Every order in your console sits at one stage, from the moment a customer places it until it is finished. This article explains each stage, how cash on delivery and card orders travel differently, and how the console tells you what to do next.
The stages, from new to completed
The stage is the one word that sums up where an order is. You see it in the Order stage column of your orders list (opens in a new tab) and in the Order stage box at the top of each order. On the normal path an order passes through these stages:
| Stage | What it means | The next step the console offers |
|---|---|---|
| Awaiting payment | A card order whose payment has not arrived yet. | Awaiting — there is nothing to do until the customer pays. |
| Awaiting confirmation | A new order waiting for you to accept it. | Confirm |
| Ready to prepare | Confirmed, and either paid by card or cash on delivery. Start packing. | Prepare |
| Preparing | Your team is packing the order. | Mark ready |
| Ready to ship | Packed and waiting for the delivery provider to pick it up. | Ship to create the shipment, Update once a shipment exists, or Assign when the order has no delivery provider yet: "Pick who is delivering this order." |
| In delivery | The parcel is on its way with the delivery provider. | Update as the provider reports progress. |
| Delivered | The parcel reached the customer. | Complete |
| COD to collect | Delivered, but you have not recorded the cash yet. | Mark collected |
| Completed | The order is finished. Nothing is left to do. | None |
Some stages sit off this path: an order that needs a decision, an order with a return or refund, and a cancelled order. They are explained in Stages that end an order below.
Order, payment, fulfilment and shipment statuses
The stage is worked out from four separate records, and the top of every order shows all four side by side:
| Box | What it tracks | Values you will meet |
|---|---|---|
| Order stage | The summary above. | Any stage in the table. |
| Payment | The money. | Pending, Authorized (the card was approved but not charged yet), Paid, Awaiting collection (cash not collected yet), COD collected, Collection failed (the cash never reached you), Not collected (a cash on delivery order cancelled before its cash was collected), Refund pending, Refunded, Partially refunded, Failed. |
| Fulfilment | Packing. | Not prepared, Preparing, Ready to ship, Shipped, Fulfilled, Returned, Partially returned, Cancelled. |
| Shipment | The parcel. | Not ready for delivery, No shipment yet, Awaiting pickup, Label created, Picked up, In transit, Out for delivery, Delivered, Delivery failed, Returned to sender. |
Under the four boxes, one line explains the stage in plain words, such as "Confirm the order to start preparing it."
Note
The Order status filter in advanced filters uses the raw order status, not the stage. A Ready to prepare order has the status Confirmed, and a Ready to ship order has the status Ready to ship.
Cash on delivery orders
A cash on delivery (COD) order arrives with no money taken, so it waits for you to accept it. Here is one COD order from Layal Boutique, start to finish:
- The order arrives as Awaiting confirmation. The payment box reads Awaiting collection and the next step is Confirm.
- Select Confirm. The order moves to Ready to prepare — "Paid and confirmed — start packing." The items leave your stock at this moment.
- Select Prepare when you start packing. The order moves to Preparing.
- Select Mark ready when the parcel is packed, or create the shipment straight away. The order moves to Ready to ship. Once the shipment has its label, the shipment box reads Label created and the next step is Update.
- When the provider picks the parcel up, update the shipment. The order moves to In delivery and the shipment box follows the parcel: Picked up, In transit, Out for delivery.
- When the parcel is delivered, the order becomes COD to collect until you record the cash. The progress bar ends in Awaiting collection and a chip with the same words sits under the customer's name.
- Select Mark collected and record the cash once your delivery provider pays it in — see Record cash collected on delivery. The payment box changes to COD collected and the stage to Delivered.
- Select Complete. The order is Completed and every step of the progress bar is ticked. Manage order offers Complete as soon as the parcel is delivered, even before you record the cash, so always do step 7 first — see Confirm a new order and start preparing it.
Card orders and Awaiting payment
A card order is placed first and paid second. While the customer is on the payment page, the order is Awaiting payment and the next step is Awaiting: "Nothing to do until the customer pays."
When the payment succeeds, the order is confirmed for you. We hear it from HyperPay's payment notice, and we also ask HyperPay ourselves when the customer comes back from the payment page and every few minutes after that, so an order does not wait on a notice that never arrived. It goes straight to Ready to prepare, the payment box reads Paid, and the items leave your stock. From there it follows the same path as a COD order, without the cash step.
Two things hold a paid card order at Awaiting confirmation for you to look at instead: the amount the payment provider captured does not match the order, or an item ran out of stock before the payment arrived. The reason is written on the payment in the order's Order total & payments section.
If the payment fails, the order becomes Failed and needs your attention. A checkout the customer leaves without paying is marked Failed after about an hour, and any gift card balance, loyalty points and discount code use it was holding go back to the customer. See Why does an order need attention?
The next step and the progress bar
Each order shows one Next step button: the single most useful thing to do now. The same button appears in the Next action column of the orders list.
- Confirm, Prepare, Mark ready and Complete move the order on the moment you select them.
- Ship and Update open the order's Fulfilment tab, where you create or update the shipment.
- Mark collected opens the Operations tab, where you record the cash.
- When an order needs a decision, the button names it instead — for example Review for a failed delivery.
The progress bar under it has six steps: Ordered, Confirmed, Preparing, Ready, Shipped and Delivered. Done steps carry a tick and the current step is highlighted. When an order leaves the normal path, an extra marker appears at the end that names what happened, such as Awaiting collection, Delivery failed, Returned to sender or Cancelled.
Fulfilment time: on time, due soon, overdue
Every order gets a time by which it should be prepared and handed to the delivery provider. You set it in Settings (opens in a new tab) as Fulfilment SLA (hours); it is 48 hours unless you change it. The clock starts when the customer places the order.
| Label | When |
|---|---|
| On time | More than 24 hours left. |
| Due soon | Less than 24 hours left and the parcel has not been picked up. |
| Overdue | The time has passed and the parcel has not been picked up. |
In the orders list, the Created column shows how long ago the order came in. That time turns amber when the order is due soon and red when it is overdue; point at it to see the exact time and the label. A confirmed, preparing or ready-to-ship order that is overdue also gets the Late fulfilment chip and appears under Needs attention. The clock stops once the parcel is picked up.
A change to the hours applies to orders placed after you save it. See Set your fulfilment SLA and stock alerts.
Orders cannot skip a step
The console only offers the next step, never one further on. A new order must be confirmed before it is prepared, and prepared before it is marked ready. Shipped, Out for delivery and Delivered come from the shipment, not from the order's status: you reach them by creating and updating the shipment. An order can be completed only after it is delivered.
One shortcut is allowed. When you create a shipment for an order that is Ready to prepare or Preparing, the order moves to Ready to ship in the same step, or to In delivery if you mark it shipped. You cannot create a shipment before the order is confirmed.
If two people work on the same order and one moves it first, the other sees "This order status change is not allowed." Refresh the order to see where it is now.
Stages that end an order: cancelled, refunded, returned
Some stages close an order, or take it off the normal path:
| Stage | What it means | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled | The order was cancelled before it shipped, or its parcel came back to you before any cash was collected. Any items already taken from stock go back. | Cancel an order |
| Refund pending | A refund was sent to the payment provider and has not settled yet. | Refund an order |
| Refunded / Partially refunded | The refund is recorded. For a cash on delivery order, you record cash you have already paid back to the customer, and the order's timeline shows it. | How do I refund a cash on delivery order? |
| Return in progress | A return is open and its items are not back yet. | Handle a return |
| Return received | The returned items are back: refund them or complete the return. A completed order can take a return too. | Handle a return |
| Return completed | The return is finished, or a paid parcel that came back to you has been refunded. | Handle a return |
| Needs attention | Something needs a decision: a failed payment or delivery, a paid parcel that came back and is not refunded yet, or fulfilment running late. | Why does an order need attention? |
A parcel that comes back to you, refused at the door, closes the order by itself: an unpaid order is cancelled, and a paid one waits for your refund. See Refused at the door: returned to sender.
Warning
Cancelling, refunding and returning cannot be undone from the console. Check the order before you start one of them.
Next, see how to work through your orders list, confirm a new order and start preparing it, or ship an order with a tracking number.