When a customer buys from your online shop, the money is taken there and then and the order lands on this screen waiting to go out. Your job is to pick it, send it, and mark it despatched.
Before you start
Nothing, if your shop is already set up. If you have not opened the shop yet, see Setting up your online shop first.
Steps
- Go to Sales → Online orders. It opens showing only orders still to go out.
- Each card shows who ordered, where it is going, their phone number, and what they paid. An order the customer is collecting says "Collecting from the shop" instead of an address — put it aside for them rather than sending it out. Click the order number to see the items and any note the customer left — a gate code, a landmark, the best time to call.
- Check the delivery charge. The card says how it was worked out — the area the customer chose, or how far their map pin is from the shop. Make sure it matches the address. See Checking and correcting the delivery charge below if it doesn't.
- Pick and pack the order.
- Press Mark despatched.
That last step does four things at once: it raises the invoice, records the payment the customer already made, takes the goods out of stock, and creates the waybill. You do not need to raise an invoice separately — doing so would charge them twice.
- The waybill then appears in your dispatch register, where you record who drove it and who signed for it.
Checking and correcting the delivery charge
Customers choose their own delivery area, or put their own pin on a map, so now and then the charge they paid is wrong — they picked the cheaper area, or dropped the pin in the wrong place. Check it before the order goes out.
- Click the order number. The Delivery charge box shows what was charged and how ("ZZ Yaba", "4.2 km from the shop"). If the shop charges by distance, open the customer's pin on a map to see exactly where it is.
- If it doesn't match the address, press Correct the charge.
- Pick the right one from your own charges (an area or a distance), or type the amount. Say why — for example "Address is in Lekki, customer chose Yaba". The reason is kept on the order.
- Press Save the new charge.
What happens next depends on which way the charge moved:
- The order now costs more. The box says how much the customer owes. Send them a payment link for the difference: Send on WhatsApp, Email the link, or Copy the link to send another way. They open it, see the amount and why, and pay online. If they pay before you despatch, the payment goes on the invoice with their first payment; if they pay after, it is added to the invoice then. You can also collect it on delivery instead, like any balance.
- The order now costs less. Nothing to send. When you despatch, the extra they paid stays on their account as credit — use it on their next order, or refund it from their account.
If you correct the charge again after sending a link, the link changes to the new amount on its own — or is withdrawn if nothing is owed any more — so a customer can never pay yesterday's figure.
Tips
- The money is already in. Every order here has been paid before it reached you. You are despatching, not chasing payment.
- Stock is not held. The shop hides things that have run out, but nothing is reserved between the customer paying and you picking. If you cannot fill an order, ring the customer — their phone number is on the card.
- Untick "Still to despatch" to see everything, including what has already gone out.
- Search takes a name, an address, a phone number or the payment reference. The reference is what your customer will quote if they call about a payment.
- Read the note. Customers use it for the things an address cannot say.
Common problems
"Invoice raised, but the payment could not be posted." This is worth acting on straight away, because every order will do the same until it is fixed. Your card payment method has no settlement account against it, so the system does not know which account the money arrived in. Go to Setup → Payment methods, find the method for your card gateway, and set the bank account. Then post the missing payment on the invoices this affected. The goods still went out and the invoice is still correct — only the payment row is missing.
"This sales order has already been marked delivered." Somebody has despatched it already, possibly from the Sales Orders screen. There is one invoice; nothing has gone wrong.
"The order has no delivery address." If it says "Collecting from the shop", that is deliberate — the customer chose to collect and paid no delivery charge. If it is genuinely blank, ring them (their number is on the card) before you send anything.
"I can't find an order the customer says they placed." If it does not appear here, their payment did not complete. Ask them for the payment reference and check it against your gateway. An abandoned basket is not an order and never reaches this screen.
"Correct the charge" isn't there. The order has already been despatched — its charges are on the invoice now — or it has been cancelled.
"You don't have permission to change transactions." Correcting a charge changes the order, which needs the same right as editing any transaction. Ask an administrator to correct it, or to give you that right.
"Say why the charge is changing." The reason box is empty. Fill it in — the customer may ask, and whoever looks at the order later will want to know.
"The customer doesn't owe anything on this order." There is nothing to send a link for: the charge went down, or they have already paid the difference.
"Email isn't set up for this shop yet" / "This customer has no email address." Send the link on WhatsApp, or copy it and send it any other way.
The customer says the new charge is wrong. Talk to them before they pay. If they're right, correct the charge again — the link they already have changes to the new amount, or is withdrawn if nothing is owed.
"Can I cancel an online order?" Not from this screen. Because the customer has already paid, cancelling means refunding, which is a decision rather than a button. Handle the refund through your payment provider and leave the order undespatched.