Wholesale Handler
Orders flow through one place - your Orders list - whether the customer placed them themselves or you placed them on their behalf. Each order is editable while pending, locks at the cutoff, then moves to processed once you've prepared it. Processed orders are ready to invoice.
How does a customer place an order?
The customer signs in, opens Orders and clicks Place order.... They pick a delivery date, add quantities for the products you've made available, and complete by clicking Place order. Wholesale Handler shows them their personalised price list, hides products that aren't available on their chosen delivery date, and prevents them from picking a delivery date outside your cutoff and lead time settings.
If you've set a minimum order amount, Wholesale Handler blocks orders that don't meet it. You can also charge a flat delivery fee, with an option to waive it for orders that meet the minimum spend.
How do I place an order on behalf of a customer?
You can start a new order from a few places:
- The Orders page - click New order...
- The Customers page - either from a customer's row, or from the menu at the top of the page
- The dashboard - in the menu at the top of the page
Pick a customer, choose a delivery date, add line items, and place the order. The same cutoff, lead-time and accepted-day rules apply.
The order shows up in your list as a normal pending order, except you can mark it as processed straight away - there's no customer-editing window to wait for.
Where do delivery days, cutoffs and charges come from?
Delivery days, cutoff time, lead times, minimum spend and the delivery charge are set per order profile, not in your global Settings. An order profile is a reusable bundle of these ordering rules that you assign to customers. Every merchant starts with a Default profile, and you can create more for customers who order on a different schedule or pay a different delivery charge - a customer two hours away might sit on a "Far North - Wed/Thu only" profile while everyone else stays on the Default.
Each customer is assigned to exactly one profile, and the delivery dates and charges they see when ordering come from it. Update a profile once and every customer on it follows. The rest of this page describes how those rules behave - they all read from the customer's order profile.
How do cutoffs and lead times work together?
Two settings control which delivery dates a customer can pick: the cutoff time and the minimum and maximum lead days. The cutoff is a time of day - it decides whether "today" still counts for ordering. Lead days set how soon and how far ahead a customer can request delivery.
A common setup is a 5pm cutoff with a 1-day minimum and a 14-day maximum lead. Order at 4pm Monday and the picker shows Tuesday through to two weeks out. Order at 5:01pm Monday and Tuesday drops off - earliest is Wednesday.
What's a delivery cutoff?
The cutoff is the time of day after which "today" stops counting for ordering purposes. Order before the cutoff and lead time starts counting from today; order after, and it starts from tomorrow.
Pick a cutoff that gives you enough time to prep what's been ordered without making customers plan further ahead than they need to. Most wholesalers set it somewhere between 3pm and 8pm.
What are minimum and maximum lead days?
Minimum lead days is how soon a customer can request delivery once their lead time starts.
Zero (same-day delivery) - the customer can order today for today's delivery, as long as they order before the cutoff. With a 5pm cutoff:
- Order at 4pm Monday for Monday delivery ✅
- Order at 5:01pm Monday for Monday delivery ❌ (earliest is Tuesday)
Useful for collect-on-the-day businesses where prep is fast.
One - the most common setup. At least a full day between order and delivery. With a 5pm cutoff:
- Order at 4pm Monday for Tuesday delivery ✅
- Order at 5:01pm Monday for Tuesday delivery ❌ (earliest is Wednesday)
Two or more - useful when you need to source ingredients or batch production before delivery.
Maximum lead days is how far ahead a customer can plan. With a customer ordering on Monday 1 January:
- Max = 7 - can pick any date up to Monday 8 January
- Max = 14 - can pick up to Monday 15 January
- Max = 30 - can pick up to Wednesday 31 January
Lower values keep planning manageable and suit fresh produce. Set higher for seasonal businesses like christmas trees or pumpkins where customers commit weeks or months in advance.
Can I take orders for a specific day or for a whole week?
Both. In Settings, choose delivery precision:
- Daily precision - customers pick an exact delivery date. For example, if a bakery chooses daily precision, a customer can pick a particular Thursday, and that's the day their bread arrives.
