How do delivery days and cutoffs work?

Week schedule — on Menus > Rotation, Evergreen or Weekly Menus — holds the two dates that describe one week: when orders close, and the day boxes arrive. Naming the delivery day is optional, and until you name one, customers keep seeing each week by its dates alone.

Steps

1. Open the tab that defines your weeks — Menus > Rotation, Evergreen, or Weekly Menus — and find the cutoff and delivery settings. Both are measured from your menu week's start date, so changing that date changes both.
2. For manual Weekly Menus, enter cutoff hours relative to 12:00 AM on each week's start date in your store's timezone: positive hours close orders before it, 0 or empty closes at it, and negative hours close after it. On Rotation or Evergreen, use the weekday, time and relative-week controls when shown.
3. For a single delivery day, manual Weekly Menus uses whole days from -6 to 6 relative to each week's start: 0 means the same day, a positive number means later, and a negative number means earlier. Leave empty to show only the week's dates. On Rotation or Evergreen, choose Boxes arrive and its relative week, or leave it Not set. Shops with multiple delivery days do not set a single arrival date here.
4. Read the two lines below the fields. One names the exact date and time your next week closes; the other shows the week exactly as a customer will now read it. Both are what your storefront actually does, not an example.
5. Save changes.

Frequently asked questions

Where do customers see the delivery day?

In three places, once you name one under Week schedule: the week tabs on your storefront menu, the week cards in the customer portal, and the delivery cards on the customer's Shopify account page. It does not add a line — it becomes the heading. A week that read "Sep 27 – Oct 3" reads "Arrives Sunday, Sep 27" with those dates underneath as the menu week it comes from. The preview in the card shows this before you save. Separately, Settings > Delivery days still holds the day choices a customer can pick in the portal.

Why can I not set a delivery day?

Because your shop delivers on more than one day a week. When customers choose between Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, the arrival date belongs to each customer rather than to the week, so naming one day would be wrong for everyone who picked another. Those shops keep showing each week by its dates until customers can record their own choice.

What if boxes arrive before the week they are for?

For manual Weekly Menus, enter a negative delivery-day number: -1 means the day before that menu week's start. For Rotation or Evergreen, choose the weekday and then 'of the week before'. For example, a box can arrive Monday for a menu week starting Tuesday. Check the preview before saving.

What does the order cutoff do?

The order cutoff is the deadline for ordering that menu week. It is measured from 12:00 AM on the menu week's start date in your store's timezone. For manual Weekly Menus, enter hours; on Rotation or Evergreen, use the weekday, time and relative-week controls when shown. For example, 48 hours closes orders two days before the start date, while -24 hours closes them one day after it. Setting a delivery date does not move this cutoff. Check the exact closing date and time in the preview before saving.

Can customers order for the week that is already running?

Yes. For manual Weekly Menus, use negative cutoff hours: -24 closes orders 24 hours after the menu week's start. With weekday controls, choose a later time 'of that same week'. Choose a cutoff that leaves enough time to prepare and deliver the box, and check the exact date and time in the preview before saving.

What does a cutoff of 0, or an empty field, mean?

Both close orders at 12:00 AM on the menu week's start date in your store's timezone. Positive hours close orders earlier; negative hours keep orders open after the week starts. In the weekday-and-time control, 0 is the menu week's own start day at 12:00 AM, of that same week. An empty delivery-day field has a different meaning: no arrival date is shown; delivery day 0 means boxes arrive on the week's start date.

Does a locked week disappear for the customer?

It depends where they are looking. On the storefront menu (the buy flow) a locked week drops out of the week tabs entirely — that is what stops anyone ordering after the cutoff. In the customer portal, a locked week the customer already has meals in keeps showing, read-only, so they can see what will be delivered; a locked week with nothing chosen is hidden, because it can no longer be ordered.

Where can I preview when weeks lock?

Three places, all driven by the same setting. The cutoff card itself — on whichever tab defines your weeks — shows the next week's closing date and time right under the fields. Menus > Rotation's Preview table adds a Closes column beside the Open/Closed status for every upcoming period. Menus > Weekly Menus names the closing time of whichever week you have selected.