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How an Order Moves Through Elite Core: From Sales Approval to Receiving, Production and Shipping

This guide explains what happens in Elite Core after a client approves a Sales Order and the order moves from sales into operations. It follows the order chronologically through purchasing, proofing, artwork, receiving, production, warehousing, shipping, and operational completion.

The goal is to help every department understand not only what they need to do, but also what Elite Core changes automatically, which statuses control the next step, which notifications may be generated, and which instance settings influence the workflow.

The most important rule is simple: every stage should answer three questions — What has already happened? What are we waiting for? Who needs to act next?

Order Lifecycle at a Glance

  1. Client approves the Sales Order.
  2. The approved Sales Order becomes the operational source of truth.
  3. Purchasing reviews the order and generates the required Purchase Orders.
  4. Artwork and proof requirements are completed.
  5. Purchase Orders are sent and confirmed.
  6. Supplier or decorator shipments are tracked.
  7. Goods are received and receipt quantities are recorded.
  8. Production becomes ready, is scheduled, and is completed.
  9. Finished goods are quality checked and packed.
  10. The order is shipped to the client or moved to the required warehouse/internal destination.
  11. Tracking and final operational information are recorded.
  12. Finance continues with supplier bills, client invoicing, payment, margin, and commissions as applicable.

1. Client Approval Starts the Operational Workflow

The operational portion of the order begins once the client has agreed to the Sales Order.

Before advancing the order, Sales should confirm:

  • Products are correct.
  • Quantities, colours, sizes, and variants are correct.
  • Pricing and expected costs are current.
  • Decoration methods and locations are correct.
  • Artwork requirements are understood.
  • Shipping charges and destinations are correct.
  • Requested or required dates are correct.
  • Client PO numbers or references are present where required.
  • Suppliers and decoration sources are correctly assigned.

Once approved, the Sales Order becomes the main operational reference for Purchasing, Proofing, Production, Shipping, and Finance.

Related guide: How Sales Orders Work in Elite Core: From Client Approval to Purchasing

2. The Approved Sales Order Becomes the Source Record

Approval creates an important workflow boundary. The order should now represent what the client actually agreed to purchase.

Downstream teams rely on the Sales Order to answer:

  • What was sold?
  • What quantity was approved?
  • Which supplier or decorator should be used?
  • What artwork or proof is required?
  • Where should the goods go?
  • When are they required?
  • What revenue and expected costs were booked?

Material edits after approval should be handled carefully because Purchase Orders, proofs, production work, shipping records, bills, or invoices may already exist.

3. Purchasing Reviews the Order

Purchasing takes the approved Sales Order and determines what must be purchased or routed externally.

A single Sales Order can create multiple purchasing obligations, for example:

  • Product PO to a supplier.
  • Separate product PO to another supplier.
  • Decorator PO for outside decoration.
  • Artwork or design PO.
  • Other Service PO.
  • Shipping-related cost or account.

Each Purchase Order can move through the workflow independently. One PO may already be confirmed while another is still waiting for proof approval.

Related guides:

4. Review Purchase Order Routing Before Sending

Before sending a PO, Purchasing should verify:

  • Supplier or decorator.
  • Supplier contact.
  • Product and supplier SKU.
  • Colours, sizes, variants, and quantities.
  • Cost and currency.
  • Decoration method and imprint location.
  • Artwork attachments.
  • Proof requirements.
  • Ship To destination.
  • Shipping instructions.
  • Expected or required dates.
  • Special instructions.

The shipping configuration on the Sales Order is important because it can determine whether a supplier ships to Elite, directly to a decorator, directly to the client, or to another configured destination.

5. Determine Whether Proofing Is Required

Proofing is tracked separately from the overall Sales Order status. A PO or decoration can still be waiting for proof even though the Sales Order itself is already approved.

Common proof states include:

  • Proof Needed
  • Requested
  • Proof Uploaded
  • Pending Approval
  • Approved
  • Rejected
  • No Proof
  • Proof Complete

No Proof should be used when a proof truly is not required. It should not be used simply because a proof has not arrived yet.

Related guide: How Proofing Works Across Sales Orders and Purchase Orders in Elite Core

6. Request and Receive Supplier Proofs

If a supplier proof is required, Purchasing requests it and monitors the PO until the proof is returned.

