Order Deadlines (Ship-By Date)

What are order deadlines?

Order deadlines are the latest date by which an order should ship. In Orderline they appear as the Ship By column on your orders list, with a color-coded urgency badge so your team can see what needs attention first.

Once a ship-by date is on an order—however it got there—sorting, filtering, and urgency work the same way.

You choose how dates are set in Settings → Order Timelines:

Mode	Who sets the date
Automatic	Orderline calculates the date from when the order was placed, your operational days, and the SLA for that order’s shipping method (or your default SLA if that method has no rule)
Manual (Merchant-managed)	You set the date in Orderline (single or bulk), and/or Shopify Flow writes a metafield

How Automatic picks a deadline

In Automatic mode, calculation is per order, driven by the shipping method Shopify assigned to that order:

1. Orderline looks at the order’s shipping method.
2. If you configured a deadline for that method, it uses that method’s days, cutoff, and urgency rules.
3. If you did not, it uses the default deadline (the fallback for every unmatched method).

So a shop-wide “3 business days” is only the default. Express can be 1 day, standard 3 days, economy 5 days—each order gets the rule that matches its method.

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Enable order timelines

Both modes require Order timelines to be on.

1. Open the Orderline app from your Shopify admin sidebar.
2. Go to Settings.
3. Open Order Timelines (under Shipping / timelines).
4. Toggle Order timelines to On.

When you enable it:

• The Ship By column appears on the orders table.
• In Automatic mode, Orderline calculates dates for new orders and backfills open ones in the background.
• In Manual mode, dates appear only when you (or Flow) set them—nothing is auto-calculated.

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Choose Automatic or Manual

With timelines enabled, find How ship-by dates are set and pick a mode:

• Automatic (order date + SLA / shipping method) — Orderline calculates from order date and the SLA for that order’s shipping method (or the default)
• Merchant-managed (manual, bulk, or Flow metafield) — you own the date

You can switch modes later. Settings for the other mode are kept; only the active mode controls how new dates are written.

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Automatic

Use Automatic when ship-by should follow your shipping promises—a shop-wide default SLA, plus optional different deadlines per shipping method—so an express order and a standard order get different dates without anyone editing them by hand.

Orderline always starts from the order’s created time and your operational days, then applies whichever SLA matches that order’s method (see How Automatic picks a deadline).

When Automatic is a good fit

• You sell multiple rates (express, standard, economy) with different ship windows
• Cutoff times (orders after 5pm roll to the next work day)
• A single fallback SLA for methods you have not configured yet
• Urgency badges driven by days remaining until the calculated date

Operational days

Tell Orderline which days you process orders. The calculator skips non-working days when counting SLA days.

1. In Settings → Order Timelines, find Operational days.
2. Choose a preset or custom days:

Preset	Days selected
Monday – Friday	Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri
Monday – Saturday	Mon–Sat
Every day	Mon–Sun
Custom	You pick

Why this matters: If a method’s SLA is 2 days and an order arrives Friday evening, the ship-by date skips Saturday/Sunday when those days are not operational.

Default deadline

The default deadline is the fallback for every order whose shipping method does not have its own rule. It is required in Automatic mode—even if you also configure method-specific deadlines.

1. Find the Default deadline card.
2. Click Edit.
3. Set:

Field	Meaning	Example
Order deadline (days)	Business days to ship when no method rule matches	3
Cutoff time	Orders at/after this time start on the next business day	17:00
Urgency tiers	When Critical / Warning badges appear	See Urgency tiers

4. Click Save.

Deadlines per shipping method

These override the default only for orders that use that shipping method. The method comes from the order in Shopify (the rate the customer chose at checkout)—Orderline matches your configured method to the order, then applies that method’s days, cutoff, and urgency.

Add a method deadline

1. Under Deadline by shipping methods, click Add order deadlines.
2. Select a Shipping method (from your Shopify store’s methods).
3. Set deadline days, cutoff, urgency tiers, and optionally Always critical.
4. Click Save.

Example: Default = 3 days. You add Express = 1 day. An order placed with Express gets a 1-day ship-by; an order with Economy (not configured) gets the 3-day default.

Edit or delete

• Edit updates that method’s rules.
• Delete removes the override; future orders for that method fall back to the default deadline.

If a method has no configuration, orders using it use the default. A warning banner lists active methods that still need a deadline when you have open orders on them.

Urgency tiers (Automatic)

Urgency badges use days remaining until the calculated ship-by date:

Tier	Typical color	Meaning
Critical	Red	Very close to (or past) the deadline
Warning	Orange	Approaching the deadline
Safe	Green	Plenty of time

Matching order:

1. Critical if days remaining ≤ Critical threshold
2. Else Warning if days remaining ≤ Warning threshold
3. Else Safe

When editing a deadline, you can change Critical and Warning thresholds (Critical ≥ 1, values must differ, within SLA range). Enable Always critical for methods where every order should show red (for example, same-day).

How Automatic calculation works

For each order, Orderline roughly:

1. Reads the order’s shipping method and resolves the SLA (method rule if configured, otherwise default).
2. Starts from the order created time (store timezone) and applies that rule’s cutoff.
3. Counts operational days for that rule’s deadline days.
4. Writes the result to Ship By.

New and updated orders stay in sync as webhooks and sync run. Switching to Manual later stops recalculation so dates you set yourself are not overwritten.

