Managing Aggregate Orders
How aggregate (gifter) orders work in Shopify, how to exclude them from fulfillment, filter them in reports, and mark them as fulfilled.
Every Send creates a single aggregate order (also called the gifter order) alongside the individual recipient orders. The aggregate order captures revenue and payment. The recipient orders handle fulfillment and delivery.
What the Aggregate Order Contains
The aggregate order is a draft order in Shopify that summarizes the entire Send. It includes:
- Custom line items for product subtotal, tax, shipping, and discounts
- No connection to your product catalog (uses custom items instead to avoid double-counting inventory)
- Tag: "Send to Many aggregate"
- Shipping status: "Does not require shipping"
- Created from a Shopify draft order and processed through the standard payment gateway (not the Send To Many gateway)
Revenue from your Send lives here, not on the recipient orders. This architecture keeps your accounting clean and prevents double-counting income.
Excluding from Fulfillment
Because aggregate orders don't ship, you need to exclude them from your fulfillment workflows. Here are three practical approaches:
Filter by tag: In your fulfillment settings or third-party tools, exclude orders tagged "Send to Many aggregate".
Filter by shipping status: Exclude orders marked "Does not require shipping".
Third-party fulfillment setup: If you use ShipStation or similar tools, configure tag-based exclusion rules to skip aggregate orders during sync or processing.
Filtering in Reports
Aggregate orders contain revenue. Recipient orders (if using calculated values) also contain revenue data. To avoid double-counting when running reports:
- Filter by tags to isolate bulk send orders. Every Send's orders are tagged "Send to Many #[Send ID]".
- Use the tag "Send to Many aggregate" to identify which orders are aggregates.
- See Filtering Shopify Reports for detailed reporting instructions.
Marking as Fulfilled
Some stores need aggregate orders marked fulfilled for revenue recognition or workflow automation. You have two options:
Manual fulfillment: Open the aggregate order in Shopify admin and manually mark it fulfilled.
Automation with Shopify Flow: Set up a Flow that automatically fulfills orders tagged "Send to Many aggregate". This removes the need for manual action and keeps your workflow clean.
Create a Flow that triggers on order creation, checks for the "Send to Many aggregate" tag, and automatically fulfills the order. This prevents aggregate orders from blocking other processes tied to fulfillment status.