The Order Guide is the central fulfillment tool for managing merchandise orders across all productions. It lives in Backstage under the Fulfillment tab and is accessible to all authenticated team members — but most of its management features are intended for Fulfillment Managers and Admins.

The guide is organized into seven tabs, each covering a distinct part of the order lifecycle:

Accessing the Order Guide

1. Log into Backstage with your work email and password.

2. Click the Fulfillment tab in the top navigation bar.

3. Under Team Tools, click the Order Guide card. It opens in the same tab.

4. The guide authenticates against your existing Backstage session — you won't be prompted to log in again. If you're not logged in, you'll be redirected to the Backstage login page automatically.

Navigation

The seven tabs appear in the sticky nav bar at the top. Click any tab to switch views. Your current tab stays highlighted in gold.

The top-right nav area contains:

• Version / Date fields — optional label for the current guide version
• ⟳ Shopify — pull live product data from your Shopify store
• ⬇ Backup — download a local HTML backup file
• ☁ Save — force an immediate cloud save (auto-save runs every 60 seconds)

The Products tab is the heart of the guide. Every product in the order lives here, organized by collection. At the top, summary stats give you a real-time snapshot of total units, estimated COGS, estimated revenue, average margin, and product count.

Adding a Product Manually

1. Click + Add Product in the toolbar.

2. Fill in the product name, collection, SKU, retail price, unit cost, and shipping estimate. Upload a thumbnail image if desired.

3. Under Sizes / Variants, toggle the sizes that apply and enter order quantities for each.

4. Assign a vendor from the dropdown (vendors must be added on the Vendors tab first).

5. Click Save Product. The card appears in the product list immediately.

Toolbar Buttons

Collection Filter Bar

Below the toolbar, filter chips let you view one collection at a time or all products together. Collections are defined on the Data Upload tab via the SKU Identifier → Collection Mapping table.

Product Cards

Each product appears as a collapsible card. Click the card header to expand and see the variant quantity table. Key fields visible on the collapsed card:

• Thumbnail image (from Shopify or manual upload)
• Product name and SKU
• Collection dot color
• Retail price and vendor name

Inside the expanded card, you can adjust order quantities per variant, edit pricing, add notes, and manage the tech pack.

The Shopify sync pulls your active product catalog directly from your Shopify Admin and merges it into the guide. It uses a Cloudflare Worker as a secure proxy — your Shopify token never touches the browser.

What Gets Pulled

• Product titles and vendor names
• All active variant titles, SKUs, and retail prices
• Featured product images
• Inventory quantities (from Shopify's inventory tracking)

How the Merge Works

Sync matches incoming Shopify variants to existing guide products by SKU. If a SKU already exists in the guide, the title, price, image, and vendor are updated but your order quantities and cost data are preserved. If a SKU is new, a new product card is created with quantity set to zero.

Running a Sync

1. Click ⟳ Shopify in the top-right nav bar, or click ⟳ Sync Shopify in the Products toolbar.

2. A status toast appears while the sync runs. For stores with many products, it may take 10–20 seconds as it paginates through all results.

3. When complete, new or updated products appear in the list. Check the toast for a count of added vs. updated items.

Troubleshooting Sync Errors

The Pricing tab presents every product's financial data in a single editable table. All fields update live and feed back into the Products tab summary stats.

Columns

The Inventory tab shows stock counts per location for each product variant. Location columns are created automatically when you upload inventory CSVs on the Data Upload tab, or populated by the Shopify sync.

Location Tabs

Use the Location pill tabs to switch between venues. Each location shows a table of all products with their stock counts. If a product is not stocked at a location, it is hidden from that view.

Weeks of Stock

The Inventory tab includes a Weeks of Stock panel — the key reorder planning tool. It tells you how many weeks of sell-through you have left for each product at current sales velocity, and flags items that will run out before new stock can arrive.

See Section 12 for the full setup and usage guide for this feature.

Exporting Inventory

Use the ⬇ Export XLS or ⬇ Export PDF buttons to export inventory counts for the selected collection. The collection filter and location tab selection both affect the export output.

The Tech Pack tab is the bill of materials (BOM) layer of the guide. It lets you define global production options and then assign them to individual products.

Global Library

Before assigning anything to products, build out the Global Library:

• Option fields — add selectable values for colorways, fabric types, print techniques, finishes, etc. These become button selections on each product's tech pack panel.
• Components Library — add individual components (e.g. labels, hangtags, patches) with name, cost, and optional image. Click + Add Component.
• Packaging Library — add packaging items (polybags, boxes, mailers) the same way.

Assigning to Products

Scroll down past the Global Library to see a product-by-product tech pack view. Each product card shows:

• Toggle buttons for each option field (colorway, fabric, etc.)
• Component selection with per-unit cost field
• Packaging selection with per-unit cost field
• Production type and assembly notes

Exporting Tech Packs

Click ⬇ Export Tech Pack PDF to generate a print-ready spec sheet for each product in the selected collection. Each product gets its own page with image, all assigned options, BOM, and packaging.

The Vendors tab is your supplier directory. Vendors must be added here before they can be assigned to products — the product modal's vendor dropdown is populated from this list.

