PRO test orders and the schedule

Open Commerce Health → PRO dashboard → Test orders. PRO places the same kind of clearly marked test order as the free plugin, but checks more of the checkout, cleans up after itself and can run on a schedule. It needs the free plugin, version 1.5.0 or newer, WooCommerce and an active license.

Free and PRO compared

The test product

Choose Physical or Virtual and press Create a test product for me. The product is private, hidden, priced at 1.00 and taxable. A physical product has a small weight. Physical is disabled, with the reason shown, when no shipping zone has a working shipping method.

To change the product, use Regenerate test product. It deletes the old product and creates a new one. Tick the confirmation box first, and tick Also delete the existing test orders if you want those removed too. Runs never change the product silently.

What a run checks

1. The free plugin is ready, the test product exists, guest checkout is allowed, shipping is set up (for a physical product) and no other test is running.
2. The site can make a request to itself, and the product can be added to the cart.
3. The cart can be priced for the test address and the test payment method is available. The test customer lives in your store’s country when a shipping zone serves it, otherwise in the first country a zone serves. The result shows the address and why.
4. Tax matches the tax table: if your tax table has a rate for the test address, the cart must charge tax. The step is skipped, with the reason, when taxes are off, the test product is not taxable or no rate applies to the test address.
5. Shipping: a rate is offered and its cost is added to the total.
6. Coupon: a temporary 10% coupon applies and lowers the total. With coupons turned off in WooCommerce this step is skipped.
7. The checkout page loads with a checkout form (block or classic), and the order is placed through it.
8. The order matches what the cart promised: marked as a test, one item, the same total.
9. Cleanup: the order is deleted and PRO checks the WooCommerce order tables, order items, order notes and reports tables for anything left behind.

If you tick Keep test orders and save, the order is cancelled and kept instead, marked as a test, until you press Delete all test orders. This is not recommended for a schedule, because the orders pile up in WooCommerce.

Scheduled test orders

The schedule is off by default. When it is on, PRO places a test order every 6, 12 or 24 hours (24 by default), never between 01:00 and 05:00 in your site’s time. Runs depend on WordPress background tasks, so the timing is approximate.

The switch is disabled until a manual test order has passed with the current test product and you have confirmed the warnings. A reason is shown next to it. When the schedule is on, a banner on every PRO screen says so, with Pause and Delete test orders buttons.

What happens with the result

Emails go to your alert recipients. See Critical issue email alerts and Issues and their lifecycle.

Test orders are never counted as payment gateway signal and never change the Checkout Health Score. History lists the last 10 test orders, and the Test orders screen shows recent runs.

Before you switch it on

Read What test orders do to your store. A scheduled test order is a real order every time, even though it is deleted afterwards.