Sales¶
Sales holds the orders and the paperwork that follows them. The order screen is Nebula's own, not the stock one with a re-skin, so it is worth a read even if you have used Magento for years. The buttons are the same jobs in a different place, and the tabs are gone.
The Sales menu¶
The stock Operations sub-menu is flattened, so every entry sits directly under Sales.
| Entry | What it lists |
|---|---|
| Orders | Every order, newest first |
| Invoices | Every invoice across all orders |
| Shipments | Every shipment across all orders |
| Credit Memos | Every refund across all orders |
| Transactions | What the payment gateway recorded |
| Billing Agreements | PayPal billing agreements, when that module is installed |
| Payment Services | The Payment Services dashboard, when that module is installed |
Order statuses are not here. They are a store setting, under Stores, Settings, Order Status. See Finding your way around for the menu itself.
The order list¶
The order list behaves like every other list. See Working with lists for search, filters, columns and saved views.
Three things are specific to it:
- Create New Order in the toolbar starts the New Order screen described at the foot of this page.
- Clicking a row opens that order. The View action at the end of the row does the same.
- There are no mass actions. The order list ships without the tick-box column, so there is no way to invoice or cancel a batch of orders from the list. Open each order and act on it there.
You get an ID, an Order #, a Store, a Purchase Date, a Bill-to Name, a Ship-to Name, two grand totals in base and purchased currency, and a Status badge. Order #, Bill-to Name and Ship-to Name are searchable, the two totals filter by range, and Status filters by a dropdown of the statuses your store actually uses.
The order screen¶
The screen is one page. It does not have tabs, and the stock Information, Invoices, Shipments, Credit Memos, Comments History and Transactions tabs are not hidden somewhere, they are gone. What replaces them is described under Invoices, shipments and credit memos.
The header¶
The order number, a status badge, and the customer's name and email sit in a bar that stays on screen as you scroll. The buttons are on the right of the same bar.
The badge takes its tone from the order's state, so the colour alone tells you whether anything is waiting on you.
| Tone | States |
|---|---|
| Amber | New, Pending Payment, Payment Review and On Hold. Something is waiting on someone |
| Blue | Processing |
| Green | Complete |
| Red | Canceled |
| Grey | Anything else, including Closed |
The panels¶
Three panels sit under the header.
Billing Address and Shipping Address each show the formatted address with the telephone number. An Edit link appears in the panel head if your role may edit orders. It opens the address for editing. If your role does not hold that permission the link is simply not there.
A virtual order says Virtual order. No shipping address. in place of the shipping panel's contents. That is normal for a downloadable or virtual order, not an error.
Payment & Shipping shows the payment method's title, and the shipping method with its charge when the order has one.
Items Ordered¶
One row per visible item, with the product name, its configured options underneath, the SKU, an item status badge, the price, the quantities, and the money columns.
The Qty cell is worth reading closely. It always shows Ordered, and then adds a line for Invoiced, Shipped or Refunded as each happens. That is where you look to answer "has this been sent yet" without opening anything else.
The totals block sits at the foot of the same panel: Subtotal, then Shipping & Handling, Discount with the coupon code beside it, and Tax where each applies, then Grand Total. Under the grand total, Total Paid appears in green, Total Refunded in red and Total Due in amber, each only when there is one.
What the buttons do¶
The action bar only shows a button when it can actually be used. An order that is fully invoiced has no Invoice button. An order your role may not email has no Send Email button. If a button you expect is missing, that is the order's state or your role, not a fault. Roles are covered in Customers and security.
| Button | When it appears | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Back | Always | Returns to the order list |
| Send Email | The order is not cancelled and your role holds the email permission | Asks Send order email? and warns that the order update email goes to the customer. Sends on confirm |
| Reorder | Your role holds the reorder permission and the store allows reordering | Opens the New Order screen with this order's contents already in the cart |
| Invoice | The order still has something to invoice | Opens the Create Invoice screen. Nothing is billed yet |
| Ship | The order still has something to ship | Opens the Create Shipment screen. Nothing is despatched yet |
| Credit Memo | The order has something refundable | Opens the Create Credit Memo screen. Nothing is refunded yet |
| Hold | The order can be held | Puts the order on hold at once. It does not ask |
| Unhold | The order is on hold | Takes it off hold at once. It does not ask |
| Cancel | The order can be cancelled | Asks Cancel this order? and says the order will be marked as cancelled. The buttons read Cancel order and Keep order |
| Void | The payment is authorised but not captured, and your role may invoice | Asks Void this payment? and says the authorisation is released and the money is never taken |
| Accept Payment | A gateway is holding the order in review | Asks Accept this payment? and says the order leaves review and proceeds as paid |
| Deny Payment | A gateway is holding the order in review | Asks Deny this payment? and says the payment is rejected and the order is not fulfilled |
| Get Payment Update | The gateway can be asked where the review got to | Asks the gateway and reloads the order with whatever it answered |
Three buttons act without asking
Hold and Unhold change the order at once with no confirmation dialog, because each is reversible by the other button. Get Payment Update skips the dialog too, since all it does is ask the gateway for an answer. Every other change that cannot be undone asks first.
There is no Edit button on the order
Changing an address is the Edit link on the address panel. There is no whole-order edit in the action bar.
Order History & Comments¶
The last panel on the order does two jobs.
