Where orders come from

An order is created when a checkout's invoice is paid in full. It takes over everything the checkout held: the customer, both addresses, the currency, the totals, the lines, the discounts that applied, the fulfilments and the invoice. Orders are listed in the admin's Orders section, which also holds refunds, metadata fields and the Orders settings.

Two statuses

Every order has two statuses that move independently, and a support answer usually needs both:

  • Financial status, worked out from the order's invoices and refunds: Unpaid, Payment Authorized, Partially Paid, Paid, Partially Refunded, Fully Refunded or Payment Voided.
  • Fulfilment status, worked out from its fulfilments: Not Fulfilled, Pending Fulfillment, Partially Fulfilled, Fulfilled or Fulfillment Complete.

Neither is typed in: change an invoice, a refund or a fulfilment, and the order's status follows the next time it is saved.

Refunds

Staff issue a refund from the order or from one of its invoices. A refund returns money against one invoice and names the invoice lines it returns (items, shipping, handling, insurance or a surcharge), so a partial return gives back the right lines; their discount and tax come with them.

A refund can carry an adjustment, which may be negative: a restocking fee reduces the refund. It is pending until the provider answers, and final once it has succeeded, failed or been cancelled. To return different lines, cancel a pending refund and issue a new one.

Order numbers

The number a customer sees comes from the Order number template setting, {SEQ} by default: {SEQ} is the next number in a sequence, {SEQ:6} the same zero-filled to six digits, and {DATE} today's date. ORD-{DATE}-{SEQ:4} gives ORD-20261021-0001. Each site has its own sequence, a template with {DATE} starts again at 1 every day, and changing the template starts again at 1. Settle the format before the first live order.

Fields of your own

Metadata fields, defined in the Orders section, add details your business needs, such as a purchase order reference or a gift message. The checkout collects their values, and they move to the order with everything else.

What customers see

A signed-in customer sees their own orders, and only theirs, in the account area: a list and a page for each order (see The customer account area). How those pages look is up to the site's templates.

Developers: From payment to fulfilment in the commerce guide.