To create a Shopify draft order, open Orders, then Drafts, then create a draft order. Add the customer and line items, then save. For B2B purchase orders that arrive as PDF or email, use POinbox to fill the draft from the file, review flagged mismatches, and convert when you are ready. You do not need POinbox for every draft. Manual is fine for a short phone order.
Shopify Help already shows the clicks. What it does not cover is the document in your other hand: a customer purchase order you still have to turn into those lines.
When to use a draft order
Use a draft when the buyer did not check out: a phone order, an email, wholesale terms, or a purchase order you need to read before you invoice. The B2B case is draft orders when buyers email purchase orders.
Create a draft order manually in Shopify admin
Labels move when Shopify redesigns admin. The sequence below matches the long-standing Drafts flow. If a button name differs in your store, follow Orders → Drafts rather than hunting an old screenshot.
Open Drafts and start a new draft
In Shopify admin, go to Orders, then Drafts, then Create order (Shopify has also labeled this Create draft order). You are in a draft, not a live order.
Add the customer
Search the customer. If you use Shopify B2B, select the company and the company location. The location is the ship-to and the terms. Picking the parent company and the wrong location is a common miss. Companies and locations.
Add products, quantities, discounts, shipping, and taxes
Add each variant. Set quantity. Apply a discount only if that buyer’s terms say so. Add shipping if you charge it. Confirm tax the way you already do for that location. Do not invent a price from the PDF if your catalog is the contract. More on that below.
Add the PO number and notes
Put the buyer’s purchase order number on the draft. Notes are for your team, not a substitute for that number. Where the PO number lives.
Save, then convert or invoice later
Save the draft. It can sit until payment terms, stock, or a credit check are done. Convert or send an invoice with Shopify’s own actions. Convert a draft order to an order.
When the source is a customer purchase order file
The manual steps still happen. The difference is who types the lines. A multi-line PDF is a retype tax. See manual wholesale order entry.
POinbox is the file path. Upload or send the PDF or email. It matches the customer, company, and location, maps SKUs including customer-specific codes, uses catalog prices, and flags uncertain lines and price differences before the draft is created. The draft also carries what the file stated: payment terms, the requested ship date and delivery date, ship-to and bill-to when the address is on the PO, and a discount when the PO included one. Then you are back in the manual checklist for anything flagged. Guides: PDF to draft and emailed PO.
The app starts free (5 successful drafts). Paid plans from $29/mo. The product walkthrough is on the POinbox page.
Tips that save a wholesale draft
- Catalog price is the default. The PO price is an exception you approve. Price mismatches.
- Ship-to location before you add twenty lines. Fixing it later is how the wrong warehouse gets the pick.
- The original file stays beside the review, so a disputed line is checked against the PO you received.
What “saved” does and does not mean
A saved draft is not an order, a pick ticket, or an invoice. Whether it holds inventory depends on your Shopify settings. Do not tell the warehouse to pick it until you have converted it, or until your process reserves stock from drafts on purpose. Button names in admin change. The rule does not: a draft is the preparation, and the order starts when you convert it.
Customers can pay some drafts. Shopify can send an invoice or a checkout link from the draft. Those are Shopify actions. POinbox does not send the invoice and does not mark the draft paid. If your terms are net 30, the draft can sit until you are ready to invoice. If the buyer expects to pay by card today, use Shopify’s payment actions after the PO review, not before.
Staff training fails when the click-path is memorized and the source document is ignored. Teach the admin steps on a phone order. Teach the file path on a PDF. Same draft at the end. Different amount of typing. The file path is only worth it when the PO is long enough to mistype. When manual entry stops making sense.