Balance 
Hold fulfilment until paid
Nothing ships until it is paid, and nobody in the warehouse has to remember that.
At a glance
The hold in one panel.
- What it is
- Shopify's own fulfilment hold
- Reason shown
- Awaiting payment, with the outstanding amount
- Placed
- The moment the deposit order comes in
- Released
- The instant the balance clears, or by you
- Respected by
- Your team, 3PLs, shipping apps, Shopify Fulfillment Network
- Per plan
- On by default, can be turned off
Because it is Shopify's own hold, the same one you can set by hand on any order, anything that fulfils from Shopify sees the order as on hold and cannot fulfil it. There is no app-side flag for a warehouse to miss.
From order to dispatch
Where the hold sits in the life of a deposit order.
- 1
Deposit order comes in
Deposit taken
Balance Due puts a hold on the order's fulfilment order with the reason awaiting payment and a note showing the outstanding amount. The order is tagged deposit:active.
- 2
Weeks of making or waiting
Nothing charged
The order shows as on hold in Shopify, in your 3PL's view and in your shipping app. Edits, refunds and notes work as normal; only fulfilment is blocked.
- 3
Balance clears
Balance charged
Whether by automatic charge, payment link, a payment you took over the phone, or a waiver, the instant the outstanding amount reaches zero the hold is released and the order is tagged deposit:paid.
- 4
Next morning
Paid in full
The order appears in your digest as paid overnight and ready to fulfil. Book the courier, load the van, or let the 3PL pick it up as normal.
Why a native hold matters
The difference between a flag in an app and a hold in Shopify is who can ignore it.
Your own team
A helpful colleague booking a courier on a busy Friday cannot mark the order fulfilled, because Shopify will not let them. The hold does the remembering so nobody has to.
- Fulfil button is unavailable until the hold is released
- The reason and the outstanding amount are visible on the order
- Release it by hand for a rush job you have agreed to ship on trust
A 3PL or fulfilment app
Third-party warehouses and shipping apps read fulfilment orders from Shopify. An on-hold fulfilment order does not appear in their pick queue, so an unpaid order never gets packed by somebody who has never heard of your deposit policy.
- Works with any app that fulfils through Shopify
- Works with Shopify Fulfillment Network
- No integration to configure on the warehouse side
Digital goods and collection
For a file delivered by email or a piece collected in person, the hold is the backstop rather than the mechanism. The order cannot be closed off as fulfilled until it is paid, which keeps your records straight even where nothing physically ships.
- Send the file when the order shows paid in the digest
- Take payment at the counter in Shopify and the hold releases itself
- The order history shows exactly when it was paid and released
Releasing it early
You can release a hold from the order at any time, for example to ship a rush job on trust or to let a regular customer collect before the balance has cleared. Releasing the hold only affects shipping. The plan keeps collecting and reminding as before, and the order stays tagged until it is paid, cancelled or waived.
If you release holds often for the same kind of order, turn the hold off on that plan instead. A pre-order plan for stock that is not in yet might not need one; a made-to-order plan almost always does.
Releasing the hold does not mark the order paid. Only a payment recorded in Shopify, or a waiver, does that.
Edge cases
The things that come up once you have a few hundred orders through it.
Multi-location orders
If an order splits across locations, each fulfilment order gets its own hold and all of them are released together when the balance clears.
Partial fulfilment
The hold is on the whole order. If you need to ship part of it before the balance is paid, release the hold by hand and fulfil the part, then the rest when it is paid.
Order edits
Edits, refunds and notes work as normal while the hold is on. If an edit changes the outstanding amount, the note on the hold is updated.
Local pickup and delivery
The same hold applies. A pickup order cannot be marked as picked up until it is paid, unless you release it.
What the hold is not
It is not a payment capture setting and it does not touch your payment provider. It is not a tag that a shipping app has to be taught to read. It does not stop you editing, refunding or cancelling the order, and it does not stop the customer seeing their order status page.
It is one of Shopify's own fulfilment holds, placed and released by Balance Due according to whether the order is paid, and visible to anything that fulfils from Shopify.
A deposit without a hold is a promise. A deposit with a hold is a rule that Shopify enforces for you.
Related
Deposits for furniture makers
Where holds matter most.
Automatic balance collection
What releases the hold.
How it works
The whole order, start to finish.
Deposits
Percentage or fixed, on the products you choose, as a normal Shopify purchase option.
Reminders and receipts
Schedule, three-day reminders, receipts and overdue notices by email, with texts on Growth and Pro.
Customer payment page
One link, no login: the schedule, what is paid, what is left, and a pay now button.
Questions
Does the hold stop me editing the order?
No. Edits, refunds and notes work as normal. Only fulfilment is blocked.
What if I release the hold and the customer never pays?
The plan keeps collecting and reminding as before; releasing the hold only affects shipping. The order stays tagged until it is paid, cancelled or waived.
Does it work with third-party fulfilment apps?
Yes. Because it is a Shopify fulfilment hold rather than an app-side flag, any app that fulfils through Shopify respects it.
Can I turn the hold off?
Yes, per plan. It is on by default. A pre-order plan for stock that is not in yet is the usual reason to turn it off.
Does the customer see that the order is on hold?
The hold is a merchant-side state. The customer sees their order status page and their Balance Due payment page as normal, and the payment page shows the balance still to pay.
What releases the hold?
The outstanding amount on the order reaching zero, by any route: automatic charge, payment link, a payment recorded in Shopify, or a waiver. Or you, by hand, from the order.
Does the hold work on Shopify Fulfillment Network?
Yes. It is the same hold Shopify's own tools use, so the network sees the order as on hold until it is released.
Is the hold on every plan?
Yes, including Free.
See the whole flow
The how-it-works page follows one order from the product page to paid in full.