Manage pre-orders

A pre-order is an order for something you don't have in stock yet. The Pre-orders page collects these orders, shows which ones are waiting for stock and which can go out now, and lets you turn them into normal orders when the stock arrives.

When an order becomes a pre-order#

• An order becomes a pre-order by itself when an item asks for more than you have in stock, and that product may still be sold when it is out of stock. This is the Backorders setting: Allow selling when out of stock, on the product or as your store default.
• If Backorders is Block selling when out of stock, an order that is short of stock is refused instead, so it never becomes a pre-order.
• A product with Track stock turned off never makes an order a pre-order.
• Website orders become pre-orders when you confirm them. On Add Order, turn on Force pre-order to make an order a pre-order even when stock is there. Left off, the order becomes a pre-order by itself when a product is short.

With pre-order management, nothing is taken from stock while an order is a pre-order. The order page shows Pre-order — stock not reserved yet. Stock is deducted when you process the order.

The three tabs#

• Ready depends only on the stock on your shelf, not on a purchase order's status. Stock that arrives through a purchase order or a Stock Adjustment both count.
• When stock is short, it goes to the oldest pre-order first.
• A received purchase order whose stock doesn't cover the order shows a PO received chip, but the order is not Ready. A purchase order closed before everything arrived shows PO closed short.
• Each item shows how many are in stock and how many are incoming on open purchase orders.

Use the search box (order, customer, phone or SKU) and the Order date filter to narrow the list.

Steps: process pre-orders when stock arrives#

4 steps · ~3 min

1. 1

   Step 1

   Go to Operations → Pre-orders and open the Ready tab.
2. 2

   Step 2

   Tick the orders you want to send out.
3. 3

   Step 3

   Click Process.
4. 4

   Step 4

   Check the Process pre-orders dialog and click its button, for example Process 2 order(s).

   

Each order becomes a normal Pending order in Operations → Orders, and its stock is deducted now. From there you ship it like any other order.

If an order doesn't have enough stock, the dialog lists what's missing, for example "needs 5, 2 available". Those orders are skipped and stay pre-orders. A store Owner or Admin can tick Process anyway (stock may go negative) to process them regardless.

You can also process one order from its own page: click Remove pre-order flag on the pre-order banner. The order becomes pending and its stock is deducted now. A store Owner or Admin also sees Remove anyway (stock may go negative) next to it.

Steps: get stock with a purchase order#

3 steps · ~2 min

If your plan includes vendors and purchase orders, you can order the missing stock straight from this page.

1. 1

   Step 1

   On the Pending tab, tick the pre-orders.
2. 2

   Step 2

   Click Create purchase order, choose the Vendor, and click Create draft PO. StoreLine makes one draft purchase order with the items of all selected pre-orders added together, and links the orders to it.
3. 3

   Step 3

   Or click Link to PO and pick an open purchase order that will bring the stock.

The linked orders move to Awaiting stock. To remove the link, tick them and click Unlink. If the purchase order is cancelled or deleted, its pre-orders go back to Pending.

When a linked purchase order is received and its stock covers some pre-orders, you get a notification such as "3 pre-orders are ready to process".

Steps: export pre-orders#

6 steps · ~4 min

1. 1

   Step 1

   Tick some pre-orders, or tick none to export the whole tab with your current filters.
2. 2

   Step 2

   Click Export.
3. 3

   Step 3

   Under Pre-orders, choose Selected or All in the current tab with your current filters. Each choice shows how many pre-orders it covers.
4. 4

   Step 4

   Pick the File type: Excel, CSV or PDF.
5. 5

   Step 5

   Under Fields to export, tick what you need from Order details and Product lines.
6. 6

   Step 6

   Click Export (the button shows how many pre-orders).

   

If you pick any product-line field, each product gets its own row, and the order details fill only its first row.

FAQ#

Related articles#

• Process an order
• Buy stock with purchase orders
• Add or remove stock with Stock Adjustment
• Add a product (and variations)