Can customers pay for a pending order with the original invoice link?

[Rhythm]

hello,

If I create a draft order and send the invoice - if I later amend that order to "Payment Pending" can the customer still pay using the original invoice link? Or do I need to send another invoice?

[Elias]

Hey, @Rhythm.

Elias here with Shopify Support. How's it going?

That's a very good question! You can mark a draft order with the payment pending status if you've already sent the invoice and are waiting for the payment. The customer will be able to pay for the original invoice when an order's payment is pending. However, it's worth noting that once an order is marked as pending, you won't be able to edit the order. We've also got a detailed help doc on draft orders and there's a section that breaks down the different statuses when accepting payments for draft orders. 

With that said, how are you finding the draft order process?

[Rhythm]

Thank you - that's helpful

I have had huge issues with customers not able to pay their draft order and
I logged it with customer support over a week ago and it still has not been
sorted properly. I discovered myself that if your settings have Apartment
option as "required", this doesn't apply to draft orders - it shows as
"optional" there. So I was creating orders without the apartment field
filled in, and customers couldn't pay. I figured it out myself. No help
from shopify.

[AGau]

Hello, Elias:

I am wondering you can help me with the situation I am in.

I am currently under pause and build plan.

After creating a draft order, I am unable to send invoice. I received the following error messages:

"Draft order not payable via customer checkout"

"Change your plan to allow customer to check out or create orders".

I am not sure what is the problem. It seems that my account is treated as "customer account" even though I log in to Admin. Can you please help? What I want to accomplish is actually to  "mark as pending" the draft order. I understand that, after recent shopify update, in order to do so, I need to first send invoice before I am able to have the option to "mark as pending". 

Thanks, A

[Elias]

Hello, @AGau.

Thank you for joining the thread!

The Build and Pause plan does not an active checkout, as the plan is not designed for selling, so you won't be able to send the draft invoice while on this plan. However, when you're ready to launch your store and start selling, you can choose a suitable plan from our available monthly plans. After that, you'll be able to send the draft invoice and mark the payment as pending.

It's also worth mentioning that we also have annual subscriptions, where you can get a discount on your subscription. You can get 10% off by subscribing for a year, 20% off for two years, and 25% off for three years. If this is something that interests you, you can change your billing period and see a breakdown of the discounts for your plan before moving forward. 

How is your store coming along on the Build and Pause plan? Is your store almost ready for launch?

[AGau]

@Elias Thank you so much for getting back to me. I want to make sure that I understand correctly.

A little context: Upon till April, w were able to create a draft sale then mark the sale as pending. Did Shopify make a update since then where this option is no longer available? 

At moment we use this shopify shop as a hub to host our design inventory database. Our sales, at moment, actually happen in person, not online. When an item is sold, we used to be able to follow the process outlined above so the sold item can be deducted from inventory database, then go to a designated folder associated to the client. There is no actual transaction happening on shopify. So, I want to clarify with you that this option is indeed no longer available before we make a decision what to do next.

Much appreciated, A

[Elias]

Hey, @AGau.

Thank you for following up!

My apologies for the confusion in my previous response, as I can confirm that you can send draft invoices using the Build and Pause plan. Nevertheless, the online checkout isn't available while your store is paused.

I've also taken a look at our changelog and found that there were some improvements made to the draft order experience back on May 21, 2021. However, I'm not seeing any changes made to sending a draft invoices, or marking a draft order as pending.

If this issue persists and you're still unable to send draft invoices, then it looks like we’ll need to access your account in order to get a closer look at this issue. While we’re not able to provide account-specific support via the Shopify Community at this time, our Support team would be happy to continue assisting you through live chat, email, or callback. Please visit the Shopify Help Center and log in to your account to create a support request.

I'd love to know if our Support team can help you identify and resolve this issue. Keep me posted!

[AGau]

@Elias Great! this is a wonderful news. I will follow up w/ your instructions in the reply to create a support request. 

Really appreciate that you clear things up for me. Will keep you posted, A