ShipStation automation rules, audited and rebuilt

Audit every active rule against the last 90 days of orders. Cut the dead rules, fix the conflicting ones, document the rest. Your operators can predict what each tag does.

The problem

Nobody on the team can explain every rule

Rules accumulated over years. Multiple operators added rules that conflict, fire unexpectedly, or have not fired in months. Adding a new rule means hoping it does not break something nobody documented.

One recent audit found 53 ShipStation rules on a single tenant; only 18 were actually firing. On the upstream OMS for the same business, 5 of 7 OrdersRuleEngine rules were "disabled" but operators still toggled 2 of them on for individual problem orders — the disabled-rules-as-tools anti-pattern. The rule engine no longer meant what it said.

Competing rules

Two rules match the same orders and one wins by accident of priority. Operators learn the workaround. Nobody fixes the root cause.

Dead rules

Half the rules in your engine have not matched an order in months. They sit in the priority list, slowing every import for no return.

Mystery rules

A rule fires that nobody on the current team configured. Touching it is risky because nobody can predict what depends on it.

The solution

A smaller, faster, predictable rule engine

We pull every active rule and match each against the last 90 days of order data. Dead rules get cut. Conflicting rules get consolidated with a clear priority. Every surviving rule gets one sentence on what it does and one on why. The team gets a one-page runbook.

Test against history before you ship

We replay the last 90 days of orders against the proposed ruleset and diff the results against what actually happened. Anything that would have routed differently surfaces for review before the new rules go live. No "we hope this works" shipped to production.

  • Every active rule pulled and inventoried
  • 90-day match rate per rule
  • Conflict and dead-rule report
  • Rebuilt ruleset with clear priority
  • One-page runbook for operators
  • Replay against history before going live

Rule inventory

Every active rule listed with conditions, actions, owner, last-fired date, and 90-day match count.

Dead-rule pruning

Rules that have not fired in 90 days get flagged. Most can be removed; some are seasonal and get tagged for the next peak.

Conflict resolution

Overlapping conditions get a deliberate priority order or get merged into one rule. Operators stop guessing which fires first.

90-day replay

New ruleset replayed against historical orders. Any divergence surfaces for review before we flip the switch.

Operator runbook

One-page document of what every rule does, why it exists, and which tag triggers it. New hires can predict outcomes.

Tag-driven design

Rules key off tags applied at order source, not order email or zip. Tags survive customer changes and re-imports; rules built on them stay stable.

Get a clean ruleset before peak

Schedule a call

The outcome

Operators predict what each tag does

A smaller, faster ruleset that the team understands. New rules get added against documented gaps, not on top of unknowns. Every change is a deliberate choice.

Smaller

Dead rules pruned; the ruleset only contains what fires

Predictable

Operators know what each tag does without trial and error

Documented

One-page runbook of every rule, who owns it, and why it exists

Tired of operators working around your rules?

We test every change against the last 90 days of orders before flipping the switch. Nothing ships to production hopefully.

Schedule a call