From order to parcel

New orders show on your dashboard and in Orders, and you get an email for each one while Email me about new orders is on in Settings, Emails.

• To fulfil: paid orders with something still to post. It’s where most days start, and nothing waiting ever drops off it.
• Unpaid: someone is at the payment step right now. Their items are held for them while they pay.
• All: every order apart from archived ones.
• Completed: orders that have been delivered.
• Cancelled: cancelled by you or the buyer, and checkouts that ran out before they paid.
• Refunded: refunded in full or in part.
• Archived: orders you’ve tidied away. The tab shows once you’ve archived one.

Show narrows the list to Personalised, Made to order, Gifts or Downloads only, and Sort by puts the newest, the oldest or the biggest first.

The search box finds an order by its number (with or without your prefix), the buyer’s name or email, the name on the parcel, a postcode (spaces don’t matter), or something in it, by its name or Your product code. It searches the tab you’re on, so pick All if you’re not sure where an order is.

To see orders from certain days, press the date button (it says Any date until you choose one) and fill in Placed between. If nothing matches but an archived order does, the list says so and offers See the archived ones.

Tick the box beside each order, or the box at the top for the whole page. A bar appears at the bottom of the screen:

• Slips: their packing slips, one per page.
• Packed: moves them to Packed on the studio board.
• Posted: marks everything still to post in each one as posted, without a tracking number, which suits letters and small parcels. Leave Email each customer that it’s on its way on to tell them. To add tracking, open the order instead.
• More: Print address labels, Print receipts, Download as a spreadsheet, Add or remove a tag and Archive.

Download at the top of Orders gives you a spreadsheet of every order in the list as you’ve filtered it.

On an order, type a tag into Tags and press Enter, or pick one of the ideas underneath. An order can have up to 10. Press a tag to see every order that has it, or pick it from Tag on the orders list. For several orders at once, tick them and choose More, Add or remove a tag.

Tick finished orders and choose More, Archive, or use Archive in one order’s More menu. They leave every tab apart from Archived. Nothing changes for the buyer, and Bring back to the list puts an order back.

An order still waiting for payment, or with something still to post, can’t be archived: post it, refund it or cancel it first.

The Studio board has everything that still needs making or posting, in columns: New, Making, Quality check, Packed, Posted and Delivered. Drag a card along, or tap its arrow. A packed card has Post it, which opens the order to mark it as posted. Moves show on the buyer’s order page, but nobody is emailed from the board. The most urgent card is at the top of each column.

Above the columns, Personalised, Made to order and Past post-by date narrow the board to just those cards, and it says how many it’s showing. Press a filter again to show everything.

Each card on the board, and the Progress panel on each order, says when to post it: Post today, Post by tomorrow, a day, or Overdue. It’s worked out from when they paid, your settings in When orders go out and any making time, the same way as the dates the buyer was shown. The board says how many orders are past their date.

1. 1Step 1: Once it’s in the post, open the order and press Mark as posted, at the top or in the Posting panel.
2. 2Step 2: Pick the Carrier: Royal Mail, Evri, DPD, Parcelforce and Other. For Other, type its Carrier name.
3. 3Step 3: Add the Service and the Tracking number if there is one. For the carriers listed, the Tracking link is filled in for you.
4. 4Step 4: Check What’s in the parcel, leave the email to the buyer switched on, and press the button at the bottom, like Mark 3 items as posted.

The buyer gets an email, with the tracking link if there is one. Each parcel shows in Posting, with Mark as delivered for when it’s arrived and Send the email again if they can’t find it.

Orders with only downloads have nothing to post: buyers get their files straight away.

In What’s in the parcel, take anything that isn’t going yet down to 0, and it shows Not in this parcel. The order stays in To fulfil, partly posted, until everything has gone, and its packing slip lists only what’s left. Press Mark as posted again when the rest goes.

Press Packing slip at the top of an order (on a phone, the printer button at the bottom), or tick several orders and press Slips for one per page, then Print. A slip lists what’s in the parcel with a box to tick for each, any personalisation, the address and your logo. Orders with nothing to post, unpaid or cancelled ones get no slip.

For a gift, the slip becomes a gift receipt: no prices, and the buyer’s gift message on it.

Tick the orders and choose More, Print address labels, or use Print an address label in one order’s More menu. Pick the size under Labels: A4 sheet, 8 labels (99 × 68 mm), A4 sheet, 14 labels (99 × 38 mm) and One per page, 6 × 4 inch label printer.

On a part-used sheet, choose the number of the first empty label from Part-used sheet? Start at label. Your return address comes from Shop details; choose Leave off your return address to print without it. Orders with nothing to post, or no address, are left out.

Choose Print a receipt in an order’s More menu, or tick several and choose More, Print receipts. Each one has your details from Returns and legal, what was bought, delivery, any refunds and how it was paid. Only paid orders get one. If you’ve added a VAT number, it says it’s a receipt, not a VAT invoice, as no VAT is worked out.

1. 1Step 1: Open the order and press Refund in the Payment panel.
2. 2Step 2: Choose Everything, or Some of it and tick what you’re refunding and how many. Delivery can go back too.
3. 3Step 3: The Amount to refund is worked out for you. Type a different amount for a goodwill refund.
4. 4Step 4: Pick a Reason (Customer request, Duplicate order, Fraudulent, Item damaged / not delivered, Satisfaction guarantee and Other) and, if you like, a note for the buyer, which shows on their order page.
5. 5Step 5: Choose whether to put things back in stock, turn off their downloads and email them, then press Refund at the bottom.

Refunds can’t be undone. Each one shows under Refunds in the Items panel. Only people allowed to give refunds see the button: the owner and admins, not staff (roles).

While payments are a demo, the refund is recorded but no money moves. If they paid you another way, give the money back the same way, then record it here. What buyers are owed is in Returns.