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Managing Pre-orders
on Cin7

Cin7

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Cin7 is a cloud-based inventory and order management platform that integrates directly with Shopify. It synchronizes product data, orders, and inventory to help you stay on top of real-time stock levels and ensure seamless sales operations. Cin7 also supports negative inventory for pre-orders, offers workflows for partial fulfillment, and lets you map Shopify tags/metafields for custom processes.

This guide will break down how Cin7 handles key pre-order functions like negative stock, Shopify’s “On Hold” status, and fulfilment workflows—so you’ll know what to expect, where it excels, and any workarounds you may need.

How ERPs and pre-orders work together in the modern ecommerce stack

As the central source of truth for your ecommerce operations, ERPs play a crucial role in pre-orders—primarily in two areas:

Product & inventory management (tracking stock, syncing availability).
Order processing (handling pre-order statuses and fulfilment flows).

Below is a typical flow. Click through to see how Shopify, the ERP and pre-order application interact.

1

Order & Inventory Sync

The ERP synchronizes orders and inventory across various sales channels (e.g., Shopify, Amazon, retail POS).

Key Considerations for Managing Pre-orders on Cin7

In the diagram above you may have noticed the word “should” being used a couple of times… That’s because not all ERPs fully support Shopify’s pre-order features out of the box. Some may lack support for negative inventory counts or fail to respect Shopify’s “On Hold” order status, requiring workarounds or additional configuration. Read on to see how Cin7 interacts with Shopify pre-orders and what you might need to adjust.

Syncing Shopify Products

Yes, Cin7 offers a direct integration with Shopify to synchronize product data—titles, SKUs, and inventory levels—ensuring consistency across both platforms. This real-time syncing simplifies inventory management and sales operations, reducing manual data entry and improving accuracy.

Syncing Shopify Orders

Yes, Cin7 integrates with Shopify to synchronize orders—pulling in statuses, customer details, and line items—so you have an accurate reflection of your online sales in Cin7. This alignment helps streamline order management, fulfillment, and customer communications.

Handling Negative Inventory

Yes, Cin7 can track and allow negative inventory levels to accommodate pre-orders or overselling. Once enabled, Cin7 will record sales for out-of-stock items, creating negative stock entries. You’ll need to reconcile or restock these items later to fulfill open orders properly.

Respecting Shopify’s “On Hold” Status

Cin7’s integration with Shopify primarily focuses on synchronizing orders, products, and inventory levels. While Cin7 can manage various order statuses, including fulfillment and cancellation, it does not natively recognize or respect Shopify’s “on hold” status for pre-orders. This means that if an order is placed on hold in Shopify, this specific status may not be directly mirrored or managed within Cin7. We would recommend using a custom flow based on order line-item properties, metafields or tags

Resources:

• Fulfillment Statuses Doc

Pre-Order-Specific Features

Yes, Cin7 provides dedicated workflows to manage pre-orders: • Backorder Management: Accept orders for out-of-stock products, letting customers purchase items before they arrive.
• Inventory Allocation: Automatically allocate future stock to pre-orders once inventory is received.
• Automated Notifications: Send customers updates on expected availability and fulfillment timelines.
• Reporting & Analytics: Monitor pre-order volumes and fulfillment timelines for better planning.

Resources:

• Official backorders and splt orders doc

Custom Workflows with Order Tags, Line-item Properties or Metafields

Yes, Cin7 Core can leverage Shopify tags, line-item properties, and metafields to build custom workflows. By importing these tags from Shopify into Cin7, you can map them to specific attributes within your sales processes—helping you automate tasks or direct orders down different workflows based on custom criteria.

Supporting Full vs. Partial Order Fulfilment

Yes, Cin7 supports both full and partial order fulfillment. If there’s insufficient inventory to fulfill an entire order, Cin7 allows you to split it. In-stock items ship immediately, while out-of-stock items can be backordered or moved to a separate sales order. This approach ensures customers quickly receive available products, with the remaining shipped when inventory is replenished.

Summary

Cin7 support for
Shopify Pre-orders

Pre-order touchpoint	Cin7 support
Products sync with Shopify	✅ Syncs titles, SKUs, and inventory with Shopify in real-time
Orders sync with Shopify	✅ Pulls Shopify orders and details into Cin7 for seamless fulfillment
Negative inventory support	✅ Allows negative stock entries for pre-orders or overselling
Shopify “On Hold” status recognition	⚠️ Not natively recognized, requires manual tagging/workaround
Specific pre-order support	✅ Backorder workflows, automated notifications, and allocations
Custom workflows	✅ Shopify tags, line-item properties, and metafields can trigger Cin7 processes
Partial fulfilment support	✅ Supports splitting orders for partial shipments and backorders

Strengths & Limitations

✅ Strengths
• Direct Shopify integration with real-time syncing
• Supports negative inventory for pre-orders
• Flexible partial fulfillment and backorder options

⚠️ Limitations
• No direct “on hold” status support
• Requires manual tagging or notes for custom hold workflows