Every sale order carries one overall status plus a few independent indicators that describe how far the order has progressed through fulfilment, invoicing, and payment. The overall status controls which actions Qoblex offers; the indicators tell you what still needs attention. An order can be Open while at the same time showing Awaiting Stock and Unpaid, for example, because fulfilment and payment run on their own tracks.
This article explains each status and indicator, then lists the workflow actions you can run on an order, the rule that gates each one, and which actions cannot be undone.
Overall order status
The status appears as a coloured pill at the top of the order and in the Status column of the sales list. There are five values.
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Quote | A draft that is not yet an active order. It holds no stock and creates no shipments, invoices, or accounting entries. Use Create Order to turn it into an Open order. |
| Open | The active working state. The order can be allocated, shipped, invoiced, paid, returned, and refunded, subject to locks and the records already attached to it. |
| Closed | The order is complete. Qoblex closes an order automatically once it is fully shipped, fully invoiced, and fully paid. Close Order allocates, dispatches, and invoices every remaining line, but it does not record payment: the order then closes on its own only once it is also fully paid (or has a zero total), otherwise it stays Open and Unpaid until you record the payment. Most edits are blocked once an order is Closed. |
| Canceled | The order was canceled. It stays on record but is closed to normal workflow. |
| Deleted | The order was removed. Deleted orders stay in the sales list; the Deleted Orders filter (Would you like to show deleted orders?) controls whether they appear. |
Only orders created in the current sales workspace show these actions. Older orders open in a separate legacy screen and are outside the scope of this article.
Fulfilment (stock) indicator
For an Open order, a second pill shows the stock and fulfilment state. These indicators do not apply to Quotes or to canceled orders, where the sales list shows Not Applicable.
| Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|
| On Hold | The order has been deliberately paused. It will not progress until the hold is cleared. |
| Awaiting Stock | There is not enough stock allocated to cover every line, so the order cannot be fully shipped yet. |
| Ready To Ship | Stock is allocated and the order can move into picking, packing, and dispatch. |
| Fulfilled | Every unit has been shipped. On the order screen the fully-shipped state shows on the Shipments card as a units count rather than as a separate top pill. |
The Shipments card on the order also shows a running units count (shipped units versus total units) so you can see partial progress at a glance.
Invoicing (billing) indicator
The Invoiced column in the sales list shows how far the order has been billed. On the list this state is drawn as an icon only, with no caption; the same three states are the captions you can filter by, and those filter captions are the visible wording:
| Filter caption | What it means |
|---|---|
| Draft | No authorized invoice exists yet. |
| Partially Invoiced | Part of the order has been invoiced. |
| Invoiced | The whole order has been invoiced. |
Each invoice attached to the order carries its own badge on the Invoices card: Draft while it is unauthorized, or Authorized once it has been authorized.
Payment indicator
A payment pill sits next to the status on the order, and the sales list has a Paid column.
| Indicator | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unpaid | No payment has been recorded against the order’s invoices. |
| Partially Paid | Some, but not all, of the invoiced amount has been paid. |
| Paid | The invoiced amount has been paid in full. |
Status flow
A typical order moves through the statuses like this:
- Quote is created (or imported as an active order, skipping the quote step).
- Create Order promotes a Quote to Open.
- While Open, you allocate stock, ship, invoice, and take payment. The fulfilment, invoicing, and payment indicators update as you go.
- An order reaches Closed when it becomes fully shipped, fully invoiced, and fully paid. Close Order does the outstanding allocating, dispatching, and invoicing for you in one step (see the Close Order action below), but it does not record payment. If the order was already fully paid, or has a zero total, it then closes on its own; otherwise it stays Open and Unpaid until you record the payment.
- At any point before shipping, an order can be Canceled; a Quote or an Open order with no shipments or invoices can be Deleted.
You can also step backward from Open to Quote with Edit (revert to quote) while the order is unlocked.
Actions and their rules
The actions below appear on the order screen: the primary buttons sit in the toolbar, and the rest live under the More actions menu. Each is shown only when its rule is met.
Create Order
Available on a Quote. Validates the order (a customer and valid line items are required), promotes it to Open, and brings it into the active workflow so it can be allocated, shipped, and invoiced. This is the forward step out of the quote stage.