A typical sequence is:

Proof Needed → Requested → Proof Uploaded → Pending Approval → Approved / Rejected → Proof Complete

When a proof arrives, it should remain associated with the correct PO, product, decoration, and imprint location. Uploading a proof means it is available for review; it does not automatically mean it is approved.

7. Internal Proof Review

Before sending a supplier proof to the client, the responsible user should check for obvious errors such as:

  • Wrong logo.
  • Wrong product or colour.
  • Incorrect imprint location.
  • Incorrect spelling.
  • Wrong decoration method.
  • Incorrect sizing or scale.
  • Missing production instructions.

This prevents avoidable supplier mistakes from being sent directly to the client.

8. Send the Proof to the Client

When client approval is required, the proof is sent through the customer proofing workflow.

The client should be able to understand:

  • Which product they are reviewing.
  • Which logo or artwork is being used.
  • Where the decoration will appear.
  • Which proof file is being approved.

If the client approves the proof, the approval is recorded. If the client rejects it or requests changes, the proof returns to the appropriate revision path rather than cancelling the entire Sales Order.

9. Artwork Can Run Alongside Purchasing

Some orders require artwork work before a supplier proof can be requested or before production can begin.

Artwork may come from:

  • Existing customer files.
  • Internal files.
  • An Elite Core user.
  • Core Network Talent.
  • An outside designer.
  • Binated.
  • Another configured service provider.

A common sequence is:

Sales Order Approved → Artwork Requested → Artwork Completed → Supplier Proof Requested → Client Approval → Production

Artwork and proofing are not the same thing. Artwork is the production/design file. A proof is the reviewable representation that is approved before production.

Related guides:

10. Send the Purchase Order

Once the PO is ready, Purchasing sends it to the supplier or decorator.

This is an external commitment, so the user should review the PO before sending and confirm the product, quantities, cost, decoration, artwork, shipping destination, and required dates.

11. Supplier Confirmation

Supplier acknowledgement or confirmation is an important operational milestone. It tells the team that the supplier has accepted or acknowledged the order instead of simply having received an email.

Confirmed POs become important for:

  • Purchasing follow-up.
  • Expected arrival planning.
  • Upcoming production visibility.
  • Receiving expectations.
  • Identifying orders at risk.

12. Maintain Expected Dates and Next Actions

Purchasing should update expected arrival, in-hands, or other relevant dates when suppliers provide new information.

These dates help the rest of the organization answer:

  • When should the goods arrive?
  • When can production begin?
  • Is the client date at risk?
  • Which PO requires follow-up?
  • What should production expect next?

The Purchasing Dashboard should be used to manage next actions rather than relying only on external email threads.

13. Supplier or Decorator Ships the Goods

Once goods are shipped, tracking and transit information should be recorded where available.

This gives Purchasing, Receiving, Production, Sales, and Shipping a shared answer to where the order currently is.

14. Receive the Goods Against the Purchase Order

When goods physically arrive, Receiving should record what was actually received against what was expected.

Receiving is more than confirming that a box arrived. It should establish:

  • Which PO the shipment belongs to.
  • Which line or product was received.
  • Expected quantity.
  • Received quantity.
  • Container type or package count where used.
  • Any quantity variance.
  • The reason for a variance.

15. Partial Receiving

A supplier may ship an order in multiple deliveries.

For example, if 100 garments were ordered and 70 arrive first, Receiving should record the 70 rather than treating the full order as complete. The remaining 30 can be recorded when the next shipment arrives.

This allows Production and Purchasing to see the real physical availability of the order.

16. Receiving Variances

Record variances when the physical shipment does not match the expected quantity.

Examples include:

  • Supplier short-shipped.
  • Backordered quantities.
  • Damaged goods.
  • Incorrect product.
  • Extra goods.
  • Split shipment.

This creates a visible exception inside Elite Core instead of leaving the issue only in an email or verbal conversation.

17. Production Readiness

A job should not move into active production merely because a Sales Order exists.

Depending on the order and instance configuration, production readiness may depend on:

  • Sales Order approval.
  • PO confirmation.
  • Goods being received.
  • Approved proof.
  • Production-ready artwork.
  • Decoration requirements.
  • Production Work Orders.
  • Department assignment.

