This is the complete reference: every trigger you can start a flow with, every condition operator, and every action you can add as a step. Names are the labels you see in the flow builder, grouped the way the builder groups them. For how the parts fit together, see Flow basics.
📸 Screenshot placeholder: The flow builder with the “Pick what starts it…” dropdown open under When, showing the trigger groups (Orders, Fulfillment, Inventory, Catalog, Time, Other).
Triggers
Pick one under When. A flow has exactly one trigger.
Orders
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Order placed | A new order arrives, from any channel |
| Order paid | An order’s payment is confirmed |
| Order cancelled | An order is cancelled |
| Order refunded | An order is refunded |
| Refund recorded | A full or partial refund made from the dashboard is saved. Carries the refund amount (in cents), reason and gateway |
| Order line item added | An item is added to an order. Carries the SKU, quantity and unit price |
| Order location changed | An order’s ship-from or pickup location changes, whether by routing, by a person or by a flow |
| Return created | A return is created, from any origin (you, a marketplace or a customer request) |
| Return approved | A return is approved, by hand or by an auto-approval rule |
| Return in transit | The customer has shipped the return and tracking is available |
| Return received | The returned goods arrive at your location. Restocking happens automatically |
| Return closed | The return is fully processed: refund issued and stock settled |
| Return rejected | You declined the return |
Fulfillment
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Order out of stock | A paid order could not be routed to any location with stock (a backorder) |
| Tracking added | A shipment is recorded with a tracking number (from ShipStation, a vendor ship notice or a label), or a tracking number is added to or changed on an existing shipment. Carries the tracking number and carrier. A shipment whose tracking is changed later fires it again, so one shipment can start a flow twice |
| Pick ticket created | A pick ticket is made for an order at a location: automatically, from the orders list, or by a flow |
| Pick ticket picked | Every line on a pick ticket has been picked or marked short |
| Pick ticket short | A picker marks at least one line short (the stock was not where ILLUMA said) |
| Pick ticket voided | A pick ticket stops being valid because the order was cancelled, moved, held or shipped some other way |
| Fulfillment order created | A split order gets a fulfillment order for one of its locations |
| Fulfillment order dispatched | A split order’s fulfillment order is pushed to ShipStation |
| Purchase order created | A purchase order is created |
| Purchase order approved | A purchase order is approved, for example after a human approval step |
| Purchase order sent | A purchase order is sent to its vendor |
| Purchase order cancelled | A purchase order is cancelled |
| Dropship PO stuck | A paid drop-ship line has not reached its vendor: the PO was not sent, or the order was never turned into a PO. A safety-net alert |
| ShipStation order received (webhook) | ShipStation tells ILLUMA about an order. Used by the ShipStation connection |
| ShipStation shipment received (webhook) | ShipStation tells ILLUMA a shipment was made. The flow that records ShipStation shipments for your account starts from this |
The pick ticket triggers carry the ticket number, order number, location, channel, ship service, status, and line and unit counts. They never carry the customer’s name or address.
Inventory
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Inventory changed | A product’s stock figures change. Carries quantity on hand, available and reorder point |
| Bin stock recorded | The quantity of a product in a bin is recorded |
| Bin renamed / toggled | A bin is renamed, switched on or switched off |
| Bin removed | A bin is deleted |
Catalog
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| Product created | A product is added |
| Product updated | A product is edited |
| Product attribute set | An attribute is added to a product |
| Product attribute changed | A product attribute’s value changes |
| Product attribute removed | An attribute is taken off a product |
Time and other
| Trigger | Fires when |
|---|---|
| On a schedule | At set times in your business timezone: every day at a time, or every 15 minutes to 12 hours, optionally only on some weekdays |
| Manual / on demand | You click Run now on the flow. On an Active flow it runs for real; on a Shadow flow it is a test run that changes nothing. See Flow basics |
⚠️ Warning: Scheduled flows are not switched on yet. A flow on On a schedule saves and starts in Shadow, but it will not run until ILLUMA switches scheduled flows on.
