Orders - Order Statuses *

Spis treści:

Order statuses on the platform are labels or stages that reflect the current state of an order placed by business clients. Statuses help both suppliers and clients monitor the progress of the order, track deliveries, and resolve any issues. They are also an important tool for managing inventory, product availability, and planning business activities on B2B platforms.

Additionally, the SALY platform enables the execution of a range of automations based on individual order statuses. The automation mechanisms use changes in order statuses to automatically perform specific actions or operations, such as issuing an invoice, sending notifications, or sending SMS messages to the client.

1. Order Statuses - Elements and Default Settings

The panel for managing order statuses can be found in the backoffice under Menu → Settings → Statuses.

Each new instance receives default panel settings and a set of five universal statuses: Cancelled, Processing, Unconfirmed, Confirmed, and Shipped. These statuses are fully editable, and you can also add new statuses or remove existing ones.

The remaining elements of the panel are:

1.1. Flag for Initial Status

To define the initial status, use the first of the four sliders – Initial Status. This status will be assigned to every new order/cart placed by a customer.

1.2. Slider for Business Intelligence Counting

Whether the data related to an order in a selected status should be included in reports is determined by the above slider. For example, if you have orders marked as Cancelled and do not want them included in reports, move the slider to the left (disabled).

For more about BI reports (Business Intelligence), refer to the section BI Reports and Drill Down.

1.3. Slider for Enabling Order Item Editing
This feature is closely related to the user's permissions (Menu → Users → [User x] → User Permissions → Orders → Edit Order Items). In exceptional cases, some clients allow changes to an order that has already been accepted (and passed on the platform). If this option is also available for your case, you should define the order statuses where order editing is possible.

For example, the Unconfirmed order status is typically an early stage of the order process, when accounting or logistics actions have not yet been initiated. If your client urgently wants to add one more item to the previously ordered product, you can choose to manually edit the order and increase the quantity by 1.

If the same need arises with an order marked as Shipped, it is clear that editing such an order is no longer possible. Therefore, orders with statuses that do not realistically allow for editing should have the Enable Order Item Editing option turned off.

1.4. Slider for Reducing Credit Limit

SALY allows managing the credit limit in two ways:

• Based on updates from the API method

• Based on the order status

If the value of an order in a specific status should reduce the available credit limit for the client, the slider should be turned on (shifted to the right). If the client prefers to update the available credit limit directly from their ERP system, the Reduce Credit Limit slider should not be enabled for any status.

1.5. Status Name

This is a required field (field validation) with a 25-character limit. It will be the status visible to the client on the front office.

1.6. External ID

This is an internal ID number that clients using order synchronization with an external ERP system or tools like Baselinker may use. In this case, you should enter your unique number assigned to a specific type of order status.

1.7. Color

You can also assign a color to each status. This will be the color of the font for that status, displayed both on the order listing in the admin panel and in the client panel.

1.8. Button for Defining Data Language

If the platform is available in more than one language, you need to: a. Use the Data Language button in the top-right corner,
b. Reload the view to include the next language version,
c. Enter the status name in the appropriate language,
d. Confirm the update by clicking Save.

Note! This process must be repeated for each defined language.

Let me know if you need any further adjustments!

2. Order Statuses - Process Flow, Stages

The second area of the order status management panel pertains to the rules defining the flow of the process. Each card corresponding to a given status also specifies the allowable next status to which it can transition.

This means you can decide, for example, whether from the Confirmed status, the system can change (“revert”) to the Unconfirmed or Cancelled status, or whether the next status after Processing should be Shipped, or perhaps another one.

The rules governing the sequence of status changes must reflect the real workflow in your company, and at the same time, they should act as a natural barrier to human error. It is important to remember that uncontrolled changes in order statuses not only create communication chaos for the client but can also unintentionally trigger actions assigned to those statuses.

3. Order Statuses - Actions, Automation

Actions assigned to order statuses on the B2B platform are specific actions or operations automatically executed by the system based on a change in the order status. Automated actions help in managing the order processes and increasing operational efficiency. On the SALY platform, we distinguish several types of actions:

• Sending notifications: The system can automatically send email or SMS notifications to the customer or supplier when the order status changes. For example, when an order is marked as "Shipped" or "Delivered", the system can send a notification with delivery confirmation.

• Generating documents: The system can automatically generate documents related to the order based on its status. An example might be generating invoices after the status changes to "Completed".

• Updating inventory: After the status changes to "Cancelled", the system can automatically update the stock levels, returning quantities from the order back to the inventory.

To add actions to a selected order status, follow these steps:

a. Use the Add action button located in the Action Catalog section.
b. In the newly opened window, choose the action category from the three available options (Notifications, Automations, Documents).
c. From the nested list of actions, select the action you are interested in by using the plus button (to add the action to the status), the minus button (to remove the action from the status), or the round checkbox.
d. Changes within the action options are saved automatically, and no additional confirmation is required.
e. After completing the action configuration, close the "Add actions" window by using the cross in the upper right corner of the window.

4. Adding a New Order Status

To add a new order status:

a. Use the + Add Status button located below the list of all existing statuses.
b. In the newly opened window, enter the Name of the new status, keeping in mind that it cannot exceed 25 characters (including spaces).
c. After entering the name, confirm the form by clicking the Add button.

5. Deleting an Order Status

To delete an existing order status:

a. Use the Trash Bin icon located in the top-right corner of the screen (next to the Save button).
b. In the newly opened window, confirm your decision by clicking the Delete button.

Note! Deleting a status is not possible if at least one order is currently assigned to it.