An order is what a client buys in one go: products with their options and add-ons, domains to register or transfer, or both. Clients place orders in the store; staff place them under Orders > Add New Order. Placing an order creates the order itself, its services, add-ons and domains (all pending), and one invoice for what is due now, all in one step. Staff then accept, cancel or mark orders as fraud from the order page. This chapter covers the store pages, the cart and checkout, what exactly is created when an order is placed, the order list and order page, adding orders by hand, order statuses, the order emails and the ordering settings. Prices and products are set up as described in Catalogue; the invoice side is in Billing.
The store
The store is public: visitors browse and fill a cart without signing in, and sign up at checkout. Signed-in clients see prices in their own currency.
Store pages
| Page | Address | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Store front | /store | One card per visible product group (name, headline, how many products), and a domain search box. Hidden groups and groups with nothing sellable in the visitor's currency are left out. |
| Group page | /store/{group} | The group's headline and tagline, a plan card per product and the group's features as "Every plan includes". |
| Order page | /store/{group}/{product} | The product's configure page (below). |
| Domain search | /domains/search | Search for a domain to register. |
| Domain transfer | /domains/transfer | Search for a domain to transfer in. |
| Cart | /cart | The cart with totals and the promotion code box. |
| Checkout | /cart/checkout | Details, payment method, terms, place order. |
| Order complete | /cart/complete/{number} | The thank-you page. |
A plan card shows the product's name, its price, the lines of its description as features, and Order now. The price is for the shortest term offered, with "From" in front when there are several terms. With "Show prices as a monthly amount" (Settings > General Settings, Ordering) on, a longer term that works out cheaper per month is shown as that monthly amount, "per month, billed annually" for example. A featured product is marked "Most popular". A product with stock control shows how many are available, or "Out of stock" when none are left. Hidden and retired products are not listed; a hidden product can still be ordered through its direct link, a retired one cannot.
The configure page
The order page of a product asks for everything the order needs, in this order:
- Tagline and short description, when set.
- Domain, when the product asks for one. The choices offered depend on the settings under General Settings, Domains: "Register a new domain" (Allow domain registration), "Transfer your domain from another registrar" (Allow domain transfers), "Use a domain you already own" (Allow clients to use their own domain) and, when the product lists free subdomains, "Use a free subdomain". Register and transfer ask for the period in years (a period the extension does not allow is changed to its nearest allowed one); transfer asks for the EPP code. A domain to register or transfer must have an extension you sell; otherwise the client is told to choose another extension or use a domain they own. International names are accepted when "Allow international domain names" is on.
- Server, for products of type "VPS or server": host name and two nameserver prefixes.
- Billing term: one radio per term priced in the visitor's currency, with the price and any setup fee. The address can preselect one with
?term=annually;?domain=example.comprefills the domain. - Options: the product's configurable options as dropdowns, radios, tick boxes (yes/no) or number fields (quantity), each choice with its price per term.
- Add-ons the product offers, with their price.
- More information: the product's custom fields that are asked at checkout.
- Quantity, when the product allows quantities. "Several, each a separate service" takes up to 10 and puts one item per service in the cart, the domain going with the first; "One service with a quantity" takes up to 999.
Add to cart prices the item first, so a problem (no price for that term, a quantity over the option's limit, a domain extension not sold) shows on this page.
Domain search
The search box takes a name; a name without a dot is searched as .com. The result tells the client one of: the domain is already registered with you ("Refuse domains already in the system" on), it is taken according to the registrar or WHOIS lookup ("Check availability in domain search" on; a transfer link is offered), the extension has no price in their currency, or it is available (when the lookup could not tell, the page says availability is confirmed when the order is processed). An available domain offers the period with its price per year, the extras the extension supports (DNS management, email forwarding, ID protection, each with its yearly price), and Add to cart. Transfers also ask for the EPP code. Extensions marked "documents needed" show a note that the registry asks for papers.
Under the box, extensions put in the spotlight on Domain Pricing are shown with their lowest price (and the typed name with that extension), and the "TLDs offered in search results" setting lists popular extensions.
The cart
The cart lists each product with its options, add-ons and domain under it, and each domain on its own: the term, quantity, what is due now (with the setup fee shown separately), the renewal amount and term, the account discount for clients in a client group with a discount, and any promotion discount. Each item has Remove; "Empty the cart" clears it. The cart is kept in the database and tied to a cookie in that browser for 30 days.
