Orders are a pivotal feature within the Ooooby platform, designed to streamline the management of your deliveries from start to finish. This overview provides shops with a centralised view of upcoming orders by day, including all necessary details to efficiently pack and deliver customer orders. Understanding how to navigate and utilise this section can significantly enhance your operational efficiency.
What are Orders?
A single order is a confirmed sale to a customer for some products, which is ready to pick and deliver. Orders are grouped by delivery days and proceed through four states;
Planning: Go to Orders > Future Orders, where you can curate your standard boxes, check upcoming orders, and plan for the week ahead. Customers cannot see any information about orders in this state. If you choose to share the box contents with customers, press 'Publish Preview' to move to the Published state. More information on this can be found here and here.
Published: If you choose to publish the preview of the upcoming box contents, customers can now see the planned upcoming boxes and make further adjustments to their upcoming orders before the orders are closed. When you want to stop customers from making any changes, press 'Close Orders' via Future Orders, to move to the Processing state.
Processing: Once you've closed the orders, customers can no longer make changes and all the information on that particular order week can be found in Orders > Active Orders. This is the time to place supplier orders, harvest crops, pack products and make deliveries. When deliveries are done, press 'Set as Completed' in the Active Order to finalise orders, debit customer accounts and prepare for billing. This moves the orders to the Done state.
Done: No more changes can be made by yourself or customers. Accounts have been debited, and are now ready for billing.
In your navigation you'll see reference to 'Future Orders' and 'Active Orders'. The former includes orders still to be confirmed - i.e. in the Planning or Published states. Active orders include those that are Processing or Done.
Upcoming and recently completed orders are shown on the dashboard.
Advance Orders are a related feature that let you and your customers plan for special events like Christmas - read more about Advance Orders.
Key Features and Actions
Most work will happen when orders are in the 'processing' state. A number of features help make this process smooth and consistent and are accessed by going to the order details page for that day.
Order processing features
Orders Dropdown Actions
Edit Orders: Offers the capability to edit individual orders, customise exclusions or replacements, or delete orders from the order week
Add Order: Allows adding orders after the orders have closed, accommodating late customer requests via email
Email Customers: Enables you to send an email to all customers with orders that week. Sortable by product type and delivery route.
Lock Orders: Secures these orders from further changes post-paperwork preparation, with an option to unlock if necessary. This is particularly helpful if you are a remote team as it shows other members of the team that actions have been carried out by someone and changes are not necessary
Delete All Orders: Removes the orders from the overview, reverting changes made during the setup.
Packing Dropdown Actions
Produce Details: Lists produce included in the orders for that day/week, aiding in exclusion management
Box Labels, Chilled Labels, Fresh Daily Labels and Packing Manifests: Facilitates the printing of various labels and manifests for delivery preparation
Extras Manifests and Exclusions Report: Provides detailed lists for managing extras and customer exclusions
Peroduct Checklists: Generates checklists for supplier items and customer orders.
Deliveries Dropdown Actions
Delivery Routes: Shows the number of deliveries per route, order breakdowns, and allows route edits or optimisations
Delivery Manifests: Offers a comprehensive list of customers, orders, and delivery instructions for each route. More information here
Deliveries Map: Visual map of customer locations for delivery
Combine Routes: Facilitates the merging of multiple delivery routes into one, streamlining delivery processes
Set Up Routes: Adjusts driver details or start/end locations for a route specifically for these orders.
Other Actions
Send Order Confirmations: Sends detailed order confirmation emails to customers automatically. More details on this type of automated email and all others sent from the system can be found here
Mark as Complete: Finalises the order cycle and tells the system that the orders have been completed, updating customer accounts and balances based on delivery completion and any adjustments.
Conclusion
Orders in Ooooby are an essential tool for efficiently managing the lifecycle of deliveries. From initial setup to final delivery, this feature supports detailed planning, customisation, and communication, ensuring a smooth operation that meets both hub and customer needs. By familiarising yourself with these features and incorporating them into your workflow, you can enhance the effectiveness of your delivery service.