10. Staying on top: alerts, settings and reports

Who this is for: owners and managers, and anyone setting up how orders run.

Settings › Orders

Open it at Settings → Orders→; the full list with defaults is in Orders settings→.

• Intake health: for each channel, the last order and its usual rate, plus whether Shopify's 15-minute missed-order check is running. If a busy channel goes much quieter than usual, owners and admins get a bell.
• Response targets: Accept a new order (2 trading hours) and Sort its stock (1 trading day). Send it is by the courier cutoff, set in Settings → Shipping & freight→ (Carrier cut-off, 3:00 pm unless changed). Trading hours come from Settings → Workshop → Trading hours→.
• Who's on duty: a person for Everything, and for each channel if you want. They hear about new Shopify and dealer orders as they arrive; with nobody on duty, owners and admins do. Give unclaimed orders to them after (15 minutes unless changed) hands over any order nobody has taken.
• Alerts and daily emails: a bell three-quarters of the way to a deadline, and another (to the owner and managers) when it's overdue. Send the daily emails (on): at 7:30 am each person gets the orders they own (unowned ones go to whoever is on duty); at 4:30 pm managers get anything still late. Times are in your business's time zone.
• Orders that move themselves: Turn accepted quotes into orders (on), Hold the stock (on), Draft POs for what's short (off).
• Customer updates: Order confirmed, On backorder (with the expected date, and again if it changes) and On its way (with tracking). They're off until you switch them on.

Press Save after any change.

Bells that clear themselves

Order bells disappear once the order moves on. You don't need to "mark all read": if a bell is still there, the thing is still to do.

Snooze and hold, properly

• Snooze: "not now, I'm waiting for something". It needs a time and a reason, and it wakes early if the order moves.
• Hold: "this can't move until…". It needs a reason (awaiting payment, credit hold, address problem…) and stops the clock until you release it.

Neither is a way to hide an order. Snoozed and held orders all sit under Snoozed & held.

Did the customer get it?

Every email from a quote, order, invoice or PO shows whether it was Delivered, Opened or Bounced. A bounce flags the order Email bounced. Fix the address and press Resend.

Seeing it's working

Reporting › Orders & fulfilment→:

• Open orders, Our move, Past due and Quotes that converted themselves across the top;
• orders a week by channel;
• how long each channel takes to be accepted and to leave the building;
• how many quotes converted themselves;
• how many emails were delivered.

The live backlog sits at the top.

A good daily routine

1. Start of day: open the 7:30 am email, or the Orders desk on Needs us. Clear At risk first.
2. Through the day: take what's yours (Take it), and keep the Dispatch board's Late view at zero.
3. Before the cutoff: everything in Ready should be picked and booked.
4. End of day: the 4:30 pm email lists anything still late. Snooze it with a reason, or hand it to someone, so nothing sits unexplained overnight.