How to use the WooCommerce fulfillment dashboard to clear unfulfilled orders

It is Monday morning and the weekend’s orders are sitting in Processing: 140 of them, across three carriers. The only view WooCommerce gives you is the full Orders list, where they are mixed in with last month’s refunds and an order a customer cancelled on Saturday. Someone opens each order to see what is in it, packs it, pastes a tracking number back in and changes the status. By lunchtime they have cleared forty.

The packing is not what slows them down. The screen is. To clear a backlog quickly you need three things: a list that holds only the orders still waiting to ship, a way to act on many of them at once, and a clear signal when an order has left the queue.

The Fulfillment Dashboard in Advanced Shipment Tracking Pro (AST PRO) is built for exactly that. This guide walks through the full workflow on the current interface, redesigned in version 5.0: deciding what counts as unfulfilled, sorting the queue, adding tracking one order at a time or in bulk, and checking that the queue is really empty.

Why unfulfilled orders pile up in WooCommerce

WooCommerce has no “unfulfilled” flag. It has order statuses. A paid order waiting to ship sits in Processing, and it stays there until something changes its status. Packing the parcel does not change it. Neither does printing a label in another tool.

Adding a tracking number is not guaranteed to change it either. In AST PRO, the status change is a separate choice from the tracking itself. The manual form has a Mark Order As field, and bulk imports have a status_shipped column where 0 means “add the tracking but leave the status alone”. When tracking arrives with no status change, the parcel is on a van but the order still looks unfulfilled. This is the most common reason a queue never seems to shrink.

Split shipments add a second, deliberate layer. An order with some items sent and some still waiting moves to Partially Shipped and stays in the queue until the last item goes. That is the correct behaviour, but you need to see those orders separately from ones nobody has touched.

What the Fulfillment Dashboard shows

Open it at WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Fulfillment Dashboard. It lists only orders in the statuses you choose as “unfulfilled”. By default those are Processing and Partially Shipped. Completed and Shipped orders never appear.

Column	What it tells you
Order	Order number and the date it was placed
Customer	Customer name and billing email
Items	Products and quantities, so you can pick without opening the order
Ship To	Shipping address
Status	Current order status badge
Actions	Tracking icon to add tracking; edit icon to open the full order

The table shows 20 orders per page and loads only the current page, so a store with thousands of historic orders does not make it slower. A search box, a date range and a status filter sit above the table.

How to clear unfulfilled orders with the fulfillment dashboard

This is the full routine from a full queue to an empty one. Steps 1 and 2 are one-off setup; steps 3 to 6 are the daily loop.

1. Decide which statuses count as unfulfilled

Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Settings → General Settings and find Fulfillment Order Statuses. Select every status that means “paid, not yet shipped”. For most stores that is Processing and Partially Shipped. If you use a custom pre-shipment status such as “Awaiting Dispatch”, add it here, or those orders will never reach the dashboard. Our guide to setting up custom WooCommerce order statuses covers how to create one.

Do not add Shipped or Completed. The dashboard empties because orders move out of these statuses. If a shipped status is on the list, nothing ever leaves.

2. Turn on the status emails you want customers to get

Clearing the queue is what notifies customers, so set this before you start. Under Settings → Order Statuses & Notifications, switch on the Send Email toggle for Shipped and Partially Shipped. Then, under General Settings → Order Emails Display, make sure those same emails are selected so the tracking details are included. If tracking is missing from customer emails later, this setting is almost always the cause.

3. Sort the queue before you pack

Use the filters to split the backlog into batches that make sense on the warehouse floor:

• Date range: narrow the view to the oldest orders first, so nothing ages past your dispatch promise.
• Status filter: show only Partially Shipped orders. These already have one parcel out and usually need a single item to finish them.
• Search: find a specific order by number, customer name or email when support asks about one.

4. Print one packing list for the batch

Tick the checkboxes for the orders you are about to pack, then print the packing list for the selection. You get one sheet for the whole batch instead of one printout per order. Since version 5.0.3 the packing list can also carry order details and any custom columns you have added, which helps if your pickers work from SKU or bin location.

5. Add tracking order by order for small batches

For a handful of orders, click the tracking icon in the Actions column. The Add Tracking Info form opens without leaving the dashboard. Fill in Tracking Number, Shipping Provider and Date Shipped, then set Mark Order As:

• Shipped when every item is in this parcel. The order leaves the queue.
• Partially Shipped when some items are still waiting. The order stays in the queue with its new status.

6. Clear large batches in bulk

Once you are past twenty or thirty orders, stop typing tracking numbers. Export them from your carrier portal or shipping software and bring them in all at once.

