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How to Set Your Order Processing Time

Updated
Feature Availability User Permissions Time to Complete Skill Level
Philippine and US stores on Launch, Grow, Scale and the free trial Store owner, or a team member with access to Store Settings About 2 minutes Beginner

Summary

Overview: Order Processing Time is how long you need to prepare an order. When a customer schedules an order for later, checkout adds this time to the current time before offering the next available delivery or pickup slot, so nobody books a time you can't make.

Prerequisites:

  • Store owner access, or a team member with access to Store Settings.
  • Your store's opening hours set under Business Operations, since the earliest slot also respects your opening time.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Open Order Processing Time

  1. In the sidebar, go to Settings → Store.
  2. Click Order Processing Time in the side menu, or scroll to the Order Processing Time section.

Step 2: Set your preparation time

  1. Under Preparation Time, type the number you need.

  2. Choose the unit: Minutes, Hours or Days.

    Unit Lowest Highest
    Minutes 0 60
    Hours 0 24
    Days 0 3

  3. Click Save. Save stays greyed out until you change something.

  4. You see Successfully saved Order Processing Time.

Stores that never set a value use 30 minutes.

Step 3: See what your customers get at checkout

Your preparation time applies to Same Day Delivery, Manual Shipping and Store Pickup, and only to orders the customer schedules for Later:

  1. At checkout the customer chooses Now or Later.
  2. With Later, the date and time picker starts at the current time plus your preparation time, moved forward to your opening time when the store is not open yet.
  3. If your preparation time pushes past today's closing time, the picker moves to the next day you are open. When there is no time left at all, Later is greyed out and the customer sees No scheduled times are available right now. This store needs [your preparation time] to prepare an order.
  4. The Same Day Delivery option tells the customer orders can be delivered ASAP or scheduled later today as long as it is [your preparation time] ahead of the current time.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

  • You see Successfully saved Order Processing Time.
  • Coming back to Settings → Store → Order Processing Time shows the number and unit you saved.
  • At checkout, choosing Later offers a first time that is at least your preparation time away.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

  • " Required."*: the Preparation Time box is empty or not a whole number. Type a whole number.
  • "Preparation time cannot exceed 60 minutes.", "Preparation time cannot exceed 24 hours." or "Preparation time cannot exceed 3 days.": use a bigger unit, or a smaller number.
  • "Preparation time cannot be less than 0 …": negative values are not allowed. Use 0 if you need no preparation time.
  • Save stays greyed out: nothing has changed yet. Change the number or the unit first.

Limitations & considerations

  • One preparation time covers the whole store. You can't set a different one per product or per location.
  • It applies only to scheduled (Later) orders. An order placed for Now is not delayed.
  • Prosperna also checks the preparation time when the order is placed, so a scheduled time that is too soon is refused even if the customer's screen was left open.
  • The picker uses the shopper's own device clock, while your opening hours and preparation time are your store's local times. A shopper in another time zone can see a shifted window.
  • Scheduled dates and times are also limited by the courier's booking window and by any temporary closure you set.

Next Steps & Related Resources

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@prosperna.com.

Last Updated: 10/19/2026