How to know which sales need action today
Telling orders that need action apart from those following their normal course requires priority rules, not a line-by-line read-through. Without a hierarchy, an order placed five minutes ago and one where the customer has been waiting six hours for a reply show up at the same level in a chronological list. The method is defining a few simple rules — payment pending too long, delivery due today, a customer who followed up without a reply — and surfacing those first, rather than working through every order in arrival order.
Trakoli Commerce editorial team · Updated July 18, 2026
The problem
A chronological list treats every order the same way: newest on top, oldest at the bottom, with no distinction between one that just came in and one that's been waiting for a reply since the morning. As volume grows, it becomes more likely that an urgent order gets buried simply because it arrived early in the day, while a recent, already-settled order gets attention just because it's visible first.
The method
Three or four simple rules cover most businesses:
Payment deadline passed
An order confirmed but not yet paid after a set delay deserves flagging ahead of an order that just came in.
Delivery due today
An order due for delivery the same day should jump ahead of one due later.
Customer already followed up without a reply
A customer who followed up themselves, or didn't respond to a follow-up, signals an order that needs attention rather than waiting its turn.
Limited stock
An order on a product nearly out of stock deserves handling before a stockout makes it impossible to fulfill.
Worked example
A customer confirms an order in the morning, promises to pay within the hour, then goes quiet. By 4pm, without a priority rule, that order sits at the same level as ones placed five minutes earlier. With a rule like "payment pending over 4 hours," it automatically surfaces to the top of the list — the merchant sees it without scrolling through the whole day's orders to find it.
Limit
Poorly calibrated rules can hurt as much as they help: too sensitive, and everything becomes "urgent," draining the signal's value; not sensitive enough, and real urgencies stay invisible. These rules cut the time spent hunting for priority cases — they don't replace the merchant's decision on what to do once a case is identified.
Frequently asked questions
Do these priority rules replace the merchant's judgment?
No. They cut down the time spent spotting urgent cases, but the decision on each specific case — granting more time, following up more firmly, canceling — stays human.
Can an automated system flag priorities wrong?
Yes, if thresholds are poorly calibrated: too sensitive, and everything becomes "urgent", losing the signal's value; not sensitive enough, and real urgent cases go unnoticed. Thresholds need adjusting to the actual business, not left at default.
See prioritization in action
In Assisted mode, Trakoli flags orders that need action based on rules tuned to your business, without deciding anything on your behalf.