Order management
A B2B order is rarely one clean transaction. Ten fittings are ordered against the buyer's own purchase-order number; six ship on Tuesday and four on the following Thursday; the invoice is paid 30 days after that, and two of the six come back the week after because the machine they were for was scrapped. All of that is one order, and at any moment it has three different true answers to "is it done?".
That is why this area starts with the model rather than the screens. An order here is a snapshot: prices, addresses and totals are frozen when it is placed. It carries three independent statuses (lifecycle, payment, fulfillment), and each position keeps its own count of what was ordered, shipped, cancelled and returned. Every partial delivery, partial cancellation and partial return is therefore a subtraction on the position rather than a separate record to keep in sync. Learn those two ideas and the rest of this area is mechanics.
It also covers the two things B2B buyers order through most, which are neither the category tree nor the search box: saved order lists they re-order from every month, and quick order, forty article numbers pasted in at once.
Understand
The model, before any clicking.
- The order lifecycle — what an order is made of, where orders come from, and the five states.
- The three order statuses — the concept everything else here depends on.
- Quotes, approvals and negotiation — what is modelled before an order exists, and what is not.
Set up
Decided once, then it answers every checkout.
- Checkout configuration — the four sets of rules that meet at the end of a cart.
- Payment methods — invoice, prepayment, card, and the fees and limits on each.
- Shipping methods and carriers — rate matrices, carriers, cut-off times and the delivery promise.
- Stock, locations and availability — what "in stock" means, and what happens when it is not.
- Number ranges — order, delivery-note and return numbering your ERP accepts.
Work with it
The order desk, and the two fast paths buyers order through.
- Process an order — the daily loop, and what each action changes.
- Partial deliveries and backorders — ship what you have, keep the rest open.
- Cancel or change an order — full and partial cancellation, and the point of no return.
- Returns and credit notes — register, receive, settle or refuse.
- Order lists and recurring carts — the saved basket a buyer re-orders from every month.
- Quick order and cart import — SKUs and quantities pasted or uploaded, instead of browsing.
- Manage stock day to day — receiving, adjusting, reserving and reading the ledger.
Keep it healthy
Order management fails quietly. These are the checks that get there first.
- Orders that get stuck — the six causes, in the order to check them.
- Reconcile orders with your ERP — the three references, and what to do when they disagree.
- When stock numbers drift — phantom stockouts, stale reservations, and the weekly loop.