tiqline is a process SLA monitoring tool: it turns events from Shopify and your own systems into one case per piece of work, gives every step a time limit and alerts you in Slack or by email when a step runs over.
SLA tool or spreadsheet: how to track order deadlines
A spreadsheet is a good start when a few people track a handful of deadlines by hand. Once orders arrive faster than anyone can type, you need a tool that reads the events itself and tells you which order is stuck. This guide compares both approaches, shows where each one fits and how they work together.
What a deadline spreadsheet does
Most teams start in Excel or Google Sheets. One row per order, one column per step, a date in each cell and a formula that turns the row red when a date is too old. Excel's conditional formatting can highlight cells by rule, including date rules, so an overdue row stands out the moment someone opens the file.
Google Sheets can notify you by email or in the browser when someone comments or edits the sheet. Those notifications follow changes to the file. They do not fire because a date in a cell has passed while nobody touched the sheet.
The strength of the spreadsheet is that everyone knows it, it costs nothing extra and you can change the columns in a minute. Its weakness is that it only knows what someone typed in, and it only shows the red row to the person who looks.
What an SLA monitoring tool does
tiqline is process SLA monitoring. Your shop and your other systems send events, either as Shopify webhooks or through the track API. tiqline links the events that belong to one order into a case and moves the case through the steps you describe, for example paid, picked, shipped.
Each step after the first can have a time limit. The deadline is the moment the case reached the step plus that limit. When the deadline passes and the next event has not arrived, tiqline marks the case as stuck, groups all stuck cases of that step into one incident and sends one Slack message or email with a link to the process and the cases. Nobody has to open a file for that to happen.
The key differences
- Data entry: in a spreadsheet a person types or pastes the status. In tiqline the events come from Shopify or your own systems.
- Trigger for an alert: a spreadsheet reacts to edits. tiqline reacts to time passing without the expected event.
- Scope: a spreadsheet holds the rows someone added. tiqline creates a case for every order that sends a starting event.
- History: a spreadsheet shows the current value of a cell. tiqline keeps a timeline of every event in the case.
- Rules: a spreadsheet formula can be edited by anyone with access. In tiqline a time limit is changed in the dashboard and the change is recorded in the audit log with who made it.
Side by side
| Topic | tiqline | Spreadsheet |
|---|---|---|
| Where the status comes from | Shopify webhooks and the track API | Typed in, pasted or imported |
| Deadline per step | A time limit per step, applied to every case | A formula per column |
| Alert | Slack or email when a deadline passes, one alert per stuck step | Highlighting when the file is open; edit notifications in Google Sheets |
| Many orders a day | Every order becomes a case automatically | Every row needs someone to keep it current |
| Branches | A branch sends each case down exactly one path | Separate columns or tabs per path |
| Audit | Changed time limits are in the audit log with the person who changed them | Version history of the file |
| Cost | Free plan with 5,000 events a month | Included in your office suite |
When a spreadsheet is enough
Keep the spreadsheet if you handle a few dozen orders a week, one person owns the follow-up, and that person opens the file every morning anyway. It is also the better tool while you are still figuring out which steps and deadlines matter. Changing a column is faster than changing any process model.
When a tool pays off
Switch when the spreadsheet starts lagging behind reality. Typical signs: rows are updated once a day instead of when things happen, nobody notices a stuck order until the customer writes, or several people edit the same file and the formulas break. At that point the work is not the follow-up anymore, it is keeping the sheet current.
tiqline removes the typing. The status comes from the events, the deadline is checked for every case, and the alert reaches Slack or email even on a day when nobody opens the dashboard.
Using both together
You do not have to throw the spreadsheet away. Many teams keep a sheet for things that are not events, such as notes on a supplier, special agreements or a weekly review. tiqline handles the part that is pure clockwork: which order passed which deadline right now.
A practical split is to let tiqline alert on stuck orders and use the sheet for the follow-up list your team works through. Shopify's own automation app shows the same idea: its template library includes a workflow that tracks an order in Google Sheets and sends a Slack message if it isn't shipped within two days.
Sources
Example: a Shopify shop with an external warehouse
All numbers in this example are made up for illustration. A shop sells about 120 orders a day. A third-party warehouse picks and ships them. Until now a team member copies the order list into a spreadsheet each morning and marks rows red when the carrier has not scanned a parcel after 24 hours.
With tiqline the shop connects Shopify and sends one event from the warehouse when an order is picked, with the order number. The process has three steps: paid, picked within 8 hours, fulfilled within 24 hours of picking. On a busy Monday 9 orders miss the pick limit. Instead of 9 red rows found at 10 a.m. the next day, one Slack message names the step and says 9 cases are waiting, and the email lists those cases.
At roughly four events per order the shop sends about 14,400 events a month. That is above the Free plan's 5,000 events and inside the 50,000 events of the Standard plan at €49 excl. VAT a month.
Limits of tiqline
tiqline does not replace a spreadsheet as a free-form workspace. It has no cells for notes and no formulas. It also does not guess your process: connecting a shop does not start monitoring on its own, and there are no ready-made templates. You describe the steps and time limits yourself. If a step happens in a system that cannot send an event, tiqline cannot see it. For a warehouse without a ready connector you send the step through the track API with the order number.
Questions
Can Excel or Google Sheets send an alert when a deadline passes?
Excel can highlight overdue dates with conditional formatting, but only someone who opens the file sees it. Google Sheets sends notifications for comments and edits. A notification because a date passed while nobody edited the sheet needs an extra script or automation.
How much work is moving from a spreadsheet to tiqline?
You connect Shopify or send events through the track API, then describe the steps and set a time limit for each step after the first. There is no template, so you write down the process you already track in your sheet.
Do I still need my spreadsheet afterwards?
Only for what is not an event, such as notes or agreements. The question of which order is overdue right now moves to tiqline.
What happens to orders that were already late when I connect?
A deadline that is more than seven days old is marked as stuck but does not trigger an alert, so old orders do not flood Slack or your email inbox.
What does tiqline cost compared with a spreadsheet?
The Free plan includes 5,000 events a month. Standard costs €49 excl. VAT a month for 50,000 events. When the quota is full, alerts pause and events keep being stored.
Who sees the alerts?
You choose a Slack channel through an incoming webhook, up to 20 email addresses, or both. Each channel can be switched off without losing the stuck marking in the dashboard.
Start for free
The Free plan includes 5,000 events a month.