A step-by-step guide to the UniLink Orders section — how to find and review every transaction, mark physical products as fulfilled, issue refunds, generate invoices, and export order data for reporting or accounting.
- The UniLink Orders section records every transaction processed through your page — Shop, Digital, Course, Membership, Donation, Appointment, and more — with the customer name, email, amount, fulfillment status, and payment method all in one place.
- Digital products, courses, and memberships are fulfilled automatically on payment — access or download links are sent immediately without any action from you. Physical products require you to manually mark the order as fulfilled, and optionally enter a tracking number.
- Refunds issued from the Orders section call the Stripe or PayPal API directly — the refund is processed by the payment provider, not just recorded in UniLink, so the customer's money is actually returned without you logging into Stripe or PayPal separately.
- Use the CSV export for accounting, tax reporting, or importing sales data into a spreadsheet — the export includes all fields including order IDs, customer emails, amounts, and fulfillment status.
Every time someone pays you through UniLink — whether they buy a digital product, enroll in a course, book an appointment, donate, or join a membership — that transaction creates an order record. The Orders section is where all of those records live, and it is the operational hub for everything that happens after the payment: confirming what was sold and to whom, tracking whether physical items have shipped, issuing refunds when something goes wrong, generating invoices for customers who need them, and exporting data for your accountant at the end of the quarter. Understanding how to navigate and use Orders efficiently means your post-sale operations stay organized as your business grows, regardless of how many different products or blocks you use to sell on your page.
What UniLink Orders does
UniLink Orders is a unified transaction ledger for all payment activity on your pages. Rather than maintaining separate records for each type of product block — Shop orders here, Digital downloads there, Memberships somewhere else — all paid transactions aggregate into a single Orders list that you can filter, search, and act on from one screen. Each order record contains the order ID, customer name and email, the product purchased, quantity (for physical items), the amount paid, the payment method (Stripe card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or PayPal), the current fulfillment status (Pending, Fulfilled, Refunded, or Cancelled), the shipping address for physical products, any notes added by the customer or by you, and the order timestamp. The customer's email in the order record is a direct link — clicking it opens a pre-addressed email so you can contact that customer without looking up their address separately.
Fulfillment behavior depends on the product type. Digital products, courses, and memberships are automatically fulfilled the moment payment is confirmed — UniLink sends the download link or grants access automatically, and the order status updates to Fulfilled without any manual step. Physical products in the Shop block are created with a Pending status and require you to manually mark them as fulfilled once you have shipped the item. You can optionally enter a tracking number when marking an order fulfilled, which is saved to the order record for your own reference (note: UniLink does not automatically send tracking information to customers — if you want to notify the customer of their tracking number, you need to email them directly). Appointment bookings with payment required follow the same auto-fulfillment pattern as digital products — payment confirms the booking, and the order status reflects that confirmation.
The Orders section does not include a built-in shipping label printer or carrier integration. This is an intentional scope decision — UniLink is a link-in-bio and e-commerce tool, not a shipping platform. For physical product fulfillment, you manage shipping through your carrier of choice (USPS, UPS, FedEx, Shippo, EasyPost, etc.) and return to UniLink to mark the order fulfilled and paste the tracking number. Creators selling high volumes of physical products typically export their pending orders daily as a CSV and import them into their carrier's label printing tool, then return to mark orders fulfilled in bulk using UniLink's bulk status update feature.
Getting started
- Ensure you have payment blocks active on your page: Orders are only created when a customer completes a payment through a UniLink block that supports transactions — Shop, Digital, Course, Membership, Donation, Crowdfunding, Appointment with payment enabled, Premium Inbox, or Video Feedback. If you have not connected a payment processor yet, no orders can be created. Go to Settings → Payments and confirm Stripe or PayPal is connected before expecting orders to appear.