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Manual (Merchant-managed)

Use Manual when you decide the ship-by date yourself—preorders, batch arrivals, vendor ETAs, or any rule Orderline should not invent from SLA days.

In the app this mode is labeled Merchant-managed (manual, bulk, or Flow metafield).

When Manual is a good fit

• Preorder / made-to-order waves with a shared ship date
• Dates that come from another app or Shopify Flow
• Replacing ship-by notes that were not sortable or filterable
• Mixed catalogs where SLA math does not match how you actually ship

Turn on Manual mode

1. Enable Order timelines (see above).
2. Under How ship-by dates are set, choose Merchant-managed.
3. Confirm the info banner: SLA / shipping-method deadline cards are not used while this mode is active. Operational days still appear in settings but do not drive auto-calculation.

Set ship-by on a single order

1. Open the Orders screen.
2. In the Ship By column, click the date badge—or Set date if empty.
3. Pick a date in the editor (or clear it).
4. Save.

Single and bulk editing are available only in Merchant-managed mode.

Bulk set ship-by

1. Select one or more orders on the Orders screen.
2. In the bulk bar, click Set ship-by date.
3. Choose one date for all selected orders (or clear).
4. Save.

Shopify Flow metafield

Power users can write ship-by from Shopify Flow (or any automation that updates order metafields). Orderline reads a fixed metafield and copies it into the same Ship By field used by manual/bulk edits.

Owner	Order
Namespace	orderline
Key	ship_by
Type	Date
Value	YYYY-MM-DD (example: 2026-09-28)
Flow action	Update order metafield (Add or update a metafield to an order)
Metafield in Flow	Orderline ship by date (orderline.ship_by)

Example Flow

1. Trigger: Order created.
2. Action: Update order metafield → select Orderline ship by date.
3. Value: a date string, or Liquid such as order date plus 15 days:

{{ "now" | date_plus: "15 days" | date: "%Y-%m-%d" }}

If the order is created on 1 July 2026, that expression sets ship-by to 16 July 2026. When Orderline ingests the order (or metafield update), the date appears on Ship By and works with sort, filter, and urgency.

You can also use a fixed batch date, or add a Condition (for example tag contains preorder) before the action. You do not need a custom Orderline API key for Flow. Keep marketing tags as conditions; use the metafield as the date source of truth. Mode must be Merchant-managed for Flow writes to drive Ship By.

Manual mode and your old SLA settings

Default and per-method deadline cards are hidden while Merchant-managed is on. They remain saved if you switch back to Automatic later.

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Ship By on the orders list

Whether dates come from Automatic or Manual, the Ship By column looks the same.

When Order timelines are off, the Ship By column is hidden and Sort no longer offers Ship by:

Badge labels

Days remaining	Badge text	Tone
Less than 0	Overdue	Critical
0	Due today	Critical
1	Due tomorrow	Critical or Warning (by tiers)
2+	Date (dd-MMM-yyyy)	From tier match

Completed or cancelled orders do not show urgency badges.

In Manual mode, empty cells show Set date until you or Flow provide a value.

Sort by ship-by

Click the Ship by column header:

1. Ascending (overdue → safest)
2. Descending (safest → overdue)
3. Back to default sort

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Disable order timelines

1. Go to Settings → Order Timelines.
2. Toggle Order timelines to Off.

• The Ship By column is hidden.
• Automatic calculation and Manual editing stop for the board.
• Your mode, SLA, and operational-day settings are preserved for when you turn timelines back on.

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Troubleshooting

Some orders have no ship-by date

Cause	Fix
Timelines off	Enable Order timelines
Automatic: no default / method config	Set a Default deadline, or configure that shipping method
Automatic: still backfilling	Wait a few minutes after first enable
Manual: nobody set a date	Edit the cell, use bulk, or write orderline.ship_by via Flow
Order completed / cancelled	Urgency badges are for open work

“Deadline not set for the following methods” (Automatic only)

Configure those methods under Deadline by shipping methods, or rely on a complete Default deadline.

Manual edits keep disappearing

You are likely still on Automatic. Switch to Merchant-managed, or your next sync will recalculate and overwrite manual values.

Flow metafield not showing in Orderline

• Confirm namespace orderline, key ship_by, type Date, value YYYY-MM-DD.
• Mode must be Merchant-managed (Automatic ignores the metafield for writing ship-by).
• Allow a moment for Orderline to ingest the order / metafield update.

Urgency colors look wrong

Check Critical vs Warning thresholds (Critical must be stricter). Tiers are evaluated in order—first match wins.

Cutoff time (Automatic)

Use 24-hour HH:mm (for example 14:00). Cutoff uses your store timezone. Orders at the cutoff roll to the next business day.

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Quick reference

Shared

• Enable Order timelines
• Choose Automatic or Merchant-managed
• Confirm Ship By on the Orders list
• Sort by the Ship by column when prioritizing

Automatic

• Set Operational days
• Set Default deadline (days + cutoff + tiers)
• Add per-method deadlines where needed
• Review urgency badges on a few live orders

Manual

• Select Merchant-managed
• Practice single-order Set date / edit
• Practice bulk Set ship-by date
• (Optional) Wire Flow to orderline.ship_by

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Need more help? Contact Orderline support or use the inline guidance on Settings → Order Timelines.