B2B ShipStation Sync Fix — 2026-04-05

Overview

Doudlah B2B orders were syncing to ShipStation with an incorrect status, causing them to appear as already shipped rather than ready for fulfillment. The root cause was a custom plugin (Autocomplete offline orders) that was auto-completing orders on the WooCommerce thank-you page, setting their status to completed instead of processing. ShipStation skips orders marked completed (treating them as done) and skips orders marked on-hold (treating them as unpaid/not ready) — processing is the correct status for ShipStation to pick up and fulfill.

Attendees: Karly Oykhman, Mark Hope

Problem

• Doudlah B2B orders use an invoice/offline payment flow — customers do not pay at checkout.
• WooCommerce sets these orders to on-hold by default; ShipStation ignores on-hold orders.
• A previously-installed custom plugin (Autocomplete offline orders) was overriding this and immediately setting orders to completed on the thank-you page.
• ShipStation also ignores completed orders (treats them as already fulfilled).
• Result: orders were appearing in ShipStation as shipped without ever being properly queued for fulfillment.

Root Cause

Plugin: Autocomplete offline orders (custom, installed on the Doudlah B2B WooCommerce site)
File: autocomplete-offline-orders.php
Line: 64
Original value: completed
Problem: The plugin was hooking into the thank-you page and immediately transitioning all offline orders to completed status.

Fix

Changed line 64 of autocomplete-offline-orders.php from completed to processing.

// Line 64 — before
'completed'

// Line 64 — after
'processing'

The fix was identified and applied via an MCP server (Model Context Protocol — an AI-powered terminal console with direct API access to the site). The cache was flushed after the change.

Correct Order Flow (Post-Fix)

1. Customer places B2B order (no payment at checkout).
2. WooCommerce order status → processing (set by the modified plugin).
3. ShipStation picks up the processing order and queues it for fulfillment.
4. Warehouse fulfills and ships the order in ShipStation.
5. ShipStation sends a webhook back to WooCommerce → order status → completed.

This mirrors the existing B2C site behavior and is the intended flow.

Key Decisions

• Use processing (not completed) as the auto-set status for offline B2B orders. processing is the signal ShipStation needs to act; completed tells ShipStation the order is already done.
• Do not permanently leave orders in processing — ShipStation's webhook handles the transition to completed after shipping, so no additional automation is needed.

Action Items

• [ ] Karly — Place a test B2B order and verify that (1) WooCommerce shows status processing immediately after checkout, and (2) ShipStation picks it up correctly (~1 hour lag expected). Report result to Mark.
• [ ] Mark — Email Karly a summary note of this fix for filing.
• [ ] Karly — File the fix documentation in the Doudlah project file for future reference.

Notes

• The MCP server was used to locate the plugin file, read the relevant PHP, identify the problematic line, rewrite the value, save the file, and flush the cache — all without manual file editing.
• The plugin was not visible in the standard WordPress admin UI settings panels; it required direct file inspection to find.
• Going forward, any changes to WooCommerce order status automation on this site should be documented immediately to avoid re-investigation.

Related

• ^[1]
• ^[2]