Knowledgebase: Orders

How do I Manage my Orders?

 

Once an order has been placed by a customer on your Shift4Shop website, you have many options in regards to processing the order and customer information. This guide will review all options for order management.

This article contains the multiple topics. Click on a link on the left to be taken to the respective area.


View a New Order
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To view a new order:

  1. Go to Orders ->Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Click on invoice number for the order you would like to view
    (You can also click on the Action Wheel/Edit button found to the far right of the order listing)

Here's a quick overview of the order screen and its sections.

Invoice Details

When viewing the order, you will see the main details along the left hand side of the page including order total, status, items and balance.

Order Information Tabs

Beneath the order details, you will see the following tabs:

  • Payment Information
    This tab will show the payment method that was used by the shopper for the order.
    Within this tab, you will also have the ability to add custom transactions to the order.
  • Checkout Questions
    If you are using Checkout Questions, this tab will display the answers given for the order
  • Order Comments
    This tab will show any comments left by the customer during their order or comments left internally on the order such as a response code left by the payment gateway. You can also use the internal comments section to add your own comments.
    (Internal comments cannot be viewed by the customer)
  • Rewards
    This tab will display reward points accrued for the customer from this order.
  • Referral Information
    This tab will show referral information on the order such as the customer's IP address and how they were referred to the store to begin their order process. The Referrer will display the URL they accessed your store from. The system will display up to 60 characters for this text string. Visit URL will take you to the full page that they reached the site from. View Statistics will display their browsing history from accessing your site all the way to the end of checkout.

    The IP Address section will display the customer's IP Address. The Ban IP option will allow for you to ban this IP Address from your store. Finally, the View Details link will take you to another page which will reveal information on the IP Address such as the location it originated from.

Customer Information

To the right of the invoice details, you will see the customer's Shipping and Billing information. Each section will have an "Edit" along the top right which will allow you to change the order's billing/shipping information as needed.

Note
The Shipping and Billing information is located to the right if you are viewing the order on a typical desktop screen.

Alternately, if you are viewing the order in a narrow screen such as a tablet in portrait mode, the Shipping/Billing information will be listed below the order details.

After the Billing and Shipping information area, you'll have a section called "Shipping" which will will be used when fulfilling the order.

Order Actions

Finally, along the top right of the order page, you will see a series of buttons. These are:

  • Next order
    If clicking on an order from the "Manage Orders" page, this > button will let you navigate to the next order on the list
  • Back
    This button will take you back to the Manage Orders page
  • Shipping Label
    If your store is integrated with a shipping carrier, this button will allow you to print shipping labels for the order.
  • Print
    This button will let you print the order's invoice and/or packing slip
  • Actions
    This button opens a menu of specific actions that you can apply to the order including:
    • Customer Email
      View and re-send the customer's order notification email
    • Distributor Email
      If the order contains items provided by a distributor, this option allows you to view and re-send the distributor's email
    • Virtual Terminal
      If you are using a hosted payment gateway (as opposed to a redirect payment option like PayPal Express), the Virtual Terminal will allow you to charge credit cards from the order screen. Normally, this will require you to have the customer's credit card information on hand physically. However, if you are using a hosted payment gateway that is equipped with tokenization (i.e. Authorize Net's CIM module), you will be able to charge the customer's credit card on file.
    • New CRM
      This option allows you to create a new CRM ticket for the customer on the order.
    • Add Item
      You can use this option in the Actions menu to add additional items to the order as needed.
    • Duplicate Order
      For situations where you need to recreate the order (perhaps due to accidental cancelation, or customer wanting to reorder), this option can be used to duplicate the order.
    • Recalculate Shipping
      This option will allow you to recalculate shipping for the order and select a different shipping charge if necessary.
    • Link To Customer
      In some cases, you may have an order placed by an already existing customer using an alternate login to your store. This option will let you link the order to the customer's previous record as needed.
    • New RMA
      This option allows you to initiate a RMA (return) for the order as needed.
    • Verify Tax
      If you have cases where it seems that incorrect tax was charged for an order, this option will let you troubleshoot the store's tax calculations for the order.
  • Save
    When ever any alterations are made to the order, this button will commit the changes.