The box at the top adds a comment. Type into it, tick what you want, and press Submit Comment.
| Tick box | What it does |
|---|---|
| Notify Customer | Emails the comment to the customer |
| Visible on Storefront | Shows the comment on the order in the customer's account |
Leave both clear and the comment is an internal note. Nobody outside the admin sees it.
Below the box is the order's history as one timeline, holding your comments and the entries the system wrote itself. Each entry carries its date and time, the status the order was in, the comment text, and a green Customer Notified mark where the customer was emailed. That mark is how you check afterwards whether a customer was actually told.
Invoices, shipments and credit memos¶
Each of these is its own screen, reached from the Sales menu, with its own list and its own view screen. None of them is a tab on the order.
| List | What you can filter on | Row action |
|---|---|---|
| Invoices | Invoice #, Invoice Date, Order #, Bill-to Name, a status of Pending, Paid or Canceled, and a Grand Total range | View |
| Shipments | Shipment #, Ship Date, Order #, Ship-to Name and a Total Qty range | View |
| Credit Memos | Credit Memo #, Created, Order #, Bill-to Name, a status of Pending, Refunded or Canceled, and a Refunded range | View |
| Transactions | Order ID, Transaction ID, Parent Transaction ID, Payment Method, Transaction Type, Closed and Created | View |
None of the four has mass actions.
Finding one order's paperwork
Because the documents are not tabs on the order, the way to see everything belonging to order 000000123 is to open the relevant list and filter its Order # column. Each list holds that column and it is searchable.
Creating an invoice¶
Press Invoice on the order. The screen shows the order's details down the page and an Invoice Totals rail beside them.
- Set Qty to Invoice on each line. Press Update Qty's if you changed any, so the totals catch up.
- Choose the Amount handling if the payment method offers it: Capture Online takes the money through the gateway, Capture Offline records it as taken elsewhere, Not Capture bills without taking anything.
- Tick Append Comments to send your comment with the customer's notification, and Email Copy of Invoice to send the invoice itself.
- Press Submit Invoice.
If the payment method has a gateway but cannot capture through it, the rail says the invoice will be created offline without the payment gateway, and there is no Amount choice to make.
Where the order can be shipped at the same time, a Create Shipment tick box appears under Shipping Information and the items panel is headed Items to Invoice and Ship. If the two cannot be done together the screen says so, and asks you to invoice first.
Creating a shipment¶
Press Ship on the order.
- Set Qty to Ship on each line.
- Add carriers and tracking numbers under Tracking Information.
- In Shipment Options, tick Create Shipping Label if your carrier is set up for it, Append Comments to send your comment with the notification, and Email Copy of Shipment to send the shipment itself.
- Press Submit Shipment.
Creating a credit memo¶
Press Credit Memo on the order. The invoice view has no refund button, so the order screen is where a refund starts.
- Set Qty to Refund on each line, and tick Return to Stock on the lines whose stock is coming back. Press Update Qty's after any change.
- Adjust the money in Refund Totals. Adjustment Refund adds to the refund, Adjustment Fee takes away from it. Both accept a positive number only.
- In Credit Memo Comments, write the note and choose whether to Append comments to the customer notification and whether to Email copy of credit memo.
- Press Refund to send the money back through the gateway, or Refund Offline to record a refund you made another way.
Refund and Refund Offline are not the same button
Refund moves real money. Refund Offline only records that you did. Picking the wrong one either refunds twice or never refunds at all, and neither is undone from this screen.
Viewing a document¶
An invoice or credit memo view is a read-only version of the same layout: the addresses, the payment panel, the items that were invoiced or refunded, the totals, and a history box at the foot with the same Customer Notified marks. A shipment view is shorter: the two addresses, the items shipped and a plain comment history, with no payment panel, no totals and no Customer Notified mark. The only button on all three is Back.
A shipment view also lists its Tracking Information, with the carrier, the title and the tracking number for each parcel.
Transactions¶
Transactions is the gateway's own record, one row per authorisation, capture, refund or void, with the transaction ID, its parent, the method, the type, whether it is closed and when it happened. Opening a row shows that transaction's detail.
Use it when the order and the gateway disagree. The order tells you what the admin did. Transactions tells you what the payment provider actually recorded.
New Order¶
Create New Order on the order list starts an order on a customer's behalf, for a phone order or a correction. It is a rebuilt screen, not the stock one.
- Pick the customer. The first step is a customer list with ID, Name, Email, Phone, postcode, Country and Website. Click a row to build the order for that customer, or press Create New Customer to start one for a customer who does not have an account yet.
- Add products. Add Products opens a search over the catalogue. Tick what you want, set quantities, and press Add to Order. Products you pick are staged until then, and the panel says so when nothing is staged yet.
- Adjust the cart. Change a quantity in place, or press Remove item. The Order Summary rail keeps up as you go.
- Fill in the account and addresses. These are ordinary Nebula form panels. See Working with forms.
- Choose shipping and payment. Each is its own panel and each saves as you set it.
- Set gift options if the order needs them. Gift Options takes a From, a To and a Message, for the whole order or for one item, and Save Gift Options stores it.
- Submit. The Order Summary rail carries the Grand Total, the order's currency, an Email order confirmation tick box and the Submit Order button.
The rail's Grand Total is the quote's current total. It changes as you add products, set a shipping method and apply anything that affects price, so read it once more before you submit.