The order lifecycle & stages

Every order moves through an ordered execution pipeline. Each stage has its own job and its own prerequisites, and the system won’t let an order reach a stage before the stage before it is complete.

The 12 stages

Sale Order → Purchase Order → Factory Order → Assembly Plan → Finished Products →
Invoice → Tax Invoice → Shipment → E-Way Bill →
Partial Dispatch → Complete Dispatch → Customer Feedback

A new order starts at Sale Order. A forward move is allowed only when the prerequisite stage has been reached; any move without an explicit rule is denied. Every transition writes a history entry (user, from, to, timestamp, note) to the order timeline.

Some key guards:

• Invoice cannot be entered before Finished Products.
• Tax Invoice cannot be entered before the commercial Invoice is issued.
• E-Way Bill cannot be entered before a Delivery Note exists and the Tax Invoice is done.
• Partial Dispatch can happen many times; Complete Dispatch requires the full quantity to be dispatched.

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Add a short recording here: an order advancing through the stage tracker, and a guarded stage (for example Invoice before Finished Products) being rejected with a message.

What each stage does

Sale Order

The opening stage. Captures the confirmed-order context, customer PO reference, agreed delivery date, dispatch plant and payment milestones. The order can’t move forward until the required header fields are filled and at least one line exists. The credit-limit check runs here. From here the order branches by item type: manufactured items go to Factory Order traded items go to Purchase Order, and an order with both routes to both.

Purchase Order

For traded items, procurement raises one or more POs to the vendor. This stage maps each traded line to its PO(s), shows the aggregated received quantity per line as goods receipts land, and reflects progress as not-started, in-progress or received. Moving forward is gated on a configurable receipt threshold (all received by default). A PO cancellation is flagged back on the order.

Factory Order

For manufactured items, production raises factory orders against the bill of materials. This stage maps each manufactured line to its factory order(s), shows aggregated produced quantity per line, and reflects production progress. Moving forward is gated on a produced threshold (all produced by default). A factory-order cancellation is flagged back on the order.

Assembly Plan

Assembly puts the manufactured components together for dispatch. Captures the planned assembly date, the assigned team (chosen from active employees with the assembly skill) and the plan lines, and tracks planned versus actual completed quantity per line. You can’t move to Finished Products until every planned line is fully complete; a finish date that slips more than a day from plan is flagged and needs a reason note.

Finished Products

Goods are complete and sitting in the finished-goods warehouse. Records the finished quantity per line and the destination warehouse, creates an inventory inward entry linked back to the order, and reflects readiness (not-ready, partial, ready-for-invoice). A quality-hold flag blocks forward movement until QC passes. This stage is the prerequisite the Invoice guard checks.

Invoice

Generates the commercial / proforma invoice against the finished goods, distinct from the tax invoice. Creates the invoice from the order’s lines, customer and terms, links its reference back to the order, and mirrors its state (draft, issued, paid, cancelled). You can’t move to Tax Invoice until the commercial invoice is issued.

Tax Invoice

Finance issues the tax invoice per your regulatory regime. Under India’s GST e-invoicing regime above the threshold, the regulatory metadata (IRN, acknowledgement number, signed payload, QR data) is displayed. Invoices below the threshold skip e-invoicing but still get a tax invoice. A tax invoice can be cancelled within the regulatory window (for example 24 hours after the IRN); after that a credit note is required instead. You can’t move to Shipment until the tax invoice is finalised.

Shipment

Plan the physical shipment: transporter (from your configured transporter list), vehicle number (validated against the local plate format), driver name and phone, expected dispatch date and destination address. This data feeds the delivery note and the e-way bill, and a delivery challan PDF is produced on dispatch.

E-Way Bill

For regimes that require a transport permit (India’s e-Way Bill via NIC) where the shipment meets the threshold. The permit reads the Delivery Note’s transport and line data, not the invoice , so a Delivery Note must exist first. The permit number and validity are stored on the order, and you can update the vehicle, extend validity or cancel within the regulatory window. For tenants without such a regime the stage is skipped automatically.

Partial Dispatch

Large orders often ship in tranches. Each partial dispatch records its date, vehicle, dispatched quantity per line and transport-permit reference, and shows cumulative dispatched against ordered quantity with the remaining auto-computed. It is repeatable, but cumulative dispatched can never exceed ordered on any line. Cancelling a partial dispatch returns the quantity and needs a reason. Each partial dispatch emits its own Delivery Note.

Complete Dispatch

The final dispatch marker, reached only when cumulative dispatched equals ordered on every line. It can optionally auto-move when the condition is met, triggers a dispatch-completion email to the customer, generates a final delivery challan and dispatch-summary PDF, and locks the order header (only the feedback fields stay editable).

Customer Feedback

The terminal success stage. Captures a rating (1-5), an NPS-style score (0-10), comments and follow-up actions, linked to the order and visible on the customer profile. Feedback feeds the CSAT dashboard; a low rating (2 or below) automatically raises a follow-up task on the customer owner.

Tax and GST

Order lines are taxed by place of supply, using the same GST engine as offers: intra-state supply splits into CGST + SGST, inter-state applies IGST, the rate comes from the item’s HSN (which is required on every taxable line), and the document total is rounded per GST rules. See GST on offer lines for the full detail.

Cancelling an order

Cancel is a terminal status, not a stage, and can be reached from any open stage.

1. Choose Cancel on the order.
2. Pick a reason from your tenant’s configured list and add optional notes (a reason is required).
3. Confirm. The order becomes Cancelled and drops out of active dashboards, but stays visible in history.

Cancel is blocked once any dispatch has happened. Cancelling flags linked POs and factory orders for review (it doesn’t auto-cancel them) and voids any draft commercial invoices; an already-issued tax invoice needs a separate cancellation within the regulatory window, or a credit note afterward. An optional cancellation email to the customer can be sent per tenant setting. Cancelling is audited (with the reason and the linked-artefact references) and restricted to roles with cancel permission.

Role gates on transitions

Each stage move is gated by role, so the right team owns each part of the flow. The default rules are: sales for Sale Order, procurement for Purchase Order, production for Factory Order Assembly and Finished Products, finance for Invoice and Tax Invoice, and dispatch for Shipment, E-Way Bill and the dispatch stages. A tenant admin can customise these rules. An unauthorised move is rejected with a clear “not allowed” message.