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How create an (customer care replacement) order outside sales and tax reports?

JeroenHes
Tourist
16 0 3

I need to send a replacement order for which I need to create a new order. How can I create an order in such way it won't sum up in the sales report and tax reports?

Accepted Solution (1)
Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

This is an accepted solution.

No problem, @JeroenHes!

Once draft orders are paid, they are considered regular orders. Because of this, there isn't a way to separate them from your reports by default. However, as a workaround, you can filter and edit your reports to narrow down only the orders that you'd like to view. In this case, you could add a filter like that excludes draft orders:

 

20-03-ouc8t-biqb5

As previously mentioned above, you can also create filters to exclude canceled orders from your reports.

Another easy way to exclude data from any report is to simply export reports as a CSV and delete any applicable orders from the CSV file. If you already export and save your reports for offline access or bookkeeping purposes, then this is what I'd recommend doing. 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Replies 21 (21)

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hi, @JeroenHes!

Julie here from Shopify Support.

Are you planning on charging your customer for the replacement order? If not, then you could simply create a draft order and apply a 100% discount to the entire order before marking it as "paid". This won't affect your sales and tax reports, as no actual profit will be recorded. Once the order is created, you could also add an order note for your own personal records, indicating that it was a replacement order. 

Another option is to simply edit the existing order. In fact, order editing is a relatively new feature and will allow you to add items, remove items, and adjust item quantities. However, orders can only be edited if they were placed less than 60 days ago and you'll also need to be logged in as the account owner in order to do so. If this particular order is eligible for order editing, then I would recommend going this route to avoid creating a brand new order. This method will also not affect your sales and tax reports.

Have you considered order editing, as opposed to creating a new order?

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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JeroenHes
Tourist
16 0 3
Thanks Julie, the first route would be the best one for us.
When I cancel the 'old' order will this one still be included in the sales and financial records/reports?
Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Thanks for following up.

Your sales reports will always include both sales and returns from open, archived, canceled, and pending orders, as well as draft orders that have been converted into orders. Although the order is canceled, your sales report will still reflect that particular sale as profit unless you also refund it. However, you can filter your reports to exclude canceled orders if you aren't wanting to see them in your sales report.

I hope that helps!

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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JeroenHes
Tourist
16 0 3
Thanks. Is there a way to makes sure customer service (back-end) orders are excluded from any report?
Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

This is an accepted solution.

No problem, @JeroenHes!

Once draft orders are paid, they are considered regular orders. Because of this, there isn't a way to separate them from your reports by default. However, as a workaround, you can filter and edit your reports to narrow down only the orders that you'd like to view. In this case, you could add a filter like that excludes draft orders:

 

20-03-ouc8t-biqb5

As previously mentioned above, you can also create filters to exclude canceled orders from your reports.

Another easy way to exclude data from any report is to simply export reports as a CSV and delete any applicable orders from the CSV file. If you already export and save your reports for offline access or bookkeeping purposes, then this is what I'd recommend doing. 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Cottage21
Excursionist
10 0 8

Hi Julie!

 

If we use the second option to edit the order for a replacement (the customer is not charged for it) how do we add the 100% discount like the first option? Even if it does not show in our sales reports, it still shows on the customer order as having paid for all the items, including the replacement. When editing an order and adding a product, why can't there be a way to add a discount to that item or an option to add it for $0 which is common in damage claims. Any help with this would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hi, @Cottage21!

Typically, orders are edited in scenarios where a customer wants to change an item or if you need to add or remove an item. If the order has already been fulfilled, then it's not possible to edit the fulfilled products. This is because fulfillment indicates that the order was already processed and shipped. 

Have you considered refunding and canceling the original order and following the steps outlined in the first option above? In this case, you would simply create a draft order and apply a 100% discount to the entire order before marking it as "paid". 

It does look like we've had quite a few requests for merchants to have the ability to apply discounts while editing orders, however. While our developers are currently looking into the possibility of implementing this feature, I'd be happy to submit your request as well. If this feature is introduced, we'll be announcing it in our changelog, so feel free to keep an eye out there. 

Let me know if you have any further questions!

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Cottage21
Excursionist
10 0 8
We can edit the fulfilled order by unarchiving it and then it lets us add
to the order, which is nice because we can keep the replacement and order
status altogether. The only problem is we can not zero the replacement out
with a 100% discount. This seems like it should be a no brainer? Even if
the customer wanted to change an item and we wanted to offer a discount for
the change, it seems like that should be an option?

Refunding and canceling the original order does not work because we can not
charge the customer for the replacement. Any other suggestions?

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Thanks for getting back to me.

