Move a job through its stages

The job board is yours to keep. