Update several orders at once

Confirm this morning’s orders, move a batch into preparing, or cancel several orders in one go from the orders list. Bulk actions are on Starter and up; this article shows how they work and why an order is sometimes left out.

Select orders, or the whole page

In the sidebar, open Orders.
Narrow the list to the orders you want to act on, so they sit together on one page. For example, open Advanced filters and set Order status filter to Awaiting confirmation.
Tick the box beside each order you want. To select every order on the page, tick the box in the list’s header row.

A bar appears above the list with the number of orders selected and the bulk buttons: Mark confirmed, Mark preparing, Cancel selected, Print packing slips, Export selected and Clear selection.

The orders list with three orders ticked and the bar above it showing 3 selected and the bulk buttons — Three orders selected. A button that does not fit every selected order is greyed out.

Keep in mind:

A page holds up to 20 orders, and a selection covers the page you are looking at. Moving to another page, searching or changing the view drops the ticked orders that are no longer on screen.
Clear selection unticks everything and closes the bar.
Print packing slips is explained in Print packing slips and download invoices, and Export selected in Search, filter and export orders.
Which bulk buttons a team member sees depends on their role. Mark confirmed and Mark preparing need Update order status, and Cancel selected needs Cancel orders: a role without it sees the bar without that button. See Staff roles: what each one can see and do.

Review before applying: eligible and skipped

Mark confirmed, Mark preparing and Cancel selected never change anything straight away. Each one opens a Review bulk update panel first:

The count at the top, such as 3 eligible, 0 skipped.
One row per selected order: its number and Eligible, or Skipped with the reason it cannot take the change.
Bulk note: an optional note, up to 1,000 characters. It is required for a cancellation.
Apply to eligible orders, which makes the change, and Cancel, which closes the panel and changes nothing.

A bulk button only opens the panel when every selected order can take that change, so the panel normally lists them all as Eligible. An order can still be skipped at the moment you apply. See When an order changed in the meantime.

Mark confirmed

Use this for new orders that show Awaiting confirmation, for example this morning’s cash on delivery orders.

Select the orders.
In the bar, select Mark confirmed.

The Review bulk update panel listing three orders, each marked Eligible, with the Bulk note field and Apply to eligible orders — The review panel: 3 eligible, 0 skipped. Nothing changes until you apply.

Optionally, type a Bulk note for your team.
Select Apply to eligible orders.

The orders list after confirming, with the three orders now Ready to prepare and the message Selected orders updated — The three orders now read Ready to prepare, and the selection is cleared.

The message Selected orders updated. confirms it. Each order moves to Confirmed, which the list shows as the stage Ready to prepare. When an order is confirmed, its items are taken out of stock. If a product does not have enough stock left, that order is skipped. Your customers get no new email, because they had their order confirmation when they ordered. The note, if you typed one, appears in each order’s Activity timeline.

Mark preparing

Use this when your team starts packing a batch of confirmed orders.

Select orders that show Ready to prepare.
In the bar, select Mark preparing.

The Review bulk update panel for Mark preparing with two orders marked Eligible — Mark preparing works on confirmed orders only. Here both selected orders are eligible.

Optionally, add a Bulk note, then select Apply to eligible orders.

Each order moves to Preparing. No email goes to the customer. To print what your team packs from, select the same orders and use Print packing slips.

Cancel selected, with a reason

You can cancel orders that are awaiting payment, awaiting confirmation, confirmed, preparing or ready to ship, as long as the delivery provider has not picked up a shipment for them.

Select the orders.
In the bar, select Cancel selected.
In Bulk note, type the reason. Apply to eligible orders stays greyed out until you do.

The Review bulk update panel for Cancel selected with two eligible orders and the reason typed in the Bulk note field — For a cancellation, the note is the reason. Each customer sees it in their email.

Select Apply to eligible orders.

Each order becomes Cancelled. Items that were taken out of stock go back, discount code uses are given back, gift card balance and loyalty points used on the order go back to the customer, and each customer whose email address we have gets a cancellation email that includes your reason. Write the reason for the customer, not for your team.

Cancel selected needs the Cancel orders permission, as Cancel order does on an order’s page. A role with only Update order status sees Mark confirmed and Mark preparing, but not Cancel selected. See Staff roles: what each one can see and do.

The orders list as a team member whose role has no Cancel orders, with three orders selected: the bar offers Mark confirmed, Mark preparing, Print packing slips, Export selected and Clear selection, and no Cancel selected — Without Cancel orders, the selection bar has no Cancel selected.

If a bulk cancel is refused anyway, for example because your role changed while the page was open, nothing is cancelled and a red line under the bar gives the reason: Cancelling orders needs the permission to cancel orders. Ask the store owner to add it to your role.

If the customer already paid by card, cancelling does not send the money back. Refund it afterwards; cancelling already put the stock back, and the refund does not add it again. See Refund an order in full or in part.

A mixed selection

When your selection mixes orders at different stages, a button that does not fit all of them is greyed out. For example, select two orders awaiting confirmation and one that is already confirmed, and Mark confirmed and Mark preparing are both greyed out, because neither fits all three.

The bulk bar with 3 selected, where Mark confirmed, Mark preparing and Print packing slips are greyed out and Cancel selected is still available — A mixed selection: only the buttons that fit every selected order stay available.

To see why a button is greyed out, point at it. You see one of these:

Message	What it means	What to do
The current order stage does not allow this action.	At least one selected order is not at the stage this button moves orders from.	Untick the orders at other stages, or set Order status filter to one status first.
This order cannot be cancelled after fulfilment has started.	At least one selected order is already with the delivery provider, delivered or closed.	Untick it. An order that has left cannot be cancelled.
None of the selected orders is ready for a packing slip.	No selected order is between confirmed and shipped.	See which orders can print in Print packing slips and download invoices.
Some selected orders were skipped. Their status does not allow a packing slip.	Some selected orders cannot print.	Untick the orders that are not between confirmed and shipped.

When an order changed in the meantime

When you select Apply to eligible orders, we check every order again before changing it. An order is skipped, and left as it was, when:

a colleague moved it on or cancelled it after your list loaded
confirming it would need more stock than you have
you are cancelling it and it has a shipment you have not cancelled yet, even one the provider has not collected

The other orders are still updated, and a message tells you how many were not.

The orders list with one order still ticked and the message 2 orders updated, 1 skipped — One order had already changed, so it was skipped. It stays selected so you can find it.

The skipped orders stay selected. Open each one to see what changed: its stage, its stock, or its shipments. Then act on it from its own page or try again.

On the Free plan

Bulk actions are on Starter and up. On Free you can still tick orders and see the bar, but Mark confirmed, Mark preparing, Cancel selected, Print packing slips and Export selected carry a padlock. Clear selection works as usual.

Select Mark confirmed, Mark preparing, Cancel selected or Print packing slips and a message names the plan that includes it, with its monthly price and a See plans link that opens your subscription. Export selected shows Bulk tools and exports are part of the Starter plan and above. instead.

The locked bulk bar with the message This is on Starter, its price and a See plans link — The message names the plan that has bulk actions, and See plans takes you to compare plans.

On every plan you can still confirm, prepare, cancel and print one order at a time from its own page. Confirming, preparing and printing also work from the order’s actions menu in the list. To compare plans, see Plans and what each includes and Why does a feature show a padlock?

What to do next

Work through one order at a time: Confirm a new order and start preparing it.
Print what your team packs from: Print packing slips and download invoices.
Open your orders list (opens in a new tab).