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Cancelling an order

Cancel an order you can no longer fulfil. Crate records a reason, optionally restocks the items and messages the customer, and moves the order to your Cancelled tab — all in a few clicks.

🖥 Web ▶ Video walkthrough

Cancel an order when it's clear it won't be fulfilled — the customer pulled out, the item sold out, or the order looks fraudulent. Cancelling keeps the order on record (so nothing disappears from your history) while taking it out of your active pipeline.

What cancelling does

  • The order moves to your Cancelled tab and stops counting toward live sales.
  • A cancellation event, with your chosen reason, is written to the order's timeline.
  • Cancelled orders can't be reopened — if the customer comes back, record a fresh order.

Restock and notify in one step

The cancel screen lets you tidy up everything at once:

  • Restock the items returns the reserved units to your available stock.
  • Refund the customer is there if money already changed hands (Crate never moves money silently — see Cancelling a paid order).
  • WhatsApp the customer sends them a quick heads-up so they're not left wondering.
Tip: Need to remove the order entirely rather than just cancel it? If it's unpaid, you can delete it instead — see Deleting an order.
A short walkthrough of this flow, recorded from Crate's live admin.
  1. 1
    Open the order

    From Orders, open the order you want to cancel.

    Cancelling an order: step 1 (web)
    Web
  2. 2
    Click Cancel order

    In the Order actions card, click Cancel order.

    Cancelling an order: step 2 (web)
    Web
  3. 3
    Choose a reason

    Pick the reason that fits — customer request, out of stock, suspected fraud, and so on. The reason is saved to the order's timeline so your team can see why it was cancelled.

    Cancelling an order: step 3 (web)
    Web
  4. 4
    Decide what happens next

    Choose whether to restock the items, refund the customer, and send them a WhatsApp message about the cancellation.

    Cancelling an order: step 4 (web)
    Web
  5. 5
    Confirm the cancellation

    Click Cancel order. Crate confirms and moves the order to your Cancelled tab.

    Cancelling an order: step 5 (web)
    Web