Move an Order to a Different Status
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After the order has been placed by the customer, you may want to move it to different stages as you process it. For example, you may want to move the order from New to Shipped once you have shipped the products to the customer. You can choose to move one order to a different status or multiple orders at the same time to a different status.

While viewing the order, look in the order's Invoice details section:

  1. Find the "Status" drop down menu (it's right next to the Total at the top of the order).
  2. Change the status of the order in the dropdown box.
  3. Check the Notify Customer checkbox if you want to notify the customer via email of the status change.
  4. Click Save to commit your changes.

To move multiple orders to another status at one time:
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  1. Go to Orders ->Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the orders are in)
  3. Check the checkboxes next to the orders you would like to move.
  4. Next, use the "Batch Action" dropdown at the bottom of the page to set the orders' new status.
  5. Click Apply

Automatic Email for Order Status Change
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If you would like to automatically send an email to the customer when the status of an order changes:

  1. Go to Settings >General >Store Settings
  2. Then, click on the "Checkout" tab found along the top
  3. Scroll down to the "Send E-mail for Order Statuses" section.
  4. Check the checkbox next to each order status in which you would like to automatically send an email to the customer to.
  5. Click Save to commit your changes

Tip
In the "Send order alert to email address" field above the checkboxes, you can specify an email address that will receive a copy of each status notification that is sent.

You may input one email, or multiple emails (separated by a comma; no spaces)


Edit Template of Status Change Emails
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To edit the template of automatic emails that are sent to the customer during order status changes:

  1. Go to Settings >Design >Emails
  2. Scroll down to the "Orders Emails" section
  3. Click the name of the email template you would like to change (i.e. processing, shipped, cancelled, etc)
  4. Make any necessary changes to the information of the email template
    Note that you will have a text and HTML version of each template available, so be sure to make your edits in both.
  5. Click Save at the top right to commit your changes.

Note
Make sure you input a valid email address in the 'From' field at the top of the email. If it is not a valid email address, the email will not send to the customer. If you leave the 'From' field blank, it will automatically send the messages as coming from the email address that is in the "Store Information" section of Settings >General >Store Settings .

For more information on editing your email templates, click here. We also have a reference of the dynamic variables used in the email templates located here.


Edit Order Status
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Shift4Shop has created order status names for you, i.e. New Order, Shipped, On Hold, etc.

You can change the status names to anything you want. For instance, at your company, On Hold may be called Waiting. Shift4Shop also allows you add and hide any order status you want.

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top right
  3. of the page and click on the "Edit Order Status" button

Clicking on this button will take you to a new page where the order status settings can be altered.

  1. Edit the name in the Status field to change the name of the Status.
  2. Click "Save" at the top right to commit your changes.

You can also choose to add a new status by editing one of the three custom status fields provided. Just make sure to check the "Visible" checkbox so you can see your new Status in the Online Store Manager.

The "Visible" checkbox can also be used if you would like to hide one of the existing order statuses from your Online Store Manger. Just be aware that certain statuses are often used automatically by the store including New, Shipped, Cancel, Not Complete and Unpaid.

Note
Even though you may change the name of a current Status to something else, the corresponding automatic email for the original status will still send out.


View Gateway Response for Not Completed Orders
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If you use an online gateway to process your payments for orders, and some orders do not process due to various payment reasons, you can see the response from your payment gateway which may show why the payment could not be accepted.

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "Not Completed" tab
  3. Click the timestamp of the order you would like to see more information on.
  4. Using the Order Information tabs at the bottom of the order, click on the "Order Comments" tab

The order comments will show both the customer comments (added by the customer at the time of order) as well as Internal Comments recorded by the store during transactions.

