Altera shows a code such as ABC001 with each error or warning. This article explains the codes for this area of the app and how to resolve them. For codes from other areas, see Error and warning codes.

Error and warning codes that occur when dealing with orders

Order sheets work best with either a Name or ID column for grouping. When neither column is present, the system will fall back to using "Top Row" column markers for grouping, or group all rows into a single order if no Top Row column exists.

Required columns, such as the Line: Type column are missing from the source file.

The Line: Type column must be one of these values:

Importing orders will trigger Shopify Admin staff notifications for each order unless they are disabled. Shopify does not provide a way for apps to detect if notifications are already turned off.

To disable order notifications, open up the Shopify admin and go to Settings > Notifications > Staff notifications and turn them off before importing large batches of orders.

Additionally, importing orders may trigger other applications that are configured to process new orders on Shopify. We recommend testing with 1-2 orders before importing large batches of orders.

Editing existing orders is not currently supported through the application. You may need to delete the existing order and create a new one with your desired changes.

This error occurs when processing a refund with insufficient line item data. When processing refunds, make sure to include all required line item information to properly associate the refund with the correct items.

Shopify limits new orders to 5 per minute on trial and development stores. If your store is on a trial or development plan, order imports will run more slowly due to this limitation. To increase the import speed, consider upgrading to a paid Shopify plan.

The date/time columns in your order import ('Processed At', 'Transaction: Processed At', 'Fulfillment: Processed At') must contain valid date/time values or be left blank. This error occurs when these columns contain text or other values that cannot be parsed as valid dates. Use standard date formats like 2024-01-15, 2024-01-15 14:30:00, or Jan 15, 2024 2:30 PM. Ensure all values in these columns are either empty or contain properly formatted date/time values.

When importing orders with fixed date payment terms, the 'Payment Terms: Due At' column must be provided and cannot be empty. This error occurs when you have specified a payment terms template that requires a fixed due date, but the corresponding 'Payment Terms: Due At' column is missing or empty. Ensure that for fixed date payment terms, you include the 'Payment Terms: Due At' column with a valid date/time value specifying when the payment is due.

You can only update a single fulfillment per order when the Fulfillment ID is not specified. If you need to update multiple fulfillments for the same order, you must provide the specific Fulfillment ID for each fulfillment you want to update.

When importing orders, if you provide any shipping or billing address information, you must provide all required address fields. This error occurs when some address fields are filled but others are missing.

Required shipping address fields:

Required billing address fields:

How to fix this:

Shopify does not allow editing orders that are recorded in a currency different from your store's currency, for example orders from before the store changed its currency. The order's Shop Currency column shows the currency it is recorded in.

To resolve this:

Note: Shopify doesn't allow adding Line Items to an Archived Order – the app will automatically unarchive the order, add the line items, and then re-archive it if it was originally archived.

When using the Line: Command column with the MERGE value to add line items to an order, you must include at least one line item row in your spreadsheet.

To resolve this:

The fulfillment request contains an invalid line item quantity. This typically happens when:

How to fix this:

Shopify rejected the refund because the recorded refund amount in shop currency was greater than the net payment received on the destination order. This typically happens with multi-currency orders where the exchange rate drifted between sale time and refund time on the source store - the customer paid and was refunded the same presentment amount, but the recorded shop-currency values differ.

When the source order was fully refunded (Price: Current Total = 0, Price: Total Outstanding = 0, Payment: Status = refunded) and there is exactly one sale and one refund transaction, the import retries with the refund amount adjusted to match the sale so the order settles cleanly on the destination.

This is informational; no action is required. The destination order will show as fully refunded.

The order specifies a B2B company link, but Altera couldn't unambiguously resolve the company and/or location. The row fails so the order isn't created with the wrong association.

This code is raised in any of the following situations:

To fix:

A Company: Location is set but no customer could be resolved for the order. Shopify only creates a B2B order when both a customer and a company location are provided, and the customer has an active role at that location. The row fails.

A Company: column was set on a row using MERGE or UPDATE, but Shopify's order update API doesn't support changing the company location of an existing order. The company link was ignored and the order's existing company association was preserved.

The order specifies both a customer and a company location, but the customer isn't assigned as a contact at that location. Shopify only accepts a B2B order when the customer has an active role at the linked company location, so the row fails.

The row sets Price: Total Shipping to a non-zero value, but no row for this order has Line: Type set to Shipping Line. Shopify's order creation API has no field for a total shipping amount - shipping charges can only be added to an order through a Shipping Line row. The order was created without any shipping charge, even if a transaction on the order included the shipping amount.