- Weekly precision - customers pick a Monday that represents the whole Mon-Sun week. For example, if a Christmas tree farm chooses weekly precision, a customer can order for the week commencing Monday 27 November, and the trees arrive at some point during that week.
Week precision is mainly for seasonal businesses like christmas trees and pumpkins, where customers might order months in advance. Most industries - bakeries, florists, egg suppliers - use daily precision.
Which days of the week can I deliver on?
On an order profile, pick the days of the week you accept deliveries on - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and so on. This is a recurring weekly pattern, not specific dates, and it can differ between profiles. Customers can only pick a delivery date that falls on one of the accepted weekdays for their profile.
Customers can still *place* orders at any time of day, on any day of the week. If a bakery doesn't work on Mondays, a customer can still place an order on a Monday - they just can't pick Monday as the delivery day. Wholesale Handler keeps taking orders even when you're not working.
For example:
- A bakery delivering to local cafes might accept Mon-Fri.
- An egg supplier doing one big drop a week might accept Thursday only.
- A florist preparing for weekend events might accept Wed-Sat.
How do holidays work?
Add a holiday in Settings and Wholesale Handler hides that date from the delivery date picker. Holidays support single dates and ranges:
- Single date - a bank holiday like 1 January
- Short range - a long weekend or trade show (e.g. 26-28 March)
- Long range - an extended closure like Christmas (24 December - 2 January)
With weekly precision, a week is only blocked if every accepted day in it is a holiday. If even one accepted day remains, customers can still book that week. For a wholesaler accepting Mon-Fri deliveries:
- Holiday Monday 1 - Sunday 7 January - w/c Monday 1 January ❌ (every accepted day is in the holiday)
- Holiday Tuesday 2 - Sunday 7 January - w/c Monday 1 January ✅ (Monday is still accepted)
What are the order statuses?
Wholesale Handler shows a single status badge per order that subsumes the raw stage, the lock state, and the invoice lifecycle. Some statuses are merchant-only - the customer's view collapses them into a friendlier set so they don't see internal-state details that don't concern them.
Placed
The customer has placed the order and it's still open for changes - they can update line items, change the delivery date, or cancel it entirely. The status stays at Placed until the cutoff for the delivery date passes, or until your configured order-lock window expires (whichever comes first). If you've set the order-lock mode to lock immediately on placement, you won't see this status at all - new orders go straight to Locked.
Locked
The order is placed and the editing window has closed. The customer can no longer update or cancel it themselves. Mark it as processed once you have prepared it.
Processed
You've prepared the order. The customer can no longer change it. Ready to invoice.
Invoice created
A draft invoice exists for this order but you haven't sent it yet. You can keep adding orders to the same draft invoice before sending.
Customers see this as Processed.
Invoice sent
You've sent the invoice. The customer can see it on their invoices page and declare it paid once they've sent payment.
Customer declared paid
The customer has declared they've sent payment but you haven't reconciled it yet. Confirm with Mark as paid once the funds have arrived; if you can't reconcile the payment, dispute it instead.
Customers see this as Paid.
Paid
You've confirmed the customer's payment. The invoice and order are both closed.
Customers see this as Paid.
Invoice disputed
You couldn't reconcile a customer's payment declaration. Use this when a customer marked an invoice as paid but the funds didn't arrive. The dispute is communicated to the customer by email.
Customers see this as Invoice sent.
Cancelled orders are removed entirely - there's no "cancelled" status.
When does an order become locked?
By default, an order locks once the cutoff for its delivery date has passed. For a Tuesday delivery with a 5pm Monday cutoff, the order locks at 5pm Monday. Locked means the customer can no longer change or cancel it. You can shorten this window in Settings - see the next section.
A padlock icon shows up next to pending orders so you can see which ones are still editable and which are locked.
Can I lock orders sooner than the cutoff?
Yes. The Order lock window setting in Settings controls when a customer's order locks. The default - Until cutoff - keeps the order editable right up to the cutoff for its delivery date. This is the most flexible option for customers and what most wholesalers want.