There is no “order shipped” or “low stock” trigger. To react to a shipment, use Tracking added. For low stock, use Inventory changed with a condition on Available.
Conditions
Conditions decide whether the flow continues after its trigger fires. Click + Only if… under When, choose all or any, and add rules. Each rule is a field from the event, an operator and a value. The fields on offer depend on the trigger you picked.
| Operator | Works on |
|---|---|
| is, is not | Any field |
| greater than, at least, less than, at most | Numbers and amounts |
| contains, starts with, ends with | Text |
| is empty, is not empty | Text and SKUs |
Order fields (on the order triggers): Order number, Order total, Currency, Payment status, Status, Fulfillment status, Order source, Channel / marketplace, Platform type (Amazon, eBay and so on), Delivery mode and Fulfillment type. Channel, Platform type and Location conditions show a dropdown of your own channels, platforms and locations.
⚠️ Warning: Order amounts in conditions are in cents. To match orders of $1,000 or more, use Order total at least 100000. A purchase order’s Total is the exception: it is in dollars.
To branch part way through the steps instead, add an If / else step. It checks its own condition and runs its Yes lane or its No lane.
Actions
Add steps under Then with Action, Wait or If / else. Every action below is available to your account unless a note says otherwise. In Shadow, every action records what it would do and changes nothing.
Notify
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Send a notification | Rings your team’s bell in the app, sends an email, or posts to a webhook. See Notifications, email & webhooks |
| Add a task card | Puts a card on your Order Issues or Customer Service task board. The board is created the first time it is used. If you archived the board, nothing is added. While a card for the same source and reference is still open, a re-run updates that card’s title and description instead of adding a second card |
| Email the pick ticket | Emails the pick ticket that started the flow, as a PDF, to up to 10 addresses you type. The PDF shows the order number, items, bins and quantities, and never the customer’s name or city. Start the flow with Pick ticket created |
Cases
How to chain these, and their settings, is in Cases and task cards.
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Open a case | Opens a case (a problem that needs an owner until it is resolved) of a case type you choose. While a case of the same type and reference is open, a re-run returns that case instead of opening another |
| Update a case | Changes a case’s details. A blank setting is left as it is |
| Assign a case | Gives a case to someone on your team, who is notified, or takes it off them |
| Set a case to waiting | Marks a case as waiting on someone, with a time to follow up |
| Resolve a case | Marks the problem solved, with how and why it happened |
| Close a case | Closes a resolved case. A closed case is final |
| Link a record to a case | Attaches one of your orders, shipments, returns or other records to a case |
Operations
The pick ticket actions and how they fit your Picking settings are in Pick ticket flows.
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Move a short order to a location that has it | For a pick ticket finished with lines short. If one other location has the whole order in stock, moves the order there and makes its pick ticket there. Otherwise asks for a task card. Full detail in Flow recipes |
| Create the pick ticket for one order | Makes one order’s pick ticket at one location, whatever that location’s ticket setting. Shipped, cancelled or refunded orders are skipped with the reason. If a ticket already exists it is returned as it is |
| Create pick tickets | Makes pick tickets for every order ready to pick at one location (paid, open, not yet picked), oldest first |
| Print the pick ticket | Sends the pick ticket that started the flow to its location’s printer. A ticket already printed is not printed again. Does nothing when that location’s printing is set to manual. Start the flow with Pick ticket created |
| Print unprinted pick tickets | Sends every pick ticket not yet printed to its location’s printer, oldest ship-by first. Each ticket prints once |
| Create dropship PO | Turns an order’s drop-ship lines into one purchase order per vendor. Can also send them. Never makes the same PO twice |
| Create special-order PO | Orders an order’s special-order lines from their vendor, received at your store. Complete POs can be sent straight away. Incomplete ones are kept as drafts and you are told why. Put it before the ShipStation push |