A line item on the order could not be matched to a product variant on this store (the Line: SKU or Line: Variant ID value doesn't exist), and the row has no Line: Title value. Shopify requires every line item to have a title, so the order fails to import with a "Line items Title can't be blank" error.

The error message includes the SKU and/or variant ID from the row so you can find the problem line in your file.

A row using MERGE or UPDATE set Line: Fulfillment Status to fulfilled on an order that already exists, but no Fulfillment Line rows were included. The Line: Fulfillment Status column only creates a fulfillment when the order is first created. When updating an existing order, that column is ignored, so no fulfillment was created and the order stays unfulfilled even though the import reports success.

The first row for this order has Line: Type set to something other than Line Item (for example Discount or Shipping Line), and that row's order-level cells are blank. Order details like the customer email, billing and shipping addresses, and processed date are normally read from the first row of each order, so the app filled the missing details from the order's first Line Item row instead.

The row has Cancelled At or Cancel: Reason set, so the app created the order and then tried to cancel it. Shopify does not allow cancelling an order that is both paid and fulfilled. Normally the app handles this automatically by cancelling the order's fulfillments and retrying (see ORD034), but that automatic step failed here, so the order was left uncancelled.

The row has a transaction with Transaction: Amount set to 0. Shopify doesn't accept zero-amount transactions when creating an order, so the app skipped the transaction and imported the order without it.

The order has a Refund Line row that the app couldn't tie to any line item of the order, so it couldn't tell Shopify which item was refunded.

The order has a Refund Line row with no Line: ID, and the Line: SKU or Line: Variant ID it does have appears on more than one line item of the same order. The app doesn't guess which one was refunded, because attaching a refund to the wrong line item gives the order incorrect financial records.

The row updated an existing open order and had a value in the Closed At column, so the app archived (closed) the order. Shopify only lets an existing order be archived at the moment the request is made, so the archive date on the order is the time of the import, not the value from the Closed At cell.

The row cancels an order that is both paid and fulfilled. Shopify does not allow cancelling such an order, so the app cancelled the order's fulfillments first and then cancelled the order. Shopify cannot represent an order that is paid, fulfilled, and cancelled at the same time.

The order has a refund row where both Transaction: Kind and Transaction: Amount are blank, but another Transaction: column (usually Transaction: Gateway) has a value. Shopify requires the kind and amount on every refund transaction, so the app skipped the transaction and imported the refund without it.

The order has a refund row where a Transaction: column such as Transaction: Currency is filled in, but Transaction: Amount is blank. A refund transaction can't be created without an amount, so the transaction was not imported.

The row updates an existing order but includes discount data, either a Discount row or Line: Discount values. Shopify only applies discounts when an order is created and has no way to add or change a discount on an existing order, so the discount was skipped.

The Line: Fulfillment Service value doesn't match any fulfillment service registered on this store, so the line item was assigned Shopify's default manual fulfillment service instead. The rest of the order, including its fulfillments and tracking information, is imported normally.

The Source value is one of Shopify's own channel values (web, pos, iphone, android, shopify_draft_order, checkout_one, checkout_next). Shopify doesn't allow apps to set these protected values when creating an order, and sending one makes the whole order fail, so the value was skipped and the order was created without it.

The file has Refund Line or Refund Shipping rows for this refund but no Transaction row linked to the same Refund: ID, and the Refund: Generate Transaction column is missing or blank. The app treats a missing value as TRUE, the same as Matrixify, so it generated the refund's payment transaction from Shopify's suggested refund for the refunded lines: the unit price times the refunded quantity, plus the tax on those units, plus any refunded shipping. The transaction uses the gateway of the original payment and is linked to it as its parent.

Refund: Generate Transaction was TRUE (or missing) for a refund with no Transaction row, but Shopify couldn't suggest a payment transaction for it, so the refund was created with its refund lines only and no money was returned. The message names the order and the reason.

Common reasons:

To return money on this order, check the order in the Shopify admin and, if it still has a refundable balance, import a Transaction row with the same Refund: ID, Transaction: Kind set to refund, and the amount in Transaction: Amount.

An existing order was updated with a Fulfillment Line row that the app couldn't tie to any line item of the order, so that row was skipped. The rest of the fulfillment is still created if its other rows matched.

The order's Currency (what the customer paid) is different from its Shop Currency, but an amount is only in one of the two currencies, so the order wasn't created. The app doesn't convert between currencies, because it can't know the exchange rate the order was placed at. The message lists every missing column.

