Managing Order Holds in ShipHero

In ShipHero, an order hold is a function that prevents an order from being picked, packed, and shipped until the hold is manually or automatically removed. When a hold is active, the order won't appear in the standard picking queue, which is an essential tool for managing the workflow and ensuring the correct orders are processed.

This Article Covers:

• Types of Order Holds
• How Holds are Applied
• Releasing a Hold
• Filtering for Orders with Holds
• How to Display Order Holds on the Dashboard

Types of Order Holds

ShipHero offers several types of holds to address different issues that might prevent an order from being fulfilled:

• Fraud Hold: This is applied to orders that have been flagged as potentially fraudulent, often based on settings from an e-commerce platform like Shopify. It's a key tool for preventing losses from fraudulent transactions.
• Address Hold: If an order's shipping address is invalid, ShipHero's address validation system will automatically place the order on hold. This helps ensure packages are delivered to the correct location and avoids costly reshipments.
• Payment Hold: This hold is used for orders that haven't been paid in full. It prevents the order from being processed until payment has been confirmed and the hold is released.
• Operator Hold: This is a general-purpose hold that can be applied manually by a user or via automation rules. It's useful for a variety of situations, such as orders that require a special, non-standard process, pre-orders or delayed shipments, or orders that a customer service representative needs to review.
• Hold Until Date: This hold is similar to an Operator Hold but instead of needing to manually release the hold the system will automatically release the hold at the specified date and time. 

More information for each type of hold and store compatiblilty functions found in the hyperlinked articles above. 

How Holds Are Applied

Holds can be applied to orders in a few different ways:

• Manually: You can place a hold on a single order or use the bulk edit feature to apply a hold to multiple orders at once from the "Manage Orders" page in the ShipHero dashboard. **Operator holds can also be placed on an order during the picking/packing flows.
• Automation Rules: ShipHero's automation rules can be configured to automatically apply a specific hold based on defined criteria. For example, a rule could be set up to apply a payment hold to any order from a specific sales channel with a "pending payment" status.
• Store Integration: Certain e-commerce platforms, like Shopify, can automatically sync fraud and payment hold statuses to ShipHero when an order is imported. Limited to hold type and store platform settings.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Adding a hold to an order from the dashboard when locked to a user WILL NOT prevent an order from shipping.  An admin would need to clear the totes and order locks, then place the needed hold. 

Releasing a Hold

To get a held order into the fulfillment workflow, the hold must be removed. This can be done in the following ways:

• Manually: Holds can be removed on a per-order basis or in bulk using the bulk edit feature.
• Automation Rules: Rules can also be set to automatically remove a hold when certain conditions are met, such as when a payment is received.
• Synced Status: For holds synced from an e-commerce platform, the hold may be removed automatically in ShipHero once the hold status is updated in the original store. Limited to hold type and store platform settings.

How to Add or Remove a Hold on a Single Order

1. Go to Orders > Manage Orders.
2. Open the order details page by clicking on the hyperlinked Order Number in the list.
3. Scroll to Holds on the bottom-right and add/remove the hold.
4. Click Update.

How to Add or Remove a Hold on Multiple Orders

1. Go to the Orders > Manage Orders page.
2. Select the orders you want to edit by checking the box left of the Order Date column.
3. Click the Bulk Edit button on the top right banner.
4. Select either Add or Remove below a specific hold or select Remove All Holds for orders with more than one type of hold.
5. Click Update.

How to Set Order Holds Using Automation Rules

ShipHero's automation rules are a powerful tool for streamlining your fulfillment process and automatically applying order holds based on specific criteria. Instead of manually reviewing and holding orders, you can set up "if-then" logic to handle a wide range of scenarios, saving time and reducing human error.

1. Go to Orders > Automation Rules.
2. Click Create New Rule.
3. Give your rule a Name and select a Trigger.
4. Select a hold from the Action dropdown.
5. Click Create.

Filtering for Orders with Holds

On the Manage Orders page, there are different filter options to help you find the orders you need, keep in mind you may also need to adjust the date range filter accordingly. 

• Individual Holds: You can filter by specific types of holds such as Fraud Hold, Address Hold, or Payment Hold by checking those options.
• General Holds: To view all orders that have any type of hold, use the Any Hold filter. For orders with a Hold Until status, there is a dedicated filter on the Manage Order page called Has Hold Until. Selecting Yes will show all orders with this specific hold.
• No Holds: Use the No Holds filter to see all orders that do not have any holds.

In addition to the hold filters on the Manage Orders page, you can use the On Hold column to sort orders hold type as well.  

How to Display Order Holds on the Dashboard

By default, your ShipHero Dashboard only displays holds for orders in the Default status to keep the view clean. To view holds across all order statuses, you'll need to change this setting.

1. Go to the My Account > Settings page.
2. On the lower right of the page check the option to "Allow all statuses (orders) to display on the dashboard for holds."
3. Hit Save Changes.

Note For 3PLs: This setting needs to be enabled individually for each child account to show all statuses on both the combined dashboard and the individual child account dashboards.

Without Setting Enabled	With Setting Enabled