What is backdating and how does it work?

Please Note:

Backdating is an additional pay-per-use feature and the cost of each backdating job is based on how many orders need to be processed to complete each job.

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Backdating overview

When you set up a workflow in Customer Tagger, it will begin to tag Customers when new triggers are fired, either from an order being created, fulfilled, or canceled, or when new Customers are created, etc.

Our backdating service is a popular bolt-on feature to Customer Tagger that will help you to run your workflows against the historical orders in your store.

Backdating is available to all Merchants but is a per-usage paid service on top of the monthly Customer Tagger app fee. 

Once you have set up and tested your workflows in Customer Tagger, you may wish to backdate your workflows against existing orders in your store. You can select which workflows you would like to include in your backdate and the period of time that you'd like the backdate to cover.

You will be asked to accept a charge based on the number of orders that we calculate are needed to be processed. That number is determined by the date range selected and the type of workflows that are included in the backdating job.

Each backdating job has a fee, however, we do not charge based on how many workflows that you choose to run in your backdate. You can process an unlimited number of workflows against your orders.

For more information on pricing, please read our article that covers how much backdating costs.

Why do Merchants run backdates?

If you're looking to create new customer segments based on prior order history, then backdating your workflows against your past order history will help you to build new segments to use in your marketing activities.

Test your workflows before backdating

We highly recommend that you test your workflows to make sure that they work as you expect them to before running your backdate.

The backdating process costs money to run as it is a resource-intensive process, therefore, you need to make sure that you are happy with how your workflows have been set up before running a backdate.

We are unable to process refunds due to incorrectly set up workflows.

Backdating can not be undone!

Backdates can not be undone or rolled-back. Once we have tagged or removed tags from your customers, there is no way to revert back to the way they were before the backdate.

You can test your workflows against existing orders by going into the edit option of each workflow:

On the bottom right side (you may have to scroll all the way down) of the workflow builder, click on the Test your workflow button:

You can then scroll/page through some of the previous orders in your store or use the search box to find an order that you feel this workflow should match.

Once you have found an order, click on the Test button containing the order number to the right of the order details:

The workflow will then be tested against the order:

Testing the workflow will not apply or remove any tags from the customer

Testing the workflow will not apply or remove tags from your customers. It only performs a test to indicate if the workflow would have matched the selected order or not.

Refine your workflow until you get the desired result.

Criteria, features, and triggers that are incompatible with backdating

Some of the criteria, features, and triggers used in your workflows are not compatible with backdating.

This is largely due to certain data being dynamic and not being stored in the order data at the time the order was placed. Therefore, running the workflow on the order at a later date would provide inconsistent or unreliable results.

Features such as scheduled tag removals are not compatible with backdating.

We have put together an article on why some criteria, features, and triggers are incompatible with backdating. Please take a look at this to ensure that you are aware of which features will and will not work with backdating.

How to backdate your workflows

To begin a backdating job, click on the Backdating tab in the main app navigation and then click on the Create a backdating job now button:

You will then be presented with a screen containing a notice that you will need to read and accept before proceeding. It confirms that you understand that your workflows should have been tested and that backdating can not be reversed.

You will see a calculation of the cost of the backdating job. This cost assumes that you will backdate all workflows against all orders:

To be able to configure your backdating job, you will need to accept that you have understood the message relating to the limitations of backdating.

Orders in a specific date range

If you'd only like to include orders placed over a certain period of time in your backdating job, select the Orders in a specific date range option and then select the date range:

Specific workflows

If you'd only like to include specific workflows in your backdating job, select the Specific workflows option and then select each workflows that you wish to include in your backdate. Then select each workflow that you wish to include (yours will look different):

Proceed to payment

Whether or not you've selected a specific date range or specific workflows, the next step is to click on the Create button:

Paying for your backdating job

You will then be presented with the one-time charge to be approved. If you are happy to proceed, then click on the Approve charge button.

Please Note:

This is a non-refundable purchase. It will be charged to your account immediately and will appear in your statement of charges from Shopify.

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Once the charge has been accepted, the Shopify approve charge screen will refresh and the backdate will begin.

Processing your backdating job

Customer Tagger will then begin fetching all of the orders it needs for the backdating job.

Depending on how many orders that need to be processed, you may not see any action on the progress bar for some time (could be minutes). The status, however, will be set to processing:

Once all of the orders have been fetched, the backdating job will work through them one by one checking to see if the order qualifies for any of the workflows in the backdating job. If the order qualifies, Customer Tagger will apply or remove tags based on the workflows you have set up.

You will see the progress bar increase as soon as Customer Tagger starts to process the workflows against each order:

Once the backdate has finished, the status will say complete:

You will then see a history of your backdating jobs when revisiting the Backdating tab in the main app navigation. It will show you completed and incomplete backdating jobs:

That's it!

Viewing the results of your backdating job

You can view the results of a backdating job, by clicking on the View Job link from the main backdating screen. 

It will provide you with a summary of:

  • The date range covered by the backdating job
  • How many orders were processed
  • How many customers had tags added
  • How many customers had tags removed
  • The workflows that were selected in the backdating job

You can also search the backdating job by order number to see if that order was contained in the backdating and if so, what customer tags were applied or removed as a result:

Why would some workflows cost more to process?

Some of the criteria available within the workflow builder would require us to read through every order placed in your store. Therefore, even if you have selected a very short date range for your backdating job, if your workflow contains a criteria that requires us to tag customers based on long-term performance or customer activity, then we will, unfortunately, need to process every order in your store.

How long does backdating take?

The duration of a backdate depends on the number of orders that are covered by the backdating job and the number of workflows that need to be checked against each order. For more information on this, please read our article on how long the backdating process takes.

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