Setup guide

Set up your dispatch message

The guided setup opens on first use. Select Save and continue after each step.

1. Business: choose the type of products you sell.
2. Schedule: enter your lead time and cutoff, search for your timezone, and select working days.
3. Message: edit the copy and check the live preview. Free uses Minimal; paid plans add other styles and display options.
4. Storefront: continue on Free, with no subscription approval. You can choose a paid plan later in Billing.
5. Select Add block to product page. Place Dispatch promise near the purchase button and save it in your published theme. Repeat for each product template you use.
6. Return to Dispatchly, select Check installation, then Finish setup. Open a product page to confirm the message.

Select Exit guide · Show all options at any time to edit settings on one page. Your current edits stay in the form. Select Resume guided setup to return to your last saved step. Setup remains available in the app menu.

Let customers request an order date

In Rules, turn on Let customers request a date. Choose Ship by or Receive by and save. Add the Requested order date block to your published theme’s cart page, place it before checkout, and save. Customers choose one optional date for the whole order. The earliest date allows time for every item; closed days and blackout dates are unavailable.

Customers select Save requested date before checkout. The request is saved as Requested ship date or Requested receiving date in the order’s additional details. Removing a request also requires saving. Review requests in Shopify before fulfillment. The picker appears on the full cart page.

Configure delivery rules

Open Customer date requests in Rules. Receive by requires delivery rules. For Ship by, open Delivery estimate (optional) to show an estimate in the cart. Carrier delays can change the arrival date. Enter the transit time, choose the carrier’s delivery days and add dates with no delivery. Transit time is counted after dispatch using those delivery days and dates off. Enter 0 for same-day delivery. Production days and production blackout dates remain separate.

In Shopify, open Settings → Shipping and delivery and check each profile’s destinations, rates and transit times. To configure Shopify’s checkout estimates, open Estimated delivery dates and review the fulfillment time. Read Shopify’s delivery-date guide.

Dispatchly’s rules apply store-wide before an address or shipping method is selected. Use the longest transit time across your shipping options and destinations. Confirm that the rules match your shipping setup before saving. Shopify’s estimates and these rules do not sync automatically.

The earliest receiving date includes the production time for every item and your configured transit time. A saved receiving date is a customer request that you need to confirm; it does not book delivery or guarantee arrival. Changes after checkout require handling the existing order in Shopify.

How dispatch dates are calculated

Before cutoff on a working day, production starts that day. At or after cutoff, or on a non-working day, production starts on the next working day. Lead time counts working days after the start day.

Example: with a Monday–Friday schedule and three business days of lead time, an order placed Monday before cutoff dispatches Thursday. At the Monday cutoff, its start day moves to Tuesday and it dispatches Friday. With zero days of lead time, dispatch is on the start day.

All cutoffs and calendar dates use your selected store timezone. Customers see the same dispatch date wherever they are. Daylight saving time follows that timezone’s rules.

Automatically hold future orders

In Rules, enable customer date requests, then open Hold orders until their ship date. Allow order and fulfillment access, confirm that you ship from your own locations with automatic fulfillment turned off in Shopify, enable automatic holds and save.

This applies to new orders with a requested date within 60 days of purchase. For receiving dates, Dispatchly counts backward through your transit time and dispatch calendar. A closed dispatch day can move shipping earlier. The date remains a request; no carrier is booked and arrival is not guaranteed.

Eligible shipping fulfillments are placed on hold and stay out of Shopify’s Unfulfilled queue. They remain visible under All orders. Dispatchly releases its own holds from midnight in your store timezone, checking every 30 seconds while the service is running. Inventory, fraud and other apps’ holds remain in place. Release does not buy a label, ship the package or mark the order fulfilled.

Check scheduling status in Rules. Errors also appear on Overview. Resolve the problem in Shopify, select Retry scheduling errors, then refresh the status. External warehouses, pickup, local delivery and native subscription schedules are not supported. Release a Dispatchly hold manually in Shopify to ship early; the app will flag that change instead of applying the hold again.

Turning off automatic holds stops scheduling new orders. Existing holds keep their release dates. Review them in Shopify before uninstalling Dispatchly or removing its access. Removing a requested date or cancelling the order releases Dispatchly’s holds when the event is processed. Later rule changes do not move existing release dates unless the order’s requested date changes.

Product and collection overrides

In Rules, choose Products or Collections, select an item and enter its lead time. Select Add override or Update override.

Product override → collection override → default rule. If a product belongs to multiple collections with overrides, the lowest priority number wins. Give each collection a different priority number.

Free uses one store-wide schedule with no overrides. Starter allows 25 product and collection overrides combined. Pro allows unlimited overrides. No plan has sales or order limits.

Holidays and blackout dates

On every plan, add closed dates under Rules → Blackout dates. These dates are skipped for both production and dispatch. Dates are entered individually; repeat an annual holiday for each year you need.

Preview and export dispatch dates

On Starter or Pro, open Dispatch calendar, choose a month and select the default rule or a product or collection override. Each row shows the date you would promise for an order placed before or at or after cutoff. Select Export CSV to download the month. The calendar forecasts promises; it does not show booked orders or reserve capacity.

Change the message

Free uses Minimal style with a calendar icon and supporting message. Starter and Pro add Warm, Compact and display options. Your primary message must include {countdown} and {date}. You can show or hide the calendar icon, supporting message and made-to-order label.

Language & region formats the date. It does not translate your written messages. Write those in your customers’ language, then save your changes.

If the message is missing

• Finish setup in Dispatchly. Free does not need an active subscription.
• Confirm the block is enabled in the published theme, then save the theme.
• Check the product’s assigned template. The installation status checks the published theme’s default product template. Blocks saved only in a draft theme are not detected; alternate templates need their own block.
• Make sure the product is published to Online Store. The block needs a product page.
• If the block reports an error, select Try again. Contact support if it continues.

Change or cancel your plan

Manage your plan in Billing. Before switching to Free, remove all overrides and save the Free appearance. Starter allows 25 overrides. Blackout dates stay available on every plan. Changing plans does not restart the trial.

Switching to Free cancels your paid subscription and keeps your store-wide schedule, message text and blackout dates. The calendar and CSV export require a paid plan. If a subscription is canceled outside Dispatchly, remove saved overrides and use the Free appearance to restore the message. No settings are deleted or silently changed. Uninstalling also revokes app access. Shopify handles billing and any prorated credit.

Contact support

Email tmk@terosmk.com with your shop domain, the affected product page and what you expected to see. Do not send passwords or access tokens.