Delivery dates at checkout
Choose what customers see about delivery timing, set your cutoff and lead times, and keep a shipping calendar of working days and closures.
Available on the Advanced plan and higher. Compare plans
Updated October 5, 2026
Parcello works out when an order will ship from your cutoff time, lead times and shipping calendar, then adds the carrier’s transit time to get a delivery date. These settings live on the Checkout Rates page and on the Products page.
What customers see
In Rate settings, Show at checkout decides how timing appears next to each rate. Click Save settings after changing it.
| Option | What checkout shows |
|---|---|
| Transit days and delivery date | Shopify’s own delivery estimate (for example “3 business days”) and Parcello’s “Delivery by Fri, Jul 10” in the rate description. |
| Transit days only | Only Shopify’s estimate. |
| Delivery date only | Only “Delivery by …” in the description. |
| Don’t show either | No dates. A Message shown instead of a date field appears. |
With Don’t show either, the message appears on every rate where the date would be, for example “Order ships after graphics approval”. Leave it blank for no message. No promised date is recorded on orders in this mode.
Shopify works out its “business days” estimate from the delivery date Parcello sends. Both come from the same date, so they always agree.
How the ship date is worked out
- Cutoff. If the order is placed at or after the Order cutoff time (local), in the Timezone you pick, processing starts the next day. Leave the cutoff blank for no cutoff.
- First shipping day. If that day is a closed day (not a shipping day, a holiday or a closure), Parcello moves to the next shipping day.
- Lead time. Parcello adds the Fulfillment lead time (business days) plus the longest product lead time in the cart, counting only shipping days.
The delivery date is the carrier’s date when the carrier gives one. When it only gives transit days, Parcello counts them from the ship date on carrier working days (Monday to Friday, skipping your holidays).
Product lead times
On the Products page, the Checkout Lead (Days / Message) column has a menu for each variant:
- Days: enter a number of business days (0 to 999). It’s added to the store’s fulfillment lead time. The slowest item in the cart sets the ship date for the whole cart.
- Message: enter a short message (up to 200 characters), such as “10 business days after graphics approval”. A product that can’t promise a date, like custom work waiting for approval, should use this.
Any cart that contains a product in Message mode shows no delivery date. The message appears where the date would be, and no promised date is recorded on the order. A product in Message mode adds no lead days.
Both values are kept when you switch between Days and Message, so you can switch back without retyping.
Which message wins
When a cart has several Message-mode products with different messages:
| Messages in the cart | Shown |
|---|---|
| All the same | That message. |
| All contain a number | The one with the highest number. “Ships in 15 business days” beats “Ships in 7 business days”. |
| Some have no number | The message of the product with the highest line value (price × quantity). |
If Show at checkout is Don’t show either, the store-wide message always wins.
Shipping calendar
The Shipping calendar card sets when your warehouse ships. Carriers handle their own holidays for transit; this calendar only moves the ship date.
Shipping days and observance
Tick the days you ship under Shipping days (Monday to Friday by default). Holiday observance (weekend holidays) decides what happens when a holiday falls on a weekend:
| Option | Saturday holiday | Sunday holiday |
|---|---|---|
| Federal rule (Sat → Fri, Sun → Mon) | Closed Friday | Closed Monday |
| Business day before | Closed Friday | Closed Friday |
| Business day after | Closed Monday | Closed Monday |
| Observe the literal date only | Closed Saturday | Closed Sunday |
Click Save days & observance.
Holidays
The list has the 11 US federal holidays, ticked by default, and two presets, Day after Thanksgiving (preset) and Christmas Eve (preset), unticked. Tick the days you close.
Each ticked holiday has two number fields: − closes that many shipping days before the holiday, + closes that many after. For example, Thanksgiving with + 1 also closes the Friday after. Extensions count shipping days only, so they skip weekends. Click Save holidays.
Closed date ranges
For other closures, like an inventory week, enter a Label, a Start and End date, tick Yearly if it repeats every year, and click Add. Each closure is listed with a Remove link.
Preview
Under Preview, pick a date and time in If an order is placed at. Parcello shows the ship date (“Ships Mon, Dec 1”) and the reasons, such as the cutoff, closed days and handling days.
The preview uses your saved cutoff, timezone and fulfillment lead time, and the shipping days and holidays as you edit them, before you save. It does not include product lead times.
Example
Cutoff 2:00 PM, fulfillment lead time 1 day, shipping Monday to Friday. An order placed Friday at 3:00 PM:
- After the cutoff, so processing starts Saturday.
- Saturday and Sunday aren’t shipping days, so Monday.
- Plus 1 business day: ships Tuesday.
With a 2-day transit, the customer sees “Delivery by Thu”.
Notes and limits
- Cutoff, lead time and the calendar set the ship date for checkout quotes. The cutoff and calendar also set the default pickup date for Estes and FedEx Freight shipments (Freight plan).
- A date shown at checkout comes from the carrier’s estimate at that moment. Parcello records it on the order, and the order’s Shipping card shows it as “Promised del.” next to the customer’s checkout choice. No date is recorded when none was shown.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| No dates at checkout | Show at checkout is Don’t show either, or a cart product is in Message mode | Change the setting, or switch the product to Days. |
| Dates a day later than expected | Cutoff passed, or a holiday extension or closure applies | Check the Preview with the same order time. |
| Dates ignore a product’s lead time | The product is in Message mode | Switch it to Days and enter a number. |