That completely makes sense and I can definitely see how editing the price would be a great feature to have. As the order editing feature is relatively new, we're always looking to add more functionalities so I have gone ahead and raised this with our developers as a feature request. 

As for creating a new order with the replacement, you can most definitely do so without charging the customer for a replacement. To do this, you can simply apply a 100% discount to the new order. This will make the order total $0 and your customer won't be required to process any payments.

It's also worth noting that if the customer returns the item and you need to restock it, then you can refund and cancel the original order. In this case, you can simply refund $0 because the customer is receiving a replacement that they've still technically paid for in the original order. When processing the refund, you'll also have the option to restock the product. By default, the Restock items option is automatically selected. This might not be necessary for you, but it's worth keeping in mind should you ever receive a return and need to restock inventory.

Let me know how that goes!

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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Cottage21
Excursionist
10 0 8
Hi Julie!
Thank you for bringing that feature to the developers, and hopefully it can get added soon. as it would be a great feature to add. I guess we will do the new order for now but it would be nice to have the replacement shipping and info attached to the original order so we can see the history altogether.
Thank you!
Sara
CourseMS
Visitor
1 0 2

Hi Julie,

We could also really use the feature discussed above. Most other platforms that we have used have this ability. Thanks!

Victms1975_CD
Visitor
1 0 0

Aloha Julie,
We have a customer that we want their order to be replaced by us without any charges levied on the customer whatsoever, including the cost of the item, shipping fees, and taxes.
Mahalo
ChrisD

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Aloha, Chris!

Thanks for joining in on the conversation. 

When was this order placed? If the order was placed less than 60 days ago and the items are still unfulfilled, then you could simply edit the order. Doing so will allow you tor remove the unwanted item and add a new item to the order. Have you tried this yet? 

If you are unable to edit the order, then you could take advantage of one of the workarounds mentioned in this thread. In this case, I would suggest first cancelling the order in question. During this process, you don't need to refund the customer, since you're planning on issuing them a new order. Instead, you can simply apply a refund of $0. 

Once that's done, you can proceed with creating a draft order and applying a 100% discount to the entire order before marking it as "paid". When you do this, your customer will not be charged at all. Once the order is created, you could also add an order note for your own personal records, indicating that it was a replacement order. 

I'm curious to know if you've tried any of the workarounds suggested in this thread. Feel free to share an update here once you've had a chance to explore these options! 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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KirbyFH
Tourist
5 0 2

Once that's done, you can proceed with creating a draft order and applying a 100% discount to the entire order before marking it as "paid". When you do this, your customer will not be charged at all. Once the order is created, you could also add an order note for your own personal records, indicating that it was a replacement order. 

Hi Julie,

unfortunately this workaround has two serious issues that virtually make it unusable:

  1. It does impact sales statistics, eg. it would show more orders than those that were really placed by customers
  2. It does create orders with a net amount of 0.
    This is a problem as invoices with n net total of 0 € can't be processed by accounting software like DATEV (which is the de-facto standard in Germany).
    But not generating invoices for such return orders also isn't an option as this would creates issues with the tax office - we are required to have invoices for every order

Ideally, it should be possible to resolve a return with an exchange, eg. to (optionally) re-stock a line item (to a "Damaged Returns" stock or smth.) on receipt of the return and at the same time re-add it as a new, yet to be fulfilled line item while keeping the order in fully paid status.

As we are required by law to provide a 24 month warrany for all new products sold, we really need a solution to handle returns under warranty even after 60 days without creating additional 0 € orders.

Please advise how we can do this!

Handing returns within 60 days after the order has been placed does work by editing the order, although it does require way too many steps to do this (it also involves creating a new invoice for the exchanged item, issuing a credit note for the original invoice, etc.).

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Hey, @KirbyFH! Thanks for joining in on the conversation. 

I understand that this workaround may not be ideal, but I do want to offer some further clarity.

While those draft orders will reflect as actual orders in your admin, they won't affect your sales data, since the total order value is $0. This usually isn't a problem, as your sales reports will still be accurate. However, if DATEV is unable to process these $0 orders, then it might be worth checking in with the software developers directly to see if they have any workarounds for how you can enter these orders.

In regards to invoices, they can still be generated from draft orders if you have Shopify's Order Printer app installed. All you need to do is head into the order directly, then select More actions > Print with Order Printer. You'll then be directed to a screen where you'll be able to generate invoices and packing slips for your orders. 

If this workaround still doesn't work for you, then I suggest looking into a return app. We have quite a few in the Shopify App Store and they'll provide you with a robust return and exchange solution. A few popular options include: 

With these apps, you can process manual exchanges and even offer a customer-facing return portal, making the return and exchange process easy and efficient for your customers. It sounds like Rich Returns, in particular, would be a good fit for you; the developers are based in Germany and their app is GDPR-compliant.