Within the Internal Comments section, you will see any responses made by the payment gateway in regards to the order. This information can be useful in determining what the issues (if any) from the gateway prevented the order from charging.

Tip
Depending on your gateway, the responses may be verbose (i.e. clear and concise information), or vague (simply an error code number). Again, this really depends on the respective gateway because the message itself is coming directly from them and not something generated by the Shift4Shop software.

A good tip is to search online for the error message/error code and the name of your gateway. For example, "PayPal error 10002" which will bring up information pages that may help describe errors in more detail


Finish Not Completed Orders
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If you are able to contact a customer and they would like to complete an order after they have abandoned the checkout process, you can complete the order for them.

If the Not Completed Order is in Step 1 – Step 3:

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Click on the "Not Completed" tab along the top
  3. Click the timestamp of the order you would like to complete.
  4. Look towards the top right of the order and click on the "Complete" button

This will open up the order as a Phone Order which will allow you to complete the order while you interact with the customer.

  1. Complete the unfinished order.

As an alternative, you can also supply the customer with a link to their open order that will allow them to complete their own order. While viewing the open order, look under the "Contact details" for the "Open Order" link.

Clicking on the link will open up the order for you on the store front where you can copy/paste and send the URL to the customer.

If the Not Completed order is in Step 4, after you open the order:

  1. View the order
  2. Move the Status from Not Completed to Unpaid.
  3. Click Save on the order.

Once you have confirmed the customer has paid, move the order from Unpaid to New. From the Unpaid status, you must always move the order to New before moving to a different Order Status.


Email Customers with Not Completed Orders
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To email customers that have abandoned the checkout process (the customer must have already input their email address for this to work):

If the Not Completed order is in Step 1 – Step 3:

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Click on the "Not Completed" tab along the top
  3. Click the timestamp of the order you would like to complete.
  4. Look towards the top right of the order and click on the "Send Email " button

If the Not Completed Order is in Step 4, after you open the Not Completed Order:

  1. Click the Actions button at the top right
  2. Followed by the "Customer Email" link to resend the email.

Tip
As an alternative, the store can also be set up to automatically send these emails for you. Have a look at our article on the Abandoned Carts Notification module.


Add and View Tracking Codes
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Once you have shipped an order, you can add the tracking code for reference. When you move an order to the Shipped status with the tracking code input, it will be emailed to the customer if they receive email notifications for the Shipped status.

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Click the invoice number of the order you want to add the tracking code to.

Look to the right hand side of the order beneath the order's Shipping/Billing information. There you will see a section labeled "Shipping" which will contain Ship Date and tracking number information

  1. Click on the "Fulfill" link found to the right of the "Shipping Weight" label
  2. Enter the ship date
  3. Enter the Tracking Number
  4. Mark the "Notify Customer" checkbox to have the customer notified of the order's status
  5. Click on the green check mark to add it.

Tip
As an alternative, you can also update shipping tracking information en masse using CSV import. Click here to learn how.


Print Order Invoices
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You can choose to print either one order or multiple orders at a time.

One order at a time

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Click on the invoice number of the order that you'd like to print
  4. Look to the top right and click on the "Print" button
  5. Select Print Invoice

Multiple Orders at Once

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Check the checkboxes next to the orders you would like to print.
  4. Choose Print Invoice in the Batch Action dropdown.
  5. Click Apply

Print Packing Slips
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You can choose to print either one packing slip or multiple packing slips at a time.

One order at a time

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Click on the invoice number of the order that you'd like to print
  4. Look to the top right and click on the "Print" button
  5. Select Print Packing Slip

Multiple Orders at Once

  1. Go to Orders >Manage Orders
  2. Look towards the top of the page and click on the "New" tab
    (or whichever status the order is in)
  3. Check the checkboxes next to the orders you would like to print.
  4. Choose Print Packing Slip in the Batch Action dropdown.
  5. Click Apply


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