipping costs and dates manually.
Step 1: Organize Incoming Shipping Emails
To avoid scanning personal emails or newsletters, create a Gmail filter for shipping notifications. Search for emails containing terms like "Your order has shipped" or "Tracking number" from your suppliers' addresses. Create a Gmail filter that automatically applies a label like "Shipments" to these threads.
Step 2: Install Mail Sheet
Open the Google Sheet where you manage your inventory or logistics (e.g., "Supplier Shipment Tracker"). Search for Mail Sheet in the Google Workspace Marketplace and install the add-on. Open the Mail Sheet sidebar from the Extensions menu.
Step 3: AI Mode for Varied Templates
Because every supplier designs their shipping emails differently, traditional template rules often fail. Mail Sheet’s AI Mode processes natural language and extracts fields regardless of the layout.
Set your label filter to "Shipments", select **AI Mode**, and write your prompt:
"Extract the Supplier/Vendor Name, the Shipping Carrier Name, the Tracking Number, and the Estimated Delivery Date from the email body. Format the delivery date as YYYY-MM-DD."
Step 4: Enable Hourly Automation
Under the **Automation** tab, toggle *Auto-Run* to run hourly. As new shipping confirmations hit your inbox, Mail Sheet will extract the tracking numbers and log them as new rows. You can then connect these rows to tracking APIs or display them in team dashboards.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can the parser detect which carrier shipped a package if the email does not say FedEx, UPS, or DHL directly?
Yes, AI Mode reads the full context of the email rather than searching for one fixed keyword, so it can often identify the carrier from the tracking number format, the shipping logo, or surrounding text even when the carrier name is not spelled out plainly. For best results, phrase your extraction prompt to ask for the carrier name explicitly so the AI knows to infer it when needed.
How do I keep tracking numbers from different suppliers formatted consistently in my spreadsheet?
Since suppliers format shipping confirmations differently, use an AI Mode prompt in Mail Sheet that specifies the exact output format you want, such as requesting the delivery date as YYYY-MM-DD. This normalizes fields like dates and tracking IDs across vendors so every row in your logistics sheet stays consistent regardless of the source email's layout.
Can I connect the parsed tracking numbers to a live tracking API or dashboard?
Once Mail Sheet logs the Carrier Name and Tracking ID as new rows on an hourly Auto-Run schedule, those columns are just regular spreadsheet data, so you can reference them with Google Sheets formulas, Apps Script, or third-party tracking APIs to build a live delivery status dashboard on top of the logged data.
Optimize Your Supply Chain
By automatically parsing your shipping confirmations and tracking orders in Google Sheets, you build an organized, reliable supply chain that works around the clock.
Ready to automate your tracking sheets? Join the Mail Sheet waitlist.