Drafts

Open Orders › Drafts. A draft order is an order you put together and keep until the customer is ready. Nothing is charged, no stock is taken and no discount code is used until you create the order.

The list

• All, Open, Invoice sent and Completed show drafts in one status. A completed draft names the order it became.
• Tick open drafts to Delete them together. It asks first.
• Search drafts finds a draft by its name (such as #D3), the customer’s name or their email.

Each row shows the draft, how many items it holds, the customer, its status, its total when it was last saved, and when it was last changed. The status and the search stay in the page’s address, so you can share a view with your team.

Create a draft

Create draft order opens the same form as Create order:

• Products: search for products, add them and set the quantities.
• Payment: a shipping option or a custom shipping amount, and tax.
• Customer and Shipping address. Find a customer fills in one of your customers' email, name, phone and address; when the email you type is one of your customers', the form says so, and Use their name and address fills them in.
• Discounts: discount codes, and whether the store’s automatic discounts apply.
• Discount on a line takes a percent or an amount per unit off that line, with a reason the customer sees on the order. It comes after the store’s own discounts and never goes below zero. A draft with a line discount or a custom item is completed from this page: it can’t be sent as an invoice, and it has no invoice link. The same goes for a draft with a custom shipping amount or tax typed in, or with automatic discounts off.
• Note.

The totals are worked out by Storeloom as the order will be charged: the subtotal, each discount with its amount, shipping, tax and the total. A code that gives nothing says why. A draft with no tax typed in is taxed as your checkout taxes an order, custom items included: your tax rates for its shipping address, added on top when your prices don’t include tax, and the cash on delivery fee taxed as shipping is. A tax you type in is kept instead. A customer you exempted from tax (Collect no tax from this customer) pays none on their draft; through the invoice link, they pay none when they are signed in. With Automatic discounts off, only the codes you enter apply.

Create draft keeps it; later changes are kept with Apply in the bar at the top. A draft can be saved half done: without a customer, an address or even a product. A draft to one of the seven places that are off unless you name them (see Create an order) says so under its totals, and can’t be completed until its address changes or a shipping option names that place. Drafts are numbered #D1, #D2 and so on.

Send an invoice

Once a draft is saved with its products, the Invoice card emails the customer what they are buying, with a link to pay at your checkout.

• Send to: the draft’s email, or another address.
• Message (optional): a few words of your own, shown at the top of the email.
• Send invoice sends it. The card then says when, and to whom, it was last sent.
• Copy invoice link copies the same link, to send it another way, such as in a chat.

The link opens your store’s checkout with the draft’s products, discount codes, note and email already in. There the customer chooses one of your shipping options and how to pay, as any shopper does, and pays your taxes and automatic discounts, at the total the invoice gave. The draft’s discount codes stay as you set them: the customer can’t add another code or leave one out; that is why a draft with a custom item, a discount on a line, a custom shipping amount, a tax typed in or automatic discounts off can’t be sent. Send invoice says so beside it as soon as the draft is open, before you press anything, and what to do instead: choose how the customer pays under Payment and create the order here. At the checkout the customer can’t change, remove or add items: they are the ones you chose. The order they place completes the draft, in the currency they paid in. A link to a draft that is already an order, or to one that has since been given something a checkout can’t charge, opens an empty cart instead. If you change the draft’s products after sending, or the customer changes the cart, the checkout stops and asks them to contact you: the link opened again shows the draft as it now is.

Save your changes before you send: the invoice shows the saved draft. A saved draft opens as it was saved, so Send invoice is ready at once. The email greets the customer by the draft’s name, or by the name of your customer with that email, and lists the items, each discount, the delivery and the VAT, so its lines add up to its total; with no delivery on the draft, its total is the total so far. Change the email’s words in Emails › Draft order invoice.

Create the order

When the customer is ready to pay you directly, open the draft, check the email and choose How the customer pays:

• Pay later (where a draft starts) to mark it paid when the money arrives, or Already paid when you have the money already;
• Cash on delivery or Bank transfer, when they are on in Settings › Payments. Cash on delivery adds your cash on delivery fee, as your checkout does: the totals show it before you create the order.

Tick Email the customer an order confirmation if they should get one, and Test order to try your store out with it (see Test orders); like how the customer pays, a draft does not keep either. When you cancel bank transfer orders that stay unpaid (Emails › Email settings), a bank transfer order whose confirmation or payment reminders tell the customer gets a last day to pay. Create order saves the draft and creates the order from it: prices, discounts and stock are checked again, stock is taken, and the customer is added to Customers. If there is not enough stock, the draft stays open and says so; a product that runs short shows how many are in stock. A new draft is saved once, however often you press Create order: when something is missing (such as the shipping address a shipping option needs), it says what, and the next try uses the same draft. A discount code takes its share of a custom item as of a product.

A completed draft cannot change. Its page links to the order.

More actions

• Duplicate draft starts a new draft with the same products, customer, shipping and discounts. Duplicate on an order does the same from the order, keeping its shipping option (or its shipping price, when the option is gone).
• Delete draft removes an open draft, after you confirm. A completed draft stays with its order.

If you leave a draft with changes you have not saved, Storeloom asks whether to save them.

Who can use drafts

Owners, admins and staff, the members who handle orders.

Export (CSV) downloads your draft orders.