Currently, customers can pay by card for orders containing POA (Price on Application) shipping or products — e.g. cut-length cables where the delivery cost must be calculated manually. This causes extra admin, as the customer pays before shipping costs are confirmed, forcing us to issue a separate pro-forma and sometimes refund the original payment.
It would be very useful to have a checkout control that automatically disables card payment methods whenever a basket includes POA items or POA-type shipping zones.
Instead, the checkout should display a message like:
“This order includes items that require manual shipping calculation. A pro-forma will be issued with the final total before payment is taken.”
The order could then complete as “Awaiting Pro-Forma” (or similar) so the sales team can add shipping and send a payment link or updated invoice when ready.
Example scenario:
A customer orders 10m of a cut-to-length cable (Zone01-POA shipping).
The site currently allows card checkout at £0.00 shipping.
The sales office must then manually calculate carriage and issue a separate invoice.
With this feature, checkout would detect the POA line, disable card payment, and switch to “Await Pro-Forma” flow.
Benefits:
Prevents incorrect payments and follow-up refunds.
Reduces manual admin for both customer and sales office.
Keeps checkout transparent and professional.
Maintains consistent accounting and order flow.
Suggested options:
Add a product-level or shipping-level toggle for “Require Pro-Forma”.
Add a checkout rule to disable card payments if such an item exists in the basket.
Optional new order status: Awaiting Pro-Forma.
Impact:
High — this affects all POA / custom-shipping products and would streamline how bespoke orders are handled.
Just to clarify the only options would be 'Bank Transfer' or 'Account payment' and this would not apply to Retail customers.