Setting The Fulfillment Date When Creating Historical Orders

Retired Boards Appdev Fulfillment Api

Topic summary

Merchants importing historical orders from other platforms or systems cannot set accurate fulfillment dates through the Shopify Fulfillment and FulfillmentOrder APIs.

Core Issue:

  • The created_at and updated_at fields on fulfillments are read-only, preventing backdating of fulfillment records
  • When migrating past orders, all fulfillments default to the current date rather than their actual historical dates

Business Impact:

  • Incorrect fulfillment dates cause problems with reports and customer invoices
  • Accounting system integrations misinterpret migrated orders as new transactions
  • Exported order reports show today’s date for all _at fields, making historical data analysis unreliable
  • Accurate order dates only appear when viewing individual orders within Shopify’s interface

Status:
Multiple users have confirmed this limitation exists with no known workaround. One participant linked to a related thread indicating Shopify has definitively stated this functionality is not possible. The discussion remains unresolved, with users requesting Shopify developers address this gap for migration scenarios.

Summarized with AI on October 24. AI used: claude-sonnet-4-5-20250929.
3

Hey @GuillaumeLar ,

Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to do this. Based on my usage and documentation of the Fulfillment and FulfillmentOrder APIs, this is not impossible. There are two fields on the Fulfillment called created_at and updated_at, but they are read-only (though the documentation does not mark them as such).

I haven’t heard from the Shopify team to confirm it, but I haven’t found a way to make it work, given the API resources.

If you end up finding a way, please let us know. :slightly_smiling_face:

Ralph

3 Likes