Order Cutoff Time for WooCommerce

Show a live countdown to order cutoff, with rules for each shipping method, zone, class, product or customer role.

Set a cutoff time for each day of the week and switch dispatch off on the days you do not send orders. Times follow a store timezone you can set apart from the site's, and dates are written in the site's own date format. The message is yours to word, with tags for the time remaining ({time_remaining}), the cutoff time ({cutoff_time}), the dispatch day and date ({dispatch_day}, {dispatch_date}), and the next dispatch day and date ({next_dispatch_day}, {next_dispatch_date}). It can sit on the product page, the cart, the checkout and the mini-cart, in the Cart and Checkout blocks as well as the classic pages, or anywhere you place the shortcode [octw_message]. It is information for the shopper, and it never stops anyone placing an order.

A current licence adds dispatch rules. A rule says which orders it covers and what those orders are promised. It can match on a shipping method (one method instance, such as a particular flat rate, or every method of one kind), a shipping zone, including Everywhere else, a shipping class, a product, a product category and a customer role. A parent category covers its sub-categories, and a visitor who is not signed in is the guest role. Everything a rule sets has to be true for it to apply, and within one box any choice will do. Products, categories and shipping classes together say which items the rule covers, and a rule can require that any item in the cart is covered, or every item. Rules are checked in priority order, lowest number first, and the first rule that fits is used. An order that fits no rule uses the weekly schedule.

A rule can keep the weekly schedule or have its own: a switch and a cutoff time for each day of the week, so a rule can dispatch on a Saturday that the shop's main schedule leaves closed. Each day can have up to three dispatch windows, each with its own cutoff time and an optional name that {window_label} puts into a message. A rule can add a lead time, in calendar days, for things that cannot leave the day they are ordered, and extra production days, which push dispatch back by that many further dispatch days, skipping days with no dispatch and holidays, for made-to-order work. Each rule can carry its own wording for before the cutoff, after it and when dispatch is closed, using the same tags. A rule that covers one product, one category or one shipping class is how a made-to-order range or a rush item gets a schedule of its own. There is no separate rush box on the product.

Holidays and special dates apply to every schedule, including each rule's own. A blackout is a single date, a run of days such as a week of leave, or a date that repeats every year. A one-off cutoff gives a single date a cutoff of its own, and the shop dispatches on that date even when the weekday normally has no dispatch. Where a date is in both lists, the day with no dispatch wins. You type the dates you observe. There is no built-in holiday calendar and nothing is fetched from an outside service.

Shipping method and shipping zone rules are used on the cart, the checkout, the mini-cart and the Cart and Checkout blocks, where the customer's address and chosen method are known. Product pages are judged on the product, its categories, its shipping class and the customer's role, never on a method or a zone, because neither is known there and a cached page would show the wrong answer. On the classic cart and checkout the notice refreshes when the customer chooses a different shipping method.

Styling covers the background, text and border colours, the colour of the time left, the corner radius, the text size and weight, and the alignment. The order simulator takes products, a delivery country and postcode, a shipping method, a customer role and a date and time, and shows the rule that was used, why each other rule did or did not apply, the cutoff, the dispatch date and the exact message a customer would see. Nothing typed there is saved. A schedule CSV moves blackout dates, one-off cutoffs and the days of a rule's own schedule in and out as a spreadsheet, and a support snapshot downloads your rules, dates, styling and shipping setup to send to support. The snapshot leaves out the licence key, orders and customer details, and the plugin sends it nowhere.

If the licence lapses, nothing is deleted. The Pro features switch off and every customer sees the weekly schedule and the shop-wide wording. Your rules, dates and styling stay on the screen as words you can read but not change. Renewing switches them back on as you left them. Nothing is written to an order, so High-Performance Order Storage is supported in the same way.