- Place a test order: Before managing real customer orders, understand what the order record looks like by placing a test order yourself. In Settings → Payments, toggle Test Mode on, then visit your live page and complete a purchase using Stripe's test card number (4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any CVC). Return to the Orders section and confirm the test order appears with the correct product, amount, and customer email. Switch back to Live Mode before any real customers visit your page.
- Familiarize yourself with the filter options: The Orders list can be filtered by product (useful if you sell multiple items), fulfillment status (filter for Pending to see what needs to be shipped), date range (useful for end-of-month accounting reviews), and payment method. Spend a moment with each filter so you know how to isolate the specific orders you need without scrolling through the full list.
- Set up a refund process: Decide in advance how you will handle refund requests — what your refund policy is, how quickly you respond, and who (if anyone besides you) has access to the Dashboard to process refunds. Refunds cannot be undone once issued, so it is worth having a clear decision-making process before your first refund request arrives rather than improvising under time pressure from a frustrated customer.
How to manage Orders
- Open the Orders section: From your Dashboard, navigate to Orders (or Commerce → Orders depending on your plan). The list shows all orders in reverse chronological order by default. The most recent orders are at the top.
- Find a specific order: Use the search bar to find an order by customer name, email, or order ID. Use the filter dropdown to narrow by product, status, or date range. The combination of search and filter is usually sufficient to locate any specific order within seconds even in a large order history.
- Review order details: Click any order row to open the order detail view. Here you see the full record: customer information, product details, payment breakdown (amount paid, platform fee if applicable, net amount), fulfillment status, shipping address for physical products, and any customer notes submitted at checkout. The customer email is clickable and opens a new email to that address. The order ID at the top is a unique identifier — include it in any customer communication about the order for easy reference on both sides.
- Mark a physical product order as fulfilled: Open the order detail view for the relevant order. Click Mark as Fulfilled. Optionally enter the carrier and tracking number in the provided fields — this is stored on the order record for your reference. Confirm. The order status updates to Fulfilled. If you want to notify the customer, use the clickable email link in the order record to send them the tracking number directly.
- Issue a refund: Open the order detail view. Click Refund. Enter the refund amount — you can issue a full refund or a partial refund up to the original order amount. Add an internal note explaining the reason (this is stored in UniLink for your records, not shown to the customer). Confirm the refund. UniLink calls the Stripe or PayPal API immediately, and the customer's payment is reversed by the payment provider. Depending on the customer's bank, the refund appears in their account within 5–10 business days for Stripe card transactions, or within 3–5 business days for PayPal. The order status updates to Refunded in UniLink once the refund call succeeds.
- Generate an invoice: Open the order detail view and click Generate Invoice. UniLink creates a PDF invoice with your business name (from your Profile settings), the customer's details, order line items, amounts, and order date. Download the PDF to send to the customer or attach to your accounting records. If your Profile is missing your business name or address, fill those in first — they appear on the invoice.
- Export orders to CSV: From the Orders list view, apply any filters you want (e.g., date range for last month, status: Fulfilled), then click Export CSV. The downloaded file includes all visible order fields: order ID, date, customer name, email, product name, quantity, amount paid, platform fee, net amount, payment method, fulfillment status, shipping address (if applicable), and notes. Import this file into Excel, Google Sheets, or your accounting software for reporting.
- Bulk update fulfillment status: If you have multiple physical product orders to mark fulfilled at once (common after a shipping run), select multiple orders using the checkboxes in the list view and choose Mark as Fulfilled from the bulk actions menu. This is faster than opening each order individually, though it does not allow entering individual tracking numbers for each order — use it for cases where you do not need per-order tracking records in UniLink, or follow up individually for tracking number entry.
