Knowledgebase

Please review the following steps for processing a manual order.

Adding a manual order helpful article: https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/managing-orders/#section-5

Wherever possible - always get the customer to sign up themselves via your website front end.  Even if you have to do it with them (either face to face, or talking them through it over the phone or skype).  The advantage of getting them to do it are several; a) accurate information / spelling etc is collected from them b) they can make payment c) they get used to how to do it d) it avoids using up your time

If you must add a manual order yourself - here are the steps;

1) Go to Admin > Store > Orders and at the top of order display screen, click on > Add Order

2) In Add New Order screen, on the left hand side, click the drop down where it says "Customer" and type in 3 or more letters of their name.  If the customer already exists, select them from the results that are returned.  If there are no results found for the search, you will have to make the customer from new - in which case; Click the little pencil icon next to "Billing Details" and then enter all the info you need. 

3) In the billing section, you will see "Payment Method" - you can choose the method as agreed with customer, or if they are paying cash - or if this is a complimentary order, select Other - we will add notes later.  

4) If required, do the same for shipping information section (not required unless a physical product is being bought by person A and they wish it to be delivered somewhere else e.g. to person B)

5) Now we are done with the Customer info section - we now need to add some products to the order.  Scroll down page to "order item" section.  Click on the "Add item(s)" button and then click "Add product(s)" button.  In the pop-up, type the first few letters of the product, for example if adding Strawberry Soap - just type "straw" to filter product results.  Click on the product you want to add to the order.  Note that unfortunately as at the time of writing, Woocommerce does not make it easy to add non existing products or sales. There may be a plugin out there, but otherwise, you would either have to create a new product first (e.g. a blank product or service that you could customise in the manual order), or you can do it "the quick and dirty way" and "cheat" by adding an item as a 'fee' - then edit it and add a description. It's not an ideal way to handle non existing item sales, but it works.

6) Do you need to adjust the price - for example, is it a free item or complimentary?  If not skip this step.  Otherwise, to adjust price: Hover over the product line item you've just added and near to the "Total" field at right - and click the edit icon (pencil).  In the "Total" box, adjust the amount to what is required - e.g. if this is a free item, adjust the "Total" to 0.  If you are giving a discount of e.g. $20, just reduce the total by $20.  Then, you will need to click the blue "Save" button (below and left) - which will update the order item line.  You should see any discounted amount now displayed next to the "Discount" line.

7) When you are done adding line items - click on the blue "Save" button - or if that is already done, click the "Calculate Total" button to save the order items.  You also have the option here to add a tax line, a fee, or (on the left) to add a coupon.

8) Now "Set Order Status": If payment has already been received, you can set the order status to "Completed" (top left) and then click on "Save Order" at top right.  However, most likely this will be a new order, so you can set status to pending payment - and then click on "Save Order" at top right.

9) If you need to resend the order emails, click in the "Actions" dropdown (top right), select the email e.g. "New Order" or "Customer Invoice" (which will send the email with a 'Pay Now' link to the custoemr) and then click the little "Save order and Send Email" button.

10) If you need to send the customer a note, for example to advise them their order has been set up, you can add it in the Order Notes section and click "Customer Note" and then hit "Add" button.  Be aware that this will sned a second email (if you just sent the invoice email in step 9).  To add a Private Note (e.g. a note to yourself that you've already collected payment), click on Private Note and then the "Add" button.


That's it for the manual order.  The customer should receive the order email and hopefully make payment.  You'll probably need to follow up manually to check that.

All done or need more help? Get in touch if you need further assistance.