Order Clerks
Receive and process incoming orders for materials, merchandise, classified ads, or services such as repairs, installations, or rental of facilities. Generally receives orders via mail, phone, fax, or other electronic means. Duties include informing customers of receipt, prices, shipping dates, and delays; preparing contracts; and handling complaints.
Also Known As:
Hub Associate
Materials Specialist
Order Analyst
Order Clerk
Order Entry Administrator (Order Entry Admin)
Order Entry Representative (Order Entry Rep)
Order Processing Clerk
Order Taker
Warehouse Clerk
Warehouse Person
Wages
Annual wages for Order Clerks in United States
Job Outlook
Below Average
New job opportunities are less likely in the future
United States
2033 Projected Employment
87,300
-18% Change From 2023
Explore File Clerks video
Tasks you might complete in a day.
- Confer with production, sales, shipping, warehouse, or common carrier personnel to expedite or trace shipments.
- Collect payment for merchandise, record transactions, and send items, such as checks or money orders for further processing.
- Calculate and compile order-related statistics, and prepare reports for management.
- Recommend type of packing or labeling needed on order.
- Compute total charges for merchandise or services and shipping charges.
- Check inventory records to determine availability of requested merchandise.
- Adjust inventory records to reflect product movement.
- Recommend merchandise or services that will meet customers' needs.
- Review orders for completeness according to reporting procedures and forward incomplete orders for further processing.
- Prepare invoices, shipping documents, and contracts.
- Collect payment for merchandise, record transactions, and send items, such as checks or money orders for further processing.
- Attempt to sell additional merchandise or services to prospective or current customers by telephone or through visits.
- Receive and respond to customer complaints.
- Obtain customers' names, addresses, and billing information, product numbers, and specifications of items to be purchased, and enter this information on order forms.
- Inspect outgoing work for compliance with customers' specifications.
- Inform customers by mail or telephone of order information, such as unit prices, shipping dates, and any anticipated delays.
- Direct specified departments or units to prepare and ship orders to designated locations.
- File copies of orders received, or post orders on records.
- Notify departments when supplies of specific items are low, or when orders would deplete available supplies.
- Calculate and compile order-related statistics, and prepare reports for management.
- Verify customer and order information for correctness, checking it against previously obtained information as necessary.
- Compute total charges for merchandise or services and shipping charges.
Subject areas you may need to master.
- Computers and Electronics - Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
- Economics and Accounting - Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
- Personnel and Human Resources - Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
- Food Production - Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
- Design - Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
- Administrative - Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Education and Training - Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Transportation - Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.
- Chemistry - Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
- Administration and Management - Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
- Mechanical - Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Biology - Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
- History and Archeology - Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
- Foreign Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Public Safety and Security - Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
- Production and Processing - Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
- Physics - Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- Medicine and Dentistry - Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
- Fine Arts - Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
- Communications and Media - Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
- Telecommunications - Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
- Mathematics - Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
- Engineering and Technology - Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
- Geography - Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
- Philosophy and Theology - Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
- Sales and Marketing - Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
- Building and Construction - Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Strengths you may need in this role.
- Reading Comprehension - Reading work-related information.
- Active Listening - Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
- Management of Financial Resources - Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
- Learning Strategies - Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
- Social Perceptiveness - Understanding people's reactions.
- Time Management - Managing your time and the time of other people.
- Service Orientation - Looking for ways to help people.
- Management of Material Resources - Managing equipment and materials.
- Complex Problem Solving - Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
- Persuasion - Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
- Repairing - Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
- Quality Control Analysis - Testing how well a product or service works.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
- Mathematics - Using math to solve problems.
- Equipment Selection - Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
- Coordination - Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
- Negotiation - Bringing people together to solve differences.
- Science - Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
- Installation - Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
- Programming - Writing computer programs.
- Operations Monitoring - Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
- Operation and Control - Using equipment or systems.
- Equipment Maintenance - Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
- Troubleshooting - Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
- Systems Analysis - Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
- Systems Evaluation - Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
- Writing - Writing things for co-workers or customers.
- Operations Analysis - Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
- Monitoring - Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
- Active Learning - Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
- Speaking - Talking to others.
- Technology Design - Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
- Critical Thinking - Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
- Instructing - Teaching people how to do something.
- Control Precision - Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
- Dynamic Strength - Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
- Selective Attention - Paying attention to something without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - Speaking clearly.
- Wrist-Finger Speed - Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
- Multilimb Coordination - Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
- Finger Dexterity - Putting together small parts with your fingers.
- Speed of Limb Movement - Quickly moving your arms and legs.
- Extent Flexibility - Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
- Written Expression - Communicating by writing.
- Category Flexibility - Grouping things in different ways.
- Originality - Creating new and original ideas.
- Mathematical Reasoning - Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
- Spatial Orientation - Knowing where things are around you.
- Speed of Closure - Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
- Far Vision - Seeing details that are far away.
- Gross Body Coordination - Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
- Speech Recognition - Recognizing spoken words.
- Static Strength - Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
- Rate Control - Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
- Inductive Reasoning - Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
- Visualization - Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
- Written Comprehension - Reading and understanding what is written.
- Sound Localization - Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
- Information Ordering - Ordering or arranging things.
- Night Vision - Seeing at night or under low light.
- Visual Color Discrimination - Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
- Near Vision - Seeing details up close.
- Auditory Attention - Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
- Response Orientation - Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
- Reaction Time - Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
- Trunk Strength - Using your lower back and stomach.
- Explosive Strength - Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
- Flexibility of Closure - Seeing hidden patterns.
- Arm-Hand Steadiness - Keeping your arm or hand steady.
- Manual Dexterity - Holding or moving items with your hands.
- Oral Comprehension - Listening and understanding what people say.
- Deductive Reasoning - Using rules to solve problems.
- Oral Expression - Communicating by speaking.
- Gross Body Equilibrium - Keeping your balance or staying upright.
- Hearing Sensitivity - Telling the difference between sounds.
- Peripheral Vision - Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
- Depth Perception - Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
- Glare Sensitivity - Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
- Stamina - Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
- Time Sharing - Doing two or more things at the same time.
- Fluency of Ideas - Coming up with lots of ideas.
- Perceptual Speed - Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
- Problem Sensitivity - Noticing when problems happen.
- Number Facility - Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
- Memorization - Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
- Dynamic Flexibility - Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Average Education Attained
Highest level of education earned by people in this career.
Career Coaching
Need a guide to help you on your career journey or to prepare for your next interview?
You May Also Be Interested In
Content sourced from United States Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration ("DOLETA") and the Minnesota Department of Employment & Economic Development ("DEED")