Using the Order Status feature

About order status

We allow sellers (and staff) to assign a status to an order. 

The purpose of the status field is for each order is assigned a status that reflects its current stage in the fulfillment process. While the platform provides default statuses such as "Open", "Processed", "Complete"  and "Canceled", administrators have the flexibility to create custom statuses to align with specific business workflows.

A number of pre-exisiting status exist, you can change the behaviour of these or create your own additional custom status.

The status of an order impacts your inventory (if you have automatic inventory tracking turned on) and accounting functions. You can decide what notifications (messages) are sent to customers or your orders department. If you are having unexpected changes in inventory or unexpect accounting transactions a incorrectly configured order status is often the problem.

Creating and Configuring Order Status:

1. Manage Order Statuses:

   • Navigate to Settings → Statuses → Order statuses in the Administration panel of your store.

2. Add or Edit a Status:

   • To create a new status, click the + Add status button.
   • To modify an existing status, click on its name.

3. Configure Status Properties:

   • Name: Enter the name of the status as it will appear in the Administration panel.
   • Status: Assign a unique letter to identify the status in the database (up to 26 statuses are allowed).
   • Inventory: Choose whether this status should Increase, Decrease, or leave Unchanged the number of items in stock for products included in an order with this status.
   • Remove CC info: Enable this option to remove sensitive credit card information from the database when the order receives this status.
   • Pay order again: Allow customers to make a payment for the order again if it was declined.
   • Invoice/Credit memo: Define the desired behavior after an order receives this status.

4. Save Changes:

   • After configuring the necessary properties, click the Create or Save button to apply the new or updated status.

Impact of Order Status Changes on Inventory and Accounting:

Order statuses in CS-Cart are not merely labels; they can be configured to trigger specific actions that affect inventory levels and accounting records.

• Inventory Management:

  • Changing an order's status can automatically adjust product stock levels.
  • For example, setting a status to Decrease will reduce the product stock when an order transitions to that status, while setting it to Increase will replenish the stock.
  • It's important to note that if both the previous and new statuses are configured with the same inventory action (either both "Increase" or both "Decrease"), the inventory level remains unchanged. forum.cs-cart.com

• Accounting Functions:

  • Order statuses can also influence accounting records.
  • Enabling the Charge to vendor account option for a particular status ensures that the transaction appears on the Accounting page, thereby affecting financial reporting.
  • Conversely, if this option is disabled, the order may be excluded from accounting records until its status changes to one that influences accounting.

Example Scenario:

Consider a scenario where you create a custom status called "Quote" with the following configurations:

• Inventory: Set to Decrease.
• Allow to repay: Enabled.

If an existing order currently has the status "Complete" and you change it to "Quote":

• Inventory Adjustment: The inventory will not decrease further. Inventory adjustments occur only when transitioning between statuses with different inventory settings (e.g., from a status with Increase to one with Decrease).
• Stripe Payment Data: The payment information, such as the payment intent ID, will remain unaffected by the status change.
• Accounting Records: If the Charge to vendor account option is enabled for the "Quote" status, the transaction will appear on the Accounting page. If this option is disabled, the order will be excluded from accounting records until its status changes to one that affects accounting.

Understanding and configuring order statuses appropriately is crucial, as they directly affect inventory levels and financial data within the CS-Cart system.