If you'd rather lock orders sooner, you can pick:
- Immediately - the order is locked the moment it's placed. Customers never see the Placed status - new orders go straight to Locked.
- A fixed window after placement: 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours or 24 hours. Once the window expires, the order locks even if the delivery cutoff is still days away.
The delivery cutoff always wins if it lands sooner. A 24-hour window on an order placed 6 hours before the cutoff locks at the cutoff, not at the 24-hour mark - the order can never stay editable past its delivery cutoff regardless of which window you pick.
A tighter lock window suits merchants who start preparing orders the moment they come in and don't want last-minute changes. The looser default suits merchants who batch their work close to the delivery date and are happy for customers to keep tweaking until the cutoff.
When can I mark an order as processed?
For orders the customer placed, once they're locked. Until the order locks, the action is disabled - the customer might still be making changes or cancelling. When that happens depends on your Order lock window setting (see above).
For orders you placed on the customer's behalf, you can mark them as processed straight away. There's no customer-editing window to wait for, so the lock gate doesn't apply.
Either way, you can mark orders as processed individually from each order's actions menu, or in bulk by selecting multiple eligible orders at once.
Can I revert a processed order back to pending?
Yes, as long as it hasn't been invoiced. Once an invoice exists, the order's status is fixed.
Can a customer change their order after placing it?
Yes - up until the order locks. They can change quantities, add or remove products, or change the delivery date. Wholesale Handler revalidates everything on update - stock, prices, minimum spend and delivery date validity. The updated order uses today's prices, not the prices that applied when they originally placed the order.
When the order locks depends on your Order lock window setting (see above). With the default Until cutoff, the customer can edit right up to the delivery cutoff. With Immediately, they can't edit at all once placed. With a fixed window like 1 hour after placement, they have that long from when they placed the order, or until the delivery cutoff if it lands sooner.
Once the order locks, the customer can no longer update or cancel it.
Can a customer cancel their order?
Yes, while it's still pending and not yet locked. Cancelling removes the order entirely and returns any finite-stock items back to your inventory.
Once the order locks the customer can no longer cancel it themselves - same window as updates, controlled by your Order lock window setting.
How is the order reference generated?
Each order gets a reference like `ORD-2026-001`. The year is when the order was placed; the number is a running sequence across all your orders that doesn't reset each year. Numbers are padded to at least three digits.
Both you and your customer see the reference, it appears on invoices, and you can search for orders by reference on the orders list.
What happens when a product runs out of stock?
Stock tracking is optional - leave the quantity unset and Wholesale Handler treats the product as infinite (the default for bakeries and similar). For products with a finite stock level, Wholesale Handler tracks the remaining quantity and prevents customers from ordering more than is left.
When stock hits zero, the product moves to a Sold out section at the bottom of the customer's product list. They can still see it but can't add it to their order. There's a button to subscribe for a one-time email when you restock.
You can restock manually, or stock returns automatically when an order is cancelled. Either way, subscribed customers get an email and the product becomes orderable again. Subscriptions clear once the notification fires - if the product sells out again, customers subscribe again.
How do I get notified about orders?
Turn on order activity emails in Settings and you'll get an email whenever a customer places, updates or cancels an order. If a customer makes several changes in quick succession, you'll get one update email rather than several.
Customers can opt in to email receipts in their own settings - they'll get a copy of every order they place, update, or cancel. The order on their account is the source of truth either way; the email is just a copy.
Are there any limits on how many orders I can take?
No - there are no order count limits. Wholesale Handler caps how many customers (50) and products (500) you can have, but orders themselves are unlimited.
How Wholesale Handler handles orders
The orders list shows every order in one place, whether the customer placed it themselves or you placed it on their behalf. A status badge tells you whether each order is pending or processed, the padlock icon picks out the pending orders that are still editable by the customer, and the search bar finds orders by reference, customer name or contact name.
Bulk actions sit at the bottom of the list once you've selected one or more rows: mark several eligible orders as processed in one click, or generate packing slips for a whole day's deliveries together. Once orders are processed, they show up in the uninvoiced drawer ready to be turned into invoices in a single batch.