Key features and settings
| Feature / Setting | What it does | Best practice |
|---|---|---|
| Fulfillment status (Pending / Fulfilled / Refunded / Cancelled) | Tracks the current state of each order through its lifecycle — Pending means payment received but not yet fulfilled, Fulfilled means delivery or access has been completed, Refunded means payment has been returned, Cancelled means the order was voided before fulfillment | Filter by Pending status daily if you sell physical products — an unfulfilled order is a customer waiting for their item; for digital products and courses, verify that auto-fulfillment worked correctly by checking that new orders arrive as Fulfilled rather than stuck at Pending, which would indicate a fulfillment configuration problem |
| Order detail view | The full record for an individual transaction — customer info, product, amount, fees, fulfillment status, shipping address, notes, and timestamps | Use the internal notes field to record any customer communication or fulfillment notes (special instructions, address corrections, refund reasons) — these notes persist on the order record and are visible to anyone with Dashboard access, making them useful for team handoffs |
| Refund (full or partial) | Initiates a refund via the Stripe or PayPal API for the full order amount or a specified partial amount — the refund is processed by the payment provider, not just recorded in UniLink | Issue refunds promptly when requested — a delayed refund that results in a chargeback costs more (in chargeback fees and seller reputation with Stripe/PayPal) than a fast voluntary refund; partial refunds are appropriate for partially completed services or when only one item in a multi-item order needs to be returned |
| Invoice generation (PDF) | Creates a downloadable PDF invoice for an order using your business details from Profile settings and the order's line items and amounts | Keep your business name, address, and tax ID in your Profile settings current — these fields are pulled into every invoice; if you sell to business customers who need formal invoices for expense reimbursement, a complete Profile is necessary for the invoice to be useful to them |
| CSV export | Downloads a spreadsheet of all orders matching your current filters — useful for accounting, tax preparation, inventory reconciliation, or importing into external tools | Export filtered by date range (e.g., last calendar month) for monthly reconciliation; export filtered by product for inventory-level reporting; export filtered by status: Pending for your daily ship list; the export always reflects whatever filters are active when you click Export, so set your filters first |
| Bulk status update | Allows selecting multiple orders and updating their fulfillment status simultaneously — most commonly used to mark multiple physical product orders as Fulfilled after a shipping run | Use bulk fulfillment only for batches where tracking numbers are not needed in UniLink — if you do need tracking numbers stored per order, mark them individually; consider using bulk fulfillment as the final step after you have entered tracking numbers for orders that needed them |
| Customer email link | A clickable email address in the order detail view that opens a pre-addressed email to the customer — faster than copying and pasting the address into your email client | Use this link for fulfillment notifications (tracking number), issue resolution (refund confirmation, shipping delay notice), and post-purchase follow-up (review requests, cross-sell) — it is a direct line to the specific customer for that specific order, which keeps communication organized and traceable |
How to get the most from Orders
Orders is a reactive tool by default — most people only open it when something needs attention. The creators who get more value from it treat it as a proactive review habit: a daily two-minute check of pending physical orders, a weekly review of refund rates by product (a high refund rate on a specific product is an early signal of a quality or expectation mismatch), and a monthly export for reconciliation. None of these take long, but they shift you from discovering problems when customers complain to catching problems before they escalate into chargebacks, negative reviews, or a pattern of dissatisfied customers you did not notice.
The customer email in every order record is underused as a relationship tool. Most creators only use it when something goes wrong. But reaching out to a customer within 24 hours of a digital product purchase with a short, genuine "did you get access to everything okay?" message has a measurably higher response rate than any broadcast campaign, because the customer just bought something and is in an engaged, positive frame of mind. For physical products, a shipping confirmation with the tracking number — sent manually from the order record — creates a customer experience that outperforms many automated fulfillment emails from larger e-commerce platforms, simply because it comes from a real person. These small touches compound into customer loyalty and word-of-mouth referrals.
Refund rates by product are a signal that almost nobody monitors until they notice a revenue problem. If you pull a monthly CSV export and calculate refunds as a percentage of sales for each product, you will often find that one or two products drive a disproportionate share of refunds. The cause is usually a mismatch between what the product page promises and what the customer receives — either the description is misleading, the product quality does not meet expectations, or the delivery experience (for digital products: the download link, the file format, the content quality) falls short. Catching this pattern at the 5% refund rate instead of the 20% refund rate is the difference between a quick product fix and a damaged payment processor relationship.
