Scheduled Jobs

Scheduled jobs in Advanced Order Export for WooCommerce allow you to run any export profile automatically at defined intervals. Instead of logging into your WordPress admin every day to generate reports manually, the plugin works quietly in the background — fetching your orders, applying your filters, formatting the data, and sending it to your chosen destination (email, FTP, Google Sheets, HTTP POST, and more).

This is the core automation engine of the Pro version, designed to keep your external systems synchronized without any manual effort.

Let’s look the video you will find out how to create Scheduled job in Advanced Order Export for WooCommerce.

Creating a Scheduled Job: Two Methods

You can create a scheduled job in two equally valid ways:

Method 1: Copy from an Existing Profile

Navigate to WooCommerce → Advanced Order Export and open the Profiles tab.
Locate the export profile you have already configured.
Click the “Copy to a Scheduled Jobs” button associated with that profile.
Confirm by clicking “OK” on the confirmation window.

This method is perfect when you have already fine-tuned a regular export profile and want to automate it without reconfiguring everything. For step-by-step visual guidance, our Beginner’s Setup Guide for Advanced Order Export for WooCommerce (Pro) — AlgolPlus provides screenshots of the entire process.

Method 2: Create from Scratch

Navigate to the Scheduled Jobs tab.
Click the “Add job” button at the top.
A new window will appear where you will configure the job from the ground up.

Whichever method you choose, you will then configure the schedule, date range, destination, and other settings.

The Schedule Block: Setting Your Timing

The heart of any scheduled job is the Schedule block. Available frequencies include:

Hourly — ideal for high-volume stores needing frequent synchronization.
Every x hours — for a custom interval (e.g., every 3 or 6 hours).
Twice daily — for morning and evening reports.
Daily — the most common choice for end-of-day sales summaries.
Weekly — for executive summaries and weekly performance reviews.
Monthly — for accounting and financial reporting.
Custom — define your own interval using a cron expression.

But the Schedule block offers more than just basic frequencies. You can combine multiple conditions to create precisely tailored schedules:

Multiple conditions by day of the week and time — send your report only on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 9:00 AM.
Multiple conditions by date and time — run exports on specific calendar dates (e.g., the 1st and 15th of each month).
Add the task to cron — a button that registers your job with the WordPress cron system for execution at the specified times.

For detailed instructions on setting these advanced conditions, the official Schedule — Advanced Order Export for WooCommerce documentation provides complete coverage of every option.

Tracking Execution: The “Log Results” Option

If you want to see exactly what happened when your scheduled job runs — which orders were exported, any errors encountered, and confirmation of delivery — look for the “Log results”checkbox inside the Schedule block. Once enabled, execution records will appear in WooCommerce → Status → Logs after each run. This is your first line of defense when troubleshooting.

After the job runs, go back to the job editor, click the “View Logs” link next to the checkbox, and select your job from the dropdown (e.g., woocommerce-order-export-xxxxx) to inspect the detailed execution output.

The Export Date Range Block: Defining Which Orders to Include

Even the most perfectly scheduled job is useless if it pulls the wrong orders. The Export date range section, located in the export profile itself, determines precisely which orders are included in each run.

You have two primary options:

Choose a predefined case — select from common ranges such as “Last 24 hours,” “Last week,” “Last month,” “Last year,” and more.
Input a custom quantity — specify an exact number of days to look back (for example, “Export orders from the last 14 days”).

Beyond these, the filter system offers even more precision. You can combine date ranges with additional filters such as order status (e.g., only “Completed” orders), customer country, product SKUs, coupon usage, and any custom order meta field. For example, you might schedule a job that runs every Friday and exports only “Completed” orders from the previous 7 days that contain a specific product category and sub-total above $100.

In cases where you need to control the date range programmatically, the Common Examples of the exported orders article provides PHP snippets and practical use cases for dynamic date handling.

Understanding the “Don’t Send Empty Files” Option

Imagine this scenario: your scheduled job runs every hour, but no new orders have been placed since the last run. Without any safeguards, the plugin will dutifully export an empty file and send it to your email or FTP server. This quickly becomes noise.

The solution is the “Don’t send empty file” option. When enabled, the plugin checks whether any orders match your filters before generating the export. If there are zero matching orders, the export is skipped entirely — no empty file is created, and no delivery occurs. This is a small setting with a big impact on keeping your automation clean and meaningful.

A Critical Note: WordPress Cron vs. Real Server Cron

This is the single most important technical detail for any scheduled automation.

WordPress has a built-in scheduling system called WP‑Cron. However, WP‑Cron is not a true real-time scheduler. It only triggers when someone visits your site. If your store has low traffic, your “daily” export might run only once every few days — which defeats the purpose of automation.

The Reliable Solution: Replace WP‑Cron with a Real Server Cron

For any scheduled export that matters — feeding orders to your fulfillment API, delivering daily sales reports to management, or syncing with your ERP — you should replace WordPress cron with a true server cron job.

Here is the industry‑standard approach:

Disable WP‑Cron by adding this line to your wp‑config.php file before the /* That’s all, stop editing! */ line:
define('DISABLE_WP_CRON', true);
Set up a real cron job in your hosting control panel (cPanel, Plesk, or command line) to call https://yourdomain.com/wp‑cron.php at your desired interval — every 5 minutes is a common choice.
Use a cron management plugin like WP Crontrol to inspect and manage all WordPress scheduled events from your dashboard.

For step‑by‑step instructions tailored to your hosting provider, refer to HostGator’s guide on replacing WordPress cron with a real cron job . This single change will make your scheduled exports run reliably and on time. For a deeper technical explanation of the differences between the two systems, the Cloudways guide on cron jobs provides excellent context.