Creating Order Editing Rules
Order Editing Rules let you control when customers can edit an order and what they can do when a rule matches.
Use this guide as the full setup reference for creating a rule. If you only need a shorter overview, start with the main Order Editing Rules article first.
Before you start
Before creating a rule, decide:
- Which orders should match the rule.
- Whether matching orders should use the store default deadline, a custom deadline, a scheduled deadline, or be blocked immediately.
- Whether the rule should change the customer message, available editing options, order tags, hold behaviour, routing behaviour, or contracts.
- Whether the rule should be saved as a draft first or published as active.
Draft rules are saved but not evaluated for customers. Active rules are evaluated when Order Editing checks an order.
Create a new rule
- In Order Editing, go to Settings.
- Open Order Editing Rules.
- Click Create Rule.
- Add a clear rule name.
- Add the matching conditions.
- Choose the editing action or deadline.
- Configure any optional rule settings.
- Save the rule as a draft or publish it as active.
Use a name that explains the rule in plain language, such as Weekend orders editable until Monday, B2B orders blocked immediately, or VIP orders allow address edits only.
Matching conditions
Conditions decide which orders the rule applies to.
If a rule has no conditions, it applies to all orders that are evaluated by Order Editing. Use broad rules carefully, especially if the rule blocks editing or changes customer-facing behaviour.
When you add more than one condition, choose how the conditions should work together:
- AND means every condition must match.
- OR means at least one condition must match.
Some conditions use exact matching, while others support text matching, range matching, or list matching. The rule builder chooses the most useful default operator for each condition type, but you can adjust operators where the interface allows it.
Condition reference
The available conditions depend on the store setup and enabled features.
Shipping and delivery conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Shipping Lines | Shipping method or shipping line title | Express shipping, local delivery methods, special carrier services, or any shipping option that needs a different editing deadline. |
Destination | Orders shipping to selected destinations | Orders going to certain countries, regions, or locations that need different editing behaviour. |
Destination Exclusion | Orders shipping to locations you do not want included in a broader rule | Excluding restricted destinations from a rule that applies to most locations. |
Restricted Postal Codes | Orders shipping to specific postal codes | Local delivery zones, restricted regions, or operational exceptions. |
Pickup Orders | Pickup orders | Pickup orders that need a shorter deadline or different available editing options than shipped orders. |
Quantity of Shipping Methods | The number of shipping methods on the order | Split-shipping or multi-shipment workflows. |
Product and item conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Line Item Titles | Orders containing line items with specific titles | Product groups where the title is the easiest matching signal. |
Product SKUs | Orders containing specific SKUs | Product matching where SKU is the most reliable identifier. |
Total Items Quantity | Orders by the total item quantity | Large orders, single-item orders, or operational thresholds. |
Contains Free Items | Orders that contain free items | Gifts, promos, or zero-value items that need special handling. |
Order value conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Order value is greater than | Orders where the order total is above a selected value | High-value orders that need a shorter editing window, tighter restrictions, or manual handling. |
Order value is less than | Orders where the order total is below a selected value | Low-value order workflows or exceptions. |
Order Subtotal | Orders by subtotal after discounts | Rules that should follow the discounted subtotal instead of the full total. |
Customer and company conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Customer Email | Orders by customer email | Internal testing, specific customers, wholesale accounts, or exception handling. |
Customer Tags | Orders from customers with selected Shopify customer tags | VIPs, wholesale customers, loyalty tiers, staff groups, or support-managed customer segments. |
B2B Orders | B2B orders | B2B orders, pending payment orders, or company orders that need a different editing experience from standard DTC orders. |
Company Purchasing Name | B2B orders by company purchasing name | Company-specific B2B rules. |
Company Location | B2B orders by company location | Location-specific B2B rules. |
Payment Terms | Orders with payment terms, such as pending payment or net terms | Workflows where payment terms change whether editing should be available. |
Timing conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Days of Week | Orders created on selected days | Weekend rules, weekday warehouse schedules, or day-specific fulfillment operations. |
Time Window | Orders created during selected times | After-hours orders, warehouse cutoffs, or same-day dispatch deadlines. |
Order Created Date | Orders created inside a selected date range | Temporary rules, launches, holidays, warehouse closures, or one-off operational events. |
Discount, channel, and metadata conditions
Condition | What it matches | Use it for |
Discount Codes | Orders using selected discount codes | Promo campaigns where orders should have different editing rules. |
Order Tags | Orders with selected order tags | Workflows where another system or Shopify automation tags orders before Order Editing evaluates them. |
Order Note Attributes | Orders using order note attributes | Checkout apps, themes, or integrations that write structured order metadata. |
Recurring Subscriptions | Subscription orders from supported subscription workflows | Subscription workflows such as Skio, Recharge, or Shopify Subscriptions. |
Order Location | Advanced condition. Orders by order location | Order Status Page logic or stores with location-specific workflows. |
Sales Channel | Advanced condition. Orders by sales channel | Order Status Page logic or stores that need channel-specific behaviour. |
Advanced conditions can take a few seconds to evaluate because Order Editing may need to wait for Shopify data. Customers might briefly see the standard editing experience before the advanced condition finishes evaluating.