18. Upcoming Production

Upcoming gives Production visibility into work that is approaching but may not yet be ready to start.

Examples:

  • The supplier has confirmed the PO but the goods have not arrived.
  • The proof is complete but inventory is still in transit.
  • A required date is approaching.
  • One dependency remains outstanding.

This allows production planning without falsely indicating that the job can already be worked on.

19. Production Work Orders and Departments

Production Work Orders translate the Sales Order into actionable work for internal production.

Examples of production departments or steps can include:

  • Embroidery.
  • Heat transfer.
  • Screen printing.
  • Engraving.
  • Pad printing.
  • Quality control.
  • Other configured production departments.

An order can require more than one production step, so one completed department does not necessarily mean the entire production workflow is complete.

20. Schedule and Start Production

Once dependencies are satisfied, the work can move from Upcoming into scheduled or active production.

Production users should be able to review the required date, product, quantities, decoration instructions, artwork, proof state, receiving readiness, and work instructions before beginning.

If production time tracking is enabled for the instance, users may be required to start and stop work. If time tracking is disabled, the workflow can progress without requiring those time-tracking actions.

21. Production Completion

Before marking production complete, confirm:

  • Required quantities were completed.
  • Every required production department or step is complete.
  • Approved artwork and proof were followed.
  • Production exceptions were handled.
  • Finished goods are accounted for.

22. Quality Control and Packing

If quality control is part of the workflow, check finished goods before they leave the company’s control.

Common checks include:

  • Correct product.
  • Correct quantity.
  • Correct decoration.
  • Correct imprint location.
  • Correct spelling and colours.
  • No visible damage.
  • Packaging matches order requirements.

23. Determine the Final Fulfilment Destination

Finished goods generally follow one of two paths:

Ship to the Client

The order is packed and shipped to the client’s requested destination.

Warehouse or Internal Destination

The finished goods are moved to the configured warehouse or internal destination rather than immediately shipped to the client.

The destination should follow the order’s shipping and fulfilment instructions.

24. Outbound Shipping

Before shipping, verify:

  • Shipping address.
  • Recipient/contact.
  • Quantity.
  • Number of packages.
  • Courier.
  • Shipping account where applicable.
  • Service level.
  • Client instructions.
  • Tracking information.

If shipping charges need to be added to the Sales Order, follow the dedicated shipping-cost workflow rather than adding an unrelated product line.

Related guide: How to Add Shipping Costs to a Cart

25. Shipping Accounts

Where the organization uses its own courier accounts, the shipping cost can be associated with the configured account. Multiple accounts can exist for the same courier where required.

Shipping-account selection can also matter downstream because Finance may map different shipping accounts to different accounting buckets.

26. Tracking and Final Operational Completion

Record tracking information whenever available so Sales and Operations do not need to search external courier emails to answer where an order is.

The physical workflow is generally complete when the goods have either:

  • Shipped to the client or final destination, or
  • Arrived at the intended warehouse/internal destination.

Finance may still have outstanding work after physical fulfilment, including supplier bills, client invoices, payment, actual margin, and commissions.

Notifications and Automatic Actions

Elite Core notifications should be understood by the event that causes them. Exact recipients can vary by role, assignment, and instance configuration.

Event Typical trigger Who may need to know Typical channel
Sales Order sent Sales sends order for client review Client contact Email
Sales Order approved Client approves Assigned sales / operational users In-app and/or email depending on workflow
PO sent Purchasing sends Purchase Order Supplier or decorator Email
Proof requested Purchasing requests supplier proof Supplier / decorator Email
Proof uploaded or received Proof file becomes available Responsible purchasing / proofing users In-app workflow and/or email where configured
Proof sent for approval User sends proof to client Client contact Email
Proof approved Client approves proof Relevant order users In-app and/or email where configured
Proof rejected Client requests a change Relevant sales / purchasing / artwork users In-app and/or email where configured
Artwork request created User requests artwork/design help Assigned designer, Talent, or service provider Workflow and/or email
Artwork completed Designer/Talent completes work Attached order users Workflow and/or email where configured
Production status changes Production user changes workflow state Relevant internal users In-app where configured
Shipment sent Shipping records outbound shipment Client and/or order users where configured Email and operational record

Important: not every notification is universal. Notification routing should always be reviewed against the current instance settings, assigned users, and enabled workflow features.

