Getting Started

If you're new to Order Desk and not sure where to begin, or you're just looking for a refresher on the basics, this guide is here to help you out. Here you'll find a brief overview of the Order Desk app, along with some guidance on where to go next to begin the setup process. 

The information outlined here is primarily focused on setting up your online store with Order Desk. We have separate guides for suppliers and printers for those interested in learning how they can use the Order Desk app with their clients.

What Order Desk Does

Your Order Desk store can automatically edit, split, and move orders exactly how you need them processed, as well as tracking your inventory, sending tracking updates back to your shopping carts, sending out custom email notifications, and creating your own customized documents such as receipts, invoices and packing slips.

Another big part of Order Desk is the incredible selection of print on demand services that we offer integrations for, with a complete list available here, or you can refer to our Print on Demand Fulfillment guide for a thorough walkthrough on setting up a print on demand store.

Integrations

Order Desk is proud to connect to hundreds of integrations across the ecommerce industry. You can link your shopping carts, fulfillment services, printers, shipping apps and more so all of your orders can be managed from this one convenient place. Check out our ever-expanding list of integrations here.

Can’t find the integration you’re looking for? We’re always interested in learning what integrations our customers would like to see next. Drop us a line through our request form with some helpful details (links, API info, etc.) so our team can review it.

No Integration? No Problem!

While our impressive selection of integrations is one of the highlights of the Order Desk app, it’s not the end of the world if you’re unable to find an integration for the service you want to work with, as you can still automate much of the process by using import and/or export templates.

Import templates let you import orders from a spreadsheet. Have a shopping cart we aren't integrated with? If you can download a spreadsheet of your orders there, you can import them into Order Desk.

Export templates let you export orders to a third party either through email or FTP. You can set these up to run automatically, so once the setup is done, the exported file will be pushed if orders are there to be sent, much like how an integration works.

If you export your orders this way to a printer, they can send a file back with the shipment details to be added to your orders.

Rules

Our Rule Builder is a customizable tool that lets you tell Order Desk exactly what to do with your orders, based on the filters you need to use.

If you want to split orders, move orders, submit orders, email customers or vendors, create a PDF, change the shipping method, add a timestamp, or do any other number of actions, you can make rules that will do this automatically for you.

For more information on the Rule Builder, read through the Order Desk Rule Builder guide.

Inventory

Inventory can be one of the most important aspects of managing your online store, whether you’re coordinating your print details or looking to keep your item info synced across platforms, so adding your inventory to Order Desk should be a priority during your initial setup.

Every product you add to Order Desk needs these required details to be sent to your printer:

Some printers or products will have additional fields that may also be needed, such as the print_location, print_mode, or print_design_id, to name a few. Check with your printer to find out what fields are required on their products, or refer to our integration guides to see what print details are supported for the integration you’re working with.

Once your inventory is stored in Order Desk, the SKUs that are in your orders will match up to the SKUs you added to Order Desk and your print details (the print_sku, print_url, and so on) will be synced into the order. After the print details are synced into an order, they will be sent to your printer for fulfillment. This entire process is automatic and nearly instantaneous, so if you set up your store right, you won't have to do anything to the orders but monitor them to make sure everything is running smoothly.

For instructions on how to add your inventory and print details to Order Desk, please see the Add Inventory section of the Print on Demand Fulfillment guide.

Further Reading and Videos

To help point you in the right direction, we’ve gathered a list of some of our most essential guides that may help you navigate your way through the Order Desk app.

General

• Store Settings: An outline of all your store’s details and appearance, from setting your currency and contact info, to customizing the folders that you sort your orders into.
• How to Work with Rules: How to use the Order Desk Rule Builder.
• How to Split Orders: Instructions on the different methods for splitting orders once they are in Order Desk.
• How to Split & Dropship Orders for Separate Vendors: Overview on how to split orders and send to separate vendors.
• How to Work with Email Templates: How to work with emails using Order Desk.
• Customizable Receipts/Order Documents: Create your own customized order documents such as receipts, packing slips and invoices.
• How to Create PDF Files for Receipts and Invoices: Instructions for creating a PDF from a receipt template.
• Managing Your Account: This is to manage your personal information, including login details and configuring your two-factor authentication settings.
• Common Errors from Integrations: An outline of the most common errors from integrations.

Print on Demand

• Print on Demand Providers: List of all printers integrated with Order Desk.
• Print on Demand Fulfillment: Step-by-step instructions for setting up your Order Desk store to work with printers and on-demand products.
• Print on Demand Order Syncing: Describes why order syncing is important and how to check for and fix errors.
• How to Set Up Shipping Class Matches: How to tell your printer your shipping preferences.
• How to Get Public Dropbox Links: How to get the Dropbox links you need for your artwork files.
• Dropbox Integration: How to use the Dropbox integration in Order Desk.
• Print on Demand Bundles: How to bundle print on demand items.

Video Walkthroughs

• Print on Demand: An entire series of videos focused on how you can set up and fulfill your print on demand orders.
• Integrations: An introduction to our integrations, and how you can manage them.
• Folders: Outlining how to create and use folders for your orders.
• Inventory, Templates, and Users: Covers the process of setting up your inventory, generating automated emails for your customers and vendors, and granting additional users access to your Order Desk store.
• How to Import Files: Outlines the various ways you can import your data into Order Desk, and what you can do with the data that is received.
• How to Export Files: Shows you how you can send data to third parties via export templates.
• How to Use Rules: A visual walkthrough of the Order Desk Rule Builder.
• Billing: How our billing plans work, and how you can manage multiple stores with one account.

Don't forget to search the help site for guides about your specific integration(s). If available, more information will be provided in the integration guide.

What Next?

To review the steps you can take to set up your own store in Order Desk, you can continue on to our Quick Start guide.

Otherwise we have an entire library of guides at your disposal covering just about every topic related to our app, including help articles for every single integration we offer. Our support team is also available Monday through Friday from 8am to 8pm EST for all your other Order Desk related needs.