Shopify has one word for the weeks between paid and shipped: unfulfilled. For made-to-order work that leaves out the whole story, so customers email and you answer the same question all day. Workbench lets you name the stages your work moves through — In the kiln, Awaiting proof, Back from powder coating — and move orders along them in batches. Customers check their order on your storefront with their order number and email. Draft orders count too: a deposit is trackable before invoicing.

• Your own stage names — the words your workshop uses, not ours
• Draft orders included, so deposits are trackable before invoicing
• A status page on your own domain, not a third-party tracking site
• Move forty orders to the next stage in one click when a batch finishes
• Read-only: it can display your orders, never edit them