Settings That Affect the Order Lifecycle

Administrators should review the following areas because they can materially change how an order behaves:

Setting area What it can affect
Users and roles Who can view, edit, approve, purchase, produce, receive, ship, or invoice
Suppliers PO routing, contacts, supplier data, purchasing
Decorators External decoration routing and decorator POs
Decoration sources Whether decoration is internal, supplier-provided, or externally routed
Production departments Which internal work steps are available
Production time tracking Whether users explicitly start/stop production work
Proofing Proof requirements, approval workflow, and customer approval states
Artwork / Core Network How design work, Talent, Matches, and outside design services are routed
Shipping destinations Supplier-to-Elite, supplier-to-decorator, direct-to-client, or other routing
Shipping accounts Courier account selection and downstream billing/accounting treatment
Email templates Customer, supplier, proof, artwork, and other outbound communication
Operations Management Review requirements, routing, notifications, and operational accountability
QuickBooks / Finance mappings Downstream supplier, shipping, decorator, design, and account classification

Understand That Elite Core Uses Multiple Status Systems

One status does not control the entire order.

An order can simultaneously have:

  • An approved Sales Order.
  • One confirmed PO.
  • Another PO waiting for proof.
  • A partial receiving record.
  • An Upcoming Production Work Order.
  • An invoice that has not yet been paid.

This is expected. Elite Core represents the different operational pieces that together make up the complete order.

Department Responsibility Summary

Department / role Primary responsibility
Sales / Order Rep Client requirements, Sales Order accuracy, client approval, commercial changes, customer communication
Purchasing PO creation, supplier communication, confirmations, expected dates, proofs, supplier follow-up
Artwork / Design Production-ready artwork, revisions, design requests, final files
Receiving / Shipping Incoming goods, receipts, variances, outbound packaging, courier and tracking information
Production Work orders, scheduling, internal decoration, production steps, completion
Finance Supplier/service/shipping bills, client invoicing, payment, margin, commissions

Typical Decorated Apparel Example

  1. Client approves the Sales Order.
  2. Purchasing reviews supplier, decoration, and shipping requirements.
  3. Product PO is generated.
  4. PO is sent to the supplier.
  5. Supplier confirms the order.
  6. Proof is requested.
  7. Supplier returns the proof.
  8. The proof is reviewed internally.
  9. The proof is sent to the client.
  10. The client approves the proof.
  11. Proofing becomes complete.
  12. The supplier ships the goods.
  13. Receiving records cartons and actual quantities.
  14. The goods become ready for internal production.
  15. The Production Work Order moves from Upcoming into scheduled work.
  16. Decoration begins.
  17. Production is completed.
  18. Quality control is completed.
  19. The goods are packed.
  20. The goods are shipped to the client or moved to the required warehouse destination.
  21. Tracking and final fulfilment information are recorded.

Verified Action-by-Action System Behaviour

This section documents behaviour verified against the current Elite Core codebase. It is intended to answer four questions for each important action: What does the action change? What happens automatically? Who is notified? Which settings or conditions can change the result?

Sales Order Approval

When the client approves a Sales Order, Elite Core does more than change the visible status.

  • Sets customerAgreed to approved.
  • Moves the Sales Order to the approved workflow status.
  • Clears any existing change-request comment and change-request timestamp.
  • Creates or refreshes the Sales Order cart snapshot and marks that snapshot as approved.
  • Creates or refreshes the booked financial stamp used to preserve approved revenue, expected cost, booked margin, tax, and related financial values.
  • Adds an agreement audit entry showing when and by whom the agreement occurred.
  • Updates the parent project/order Sales Order status to Client Approved.
  • Updates the in-hands date when one is supplied during the approval flow.

Who is emailed?

  • The primary client email is used as the main To recipient. Elite Core resolves this from the approval email first, then the Sales Order client email, then the parent order email.
  • Assigned client-rep, order-rep, and administrator users are copied when valid email addresses can be resolved from the project assignments.
  • No automatic BCC recipient is added by this approval finalizer.

The approval email subject identifies the Sales Order as approved and includes a link back to the Sales Order in Elite Core.

