FS-DOC-03Operations
Process Runbook / SOP
Order Processing and Fulfilment
[YourCompany.com] · Fulfilment Department · Prepared by FullSpec · [Today's Date]
This runbook is the day-to-day operating guide for your fulfilment team once the Order Processing and Fulfilment automation is live. It explains what the system does on its own, what your team is responsible for, how to handle exceptions when they arise, and who to call when something needs attention. FullSpec builds and maintains the automation end to end. Your team's job is to monitor exception alerts, carry out the physical pick-and-pack step, and approve wholesale invoices before they are sent to buyers.
01Process overview
The Order Processing and Fulfilment automation connects Shopify, Linnworks, ShipStation, Gmail, Slack, and Xero so that every paid order moves from checkout to a dispatched, tracked shipment without anyone copying data between tabs. The moment a customer pays, three automated agents handle stock verification, courier booking, tracking confirmation, and draft invoice creation. The only steps that remain with your team are the physical pick-and-pack of the parcel in the warehouse and the review and approval of draft wholesale invoices in Xero. At roughly 220 orders per month, the automation eliminates approximately nine hours of weekly admin and reduces per-order handling from 21 minutes to around two minutes of human time.
Process name
Order Processing and Fulfilment
Trigger
A paid order is created in Shopify
Final output
Order marked fulfilled in Shopify, tracking email sent to customer, stock decremented in Linnworks, and (for wholesale orders) a draft Xero invoice ready for approval
Agents running
Order Intake Agent, Dispatch Agent, Finance Agent
Tools involved
Shopify, Linnworks, ShipStation, Gmail, Slack, Xero, Make
Weekly volume
Approximately 220 orders per month (roughly 50 to 55 per week)
Human checkpoint
Physical pick-and-pack by warehouse picker; wholesale invoice approval by Operations Manager
Process owner
[Your name], Operations Manager
02Step-by-step: what happens and who acts
What you actually need to do: The only step your team initiates is the physical pick-and-pack of the parcel in the warehouse. Once the label is printed and attached, the automation handles everything else. For wholesale orders, your Operations Manager also receives a Xero draft invoice to review and approve with one click before it is sent to the buyer. Everything else in the table below is handled automatically by the FullSpec-built agents running in Make.
Step
What happens
Who acts
Type
1
A customer completes checkout and pays in Shopify. The Shopify webhook fires instantly and passes the full order record, including all line items, the customer's shipping address, and the chosen delivery service level, to the Order Intake Agent in Make.
System
Automated
2
The Order Intake Agent queries Linnworks in real time and checks live stock availability for every SKU on the order. Each line item is confirmed as in-stock or flagged as unavailable before any further action is taken.
Order Intake Agent
Automated
3
If any SKU is out of stock, the Order Intake Agent immediately posts a structured alert to the fulfilment Slack channel. The alert includes the order ID, the affected SKUs, and a direct link to the order in Shopify so your team can act without searching for it.
Order Intake Agent
Automated
4
For fully in-stock orders, the Dispatch Agent pushes the recipient details, parcel dimensions, and the customer's chosen service level directly into ShipStation. A ready-to-print shipment record and shipping label are created with no manual data entry.
Dispatch Agent
Automated
5
The warehouse picker receives or prints the label from ShipStation, locates the items in the warehouse, packs the parcel to the required standard, seals it, and attaches the label. This is the sole physical step that remains with a person.
Warehouse Picker
Human
6
Once the tracking number is returned by ShipStation, the Dispatch Agent writes the fulfilment status and the tracking URL back to the Shopify order record instantly. The customer-facing order page is updated without any manual input.
Dispatch Agent
Automated
7
A personalised shipping confirmation email containing the courier name, tracking number, and a one-click tracking link is sent to the customer via Gmail as soon as the tracking number is confirmed. No batch delays, no manual drafting.
Dispatch Agent
Automated
8
The Dispatch Agent decrements the picked quantities in Linnworks immediately after dispatch confirmation. Live stock levels are kept accurate in real time, preventing oversells on subsequent orders arriving within seconds.
Dispatch Agent
Automated
9
If the order carries a wholesale or B2B tag in Shopify, the Finance Agent creates a draft invoice in Xero. The invoice is populated with the order lines, amounts, and a reference to the Shopify order ID. The Operations Manager then opens Xero, reviews the draft, and approves it with one click before it is sent to the buyer.
Finance Agent + Operations Manager
Human
Process Runbook / SOPPage 1 of 3
FS-DOC-03Operations
03Handling exceptions
Situation
What the system does
What you do
One or more SKUs are out of stock when the order arrives
The Order Intake Agent flags the affected SKUs and posts a structured alert to the fulfilment Slack channel immediately, including the order ID, SKU codes, and a link to the Shopify order. The order is held and not passed to the Dispatch Agent.
Open the Slack alert, click through to the Shopify order, and contact the customer to offer an alternative product, a partial shipment, or a refund. Once resolved, manually clear the hold or update the order in Shopify so the agent can re-evaluate.
A duplicate order is detected (same customer, same items, within a short window)
The Order Intake Agent compares incoming orders against a short deduplication window. If a probable duplicate is detected it posts an amber alert to the Slack channel and holds the duplicate order for human review before creating a shipment.
