Backorder Template: Track What You Still Owe Customers

A backorder is the part of an order you couldn't ship yet and still owe: a shop ordered 24 jars, you sent 12, and 12 are on backorder. A backorder template keeps those lines from getting lost. For each order line it records the order number, customer, date, item, quantity ordered and quantity shipped, and works out what's still owed and its value. Two more columns do the real work: the date you promised the rest, and whether you've told the customer. A backorder a shop hears about the day the box arrives short, with a date, is an inconvenience; one they discover when they unpack, or one whose date slips without a word, is how a wholesale account ends. The log also shows the pattern: when the same item keeps going on backorder, the problem is upstream, a supplier or a reorder point. In the example below, a candle maker's holiday wholesale orders run short on one scent. Below is what to record, the example, and a free backorder log.

The short version

• A backorder is the part of an order still owed after shipping short.
• Record order, customer, date, item, ordered, shipped, price.
• Still owed = ordered − shipped; value owed = still owed × price.
• Write the date you promised, and whether the customer was told.
• Tell the customer the day it ships short, with a date.
• The same item on backorder again means a supply or reorder problem.
• TaroStack keeps an order shipped short open until the rest goes. More below.

What to record

The slip that goes in the short box is in packing slip template, and wholesale order forms in wholesale order form template.

An example: a candle maker's holiday orders

Lehua Glow, the made-up soy candle maker on Oʻahu I use in these examples, took holiday wholesale orders from four boutiques in early October, at $13 a 9-ounce jar. The plumeria fragrance oil went on backorder at the supplier, and the log on October 17 reads:

Thirty-six plumeria jars, $468, are owed across three shops. Two know and have a date. Mānoa Home Goods was promised the 14th and never heard otherwise, so that's today's first call, with the new date. The oil arrives on the 20th, so the plumeria jars ship by the 24th as promised. The lesson is upstream: plumeria is the best seller, and its oil now gets a higher reorder point before the holidays. How wholesale prices are set is in how to sell candles wholesale.

Get the template

Download the backorder log. One sheet: type today's date, then each order line's number, customer, date, item, quantity ordered and shipped, price, the date promised and whether the customer was told; what's still owed, its value, days waiting and a status fill in, with overdue lines and customers not yet told in red, and totals by item below. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The log is a second copy of the orders. When the oil arrives and twelve jars go to Kailua, someone has to remember to update the log as well as the order, the slip and the stock.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps the backorder on the order itself, so there's no second copy to update.

Orders shipped short stay open. A wholesale order shipped in part shows as partly shipped, with what's still to send, until the rest goes.

Stock you can promise. Sales orders show whether the jars are on the shelf while you're typing, so a short order is known before the box is packed.

The upstream fix. The reorder list shows the plumeria oil in days of cover, with the supplier's lead time and minimum, and lead times are checked against how long deliveries really take.

Sales orders, picking lists, delivery notes and the reorder list are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

What is a backorder?

The part of a customer's order you couldn't ship yet and still owe, usually because the item was out of stock.

How do you track backorders?

Record each short line with what was ordered and shipped, what's owed, the date promised and whether the customer was told, and check it every day until it's filled.

What should a backorder template include?

Order number, customer, order date, item, quantities ordered and shipped, price, what's still owed, its value, the promised date, days waiting and a status.

How do you tell a customer about a backorder?

The day the order ships short: what's coming now, what's owed, and the date the rest will ship.