Farmhand Settings 101
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Message Farmhand to change these settings. Not sure which way to go on any of these? That's what we're here for — text us anytime, Monday–Friday, 5am–4pm PT, plus 24/7 for urgent requests, and we'll set it up with you.
Optimistic fulfillment
This decides what happens when a member’s payment fails at billing. The default is off. With it off, a failed payment cancels that order until it’s paid. With it on, the order still goes out while the payment is caught up: the balance is tracked and the charge is retried automatically. It’s worth picking a lane now, because switching mid-season changes what members have gotten used to. One thing to know either way — the setting also renames a report: failed payments show under Failed Payments when it’s off, and under Past Due when it’s on. When you offer ACH or Cash/Check (Offline) payments you are required to keep it on since it takes time (often past the delivery date) before the payment posts.
Your fees and the “Support Local” model:
This is who covers payment processing — you or the customer — and it's a customer-facing pricing choice, so changing it later changes what every member sees at checkout. Your total fee has two stacked parts: a transaction fee that's always there (it covers SMS, email, and Farmhand support), plus payment processing on top — 4% credit card, 1% ACH, 0% cash or check.
You have three ways to handle it:
- Absorb the fees so they come out of your revenue
- Raise your prices by about 5–7% to cover them quietly
- Use the Support Local model, where the surcharge shows on the customer's invoice. You can also pair it with an ACH/cash discount and define a preferred payment method.
Payment methods
You choose which methods you accept — card, ACH (bank transfer), and cash/check. The rule to understand: a member's default payment method is what add-on and renewal charges follow. So on a cash/check farm, add-ons get invoiced for someone to collect — they aren't auto-charged to a card on file. If your members skew cash, check, or ACH — common for dairy and herdshare farms — decide up front how you'll collect those extra charges.
Order & billing timing
Order cutoff
Your order cutoff is the time each week after which members can't change their order. It drives your pack and harvest lists and the timing of order reminder notifications — and if you run a customizable share, it's worth lining up with lining up with when you pack. There's also an offline-payment due-date cap for cash/check signups, so you can set a window like "due 30 days after signup."
Billing cutoff
The final deadline after order cutoff: last window for failed/retried payments, final order modifications and late requests, and when payment hits your bank.
Plans, shares & membership
Plans, shares, and waitlists
Your plans are the shares members can buy — size, interval, and pickup or delivery option — and whether they pay for the season up front or as they go. You can cap a plan or a delivery zone, and members join a waitlist once it's full, ready for you to filter, message, or invite later.
💬 Message Farmhand for updates and additions.
The box builder (customizable shares)
If you offer a customizable share, the box builder is where you build the weekly box members can customize, swap, and upsize — and you can publish it early so members see what's coming before your newsletter, which cuts down the "what's in my box?" emails. It'll also warn you if any items are still in draft before you publish. Find it at Dashboard → Box Builder.
Members-only access
Members-only product access lets you gate certain add-on shop items behind the share, while keeping other products open to public retail (it's the core of a compliant setup for herdshares, too!). Find it at Dashboard → Products.
Products & shops
Set retail, wholesale, and member pricing
On a product's Pricing tab you can set a retail price, a wholesale price (its own separate storefront), and a member price — used either as a discount available to everyone or as a members-only restriction. Standing discounts run through a coupon or a recurring credit that offsets each invoice. Find it at Dashboard → Products → Pricing.
Control status per variant
The products table shows each variant as its own row, so you can publish your half-share while keeping the full-share in draft — and apply bulk actions to just the variants you pick. Status and Channel columns let you scan your whole catalog at a glance. Find it at Dashboard → Products.
"Add-On Only" Products
For customizable CSAs where members buy blocks of credit up front. Turn this on for a product and it can't be paid for with that credit — the member pays by card or cash each time. Most useful when you've discounted the credit and need to protect margin on certain items. It's tagged "add-on only" in the shop with a short explanation, shows on its own line of the invoice, and doesn't count toward the box target value.