Review the two orders in Shopify. If the duplicate is confirmed, cancel the second order in Shopify and issue a refund if payment was taken. If both orders are genuine, release the hold in Make so the Dispatch Agent proceeds with both.
ShipStation cannot find a matching service level for the order (courier mapping gap)
The Dispatch Agent logs an error in Make and sends a Slack alert to the fulfilment channel stating that the shipment could not be created and naming the order ID and the service level that could not be matched.
Log into ShipStation and create the shipment manually for that order. Separately, notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com with the order ID and the unmatched service level so the courier mapping can be updated in the automation.
The warehouse picker does not act on a label within the expected dispatch window
The system has no mechanism to force physical action, but the Slack alert for the order remains visible and unresolved. Make's scenario history shows the order as dispatched from a system perspective once ShipStation returns a tracking number.
The Operations Manager should monitor the Slack fulfilment channel at least once per shift. If a label has been generated but no dispatch has occurred, follow up with the warehouse team directly. There is no automated escalation for delayed physical packing.
A wholesale buyer does not respond to the Xero invoice after approval and sending
The automation raises and dispatches the draft invoice to the Operations Manager for approval. Once approved and sent from Xero, any follow-up with the buyer is outside the automation's scope.
Use Xero's built-in payment reminder feature to send chaser emails on agreed intervals. If the buyer remains unresponsive after your standard credit terms, escalate according to your accounts receivable policy. Contact FullSpec only if the invoice was not raised at all.
Make, Linnworks, ShipStation, or another connected tool is unavailable
Make retries failed steps up to three times with a short backoff interval. If all retries fail, Make logs the error and sends an alert to the configured error notification email. Orders that could not be processed are visible in Make's scenario run history with a failed status.
Check the Make scenario history for failed runs. If the outage is brief, failed scenarios can be re-run manually from Make once the tool comes back online. If the outage is extended, process affected orders manually in ShipStation and Shopify, then notify FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com so the run log can be reconciled and retried correctly.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 2 of 3
FS-DOC-03Operations
04Who to contact and when
Fill in once your team is confirmed. The rows below marked with brackets are for your team to complete before go-live. The FullSpec rows are fixed and ready to use from day one.
Role
Name
How to reach them
Process owner / Operations Manager
[Your name]
[Your email or phone]
Fulfilment Coordinator (day-to-day exception handler)
[Rep name]
[Rep email]
Warehouse team lead (pick-and-pack escalation)
[Rep name]
[Rep email]
Finance contact (Xero invoice queries)
[Rep name]
[Rep email]
FullSpec builder (build changes, agent updates, new requirements)
FullSpec team
support@gofullspec.com
FullSpec support (errors, outages, failed scenarios, urgent issues)
FullSpec support
support@gofullspec.com
For any urgent automation failure during business hours, email support@gofullspec.com with the Make scenario name, the affected order ID or IDs, and a brief description of what is failing. The FullSpec team will triage and respond promptly. Do not attempt to edit the Make scenario yourself as this may cause data loss or duplicate shipments.
05Ongoing maintenance
Whenever a new courier or service level is added
Send the new courier name, account details, and service level mapping to FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com. The Dispatch Agent's routing rules must be updated in Make before the new service level appears in the automation. Do not add couriers to ShipStation and expect the agent to pick them up automatically.
Operations Manager notifies FullSpec
Whenever an email template needs to change (tracking confirmation, out-of-stock message)
Send the revised copy to FullSpec at support@gofullspec.com. The templates are stored inside the Make scenario and Gmail draft logic and must be updated there. Changes made only in Gmail drafts will not be picked up by the automation.
Operations Manager notifies FullSpec
Monthly spot-check (first week of each month)
Review five to ten recent orders in Shopify and confirm that tracking numbers were written back correctly, that Linnworks stock levels match what was dispatched, and that any wholesale orders in that period have corresponding Xero invoices. Log any discrepancies and report to FullSpec if a pattern is found.
Fulfilment Coordinator
Weekly error-log review (every Monday morning)
Open the Make scenario dashboard and check the run history for any failed or partially failed scenarios in the previous seven days. Failed runs show the step that errored and the reason. Resolve minor issues using the guidance in Section 03. Email FullSpec for anything that cannot be explained or re-run safely.
Fulfilment Coordinator or Operations Manager
When a team member joins or leaves
Update the contact table in Section 04 of this runbook. If a departing team member had access to Make, Shopify admin, ShipStation, Linnworks, Xero, or the Slack fulfilment channel, revoke or transfer those credentials immediately. Notify FullSpec if any API credentials or Make account access needs to be transferred.
Operations Manager
Quarterly volume review (every three months)
Compare actual order volume against the 220 orders per month baseline used to configure the automation. If volume has grown significantly above or below that figure, contact FullSpec to review Make plan limits, ShipStation rate caps, and Linnworks API call volumes to confirm the automation remains within its current capacity and cost envelope.
Operations Manager
The most common maintenance issue for this automation is a courier service-level mismatch after a ShipStation account change or a new carrier is added without updating the Dispatch Agent's routing rules in Make. This causes silent failures where orders cannot be booked and sit in the Make error log unnoticed. A weekly check of the Make run history (see the monthly and weekly tasks above) catches these before they back up into a large unprocessed queue.
Process Runbook / SOPPage 3 of 3