The process begins when a customer places an order. For this example, we'll assume that the stock level for the product in question is 10 and that the order quantity is 3. The order status at this point is \"Pending Payment\" and the stock level is unaffected by the act of simply placing an order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
WooCommerce then requires the user to choose a payment method. If the selected method involves delayed payment (cash-on-delivery (COD), check, direct bank transfer, etc.), WooCommerce then takes one of two paths. If the payment method is COD, WooCommerce changes the order status to \"Processing\" (as in, processing the order, not the payment). It also reduces the stock quantity at this point by subtracting the order quantity, i.e. 10 - 3 = 7. This makes sense because the order will ship before payment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the selected payment is not COD but is instead one of the other delayed payment methods (i.e. check, direct bank transfer, etc.), then WooCommerce changes the order status to \"On-Hold\" and again reduces the stock quantity to 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You may ask why WooCommerce reduces the stock quantity for any form of delayed payment other than COD since the typical operating procedure is to wait until payment is received before actually shipping the product. However, if delayed payments occur regularly, then not allocating stock to such orders will leave your inventory frequently overstated, which could lead to overselling. So this is basically the best of two undesirable options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jumping back a step, what does WooCommerce do if the selected payment method does not involve a delayed payment, i.e. if it instead attempts to process an online payment? If the payment is processed, the stock quantity is reduced and the order status is changed to \"Processing\", the same as the COD path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the online payment fails, there may be retry attempts depending on how the payment gateway is configured. But if these retries fail, the order status is changed to \"Failed\" and the stock quantity is not reduced. At this point, it is up to an administrator to intervene to try to salvage the order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In any event, all orders that reduce the stock quantity will eventually have an order status of \"Processing\" or \"On Hold\", however temporary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If orders with these statuses are subsequently canceled before shipment, the order status should be changed to \"Canceled\", which will add the order quantity back into inventory. From an inventory standpoint, it is as if the order never happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the order is shipped, the status should be changed to \"Completed\". After this, something may still go wrong, causing the customer to request a refund. In this case, the order status should be changed to \"Refunded\" but this action has no effect on stock quantity. If the refund also involves returning the stock in question, that stock has to be manually returned to inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Note, also, that the base version of WooCommerce does not automatically change orders statuses to Cancelled, Completed, or Refunded. These all require manual actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Potential Order Status Problems in the Sales & Shipment Processes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n Now let's talk briefly about possible problems in the system that we just described. The first is the potential failure to cancel an order that should be canceled for any reason. This would leave the order in question with an order status of either \"Processing\" or \"On Hold\". As a result, the order quantity is not returned to inventory inside WooCommerce, which would then understate available inventory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An opposite effect occurs if you fail to change an order status to \"Completed\" once the order is shipped. This may leave you vulnerable to physically double-shipping an order, which will cause your inventory quantity to be overstated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The refund process is even more problematic because changing the order status to \"Refunded\" has no impact on inventory levels. If the order quantity is physically returned, you will need to make a manual adjustment to the inventory quantity. Otherwise, your WooCommerce available inventory will again be understated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These potential \"gotchas\" may be acceptable if you are a single-person operation with relatively few products and sales. After all, if you need only glance into your spare bedroom to count your inventory, you can likely do all this by hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the bigger you grow, the more difficult this becomes, and you'll eventually want more of a \"closed-loop\" system. For example, you may want a system that automatically changes the order status to \"Completed\" only when you scan the outgoing shipping labels at the time of the shipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We're going to describe some of your options to implement more sophisticated inventory management features in WooCommerce later in this article but, first, let's examine some of the supply-related processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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