How a Bakery Gets a Daily Production List From Shopify Orders

A bakery gets a daily production list from Shopify orders by exporting the order lines with the pickup date in its own column, then sorting and filtering that column in a spreadsheet. The order list and the order CSV are ordered by the day the order was placed, and the pickup date sits on the order as a cart attribute or a line-item property. So the work is: find where your date is saved, get it into a column, and let the spreadsheet group the lines by day.

This guide walks through those steps for bakeries, food shops and anyone delivering their own orders, from finding the date to a printed list of what to bake tomorrow.

Why don’t my orders line up by pickup date?

An order placed on Monday for Saturday pickup sits between Monday’s orders, not Saturday’s. That is because the order date and the pickup date are two different things:

• The order date is when the customer paid. It is what the order list and the order export are sorted by.
• The pickup or delivery date is a value the customer chose, saved by your date picker. Shopify keeps it on the order as information, and it does not decide where the order appears in a list.

The same question has come up in the Shopify Community for years, for example sorting orders by delivery date instead of order date and including the delivery date in the exported orders CSV. The answer starts with knowing where your date lives.

Where is the pickup date saved on my orders?

Open one real order that has a pickup date and look for it. It is in one of two places:

Where you see it on the order	What it is	Typical source	Where it appears in an export
Additional details on the order page	A cart attribute (also called a note attribute)	A date picker in the cart or cart drawer	Shopify’s order CSV has a Note Attributes column with all attributes of the order in one cell
Under the product, inside the line item	A line-item property	A date field on the product page, saved with the item	An export that reads line-item properties, with one column per property key

Shopify’s help center tutorial to add a delivery date picker to the cart saves the date as a cart attribute. Date fields on the product page are usually saved as line-item properties, the same way engraving text or a cake message is. If you are still choosing a picker, our guide on adding a delivery date picker to the Shopify cart covers the rules it needs.

How do I get the pickup date into its own column?

If the date is a line-item property

1. Export line items, one row per item ordered. Each row is a product to bake, with its quantity.
2. Turn the date property into its own column, for example Property: Pickup date, next to the product, variant and quantity.
3. Add the other properties you bake from, such as Property: Cake message or Property: Flavour, each in its own column.
4. Add Shipping method if you offer both pickup and delivery, so you can split the two lists.

Our guide to exporting Shopify orders with line-item properties explains why properties need their own columns and how to keep each one next to its item.

If the date is a cart attribute

1. Export the orders with Shopify’s order export from the Orders page. The Note Attributes column holds the attributes of each order.
2. Split the date out of that cell in your spreadsheet, for example with a text-to-columns step or a formula that takes the text after Pickup date:. Check a few rows by hand, because the cell can hold several attributes.

How do I turn the export into tomorrow’s production list?

Once the date has its own column, the production list is a sort and a filter:

1. Make the date a real date. Dates saved as text, such as 30/10/2026 or Fri 30 Oct, sort as words. Convert the column to your spreadsheet’s date format first, or every list will be out of order.
2. Filter the date column to tomorrow. These are the items to bake today.
3. Sort by product, then variant. All sourdough loaves sit together, then all 8-inch chocolate cakes.
4. Add a pivot table with product and variant as rows and the sum of quantity as values. That is your bake count.
5. Keep a second tab with the line rows and their messages or flavours, for the decorator and the packer.
6. Print or share the list with the kitchen, and save the file with the date. When a customer asks what they ordered, you have the record.

If you open the file in Excel, our guide to exporting Shopify orders to Excel shows how to import it so dates and SKUs keep their original form. The Shopify order CSV to Excel converter copies the order fields, Note Attributes included, onto every line-item row, so the pickup date sits next to each product before you split it out.

A routine for the day before

When	What	Why
After the order cut-off	Export orders created in the last few weeks, paid and unfulfilled	Orders for tomorrow can have been placed days ago
Right after the export	Filter the date column to tomorrow and build the pivot	One list of what to bake
Before you close	Print the list and the line rows	The early shift starts from paper, not a login
Next morning	Fulfil the picked-up and delivered orders	Fulfilled orders drop out of the next export

The window in the first row matters. Filtering the export by order date only narrows the batch; the pickup date column decides what goes on the list. Make the window at least as long as the furthest ahead customers can book.

Pitfalls to check once

• Different names for the same field. Pickup date on one product and Collection date on another become two columns. Use one name everywhere.
• Orders without a date. Buy it now and express checkout buttons skip the cart, so a cart date picker may never be shown. Filter the date column for empty cells after each export.
• Edited orders. If an order changes after you export, the list is out of date. Export as close to baking time as you can.
• Time slots in the same cell. If the picker saves 30/10/2026 09:00–12:00, split date and slot into two columns before you sort.

Where Columna: Order Export & Sheets fits

Columna: Order Export & Sheets is a Shopify app that exports orders to CSV or XLSX with line-item properties, for shops that hand orders to production, fulfilment or accounting. It looks for the property keys used in your last 250 orders and offers a column for each one, named Property: <key>, so a pickup date, cake message or flavour saved on the item lands in its own column. You save the columns as a reusable template, filter by payment and fulfillment status, date range and tags, and the file is built in your browser. See Columna: Order Export & Sheets for every column it can export, and our guide to packing lists and production sheets from Shopify orders for the rest of the daily routine.

FAQ

Can I sort Shopify orders by pickup date instead of order date?

Not by the pickup date itself in the order list, because that list follows the order date. Export the orders with the pickup date in its own column and sort that column in a spreadsheet.

Where does Shopify save a delivery date from a cart date picker?

As a cart attribute. You see it under Additional details on the order, and Shopify’s order CSV lists it in the Note Attributes column.

Why does my list miss orders for tomorrow?

Usually the export window is too short. An order for tomorrow can have been placed weeks ago, so export orders created over at least your full booking window, then filter by the pickup date.

Why do my dates sort in the wrong order?

They are text, not dates. Convert the column to a date format in your spreadsheet before you sort or filter.

How do I get a bake count per product?

Filter to one pickup date, then build a pivot table with product and variant as rows and the sum of quantity as values.

If your pickup date is saved on the item and you want it in its own column without copying it from each order, try Columna: Order Export & Sheets on the Shopify App Store.