Overview
In most online store scenarios, your customers come to your site, browse through the available products, add them to their cart, then purchase them. This creates an order. However, in some cases, you do this on their behalf.
There would be any number of reasons for that. You might be creating a replacement order as part of your returns process. You might be taking an order over the phone. Whatever the reason, you can quickly create an order for processing using the Add Order page in the administration area.
Requirements
The following prerequisites will be necessary to accomplish the goals of this article:
- Have access to your Hotcakes store administration
Getting Started
There are no prerequisites to follow along with this article.
Add Order
If you want to create an order yourself, you would simply choose "+Add Order" from the Orders menu in the control panel.
Add Products (Line Items)
The first part of the view is going to allow you to specify which products are being ordered. You can instantly add a product if you know the SKU by entering the SKU number and clicking the "Add to Order" button. Alternatively, since this is a product picker, you can enter any search term, then click the "Browse" button to look for the product.
When you enter a search term and browse, the product picker control will appear, as you see below. You'll use this control to find the specific product you're looking for, just like any other instance of the product picker.
This version of the product picker allows you to select a single product, then you can "Add to Order" using the button below the product grid.
Once you've added a product, you'll see the line items begin to populate in a familiar grid format. Some products may require additional input though, such as making a choice for the product.
Each time you add a new product to the order, you'll see a success message like shown below.
The line items grid allows you to see the various products in the order, but you can also delete them and update their quantities. Simply change the quantities, then click the "Update Quantities" button.
Column | Description |
SKU | This is a clickable SKU number. If you click on the SKU, you will be directed to the product's landing pages in the administration area. |
Item | You'll see the name of the product that matches the SKU in this column. If there are any discounts, choices, or gift card numbers, you'll see them here as well. |
Price | The individual line item price for the product will be shown in this column. This price will include any discounts that the order has already qualified for. |
Quantity | This is the number of products that are being ordered. Since this is shown to you in a textbox format, you'll be able to change the quantity for instances when you need to order less or more of the product. |
Total | This column will have the line item total, which is essentially the quantity, multiplied by the value in the Price column. |
[no name] | This is an actions column. In this case, your only available action is to remove the line item from the order. |
Shipping & Billing Addresses
Every order has the opportunity to require a shipping and billing address. The shipping address is where the delivery will be made if you need to ship physical products to the customer. The billing address is the address information that will be passed along to and used by the payment provider.
The shipping address will not be shown unless you have items in the cart that require the shipping address. When you do have both address forms showing, you can skip the "Bill To" address if it's the same as the shipping address.
The address forms work the same as the other address forms in the application, and you can learn more about the individual fields in the customer address book documentation.
Add the Customer
Every order needs to have a customer associated to it. This is the same person who is paying for the order. You can find and use an existing customer who has purchased in your store in the past. You can create a new customer if they don't already have a customer account in your store. Alternatively, you can also search for an existing customer by looking through past orders. This gives you three effective ways to make sure that you can efficiently ensure there's a customer account for the order.
When looking through the existing customers, you can enter a keyword to find the specific customer. When you choose to search by keyword, the search will work the same way as the customer management search. Once you see the customer account you want to associate with the order, click the "Select" button to do so.
If you need to create a new customer account, it's quite simple. You just need to know their name and e-mail address. Enter these two pieces of information, but be sure you double-check the spelling. You can update these values later, but you won't likely end up being able to do it before the first order notifications are sent to them.
If you or your customer happen to know the order number for a previous order, you can even lookup their customer account that way. Simply enter the order number, and it will be returned in the search, as long as it's been made within the past 5 years.
Choose the Shipping Method
Initially, your available shipping methods might look like the image below. If this is your intended result, simply choose the available option and continue with the next step of the order creation process. Otherwise, click the "Get Shipping Rates" button.
Regardless to whether you've already retrieved shipping rates or not, clicking the "Get Shipping Rates" button will run through the shipping engine rules and attempt to get the latest rates. You'll want to do this when you're first creating the order, as well as at any point after changing anything else about the order to ensure your rates are current. This includes changing product quantity, adding/removing products, and so on.
Once you have your desired shipping rate selected, click the "Update" button to update the order. This will recalculate the order, which will in turn calculate the shipping along with the rest of the order, as well as apply any new promotions the order might have qualified for.
Apply the Payment
The payments you see available here will mostly mirror what your customers see during checkout. However, you won't be able to see or use the third party offsite payment methods. This is because they require user credentials that you won't have. Enter the payment information as required, and as provided by your customer.
Reminder: Please remember to follow any security standards and processes that your organization has to protect the security and privacy of your customers.
Customer Instructions
If your customers have any special instructions, you may enter them here. These special instructions may even be from you, as notes that should be observed as a result of your conversation with the customer. This field is not required though, so feel free to leave it blank if you wish.
Promotion (Coupon) Codes
Like with the cart view itself, you can enter coupon codes that may end up providing discounts to your customers. Sometimes, these coupon codes might be ones you enter as a customer service perk, or they may be ones you enter at the request of the customer. Simply enter the value, then click the "Add" button.
As you add coupon codes, they'll appear below the textbox like you see below. You'll have the opportunity to remove any of the coupon codes at this point, or you can leave them there.
Once you add a coupon code, it may be necessary to update the order again to see any promotional benefit it might provide.
Order Summary
The order summary is also sometimes referred to as the total summary. This is the commonly seen review of the charges, discounts, subtotals, and grand total for the order.
If the order summary doesn't look correct at anytime, please click the "Update Order" button to refresh these values. You should also do this prior to placing the order and prior to the final reading of the total to your customer.
Placing the Order
Once you're done updating the order, all you need to do is place the order, and you can do this by clicking the "Place Order button.
After you place the order, you'll be redirected to the order details page of the order manager as long as nothing went wrong.
If the order has any issues, you'll remain on this page and a message will be displayed, telling you why.
Need More Help?
Do you need more assistance with this article? Please review your support options.