Admin Digest Email
The Admin Digest Email sends you a daily summary of unpaid orders that are about to be automatically cancelled, giving you enough notice to intervene before the deadline passes.
Available since v1.3.0
Overview
When you run an auto-cancel policy, there is always a short window where an order could still be saved. A customer may have sent the wire transfer but it has not cleared yet, or they may simply need a follow-up phone call. Without the digest, you would need to check the Back Office manually every day to spot these orders before the deadline passes.
The digest solves that problem by delivering a single daily email — timed according to your configured alert window — that lists every order facing imminent cancellation. Each row includes the customer name and phone number, the order reference linked directly to the order in your Back Office, the order date, the total amount, and a color-coded countdown showing how many hours or days remain.
At the bottom of the email, the total pending revenue at risk is shown in bold so you can decide quickly how much effort to spend on follow-up.
The digest is sent at most once per calendar day. If your cron job runs multiple times in a day, only the first qualifying execution will send the email.
Configuration
- Go to Modules > Module Manager, find Order Payment Reminders Pro, and click Configure.
- Click the Global Settings tab in the left-hand navigation.
- Scroll to the Admin Digest Email section.
- Set Admin Digest Email to Enabled.
- Enter the email address you want to receive the digest in the Digest Email field. Leave it empty to use your shop's main contact email.
- Enter a number in the Alert Before Cancellation field. This is the number of hours before an order's cancellation deadline at which it will be included in the digest. The default is
24. - Click Save at the bottom of the Global Settings section.
- Make sure your cron job is configured and running daily. The digest is sent during the same cron execution that processes reminders and auto-cancellations — it requires no separate cron entry. See Cron Job Setup for scheduling instructions.
| Field | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Admin Digest Email | Disabled | Enables or disables the daily digest email entirely. |
| Digest Email | Shop email | The recipient address for the digest. If left blank, the module uses your shop's contact email (PS_SHOP_EMAIL). Can be any address — a shared inbox, your personal work email, or a support alias. |
| Alert Before Cancellation | 24 hours | Orders are included in the digest only when the time remaining before their cancellation deadline is within this window. A value of 24 means orders with 24 hours or fewer left appear in the digest. A value of 48 gives you two days' notice. Must be a positive integer. |
If you set Alert Before Cancellation to a value greater than your total auto-cancel period (for example, 96 hours when your cancellation period is 3 days / 72 hours), every unpaid order will appear in every digest from the first day. Start with a value equal to roughly one-third of your cancellation period.
How It Works
The digest runs as part of your daily cron execution. When the cron fires, the module checks whether the digest is enabled and whether at least one unpaid order falls within your configured alert window. If both conditions are met — and the digest has not already been sent today — it builds and sends the email.
What the digest email contains
Header — A red heading showing how many orders are pending cancellation, followed by a sentence explaining the alert window in use.
Order table — One row per qualifying order:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Customer | Full name of the customer |
| Phone | Mobile phone from the delivery address, or landline if no mobile is on file. Shows a dash if no phone number is stored. |
| Order | Order reference, linked directly to the order detail page in your Back Office |
| Ordered | The date the order was placed (day/month format) |
| Total | Order total in your default currency |
| Time Left | Hours or days remaining before auto-cancellation. Color-coded: green for more than 24 hours, orange for 12–24 hours, red for fewer than 12 hours |
| Action | A View button that opens the order in your Back Office |
Revenue at risk — A highlighted block showing the sum of all qualifying order totals.
Tip — A reminder to consider calling customers with fewer than 12 hours remaining, since a direct phone call frequently recovers the sale.
Daily throttle
The digest is sent at most once per calendar day. After a successful send, the module records today's date internally. On every subsequent cron run during the same day, the module compares that stored date against the current date. If they match, the send is skipped.
If no orders are within the alert window at the time the cron runs, no digest is sent and the stored date is not updated. The module will check again on the next cron run.
Interaction with Auto-Cancel and Test Mode
Auto-Cancel required. The digest only makes sense when auto-cancellation is active. The module uses your Cancel Order after value (in days) to calculate each order's deadline. If auto-cancel is disabled or set to zero days, no deadline exists and the digest will never include any orders.
Test Mode does not suppress the digest. If Test Mode is enabled, customer-facing reminder emails are redirected to your test address — but the digest is always sent to the configured Digest Email address. The digest is an internal admin notification, not a customer-facing email.
Order eligibility. An order is included in the digest when all three conditions are true:
- It is unpaid and matches one of your configured payment methods.
