Timesact versus doing it by hand: Shopify AU

Timesact Preorder Conversion

On the Shopify App Store: apps.shopify.com/timesact-discount-pre-order
App pricing and free plans shift regularly, and are billed in US dollars. Check the current App Store listing before you install.

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The short answer: Timesact Pre-order is a Shopify app that adds deposit payments, pre-order buttons with release dates and per-variant pre-order controls on top of what Shopify already does natively. On the App Store listing checked 1 September 2026, the Free (New Users) plan carries 20 orders per month with unlimited product-page email features. CORE Flex from $5 adds deposits and split payments, badges, mixed-cart alerts and order holds. PRO Flex from $7 lifts the analytics and order limits. Doing preorders by hand in Shopify is workable while you can track every open order in a spreadsheet. Once you're managing deposits or several concurrent pre-order variants, the app's monthly cost is less than the hours you'd spend tagging, emailing and reconciling by hand. The GST threshold for Australian businesses is AU$75,000 in annual GST turnover, and deposits count toward that turnover the moment a customer pays them.

Most store owners asking this have already found Shopify's 'continue selling' toggle and noticed it doesn't quite finish the job. It keeps the product page live past zero stock, but it doesn't change the buy button, tag the order or tell the customer when to expect delivery. If you're setting up from scratch, our Shopify Australia: set up your store step by step covers the platform basics before you add apps.

If you're still weighing up whether Shopify is the right fit, what Shopify is and how it works in Australia runs through the local features. The app itself lives at https://apps.shopify.com/timesact-discount-pre-order in the Shopify App Store. It's built for the gap between 'keep the product visible' and 'run an actual pre-order campaign' with deposits, release dates and automated emails.

Doing preorders by hand in Shopify: the real workflow

Shopify already lets you sell a product you don't physically have. The setting is 'Continue selling out of stock when product is out of stock', and toggling it on lets customers buy past zero inventory.

That's the native pre-order, and it costs nothing.

What it doesn't do is tell the customer. The buy button still says 'Add to cart'. The order confirmation doesn't mention a release date. Nothing in the admin tags the order as anything other than a regular sale.

The manual workaround is four steps. Edit the product description to say 'pre-order, ships [date]'. Tag each order 'Pre-order' in the admin so you can filter later. Track open pre-orders in a spreadsheet with one row per order, the product, the customer, the expected ship date and an 'emailed?' column.

The Baymard Institute's product page research, published in 2026, found that only 49% of e-commerce sites have 'decent' or 'good' product page UX. Baymard benchmarked 344 leading sites and logged over 1,300 usability issues. A mediocre product page plus a manual pre-order note compounds the confusion: the customer doesn't know if 'Add to cart' means now or later.

What Timesact adds to Shopify's native settings

Timesact sits on top of the 'continue selling' setting, not in place of it. You still need Shopify's inventory behaviour enabled for the product. What the app adds is everything the native setting leaves out.

Deposit payments at checkout: the customer pays a percentage now and the balance on a date you set. Per-variant control, so the small is a pre-order while the medium is in stock. Shipping dates and countdown timers tell the customer when the parcel moves, with pre-sale order limits per window. Order tags applied automatically, 'Pre-order' and 'Partial pre-order', so the filtering happens without you.

Product-page badges change the buy button to 'Pre-order' and display a release date. Automated email notifications handle the customer's confirmation and your restock reminder. Mixed-cart handling splits shipping expectations when a customer orders one in-stock item and one pre-order.

The setup is no-code. Timesact uses Shopify's App Embed architecture, so the product-page changes load through the theme editor without editing template files. On the App Store listing checked 1 September 2026, the Free (New Users) tier covers 20 orders a month with unlimited products and email features. Deposits, split payments, badges, translation and the mixed-cart alert sit on CORE Flex from $5, with $0.20 per order above the limit. PRO Flex from $7 raises the order allowance and analytics window. Prices can change; the listing is authoritative.

The break-even point: when the app pays for itself

The manual method costs your time, not your bank balance. Five minutes per order to tag it, update the spreadsheet and draft the customer email. That's manageable for two or three pre-orders a month.

Scale it up and the maths changes.

Twenty orders across five variants at five minutes each is eight hours of admin, a full working day spent on tagging and email. At ten variants, it's two days.

The break-even sits around five concurrent pre-order variants. Below that, a spreadsheet is fine. Above it, the time you lose to manual tracking is worth more than the app's subscription. If you're still weighing the platform's monthly fees, how much Shopify costs in Australia has the full breakdown.

Australian retail is growing, which means more orders and a sooner break-even. The Australian Bureau of Statistics recorded A$37,906.6 million in seasonally adjusted retail turnover for June 2025, up 4.9% on June 2024. More turnover means more orders, and the manual method breaks sooner than you'd expect.

Pre-order decision checklist (our suggested version):

• Concurrent pre-order variants you'll run: ___.
• Will you take deposits? Yes / No.
• Can you track every open order in one spreadsheet without scrolling? Yes / No.
• Do you need the buy button to say 'Pre-order'? Yes / No.
• Will you need automated restock emails? Yes / No.

