OrderCarry Order Automation for WooCommerce

Installation

This guide assumes you have never done any of this before. Every step says exactly what to click.

Before you start

• WooCommerce must already be installed and active.
• WordPress 6.4 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer.
• For Google Sheets you need a normal Google account. You do not need a Google Cloud account, a credit card, or an API key.

Step 1: Install the plugin

From your WordPress admin:

1. Go to Plugins → Add Plugin.
2. Search for OrderCarry.
3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

If you downloaded a ZIP file instead:

1. Go to Plugins → Add Plugin → Upload Plugin.
2. Choose the ZIP file, click Install Now, then Activate.

Step 2: Open the settings

Go to WooCommerce → OrderCarry in the left menu.

You will see these tabs:

• Dashboard — the first thing you see. Every destination in one place, whether each one is working, and a one-click CSV of your orders. There is nothing to set up here; it just reports on what the other tabs do.
• Google Sheets — one row per order in a spreadsheet.
• Webhook — the full order as JSON, for Make, n8n, Zapier, or your own system.
• Custom Email — your own email, to yourself or to the customer.
• Order Automations — watches for an order stuck in a status (a payment that never cleared, an order nobody shipped) and tells you, without needing a destination of its own — it reuses whichever ones you have already set up.
• Logs — what was sent, and what failed.
• Free vs Pro — a plain table of what is in each, so you never have to guess whether something you want is behind a paywall. This is where you will find PDF Invoice: a real invoice with your logo, generated and attached to the order email automatically. It needs a Pro licence, which is why it has no tab of its own in the free version — the table explains it and links to upgrading.

You can use one destination tab, or all of them. Set up whichever you need. Each one works on its own, and none of them depend on each other.

Step 3: Send orders to Google Sheets

First, create the sheet and its script.

1. In the Google Sheets tab, click Where do I get this URL?. The instructions open up, with a script already prepared for you.
2. Click Create a blank Google Sheet. A new spreadsheet opens in Google. (If you already have a sheet you want to use, open that one instead.)
3. In that Google sheet, click Extensions in the top menu, then Apps Script. A code editor opens in a new tab.
4. Delete everything you see in that editor. It usually contains a few lines like function myFunction() {}. Remove all of it.
5. Go back to the OrderCarry tab in WordPress and click Copy script.
6. Go back to the Apps Script editor and paste (Ctrl+V, or Cmd+V on a Mac).
7. Click the save icon (the floppy disk), or press Ctrl+S.

Now publish the script so your shop can reach it.

1. In the Apps Script editor, click the blue Deploy button (top right), then New deployment.
2. Click the gear icon next to “Select type” and choose Web app.
3. Set Execute as to Me.
4. Set Who has access to Anyone. This sounds unsafe, but it is not: the script only accepts requests that carry your secret, which is already inside the script you pasted.
5. Click Deploy. Google will ask you to authorise the script the first time. Click through the permission screens. If you see a warning that the app is not verified, click Advanced, then Go to (your project). It is your own script — you are trusting yourself.
6. Google now shows a Web app URL that ends in /exec. Copy it.

Finally, tell the plugin about it.

1. Back in WordPress, paste that URL into Google Sheet web app URL.
2. Switch the toggle to ON.
3. Choose when orders should be sent under Send orders when they become (see the explanation further down).
4. Click Save changes.
5. Click Send test order.

Within a few seconds a test row should appear in your Google sheet, and the plugin should show a green success message. The column headers are created automatically the first time.

Once you are happy it works, open Empty this sheet on the card and click Delete every row. That clears out the test rows and leaves the headings, so the sheet starts clean when your first real order arrives. Your orders in WooCommerce are not touched.

Step 4: Send orders to a webhook

Use this if you want the order data in Make, n8n, Zapier, Airtable, an ERP, or your own application.

1. Open the Webhook tab.
2. Paste the address that should receive the orders into URL. It must start with https://.
3. Switch the toggle to ON.
4. Choose when orders should be sent under Send orders when they become.
5. Click Save changes, then Send test order.

Your receiving system should get a JSON message containing the order.

Every request also carries a header called X-Ordsync-Signature. This is proof that the request really came from your shop and not from someone else. If the system on the other end supports it, use that header to verify the request. You will find the signing key under Advanced → Verifying that a request really came from your shop.

If you just want to try it out first, create a free test address at webhook.site, paste it in, and press Send test order. You will see the order arrive.

Step 5: Send an email for every order

1. Open the Custom Email tab.
2. In Send to, type the email address that should receive the message. Type the single word customer instead if you want it sent to the buyer.
3. Write the Subject.
4. Write the Message.
5. Switch the toggle to ON, click Save changes, then Send test order.

In the subject and the message you can use variables. They are replaced with the real values of each order:

{order_number} `{status}` `{date}` `{customer_name}` `{customer_email}`
{customer_phone} `{items}` `{total}` `{currency}` `{store_name}`
{coupons} `{shipping_method}` `{transaction_id}` `{order_note}`

For example, a subject of New order {order_number} - {total} arrives as “New order 1042 – 59.90”.