A transaction row has a Transaction: Currency that is different from the order's Currency. Shopify only accepts transactions in the order currency, so the amount in Transaction: Amount was imported as an amount in the order currency. Check the order's payment status after the import. If the amount was in another currency, convert it to the order currency in the file and import the order again.

When the order has one currency and the row has a Transaction: Amount (Shop Currency) value, that value is imported as the amount instead, because it is already in the order currency. Files exported before September 28, 2026 have this shape for orders that the customer paid in another currency.

The import changed the line items of an existing order. The message counts the line items that were added (Line: Command set to MERGE), updated (a higher Line: Quantity), and deleted (Line: Command set to DELETE). For example: Order Edit: added [1] Line Items, updated [0], deleted [1].

All the changes for one order are saved together as one order edit in Shopify, and the order timeline shows them. The customer isn't notified. This message is for information only.

The Line: Quantity value is lower than the quantity of the existing line item, so the quantity wasn't changed. Shopify reduces the quantity of an existing line item through a refund, not an edit.

The row has no Line: ID, and its Line: Variant ID or Line: SKU (or, on a Line: Command MERGE row, its Line: Title) matches more than one line item on the order, so the app can't tell which line item to change. The row was skipped and the other rows were imported. A MERGE row that matches more than one line item isn't added.

The row has a Customer: ID and a Customer: Email that belongs to a different customer, or that is different from the email of that customer. The order is linked to the customer with the Customer: ID, and the email in the file is ignored.

No customer on the store has the Customer: Email from the row, so the app created a new customer with that email and linked the order to it. The new customer also gets the name, phone, and address from the row's Customer: columns. This message is for information only.

The row asks to change the order's customer, but no customer on the store matches the Customer: ID or Customer: Phone value, so the order keeps its current customer. The rest of the row was imported.

A row has a Line: Command value that isn't DEFAULT, MERGE, or DELETE (for example a typo like DELTE). The order wasn't created or changed, so that the line items aren't left in a state you didn't ask for.

The row adds a custom line item (Line: Command set to MERGE, with no product) to an order in two currencies: the order's Currency, which the customer paid in, differs from its Shop Currency. Shopify prices a new custom line item in the order currency and sets the shop currency amount with its own exchange rate, and the app doesn't convert between currencies. The order wasn't changed. The message has the same wording as Matrixify, for example Currency must be EUR.

Error and warning codes that occur when dealing with draft order imports and operations.

We're still working on importing draft orders. Please email us if you need more information about when this feature will be available or if you have specific requirements for draft order imports.

The draft order you are trying to delete cannot be found in your Shopify store. This may be because it was already deleted or because the identifier (ID or name) provided in your import is incorrect.

The Shopify API rejected the draft order data and refused to save it during a creation operation. This typically occurs when the draft order configuration violates Shopify's business rules or contains invalid data that passed initial validation but failed at the API level.

You are trying to update a draft order that has already been completed (converted to a real order). Completed draft orders are locked and only their tags can be modified. Other changes require creating a new draft order.

The Shopify API rejected the draft order data and refused to update it. This typically occurs when the updated draft order configuration violates Shopify's business rules or contains invalid data that passed initial validation but failed at the API level.

The email address provided for the draft order is not in a valid format. Email addresses must follow the standard email format (e.g., [email protected]). Please check the email field and ensure it contains a properly formatted email address.

The date format provided for the 'Reserve Inventory Until' field is invalid. Expected format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or YYYY-MM-DD. Please ensure your date values match one of these formats.

Altera could not link the draft order to a B2B company location. This happens when the Company: columns reference a company, location, or customer that doesn't exist on the store, when the location belongs to a different company than the one specified, or when a Company: column is set without a corresponding Company: Location value. Make sure the company and location identifiers exactly match an existing record in Shopify and that the row also sets Customer: ID or Customer: Email.

The draft order specifies a company location, but the customer is not a contact of that company and could not be added automatically. Add the customer as a contact of the company in Shopify admin (or in the same import via the Companies sheet) before importing draft orders that reference this company.

A value in the Email column of a draft orders file does not look like an email address. The message includes the row number and the value that was found. Correct the value so it contains an @ and a domain, or leave the cell blank, and upload the file again.

A value in the Customer: Email column of a draft orders file does not look like an email address. The message includes the row number and the value that was found. Correct the value so it contains an @ and a domain, or leave the cell blank, and upload the file again.