Adding a Vendor

1. Click + Add Vendor.

2. Fill in the vendor name, contact name, email, phone, country, and minimum order quantity (MOQ).

3. Optionally add notes (lead time, payment terms, etc.).

4. Click Save Vendor.

Vendor Cards

Each vendor card shows their contact info, a count of products assigned to them, and quick action buttons to edit or export their product list. Products are automatically listed under their vendor when the vendor is assigned on the product card.

The Shipping tab has three components: an Order Deadline Calculator, a Shipping Cost Estimator, and a China → USA Transit Reference table with a 2026–2027 public holiday calendar for both countries.

Order Deadline Calculator

Enter your need-by date, shipping method, production lead time, and buffer days. The calculator works backwards to tell you the latest date you can place a purchase order and still receive goods on time.

Shipping Cost Estimator

Enter total shipment weight (lbs), volume (CBM), shipping method, and unit count. The estimator returns a low/high cost range and a per-unit cost breakdown based on industry rate benchmarks.

Transit Reference Table

The reference table lists common China → USA shipping methods with estimated transit times and general cost ranges. The holiday calendar flags factory closure periods in China and US federal holidays — both affect lead times and should be factored into your order deadlines.

The Data Upload tab is where you configure collections and bulk-import data from Shopify CSV exports. It's typically used during initial setup or when refreshing the guide for a new season.

SKU Identifier → Collection Mapping

Collections in the guide are determined by matching a portion of each SKU against your mapping table. For example, mapping MHE will group all SKUs containing that string into the "Maybe Happy Ending" collection.

• SKU Identifier — any substring that appears within the SKU (case-insensitive). Longer, more specific identifiers take priority over shorter ones.
• Collection Name — the display name shown throughout the guide.
• Color — a dot color used to visually distinguish collections in lists and filter chips.

After adding or editing mappings, click ↺ Refresh Guide to re-assign all existing products to their new collections.

Products CSV (Shopify Export)

Export from Shopify Admin → Products → Export → All Products → CSV for Excel. Upload here to bulk-populate:

• Variant retail price (Variant Price column)
• Unit cost (Cost per item column)
• Weight converted to oz (Variant Grams ÷ 28.35)

Collection Inventory CSVs

Add one slot per collection. Drop in the Shopify inventory export for that collection. The guide automatically detects location columns — everything after the COO column is treated as a venue/location. Items marked "not stocked" are excluded.

Par Levels CSV

Upload a CSV with columns: Title, Option1 Value, SKU, then one column per location containing par (minimum) quantities. Par data is matched by SKU. When stock falls below par at a location, a deficit badge appears in red on the Inventory tab.

Sales Velocity CSV (for Weeks of Stock)

To power the Weeks of Stock feature on the Inventory tab, upload a Shopify Sales by Product report CSV. Export it from Shopify Admin → Analytics → Reports → Sales by product. Set the date range to the period you want to base velocity on (e.g. last 12 weeks), then upload it here and enter the number of weeks the report covers. See Section 12 for full details.

The Order Guide uses Firebase Firestore as its data store. All changes are shared in real time with any other team member who has the guide open.

Autosave

The guide autosaves every 60 seconds and after any significant action (adding a product, syncing Shopify, etc.). The autosave indicator in the top-right nav shows the last save time. Product images are stored as compressed thumbnails — if an image is very large, the autosave strips it from the cloud document and keeps it locally only, to stay within Firestore's document size limit.

Manual Save

Click ☁ Save at any time to force an immediate save. Do this before closing the tab or handing off to another team member.

Backup Download

Click ⬇ Backup to download a self-contained HTML snapshot of the guide with all current data embedded. Store this in your shared drive as a point-in-time record. The backup file can be opened offline — it is a complete, working copy of the guide at that moment.

The Weeks of Stock feature on the Inventory tab is your primary reorder planning tool. It answers the question: "Do we have enough inventory on hand to last until the next production run arrives?"

How It Works

For each product variant, the guide calculates:

Step 1 — Set Your Supply Settings

At the top of the Inventory tab, find the Supply Settings card. Enter your production and logistics timeline. These settings are saved to the cloud and apply to all products.

The Reorder Window (total weeks you need before stock runs out) is shown automatically as the sum of the three fields.

Step 2 — Upload Your Sales Velocity Data

Go to the Data Upload tab and find the Sales Velocity CSV section.

1. In Shopify Admin, go to Analytics → Reports → Sales by product.

2. Set the date range to the period you want to use as your velocity baseline (e.g. the last 12 weeks of active touring).

3. Click Export → CSV.

4. Back in the Order Guide → Data Upload tab, drop the file into the Sales Velocity CSV upload zone.

5. Enter the number of weeks covered by the report (e.g. 12). This is used to compute the average weekly rate.

6. Click ↺ Refresh Guide. Weekly velocity figures are now attached to each matching SKU.

Step 3 — Reading the Inventory Tab

Once supply settings and velocity data are loaded, the Inventory tab shows a Weeks of Stock column next to each product's current quantity. Variants are color-coded:

• Reorder Now — stock will run out before the next production run arrives. Place a PO immediately.
• Watch — stock is within 2 weeks of the reorder threshold. Monitor closely and prepare a PO.
• OK — sufficient stock to cover the full lead time plus buffer.
• — — no velocity data for this SKU yet. Enter manually or upload a sales report.

Manual Velocity Override

For products with no Shopify sales history (new items, samples, pre-production), you can enter an estimated Avg Weekly Sales directly on the product card in the Products tab. This overrides the CSV-derived value for that SKU only.

Common Questions