Orderline Orderline

Custom production statuses in Orderline

Create nested production statuses, manage order and draft workflows, and move orders through stages on the Orderline orders screen.

What custom production statuses do

Shopify’s order list is built around fulfillment states such as Unfulfilled and Fulfilled. Made-to-order sellers usually need internal production stages that match how they actually make things — for example Design Review, Awaiting Materials, In Production, Quality Check, and Ready to Ship.

Custom production statuses in Orderline let you:

  • Define any number of stages for your shop
  • Move orders (and line items) through those stages during production
  • Group stages into categories so the orders screen stays clean when you have many steps
  • Keep a separate status list for draft orders (quotes and invoices) from open orders

Parent statuses (categories) appear as tabs or grouped controls; child statuses appear in a dropdown under the parent. Ungrouped statuses appear as their own tabs. Order counts show on the tabs so you can see bottlenecks at a glance.

Orderline does not replace Shopify’s Orders admin. Statuses live on Orderline’s own orders (and drafts) screens.

Video: How to set up custom production statuses in Orderline

Default statuses after install

When a shop is set up in Orderline, three order statuses are created by default:

NameRole
New OrderStarting stage for new work
In ProgressWork underway
ReadyReady for the next step (for example packing or ship)

You can rename, reorder, add, group, or disable statuses to match your shop. You are not limited to these three.

Open the Statuses screen

  1. Open Orderline from your Shopify admin.
  2. In the app navigation, open Statuses.

Only staff with permission to manage statuses can use this screen. If you do not have permission, Orderline shows that you cannot manage statuses.

Order Statuses vs Draft Statuses

At the top of the Statuses page you will see two tabs:

TabUse for
Order StatusesOpen (regular) orders on the main Orders screen
Draft StatusesDraft orders (quotations, invoices, pre-production drafts)

Order and draft status lists are separate. A stage you create under Draft Statuses does not appear as an order production tab, and the reverse is true. That lets you run workflows such as “Quotation Sent” / “Invoice Sent” for drafts without mixing them into production tabs for paid orders.

Statuses vs categories

ConceptWhat it isHow it appears on Orders
StatusA production stage you can assign to workOwn tab if ungrouped; menu item if nested under a category
CategoryA parent group for related statusesGroup control with a dropdown of child statuses

Use categories when you have many steps (for example 15–20). Drag statuses under a category so they show as a dropdown instead of a long flat tab list. You can arrange statuses in any order so the board matches how your team thinks about the work.

Examples of status names (you choose your own):

  • Design Review
  • Awaiting Materials
  • In Production
  • Quality Check
  • Ready to Ship

Examples of categories:

  • Pre-Production (children: Design Review, Awaiting Materials)
  • Production (children: Cutting, Assembly, Finishing)

Add a status

  1. Open Statuses.
  2. Select Order Statuses or Draft Statuses.
  3. Click Add Status.
  4. Enter a Name (placeholder examples in the app include “Quality Check”).
  5. Optionally pick a Color (statuses use a color; categories do not set a color in the create form the same way).
  6. Click Create.

The new status appears in the list. On the Orders screen, refresh or open Orders to use it in the status tabs (and in bulk / line-item moves).

Add a status from the Orders screen

On the Orders screen, if you have permission to create statuses, a + control next to the status tabs opens create-status without leaving the orders list. The new status appears in the tab bar after creation.

Add a category

  1. On Statuses, click Add Category.
  2. Enter a Name (placeholder example: “Pre-Production”).
  3. Click Create.

Categories are containers for grouping. Drag existing statuses into a category to nest them (see below).

Reorder and nest with drag and drop

On the Statuses screen:

  1. Use the drag handle on a status or category.
  2. Drag to change order at the top level.
  3. Drag a status into a category to nest it as a child.
  4. Drag a status out of a category to make it ungrouped again.

Help text on the page: Drag statuses and categories to reorder them. Categories appear as dropdown menus on the order management screen.

Changes sync after you finish reordering. The Orders tab bar uses the same grouping: flat statuses as individual tabs; categories as dropdown groups with child statuses inside.

Edit or disable a status

  1. On Statuses, open the edit action for a status.
  2. Change Name and Color as needed.
  3. For an existing status (not a category), use the Enabled checkbox to enable or disable it.
  4. Click Save Changes.

Delete a status or category

You can delete a status or category from the Statuses screen (subject to permissions).

  • Deleting a category: its child statuses become ungrouped (they are not deleted with the category). Confirm the warning in the app before deleting.
  • Deleting a status: remove only that stage; plan where open work assigned to it should go before you delete it.

Day-to-day: use statuses on the Orders screen

Status tabs

Above the orders table, Orderline shows:

  1. An Orders inbox-style tab (default view for open work in the default/inbox bucket).
  2. Your status tabs — ungrouped statuses as individual tabs, categories as dropdown groups.
  3. Counts on tabs so you can see how much work sits in each stage.
  4. Horizontal scrolling when there are many statuses.

Click a tab (or a child status in a category dropdown) to filter the list to work in that stage.

Line-item visibility: Status is tracked at line item level. When you open a status tab, Orderline shows the line items that are in that status (not necessarily every line of every multi-item order). Different line items on the same order can sit in different statuses at once (for example chairs in Cutting and table in Polishing).

Move many orders at once

  1. On Orders, select the orders you want to update.
  2. Click Change Status.
  3. Choose the target status (or the option that clears/moves as offered in the menu).

Orderline runs a bulk update and shows progress for the move.

Move a single line item

In the order’s line items area, use Move to and pick a status for that line item. Only that line item changes stage; other lines on the order can stay where they are.

Draft orders

Draft orders have their own status list under Statuses → Draft Statuses.

Use draft statuses for quote and invoice workflows (for example Quotation Sent, Invoice Sent) without mixing them into open-order production tabs. Manage drafts on the Drafts screen in Orderline; assign draft statuses the same way you manage stages for that list.

Permissions

  • Managing the Statuses page requires permission to create/manage statuses (canCreateStatus in staff settings).
  • Staff without that permission see a message that they cannot manage statuses.
  • Admins set staff permissions under Settings → Staff (when staff access is available on your plan — see pricing).

Tips for large workflows

  • Prefer categories + children when you have roughly 15–20 steps so the tab bar stays usable.
  • Name stages the way the floor talks (“Laser”, “Polish”, “QC”) rather than generic labels.
  • Keep order and draft workflows separate so production tabs stay focused on paid work.
  • Combine statuses with ship-by deadlines so each stage still respects when the order must leave.
  • Use custom columns and views when stages alone are not enough (for example delivery date views).