The order summary shows the subtotal, tax lines (from the tax rules for the client's country, or for a visitor the country their prices are for, with a note that tax may change at checkout) and "Total due today", plus the total of all renewals. Checkout is disabled while an item has a problem.
Promotion code: type a code and press Apply. A code that cannot be used is refused with the reason (see Promotions in Catalogue). An applied code can be removed.
"You may also like" shows up to six products recommended for the ones in the cart when "Show product recommendations" is on.
The "Prices for" switch
When Currency by country is set up (Settings > Currencies) and the visitor is not signed in, every store page carries a line "Prices for: Home country (local currency) · Other countries (world currency)". The visitor can switch; the choice is kept in a cookie for 180 days and the cart is repriced in that currency. Without a choice the country comes from the visitor's connection (Cloudflare's header, or the lookup service chosen under General Settings, Localisation, "Find a visitor's country from their address"), else from the default country. Signed-in clients never see the switch: they pay in their account's currency, which follows the country on their account until their first invoice (see Catalogue).
Checkout
A visitor who is signed in to a user that has several client accounts is first sent to choose the account. Then:
- Signed-in clients see their billing details (with a Change link) and their order. The account must give them the "Place orders" permission; otherwise they are told to ask the account owner.
- New clients fill in their details (the same fields and checks as registration), the client custom fields asked at checkout, a password twice, and the marketing consent box when that is on. An address already registered is refused ("Please sign in first"), as are banned email providers and banned IP addresses. The captcha, when turned on for checkout, applies to new clients only.
- Notes: a free text box when "Notes field at checkout" is on.
- Payment method: the gateways offered for the products in the cart; the client's default method is preselected.
- Terms of service: a tick box when "Clients must accept the terms of service" is on, linking to the "Terms of service address".
- Place order.
Prices are worked out again at checkout with the client's own country and currency; nothing the browser sends is trusted as a price. For a new client whose country means a different currency than the cart was shown in, the order is not placed: the page switches to their currency, shows the new prices and asks them to place the order again.
After the order is placed, the "After checkout" setting decides what the client sees: the order confirmation page; the invoice (the default), with a thank-you message; or straight to payment, which sends them to the chosen online gateway when it is one and otherwise opens the invoice. A free order always ends on the confirmation page.
Order complete
The thank-you page shows the order number, says a confirmation was emailed, and either the amount due with "View and pay the invoice" or "Nothing is due" when the order was free or already paid.
What happens when an order is placed
Placing an order is one database transaction: it is complete or it is not there at all. In order:
- Checks: every product still sold and priced; stock for products with stock control (an order that would take more than is left is refused); no domain twice in the cart; no domain already registered with you when "Refuse domains already in the system" is on; the cart's currency is the client's.
- The order gets a random ten-digit number, status Pending, the client's currency, the chosen payment method, the promotion code used, the client's notes, the IP address and where it came from (the client, staff or the API).
- For each product: a service with status pending, the domain or host name, the quantity, the billing cycle, the first and recurring amounts, today as its registration date and next due date (or the pro rata due day when the product bills on a fixed day), and the start of the following period as its next invoice date. Its configurable options and custom field answers are stored with it. Stock goes down by the quantity.
- For each add-on: a pending add-on under its service with its own cycle, setup fee, first and recurring amounts and dates.
- For each domain: a pending domain with the registration or transfer, the years, the registrar of its extension, the client's country as registrant country, the extras chosen, auto-renew as set by "New domains renew automatically", the default nameservers (Nameserver 1 to 5 under General Settings, Domains) and the EPP code stored encrypted.
- The promotion's use count goes up by one; an affiliate referral is recorded when the client came through an affiliate link.
- One invoice for what is due now, unless staff unticked it or nothing costs anything: a line per service ("Group - Product (domain) (period)" with its option labels), a Setup fee line where there is one, a line per add-on, a line per domain ("Domain registration - example.com - 1 year", marked "free with hosting" when it is), and a negative Promotion line per discounted item. Each line that pays for a period carries that period's start date. The invoice is due today plus "Days to pay a new order" (General Settings, Ordering). With "Use credit on new invoices automatically" on, the client's credit is applied at once; an invoice with nothing left to pay is paid straight away. A non-empty invoice whose total is zero is marked paid at once.
- The emails go out (below), and products set to "As soon as the order is placed" are set up immediately.