Purchase Order Generation

Generating Purchase Orders creates the PO records and downstream purchasing structure. Generation does not automatically email the supplier or decorator.

This separation is intentional: creating a PO is an internal system action; sending it is an explicit purchasing action.

Sending a Purchase Order

When Purchasing sends a PO, Elite Core resolves the recipient based on the party represented by that PO.

  • Supplier PO: the supplier contact from the PO/supplier snapshot is the normal recipient.
  • Decorator PO: the decorator contact is the normal recipient.
  • Historical decorator POs that stored the decorator email in the older supplier-email field remain supported.
  • The customer email is not an automatic fallback for supplier or decorator PO dispatch.
  • If a user manually changes To, Cc, or Bcc away from the resolved PO-party envelope, the override must be explicitly confirmed.
  • If Elite Core cannot safely resolve a valid supplier/decorator recipient, the send fails closed instead of silently sending to another party.

The same backend send path is used by initial sends, selected/bulk PO sends, the email modal, and PO resend actions, so recipient rules stay consistent.

Proof Request

When a proof is requested through the PO proof workflow, the request is directed to the explicitly assigned designer or users with the design-rep role. This is not a customer-email fallback workflow.

Proof Rejection / Change Required

When a proof is rejected, the workflow routes the issue back to the responsible design/internal order users. Current recipient logic can include the assigned designer or design-rep and relevant assigned internal order roles. The customer contact is not used as a fallback recipient for an internal proof-rejection notification.

For Sales Order artwork/proof synchronization, a client proof rejection can also move the parent Sales Order into its request-change state. This is important because a rejected proof can therefore affect the broader Sales Order workflow, not just the individual proof row.

All Required Proofs Approved

When the PO proof workflow determines that all required proofs are approved, Elite Core can send the PO-proof-complete confirmation to the responsible purchasing/production user and then the applicable internal approvers. This is an internal completion notification; it is separate from the customer-facing proof-approval email.

Proof Status Meanings

Status Operational meaning
Proof Needed A proof is required but is not yet available.
Requested The responsible external/internal party has been asked to provide the proof.
Proof Uploaded A proof file is available for review; this does not mean it is approved.
Pending Approval The proof is waiting for the required approval decision.
Approved The relevant proof decision has been approved.
Rejected The proof requires revision or another action.
No Proof The workflow has explicitly determined that no proof is required.
Proof Complete The required proofing workflow for the PO has been completed.

When a PO Can Appear in Upcoming Production

Upcoming Production is intentionally broader than active production readiness. Current Elite Core logic allows a PO to contribute to Upcoming when its PO status resolves to one of the following:

  • Confirmed
  • Confirmed By Shipping
  • Production Complete
  • Shipped
  • Received
  • In Progress
  • Partially Received
  • Ready For Billing
  • Billed
  • Submitted
  • Follow Up

The legacy misspelling Recieved is also accepted for compatibility.

This is why a confirmed PO can appear in Upcoming before it is actually ready to be worked on. Upcoming means production should be aware of the job; it does not necessarily mean every production dependency is satisfied.

When a PO Is Considered Production Ready

The stricter PO statuses currently treated as production-ready are:

  • Confirmed By Shipping
  • Shipped
  • Received
  • Partially Received
  • Ready For Billing

The Sales Order side also has a production-ready status gate. Current accepted Sales Order statuses include:

  • Client Approved
  • In Production
  • Received
  • Partially Received
  • Ready to be Invoiced
  • Invoiced
  • Paid

Production readiness can still depend on row/department bindings, proofs, artwork, work-order data, and other job-specific requirements in addition to these high-level status gates.

Shipping Information Changed on a Purchase Order

Elite Core checks for meaningful changes to PO shipping information. Current tracked shipping fields include:

  • Date Shipped
  • Shipping Cost
  • Tracking Numbers

A warehouse/storage placement update can also cause the shipping-update notification path to run.

Who receives the PO shipping update email?

Recipient resolution can include assigned project users in these roles:

  • client-rep
  • order-rep
  • purchasing-rep
  • administrator

Elite Core also adds the instance’s configured internal shipping-rep contacts. If no purchasing rep is resolved and the PO has a production-rep value, the production rep can be used as the purchasing fallback for this notification path.

Addresses are deduplicated before the email is sent.

