Order Workflows

Overview

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Order Workflows turns WooCommerce order management into an orchestrated workflow: define the statuses your fulfillment actually uses, the transitions between them, and the rules that trigger them automatically. Each status gets a color-coded badge with an icon, optional email notifications fully integrated with WooCommerce’s email system, workflow transitions with one-click action buttons, and automation rules that assign statuses based on order conditions. Every status change is recorded in a transition log.

Installation

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1. Upload the order-workflows folder to the /wp-content/plugins/ directory
2. Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
3. Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Order Workflows and toggle Enable Plugin on (it ships disabled by default)

Requirements

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• WordPress 6.4 or higher
• WooCommerce 9.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

Settings

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Access settings at WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Order Workflows.

General

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Setting	Description	Default
Enable Plugin	Master switch: when disabled, no custom statuses, workflows, emails, or automation rules are active. Your configuration is kept.	Disabled

Statuses

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Create and manage custom order statuses, and customize the appearance of core WooCommerce statuses.

Each custom status has:

Field	Description
Name	Display name shown everywhere (orders list, order edit, My Account, emails)
Slug	Internal identifier (stored as wc-{slug})
Description	Internal note about the status purpose
Color / Text color	Badge background and text colors
Icon	Dashicon shown next to the status
Badge style	Filled or outlined
Counts as paid	Treat orders in this status as paid for payment logic
Include in reports	Include orders in WooCommerce reports and analytics
Customer description	Optional text shown to the customer in My Account

Core WooCommerce statuses (Pending payment, Processing, On hold, Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, Failed) can be customized too: change their badge color and icon.

Drag and drop to reorder statuses.

Workflow

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Define which statuses can follow each status. When a workflow is configured:

• Next-status action buttons appear in the orders list for one-click transitions
• “Change to X” actions are added to the order actions dropdown on the order edit screen

Both custom and core statuses support workflow transitions, an action button label, and an action button icon.

Emails

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Each custom status automatically registers an email notification in WooCommerce’s native email system (WooCommerce > Settings > Emails). For each status email you can configure:

• Enable/disable
• Recipient: customer, admin, both, or a custom address
• Subject and heading with placeholders: {site_title}, {order_date}, {order_number}, {status_name}
• Additional content shown below the order table
• Email type (HTML or plain text)

Email templates can be overridden in your theme: copy templates/emails/customer-order-status.php (and templates/emails/plain/customer-order-status.php) from the plugin.

Automation

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Auto-assignment rules automatically set an order’s status at checkout or when payment completes. The first matching rule (by priority) wins.

Each rule has:

Field	Description
Name	Rule label
Target status	Status assigned when the rule matches
Trigger	At checkout, on payment complete, or both
Match type	All conditions (AND) or any condition (OR)
Priority	Lower runs first
Conditions	Payment method, order total, user role, shipping method, product type, product category, coupon used, customer country

Advanced

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Feature	Description
Import / Export	Export your full configuration (settings, statuses, rules) as JSON, and import it on another site
Workflow Templates	Apply pre-built status workflows (e.g. Local Pickup) in one click
Custom CSS	Add custom CSS for status badges and styling

Transition Log

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Every order status change is recorded with the order ID, old and new status, the user who made the change, the source (manual, bulk, auto rule, system), and a timestamp. The log offers:

• Statistics: total transitions, last 30 days, per-status counts
• Filters: order ID, status, source, date range
• CSV export

Orders List Integration

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• The order status column shows color-coded badges with your configured colors and icons
• Next-status action buttons appear based on your workflow configuration
• Bulk actions let you change the status of multiple orders at once
• Custom statuses appear in the orders list status filter

My Account Integration

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Customers see the custom status name for their orders in My Account. If a status has a customer description, it is displayed on the order view page.

How It Works

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1. Create a custom status in the Statuses tab (e.g. “Ready for Pickup”)
2. The plugin registers it as a WordPress post status and a WooCommerce order status
3. Optionally define workflow transitions, enable the email notification, and create automation rules
4. Change order statuses from the order edit screen, the orders list action buttons, bulk actions, or automatically via rules
5. Every transition is recorded in the log

Deactivation & Uninstall

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• On deactivation: no data is deleted. Orders keep their status value; custom status labels display as raw slugs until reactivation.
• On uninstall (deletion): the plugin removes its database tables, options, and per-status email settings.

Developer Hooks

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The plugin uses WooCommerce’s native hooks throughout. Key integration points:

Hook	Type	Description
wc_order_statuses	filter	Custom statuses are added here
woocommerce_order_is_paid_statuses	filter	Statuses with “Counts as paid” are added here
woocommerce_reports_order_statuses	filter	Statuses with “Include in reports” are added here
woocommerce_valid_order_statuses_for_payment	filter	Custom statuses are valid for payment
woocommerce_email_classes	filter	Per-status email classes are registered here
woocommerce_order_status_changed	action	Transitions are logged from this hook

Database

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The plugin creates two tables:

• {prefix}osm_custom_statuses: status definitions (custom and core overrides)
• {prefix}osm_transition_log: status change history

REST API

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Namespace: osm/v1. All routes require the manage_woocommerce capability.

Route	Methods	Description
/settings	GET, POST	Plugin settings
/statuses	GET, POST	List / create custom statuses
/statuses/{slug}	PUT, DELETE	Update / delete a status
/statuses/reorder	POST	Reorder statuses
/core-statuses	GET	Core statuses with overrides
/core-statuses/{slug}	PUT	Update a core status override
/rules	GET, POST	Automation rules
/rules/{id}	PUT, DELETE	Update / delete a rule
/templates	GET	Workflow templates
/templates/{id}/apply	POST	Apply a template
/transition-log	GET	Log entries with filters
/transition-log/stats	GET	Log statistics
/transition-log/export	GET	CSV export
/export	GET	Full configuration export
/import	POST	Full configuration import

HPOS Compatibility

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Order Workflows is fully compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS) and Cart/Checkout Blocks.

Support

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For support, feature requests, or bug reports:

• Visit woocommerce.com/my-account/tickets