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Capacity lets you limit how many orders a location can fulfill per day. This prevents locations from being overwhelmed and helps balance workload across your network.

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How capacity works

Each location can have a daily order limit. When the limit is reached:
  • The counter resets at midnight (store timezone)
  • Remaining capacity = Daily limit − Orders fulfilled today

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Seeing capacity and backlog at a glance

Once a location has a daily order limit or a backlog limit, Charlie surfaces its live workload in two places. On the locations list (Charlie → Locations):
  • A Daily orders column showing today’s count against the limit (for example, 12 / 20)
  • A Backlog orders column showing pending orders against the threshold (for example, 8 / 100)
  • At capacity and At backlog tabs to filter straight to the locations that have hit a limit
  • Locations with no limit set show Not set
On a location’s detail page, the Order workload card summarizes how many orders it has today and how many are still pending.
The backlog number reflects the statuses chosen in Settings → Backlog. See Backlog routing to choose what counts toward it.

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How to configure capacity

1

Go to the location

Navigate to Charlie → Locations and select a location.
2

Open Shipping settings

In the Fulfillment settings card, click Shipping.
Fulfillment settings
3

Enable daily order limit

Toggle on Daily order limit and set the maximum number of orders per day.
Daily order limit configuration
4

Choose capacity mode

Select how Charlie should behave when capacity is reached.

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Capacity modes

Use Prefer other locations for a soft approach that maximizes fulfillment. Use Block orders when you absolutely need to cap volume (e.g., limited staff, operational constraints).

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Capacity as constraint vs routing rule

Capacity can work in two ways depending on your setup:
When set to Block orders, capacity acts as a hard constraint.
  • Location is excluded from fulfillment when at capacity
  • If it’s the only location that can fulfill, the order is blocked at checkout
  • Use for strict operational limits
To use capacity in order routing, you need to enable a Capacity routing rule in Shopify’s order routing settings. Charlie will prompt you if this isn’t configured.

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Examples

A store can only process 10 ship-from-store orders per day.Setup:
  • Daily order limit: 10
  • Mode: Prefer other locations
Result: After 10 orders, the store is deprioritized. Warehouses handle overflow.
A 3PL charges extra for orders beyond their daily SLA.Setup:
  • Daily order limit: 500
  • Mode: Block orders
Result: After 500 orders, the warehouse is excluded. Orders route elsewhere or are blocked if no alternative.
A store has more staff on weekdays than weekends.Setup:
  • Use Charlie’s Automations to schedule capacity changes
  • Weekdays: 50 orders
  • Weekends: 20 orders
Result: Capacity adjusts automatically based on the day.

Capacity Routing Rules

How capacity affects order routing

Automations

Schedule capacity changes by day
Last modified on June 15, 2026