Standing orders help you save time and achieve more consistent order volumes. You don't have to remind customers to order, or manually enter orders for them.
Adding a standing order
You can add a standing order on a customer’s profile. Choose the products you want to include, then enter quantities on the day delivery is due.
Tip: If a day is greyed out that means it's been set up in the fulfilment group for that customer as a non-delivery day.
You can add multiple products and choose different amounts and delivery days as required.
Timing
Standing orders are automatically created and sent to the customer. The customer reviews and then the orders become ready to process. You can adjust the exact timings of when orders are created in the delivery schedule of your Fulfilment group settings.
By default, standing orders are created one week before the delivery date. Your customers will have that time to review the scheduled order and make any adjustments. Customers will receive an automated reminder 24 hours before the cut-off time, and you can approve the order early if required.
Tip: By default standing orders are generated 1 week ahead, but for suppliers who need to give their customers more notice to edit their standing orders, this is now available on request.
When setting up a new standing order you have the option to backfill the orders for the coming period. This means you can start automated ordering immediately.
At the bottom of the customer's Standing order page is a quick link to the Fulfilment group that they are in. You can edit the delivery days and cut-off times here, but be aware that it'll change for ALL the customers in that group. Check out this article for more info.
Customers make their own adjustments
Customers often need to make small changes to their orders each week. To save you time, Upstock allows customers to make these adjustments themselves.
Customers are notified about their upcoming order. They can then make adjustments.
The order status changes from scheduled to ordered when it's ready for you to process. This happens automatically when the review period ends. Note: if you choose to approve the order early the status changes to processing.
Approving orders early
There may be times when you need to start processing an order before the customer review period finishes. You do this by approving the scheduled order. Ideally this should be done with the customer's knowledge as it will reduce the amount of time they are able to make changes to the order.
Tip: Early approval can be helpful if there is a public holiday coming and you want to get ahead of your orders before you close down for a few days.
Getting an overview
The customers section gives you an overview of all the standing orders you have running. If any are on hold, it will show in the status. If there are any issues you need to deal with, you'll see alerts here.
Adjusting when orders are ready to process (offset)
If you’d like orders to be ready to process a few hours before each day’s cut-off time, you can adjust this in your Settings > Order settings. If you make your own deliveries, or need the orders to be ready to process a bit sooner than the cut-off time then this can be helpful. Chat with the team if you have any questions.
For example, if you have the cut-off time set to 10am Thursday but need the standing orders to come through by 8am Thursday, you can choose to have the order ready to process two hours before cut-off.
Tip: this setting applies across all standing orders.
Editing standing orders
You'll find detailed information about editing standing orders in this article.