Tags in Descartes Finale provide a flexible way to convey meaning and context to Sales Orders. While tags are commonly used to support fulfillment workflows, their use extends far beyond simple categorization.
Overview
The primary purpose of tags is to help organize and streamline the fulfillment process by grouping Sales Orders that share common characteristics. Typical use cases include:
Prioritizing certain orders (e.g., high-value or express shipping)
Grouping orders by marketplace or sales channel
Isolating international orders for specialized carriers or documentation
Identifying orders that exceed defined value thresholds
However, tags can also support more advanced or analytical workflows, such as:
Flagging potentially fraudulent orders using heuristic rules and filters
Tracking orders pending payment or verification
Identifying exceptions or orders requiring manual review
Because tags are fully customizable, they can be adapted to fit a wide variety of operational needs.
Applying and Removing Tags
Tags can be applied to or removed from Sales Orders that are in an editable state. Orders that are not editable, such as completed orders, cannot be modified to add or remove tags.
Sales order tags can be updated using several methods:
1. Manual Assignment
Open a Sales Order from the order list view
Locate the Tags field in the order details
Select one or more tags to apply, or remove existing ones as needed
This method is ideal for individual order review and exception handling.
See figure Add and remove orders from sales order details:
2. Import (Add/Remove Tags Columns)
Tags can be managed in bulk through data import. This approach is useful when updating large numbers of orders based on external data or predefined workflows.
Use the Add tags column to add tags to Sales Orders
Use the Remove tags column to remove specific tags
Use Tags column to clear or replace all previous tags with new tags
The three tag columns, Add tags, Remove tags and Tags, support a single tag or a list of comma-separated tags. Also, values in column Add tags are processed after values in Tags.
The following is a sample import artefact followed by the outcome:
Outcome:
Tag FRAGILE is added to sales order 100005
Tags Items-2-5 and Express are added to sales order 100006, and tag HOLD is removed.
Impact on tag definitions
When adding or setting tags through the sales order import mechanism, tags that are not defined are automatically added to Sales Order tag definitions. Tags added through this mechanism automatically get assigned a colour.
3. Batch Actions
Batch updates are efficient for applying consistent tagging to groups of orders already identified in the system and selected.
Select multiple Sales Orders from the order list view
Use batch actions command "Update selected sales" to add or remove tags across all selected orders
Tags added or removed though this mechanism are chosen from the list of tags defined.
The following figure depicts the Add tags batch-action:
4. Shopify Integration
Tags can also be sourced directly from Shopify:
When using the Pull Sales integration task, Shopify tags are retrieved, added to the definition of Sales Order tags and applied to corresponding Sales Orders in Finale
Because Finale tags follow Shopify-compatible formatting, this ensures seamless synchronization between systems.
Viewing Tags in the Order List
By default, tags are not displayed in the Sales Order list view.
To display them:
Edit the current view
Add the Tags column
Display Behavior
Tags appear as vertical pill-shaped labels
Each tag is shown using its assigned colour
Hovering over the tag field displays the full list of tag names as a tooltip
This visual format makes it easy to quickly scan and identify tagged orders.
See figure Display tags in sales order list view
Filtering Sales Orders by Tags
Once the Tags column is added to the Sales Order view, tags become available as a filtering option.
How Tag Filtering Works
Users can select one or more tags in the filter criteria
Tag filters use a logical OR operator. Orders matching any of the selected tags are displayed (not required to match all). This behavior allows users to quickly build flexible views that capture multiple groups of orders simultaneously.
For example, If a filter includes:
Items-1-5
HOLD
Then:
Orders tagged with either Items-1-5 or HOLD will be included in the results.
See figure Filter orders by tags in sales order list view
Summary
Tags are a powerful tool for organizing and managing Sales Orders in Descartes Finale. They can be:
Applied manually, in bulk, or through integrations
Used to support fulfillment workflows, analysis, and exception handling
Displayed visually in the order list view for quick identification
Used in filters to dynamically group orders using OR-based logic
Rendered in Sales Order reports
By combining tagging with views and filters, users can create highly targeted workflows that improve efficiency and decision-making across order processing.