How do I manage orders once sales are made?

Every order placed on your shop appears automatically in the Orders tab of your dashboard, with its number, the buyer, the details of the items purchased and the net amount your association will receive. You move each order forward step by step until it is handed over or shipped, notifying the buyer by email at each change if you wish, and at any time you can export all of your orders or write to several buyers at once.

To get there, open the Shop menu, click Manage on the shop concerned, then the Orders tab. This page assumes that your association's right to sell products has already been settled; if that is not yet the case, first read can an association sell products?.

The life cycle of an order, from receipt to handover

When a buyer adds products to their basket, chooses a collection or delivery option and pays, they receive a "Order confirmed" email and their order arrives in Orders, with the status To process. You then move it forward with one click from its page, until it is handed over or shipped. The route followed depends on the option chosen by the buyer.

On the order's page, a button always offers the next step: Mark as being prepared, then depending on the option chosen Mark ready for collection or Mark as shipped, then Mark as handed over or Mark as delivered. The Notify the buyer box, ticked by default, automatically sends an email with the new status and, if you wish, a note for the buyer.

When marking an order as shipped, you can enter the carrier and the tracking number. If you also add a tracking link, this number becomes clickable in the buyer's email. You can also go back with Move back to "To process", or stop tracking with Cancel fulfilment.

Tip: a mistake in a tracking number is not permanent. Use Edit tracking to correct it afterwards, without redoing the whole shipped step.

Important: Cancel fulfilment only stops the preparation or shipping tracking. It does not cancel the payment: to give the money back to the buyer, use the refund, described below.

Following and filtering your orders

The order list can be filtered by payment status (Paid, Pending, fully refunded or with the Part. refunded filter, Cancelled, Expired) and by fulfilment status (To process, Being prepared, Ready for collection, Shipped, Delivered / handed over), or searched by name, email or order number. Each row shows the order, the buyer, the Net received amount and the two statuses; click Manage to open its details.

Good to know: as long as an order is not paid, its amount stays greyed out and is not counted in any total, exactly as for donations.

The Net received amount is what your association actually receives, once any payment provider fees that the buyer did not choose to cover at the time of payment have been deducted. To find out more, read transaction fees and buyers covering the fees.

If a buyer has paid you by another means, for example in cash, by cheque or by bank transfer, the I've been paid button confirms the order without going through a payment provider: the stock is reduced, the buyer receives their purchase confirmation, and a manual transaction is recorded so that it can be refunded later if needed.

Handing over an order in person: the scanner

On collection day, click Scan at the top of your shop, choose the shop concerned if you manage several, then click Open the scanner from your phone's browser. Point the device at the QR code the buyer shows you:

• a green box means the order is to be handed over; it is then automatically marked as handed over;
• an orange box means it has already been collected: do not hand it over a second time;
• a red box signals an unknown QR code, or an unpaid or cancelled order: there is nothing to hand over.

Where does the sales money go?

Directly to your association's Stripe or PayPal account, exactly as for a donation: Donoor never holds this money, at any point. Payouts follow the same principle as for your donations, detailed in when do I receive donations: with Stripe, each sale is paid out automatically to your bank account a few days after payment; with PayPal, the money stays in the association's PayPal balance until you withdraw it or set up an automatic transfer.

If you need to refund a buyer, open their order and choose what you give back: Whole order, Some items, or a Custom amount for a goodwill gesture. The exact amount is recalculated by Donoor, refunded items can be put back into stock, and the buyer is notified by email. The money is taken from the association's Stripe or PayPal balance; the details of this procedure, along with the steps to follow if a buyer disputes a payment with their bank, are explained in refunding a payment and handling a dispute.

Exporting your orders and writing to your buyers

The export button, at the top of the list, offers three formats: Excel, the most convenient to open directly; CSV, to feed another software package; and a PDF (print) for printing. Postal addresses and the information you asked buyers for are exported in clearly separated columns.

The Write button opens a window to send a message to several buyers at once, by choosing a target: All buyers, Orders to prepare to announce a delay, Awaiting collection to remind those who have never collected their order, or Sent orders. Before sending, the number of people who will receive the message is displayed, so that you can gauge the reach of your mailing before confirming it.

Key takeaways

• Each order is tracked in the Orders tab of your shop, from the To process status through to handover or delivery.
• One click on the next step moves the order forward, and the buyer can be notified automatically by email at each change.
• Collection on site is validated with the QR code scanner, directly from your phone's browser.
• Sales money goes directly to your association's Stripe or PayPal account, never to a Donoor account.
• You can export your orders as Excel, CSV or PDF, and write to some of your buyers in a single message.