Receiving Goods

Receiving records the physical quantity and receipt information against the Purchase Order. The workflow can support partial receipt, later receipts, variance quantities/reasons, and warehouse placement rather than forcing one all-or-nothing received event.

Receiving Note Notification

There is a specific instance-controlled email for receiving notes.

The email is sent only when both of these are true:

  • Notify Purchasing Rep on Receiving Note is enabled in the internal shipping settings.
  • The receiving action contains a non-empty additional note.

When triggered, Elite Core emails the assigned purchasing-rep users for that project who belong to the same instance. The user who entered the receiving update is excluded from the recipient list, including by matching their user ID/email.

The email identifies the project, PO, user who recorded the update, receiving status, and the additional receiving note, and links back to the project.

Production Put On Hold

Putting a production step on hold can create both an Elite Core web notification and an email notification.

By default, Operations Management production settings enable:

  • On-hold web notifications.
  • On-hold email notifications.
  • Notifications to assigned order reps.
  • Notifications to assigned purchasing reps.

The hold message includes the project and hold reason. Duplicate handling prevents the same hold transition from repeatedly notifying recipients for the same event.

Production Completed

Production completion is evaluated at the project level. Elite Core does not treat one completed step as proof that the entire project is complete when other required production work remains.

Once the production completion evaluator determines that the project is complete, Elite Core can create both web and email notifications.

Default completion recipients

  • Assigned order reps.
  • Assigned purchasing reps.
  • Shipping reps in the instance.

Each of those recipient groups can be controlled by the Operations Management production settings. Web and email delivery can also be enabled or disabled independently.

The default production settings currently enable both web and email completion notifications and enable all three recipient groups.

Other production completion settings

  • Completed items remain visible for 24 hours by default before the configured retention behaviour applies.
  • Production archiving is enabled by default.
  • The configured completed-retention window can range from 0 to 8,760 hours.

Operations Management Defaults That Affect This Workflow

Setting Default Effect
Production on-hold web notification Enabled Creates in-app/web notification when a production step is put on hold.
Production on-hold email notification Enabled Sends the hold email.
Notify Order Reps on production hold Enabled Adds assigned order reps to hold notifications.
Notify Purchasing Reps on production hold Enabled Adds assigned purchasing reps to hold notifications.
Production completion web notification Enabled Creates the production-completed web notification.
Production completion email notification Enabled Sends the production-completed email.
Notify Order Reps on completion Enabled Adds assigned order reps.
Notify Purchasing Reps on completion Enabled Adds assigned purchasing reps.
Notify Shipping on completion Enabled Adds instance shipping reps.
Completed production retention 24 hours Controls how long completed production remains in the active completed view before retention/archive behaviour applies.
Production archive Enabled Allows completed production to move into the archive workflow.
Purchasing: Show PO URL Disabled Controls whether the PO URL is exposed in the purchasing experience.
Purchasing: Infinite Dashboard Scroll Disabled Controls the Purchasing Dashboard infinite-scroll behaviour.

Important Notification Distinction

Elite Core does not use one universal notification recipient list. Different workflow events intentionally resolve different recipients.

  • Sales Order approval: client is the primary recipient; assigned client/order/admin users are copied.
  • PO send: supplier or decorator party contact.
  • Proof request: assigned designer/design-rep.
  • Proof rejection: design/internal assigned users responsible for resolving the rejection.
  • Proof completion: purchasing/production and internal approval users.
  • PO shipping update: assigned client/order/purchasing/admin users plus configured internal shipping reps; production-rep fallback can apply when purchasing is missing.
  • Receiving note: assigned purchasing reps, provided the setting is enabled and an additional note exists.
  • Production on hold: assigned order reps and purchasing reps according to Operations Management settings.
  • Production complete: order reps, purchasing reps, and instance shipping reps according to Operations Management settings.

This recipient separation is deliberate. Customer-facing messages, supplier/decorator purchasing messages, and internal operational notifications should not silently substitute for one another.

Recommended Operating Rule

Do not move an order forward simply because the next button is available. Move it forward when the information and dependencies required by the next department are actually complete.

When each team keeps statuses, proofs, receipts, production steps, dates, and shipping information current, the Elite Core order itself becomes the shared source of truth from client approval through final delivery.

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