Shopify guide · Order Change History
How to see what changed on a Shopify order
Updated
Short answer
The Shopify order timeline lists events on an order, but it isn't built to show what a field was before it changed. To see the old shipping address, removed items or the previous total, you need a record of each order update with its before and after values, such as Toolbench's Order Change History, part of Toolbench Premium.
How to do it with Toolbench
Toolbench's Order Change History records changes to an order's shipping and billing address, email, phone, the customer on the order, items added or removed, quantities, item prices and discounts, item properties, order total, shipping charged, discount codes, shipping method, refunds, payment, fulfillment and return status, cancellation, archiving, notes, tags, order attributes and PO number. Each change shows the old value, the new value and the time, on the order page and in the app.
- Install Toolbench from the Shopify App Store and choose Premium (it starts with a 14-day free trial).
- Open Order Change History and click Turn on, then approve the read access to orders and customers it asks for.
- Toolbench saves the current state of your recent orders first, so the first edit afterwards already shows its before value.
- Add the Tools block to Shopify's order page to see an order's changes right where you work, or browse every change in the app.
- Set how long history is kept in the tool's settings. The default is 90 days. Card disputes can arrive months later, so you can raise it to as much as 365 days.
Why this happens
A customer says they gave you a different address. An item disappears from an order. The total doesn't match what was charged. An app changed something overnight and nobody knows what. Each time, the question is the same: what did this order look like before?
The answer matters most in chargebacks and delivery disputes, which can arrive months after the order, long after anyone remembers the details.
Your options in Shopify
The order timeline
At the bottom of every order page. It lists events such as order edits, fulfillments, staff comments and some address changes, but it isn't laid out to compare a field's old and new value.
Activity log (Settings > Activity log)
Covers store-level events and shows very little about individual orders.
Order exports and reports
Show each order as it is now, not as it was before an edit.
You only approve what Order Change History needs
Toolbench asks for no permissions when you install it. When you turn on Order Change History, Shopify asks you to approve only what this tool uses: read orders and customers.
It doesn't ask for products, inventory, discounts or checkout settings. Each of Toolbench's other tools asks for its own access separately, and only if you turn that tool on, so you never grant access for tools you don't use. Read access means Toolbench can see that data but can't change it.
Before you turn it on
- It records from the moment it's turned on. It can't recover edits made before that.
- It can't name the staff member who made an edit, because Shopify doesn't send that to apps. View History shows who had the order open at the time.
- It only reads your orders. It never edits them.
- Order history is kept for the period you set, up to 365 days.
Pricing
Order Change History is a Premium tool. Premium is $9.99 a month with a 14-day free trial and includes the first 1,000 orders tracked each billing cycle. After that, each extra order costs half a cent up to 3,000, and less beyond that. An order counts once per billing cycle however many times it's edited, even if Cart History also tied it to a cart.
Questions
Can I use an order's change history in a chargeback dispute?
It gives you a dated record of every address and order edit with the values before and after, which is the kind of evidence a dispute needs. Keep order history for up to 365 days so it's still there when a late dispute arrives.
Does Toolbench record order edits made by other apps?
Yes. Order Change History records every order update Shopify sends, whether it came from staff or another app.
Does an order that's edited many times cost more?
No. An order counts once per billing cycle when Order Change History records it, however many times it's edited.
What permissions does Order Change History need?
Only the ones it uses: read orders and customers. It doesn't ask for products, inventory, discounts or checkout settings. Toolbench asks for no permissions at install, and each of its other tools asks for its own access separately, only if you turn that tool on.