diff --git a/includes/functions.php b/includes/functions.php
index 6403921..e2ceb3f 100644
--- a/includes/functions.php
+++ b/includes/functions.php
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ function get_product_price($product) {
 }
 
 /**
- * Paginate a query result.
+ * Paginate a query result. 
  * 
  * @param PDO $pdo The PDO connection object.
  * @param string $query The base SQL query (without LIMIT/OFFSET).
@@ -107,7 +107,9 @@ function paginate_query($pdo, $query, $params = [], $default_limit = 20) {
     }
 
     // Count total rows using a subquery to handle complex queries safely
-    $count_sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ($query) as count_table";
+    // Strip ORDER BY from the query for the count to avoid SQL errors and improve performance
+    $count_query = preg_replace('/ORDER\s+BY.*$/is', '', $query);
+    $count_sql = "SELECT COUNT(*) FROM ($count_query) as count_table";
     $stmt = $pdo->prepare($count_sql);
     $stmt->execute($params);
     $total_rows = $stmt->fetchColumn();