Putting orders on hold

When to Use Each Hold

Allocation Hold

Use when you don’t want the order to consume inventory yet. The order will not allocate stock and will not move into a shippable state. Useful for orders that are pending changes, awaiting approval, or being held for a future release.

Operator Hold

Use when a warehouse operator needs to pause an order for an internal reason: a question for the customer, missing information, a special handling note, or coordination with another team. Inventory is still allocated; only shipping is blocked.

Payment Hold

Use when an order should not ship until payment is confirmed. Inventory remains allocated so the order is Ready to Ship the moment the hold is removed.

Fraud Hold

Use when an order is flagged for fraud review. Like Payment Hold, inventory remains allocated but the order cannot ship until the hold is removed.

How Holds Affect an Order

• The order will not appear as Ready to Ship.
• On the packing screen, the action buttons are disabled and the order is shown as on hold, with the reason listed.
• Order list filters can be used to find orders with any hold or a specific hold type.
• Adding or removing a hold is recorded in the order’s audit log.

Add a Hold to a Single Order

1. Open the order.
2. Open the Settings section of the order.
3. Check the box for the hold you want to apply: Allocation Hold, Operator Hold, Payment Hold, or Fraud Hold.
4. Save the order.

You can also apply a hold while creating a new order from the order create screen.

Add or Remove Holds in Bulk

1. Go to the Orders list.
2. Select the orders you want to update.
3. Choose Bulk edit.
4. Toggle the hold you want to add, or choose Remove all holds to clear every hold on the selected orders at once.
5. Apply the change.

Remove a Hold

To clear a hold, open the order, uncheck the hold in the order Settings, and save. You can also use the bulk action above to clear holds across many orders.

Apply or Clear Holds Automatically with Automations

You can configure automations to add or remove any of the four holds based on order conditions. For example:

• Add a Payment Hold when an order’s total exceeds a threshold.
• Add a Fraud Hold when an order matches a risk rule you’ve set up.
• Remove an Operator Hold when a tag is applied to the order.

Set these up in the Automations section. Use the Set hold and Remove hold actions for the hold type you want to manage.

Things to Know

• Merging orders. When orders are merged, the merged child order automatically receives an Allocation Hold and an Operator Hold. Unmerging the order clears both.
  
  
• Reshipping. When you create a reship, you can optionally place the new order on Operator Hold for review before it ships.
  
  
• Hold until a date. This is a separate setting from the four hold types. It blocks the order from shipping until a specified date and time. Use it for scheduled releases.
  
  
• Allocation Hold and stock. Because Allocation Hold prevents inventory from being reserved, stock that would have gone to that order remains available to other orders. Once the hold is removed, the order goes through allocation again automatically.
  
  
• Other holds and stock. Operator, Payment, and Fraud holds do not release inventory. The order keeps its allocated stock and is Ready to Ship as soon as the hold is removed.