Packing slips for production (Production manifests)

What are Orderline packing slips for?

Orderline packing slips are work sheets you hand to your staff while they make an order. Each slip has what they need to build the product the way the customer asked: product image, title, quantity, customizations, production stage and order notes. Use them when your team works from paper on the bench. If you only need a branded slip to put in the box, Shopify’s own packing slip editor is enough.

You print them from the same Orderline orders list you use for production.

The short answer

Select orders on the Orderline orders list and click Print packing slips, up to 25 orders at a time. Choose a layout in Settings → Packing slips: Detailed prints one order per page, and Compact fits several orders on one page as a floor checklist. Both layouts print each product’s production stage. You can add extra fields, such as a delivery date or card message, from the columns you already use.

How do you print packing slips?

Packing slips print from the orders list. Select the orders, click Print packing slips, and Orderline builds the slips in the layout your shop has chosen.

1. Open Orders in Orderline.
2. Select the orders you want with the row checkboxes.
3. Choose Print packing slips.

You can print up to 25 orders at a time. If you select more, Orderline asks you to shrink the selection.

On a computer, Orderline downloads a PDF. On a phone or tablet (Shopify Mobile or a small browser) a download would not open, so Orderline opens a print preview instead, then your device’s print sheet: AirPrint, Save PDF or a nearby printer.

Closed-order views (completed, cancelled and refunded) hide packing slips. Those lists are read-only history, and slips are for open work. See completed and cancelled orders.

Should you use the Detailed or Compact layout?

Use Detailed when each order needs its own sheet with the address, product images and shop name, for example to travel with the order through the workshop. Use Compact when you want a short checklist of many orders to spot-check, write on and hand out. You switch between them in Settings → Packing slips under Layout, and the choice applies to the whole shop.

Detailed prints one order per page, with every block you have turned on.

Compact puts several orders on one page. Each order prints its order number, the customer’s name, the order date, and every product with a plain quantity (1, 2, 3). Variants, customizations, notes and extra fields still print when they are turned on. The shop name, street address, bill-to address, product images and footer never print in Compact, so those switches are hidden while Compact is selected. Your saved settings for them stay as they are, ready for when you switch back to Detailed.

Take a shop that sells printed cups. Every morning the owner selects the day’s cup orders, prints them in Compact and gets a few pages instead of one page per order. The team ticks each order off with a pen as it is packed.

Does the packing slip show the production stage?

Yes. Both layouts print each product’s Orderline production stage under the product name, in italics, so whoever picks up the sheet knows where that piece is. A product still in the default Orders stage has no production stage yet, so nothing prints for it. If one Shopify line is split across two stages, it prints as two rows.

The stage is always printed. It is not a toggle or an extra field. See custom production statuses to set up your stages.

How do you customize the slip?

Open Settings → Packing slips to choose the layout, add extra fields and turn built-in blocks on or off. Changes save automatically, and the live preview uses a sample order from your shop. In Compact, the preview repeats the sample order so you can see several orders sharing a page.

You need permission to manage settings. Staff who only work the orders list can still print using the shop’s current layout.

How do you add a delivery date, phone or message to the slip?

Anything you want on the slip besides the built-in blocks must already exist as a column, visible or hidden. Add it in Settings → Columns first, then pick it on the packing slip settings.

1. If the field is not in Settings → Columns yet, add it there. Uncheck it if you do not want it on the orders table.
2. Back on Settings → Packing slips, under Add field, pick that column.
3. Choose Position. Header (under order number) suits dates, phone numbers and delivery windows. Below items suits a card message or extra notes after the products.
4. Click Add.

You can add up to 20 extra fields. A field that is empty on an order does not print, so there is no blank caption. Use the switch on a field to hide it without deleting it, or the delete control to remove it from the slip. Extra fields print in both layouts, including address fields you added as columns.

For example, a florist’s checkout attribute Shipping date becomes a column, stays off the table if you like, and prints in the slip header. A flower delivery business can add the delivery date and time the same way.

Which blocks can you turn on or off?

These blocks make up the default slip, and all start on. Turn any of them off if you do not need it. The last column shows whether the block prints in Compact.

Block	What it prints	In Compact
Shop name	Your shop name at the top	No
Order date	When the order was created	Yes
Ship to	Shipping address	No, customer name only
Bill to	Billing address	No
Product images	Small thumbnails	No
Variant / options	Variant title next to the product	Yes
Line-item customizations	Visible line-item properties, with hidden _ keys left off	Yes
Notes	Customer checkout note and internal production notes	Yes
Footer	Thank-you line	No

The order of the slip is fixed: order number, header fields, line items, below-item fields, notes and footer. You place extra fields into the header or below the items, and there is no free-form canvas to drag things around.

Orderline packing slips do not offer logos, custom fonts, HTML templates or per-staff layouts. If you need those, an invoice and packing slip app such as Order Printer Pro is the better fit.

Can you use Orderline slips in Shopify’s packing slip editor?

No. Orderline packing slips are PDFs printed from the work list, not Liquid templates for Shopify’s built-in packing slip editor.

If you want a branded customer packing slip in Shopify Admin, use the free Shopify packing slip templates designer. It generates Liquid for Settings → Shipping and delivery → Documents → Packing slip template. That export is not imported into Orderline.

Related guides

• Free Shopify packing slip templates: a visual designer for Shopify’s native packing slip editor
• Custom order table columns: add the fields you want to print
• Custom production statuses: the stages that print under each product
• Internal production notes: staff notes that print with the customer note
• The Orderline orders view: print from the same list you work
• Fulfill, hold, unhold, and cancel: mark as fulfilled after you pack

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