Order statuses in ShipHero control which orders appear in a user's picking queue in the ShipHero Mobile App and Packing App. They include four system statuses (Default, Unfulfilled, Canceled, and Fulfilled) and unlimited custom statuses you can create to classify orders and group similar orders together.
Common use cases are to delegate specific tasks to the team and organize similar orders for different processing flows. Users will only see orders with the status assigned to them when processing orders via the ShipHero Mobile App and when using the direct pack option in the Packing App. You can use the native system statuses available as well as create custom statuses to group orders together.
Table of Contents
- System Order Statuses
- Custom Order Statuses: Notes, Creation, and Examples
- Assigning a Status to an Order
- Setting a User's Default Order Status
- Troubleshooting Order Statuses
System vs. Custom Order Statuses
- System Order Statuses: ShipHero has several system statuses (Default, Unfulfilled, Canceled, and Fulfilled) that are applied to orders automatically based on the status of the line items on the order.
- Custom Order Statuses: Create custom order statuses to further segment your pending orders and manage specific workflows. For example: expedited orders, orders grouped by size, or orders requiring special handling instructions.
How Order Statuses Work
If you do not use custom statuses, all pending orders are assigned the system status "Default". Users are automatically assigned this as their default order status; so, they will receive all orders in their queues.
If you are using custom statuses, to assign specific orders to designated users, you need to configure the following in your account in order:
- Create a custom order status (e.g., "Store A Orders").
- Assign the custom order status to orders from that store (manually or via automation).
- Update the user's "Default Order Status" (via the user's settings page or in the mobile app).
- Then, they can start processing orders in MIB (Multi-Item Batch), SIB (Single-Item Batch), or the Direct Pack option on the Packing App.
System Order Statuses
| System Order Status | Definition |
| Default | ShipHero's default order status for pending orders. *A pending order is an order that has line items with a pending fulfillment quantity greater than 0. |
| Unfulfilled* | Not an official order status but a way to filter orders on the Manage Orders page. Use this 'status' to filter for all open orders regardless of the Default or custom status assigned. |
| Canceled | Orders that are canceled. Orders can be canceled via automation rules, in bulk from the Manage Orders page, or on the order details page. |
| Fulfilled | Orders that have been completely processed and have no line items with a pending quantity greater than 0. |
Custom Order Statuses: Notes, Creation, and Examples
A custom order status allows you to group orders based on a custom variable. This may be for a specific operational task that needs to happen, to prioritize specific orders, or to handle orders differently based on specified criteria.
Notes and Limitations
- DO NOT recreate the system statuses in ShipHero (Default, Unfulfilled, Canceled, and Fulfilled). Doing so will cause orders to not appear correctly in picking queues and will break fulfillment tracking throughout the platform.
- Accepted characters: Letters (a-z / A-Z), Numbers (0-9), Spaces ( ), Hyphens (-), and Underscores (_).
- Special characters such as &, /, #, etc., are not allowed.
- Once a status is created, you will not be able to edit the name. If you make a typo, you will need to create a new custom status and delete the other.
Custom Order Statuses: How to Create One
- Go to the Orders > Order Statuses page.
- Click + Add Status on the top right-hand side.
- Name your status and click Save Changes.
Custom Order Status Example Use Cases
Here is an example of some custom order statuses and how a company may use them to manage their operations:
- Contact Customer: If an order has this status, it indicates to the CS team that more information is needed from the customer — for example, if there is a hold on the order, an address needs to be validated, or an item is no longer available.
- VIP Customers: Using a combination of e-commerce tools and automation rules, identify orders with a VIP tag and update the status to ensure VIP orders are processed promptly and have special packaging.
- Expedited Orders: Using automation rules, identify orders where expedited processing was paid for to ensure these don't fall into the mix of other orders with standard SLAs.
- Heavy Items: Some orders have heavy products that cannot be processed via the standard MIB/SIB and Direct Pack flows.
Assigning a Status to an Order
After creating your order statuses, you can assign them to orders and start grouping them together. There are several ways to change an order's status:
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On creation/import using Automation Rules: Create an automation rule and use Set a Custom Status as the Action. Type in the status name exactly as it was created — it must be identical, including capitalization and spacing. If it does not match, the order details page will show "No Status" and the order cannot be processed until corrected; see How to Fix "No Status" below.
Visit our article How to Use Automation Rules for more detailed information on using them in ShipHero.
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Manually on the Order Details page: Open the order's details page, select the desired status from the Fulfillment Status dropdown, and then click the Update Details button at the bottom of the Details section to save changes.
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In Bulk from the Manage Orders page: Open the Orders > Manage Orders page, filter and select the orders you want to update, and then click the Bulk Edit button.
Setting a User's Default Order Status
This only applies if you are using custom order statuses. The "Default Order Status" assigned to a user when they are created is Default.
After the custom statuses are created, you need to assign them to the users you want to process those types of orders. You can change a user's "Default Order Status" throughout your daily operations based on the needs of your business. For example, if you want User A to process orders with an "Urgent" status first and then orders with the "Default" status when they finish, first assign the Urgent status to the user and then change it to "Default" when they are ready to move on.
There are two ways to assign or change a user's Default Order Status:
- The user's settings page: Go to the My Account > Users page and open the user's settings page. Select the desired status from the "Default order status" dropdown and click Save.
- The mobile app: Open the user settings, select the desired order status, and tap Save. You can also change the user's default order status from the dashboard view before starting any of the order processing flows.
Troubleshooting Order Statuses
How to Fix "No Status"
Root cause: The status name in your automation rule does not exactly match the status name on the Order Statuses page. Even a single extra space before or after a word will cause ShipHero to fail to recognize the status, preventing the order from appearing correctly in picking and packing applications.
- Verify the Custom Order Status specified in the automation rule action is identical to how the custom order status was created. As a best practice, copy the order status name directly from the Orders > Order Statuses page and paste it into your rule.
- Update existing orders: On the Manage Orders page, filter for orders with the incorrect status applied. Correct the status individually from the order's details page or in bulk on the Manage Orders page. See Assigning a Status to an Order for step-by-step instructions.