Order Settings
Order Settings is the Salesforce Setup page that turns the standard Order object on and controls how orders behave across your org.
Definition
Order Settings is the Salesforce Setup page that turns the standard Order object on and controls how orders behave across your org. From a single screen you decide whether Orders are enabled at all, whether Order Products can carry negative quantities, whether Reduction Orders are available for returns and reductions, whether zero-quantity orders are permitted, and whether orders can exist without a price book. Each checkbox is small, but the downstream effect on fulfillment, returns, and reporting is large.
The Order object is a standard part of the Sales Cloud data model. It sits after the Opportunity in the deal lifecycle and records what a customer actually committed to buy. An Order belongs to an Account and can reference a Contract. Order Settings is where an admin first makes that object usable, so it is usually one of the early decisions in a Sales Cloud or commerce rollout.
How each Order Settings toggle shapes your order lifecycle
Enabling the Order object
Orders ship with Sales Cloud but stay dormant until an admin switches them on. The path is Setup, then Order Settings, then select Enable Orders and save. Until you do this, the Order tab is hidden, the object is not queryable through SOQL, and the standard relationships to Account and Contract are not exposed to users. Flipping the switch makes the Order tab available, lets you add Orders to page layouts and profiles, and opens the object to automation, reports, and the API. Enablement is best treated as a one-way decision. Salesforce does let you clear the Enable Orders checkbox, but you cannot disable Orders once order records exist in the org. That single rule pushes the choice into your initial design rather than something you toggle later. Plan the page layouts, record types, validation rules, and sharing model before you turn Orders on for end users. Decide early whether Orders will be created manually, generated from a closed Opportunity, or pushed in from an external commerce system, because each path changes how the rest of your configuration should look.
Reduction Orders for returns and reductions
A Reduction Order is a special order that reverses some or all of a previously activated order. It points back at the original Order through a parent relationship and records the quantities you are taking away. Retail returns, manufacturing recalls, and any commerce flow that needs to walk back a fulfilled order all lean on this feature. Order Settings is where you turn it on, using the Enable Reduction Orders option. Once enabled, you create a Reduction Order from an activated original, then add the specific Order Products and quantities you want to reduce. The reduction cannot exceed what was on the original line, which keeps the math honest and prevents you from returning more than was ever sold. Because a Reduction Order is still an Order under the hood, it carries the same Draft and Activated lifecycle, the same need for activation before it counts, and the same editing limitations afterward. Teams that handle returns formally tend to prefer Reduction Orders over raw negative lines, since the parent link gives a clean audit trail from the return all the way back to the original sale.
Negative quantities versus Reduction Orders
The Enable Negative Quantities for Order Products option lets an Order Product hold a quantity below zero. This is a different philosophy from Reduction Orders. Instead of creating a separate reversing order, you record the reduction as a negative line on an order directly. Some billing and ERP integrations expect this style, where a single order can contain both positive and negative lines that net out to the amount actually owed. Choosing between the two approaches is mostly an accounting and integration question, so loop in finance and your integration owners before you commit. Negative quantities are simpler to enter and keep everything on one record, but they offer less structure than a dedicated Reduction Order with its parent link. Reduction Orders give you a cleaner trail and a formal return artifact, at the cost of an extra object to manage. Some orgs enable both and use negative lines for quick corrections while reserving Reduction Orders for genuine customer returns. Whatever you pick, document the rule so users do not record the same event two different ways.
Zero quantity and price book options
Order Settings carries two more checkboxes that are easy to overlook. Enable Zero Quantity Orders lets an Order Product sit at a quantity of zero. That sounds odd until you think about subscriptions and amendments, where a line might be carried at zero to represent a paused or removed item without deleting the history. It is also useful when an integration sends placeholder lines that get populated later. The Orders Without Price Books option lets you create orders that are not tied to a standard or custom price book. Normally an Order Product draws its pricing from a price book entry, just like an Opportunity Product does. For simple use cases, or when pricing is owned entirely by an external system that pushes finished orders into Salesforce, requiring a price book adds friction with no benefit. Turning this option on lets those orders exist cleanly. Both settings are situational. Leave them off unless you have a concrete reason, because each one relaxes a guardrail and can let in data that later confuses reporting if no one expected it.
