How to Use Rules Video
The Order Desk Rule builder is the mechanism which makes automating your workflow possible. Watch this video to learn more about how the Rule Builder works and how you can start creating your own rules that teach Order Desk how you want it to work.
FAQ
What is a rule?
Rules are how you tell Order Desk how to automate workflows based on the specific needs of your store.
Think of rules as an If/Then statement. You tell Order Desk if something specific happens, then you want Order Desk to take action on certain orders or items within orders.
How can I tell when a rule runs?
When in doubt, look at your Order History to see what has happened to the order. When a rule runs, it will show up in the history as Auto.
Order History can be found near the bottom of every order details page:
Why didn't my rule run?
If a rule didn't run on an order or item where it was expected to run, make sure the filters in the rule match the order or item. In most cases, the issue is a small, easy to miss difference, such as case sensitive error.
If you are certain the rule filters should have applied but didn't, contact Order Desk support for help.
Why doesn't my rule work on older orders?
In most cases, this is because the rule is made for the Order is Imported event, which has already happened for older orders. If the rule is created after the order imports, the rule won't run on the order.
If this is the case, you can run the Order is Imported event on your orders to force the rule to work on them. For instructions on how to do this, see the How to Work with Rules guide.
Why does my rule creating a PDF sometimes mess up the rest of the actions after the PDF is created?
Actions don't always complete as expected when in the same rule as the PDF creation action. This is because some PDFs take longer to create than others. If the PDF is delayed even a fraction of a second when being created (to account for a large order or large thumbnails, for instance), any actions that take place in the same rule may run with an incomplete or nonexistent PDF.
However, if those actions are set up to run on the event for when PDF is Created, the PDF will be fully created before this next rule runs and all actions should complete without issue.