---
title: How to stop wholesale customers ordering after the cutoff
Metadescription: Making a wholesale cutoff actually stop late orders - closing the date server-side, what a closed date tells a customer, and locking an order once placed.
author: Dan Edwards
author_role: Founder
author_url: https://danedwardsdeveloper.com
author_linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-edwards-developer
published: 2026-08-26
---

Token estimate: ~1,200

# How to stop wholesale customers ordering after the cutoff

A cutoff you have to enforce by saying no is not a cutoff, it is a preference. Stopping late orders means the date is closed to the customer before they ask - they cannot select it, so there is no request to turn down. In Wholesale Handler that closure is worked out on the server against the rules on the customer's own order profile.

By **[Dan Edwards](https://wholesalehandler.com/about)**, Founder.

## The date has to be closed, not discouraged

Writing a deadline in an email leaves you the one enforcing it, against a customer you like, who has a reason. Most people say yes, which is the right human answer and the wrong operational one.

The alternative is that the closed date is simply not selectable. Wholesale Handler works out which dates are open each time a customer opens the order form, and checks it again when they submit, so a stale page cannot be used to slip an order through after the deadline.

## Every delivery day gets its own deadline

A cutoff belongs to a delivery day rather than to your business. Each day you deliver on carries its own deadline, set as a lead time before that day, so Monday can close on Friday afternoon while Thursday stays open until Wednesday night.

Wholesale Handler cannot store a delivery day without one, so there is no way to end up with a day that quietly accepts anything. A cutoff can also land on the delivery day itself, which is what makes same-day ordering possible where the work allows it.

These live on the [order profile](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-order-profiles-work-on-wholesale-handler), so different customer groups can run different deadlines without duplicating your products.

## What a closed date tells the customer

A closed date cannot be selected, and a short label sits beside it. There are two labels:

| The customer sees | When |
| --- | --- |
| **No deliveries** | That weekday is not a delivery day on their order profile |
| **Closed**, or the description you gave the holiday | The date falls inside one of your holidays |

A date whose deadline has already passed shows the same label as any other closed date. Dates further ahead than a customer may order are not listed at all.

You can add your own line on top of these in [settings](https://wholesalehandler.com/articles/how-delivery-settings-work-on-wholesale-handler) - the place to say what to do about a genuine emergency, so the answer is on screen rather than in your phone.

## Locking an order after it is placed

Closing the date stops a new order. A separate setting decides how long an existing one stays updateable.

The order lock window runs from Until cutoff, where the deadline governs alone, through 6 fixed windows between 15 minutes and 24 hours after placing, to Immediately.

The two are independent ceilings and whichever lands first wins. A 24-hour window on an order placed an hour before its cutoff still locks at the cutoff, so the window can only ever shorten the time an order stays open, not extend it past the deadline.

## You can still say yes

The cutoff binds your customers, not you. Placing an order yourself lets you override the date check, so a late one is a decision you make case by case with the reason in front of you.

That is the arrangement worth having. The system holds the line by default, and the exceptions stay yours rather than becoming a rule that quietly stops applying.

## Q&A

**Q: Whose clock does the cutoff use?**
A: Yours. Every deadline is calculated in the timezone set in your settings, so a customer in another timezone is held to your Friday afternoon rather than theirs. Change your timezone and every cutoff moves with it.

**Q: Does a customer see a countdown to the deadline?**
A: No. They see which dates are open and, on a closed one, a short label saying it is closed. The deadline itself is not displayed as a running clock.

**Q: Can I set a different cutoff for one customer without changing everyone?**
A: Yes, by putting them on their own order profile. Deadlines, delivery days, lead horizon, minimum spend and delivery charge all travel together on the profile, so moving a customer moves the whole set.