| Send PO to vendor | Sends a purchase order to its vendor. Never sends the same PO twice |
Inventory
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Check order stock | Checks whether your stock can cover an order, so a following If / else can act on the answer |
Fulfillment
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Resolve fulfillment location | Picks the ship-from or pickup location for an order: a location the channel already chose, then your routing rules, then the location with stock by priority, then your default. By default it saves the choice to the order |
| Plan order split | Splits an order across locations when no single location can cover it, and reserves the stock. Can be set to only suggest a plan. Bundles always ship whole |
| Push order to ShipStation | Sends the order’s stock lines to ShipStation. Drop-ship and pickup lines are left out, and channels you marked ShipStation-direct are skipped |
| Cancel order in ShipStation | Takes a cancelled order out of ShipStation so it cannot be picked. Skips cleanly if the order was never in ShipStation. Pair it with Order cancelled |
| Remove vendor-shipped order from ShipStation | Takes an order out of ShipStation once a drop-ship vendor has shipped every line. Mixed orders stay. Never removes an order ShipStation shows as shipped |
| Sync stock to ShipStation | Sets a product’s on-hand count in ShipStation to match ILLUMA |
Catalog
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Sync product details to ShipStation | Sends a product’s name, barcode, weight and dimensions to ShipStation. Only writes when something changed. Skips SKUs ShipStation does not have yet |
Accounting
QuickBooks posting is set up on its own QuickBooks Online page (open it from the QuickBooks Online card on Channel Hub → Overview), not with flows.
With QuickBooks Online on your plan, the builder still lists Post order to QuickBooks, Post refund to QuickBooks and Post Stripe payouts to QuickBooks. They are there for older flows-based QuickBooks setups, which keep running until they are moved over. On a store set up on the QuickBooks Online page, these actions do nothing: the step is skipped and the run says QuickBooks is handled by the integration.
Control
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Wait | Pauses the flow for a delay such as 30s, 15m, 6h or 30d, then carries on |
More options
Click More options on a step to see these. Most stores never need them: the ShipStation connection uses them behind the scenes.
| Action | Does |
|---|---|
| Record ShipStation shipment | Records the shipment from a ShipStation ship event and deducts the stock |
| Match ShipStation order | Finds the ILLUMA order a ShipStation webhook is about |
| Mark order as in ShipStation | Marks an order as in ShipStation when ShipStation imported it itself (for example Amazon orders) |
| Set ShipStation ship-from warehouse | Writes the ship-from warehouse onto a ShipStation order |
| Mirror bin stock to ShipStation | Sends a bin’s quantity of a SKU to ShipStation |
| Sync bin rename/deactivate to ShipStation | Renames or switches off a bin’s ShipStation location |
| Remove bin from ShipStation | Deletes a removed bin’s ShipStation location |
| Compute a value | Works out a value from an expression and saves it for later steps |
| Emit an event | Sends a new event that other flows can start from |
Send a notification in brief
| Channel | Who gets it |
|---|---|
| In-app (the bell) | The bell in ILLUMA, for Owners and admins (the default), Owners only or Everyone on the team. Send to and a Message (or a saved Template) are required |
| Your contact address, up to 10 addresses you type, and/or the address in a field of the event. Marketplace buyers are never emailed | |
| Webhook | An https URL, as ILLUMA (signed JSON) for your own systems or as a Microsoft Teams card |
Flows share a sending limit per account: 100 emails an hour and 500 a day, and 1,000 webhooks an hour and 5,000 a day.
⚠️ Warning: A Teams webhook URL works like a password: anyone with it can post to your channel. Keep it private. Run history never shows it in full: only its host and a short fingerprint.
Every setting, the signing format and the Teams card details are in Notifications, email & webhooks.
ℹ️ Note: Steps run in order, top to bottom. There is no flow action that changes an order’s status, puts an order on hold or tags it. Use the Orders page for those.
Next: Flow recipes, ready-to-copy patterns.