How to add additional Fulfillment status for manufacturing process steps

[backertg]

Need some help!

We are adding a Shopify shop in addition to our shop on Etsy.  We build a lot of custom signs that go through a series of design and manufacturing steps.  Etsy has the ability to add custom workflow steps in the order process for us to keep track of where each order is in the build flow.  For example, the steps might be “Proof Sent”, “Final Edit”, “Cut/Paint/Cure 1”, “Cure 2”, “ Cure 3”.  We then move the order from step to step as it is built.  See pictures below.

Shopify has a fulfillment status screen that allow only a few “status” option to select from – basically unfulfilled, fulfilled, on-hold.  There is no option to add additional status options to the menu.  The additional status steps are internal to the store only – they do not get sent to a customer.

What options are there for adding the additional steps to shopify for us to manage and track our shop production process flow?

[VMenowneB]

Hi Backertg, did you ever find a solution? We are in a similar situtation as we need to add another stage in the fullfilment process.

Would love to hear if you worked something out?

Thanks!

[HFF]

yes we need help with this as well!!??

[HFF]

@backertg any resolution for this ? or atleast a yes/no on whether we can do this ?

[kevinkonrad]

Also interested in custom order statuses! Any luck?

[VMenowneB]

Unfortunately we came up against a complete brick wall and it's something
that Shopify doesn't currently support. We got around it by adding a tag
on the order with our extra processing step. So far it's working well 🙏

[backertg]

We have yet to find a solution and really could use one.  It is a standard feature in Etsy and would be so easy for Shopify to implement a similar function.  We've tried several add in apps but the end result is that you need to update the status in the separate app (which then is updated into shopify) however you still need to manage the normal functions in Shopify.  That means a lot of extra work.

We tried the tag option as a solution early on, however that was not viable for a number of reasons and we had to discard that attempt.  Tags have pretty broad applications and cannot be suppressed (hidden is not that the same as suppressed) fully both internally to shopify and there are external reaching issues as well.

If someone figures this out, please let us know!

[bensaks]

Hey I’m the owner of KerfCase.com where we make custom wood iphone cases. Since our products are made to order and we manufacture them all - from scratch- in our own woodshop we needed a solution for this. I used to use a whiteboard and our team would manually write in the order numbers, device types, wood species and other information as we processed orders through production. It was a pain. We made mistakes and either didn’t make the right items sometimes or made too many. Then I found the Order Flow App https://apps.shopify.com/order-flow which essentially solved all our problems with order management in manufacturing. We were able to set up custom actions and decisions that we make to move items through. The orders are automatically synced to Shopify. It’s seamless. I have not found any other apps like it.