Goal: Cancel fulfillments across many orders in a single import, reverting those orders back to an unfulfilled state. This is useful when fulfillments were created prematurely or in error and you need to undo them in bulk.
Prerequisites:
You have Altera installed on your Shopify store
You're logged into Shopify with permission to use Apps
The orders you want to unfulfill have existing fulfillments that haven't been refunded
Step 1 - Export your fulfilled orders
In your Shopify admin, open Apps > Altera, then click New export.
In Data types, select Orders.
In Fields, select at minimum: General and Fulfillments.
In Filters, set Fulfillment status to Fulfilled (or Partially fulfilled if applicable).
Click Start export and download the file when ready.
Step 2 - Prepare the spreadsheet
Open the exported file and keep only the columns needed to identify orders and cancel their fulfillments:
ID (the Shopify order ID, used to match orders)
Fulfillment: ID (identifies which fulfillment to cancel)
Fulfillment: Status (you will set this to
cancelled)
Delete all other columns to keep the file simple. If your orders have multiple fulfillments, each fulfillment appears on its own row. Keep every fulfillment row you want to cancel.
Step 3 - Set the fulfillment status to cancelled
For each fulfillment row, set the Fulfillment: Status column to cancelled. Leave the ID and Fulfillment: ID values unchanged from the export.
Only include rows for fulfillments you want to cancel. Remove any rows for fulfillments you want to keep.
Step 4 - Import the updated file
Return to Altera and go to Upload file.
Select your edited spreadsheet.
Review the analysis preview for any warnings.
Click Start import to apply the changes.
Outcome
Altera cancels the specified fulfillments and Shopify reverts those orders to Unfulfilled (or Partially fulfilled if the order had other fulfillments that were not cancelled). You can confirm the changes by checking the affected orders in your Shopify admin.
Example
ID | Fulfillment: ID | Fulfillment: Status |
6073200001 | 5870300001 | cancelled |
6073200002 | 5870300002 | cancelled |
6073200003 | 5870300003 | cancelled |
Important notes
Each fulfillment row requires both the order ID and the Fulfillment: ID so Altera knows exactly which fulfillment to cancel.
Cancelling a fulfillment does not cancel the order itself. The order remains open and can be re-fulfilled later.
If an order has multiple fulfillments and you only cancel some of them, the order status changes to Partially fulfilled.
Fulfillment cancellation cannot be undone through a spreadsheet import. To re-fulfill cancelled orders, create new fulfillments.
Next steps
How to bulk update order tracking numbers to update tracking info on remaining fulfillments.