🎥 How to Create and Edit Products
Retail shop / a la carte orders
Accept one-time / a la carte retail orders.
💬 Message Farmhand to enable/disable and set retail fulfillment options.
Fulfillment & packing
Get your drivers set up
Have each driver sign in with one of your premade driver-account emails, then send them their route link. On the road they tap Navigate for turn-by-turn directions, optionally Add Photo for proof of delivery, and Mark Complete to send the customer their delivery text and email and move to the next stop. Share a route link from the Dashboard → Routes.
Sort your pack order from the products list
If your farm uses pack-order sorting, the Pack order column lets you view, sort by, and in-line edit pack-order values right from the products list. Find it in your Dashboard → Products feed
💬 Pack-order sorting has to be enabled first — message us and we'll switch it on.
Set up and customize your packing labels
Choose the label format that fits your pack table. Farmhand packing labels are built for Avery Printing Labels, and you can orient them two ways — 4×3 print or 4x6 thermal printer stock. Names trim to a single line so more of each order fits on one label.
Print your reports in Spanish
Every fulfillment report — pick lists, packing labels, packing slips, sign-out sheets, order CSVs, harvest PDFs — can print in Spanish. Add a Spanish name and unit to each product (Farmhand auto-suggests; you can edit), then choose the language at download. Find it under Fulfillment Reports.
Member communications
Notifications and member messages
The Notifications page lets you preview every automated email and text your farm sends, and customize the copy where it's allowed — including a note you can append to any subscription or order message. You can also manage who receives a member's notifications (a spouse or assistant, say), and your own farm logo rides on your transactional emails. Find it at Dashboard → Settings → Notifications.
Sign Out Sheets
Sign-out sheets sort A–Z by member name. Add instructions to the top for easier pickup.
You can also Enable Order Summary - this adds a per-location summary of orders; or Separate Order Items - this puts each order item on its own line.
💬 Message Farmhand to customize.
Conversations
Every contact has a Conversations tab holding their full message history. View past conversations, reply to those assigned to you, instantly credit an order, or assign back to Farmhand with specific instructions.
Hit New to start a fresh email or text from the "Contacts" tab (the channels available depend on what's on file for that contact), add a subject if it's an email, and send. Replying to a closed thread just works: email and text conversations reopen automatically, while a closed live chat shows a clear notice instead of an error. Find it at Dashboard → Contacts → open a contact → Conversations.
Sales & marketing
Run Campaigns on a Schedule
Your recurring newsletter goes out on a set day, time, and audience — Farmhand sets this up with you. It's worth aligning it to your fulfillment schedule (and your box builder, if you run a customizable share) so members hear from you right when they can act on it. Need a one-off? Ad hoc email and SMS can go out any time from the Campaigns tab. Find it at Dashboard → Campaigns.
🎥 How-To Build Segmented Campaigns
See which campaigns drive your sales
Farmhand captures the campaign tag (UTM) a shopper arrived from and remembers it all the way through checkout, so each paying order shows what drove it. An Attribution card appears on the order whenever tags were captured — no extra setup if you're already tagging your links. Attribution reflects the most recent campaign a person clicked, is remembered for up to 30 days, and clears once the order is placed. Find it at a Contact's Order detail page → Attribution.
Check in on your website traffic
If your site is connected to Farmhand's analytics integration, the Website Traffic report puts total views, visitors, average visit duration, top pages, and top referrers on one screen — with a date-range dropdown and a Download CSV button. Find it at Dashboard → Reports → Website Traffic.
Sell tickets and run farm events
Create an event, set as many ticket tiers as you need — each with its own price and capacity — and sell through the same checkout your customers already use. Check guests in with a QR scan, manage everyone from the Registrations tab, and turn on a member discount per tier to reward your CSA members. Find it at Dashboard → Events.
Want any of these set up for you instead? Text us anytime — we're around Monday–Friday, 5am–4pm PT, plus 24/7 for urgent requests. Text or email us!
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