How standing orders work on Wholesale Handler

A standing order places the same delivery on a repeating schedule - same products, same quantities, same day of the week - so a regular customer doesn't have to sign in every week to repeat last week's order. You or the customer can set one up. Wholesale Handler queues each upcoming delivery three days ahead and emails the customer a preview at today's prices with a one-click skip link, then places the order at that delivery day's cutoff.

What is a standing order?

A standing order is a rule that generates regular orders automatically. The rule sets the day of the week, the cadence (weekly, two-weekly, three-weekly, or four-weekly), the first delivery date, and the products and quantities. From there, each delivery's order is created without anyone having to sign in.

The generated orders show up in the normal Orders list and behave like any other order - same cutoff, same lock rules, same packing slip, same invoice. The only difference is who created them.

Who can create a standing order?

Either party. A customer signs in, opens Standing orders and starts a new one with a merchant they already order from. A merchant can also create one on a customer's behalf from the same page, after picking the customer.

Each customer can have up to 10 active standing orders with one supplier. Cancelled ones don't count toward the limit.

How do I create a standing order?

Open Standing orders and start a new one. The form asks for:

• Day of the week for the delivery. Only days the customer's order profile accepts are selectable. Each day shows how many standing orders are already scheduled for it, so a customer adding a second Monday order can see they already have one.
• Cadence - weekly, two-weekly, three-weekly, or four-weekly.
• First delivery date - a list of the next 60 days, with anything outside the customer's order profile - its lead time, cutoff, or accepted days - shown disabled with the reason inline.
• Products and quantities - the same picker as the one-off order form. Leave a quantity blank to skip a product.
• Optional label - a short name like "Monday Breads" or "Friday Veg" that replaces the default "Weekly on Mondays" title on the detail page and in emails. Useful when a customer has more than one standing order with the same merchant.
• Optional delivery notes - reused on every generated order.

The summary updates as quantities change so the total cost per delivery is visible before submit.

What does each status mean?

A schedule that hasn't been paused or cancelled stays Active. Paused is automatic - a paused schedule flips back to Active on its own once the pause end date passes.

How do I skip a single delivery?

Two ways:

• From the email - each upcoming order's preview email has a "Skip this order" link. Clicking it opens a confirmation page with the order summary and a final skip button. Two clicks total, to protect against email clients pre-fetching the link.
• From the website - on the standing order's detail page, click Skip... and confirm. The action affects only the next delivery.

Skipping marks that queued delivery, so when the cutoff arrives no order is created for it. The standing order stays active and the delivery after that is unaffected.

How do I pause a standing order?

On the standing order's detail page, click Pause.... The form lists the next dozen upcoming deliveries plus a "Pause indefinitely" option. Pick the delivery date the customer wants to resume on, or pick indefinitely if they don't know yet. The submit button names the consequence - "Resume on Wed, 28 May" or "Pause indefinitely" - so there's no surprise on click.

While paused:

• No new orders generate for that schedule.
• Queued deliveries inside the pause window are cleared, so no orders are created for them. Pausing stops the very next delivery as long as its cutoff hasn't passed.
• The status row shows "Paused until [date]" or "Paused indefinitely".

Bounded pauses resume themselves on their own. Indefinite pauses stay paused until someone clicks Resume... on the detail page. There's no maximum pause length either way.

How do I cancel a standing order?

Click Cancel... on the detail page and confirm. Cancelling stops the schedule from generating any more orders. Orders that have already been generated stay where they are. The cancelled schedule becomes read-only and can't be reactivated, so a customer who changes their mind has to create a new standing order.

What's the difference between pausing and cancelling?

Pausing is temporary and reversible. The standing order keeps its history, its products, its day, and its cadence, and either resumes itself on the chosen date or waits for someone to resume it. Use it for holidays, school terms, off-seasons, or any predictable gap.

Cancelling is permanent. Use it when the customer wants to stop the arrangement, not pause it. Creating a fresh standing order later is the way back.

When does an order created from a standing order lock?

The same rules as a one-off order - the order locks at the cutoff for its delivery date, unless you've set a shorter lock window. See How orders work on Wholesale Handler for the full picture - the standing order doesn't change any of it.

The preview email shows the exact cutoff timestamp so there's no ambiguity about when the next chance to edit closes.

What emails does the customer receive?

Two:

• One email when the standing order is created to both you and the customer. Includes the cadence, the first delivery date, the product list, and a link to the standing order's detail page.
• One email three days before each delivery to the customer only. Includes the delivery date, the cutoff timestamp, the product list with today's prices, and a "Skip this order" link that doesn't need a sign-in.

Both emails are a copy for the customer's records. The standing order and its upcoming order on the site are the source of truth either way. If the customer does nothing with the preview email, the order fires normally at the cutoff.

Customers who are notified by email but don't sign in (managed customers with a confirmed email address) receive the same emails, with one difference - no links or buttons. Their emails are purely informational, and each one tells them to contact you through whatever channel you already use. If something unexpected happens, like an item being out of stock when a standing order places, the customer is always emailed about it regardless of their email settings.

What happens to standing orders on a day I've closed?

A standing order falling on a closed date doesn't place, and no order is created for it. The customer is emailed as soon as you save the closure rather than on the day, so a shutdown declared in June is known about in June. They're sent alternative delivery dates either side of the closure that they can still order for, and choosing one opens an order already holding that standing order's items for the new date. The schedule itself carries on unchanged.

Can I manage a customer's standing orders?

Yes. Your Standing orders page shows every customer's schedules in one table, with a day-of-week filter for finding all the Monday schedules at once. Clicking through opens the same detail page the customer sees, with the same skip, pause, and cancel actions. Useful when a customer calls and asks for a change without going through the site themselves.

How Wholesale Handler handles standing orders

The standing orders list at Standing orders shows every active and paused schedule in one place, with the day of the week, cadence, item count, next delivery date, and status visible inline.

Each generated order appears in the main Orders list once it's created at the cutoff. A standing order is a scheduler rather than an order - it holds the rule and creates one order per delivery. Before the cutoff the delivery exists only as a scheduled entry on the standing order's detail page, which is what the preview email and the skip link act on.