Shopify now lets you waive an outstanding order balance

Sometimes an order is left with a small unpaid amount that it is not worth chasing. A shipping difference, a goodwill gesture after a mix-up, or a balance left over after an edit. On 29 October 2026 Shopify added a way to deal with this properly: merchants can now waive an order's outstanding balance from the order page, and the waived amount is tracked and reported rather than lost in a workaround.

What it is

Shopify's changelog lists this as a new feature in the admin. When a merchant decides not to collect an order's payable balance, they can waive it from the payment card on the order page. They can also remove an existing waived amount from the same place if they change their mind.

How it works and how to access it

The waiver sits on the order page, in the payment card. A few behaviours are worth knowing before you use it.

• Shopify adjusts waived amounts automatically when you edit an order, process a refund or handle a return. If the order total falls below the waived amount, Shopify reverses only the excess, starting with the oldest waived amount.
• Waived balances appear where relevant to the buyer, including customer accounts, checkout and email notifications.
• A new Admin permission, Waive order balances, controls who can do this. Higher-privilege roles, such as Store admin, have it enabled by default.
• New write-off metrics and dimensions help you track waived balances, and a new default report called Write-offs by order is available on all stores.

Limits and caveats

The changelog does not state any plan requirements, pricing, regional restrictions or usage limits. The only access control it mentions is the staff permission. We would not read that as a guarantee that nothing applies, so check the feature in your own admin before building a process around it.

Because waived balances are visible to buyers, the wording and amounts customers see matter. A waived amount is not a hidden internal adjustment. It shows up in the customer account, at checkout where relevant and in email notifications, so it is worth checking how it looks from the customer side before you rely on it.

What it means for merchants

For customer service and finance teams, the main gain is a clear, recorded way to write off a balance. Previously, teams may have used discounts, manual notes or other workarounds to get the same result. A dedicated waiver, with its own permission and its own report, gives you a cleaner trail of what was written off and why.

The permission is the part to take seriously. Writing off money is a decision with a cost, so you should decide who can do it. Store admins have the permission by default, but you may not want everyone in that role waiving balances without a rule. The Write-offs by order report gives you a way to review what has been waived, which helps with both control and month-end reconciliation.

What it means for agencies and partners

Clients may ask how to handle small balances after order edits, exchanges and returns, and this gives you a native answer. It is also worth checking any custom reporting, finance exports or integrations you have built, because waived balances introduce a new kind of figure alongside refunds and discounts. Confirm that your clients' finance processes understand where write-offs appear. Staff roles are another area to review: if you set up permission structures for clients, add Waive order balances to the checklist.

How we would approach it

1. Decide your policy: when is it acceptable to waive a balance, and up to what amount.
2. Review staff roles and give the Waive order balances permission only to the people who need it.
3. Test a waiver on a sample order and look at what the buyer sees in their account and in email notifications.
4. Test what happens when you edit, refund or return a waived order, so your team understands the automatic adjustments.
5. Add the Write-offs by order report to your regular finance review, and tell whoever does your reconciliation.

The short version

Shopify now lets staff waive an order's outstanding balance from the order page, with automatic adjustments on edits, refunds and returns, buyer visibility, a dedicated permission and a Write-offs by order report. It is a tidy replacement for workarounds, as long as you decide who may use it and review what gets written off.

ETTA provides fractional ecommerce leadership for fashion, streetwear and sportswear brands. If you want a senior view on how this affects your store, get in touch.