- Its auto-cancel deadline has not passed yet.
- The time remaining until its deadline is less than or equal to your Alert Before Cancellation value.
Usage Examples
Example: 7-day cancellation policy, 24-hour alert
You have configured auto-cancel at 7 days and the alert threshold at 24 hours. Your cron runs each morning at 8:00 AM. Any order placed exactly 6 days ago and still unpaid will appear in today's digest. You have until 8:00 AM tomorrow before the module cancels those orders, giving you a full business day to follow up.
Example: 3-day cancellation policy, 48-hour alert
Your cancellation window is short (3 days / 72 hours). You set the alert to 48 hours so orders appear in the digest from day 1, not just the final 24 hours. This gives you two days to act before the order is cancelled automatically.
Example: Shared inbox for a team
You enter orders-team@yourshop.com as the Digest Email. Every morning, whoever is on duty sees the digest and handles the follow-ups. No individual inbox is missed if someone is away.
Important Notes
- The digest requires the Auto-Cancel Orders feature to be enabled with a positive number of days. Without a cancellation deadline, no orders qualify and no email is ever sent.
- The Back Office order links in the digest are built using the admin directory name cached from your last Back Office visit. If you recently renamed your admin folder, open the Back Office once so the module updates the cached path before checking the next digest.
- The throttle resets automatically at midnight (calendar day boundary, server timezone). If your cron runs at 23:59 and then again at 00:01, both runs may send a digest.
- The digest always sends to the configured Digest Email regardless of Test Mode status.
- This feature is compatible with multi-shop setups. The digest is sent per shop context during the cron run.
Troubleshooting
| Problem | Solution |
|---|---|
| No digest email received even though orders are overdue | Check that Admin Digest Email is set to Enabled and that the cron job is running. Verify the recipient address is correct and check your spam folder. |
| Digest shows orders that have already been cancelled | This can happen if the cron is run manually during testing and the throttle date was cleared between runs. Under normal daily operation this does not occur. |
| No orders appear in the digest despite pending orders | Your Alert Before Cancellation value may be too small relative to your cancellation period. If orders still have more hours left than your threshold, they do not qualify yet. Try increasing the alert window. |
| Digest is sent but auto-cancel is not working | These are independent features. The digest sends correctly as long as the cron runs and the alert window matches. Auto-cancel has its own switch — confirm Activate Cancel Orders Feature is enabled in Global Settings. |
| Digest sent to wrong address | Update the Digest Email field in Global Settings and save. If the field is empty, the module falls back to your shop's contact email — set it explicitly to avoid ambiguity. |
| Order links in the digest email go to a 404 page | The module builds Back Office links using a cached admin directory name. Open the Back Office once to refresh the cached path, then verify the next digest. |
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I send the digest to more than one email address?
The Digest Email field accepts a single address. To reach multiple people, create a distribution list or shared inbox and enter that address in the field.
Does the digest send even if there are no at-risk orders today?
No. If no unpaid orders fall within your configured alert window at the time the cron runs, no email is sent and the throttle date is not updated.
Will the digest still send if Test Mode is active?
Yes. Test Mode redirects customer-facing reminder emails to your test address, but the admin digest is an internal notification and is always sent to the configured Digest Email regardless of Test Mode status.
How is the "time left" value calculated?
The module measures the number of hours elapsed since the order was placed and subtracts that from the total cancellation window (your Cancel Order after value in days multiplied by 24). The result is the hours remaining. Partial hours are truncated to whole hours in the display.
Can I use the digest without enabling auto-cancel?
No. The digest relies on the auto-cancel deadline to determine which orders are "at risk." Without a cancellation deadline configured, no orders qualify and the digest is never sent. You must have auto-cancel enabled and set to a positive number of days.
The order reference in the digest email does not link to the correct page. What is wrong?
The module builds Back Office links using the admin directory name cached from your last Back Office visit. If you recently renamed your admin folder, open the Back Office once so the module updates the cached path, then check the next digest.
Why does the phone column show a dash for some customers?
The module reads the phone number from the delivery address associated with the order. If the customer did not provide a phone number at checkout, the column shows a dash. Consider making the phone number field required at checkout if call-based recovery is important to your workflow.
Related Features
- Auto-Cancel Orders — configure the cancellation deadline that the digest monitors.
- Global Configuration — where to find auto-cancel settings and the cron URL.
- Cron Job Setup — schedule the daily cron that triggers the digest send.
- Reminder Messages — configure the customer-facing email sequence sent before cancellation.