1. Go to WooCommerce → Shipment Tracking → Bulk Paste and paste the rows straight from your spreadsheet. The required columns are order_id, tracking_provider, tracking_number, date_shipped and status_shipped.
2. Set status_shipped to 1 for orders that are fully shipped, or 2 for partial shipments. This is the value that moves orders out of the queue. A 0 adds the tracking and leaves the order where it is.
3. Click Parse pasted elements, check the column mapping, then click Run bulk alignments. Keep the tab open until the summary appears.
4. Back in the dashboard, deal with anything that came in with tracking but no status change. Tick those orders and use the Bulk Actions dropdown to move them all to Shipped in one step.

For recurring volume, a file-based import is sturdier than pasting. Our walkthrough on bulk importing tracking numbers in WooCommerce by CSV covers the file format and the scheduled FTP/SFTP option.

Which method to use for each batch size

Method	Best for	Moves orders out of the queue?
Tracking icon in the dashboard	A few orders, or orders that need checking one by one	Yes, via Mark Order As
Bulk Paste	A one-off batch copied from a spreadsheet or carrier portal	Yes, when status_shipped is 1 or 2
CSV Import	Large daily batches from shipping software	Yes, same column rules
Automated CSV Import (FTP/SFTP)	A 3PL or system that drops files on a schedule	Yes, same column rules
Bulk Actions dropdown	Orders that already have tracking but kept their old status	Yes, but adds no tracking

How to confirm the queue is clear

An empty-looking screen can hide a filter. Check it properly before you call the day done:

• Clear the filters. Remove the date range and status filter and reload the dashboard. What remains is everything genuinely waiting to ship.
• Read the Bulk Paste summary. It separates Updated Existing rows from Warnings / Skipped rows, and keeps a per-row log. Every skipped row is an order still in your queue. The usual causes are a carrier name that does not match exactly (matching is case-sensitive), a date in the wrong format, or a sequential order number used instead of the internal WooCommerce order ID.
• Spot-check one order. Open it with the edit icon and look at the Shipment Tracking box on the order screen. The tracking number and carrier should be there and the status should read Shipped.

What the dashboard does not do

• It does not create tracking numbers. AST PRO records the number your carrier or shipping software issues. Labels and postage still come from those tools.
• Bulk Actions change status only. Marking orders as Shipped from the dropdown adds no tracking. If the Shipped email is switched on, customers get it without tracking details. Add the tracking first.
• It only shows the statuses you select. On-hold and pending-payment orders stay out unless you add those statuses, which most stores should not.
• Extra columns need code. Payment method, item count or custom order data can be added, but through developer filters rather than a setting. See Custom Columns in the Fulfillment Dashboard.
• Bulk Paste runs in your browser tab. Close the tab and the import stops. Very large batches belong in CSV Import or the scheduled FTP/SFTP import.

Frequently asked questions

What is an unfulfilled order in WooCommerce?

WooCommerce has no built-in “unfulfilled” status. In practice it means a paid order that has not shipped, which usually sits in Processing. With AST PRO you define it yourself: whichever statuses you select under Fulfillment Order Statuses are treated as unfulfilled and appear in the dashboard. The default is Processing and Partially Shipped.

Why is an order still in the dashboard after I added tracking?

Its status did not change. Either Mark Order As was set to Partially Shipped, or the tracking came in through an import with status_shipped set to 0. The tracking is saved, but the order is still in an unfulfilled status. Tick it and use Bulk Actions to move it to Shipped.

Can I mark several orders as shipped at once?

Yes, in two ways. Bulk Paste or CSV Import adds tracking and changes status in one pass when status_shipped is 1. The Bulk Actions dropdown in the dashboard changes status for any ticked orders, but it does not add tracking, so use it only for orders that already have their tracking numbers.

Does the dashboard slow down on a large store?

No. It shows 20 orders per page and loads only the orders on the current page, so total order volume does not affect load time. It is also compatible with WooCommerce High-Performance Order Storage (HPOS). On HPOS stores the order ID shown is the HPOS order ID.

Do customers get an email when I clear an order?

They do if the Send Email toggle is on for the status the order moves into, such as Shipped or Partially Shipped. Tracking details appear in that email only if the email type is also selected under General Settings → Order Emails Display. Check both before clearing a large backlog.

Why does the Fulfillment Dashboard menu not appear?

The menu needs the manage_woocommerce capability, which Administrators and Shop Managers have. If you have that role and the dashboard shows no orders, check that your target statuses are selected under Fulfillment Order Statuses. Orders in any other status are hidden.

Conclusion

A backlog clears fastest when the queue holds only real work and every shipment moves an order out of it. Set your unfulfilled statuses once and switch on the emails. Then run the daily loop: filter, print one packing list, add tracking, and bulk-import anything over a couple of dozen orders. The step people skip is the last one, checking the skipped rows and the orders whose status never changed. For the wider routine around this screen, see our fulfilment best practices for high-volume WooCommerce stores. To see how AST PRO compares with other options, read our comparison of WooCommerce shipment tracking plugins.