Setting up later: products set to "When the first payment arrives" are set up when the invoice is paid, and paying also sends domain registrations and transfers to the registrar. Products set to "When staff accept the order" and "Do not set up automatically" wait for the order page. The service side of setting up (servers, usernames, passwords, welcome emails) is in the services chapter.
Orders > List All Orders
The Orders menu has List All Orders and the same list filtered to Pending, Active, Fraud and Cancelled, plus Add New Order. Permission orders.list.
Filters: order number or client (name, company or email); Status (any status from Order Statuses); Payment (Paid, Unpaid); Payment method; IP address (a prefix matches); From and To dates. A link from a client's page adds a client filter. Columns: order number, date, client, total, payment (the invoice's status), status with its colour.
Bulk actions (permission orders.manage; Delete needs orders.delete): tick orders and press Accept, Set to pending, Cancel, Mark as fraud or Delete. Accept skips orders that are already Active, Cancelled or Fraud and accepts the rest with "Create the accounts on the server" on and no welcome emails. Delete skips orders that cannot be deleted. The message afterwards counts what was done and skipped.
The order page
Orders > an order (permission orders.view) shows three cards and the items.
- Order: date; client (name, company, email) with a link; other orders of the client, or "None, a new client"; who placed it (the client, staff, the API); the IP address with Ban (permission
settings.banned_ips_add; bans the address from the whole site, with the order number as the reason) or a Banned badge, and a link to other clients who ordered from the same address. - Payment: amount; the invoice with its status (or "No invoice"); payment method ("Chosen on the invoice" when none was picked); promotion code.
- Status: a dropdown with "Set status only", which changes the order's label without touching its items or invoice; and Resend confirmation, which sends the order confirmation (and the invoice email, when the invoice is still open) and the staff notice again.
Items: each service, add-on and domain with its domain, term, first payment, renewal amount and status. Below, the invoice's lines, the client's notes and a Staff notes box (saved with Save notes).
Actions
All need orders.manage unless stated.
| Button | When shown | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Accept order | The order is not Active, Cancelled or Fraud | The order becomes Active. Services and add-ons become active; domains become pending registration or pending transfer. Two boxes may appear: "Create the accounts on the server", when a pending service has a server module, and "Send welcome emails", when a pending service has a welcome email template. |
| Create the accounts on the server | Ticked by default | Every pending service of the order is set up now, whatever its automatic setup choice: services with a server module are created on their server (with the welcome email when that box is ticked too), services with the Licensing Manager get their key, services with no module are marked active and a to-do item is added. The order's domains are sent to the registrar when the invoice is paid or the order was free; otherwise paying sends them. Unticked, services of products with a server module still become active in CoreInto, but nothing is created on the server. |
| Send welcome emails | Ticked by default | Sends the welcome email of each pending service whose product has no module. Products with a module send theirs when the account is created. The message afterwards counts the emails sent. |
| Back to pending | The order is Cancelled or Fraud | The order and its cancelled or fraud items go back to pending, and its cancelled invoice becomes unpaid again. |
| Cancel order | Not Cancelled | The order becomes Cancelled; its pending items are cancelled (items already active are left alone) and its unpaid invoice is cancelled. |
| Cancel and refund | Something was paid and the order is not Cancelled; needs invoices.refund too | Refunds every payment on the order's invoice, either "to account credit" or "through the payment method" (recorded as a refund; send the money back yourself if it was not sent automatically), returns any credit used on the invoice, marks a paid invoice refunded, cancels every item of the order including active ones, and cancels the order. The message states the amount refunded. |
| Mark as fraud | Not Fraud | The order becomes Fraud; every item, active ones included, is marked fraud and the unpaid invoice is cancelled. |
| Delete | Permission orders.delete | Deletes the order and everything it created, including its invoice. Refused (the button is disabled and says why) when its invoice has payments, when its invoice is paid with a total above zero, or when any item is in use (not pending, cancelled, fraud, pending registration or pending transfer). Cancel the order instead. |
Orders > Add New Order
Staff place orders for a client (permission orders.add). The form works in two steps: enter the client number and pick a product, press "Show the choices", then fill in the rest and press Place order.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Client number | Find it with the search at the top of the page. The order is priced in the client's currency; a closed account is refused. |
| Product | A product, or "None (domain only)". Retired products are not offered. |
| Billing term | The terms priced in the client's currency; "This product has no price in the client's currency" otherwise. Free products show Free. |
| Quantity | For products sold as one service with a quantity. |
| Options | The product's configurable options. |
| First payment (optional), Recurring amount (optional) | Prices set by hand replace the catalogue price. A first payment you write includes any setup fee and clears any promotion discount on that line; a recurring amount applies to recurring terms only. Empty uses the catalogue price with the options. |
| Add-ons | The add-ons the product can have, including ones not offered when ordering. |
| More products | Up to three further products, each with its term, a domain and optional first and recurring prices. Save and come back for more. |
| Domain | A domain name with "Domain order": None (the client owns it), Register or Transfer; the years and the EPP code. With a product, the domain is attached to the first product; without a product the order is a domain only. |
| Promotion code (optional) | Applied with the same rules as in the store; an unusable code stops the order with the reason. |
| Payment method | The enabled gateways and the manual methods, or "Not chosen". |
| Order status | Pending, or "Active (accept straight away)" (needs orders.manage), with "When accepted, create hosting accounts on the server". |
| Create an invoice for what is due now | Unticked, the order is placed without an invoice. |
| Send the order confirmation email | Sends the client's confirmation and the staff notice (its fraud result reads "Added by staff"). |
The order is placed with the same steps as a store order and opens on its page.
