How to find dealer orders that are short on stock

Short on stock lists every confirmed dealer line whose units could not all be set aside in your Shopify store. Open it with the Short on stock button at the top of Wholesale › Orders. See What is wholesale? for how confirming an order holds stock.

Each row is a promise to a dealer that your stock does not yet cover, so this is the list to clear before a ship window opens.

Before you start

Opening the page needs View wholesale orders on Settings › Permissions, which starts at lead. See How to set who can do what. Your workspace may use its own word for orders; Settings › Terminology shows both.

Holding stock needs Shopify connected, because the units are set aside in your live store. See How to connect your Shopify store.

Which lines show up?

Lines on a Confirmed order that name a product from your Shopify catalogue and hold fewer units than were ordered. Each line is listed on its own, so one order can appear several times.

These lines stay off the list, because they are not meant to hold anything yet:

• A typed line with no Shopify product. It never holds stock.
• A line on a Prebook order whose Ship window date has not arrived. It starts holding on that date.
• A line on an order that has fully shipped or been cancelled.

When nothing is short, the page reads Nothing is short. Every confirmed dealer line has its units set aside.

What do the columns mean?

Each row is one order line, and the columns read Account, Order, Product, Ordered, Set aside, Short and Why.

• Ordered is the quantity on the order, and Set aside is how many units Shopify is holding for it.
• Short is the gap between them.
• Why says what stopped the rest, most often Not enough available stock.

The rows run worst shortfall first, so the biggest gap is at the top. Click the order number to open the order, and Order book at the top of the page takes you back to Wholesale › Orders.

Why does a line I just confirmed show as fully short?

Because its units have not been set aside yet. Confirming an order sets the stock aside in your Shopify store within about five minutes.

Until then, every line on the order reads as short by its whole quantity. Refresh the page after a few minutes and covered lines drop off.

Who gets stock first when there is not enough?

The order with the earliest Order date. When two dealers want the last few units of the same product, the older order is covered first and the newer one shows here.

Units already set aside for an order stay with it. A new order never takes stock from one that holds it.

What should you do about a short line?

Get more stock in, or agree a smaller quantity with the buyer. Tideswell keeps checking every confirmed line, so the list catches up on its own once either happens.

• Order more. Raise a purchase order for the product with your factory, such as Portside Mills. Once it is received into Shopify, the line fills from the new stock. See How to write a purchase order.
• Lower the quantity. Open the order, change the line's quantity to what you can supply, and the line drops off the list once its units are covered. Tell the buyer first.

On the order itself, each product line reads "N set aside, M short" until it is covered. See How to write and confirm a wholesale order.