Troubleshooting common issues
| Problem | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Orders not appearing after a customer completed payment | Payment was processed in Test Mode and you are viewing the Live orders list, or there is a Stripe/PayPal webhook delivery failure that prevented the order from being created | Check Settings → Payments to confirm you are in Live Mode for real transactions; if you are in Live Mode and orders are still missing, check your Stripe Dashboard's webhook logs for delivery failures — UniLink relies on Stripe webhooks to create orders on payment confirmation; contact UniLink support with the Stripe payment intent ID if webhook failures are confirmed |
| Digital product order is stuck at Pending instead of auto-fulfilling | The digital product block's file link or access configuration was not set up correctly, or the payment webhook was received but the fulfillment trigger encountered an error | Open the order detail and check for any error notes; verify that the Digital block for this product has a valid file URL or download link configured in the block settings; if the file URL is missing or broken, fix it in the block settings and contact the customer manually with the correct download link; future orders will auto-fulfill once the block is correctly configured |
| Refund fails with an error message | The original charge has already been fully refunded (cannot refund more than the original amount), the Stripe or PayPal account has insufficient funds to cover the refund payout, or the payment method used for the original charge no longer exists (expired card, closed account) | Check the order record to confirm the current refunded amount against the original charge; if partial refunds were already issued, ensure the new refund amount does not exceed the remaining refundable balance; for PayPal, log into your PayPal account and confirm your balance covers the refund; if the original payment method is no longer valid, the refund may need to be issued via bank transfer or check outside of UniLink |
| Invoice PDF is missing your business name or address | The business name, address, or tax ID fields in Profile settings are not filled in | Go to Dashboard → Settings → Profile and complete the business information fields; return to Orders and regenerate the invoice — the updated Profile information will be reflected on the new PDF; previously generated PDFs are not updated retroactively, so you will need to regenerate for any invoices that need to be corrected |
| CSV export is missing some orders you expected to see | Active filters are excluding some orders — the export always reflects the currently filtered view, not the full order history | Clear all filters before exporting if you want a complete history; specifically check that no date range filter is active (it may have been set from a previous session and not cleared) and that the status filter is set to All rather than a specific fulfillment status; after clearing all filters, re-export the CSV |
| Customer says they did not receive a download link or course access after payment | The auto-fulfillment email may have landed in the customer's spam folder, or the customer's email address was entered incorrectly at checkout, or the fulfillment email was sent to a different address than the one the customer checks | Open the order record and confirm the customer email address is correct; use the email link in the order detail to send the download link or access instructions manually; advise the customer to check their spam folder for the original fulfillment email; if the email address in the order record is incorrect, note this for your records but understand that the original fulfillment email cannot be re-routed — the manual resend is the resolution |
Best fit for
- Creators selling digital products, courses, or memberships who want all their transaction history in one place alongside the page builder and email marketing, without maintaining a separate order management tool
- Small product sellers using UniLink's Shop block for physical goods who need a lightweight fulfillment workflow — daily pending order review, mark as shipped, enter tracking number — without integrating a full-scale e-commerce platform
- Service businesses (coaches, consultants, appointment-based providers) who use UniLink for booking and payment and need a clean record of paid transactions for invoicing and accounting
- Anyone who needs to issue occasional refunds and wants them processed directly through UniLink rather than logging into Stripe or PayPal separately for each refund
Not the right tool if
- You sell physical products at high volume (hundreds of orders per week) and need automated shipping label generation, carrier rate comparison, multi-carrier tracking, or pick-and-pack workflow tools — those requirements need a dedicated fulfillment platform like Shippo, ShipStation, or Shopify Shipping
- You need order management across multiple sales channels (UniLink, Shopify, Etsy, Amazon) consolidated into one interface — UniLink Orders only shows transactions processed through UniLink; cross-channel order management requires a multi-channel OMS
- You need advanced post-purchase automation (automatic fulfillment emails with custom templates, customer tagging on purchase, post-purchase upsell sequences triggered by specific products) beyond UniLink's built-in auto-fulfillment and email tools
Frequently asked questions
Does issuing a refund in UniLink actually return the money to the customer, or just update the record?