Settings > Order Statuses
Orders have the statuses Pending, Active, Cancelled and Fraud, which the system sets and which cannot be renamed or deleted. You can add your own, such as "Awaiting documents", and give them to orders with "Set status only" on the order page. Permission settings.order_statuses.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Name | Up to 64 characters, unique. Renaming a status renames it on every order that has it. |
| Colour | The dot shown next to the status. |
| Order in lists | Sort order in filters and dropdowns. |
| Counts as pending | The status is counted as waiting on the dashboard. |
| Counts as active, Counts as cancelled | How the status is counted. |
A custom status can be deleted only while no order has it. The list links each status to the orders that have it.
Fraud protection
Settings > Fraud Protection is not built yet; the page says so. No fraud check runs on orders: the staff notice for a new order reads "Not checked" (or "Added by staff"), and the setting "No fraud check for clients with an active order" has no effect yet.
Order emails
| Template | Kind | Sent |
|---|---|---|
order_confirmation (Order received) | general | To the client when the order is placed, by Resend confirmation, and from Add New Order when ticked. Merge fields: order number, date, the items as a table, the total, the invoice number and the payment method. |
invoice_created (New invoice) | invoice | To the client with the order, while the invoice is open, unless "Do not send the invoice email for new orders" is on. |
admin_new_order (New order placed) | admin | To staff whose role receives account notices: client, items, total, fraud result, IP address and a link to the order. |
hosting_welcome, server_welcome, service_welcome or a custom product template | product | The product's welcome email, sent when the service is set up (or on Accept with "Send welcome emails" for products without a module). |
payment_received | invoice | When the invoice is paid; see Billing. |
Templates are edited under Settings > Email Templates.
Ordering settings
Settings > General Settings, tab Ordering:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Default order form | Standard (the only form). |
| Clients must accept the terms of service | Adds the tick box at checkout. |
| Terms of service address | The link behind "terms of service". |
| After checkout | Show the order confirmation; Open the invoice; Go straight to payment. |
| Notes field at checkout | Shows the notes box; the notes are kept on the order. |
| Show prices as a monthly amount | Shows the cheapest term per month in the store lists. |
| Refuse domains already in the system | A domain already registered with you cannot be ordered again. |
| Random usernames for new services | Defined but not yet used by the code. |
| Days to pay a new order | Added to today for the due date of the order's invoice (0 to 60). |
| Do not send the invoice email for new orders | Only the order confirmation goes out; it still lists the invoice. |
| No fraud check for clients with an active order | Not yet used (no fraud check exists). |
| Automatic setup only for clients with an active order | Not yet used by the code. |
| Show product recommendations | Shows "You may also like" in the cart. |
| Clients may renew services early | Belongs to the services side. |
| Subdomain names clients may not take | Names refused for free subdomains, such as www, mail, admin. |
The domain settings that affect ordering (Allow domain registration, Allow domain transfers, Allow clients to use their own domain, Allow international domain names, Check availability in domain search, TLDs offered in search results, New domains renew automatically, Nameserver 1 to 5) are on the Domains tab of the same page.