Linnworks' open-order workflow exists for a good reason: an order comes in, someone picks it, packs it, ships it, and only then is it processed. But a counter sale breaks the model — the customer is standing in front of you, the goods are already in their hands, and the "picking" happened when they pointed at the shelf. Forcing that order through the open-orders queue creates work that protects nothing. That's what the auto-process toggle in Trade Order POS is for: on submit, the order goes straight from open to processed in Linnworks.
What auto-process actually does
With the toggle on, submitting an order at the POS creates it in Linnworks and immediately advances it to processed — one action, no stop in the open-orders screen. Stock is decremented, the sale is recorded, and the order appears in processed history like any despatched order. With the toggle off, the order lands in open orders as normal and flows through your usual pick-pack-despatch routine.
The important word is toggle. It's optional and it's a choice you make deliberately, because the right setting depends entirely on whether the goods physically leave with the customer.
When auto-process is the right call
The walk-out sale
This is the canonical case. A trade customer comes to the counter, buys six boxes of fixings, pays, and carries them to the van. There is nothing left to pick — the fulfilment already happened. Leaving that order in open orders means someone in the warehouse sees a pick job for stock that's already gone. Best case, they waste time discovering it's a counter sale; worst case, they pick fresh stock for an order that was fulfilled an hour ago, and now your inventory is wrong in the opposite direction.
Collections against a completed handover
If the goods are assembled at the counter while the customer waits and handed over there and then, the same logic applies: the moment of submission and the moment of fulfilment are the same moment, so processing immediately is simply recording reality.
Why speed matters here
Counter sales that linger in open orders don't just create phantom pick jobs — they distort the numbers. Open-order counts, picking workload estimates and end-of-day despatch reports all get polluted by orders that were never really "open". Auto-processing keeps the open-orders screen meaning what it should: work that still needs doing.
When to leave picking on
Turn the toggle off — or think hard — in these situations:
- Delivery orders taken at the counter. Customer orders at the counter but the goods ship next day. That's a normal fulfilment: it needs picking, packing and a label, so it belongs in open orders.
- Part-collect, part-deliver. If any line isn't leaving with the customer, don't auto-process the order. Mixed fulfilment through a single processed order is how stock records drift.
- Later collections. An order placed today for collection on Friday needs to be picked and staged. Auto-processing it today decrements stock correctly but removes it from the workflow your warehouse team actually watches.
- Back-to-back stock. If you sometimes sell counter items you don't physically hold and fulfil from an inbound delivery, processing at submit would misstate stock. Keep those in the normal flow.
A useful rule of thumb for staff: auto-process on means "the goods are leaving with the customer right now". If that sentence isn't true, the toggle should be off for that context.
Pair it with auto-email confirmations
A processed counter sale skips the despatch step — which is usually where confirmation emails get triggered. Trade Order POS covers this with an optional auto-email toggle: on submit, the customer receives a branded PDF confirmation of the order (with your own logo on the Team plan). For a walk-out sale, that means the buyer's office has line-level written confirmation of quantities and prices before the van leaves your yard. Combined with payment status captured at the point of sale — Unpaid, Paid or Pending, written back with the order — the paper trail on a thirty-second counter transaction ends up better than most couriered orders. We've covered why that matters for month-end in recording payment status for credit control.
Rolling it out without surprises
- Start with the toggle off for a week. Watch which submitted orders your warehouse touches and which they skip past — that tells you what proportion of your counter trade is genuine walk-out business.
- Agree the rule of thumb above with counter staff and the warehouse together, so both sides know what a processed-at-submit order means.
- Switch it on and spot-check stock on your five fastest counter SKUs for the first fortnight. If counts hold, the setting is earning its keep.
- Keep an eye on returns. A processed order that comes back follows your normal returns route — nothing special, but staff should know walk-out sales are processed orders, not open ones to amend.
If you're still choosing your counter tooling, our guide to choosing a trade counter POS for Linnworks walks through the wider checklist — barcode scan-to-add, live stock, VAT-aware carts and customer lookup included.
Trade Order POS gives you the auto-process toggle, auto-email PDF confirmations and payment status capture in one Linnworks-native tool — from £28.79/month with a 14-day free trial. See it at trade-pos.mcp-g.com.