I hope this provides you with a few more options worth considering! Let me know if either of those apps work for you. 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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KirbyFH
Tourist
5 0 2

Hi Julie,

thank you for your thoughts.

 

While those draft orders will reflect as actual orders in your admin, they won't affect your sales data, since the total order value is $0. This usually isn't a problem, as your sales reports will still be accurate.

Hmm, if I go into shopify admin and take a look at an account that has placed one order worth 100 € where one product from this order was exchanged using a 100% discounted order, Shopify does show me that this customer has placed two orders and that the average cart value is 50 €.

This does not seem to be correct:
The customer has placed only one order worth 100 € so the average cart size should be 100 € as well?

I've actually already contacted the developers of Rich Returns before posting here and asked them if their product could handle our use case, but as far as I understood the reply this is not the case.
Which seems logical to me, as every app is basically limited to do what can be done via Shopify API.

Though I've contacted them again, linked to this thread and I am waiting for a reply from them 🙂

Kind regards,
Andreas

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Thanks for following up, Andreas. 

It sounds like you're referring to your customer accounts, rather than your sales reports. If you enter your customers' information when creating a draft order, then that order will be associated with that particular customer. Their Average order value will still be updated when you create $0 draft orders; this is because the number represents order value, rather than the total amount spent. The Total spent to date figure should be indicative of how much your customer has actually spent.

Sales reports and finance reports, on the other hand, track sales and returns. If you're refunding the original order, or simply offering a free replacement, then this shouldn't be affecting your net sales total

I'm also glad to hear that you've already been in touch with the Rich Returns app developers. Hopefully they can offer a solution for you. Otherwise, it might be worth exploring the other apps mentioned above to see if any of them will suit your needs.

Let me know if you need anything else!

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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KirbyFH
Tourist
5 0 2

Hi Julie,

thanks four your reply, really appreciate your help.

I've tested the "100% discount draft order" approach,. but I can't get it working properly.

Here is what I've tried:

  1. I created a draft order for one product (100 €) to simulate a real order
  2. I marked this order Paid to simulate a real payment
  3. I marked this order Fulfilled to simulate a real shipment
  4. I initiated a return for this order to simulate an exchange for a damaged product
  5. I marked as Returned
  6. I "refunded" 0 € and restocked the product in a "Defect Returns" stock
  7. I duplicated the order as a new draft
  8. I added a 100% discount to that draft order
  9. I marked the draft order as Paid
  10. I marked the draft order as Fulfilled

Now sales reports does show that there are two orders with a gross sale of 200 € and 100 € discounts
Report "Sales over Time"Report "Sales over Time"

Another sales report does show an average order value of 50 €

Sales Report "Average order value over time"Sales Report "Average order value over time"

This is not what I want.
There was only one real order of 100 € with zero discounts (so the average value should be just that - 100 €), I really need the reports to precisely reflect that.

How can I achieve this, what am I doing wrong?

Initial OderInitial Oder"Replacement Oder""Replacement Oder"List of ordersList of orders

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kind regards,
Andreas

Julie
Shopify Staff
1109 106 367

Thanks for the detailed response, Andreas! I also appreciate the screenshots.

What you're seeing is entirely expected behaviour. Even though you're not actually receiving payment through the replacement order, it's still considered an actual order.

Because the product's value is 100€, this will be reflected in your reports. However, the Total sales column on the far right side will give you an accurate number for the actual funds that were received. Based on your screenshot, I can see that the Total sales amount is 100€ and doesn't include the 100% discounted replacement order. 

The Average order value over time report, on the other hand, shows how the average order value has changed over time. The report uses the filter Sale kind is order so that it excludes returns. The average order value will divide the total sales amount, excluding returns, by the number of orders in a specific time frame. 

While it won't be possible to exclude those replacement orders from your Average order value over time report, there may be a reporting app or workaround I can offer. Is there a reason why referring to the Total sales column in your Sales report won't suffice? 

Julie | Social Care @ Shopify 
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dianafearon
Visitor
1 0 0

Hi Julie,

 

Are there any updates to this system? I am running into similar issues. Reasoning Sales over time, is we like to look at Sales qty per product vs returns. When Replacements are including in the QTY, it is not reflecting the true return rate. 

 

Please let me know if there have been updates on replacement process or if there are any new add on apps you use to separate sales vs replacements. 

 

Thanks for your time. 

rgholson
Visitor
1 0 0

We have seen that doing this, even if you do not refund the customer, negates the sales tax in the reports. So when we do a replacement order there is no sales tax assigned for the original order. IS there any workaround for this or guidance you have?