Order status, activation, and editing limits
Order Settings decides what is possible, but the Order object itself enforces a lifecycle that every admin should understand. An Order starts in Draft status, where products and details can be added and changed freely. When the order is ready, you activate it, moving it to Activated status. Activation is what makes downstream automation, fulfillment, and billing treat the order as real. After activation, editing is deliberately restricted. You generally cannot change the order owner, currency, or pricebook on an activated order, and the products on it become locked against casual edits. To change what was sold after activation, you either reactivate within the allowed rules or, for genuine reductions, create a Reduction Order against it. These limits are not part of the Settings page, but they explain why the Settings choices matter so much. If you plan to handle returns, you must enable the matching capability up front, because you cannot simply edit an activated order down later. Reading the editing and deletion limitations alongside Order Settings saves a lot of confusion during your first real fulfillment cycle.
Sharing, automation, and downstream systems
The Order object has its own organization-wide default and its own sharing rules, and none of that lives on the Order Settings page. Sharing is configured separately under Sharing Settings. Plan it at the same time you enable Orders, otherwise users will only see orders they own and wonder why their pipeline looks empty. Field-level security and page layouts for Order and Order Product also need attention, since enabling the object does not grant anyone access to its fields by default. Once Orders are live, they usually become a hub for automation and integration. Flows fire on activation to kick off fulfillment, billing systems read order lines, and ERP platforms sync committed quantities. Every Order Settings choice ripples into those systems. Negative quantities versus Reduction Orders changes the shape of the data your integration receives. A price book requirement changes how external orders must be staged before they load. Coordinate any change to Order Settings with the people who own that automation, and test in a sandbox first, because a mid-life setting change can break in-flight processes that assumed the old behavior.
Configure Order Settings in Setup
Order Settings lives in Setup and takes only a few minutes to configure, but the choices stick. Enable the object, then turn on only the capabilities you actually need for returns, pricing, and reductions. Test in a sandbox before you do this in production.
- Open Order Settings
In Setup, use Quick Find to search for Order Settings and open the page. This is the single screen that controls the standard Order object.
- Enable Orders
Select the Enable Orders checkbox and save. This exposes the Order tab, makes the object queryable, and lets you add Orders to layouts and profiles.
- Choose your reduction approach
Decide between Enable Reduction Orders, Enable Negative Quantities for Order Products, or both, based on how returns and reductions are recorded in your finance and integration design.
- Set the optional flags
Turn on Enable Zero Quantity Orders or the orders without price books option only if a real use case requires them, then save and confirm the toggles stuck.
Activates the standard Order object so the tab, SOQL access, and Account and Contract relationships become available.
Allows Order Products to hold quantities below zero so reductions can be recorded as negative lines on an order.
Lets you create reversing orders that point back at an activated original to record returns and reductions with a clean audit trail.
Permits Order Products at a quantity of zero, useful for amendments, paused subscription lines, and integration placeholders.
- You cannot disable Orders once order records exist, so treat Enable Orders as a long-term decision and plan layouts and sharing first.
- Order sharing is configured under Sharing Settings, not here; without it users see only orders they own.
- Activated orders have editing limits, so enable Reduction Orders or negative quantities up front if you expect returns.
- Changing these settings mid-life can break flows and integrations that assumed the old behavior; test in a sandbox first.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Enable OrdersSalesforce
- Reduction OrdersSalesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Order Settings.
- Enable Reduction OrdersSalesforce
- Enable Negative Quantities for Order ProductsSalesforce
- Order | Object Reference for the Salesforce PlatformSalesforce
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Order Settings.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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