Managing Orders

Orders are how your store turns into money. When a customer buys from your storefront, the order lands in your dashboard, and it’s your job to process it and get it delivered or ready for pickup.

This guide walks through everything: finding orders, understanding the statuses, moving an order from new to delivered, recording payments, handling refunds, and creating manual orders for sales made outside your store.

The Orders Page

Go to Orders in your dashboard. This is the hub. You’ll see every order with its key details: order reference, customer name, total, payment status, fulfillment status, and date.

The page is built around three filters:

Fulfillment status tabs across the top: All Orders, Pending, Processing, Out for delivery, Ready for pickup, Fulfilled, Cancelled.
Payment status dropdown: All Payments, Paid, Owing, Unpaid, Failed, Refunded.
Type dropdown: All Types, Delivery, Pickup.

You can also search by customer name, order reference, or other details, and choose how many orders show per page (12, 24, 48, or 96).

If you have a lot of orders, the tabs are your best friend. “Pending” shows what needs action right now; “Fulfilled” is history.

Order References

Every order has a reference like MF-A3F8B2C1D4. Think of it as the order’s name. You’ll use it to find the order, and your customer sees it on their confirmation. When a customer messages you “I just ordered” and asks for a status, this reference is how you both talk about the same order.

Opening an Order

Click any order to see its full page. It’s split into two sides:

Left: payment status, the items bought, and an order summary (subtotal, shipping, discount, total).
Right: customer details and contact, delivery or pickup logistics, and the action buttons.

From this page you can move the order forward, record payments, record refunds, message the customer, and more.

The Two Kinds of Status

Orders have two separate statuses, and it’s important not to confuse them.

Payment status is about money. Is it paid, unpaid, or partially paid?

Fulfillment status is about delivery. Where is the order physically?

A paid order can still be pending fulfillment. A fulfilled order can be unpaid if you chose pay on delivery. They move independently.

Payment statuses

Unpaid - No payment received yet. Common for pay-on-delivery orders or invoices.
Paid - The customer has paid in full.
Owing - Partially paid. Some money received, some still outstanding.
Failed - A payment attempt didn’t go through.
Refunded - The full amount was returned to the customer.
Partial Refund - Part of the money was returned.

Fulfillment statuses

Pending - New order, nothing done yet.
Processing - You’ve confirmed the order and are preparing it.
Out for delivery - For delivery orders: it’s been handed to the courier or your dispatcher.
Ready for pickup - For pickup orders: it’s waiting for the customer to collect.
Fulfilled - Delivered or collected. Complete.
Cancelled - The order was cancelled.

Moving an Order Forward

Processing an order is mostly a series of one-click actions. On the order page, open the action menu to see what’s available. The available actions change based on where the order is.

Confirm the order

When a new order comes in, the first step is to Confirm Order. This moves it to Processing and emails the customer to say their order is being prepared.

Don’t skip this. Confirming tells your customer their order wasn’t forgotten, which keeps them from messaging you “where’s my order?” every few hours.

Dispatch or mark ready

This step depends on whether it’s a delivery or pickup order.

Delivery order: Dispatch Order moves it to Out for delivery. This is the moment the order leaves your hands, so do it when you’ve actually handed it to the courier.
Pickup order: Mark as Ready moves it to Ready for pickup. The customer is notified to come collect it.

Mark as delivered or fulfilled

Delivery order: Mark as Delivered when the customer has received it. This moves the order to Fulfilled.
Pickup order: Mark as Fulfilled when the customer collects it.

Cancel an order

If an order can’t be completed, Cancel Order moves it to Cancelled. The customer is notified by email.

Two things to know about cancelling:

If the order was already paid, Mafflle reminds you to arrange a refund with the customer. Cancelling doesn’t automatically return their money; you still need to process a refund.
If a coupon was used on the order, cancelling releases the coupon usage, so it can be used again.

Delete an order

Delete Order permanently removes the order. It’s gone from your metrics, revenue, and customer history, and it can’t be undone.

Use this only for test orders, duplicates, or mistakes. For anything real, cancel instead. Cancelled orders stay in your records; deleted ones vanish.

Recording Payments

If a customer pays by cash, POS, or bank transfer, the money doesn’t arrive through your store’s checkout automatically. You record it yourself.

Open the order.
Choose Record Payment.
Enter the amount received.
Pick the payment method: Cash, Transfer, or POS.
Add a reference if you have one, like a transfer receipt number. This helps you trace the payment later.
Save.

