Online store orders
How orders from connected stores and marketplaces arrive, when they are approved, and how to keep, collect, approve or reopen unpaid web orders.
What it is
When an online store or marketplace is connected, its orders arrive as sales orders here. From then on they are picked, delivered and invoiced like any other sale, and the store is told what happened. Orders that are still waiting for their money have their own queue, Unpaid web orders, where the sales team can keep them from being cancelled, record a payment taken by hand, or approve them without payment.
WooCommerce is proven live. Shopify, BigCommerce and the other stores and marketplaces are tested against each provider's sandbox. The rules below apply to WooCommerce first; Shopify and BigCommerce follow them where the platform allows.
Who it is for
- Online sellers whose orders come from a web store.
- Sales teams who call customers about unpaid or cash-on-delivery orders.
- Warehouses that fulfil web and in-person orders from the same stock.
Before you start#
- Connect the store under Integrations — see online store integrations.
- Set the store's order rules in Integrations › Order rules: When payment is confirmed (the default), Every order, straight away, Always wait for review, or Custom conditions (payment received, cash on delivery verified, a minimum paid amount or share, delivery charge paid, an order-total range, allowed or blocked payment methods).
Step by step#
- Open Sales › Orders and choose the Unpaid web orders view: oldest first, with age, store, amount to pay, keep status, last contact and next reminder.
- Open an order and contact the customer; use Log a call to note it.
- If the customer needs time, choose Keep from auto-cancel, with a reason and a keep-until date (7 days by default, at most 90).
- When the customer pays by bank, wallet or cash, choose Record payment (or Record payment & approve) and enter the amount, date, method, transaction reference, charges and a proof file.
- To ship before payment, choose Approve without payment and give the reason.
- Pick, deliver and invoice the order as usual.
How orders arrive#
- New orders arrive within seconds by webhook; while the app is open it also checks the store every few minutes for anything missed.
- On WooCommerce, a paid processing order is approved; a cash-on-delivery or unpaid order waits (no money recorded until it is collected); on hold and completed orders are approved, to pick, deliver and invoice here. Your order rules can decide otherwise.
- An order that took stock on the store holds those units here too, even while waiting, so nothing is sold twice.
- The customer is matched by e-mail, so a repeat buyer never becomes a second contact. Shipping charged on the order is income.
- An order that arrives already cancelled or refunded is not imported.
Keep, approve without payment, reopen#
- A kept order is never cancelled automatically — not by the store's unpaid-order timer, not by business policies, not by the cash-on-delivery confirmation queue. When the date passes it comes back to the queue. Remove keep needs a note.
- Approve without payment is allowed for the owner and for roles with Sales orders approved without payment, up to the role's limit (otherwise the customer's credit limit). Above it, the order goes to the approvals centre. Credit control always runs.
- Reopen a cancelled order with a reason: same number, stock reserved again. Not possible for marketplace orders, refunded orders, orders with later documents, or Shopify orders.
- Marketplace orders (Amazon, eBay, Walmart, TikTok Shop, Shopee, Lazada and others) cannot be kept: the marketplace's cancel always applies.
When the store cancels, completes or refunds#
- Cancelled on the store with nothing done here: cancelled here too, stock released. Money received becomes the customer's credit; only a store refund reverses it.
- Cancelled on the store after it was picked, delivered or invoiced here: kept, and Books integrity lists it for a person to settle.
- Completed on the store but not delivered here: it stays approved in To pick.
- Refunds on the store reach the books by themselves — see returns and credit notes.
What the store sees#
On WooCommerce a kept or unpaid-approved order stays "Pending payment"; with the CFI Order Attribution plugin 2.4 the store's own unpaid-order timer is stopped for kept orders. A payment taken by hand is written as a private order note, never with card data. When a delivery is handed to a courier, the store order is marked shipped with the carrier and tracking number.
Questions#
Is a payment taken by hand counted as revenue?
No. Each one is a numbered receipt held as a customer advance. The invoice uses it later.
I typed a payment by mistake. Can I remove it?
Yes, void it with a reason while no invoice has used it. Its journal is reversed and its number kept.
The customer paid me and then the store's gateway charged them too. What happens?
Only the part still open goes on the order; the extra becomes the customer's credit, and the team is told.
Why is an old store order under "Closed, not invoiced"?
It arrived already completed by the store. If it was a real sale, tick it and choose Invoice: the invoice is made without moving stock again.