Edit (revert to quote)
Available on an Open order that is not locked by an integration. Labelled Edit, it reverts the order back to Quote so header details can be changed freely. It is hidden on locked (integration) orders.
Close Order
Available under More actions on an unlocked Quote or Open order. Qoblex asks you to confirm Do you really want to auto close this order (auto dispatch and invoice all items) ? On confirmation Qoblex runs the whole completion in one step: if the order is still a Quote it is accepted into an order, the remaining stock is allocated and dispatched, and an invoice is raised and authorized automatically for everything still uninvoiced. The step is all-or-nothing: if any part fails, nothing is committed and the error is reported on the order.
Close Order does not record a payment. Once every line is shipped and invoiced, the order closes on its own only if it is also fully paid (or has a zero total). An unpaid order that you run Close Order on ends up fully shipped and fully invoiced but stays Open and Unpaid; record the payment to close it.
If the order has unsaved changes, Qoblex shows Make sure to save changes first then retry this action. Save the order first, then run Close Order again. If the close cannot complete (for example, items still need picking, packing, or batch or serial selection), the validation errors are listed on the order.
Closing an order is a bulk, one-shot completion: it auto-dispatches stock and invoices all items. Use it only when the order can safely be shipped and invoiced in full at once. Do not use it when items still need manual shipment review, batch or serial selection, or partial invoicing.
Cancel Order
Available under More actions for any non-quote order that is not already Canceled. Before canceling, Qoblex checks whether any lines have already shipped. If they have, cancellation is blocked and it shows One or more lines have been shipped. Please return these items first then try again, so you must process the return first. If no lines have shipped, Qoblex records cancellation returns for the refundable quantities (without restocking) and marks the order Canceled.
Canceling is not reversible: the order stays Canceled and is closed to the normal workflow. If items have shipped, return them through the returns workflow first, rather than using Cancel to hide the movement.
Create Purchase Order
Available under More actions. Opens the purchase order generator seeded with the order’s product lines so you can raise supplier purchase orders for the demand this order creates. Non-product lines such as additional charges are skipped. Review the generated purchase orders before approving them.
Clone
Available under More actions. Duplicates the current order into a new order and opens it, so you can reuse an order as a template.
Delete
Available under More actions for a Quote, or for an Open order that has no shipments and no invoices attached. Deleting an unsaved order discards it and returns you to the sales list; deleting a saved order removes it when Qoblex allows it. Once an order has shipments or invoices, Delete no longer appears; cancel or return it instead.
Unlock Order
Available under More actions only when the order came from an integration (a sale channel) and is currently locked for edits. Qoblex asks Are you sure you want to unlock this order? and warns By unlocking this order, we won’t be able to sync any further updates from sale channel. After unlocking, Qoblex reloads the order and more edit actions become reachable.
Use Unlock Order only when a deliberate manual correction is needed and you accept that the order will no longer receive further updates from the sale channel. It is not a way to bypass normal workflow review.
Ship, Invoice, Return, Refund
These forward actions are offered on an Open order when its state allows them (for example, Ship needs allocated stock). Select the line items to act on, then use the matching toolbar button. Shipping, invoicing, returns, and refunds each have their own article; see the related links.
Print and Email
The print menu offers Print (the order document), Print Pick List, and Print Packing Slip. Email sends the order to the customer. These need a saved order and, for email, a customer with an email address.
Send to ShipStation
When the ShipStation integration is installed, a Send to Shipstation entry appears under More actions for saved, non-quote orders. This is an integration action and is documented in the ShipStation section, not here.
Bulk status actions from the sales list
Some workflow actions are driven from the Bulk Actions menu on the sales list rather than from an individual order. Select one or more orders, then choose an action. These include Allocate, Deallocate, Put On Hold, Invoice, Pick, Pack, Ship, Sync to Store…, and document actions. See the bulk actions article for details.
Actions are hidden when their rule is not met. Check, in order:
- The overall status. Create Order shows only on Quotes; Edit (revert to quote) and Ship/Invoice show only on unlocked Open orders; Close shows on unlocked Quotes or Open orders.
- Whether the order is locked by an integration. Locked orders hide Edit and expose Unlock Order instead.
- Whether there are unsaved changes. Close asks you to save first.
- Whether shipments or invoices already exist. Delete disappears once the order has either.
- Whether the order is already Canceled. Cancel is hidden on canceled orders.