How to Enable Custom Order Status in WordPress

What Is the Enable Custom Order Status feature?

WooCommerce’s default order statuses (pending, processing, on-hold, completed, cancelled, refunded, failed) cover most e-commerce scenarios. But some stores need custom statuses for:

• Manufacturing or custom production workflows
• Multi-stage fulfillment (e.g., “Awaiting Materials”, “In Production”, “Quality Check”)
• Service businesses (e.g., “Scheduled”, “In Progress”, “Completed”)
• B2B workflows (e.g., “Pending Approval”, “Awaiting PO”, “Invoiced”)

The Enable Custom Order Status feature adds the ability to create and manage these custom statuses within WooCommerce’s standard order workflow.

Why You Need It

The default WooCommerce statuses are too generic for some businesses:

• Manufacturing: A furniture maker needs “Awaiting Materials”, “In Production”, “Quality Check”, not just “Processing”
• Services: A consulting firm needs “Scheduled”, “In Progress”, “Completed”, not “Shipped”
• B2B: An enterprise sales process needs approval workflows, “Pending Approval”, “PO Received”, “Invoiced”

Custom statuses provide better tracking and reporting, and they integrate with WooCommerce’s standard order workflow (emails, reports, etc.).

How to Enable Custom Order Status in WordPress

Step 1: Navigate to Settings

Click into the Classic Monks plugin settings in your WordPress dashboard.

Step 2: Go to the WooCommerce Tab

Click on the WooCommerce menu, then click the Orders subtab.

Step 3: Enable Custom Order Status

Toggle on Enable Custom Order Status.

Step 4: Save Changes

Click Save Changes.

Step 5: Add Custom Statuses

Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Custom Order Statuses (or the equivalent location added by the feature). Add your custom statuses with their slugs, labels, and colors.

Step 6: Use Custom Statuses

When editing an order, the new statuses appear in the Status dropdown. You can change an order’s status to any of the custom statuses.

Configuration Options

Option	Description	Default
Enable Custom Order Status	Master toggle.	Off

No nested options. The custom statuses themselves are configured in the WooCommerce settings after the feature is enabled.

What Gets Affected

• The order edit page: the Status dropdown now includes your custom statuses
• The orders list: custom statuses are shown in the Status column
• The order reports: custom statuses are included
• The WooCommerce REST API: custom statuses are exposed
• The order emails: custom statuses can trigger custom emails (requires additional setup)

What Does NOT Get Affected

• The default WooCommerce statuses (pending, processing, etc.) are unchanged
• Existing orders’ statuses (changing the feature doesn’t reassign orders)
• The customer-facing order status display (this is admin-only)
• Other plugins’ order management (e.g., custom order plugins that have their own status system)

Advanced Options (Developers)

This feature registers 3 WordPress hooks in woo-orders.php:

Actions:

• init calls cm_register_custom_status_with_wc() (Registers custom status with WooCommerce)

Filters:

• woocommerce_register_shop_order_post_statuses calls cm_register_custom_order_status() (Registers custom order status)
• wc_order_statuses calls cm_add_custom_order_status_dropdown() (Adds custom status to order status dropdown)

// Hooked in woo-orders.php
add_filter( 'woocommerce_register_shop_order_post_statuses', 'cm_register_custom_order_status' );

The feature modifies WooCommerce behavior by registering or removing hooks. Disabling it reverses those changes.

Troubleshooting

Custom statuses are not showing in the order edit page

Cause: The toggle is off, or the custom status was not registered correctly.
Fix: Verify the toggle is on. Check the WooCommerce settings for the custom statuses. Verify the status is registered with show_in_admin_status_list => true.

The custom status is showing but cannot be selected

Cause: The status was registered as public => false but should be true for admin visibility.
Fix: Re-register the status with the correct arguments. The register_post_status function requires public or internal set appropriately.

The custom status is changing but no email is sent

Cause: Custom statuses don’t automatically send emails; you need to register an action hook for each status.
Fix: Use the woocommerce_order_status_{slug} action hook to send custom emails for each status. See the Advanced Options example.

The custom status is showing in the admin but not in the customer-facing order

Cause: Custom statuses are admin-only by default. The customer-facing order uses the default WooCommerce statuses.
Fix: Configure in the plugin settings to display custom statuses in the customer-facing order summary, or add a custom email template that includes the custom status.