4. Updating Shopify Reporting for Multi Gift

How to stop Multi Gift master orders double-counting in Shopify revenue reporting by filtering them out with the GNMG-Parent tag, and what the Cancel the main order setting does.

Written By Nick Kennedy

Last updated About 1 hour ago

When you use Giftnote Multi Gift, Shopify creates:

  • 1 master order that takes the full payment
  • Multiple child orders, one per recipient, with the correct revenue per gift

Because both appear in Shopify's reporting, your revenue can be counted twice unless you exclude the master order.

Technical reason: Shopify only allows one payment per checkout, so the revenue must be split across child orders while the payment sits on the master.

Let Giftnote cancel the main order

Go to Giftnote > Settings > Multi Gifts > Advanced settings > Master order. When Cancel the main order once it's paid is on (the default), Giftnote cancels the main order on Shopify once payment is confirmed. Inventory is not restocked, because your recipient orders already hold the stock.

If payment is invoiced or authorised rather than captured immediately, the main order stays open until it actually settles.

Cancelling the main order doesn't guarantee your Shopify reports leave it out, so add the report filter below as well.

Filter the main order out of your reports

Whether or not Giftnote cancels the main order, filter it out by tag. Every Multi Gift main order automatically carries a GNMG-Parent tag, and every recipient order carries GNMG-Child. You don't name or turn these on, and they can't be turned off.

Confirm the tag first. Open a recent Multi Gift main order in Shopify admin and check its Tags section. You should see GNMG-Parent, a family code such as GNMG- followed by a short code, and your own tag if you've set one.

You can filter your Shopify revenue reporting using ShopifyQL. Add this to the query of each report in Shopify Analytics to filter out main orders:

WHERE order_tags NOT CONTAINS 'GNMG-Parent'
Example in Shopify Orders

Save the report as a new report and repeat the process for any other reports you'd like to modify.

If you also use a custom order tag

Alongside GNMG-Parent, every master order carries a shared family-code tag common to all orders in the group, and an optional custom tag you can set yourself under Settings > Multi Gifts > Advanced settings > Order tags (the Your own tag on the main (parent) order field). If you've set a custom tag, you can filter on that instead or as well — but you don't need to for this specific double-counting problem, since GNMG-Parent already covers it.

What to tell your finance team

  • Master order = payment only, exclude it by filtering out GNMG-Parent
  • Child orders = correct revenue per gift, keep them
  • The ShopifyQL report above becomes the accurate revenue source for Multi Gift orders
  • An Order Fee (storefront Pricing tab) is charged on the main order only and never copied to recipient orders, so a report that excludes the main order also excludes that fee. A Message Fee is copied to each recipient order.
  • Fulfil and ship the recipient orders. They hold the stock. Every order in a Multi Gift shares the same family code tag, which your 3PL or ERP can use to link recipient orders back to the main order.

Questions or need help? Visit the help centre, chat with us using the chat button in the help centre or in the app, or email support@giftnote.com.