Draft Orders

The Draft Orders page lets you manage, search, print, download, and email document files specifically for draft orders created within your Shopify Admin.

What is a Draft Order?

A Draft Order is an order created manually by a merchant on behalf of a customer in the Shopify Admin. Merchants commonly use draft orders to:

• Send formal Price Quotations or Proforma Invoices to B2B and wholesale clients before payment is finalized.
• Take orders over phone, chat, or email and accept manual payment methods.
• Apply custom line-item discounts, custom shipping rates, or add reserved products.

Once a draft order is marked as paid or payment terms are accepted, Shopify converts it into a standard official order.

Key Capabilities

• Instant Proforma & Quotation Export: Print or export PDF invoices for draft transactions before they are officially finalized.
• Streamlined Filtering: Filter draft orders by order status and specific creation date ranges.
• Direct Customer Dispatch: Email draft invoice PDFs directly to buyers with a single click.

Search and Filter Draft Orders

Easily locate specific draft orders using search terms or quick status filters:

• Global Search: Search by Draft Order Name (e.g., #D14), Customer Email, PO Number, or Product SKU.
• Order Status: Filter draft orders by status:
  • Open: Pending draft orders awaiting customer approval or payment.
  • Invoice sent: Draft orders where an invoice link has been emailed to the customer, but payment is not yet completed.
  • Completed: Draft orders that have been successfully converted into official Shopify orders.
• Date Range: Filter draft orders created within a custom timeframe.

Individual Draft Order Actions

Each row in the draft orders table includes quick-action buttons on the right side:

Print Draft Documents

You can print documents for a draft order directly from the list.

How to Print a Draft Document

1. Go to Draft orders from the left navigation menu.
2. Locate the draft order you wish to print.
3. In the Actions column on the right, click the Printer icon.
4. The document opens directly in your browser's native Print Preview dialog with your configured template applied.

Print Configuration & Best Practices

Before sending the document to your physical printer or exporting it, verify your browser's print options:

• Destination: Choose your connected physical printer, or select Save as PDF / Microsoft Print to PDF to export a local copy.
• Paper size: Select the appropriate paper dimension (e.g., A4, A5, or Letter).
• Margins: Keep Margins set to Default (or None) to avoid unwanted content clipping.
• Background graphics (Important): Always check Background graphics under Options so that background colors, stylized table headers, and badges render properly.
• Headers and footers: Leave this box unchecked to prevent browser URLs and timestamps from appearing on document borders.

Click Print to complete the process.

Table Display Settings

• Pagination / Page Size: Select how many draft orders display per page (e.g., 10, 20, 50 rows) using the dropdown on the top right.

• Column Visibility: Click the column layout icon (next to page size) to customize visible columns such as Subtotal, Total, Total Tax, Status, and Created Date.

Pro Tip & Best Practices

• Use for B2B Quotations: Print or download draft order invoices to send as formal proforma invoices/quotes to B2B buyers prior to receiving payment.
• Enable Background Graphics: Always make sure Background graphics is checked in your browser's print dialog to ensure badges and colors render accurately.
• Track Completed Status: Filter by Status: Open to quickly process draft transactions that are still pending payment or customer confirmation.