Why are draft orders not visible in the POS system?

Topic summary

Main issue: Draft orders (estimates/custom orders created in Shopify Admin or from emailed carts) are not visible in the Shopify POS, forcing staff to re-enter details to take deposits in-store. POS = point of sale.

Proposed solution: A third-party app, “Custom and Draft Orders For POS” (Lazer Technologies), lets staff create or load draft orders within the POS and add them to the POS cart for checkout. Features include adding existing products/services/custom items, setting workflow statuses, attaching customers, applying order-level discounts, emailing order breakdowns, and checking out in-person. The developer confirms it can pull Admin-created drafts into POS.

Concerns raised: Multiple users object to the $15/month fee, arguing this should be native POS functionality rather than an add-on. One user plans to recreate orders in POS and delete drafts to avoid extra cost.

Current status: No indication of native Shopify POS support for draft orders. The paid app is the primary workaround. A user who installed the app reports not seeing drafts in POS; no resolution provided yet.

Summarized with AI on December 21. AI used: gpt-5.

We often email draft orders to customers who call on the phone for custom work, but then they call in to place the order. I have to retype the whole order into the POS, in order to take a deposit on an order.

When I email a cart to a customer, it creates a draft order in shopify, but disappears from the POS. Why can’t I pull up a draft order so we can complete the order instore?

That would be a feature I would pay for in the new POS.

5 Likes

Hi Matt, we created a new app to solve exactly this. It’s called Custom and Draft Orders For POS, (https://apps.shopify.com/draft-and-custom-orders-for-pos)

Before this app, you would have to go into the Admin (on the computer) to create or edit a draft order, and then in order to checkout/charge a customer, you would have to email/send them the invoice link or charge them through your computer.

Now with this app, you can create a custom draft order right within POS, and you can add that draft order straight to the POS cart in order to checkout/charge the customer inside your retail store or in person. Much easier and simpler!

More info: https://www.lazertechnologies.com/blog/draft-and-custom-orders-for-shopify-pos

With Custom and Draft Orders For Shopify POS you can now do the following all within the Shopify POS app for any device:

  1. Add existing products from your current inventory
  2. Create and attach a new service (including the length of the service, the per-hour rate, and any supplementary notes)
  3. Create and attach any new custom products that aren’t currently in your inventory
  4. Specify a workflow status with your custom draft order (i.e. New, Estimate, Open, Pending, Completed)
  5. Create a new and/or attach an existing customer to the custom draft order
  6. Set a discount on the overall custom draft order
  7. Email the breakdown of the custom draft order to the selected customer
  8. Add the custom draft order straight to the POS cart
  9. And more

Let me know if you have any questions or if I can be helpful!

1 Like

Hi there, I am looking for a way to pull up draft orders at POS that were created in the Shopify admin. Is this what your app does?

Yes :slightly_smiling_face:

Ok, buy you guys are charging us $15/month for this option. It feels like you are giving us partial functionality and then holding us hostage for more money. Not cool. How about you either make it a function within POS itself or you give us the app for free since it should work already anyway? I will just recreate a custom order on POS and delete the draft at this point. Please be better than this.

2 Likes

Agreed, I was told I would be able to do Estimates / Drafts (we do estimates on a daily basis) now that I am signed up & up and running I find out I have to pay additional monthly fees to do so.

1 Like

Hi Zain, I have just installed your app however I can’t see the draft orders in Shopify POS app. Am I missing something?