The full list is always shown under the message box, so you do not have to remember it.

Step 6: Get told about an order that is stuck

This is free, and it does not need a destination of its own — it reuses the sheet, webhook or email you already set up in the steps above.

1. Open the Order Automations tab.
2. Under Choose the order status, pick When an order becomes — for example Failed, for a payment nobody chased.
3. Under Choose how long to wait, pick Wait for — for example 30 minutes. The clock starts the moment the order reaches that status.
4. Leave Only continue if it is still in this status ticked. This is the re-check: when the wait is over, OrderCarry looks at the order again, and only tells you if it is still in that status. Untick it only for something that will never fix itself, such as a refund.
5. Under Choose where to send the order, tick one or more of your existing destinations — the sheet, webhook or email you already configured.
6. Switch the toggle at the top to ON, then click Save automations.

The panel on the right shows exactly what will happen, in order, using the settings you just chose — use it to check the wait time and destinations before saving.

One automation is free. A common second one: Processing, wait 24 hours, re-check on, so you hear about any order that has sat unshipped for a day.

Step 7: Generate PDF invoices (Pro)

This needs a Pro licence. The free version does not show a PDF Invoice tab at all — see it on the Free vs Pro tab first. Once you have a licence, a PDF Invoice tab appears in the tab bar, and the steps below apply to it.

1. Open the PDF Invoice tab.
2. Under Choose who receives the invoice, type an address, or the word customer to send it to the buyer.
3. Under Customize your invoice, choose a Logo from your Media Library, and fill in the Invoice heading (for example RECHNUNG for a German shop), your Tax or VAT number, and a Footer line for payment terms or a returns note.
4. Under Choose when to create the invoice, pick the status that should trigger it, the same as the other destinations.
5. Switch the toggle to ON, click Save changes, then Send test order. Use Preview invoice first if you just want to see how it looks without sending anything.

The invoice is attached to the order confirmation email automatically — there is nothing else to connect.

Understanding “Send orders when they become”

This decides when an order is sent. It is the setting people get wrong most often.

• Processing — the usual choice. The order is sent once the customer has paid.
• Completed — sent when you mark the order as finished.
• Any status — sent as soon as the order is created, whatever happens next.

Important: if you take bank transfer, invoice, or cash on delivery, those orders often never become “Processing”. They go from pending straight to on-hold or completed. If you choose Processing, those orders are never sent and you will think the plugin is broken. Choose Any status instead.

Each destination has its own setting. Your sheet can use Processing while your webhook uses Any status.

Step 8: Let the sheet set an order’s status (Pro)

This needs a Pro licence. It lets somebody change an order’s status in the Google Sheet — for example from Processing to Completed — and the order follows in WooCommerce a few minutes later. WooCommerce sends the customer its usual email, exactly as if you had changed the status yourself.

1. If your sheet was set up before version 1.2.0, paste the script again: open the Google Sheets tab, click Where do I get this URL?, copy the script into your sheet’s Apps Script editor, then click Deploy → Manage deployments, edit the deployment and choose New version. Do this for every sheet you use.
2. On the Google Sheets tab, on the right, open Let the sheet set an order’s status.
3. Tick the statuses the sheet is allowed to set. Only Processing and Completed are ticked at first; Refunded and Cancelled stay off unless you tick them.
4. Choose How often to check the sheet.
5. Tick Turn this on, then click Save write-back.

Now change a status in the Status column. A change only counts once it has stayed the same for two checks, so there is time to fix a mistake. The result appears in a column called OrderCarry next to the row, and a note is added to the order.

Step 9: Check that it is working

Place a real test order in your shop, or change an existing order to the status you selected.

Then open the Logs tab. You will see each attempt, whether it succeeded, and the error message if it failed.

The coloured label at the top right of each destination also tells you the state at a glance:

• Sent … ago — real orders are arriving. This is what you want.
• Test passed — no orders yet — the connection works, but no real order has been sent yet.
• Last attempt failed — something is wrong. Hover over it to see why.
• Nothing sent yet — not used yet.

If something does not work

Nothing arrives at all. Check the trigger status first, as described above. Bank transfer orders and Processing are the most common cause.

The Google sheet stays empty. Make sure you set “Who has access” to Anyone when deploying. If you changed the script afterwards, you must deploy again: Deploy → Manage deployments → edit → New version. A URL that ends in /dev will not work; it must end in /exec.

Emails do not arrive. This is almost never the plugin. WordPress itself often cannot send email on cheap hosting. Install any SMTP plugin, configure it, and try again.

The row appears a minute later, not instantly. That is normal and deliberate. Orders are sent in the background so your checkout is never slowed down or blocked by a slow connection.

You want to see what is queued. Open Advanced → View the queue.