Choose what happens when the rule matches
The editing action controls the deadline or availability of editing for matching orders.
Use the store default deadline
Use the store's normal Order Editing deadline. Choose this when the rule is mainly used to apply settings, messages, contracts, tags, or restrictions while keeping the default editing window.
Rules that use the default deadline can also be combined with other matching rules.
Block editing immediately
Prevents editing as soon as the rule applies.
Use this for orders that should not be customer-editable, such as high-risk orders, special fulfillment orders, certain B2B orders, or orders that must go straight to manual handling.
Immediate block rules automatically mark the order as expired for Order Editing. Some optional settings, such as feature restrictions and rule-specific feature flags, are not relevant when editing is blocked immediately.
Allow editing until a specific time
Ends editing at a scheduled day and time.
Use this for warehouse cutoff rules, weekend rules, holiday rules, or workflows where orders can stay editable until a specific operational moment.
Scheduled deadlines can be configured as:
Option | What it does |
Same day | Editing ends at a selected time on the same day. If the order is placed after that time, the deadline rolls forward to the next valid day. |
Next business day | Editing ends on the next Monday to Friday business day. |
Specific weekday | Editing ends on the selected day of the week. |
Specific date | Editing ends on a specific calendar date. |
You can also configure the time, timezone reference, and time format where available.
Set a custom editing deadline
Ends editing after a fixed amount of time from order creation.
Common options include:
Deadline type | Available options |
Minutes | 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, or 55 minutes. |
Hours | 1 hour, 1.5 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours, 7 hours, 8 hours, 9 hours, 10 hours, 11 hours, or 12 hours. |
Day | 24 hours. |
Business days | 1, 2, or 3 business days. |
Use this when the deadline should be relative to the time the order was created.
Allow editing until fulfillment
Some stores may also have an option to keep editing available until fulfillment. Use this only when the operational workflow can safely accept changes up until fulfillment begins.
Customer message
Use the Customer message section to explain why the customer sees a different editing experience.
You can configure messaging for different access states, such as:
- When editing is fully available.
- When editing has expired or is blocked.
Keep messages short and specific. Good messages tell the customer what is happening and what they can do next.
Example:
Your order was placed after our warehouse cutoff. You can make changes until 9:00am on the next business day.
Restrict editing options
Use Restrict editing options when customers should still be able to edit some parts of an order, but not others.
For example, you might:
- Allow address edits but hide product edits.
- Allow product edits but prevent shipping method changes.
- Hide cancellation options for specific order types.
- Limit available modules for B2B or subscription orders.
This section is not available for immediate block rules because the customer cannot edit the order.
Rule-specific settings
Use Rule-specific settings to add or remove feature flags for matching orders.
These settings are useful when a rule needs to override normal store behaviour for a specific group of orders. For example, a rule can enable extra functionality for one order type or remove functionality from another.
This section is not available for immediate block rules.
Tag management
Rules can apply tags to matching orders.
Use tags when you want Shopify, staff, fulfillment workflows, or other apps to know which rule affected the order.
Examples:
- Add
weekend-editing-windowto weekend orders. - Add
manual-reviewto high-value orders. - Add
b2b-editing-blockedto B2B orders that cannot be edited.