If you ticked three or more, or listed five-plus variants, the app pays for itself.

Where manual preorders still make sense

Don't install the app for one product drop, once. A single pre-order campaign with one variant and a known restock date doesn't need scheduling, deposit logic or automated tags. The native setting, a product description note and 20 orders in a spreadsheet will do.

Don't install it for a test run either. If you're checking whether your market will pre-order at all, the manual method gives you that answer for free. You'll know in a week whether the demand exists.

And if your store rarely pre-orders, maybe twice a year for a seasonal restock, the monthly subscription isn't worth it for a feature you touch in November and March. The free plan's 20 orders a month covers a small campaign; badges and the mixed-cart alert start on the $5 CORE Flex tier.

The honest version: manual preorders are the right call when they're rare enough to track in a spreadsheet and you don't take deposits. The moment those two things change, the app is cheaper than your time.

Deposits, GST and the Australian payment quirks

Deposits are where manual preorders get genuinely painful in Australia. A customer pays A$30 on a A$150 item today and the balance in six weeks. In your spreadsheet that's one row. In Shopify's admin, it's a draft order, a partial payment and a future invoice you have to remember to send.

If you're using Shopify Payments in Australia, the transaction fees hit on each payment separately. The processing isn't the problem. The reconciliation is: you're matching two payments to one order across two months, and a refund means reversing two transactions.

GST makes it sharper. The Australian Taxation Office states that the registration threshold is AU$75,000 in annual GST turnover. Businesses have 21 days to register once they reach or expect to exceed it. Once registered, you charge 10% GST on taxable sales. A deposit is payment for a taxable sale, so it counts toward your GST turnover when the customer pays it, not when the order ships. A A$30 deposit in June is June revenue for GST purposes, even if the balance arrives in August.

Timesact's deposit feature handles the split in one checkout transaction, with the balance auto-captured on the release date. That keeps the order as a single record in Shopify, which is what your accountant and the ATO want. This is general information about how GST works, not tax advice for your specific circumstances.

Timesact versus doing it by hand: the comparison table

Switching from manual to Timesact without losing orders

If you're already running manual preorders, the migration is straightforward but not instant. Don't switch mid-campaign.

1. Install Timesact from the App Store at https://apps.shopify.com/timesact-discount-pre-order. The free plan is enough to test the setup.

2. Export your open pre-orders first. Note the product, the customer, the expected ship date and the deposit status for each order before you connect the app.

3. Configure Timesact per product. Set the pre-order status, release date and deposit percentage. The app reads Shopify's inventory, so the 'continue selling' setting should already be on.

4. Tag your existing orders. If you've been using manual tags, Timesact recognises them. If not, add 'Pre-order' to your open orders so the app picks them up.

5. Test on one product. Run a single product through the full flow before switching the rest. Place a test order, check the deposit, verify the email.

6. Switch the remaining products. Once the test order works, apply the Timesact settings to your other pre-order products.

Frequently asked questions

Can I set up preorders in Shopify without any app?

Yes. Toggle 'Continue selling out of stock' under Inventory in the product editor and customers can buy past zero inventory. You'll handle the messaging, order tags and customer emails manually, and the buy button won't change to 'Pre-order' without a theme edit.

Does Timesact replace Shopify's native pre-order setting?

No. Timesact builds on top of the 'continue selling' setting, which you still need enabled for the product. Disabling the native setting stops Timesact from accepting pre-orders too, so think of it as a layer rather than a replacement.

How much time does manual preorder management take?

About five minutes per order for tagging, spreadsheet updates and a customer email. At 10 orders with one variant, it's under an hour a month. At 20 orders across five variants, that's roughly eight hours, and the point where a spreadsheet stops being cheaper than the app is lower than most store owners expect.

Do I need to charge GST on pre-order deposits?

If you're GST-registered, yes. A deposit counts toward your GST turnover when the customer pays it, not when the order ships. If you're not registered, don't charge GST on the deposit. The threshold is AU$75,000 in annual GST turnover, and you have 21 days to register once you reach or expect to exceed it. This is general information, not tax advice.

Sources

1. Australian Taxation Office, "Registering for GST". https://www.ato.gov.au/businesses-and-organisations/gst-excise-and-indirect-taxes/gst/registering-for-gst — checked on 1 September 2026.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics, "Retail Trade, Australia, June 2025". https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/industry/retail-and-wholesale-trade/retail-trade-australia/latest-release — checked on 1 September 2026.
3. Baymard Institute, "Product Details Page UX Research Studies". https://baymard.com/research/product-page — checked on 1 September 2026.
4. Shopify App Store, "Timesact: Pre-order, Discount". https://apps.shopify.com/timesact-discount-pre-order — checked on 1 September 2026.
5. Shopify Help Center, "Selling products before they are available (pre-orders)". https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/purchase-options — checked on 1 September 2026.
6. Shopify, "Task Automation for Ecommerce: How to Save Time and Scale (2025)". https://www.shopify.com/enterprise/blog/task-automation — checked on 1 September 2026.

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