Order management

Every order, from every channel, in one queue.

A build that pulls orders from the phone, email, your store and the trade portal into one queue, then runs them through picking, packing, invoicing and tracking. One list, in the order things need doing, instead of four places to check.

Get your free plan Three sizes

The standard size takes: Four weeks
You own: The system and every order record, in your accounts
Runs monthly: Only if you choose to pay monthly

No figure appears on this page. Your free plan comes back with the price of every size, and with what the whole job costs together.

What it is

Every time an order is copied from one place to another, there is a chance to get it wrong, and the wrong shipment costs the picking, the freight, the replacement and the goodwill. One queue that every channel feeds means the order is typed once, by the customer where possible, and everything after that reads the same record.

The second gain is the day itself. A single list, sorted by what has to leave when, is what turns a morning of checking into a morning of picking. Everyone can see what is due, what is short, and what is waiting on a payment, without asking the person who usually knows.

This is for you if

Orders arrive by phone, email and text and get retyped
Someone checks four places to know what is due to go out today
The wrong thing gets shipped because the note was written on paper
Customers ring to ask where an order is, and nobody can say

One of these is usually enough. If none of them is true, this is not the first thing I would build for you, and the plan will say so.

Why it comes where it does

Orders retyped between channels is where the errors live. One queue means an order is entered once and everybody is looking at the same thing.

Nothing has to be built before this one, so it can be the first thing you do. Your free plan still puts it in order against everything else you are considering.

Worth knowingThe online store and the wholesale trade portal both feed this queue. Neither is required, and orders taken by phone or email work the same way.

Three sizes, by scope

The sizes differ by how much is in them, not by how well it is done. Start at the size that matches the business today; moving up later is normal.

The Essentials

One queue, one place to look.

Orders from every channel in a single queue
Stages from received to shipped, with an owner for each
Pick lists produced from the queue
Written documentation

Two weeks

The usual choice

The Standard

Picked, invoiced and tracked. Most businesses choose this.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Packing with a check against the order before it leaves
Invoices raised in Xero from what actually shipped
Tracking numbers sent to the customer automatically
Part shipments and backorders handled properly

Four weeks

The Works

The whole order operation.

Everything in the size before, plus:

Courier bookings and labels produced from the queue
Returns and credits handled in the same system
Priority rules so the urgent orders sort themselves to the top
A monthly report on volume, fill rate and time to ship

Six weeks

The figure for each of the three sizes is not published here, because it depends on what else you are building at the same time. Build your free plan and the figure for each size comes back with it, along with what the whole job costs together.

How it is built

01
I follow ten real orders through your business, from arrival to delivered, and write down every hop.
02
I agree the queue with you: the stages an order passes through and who owns each one.
03
The build: channels feeding one queue, picking and packing, invoicing from what shipped.
04
Tracking and customer notifications, so the where-is-my-order calls stop.
05
A fortnight running beside the old way, then the old way stops.
06
Written documentation and training for the people who pick and pack.

Before you decide

Three things people get wrong.

They sayWe need an online store first.

No. The queue takes orders phoned in, emailed and written on a pad, and the store or the trade portal simply feed it too if you have them.

They sayOur orders are too custom for a system.

Custom lines, special pricing and made-to-order items are normal here. What the system fixes is the copying between channels, not the flexibility of what you sell.

They sayThis is the same as inventory software.

Different job. This runs the order from arrival to delivered. Stock counting and reordering is the forecasting build, and the two work well together.

Your options

The alternatives, side by side.

Doing it yourself and hiring it out are both real answers. Here is how the three compare on the things that actually decide it.

Slide the table sideways to read every column.

Option	What it costs	What you own	Time	Outcome
Keep doing it by hand	Retyping, wrong shipments and the freight to fix them	Nothing new	Now	Four places to check, one person who knows
Hire an order administrator, or subscribe to order software	A salary plus leave, or a per-order fee that grows with success	A person who can leave, or a tool you rent and fit into	Weeks to hire, or months to fit your process to the software	Tidier, at a cost that rises with volume
This build	One build, or a monthly fee	The system and every order record, in your accounts	Four weeks	One queue, one entry, and a customer who can be told where their order is

In practice

One pick list, every channel

Website orders, trade portal orders and the ones phoned in all arrive in the same queue. The pick list comes off it in one run, the invoice is raised from what was actually shipped, and the tracking number goes to the customer without anyone copying it.

Straight answers

Questions I get asked about this.

01Can orders still be taken over the phone?

Yes. A phone order is typed into the same queue and gets the same picking, invoicing and tracking. The queue is about where orders end up, not how they arrive.

02Does it connect to Xero?

Yes. Invoices are raised from what actually shipped, which is where hand-run processes most often drift.

03What about part shipments and backorders?

Handled from the standard tier: the order stays open on what is outstanding, the customer is told, and the invoice matches what went out.

04Do we need the trade portal or the store to use this?

No. Both feed the queue if you have them, and adding either later does not mean rebuilding this.

Also in stock and orders

What sits next to this.

Inventory management and projects

Know what you have and where the jobs are at.

Wholesale trade portal

Trade orders without the phone tag.

Stock forecasting and reordering

Reorder points that know your lead times.

See all of stock and orders

The next move

Order management, priced in context.

The free plan asks a few questions about the business, then comes back with this service at the size that fits, anything that has to come first, and the figure for each part and for the whole job. Nothing is charged and nothing is booked at the end of it.

Get your free plan stuart@sevenlens.co

Get your free plan