When you have spend controls enabled and one of your caps would be exceeded, Merch places the order on credit hold instead of processing it. This guide explains what that means in practice.
#What a credit hold is
A flag on the order. In practice it means:
- The order has been created (the recipient submitted successfully).
- Inventory has not been allocated.
- Fulfillment hasn't started.
- The order will not ship until the hold clears.
The hold lives alongside the normal order status. The order's recipient-facing status is unchanged — recipients see exactly what they'd see for any normal order before fulfillment starts.
#Why it happens
Five possible reasons, in priority order:
| Reason | Source | |---|---| | Account fulfillment limit reached | Account in-flight exposure is at or above the fulfillment credit limit | | Campaign budget reached | Campaign cumulative spend is at or above the campaign budget | | Team spending cap reached | The sender's team has hit its period cap | | User spending cap reached | The sender's personal period cap is hit | | Per-recipient cap reached | A per-recipient annual or campaign-scoped cap is hit |
First failure wins. You'll see the specific reason on the Spend Controls page and on the order's detail-page banner.
#What the recipient sees
Nothing different. This is the whole point. The recipient submitted their address and got a confirmation. Their tracking page renders the existing "we're working on your order" copy. They don't know there's a hold.
The only people who see the hold are:
- Admins in your customer portal (on the Spend Controls page)
- The sender (in their daily digest email, if any of their orders went on hold that day)
#How to find held orders
From the customer portal:
- Settings → Spend Controls — see all held orders for your account.
- Fulfillment Orders list — filter to held-only via the filter chip.
- Daily digest emails — Admins receive one summary per day with new holds from the last 24 hours.
Each held order's detail page shows a prominent banner explaining the reason in plain English.
#How to clear a held order
Four paths depending on the reason.
#Reason was a cap (campaign, team, user, or per-recipient)
- Raise the cap. When the next retry runs (or immediately when you save the new limit), the held order is re-evaluated against the new cap. If it now fits, it's released.
- Wait for the period to reset. Team and user caps reset at the next calendar boundary you configured, and Merch automatically retries held orders at that point.
#Reason was the fulfillment credit limit
- Pay outstanding invoices. As orders move to invoiced, your in-flight exposure drops and headroom opens up.
- Request a credit limit increase. Talk to your sales rep.
- Wait for the next monthly invoice cycle. Same effect, just slower.
#Manual override (any reason)
An Admin in your customer portal (or the team's Manager, for team orders) can override a specific hold with a captured reason.
#Cancel the order
If the gift isn't appropriate anymore, the order can be cancelled from the standard cancel flow. Cap counters reverse when a previously committed order is cancelled, so cancellations don't permanently penalize your budgets.
#How auto-release works
Three triggers run the retry logic:
- Period reset (team, user, or per-recipient caps) — fires at calendar boundaries.
- Invoice generation (fulfillment exposure) — fires after each monthly invoice cycle.
- Cap raise (any cap) — fires immediately when an Admin saves a new value.
A background check also runs on a schedule to catch anything the triggers missed.
The retry is safe to run repeatedly. An order that's still over the cap stays held (its reason may be updated); an order that now fits clears.
#FAQs
Can I see how long an order has been held? Yes — the Spend Controls page shows the age of each hold and the timestamp it was placed.
Will recipients get notified that their order is delayed? No. The whole design centers on keeping the recipient experience normal. Delays from credit holds are invisible to recipients.
What if a held order's recipient asks "where's my gift?" Their tracking page shows the normal "processing" copy. There's nothing for them to see. Operationally, you'd clear the hold (raise the cap, override, etc.) and the order ships on the next cycle.
Do held orders count against my fulfillment exposure? No. Held orders haven't allocated inventory, so they don't contribute to in-flight exposure. Only allocated, not-yet-invoiced orders count.