How to unlink a customer order from a backorder?

When you activate backorders on an incoming purchase order, Fabrikatör creates backorder capacity from that PO's quantity. Every customer backorder then holds units of that capacity.
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Sometimes you fulfill a backorder early from somewhere else — a returned unit, a found box in the warehouse, stock from another location. When that happens, the order no longer needs to hold units on the PO, but they stay locked, so you can't resell them. Unlinking releases those units back into backorder availability.
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There are two ways to get there.

From the Backorders page — click Backorders in the main menu and open the Customer Orders tab. This opens with an Order Status is Fulfilled filter already applied, so you're looking at fulfilled orders across all of your POs. Remove that chip if you want to see every customer backorder regardless of status.
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From a purchase order — open the PO, expand Backorders in the right panel, and under Manage click Show Fulfilled Orders. This takes you straight to the list, already filtered to that PO's fulfilled orders.

The Customer Orders table shows you everything you need:

Use the search box to look up a product name or SKU, and Filter to narrow the list by PO Number, Order Status, or Linked to Backorder. Filter chips are editable — click the pencil icon on a chip to change it, or click it and choose Remove Filter to widen the list.
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Click Unlink on the row. A confirmation window shows you exactly what will change:

Click Unlink order to confirm.

The row updates immediately: Linked to Backorder flips to Unlinked, the shipment date clears, and the units are back in your backorder availability.

Tick the checkboxes on the rows you want, then click Bulk edit (N) → Unlink from backorder. The confirmation window totals up the units across all selected orders, and Fabrikatör returns capacity to each backorder record accordingly. Use Deselect all to start over.

Selecting the header checkbox picks every eligible row on the page and skips anything that's already unlinked, so you can safely select all and confirm.

Every unlink is recorded on the backorder itself, so you always have a trail. Open the Backorders page and click the backorder you unlinked from:

Status changes are logged here too, so if the backorder reactivates you'll see it as a Stopped → Active entry with the stopping reason cleared.

Quick tip: After you fulfill a backorder early from other stock, unlink it right away. Availability you forget to release is revenue sitting idle — those units can't be resold as backorders until they're free.

Will my customer notice anything?

No. Unlinking only touches Fabrikatör's backorder record. The Shopify order keeps its status, its fulfillment, and its payment exactly as they were, and no notification is sent to the customer.

Can I undo an unlink?

No. Once you confirm, the order stays unlinked — the Unlinked state is the permanent record of the change.

Why can't I click Unlink on some rows?
Two different things can be going on. If the Unlink button looks faded, the order isn't Fulfilled — unfulfilled orders still need to hold their backorder units, and refunded or cancelled orders have already had their capacity released automatically, so there's nothing to unlink. If there's no button at all and the row simply reads Unlinked, you've already unlinked that order.

Does unlinking change my Shopify inventory?

No. Unlinking affects backorder availability — how many more units you can sell as backorders against that PO. Your Shopify stock levels stay the same.

I unlinked an order but the product still isn't sellable as a backorder. Why?

Give it a couple of minutes to take effect. If the product still isn't sellable after that, check why the backorder stopped. Automatic reactivation only happens when the backorder stopped because it sold out. Open the Backorders page and look at the Stopping Reason column: if it says anything other than All items sold — for example Release Date is passed or Purchase order archived — the units you freed up are recorded, but the backorder stays stopped by design. Reactivate it if you still want to sell.

What happens to the shipment date my customer was promised?

It clears from the Customer Orders row, because the order is no longer tied to the PO's arrival date. The customer's order is unaffected.

Can I unlink just part of an order's quantity?

No. Unlinking releases the full quantity that order holds on the backorder record.

Do I need to unlink refunded or cancelled orders?

No. Fabrikatör frees up those backorder slots automatically when the refund or cancellation comes in from Shopify. See what happens when backordered items are refunded for the full details. Unlinking is for orders you fulfilled early from other stock, where nothing changed on the Shopify side.

How do I find the orders I've already unlinked?

Open the Customer Orders tab, click Filter, choose Linked to Backorder, and set it to Unlinked.

Can I search for a specific order?

The search box looks up product names and SKUs. To zero in on a single order, filter by PO Number and Order Status first — that usually shortens the list enough to spot it.

Still not sure whether to unlink an order? Reach out to us from the chat bubble and we'll walk through it with you.