A value in the Line: Quantity or Line: Price column of a draft orders file is not a number. The message names the column, the row, and the value that was found. Remove any currency symbols or text from the cell so it contains only a number, and upload the file again.

A value in the Reserve Inventory Until, Created At, or Updated At column of a draft orders file could not be read as a date and time. The message names the column, the row, and the value that was found. Use a format like 2024-12-05 06:12:35 -0500 (ISO-formatted timestamps are also supported), or leave the cell blank, and upload the file again.

Error and warning codes that occur when dealing with inventory transfer imports and operations.

An inventory transfer line item could not be matched to a product variant. This happens when the SKU, barcode, or inventory item ID provided doesn't match any variant in your store, or when the quantity is missing or zero. Check that your SKUs match exactly and that the quantity is greater than zero.

The UPDATE command was used, but no inventory transfer with the provided ID could be found in your Shopify store. Either use MERGE to create the transfer if it doesn't exist, or verify the ID in your file matches an existing transfer.

The Status value in the import file is either unknown or represents a transition that is not allowed from the transfer's current state. Valid statuses are Draft, Ready to Ship, In Progress, Received, and Cancelled. Note that In Progress and Received are only reached by creating and receiving shipments - they cannot be set directly. Transfers cannot be moved back to Draft, and a received transfer cannot be cancelled.

A row referenced a shipment that doesn't exist on the transfer (either by ID or because DELETE was used without a valid ID). Leave the Shipment N: ID column blank to create a new shipment, or use the ID of a shipment that already exists on the transfer.

The import file contains both Shipment: (single shipment) and Shipment 1: (numbered shipments) column prefixes in the same sheet. Pick one convention and use it consistently. Use Shipment: when every transfer has exactly one shipment, or Shipment 1:, Shipment 2:, etc. when transfers may have multiple shipments.

The origin or destination location specified for the inventory transfer could not be found in your Shopify store. Verify that the location name or ID in your import file matches an existing location. Leave blank for external suppliers or shipments.

You tried to change the Origin Location or Destination Location on an inventory transfer that is no longer in DRAFT status. Shopify only allows origin and destination to be changed while the transfer is in the Draft state. Either clear the location column to leave it unchanged, or cancel and recreate the transfer.

The Shopify API rejected the inventory transfer data and refused to create it. This typically occurs when the transfer configuration violates Shopify's business rules or contains invalid data. Check the error message returned by the API for specific details.

The Shopify API refused to create or update an inventory shipment on this transfer. This usually means the shipment input violates a business rule (for example, the transfer isn't in a shippable state or the shipment has no line items). Check the surrounding error message for the specific reason.

The NEW command was used for an inventory transfer that already exists in your Shopify store. Use MERGE to update an existing transfer (once updates are supported), or remove the ID column to create a new transfer.

The REPLACE command is not yet supported for inventory transfers and will be available in a future release. Use NEW or MERGE to create new transfers.

The value provided for the Date Created field is not a valid date. Expected format is YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM:SS or an ISO 8601 timestamp. Please check the date value and ensure it matches one of these formats.

One or more line items reference a variant that has inventory tracking disabled. Shopify only allows inventory transfers for tracked variants. Enable inventory tracking on the variant in Shopify admin (or via a product import) before including it in a transfer.

A line item on the inventory transfer references a variant that Shopify considers "not stocked" at one of the transfer's locations. Shopify surfaces a single error message for this, but in practice it can be triggered by either end of the transfer:

If you see this error when creating or marking a shipment as In Transit and the origin clearly has stock, the destination is almost always the real cause.

The Shipment N: Status value is either unknown or represents a transition that isn't allowed from the shipment's current state. Valid statuses are Draft, In Transit, Partially Received, and Received. Shipments can move Draft to In Transit to Received, but cannot be sent back to an earlier state.

A new shipment was requested but the transfer has no remaining shippable quantities for any of its line items. Either add more line items to the transfer, or avoid creating additional shipments until line items with remaining quantity are available.

A line item's SKU or barcode matched more than one variant in your store, so the importer cannot decide which inventory item to transfer. Shopify treats inventory transfers as strict on this point - duplicate SKUs are rejected rather than guessed. Make the SKU or barcode unique across your catalog (or scope it to the correct variant) and re-run the import.

The row included line items but none of them matched a variant in your store by SKU or barcode. Rather than create or update the transfer with the wrong line items (or with none at all), the row is rejected. Check the accompanying TRFR001 warnings to see which SKUs or barcodes failed, correct them, and re-run the import.