Manual orders
Route: /org/ecom/orders → Create order · Permission: Create Manual Orders
1. What a manual order is
An order the store places on a customer's behalf — the phone order, the walk-in, the WhatsApp message. It becomes an ordinary order the moment it is created: same statuses, same printing, same refunds.
| Manual order | Shopper checkout | |
|---|---|---|
| Placed by | Staff | The customer |
Needs orders.create | ✅ | — |
| Payment | Usually COD | Any enabled gateway |
| Afterwards | Identical | Identical |
2. Where it fits
3. Creating one
Create order sits in the workbench header and appears only with Create Manual Orders.
The order carries the customer's name and contact so it can be fulfilled, invoiced and — if needed — refunded. Creating one without those details produces an order nobody can chase.
4. Field reference
The form collects what checkout would: customer, items, fulfilment and payment method. The resulting order is indistinguishable from a shopper-placed one apart from its origin.
5. The admin contract
| Prerequisite | Without it |
|---|---|
| Create Manual Orders | No Create order button |
| Products | Nothing to add |
| A fulfilment method | The order cannot be delivered or collected |
6. Downstream
Identical to any other order — workbench, printing, payment, refunds.
7. Don't confuse this with…
| Thing | Why it differs |
|---|---|
| Manual order | Staff-placed, immediately real |
| Preorder request | A request awaiting review |
| Draft | No draft state exists — a created order is placed |
8. Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause |
|---|---|
| No Create order button | Missing Create Manual Orders |
| Cannot add an item | The product is not sellable — check Inventory |
| Order cannot be invoiced | No customer contact recorded |