B2B & Wholesale Solution: Generating a Draft Order from an Enquiry

The B2B & Wholesale Solution app lets you generate a draft order directly from a customer enquiry, so you can send a complete and accurate invoice without switching between pages. With this feature, you can adjust product prices and discounts, apply an order-level discount, set shipping and tax, and add order tags, all before generating the order. This guide explains how to generate a draft order from an enquiry, set discounts at the product and order level, configure shipping and tax, and add order tags.

Prerequisites for Generating a Draft Order from an Enquiry

Before you begin:

• The enquiry-to-draft order feature is only available on the Pro plan. On Lite and Basic plans, this feature is not supported, and clicking related fields will prompt an upgrade message.
• This guide explains how to generate a draft order from an enquiry. To learn how to manage enquiries, refer to "B2B & Wholesale Solution: Managing Your Enquiries." 

Generating a Draft Order from an Enquiry

To generate a draft order from an enquiry:

1. On the Leads > Enquiries page, click the pencil icon next to the enquiry you want to process.

   

2. View or edit product prices and quantities in the enquiry, and add additional products as needed.
3. Configure the order discount, shipping, and tax settings using the steps in the sections below.

4. In the Orders section, click Generate draft order.

   

5. In the Generate draft order dialog:

   • Search for and select the customer.
   • Optionally add an order note. 
   • Optionally add order tags. For more information, see "Adding Tags to a Draft Order" below.
   • Select whether to enable Send billing notification to contact.

   

6. Click Next to create the draft order.

Your generated draft orders are listed on the enquiry page, sorted from oldest to newest:

• Draft order number: Click to copy, or click the number to open the draft order in your Admin panel.
• Creation time: The date and time the draft order was created.

Each enquiry can have up to 5 draft orders. Once you reach this limit, the Generate draft order button is disabled and a limit message appears.

Setting a Discount on Enquiry Line Items

You can apply a discount to individual products on an enquiry, either by adjusting the price directly or by entering a discount amount — whichever is easier for how you work.

To set a discount on a product line:

1. On the enquiry detail page, click the price of the product you want to discount to open the Edit price dialog.

   

2. Update the Enquiry price field to the price you’re offering the customer. The product’s original price is shown below the field for reference.

   • If the enquiry price is equal to or higher than the product’s original price, no discount is applied.
   • If the enquiry price is lower than the original price, a fixed-amount discount is calculated automatically, equal to the original price minus the enquiry price.

   

3. Alternatively, set the discount directly:

   

   • Discount method: Choose Fixed amount or Percentage.

   • Discount amount: For a fixed discount, enter a value greater than 0 and up to the product’s unit price. For a percentage discount, enter a whole number greater than 0 and up to 100.

     Note: When you apply a Percentage discount, SHOPLINE calculates the discounted price in the following order: Calculate the discount amount for each item and round it to the nearest whole number. Subtract the rounded discount amount from the item's unit price to determine the discounted unit price. Multiply the discounted unit price by the quantity purchased to calculate the total product amount. For example, if the unit price is 5, the discount is 30%, and the purchase quantity is 2: Discount amount: 5 × 30% = 1.5 → rounded to 2 Discounted unit price: 5 − 2 = 3 Total product amount: 3 × 2 = 6

   • Discount description: Add a note of up to 64 characters. This is required if you set a discount amount.

   Setting a discount this way automatically recalculates the Inquiry price (original price minus the discount).

4. Click Done to save.

Once a discount is applied, the product list shows the discounted price next to the original price, which appears with a strikethrough. If no discount is set, only the current price is shown.

Configuring Order-Level Discount, Shipping, and Tax for a Draft Order

In addition to per-product discounts, you can apply a single discount, set shipping rates, and configure tax settings for the entire draft order in the Payment settings section.

Setting an Order-Level Discount for a Draft Order

To apply a discount to the whole draft order:

1. Enter an Fixed order discount amount greater than 0, up to the order’s Subtotal (shown above the field for reference). If you enter more than that, the amount is automatically corrected down to the subtotal.

   

2. Add an Order discount description of up to 64 characters. This is required if you set a discount amount.

Setting Up Shipping for a Draft Order

To configure shipping for the draft order:

1. Choose a shipping type: Custom shipping fee (selected by default) or Free shipping.

2. If you select Custom shipping fee, enter:

   • Shipping profile: Up to 64 characters.
   • Fee: Greater than 0, up to 300,000 in your store’s currency. If you enter more than this, the fee is automatically corrected to the maximum allowed.

   

    

Setting Whether Tax Applies to a Draft Order

Select the Charge tax checkbox to include tax on this draft order. It’s selected by default — clear it if this order shouldn’t be taxed.

Reviewing the Draft Order Total

As you configure discounts and shipping, the enquiry page shows a running Subtotal and Total for the draft order. The total is calculated as: subtotal minus the order discount, plus the shipping fee. Review these figures before generating the draft order to confirm the final amount your customer will be billed.

Adding Tags to a Draft Order

When you generate a draft order, you can add tags in the same dialog to help organize and categorize it.

To add tags to a draft order:

1. Click Generate draft order to open the dialog.

   

2. In the Order tags field, enter a tag and press Enter to add it.

   

3. Repeat to add more tags, up to a maximum of 50 tags per draft order. Each tag can be up to 40 characters.
4. Click the x on a tag to remove it.

Frequently Asked Questions About Generating a Draft Order from an Enquiry

Q1: Why doesn’t a draft order I created before this feature was released show a creation time?

Some draft orders created before this feature was released may not have a recorded creation time. If the historical data is available, SHOPLINE displays the creation time. Otherwise, it is not displayed. This does not affect the draft order itself, and you can continue to share it with customers as usual.

Q2: What happens if I set the Enquiry price higher than the product’s selling price?

If the enquiry price is higher than the product’s selling price, the system uses the selling price instead of the higher enquiry price.

Q3: Can I combine the order-level discount with a discount code or other promotion?

No. Currently, the order-level discount can’t be combined with other discount methods on the same draft order.

Q4: Can I still generate a draft order if I’m on the Lite or Basic plan?

No. Only Pro plans support this feature and can generate draft orders from enquiry orders.