The order’s payment status updates automatically. Record enough to cover the total and it becomes Paid; record part of it and it becomes Owing, with the remaining balance shown.

Recording a Delivery Cost

If you paid a courier or delivery rider a different amount than the shipping fee you charged the customer, you can record the actual delivery cost on the order. This keeps your records honest, especially for pay-on-delivery orders where the rider collects the money.

Choose Record Delivery Cost (or Record Pickup Cost for pickup orders) on the order page and enter the amount you actually paid.

Processing Refunds

When you need to return money to a customer, record a refund.

Open the order.
Choose Record Refund.
Select the items to refund and their quantities.
Decide whether to restock returned items. This toggle is on by default, which adds the returned items back to your inventory. Turn it off if the items can’t be sold again.
Enter a shipping refund amount if you’re also refunding delivery.
Optionally add a custom amount (for a partial goodwill refund, for example).
Save.

A few rules the system enforces:

You can’t refund more than what was actually paid.
A shipping refund can’t exceed the original shipping fee.
Refunds reduce your ledger balance.

After a refund, the order’s payment status shows Refunded or Partial Refund.

Creating a Manual Order

Some sales happen outside your storefront: a customer calls, messages you on WhatsApp, or walks into your shop. You can record those as manual orders so your records stay complete, with the sales channel tagged so you know where the sale came from.

See the dedicated Manual Orders guide for the full walkthrough: picking the customer, adding products, setting delivery, and taking payment.

Order Emails

Customers get automatic emails at key moments:

Order confirmation - When the order is placed.
Payment receipt - When payment is confirmed. See Receipts & Invoices below.
Invoice - For unpaid orders, including your bank details so they can pay.

When you move an order through fulfillment (confirm, dispatch, deliver), the customer gets notified at each step. You get a new order alert whenever a sale comes in.

Receipts & Invoices

Every order has a document you can send your customer: a receipt when the order is paid, or an invoice when it isn’t. Mafflle builds them automatically from the order, so you don’t have to write anything out by hand.

Open an order and choose View Receipt (or the receipt link) to see it. The same page shows a receipt for paid orders and an invoice for unpaid ones.

What’s on the document

Your store name and logo at the top
The order reference, date, and customer name
The items with quantities and line totals
Subtotal, delivery, discount, and total
For an unpaid invoice, your bank details so the customer knows where to send money

Sending it to the customer

From the receipt page you can:

Download Image - Save it as a PNG picture, ready to send on WhatsApp or Instagram.
Share - Use your phone’s share menu to send it to an app.
Copy WhatsApp Text - Copy a formatted text version and paste it into a WhatsApp chat directly.

The fastest way is usually to download the image and send it in a DM. For unpaid invoices, the text version includes your bank details, which is handy over WhatsApp.

What happens automatically

When an order is created, the customer gets an email with their document:

Paid orders get a receipt email with the order summary.
Unpaid orders get an invoice email with the amount due and your bank details.

You don’t need to send anything yourself unless you want to. These emails go out automatically to any order with a customer email, including manual orders.

A note on the feature

Receipts and invoices are kept simple on purpose. They show the essentials, which covers most needs. There’s no tax breakdown or PDF export at the moment. If your customer needs something more formal, you can download the image or copy the text and add what’s missing yourself.

Customer proof of payment

If a customer pays outside your store (for example, by bank transfer to your invoice), they can upload a proof-of-payment image on their order page. You’ll see it on the order in your dashboard. This is separate from the receipt and invoice documents, and it’s their way of showing you the money left their account.

Finding the Tracking Link

Each order has a tracking link your customer can open to see their order status. On the order page, use Copy Tracking Link to copy it, then paste it in a WhatsApp or DM. It’s the fastest way to give a customer a straight answer about their order.

Messaging the Customer

From the order page you can also Message on WhatsApp or Email the customer with one click. Their contact details come from the order, so you don’t have to dig them out.

Discounts & Coupons on Orders

If you offer coupons, they apply at checkout and the discount shows on the order and the customer’s confirmation. The used coupon is tracked on the order.

From Coupons in your dashboard you can create, pause, and delete coupons and see how many times each was used. Coupon usage is released if the order is cancelled.

See the Coupons & Discounts guide for how to build coupons: the discount types, who can use them, when they work, and which items they apply to.

Manual Orders - Record sales made outside your storefront
Coupons & Discounts - Create discount coupons
Setting Up Payments - How you get paid, fees, and settlement
Shipping Configuration - Delivery zones and pickup locations
Adding Products - The products in your orders