Correcting a dispatched order

Use this guide when the question is:

• How do I correct a dispatched order?
• The wrong order was dispatched. What do I do?
• How do I reverse a shipment and put the stock back?
• Why is the order still showing unusual statuses after reversal?
• Should I delete the order after Reverse Dispatch?

If the shipment never committed stock, use Shipment Lifecycle, Evidence and Correction Workflows and follow Cancel Before Dispatch instead.

Start with the main rule

Use Reverse Dispatch when ParcelPilot already recorded a shipment that committed warehouse stock and that physical warehouse movement now needs to be undone.

Typical examples:

• the wrong order was dispatched
• the wrong items left the warehouse
• the shipment was intercepted and needs to be rebuilt
• the order needs a replacement shipment later
• stock must be returned to inventory while keeping the dispatch history

Reverse Dispatch is a correction workflow.

It does not delete the shipment or pretend the dispatch never happened.

Where to launch it

You can launch Reverse Dispatch from either:

• the Shipment Edit page
• the Order Edit page

Both entry points run the same underlying ParcelPilot workflow.

That means the stock restoration, reservation recalculation, fulfilment recalculation, audit evidence, and order-status reevaluation all come from the same authoritative shipment-owned mutation path.

What Reverse Dispatch does

When Reverse Dispatch succeeds, ParcelPilot:

• restores stock through compensating inventory adjustments
• restores the reversed shipment quantity back into ParcelPilot inventory, including serialised stock where that shipment evidence supports it
• recalculates reservations for the order
• recalculates the order's Fulfilment Status
• reevaluates the order's Order Status from the fresh evidence
• preserves the original shipment as historical evidence instead of deleting it

This is the correct workflow when committed stock has to be put back.

What Reverse Dispatch does not do

Reverse Dispatch does not automatically:

• cancel the commercial order
• cancel or compensate an ecommerce order upstream
• reverse accounting or invoicing
• delete the shipment evidence
• delete the order

Those are separate business decisions and may require different workflows or approvals.

The three status concepts

When reviewing the result, keep these three concepts separate.

Order Status

This is the order's main warehouse lifecycle status.

It answers questions such as whether the order is still open, despatched, in transit, or complete.

Fulfilment Status

This is the derived fulfilment summary that answers whether the order is:

• unfulfilled
• partially fulfilled
• fulfilled

It is calculated from the current shipment and fulfilment evidence.

Shipment Status

This is the shipment's own transport or carrier status.

It describes the shipment record itself, not the whole order.

Why the statuses can look different

After an explicit correction, ParcelPilot may reopen Order Status because the earlier terminal state is no longer supported by the current fulfilment evidence.

Do not reduce that to a single rule such as Reverse Dispatch always sets the order to New.

Possible outcomes depend on the remaining evidence:

• if the only active shipment was reversed, the order can reopen to a non-terminal actionable state
• if another active shipment still exists, Order Status can stay supported by that remaining shipment evidence
• mixed states can still be legitimate, for example when another delivered shipment remains but some quantity is still outstanding

If you need a deeper explanation of the status fields, see Orders — Statuses, Orders Table Columns, and Orders — Partial Shipments.

What to do after Reverse Dispatch

After the stock correction succeeds, the operator still has to decide the business outcome.

If the order still needs to be fulfilled

• leave the order open
• correct the order details if needed
• create and dispatch the replacement shipment through the normal shipment workflow

If the order should never be fulfilled

• use the appropriate explicit order cancellation or lifecycle workflow
• do not assume Reverse Dispatch has commercially cancelled the order
• if only the remaining outstanding quantity should stop, use the explicit outstanding-quantity cancellation path rather than inventing another shipment

If upstream ecommerce or accounting follow-up is required

• complete that work separately through the relevant channel, finance, or operational workflow
• do not assume Reverse Dispatch has automatically compensated those systems

Delete is not the correction workflow

Do not use hard Delete to correct an order that has already entered fulfilment.

Hard Delete is administrative cleanup only for a mistaken manual order that is still effectively untouched.

Current hard Delete rule:

• tenant admin and real super-admin only
• manual orders only
• no meaningful operational history

If the order has shipment history, reversed shipment evidence, reservation or allocation history, picking history, inventory history, fulfilment history, returns, booking attempts, or other durable audit evidence, the order must be corrected or cancelled instead of deleted.

If you are asking Why can't I delete this order?, that block is usually intentional and means ParcelPilot is preserving the operational evidence.

Troubleshooting

Reverse Dispatch is not available

Check whether:

• the shipment is actually eligible for reversal
• the shipment has already been reversed
• your role is allowed to perform shipment correction
• there is still at least one reversible shipment on the order

If the shipment never committed stock, you may need Cancel Before Dispatch instead.

See Shipment Lifecycle, Evidence and Correction Workflows and Roles and Why Actions May Be Unavailable.

The order still looks unusual after reversal

Check all three evidence layers separately:

• Order Status
• Fulfilment Status
• the preserved Shipment record and its shipment status/history

The shipment still existing after reversal is expected. ParcelPilot keeps it as historical evidence.

Also remember that another active or delivered shipment may still legitimately support a more advanced Order Status even after one shipment was reversed.

I need to cancel the order after reversing it

That is a separate decision.

Reverse Dispatch only repairs the warehouse and fulfilment evidence.

If the order should never ship, use the explicit order cancellation or lifecycle workflow that matches the business case.

I cannot delete the order

That usually means the order has meaningful operational history.

The correct next step is correction or cancellation, not deletion.

No success notification appeared

The supported Reverse Dispatch workflow is regression-tested to emit a success notification.

If the stock and status evidence changed as expected but no toast appeared, confirm the resulting inventory, fulfilment, and status evidence first, then raise an issue if needed.

Related guides

• Shipments — Create, Edit & Delete
• Shipment Lifecycle, Evidence and Correction Workflows
• Orders — Statuses
• Orders — Partial Shipments
• Roles and Why Actions May Be Unavailable

Selective natural-language aliases

• how do i correct a dispatched order
• i dispatched the wrong order
• how do i reverse a shipment and put the stock back
• why can't i delete this order
• i reversed the shipment but need to cancel the order
• why does the shipment still exist after reversing it