Order Preferences

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Introduction

Order Preferences let you control how orders behave after they are placed, before fulfilment begins. Currently, this page includes the Review Orders Before Placement setting, which adds a validation checkpoint between order placement and processing.

Preferences are configured per application — settings here apply only to the sales channel you're currently viewing and do not affect other applications in your account.

Review Orders Before Placement

By default, new shipments open in the Placed state and move immediately into the fulfilment queue. When Review Orders Before Placement is enabled, new shipments instead open in an Upcoming state — an internal hold that gives your team time to validate, adjust, or approve the order before any fulfilment work begins.

When to Use This

This setting is useful for businesses that need a manual checkpoint between order placement and fulfilment. Common use cases include:

• B2B orders that need to be confirmed with the buyer and cleared by a finance or accounts team before processing
• Pharmacy or regulated orders that require prescription verification or compliance checks
• High-value or custom orders that need final sign-off before picking and packing begins
• Flagged or high-risk orders that need manual review before they proceed

Without this setting, an order can be confirmed, picked, and packed the moment it's placed — before anyone has had a chance to validate it. Unwinding that afterwards means cancellations, reversals, and rework.

How It Works

When enabled:

• All new shipments from this application open in Upcoming instead of Placed
• Upcoming is an internal stage — the customer never sees it. The storefront always displays the order as Placed regardless of its internal state
• A review team can inspect the order, reduce quantities, remove items, or verify details
• Once approved, the shipment is moved to Placed using the Update Status flow, at which point the store team confirms, packs, and dispatches as usual

When disabled:

• Orders follow the default behaviour — shipments open directly in Placed and fulfilment can begin immediately

How to Enable

1. Go to Commerce Panel → (Select your Application) → Order → Preferences
2. Toggle on Review Orders Before Placement
3. Click Save

Once enabled, an optional Enter Duration field appears below the toggle.

Auto-Release Duration (Optional)

If you want shipments to move from Upcoming to Placed automatically after a set time — rather than waiting for manual approval — configure the Enter Duration field.

To set an auto-release duration:

1. Enable Review Orders Before Placement
2. In the Enter Duration field, enter a number (e.g., 24)
3. Select the time unit from the dropdown: Minutes, Hours, or Days
4. Click Save

How the timer works:

• The timer starts from the shipment creation timestamp
• Each shipment transitions independently — the timer runs at the shipment level, not the order level
• If a shipment has already been manually moved to Placed before the timer expires, no auto-action is triggered for that shipment
• If no duration is configured, shipments stay in Upcoming until a team member manually moves them to Placed

Leave the duration field empty if you want every shipment to require manual approval before processing begins.

What the Review Team Can Do in Upcoming

While a shipment is in Upcoming, authorised team members can:

• Reduce quantities on individual items
• Remove items from the order entirely
• Verify order details — pricing, delivery address, documentation, compliance checks

To move a shipment from Upcoming to Placed:

1. Open the shipment detail page
2. Click Update Status
3. Select Move to Placed
4. Submit

To cancel items during review (for example, if some items are rejected but the rest should proceed):

1. Click Update Status
2. Select Cancel Shipment
3. Select the items to cancel, choose a reason, and submit

The remaining items stay in Upcoming and can be moved to Placed when ready. For a full walkthrough of the Update Status flow, see Confirm or Cancel a Shipment.

Effect on Fulfilment

Enabling Order Review does not change the fulfilment steps themselves — confirmation, invoicing, packing, and dispatch work exactly the same once a shipment reaches Placed. The only difference is the added Upcoming stage before Placed.

Store teams only see and process shipments once they have moved to Placed, so they are never exposed to orders that are still under review.