Issuing a refund in UniLink calls the Stripe or PayPal refund API directly — the customer's money is actually returned by the payment provider, not just marked as refunded in UniLink's records. You do not need to log into Stripe or PayPal separately. For Stripe card transactions, the refund typically appears on the customer's card statement within 5–10 business days, depending on their issuing bank. For PayPal, refunds typically process within 3–5 business days. Both UniLink and Stripe/PayPal will show the refund in their respective records once it is processed. Platform fees are also typically refunded on full refunds, depending on your Stripe account settings and plan.
Can customers see their order history anywhere, or only through the confirmation email they receive?
Currently, customers receive an order confirmation and fulfillment email (for digital products) at the time of purchase, but there is no customer-facing order history portal within UniLink. If a customer needs a record of their purchase, you can generate an invoice PDF from the order detail view and email it to them using the customer email link in the order record. For customers who need proof of purchase for expense reporting or tax purposes, a generated invoice is the appropriate document to provide.
How do I handle an order where the customer wants an exchange rather than a refund?
UniLink Orders does not have a native exchange workflow. The standard approach is: issue a full or partial refund for the original order from the order detail view, then either have the customer place a new order for the replacement product at the correct price, or if no additional payment is needed, manually grant access (for digital products or courses) or ship the replacement item and mark the original order as Fulfilled with a note explaining the exchange. Document the exchange in the internal notes field on the original order record so you have a clear audit trail of what happened and why the order was refunded and replaced.
Is there a way to add a custom thank-you page or post-purchase redirect for buyers?
Post-purchase redirect configuration is done in the individual product block settings, not in the Orders section. For Shop, Digital, Course, and other payment blocks, the block settings include an option to redirect customers to a specific URL after successful payment — a thank-you page, a onboarding flow, a video, or any other URL. The Orders section records that the purchase occurred; the post-purchase experience (what the customer sees immediately after paying) is controlled in the block that processed the payment.
Can I filter orders by the specific UniLink page they came from if I have multiple pages?
The Orders filter options include filtering by product name, which indirectly identifies which page and block generated the transaction — if your product names are distinct across pages, this filter is sufficient. If you have the same product on multiple pages, the order record includes the source context that identifies which page it came from. For reporting across multiple pages, the CSV export is the most flexible approach — export your full order history and use spreadsheet filtering on the product or source column to analyze each page's performance independently.
- Digital products, courses, and memberships are auto-fulfilled on payment — if an order for these product types is stuck at Pending, there is a configuration problem in the product block that needs to be fixed, and the customer needs to be contacted manually with their access or download link.
- Refunds issued from UniLink call the Stripe or PayPal API directly and actually return the customer's money — you do not need to log into Stripe or PayPal separately to process a refund that was initiated from the Orders section.
- Physical product sellers should establish a daily routine of filtering for Pending orders, shipping those items, and marking them Fulfilled in UniLink — accurate fulfillment status is the foundation of useful order reporting and prevents the customer confusion that comes from orders showing Pending days after they shipped.
- The CSV export always reflects the currently active filters — clear all filters before exporting if you want a complete order history, and set filters intentionally if you want a subset (e.g., last month's fulfilled orders for accounting).
- Monitoring refund rates by product on a monthly basis is a leading indicator of product quality or expectation mismatch problems — catching a rising refund rate at 5% is far less costly than catching it at 20% when it has already affected your payment processor standing.
Ready to start selling on your UniLink page? Create your free UniLink page, connect Stripe or PayPal in Settings, and add a Shop, Digital, or Course block — every transaction will be tracked automatically in Orders so you can manage fulfillment, issue refunds, and export your sales data from one place.