Print with Shopify Flow

Shopify Flow lets you automate your store with when this happens, if these conditions match, do this workflows. Autoprinter adds Flow actions that print an order's documents and Flow triggers that start a workflow when a document prints, a print fails, a Print Station goes offline, or you near your monthly order limit.

Use Flow when you want to print on conditions Automatic Printing can't express: an order tag, a product, the order total, a B2B customer, or a delay. If you just want every order's documents to print when it's paid, Automatic Printing in Settings is simpler.

Before you start#

• Install Shopify Flow from the Shopify App Store. It's free.
• Pair a Print Station and keep the Desktop Utility running on that computer.
• Turn on the templates you want to print, and set up your Print Chain if you'll use Run Print Chain.

Autoprinter's Flow actions#

In the Flow editor, add an action and search for Autoprinter.

Each order action needs an order, which the workflow's trigger supplies. Use a trigger that includes an order, such as Order created, Order paid or Order fulfilled. Print pick list needs no order.

Optional settings:

• Copies (single-document actions): how many copies to print, up to 10. Flow fills in 0; leave it at 0 or blank for 1 copy.

• Print again if already printed: leave it off to skip orders that are already in your Print History, so a workflow that runs twice doesn't print twice. A single-document action, such as Print invoice, skips only when that document is already there. Run Print Chain skips when any of the order's documents (not shipping labels) is already there. Failed jobs never count. Turn it on when you deliberately want another copy.

  Completed jobs are normally removed from Print History once they are more than 30 days old, counted from when they were created. Clearing Print History also removes this protection.

For order actions, your Print Rules still apply. Flow decides when to print and which document. Print Rules decide which template and which Print Station, exactly as they do for Automatic Printing. A document action prints even if that document isn't on your Print Chain.

Print a pick list on a schedule#

Print pick list prints one pick list for your open orders: everything still to pull from the shelves, grouped the same way as Print → Pick slip in your orders list. Pair it with Flow's Scheduled time trigger, for example every weekday at 8:00.

• Orders from the last N days: which open orders to include, up to 30 days. Leave it at 0 or blank for the last 7 days. The list covers up to the 50 newest open orders, printed oldest first.
• It doesn't use your monthly order limit. Each order counts when its own documents print.
• Test orders are left out, unless your store has no other open orders (so you can try it on a new store).
• It prints with your default pick slip template on your default Print Station; Print Rules don't apply to pick lists. If there are no open orders, the run succeeds and nothing prints.
• An order with more than 250 line items can't go on a pick list. The run fails and names the order.

Autoprinter's Flow triggers#

Add a trigger and search for Autoprinter to start a workflow from what happens at the printer.

Document printed and Print failed run once per document. A Print Chain with three documents runs Document printed three times.

Print Station offline runs at most once an hour for each Print Station, and only when something is waiting to print. Order limit alert runs at most once per threshold each month; the 50% and 90% alerts run only when you're on pace to use your whole allowance before it resets, the same rule as Autoprinter's usage emails.

When a print fails, the Desktop Utility may retry it automatically. If the retry works, Document printed runs too, so a Print failed workflow can fire for a print that later succeeded.

Ready-made templates#

Flow's template library has Autoprinter templates you can install and adjust:

• Print the Print Chain when an order is paid
• Print an invoice when a wholesale order is created
• Print a gift receipt when a gift order is created
• Tag an order Printed when its packing slip prints
• Email me when a print fails
• Email me when a Print Station goes offline
• Email me when I'm close to my order limit
• Print a pick list when it's 8 AM on a weekday
• Print an invoice when an international order is created
• Print a return slip when an order is paid

Templates that send an email ask you to enter your address before you turn them on.

In Flow, open Templates and search for Autoprinter.

Flow or Automatic Printing, not both for the same event#

You can use both, but don't print the same order from both on the same event. If Order created starts Automatic Printing and a Flow workflow at the same moment, the order can print twice.

If one prints first, the other usually skips the order: Automatic Printing skips orders Autoprinter has already counted, and Flow skips already-printed orders unless Print again if already printed is on.

Test orders and your monthly order limit#

Flow prints Shopify test orders and doesn't count them toward your monthly order limit, so you can try a workflow safely. Other orders count once a month, however many times or ways you print them.

Using Sidekick#

Sidekick can draft Flow workflows from plain language. In Flow, open Sidekick and describe what you want, for example:

Whenever an order is paid, print a packing slip with Autoprinter.

Sidekick saves the workflow turned off. Check the trigger, the Autoprinter action and its settings, then turn it on.

Sidekick can also answer questions about your printing, such as why an order didn't print. See Ask Sidekick about your printing.

If a workflow doesn't print#

Open the workflow's Runs in Flow. When Autoprinter can't print, the run shows why:

You may also see shorter versions of two messages: "No template for this document is turned on in Autoprinter." and "A Print Station for this order isn't connected." Flow sometimes sends the same run twice, and Autoprinter repeats the first answer. Fixing the problem doesn't reopen that run. After you fix it, run the workflow again for the order, or print it from the order with More actions → Auto Print Chain.

If the run succeeded but nothing printed, the order was probably already printed. Turn on Print again if already printed, or print it from the order with More actions → Auto Print Chain.

Jobs from Flow show Auto · Flow in Print History.