How do order automations work, and when does each trigger fire?

An order automation has one trigger, optional conditions, and a list of actions. When the trigger fires and the order matches the conditions, Endless runs the actions in order, in the background.

• Order Created: a sales order is created as Draft, Pending, or Ordered.
• Order Approved: a Draft is committed or a Pending order is approved, including automatic approval.
• Fulfillment Created: a fulfillment order is created, including one imported from a sales channel, unless the order is canceled.
• Fulfillment Ready: a fulfillment order is marked Ready.
• Shipment Created: a shipment is created. It can create an invoice or sales receipt for the shipment’s uninvoiced quantities.

An automation’s actions can start other automations when they approve a Pending order, create fulfillment orders, or mark one Ready. For order edits, your developer or an AI coding tool can poll the Endless API for updated or shipped orders with a Read Only Data Integration. API access must be in your plan.

A new or newly enabled automation runs on triggers after it is enabled. Handle existing orders with bulk actions or on each order.

To run steps in a set order, put them in one automation, where actions run in the order listed. Automations that match the same trigger run one after another, in no set order.

The Wait action pauses the remaining actions for 1 minute to 24 hours, on any trigger except Fulfillment Ready. You can also limit when they resume to chosen days and hours in a timezone. Waiting runs keep the actions saved when they started, so editing the automation does not change them. Action conditions are checked when each action runs.

When you disable an automation or move it to draft, it stops starting new runs. Waiting runs show Skipped with “remaining actions were not run.” Actions that already ran stay in place.

To test an automation, limit it with a condition that only a test order matches, such as an Order Tags condition, create that order, and check the automation’s Runs.

Contact Endless support to discuss other triggers.