Add a custom item to a draft order in Shopify
Some of what you sell is not a product in your catalogue: gift wrap, rush embroidery, a service fee. A custom item adds it to an order with a name, a price, and a quantity you type in. This tutorial adds two custom items to a draft order for Maya Chen.
Written · Shopify admin, desktop steps · 5 minutes read
The worked example
| Customer | Maya Chen |
| 2 × Trail Crew Tee, $28.00 | $56.00 |
| 1 × Rush embroidery, custom item | $15.00 |
| 1 × Gift message card, custom item | $3.00 |
| Subtotal | $74.00 |
| Shipping | $8.00 |
| Total before tax | $82.00 |
Download the order lines: custom-item-lines.csv (153 bytes).
The lines for the order, including the two custom items. The four line totals add to the $74.00 subtotal in the slip above.
1Open Drafts and create the order
From your Shopify admin, go to Orders, then Drafts, and click Create order. Add Maya Chen as the customer.
2Add the two tees
Click Product, search for the Trail Crew Tee, select it, set the quantity to 2, and click Done. Two tees at $28.00 is $56.00.
3Add rush embroidery as a custom item
Click Custom item. In the Add custom item dialog, enter the item name Rush embroidery, the price 15.00, and the quantity 1, then click Add. A custom item is a product, service, or fee that you add to an order but that does not exist in your admin as a regular product.
4Set the taxable and physical checkboxes
Two checkboxes are offered in the dialog: Item is taxable if the item should be taxed, and Item is a physical product if it is a physical item. Rush embroidery is a service on a physical product, so check the taxable box if your tax settings call for it, and leave the physical box unchecked for the service itself.
5Add the gift message card
Click Custom item again, enter Gift message card at $3.00 for a quantity of 1, and click Add. The gift message card is physical, so check Item is a physical product. The subtotal is now $74.00.
6Add shipping and finish
Add a shipping rate of $8.00. The total before tax is $74.00 plus $8.00, or $82.00. Then send the invoice to Maya Chen so she can pay through the checkout link. When payment is accepted, an order is created for it on the Orders page.
The arithmetic
| Line | Quantity | Unit price | Line total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trail Crew Tee | 2 | $28.00 | $56.00 |
| Rush embroidery, custom item | 1 | $15.00 | $15.00 |
| Gift message card, custom item | 1 | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Subtotal | $74.00 | ||
| Shipping | $8.00 | ||
| Total before tax | $82.00 |
The total before tax is $82.00. The two custom items add $18.00 to the $56.00 of products.
Held at the counter
A custom item has no inventory. A custom item is typed in by hand and is not tracked in your catalogue. It cannot go out of stock and it cannot be restocked, so do not use a custom item for a product you need to count.
The checkboxes change the tax and the fulfilment. Item is taxable decides whether tax applies to the item, and Item is a physical product decides whether it is treated as a physical item. A service marked physical, or a physical item marked as a service, is taxed and shipped wrong.
Custom items are duplicated, products are not always. When you duplicate an order, custom items carry over. Products that have been removed from your catalogue do not. A custom item is the safer line for one-off charges that must survive a duplicate.
Sources
- Creating draft orders — Shopify's help pages: the full create-draft steps, custom items, inventory warnings, reserving items, and the invoice, payment, and payment-terms options.