How it works

Follow these 6 simple steps to start duplicating tagged draft orders automatically each month

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Schedule

App connector: Schedule • Time to complete: 1 minute
Why this matters: Sets the monthly timing for when MESA checks your draft orders, ensuring duplications happen consistently without manual intervention.

This step defines when your workflow runs each month to look for draft orders that need duplicating. You'll configure the specific day of the month when MESA should check your store for matching draft orders. The schedule runs automatically once set, so you can choose a day that works best for your business cycle - like the first of each month for subscription renewals or mid-month for recurring services. Once configured, this timing remains consistent until you change it.

Get List of Draft Orders

App connector: Shopify • Time to complete: 1 minute
Why this matters: Retrieves the pool of draft orders from your store that will be evaluated for duplication, setting the scope for how many orders the workflow processes.

This step automatically fetches draft orders from your Shopify store for the workflow to examine. You'll configure how many recent draft orders MESA should review each time it runs - the default is 100 orders, but you can adjust this up to 8,000 if you have high draft order volume. The step pulls standard draft order data including tags, line items, and customer information. This data gets passed to the next step where it's filtered based on your tagging criteria.

Loop Over Draft Order Tags

App connector: Loop • Time to complete: 1 minute
Why this matters: Filters your draft orders to only process ones with the specific tag you want duplicated, while excluding any that have already been duplicated previously.

This step examines each draft order from the previous step and identifies which ones should be duplicated based on your tagging rules. You'll specify the exact tag name that triggers duplication - MESA will only process draft orders containing this tag. The step also automatically excludes any draft orders already tagged with "MESA Duplicated Draft Order" to prevent endless duplication cycles. Each qualifying draft order gets processed individually through the remaining steps in the workflow.

Duplicate Draft Order

App connector: Shopify • Time to complete: 0 minutes (Auto-configured)
Why this matters: Creates an exact copy of each tagged draft order, preserving all product details, pricing, and customer information for the new billing cycle.

This step automatically creates a duplicate of each qualifying draft order using Shopify's built-in duplication function. The new draft order contains identical line items, pricing, customer information, and shipping details as the original. No configuration is needed since the duplication process preserves all existing order data. The duplicated order gets assigned a new draft order ID, which gets passed to subsequent steps for tag management.

Remove Duplication Tag from New Draft Order

App connector: Shopify • Time to complete: 1 minute
Why this matters: Removes the trigger tag from the newly created draft order to prevent it from being duplicated again in future workflow runs.

This step removes the duplication trigger tag from each newly created draft order to keep your tagging system clean and prevent infinite duplication loops. You'll specify which tag should be removed - this should match exactly the same tag you configured in Step 3 that triggers duplication. The tag name is case-sensitive and must match precisely. This cleanup ensures that next month's workflow run won't accidentally duplicate the same orders again.

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Add Tracking Tag to New Draft Order

App connector: Shopify • Time to complete: 0 minutes (Auto-configured)
Why this matters: Tags each duplicated draft order with a tracking identifier so you can easily identify which orders were created by automation and exclude them from future duplication cycles.

This step automatically adds a "MESA Duplicated Draft Order" tag to each newly created draft order for identification and tracking purposes. The tracking tag helps you distinguish between original draft orders and automated duplicates in your Shopify admin, making it easier to manage your recurring billing process. This tag also prevents the Loop step from processing these duplicated orders in future workflow runs, maintaining clean automation cycles.

Make it your own

Customize this workflow even further:

Add customer notifications
Send automatic emails to customers when their recurring draft orders are created, giving them advance notice before billing and a chance to modify their subscription.
Update inventory levels
Connect inventory tracking to automatically adjust stock levels when draft orders are duplicated, ensuring you have enough products available for upcoming billing cycles.
Create discount workflows
Build conditional logic that applies loyalty discounts or promotional pricing to duplicated draft orders based on customer purchase history or subscription length.
Generate billing reports
Store draft order duplication data in MESA tables to create monthly reports showing subscription growth, churn patterns, and recurring revenue projections.

Frequently asked questions

What happens if I have multiple draft orders with the same duplication tag?
The workflow will duplicate each tagged draft order individually. If you have 5 draft orders all tagged with your duplication trigger, you'll get 5 new duplicated draft orders created during that month's workflow run.
Can I set different duplication schedules for different types of draft orders?
Not with this single workflow, but you can create separate workflows with different tags and schedules. For example, one workflow for monthly subscriptions running on the 1st and another for quarterly subscriptions running on the 15th.
Will the duplicated draft orders maintain the same customer payment methods?
The duplicate draft orders will contain the same customer information as the original, but payment methods aren't automatically transferred. You'll need to manually collect payment or send the customer a link to complete payment on the duplicated draft order.
What is a template?
Templates are pre-made workflows by our team of experts. Instead of building a workflow from scratch, these have all the steps needed to complete the task.
Can I personalize a template?
Yes! Every step can be customized to meet your exact requirements. Additionally, you can even add more steps and make it more sophisticated.
Are templates free?
Yes! Our entire library containing hundreds of templates are free to use and customize to your exact needs.

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