Immediate block rules automatically use the Order Editing expired tag.
Hold orders
Use Hold Orders when matching orders should be held while the editing window is open.
This helps prevent fulfillment from starting before the customer has finished making changes. The hold should generally match the editing deadline so the order can continue through fulfillment once editing is no longer available.
Order re-routing
Use Order Re-Routing when matching orders should be moved to different fulfillment locations.
Depending on the store setup, you can configure:
- Source locations.
- Included destination locations.
- Excluded destination locations.
- Tags to apply when re-routing succeeds.
- Tags to apply when re-routing fails.
- Tags to apply while re-routing is processing.
Order Editing checks inventory before re-routing. Use re-routing carefully on stores with complex fulfillment logic, multi-location inventory, or third-party fulfillment apps.
Contracts
Use the Contracts section to attach product behaviour to the rule.
Contracts can add products, remove products, add products from metafields, remove products from metafields, add fixed product lists, remove fixed product lists, apply discounts to added products, or protect selected items during cancellation and refund workflows.
You can:
- Select one or more existing contracts.
- Create a new contract from the rule setup flow.
- Open selected contracts to review or edit them.
Disabled contracts can be selected in the interface but are skipped during evaluation. For full setup details, see Using Contracts With Order Editing Rules.
Combine with other rules
Use Combine with other rules when a rule should add settings alongside another matching rule instead of being the main rule that controls the editing deadline.
This option is available for rules that use the store default deadline.
Combination is best for additive behaviour, such as:
- Adding tags.
- Adding feature restrictions.
- Adding contracts.
- Adding rule-specific feature settings.
When multiple active rules match an order, Order Editing chooses the shortest available editing deadline as the primary deadline. Additive settings from eligible combination rules can also be applied.
ShipHero specific settings
Stores with ShipHero enabled may see additional ShipHero-specific settings.
Use these when the rule needs to hold or coordinate orders with ShipHero while the editing deadline is open. A time-based deadline is normally required so Order Editing knows how long the order should remain editable or held.
Payment capture rules
Stores with payment capture features enabled may see a payment capture rules summary when editing a rule.
Use this to review how payment capture logic relates to the rule. Payment capture behaviour should be tested carefully with the rule conditions and editing deadline.
How rules are evaluated
Order Editing evaluates active rules that have conditions and an editing action.
The important behaviour is:
- Draft rules are ignored.
- Disabled rules are ignored.
- Rules without conditions can apply broadly to all evaluated orders.
- Multiple rules can match the same order.
- The rule with the shortest calculated editing deadline is selected as the primary rule.
- Settings from eligible combination rules can be added alongside the primary rule.
- Contracts from all matching rules can be considered during contract evaluation.
- Advanced Shopify-dependent conditions can take longer to evaluate.
This means rules should be written clearly and tested together, not only one at a time.
Testing a rule
Before relying on a rule, test both matching and non-matching orders.
- Create a test order that should match the rule.
- Open the customer editing experience.
- Confirm the deadline is correct.
- Confirm the customer message is correct.
- Confirm the available editing options are correct.
- Confirm any order tags are applied.
- Confirm any hold or routing behaviour works as expected.
- If the rule uses contracts, make an edit that should trigger each contract.
- Create a second test order that should not match the rule.
- Confirm the second order uses the expected default behaviour or matches a different intended rule.
Troubleshooting
The rule is not matching
Check that the rule is active, the conditions match the order data, and any advanced Shopify data has had time to load.
The wrong deadline is being used
Check whether another active rule also matches the order. If multiple rules match, the shortest calculated deadline is used as the primary deadline.
The customer briefly sees the default editing experience
This can happen with advanced conditions that require additional Shopify data. The experience should update once the condition evaluation finishes.
Restrictions are not available
Restrictions are not available for immediate block rules because editing is already blocked.
A contract is not running
Check that the contract is enabled, attached to a matching rule, and triggered by the edit the customer actually made.
Tips
- Use specific rule names.
- Add descriptions when a rule exists for an operational reason.
- Avoid overlapping rules unless you know how they should interact.
- Use draft status while building or reviewing complex rules.
- Test immediate block rules carefully before publishing.
- Test contract rules with real edit actions, not only with matching order conditions.
