WooCommerce is a powerful ecommerce plugin that allows you to sell anything, beautifully. One of the first questions that you might have is how do I create an order status?
Order statuses allow you to keep track of orders as they go through your workflow. By default, WooCommerce comes with seven order statuses:
- Pending – Order received (unpaid)
- Processing – Payment received and stock has been allocated
- On Hold – Awaiting payment
- Completed – Order fulfilled and complete – requires no further action
- Cancelled – Customer requested order cancellation – may require further action
- Refunded – Order refunded by customer – no further action required
- Failed – Payment failed or was declined (unpaid)
You can read more about each order status here.
Creating a New Order Status in WooCommerce
Before creating a new order status, you first need to install and activate the WooCommerce Custom Order Status plugin. You can do this from your WordPress dashboard by going to Plugins > Add New and searching for “WooCommerce Custom Order Statuses”. Once the plugin has been installed and activated, click on WooCommerce > Orders > Custom Statuses from your dashboard.
This will take you to the plugin’s settings page where you can begin creating your new custom statuses. First, you need to give your new status a name and slug. The name is what customers will see when they view their orders, while the slug is used internally by WordPress.
Once you’ve added a name and slug, scroll down a little bit and you’ll see an option labeled “Show in menus” with three different checkboxes next to it.
These checkboxes determine whether or not your custom status appears in various menus throughout the WooCommerce interface.
The first checkbox labeled “Admin orders list” will add your custom status to the list of orders on the WooCommerce > Orders page.
The second checkbox labeled “Admin reports” will add your custom status to any reports that are generated in WooCommerce.
The third checkbox labeled “Customer my account section” will add your custom status to the customer “My Account” area.
For most people, it makes sense to keep all three of these options checked.
Once you’ve made your selections, scroll down a little bit further and you’ll see an option labeled “Include in reports?” with two different checkboxes next to it.
These checkboxes determine whether or not data related to this custom status will be included in any of the default WooCommerce reports.
The first checkbox labeled “Sales reports” includes data related to this custom status in all of the sales reports that are generated by WooCommerce.
The second checkbox labeled “Orders report CSV /Excel export” includes data related to this custom status when orders are exported as a CSV or Excel file.
For most people, it again makes sense to keep both of these options checked.
Once you’ve made all of your selections, simply click on the “Add New Status button” at the bottom of the page and your new custom order status will be created.
The process for creating a new order status is simple and straightforward using the WooCommerce Custom Order Status plugin. Simply install and activate the plugin, then click on WooCommerce > Orders > Custom Statuses from your dashboard. From there, you can give your new status a name and slug, then decide where you want it to appear throughout the WooCommerrce interface.
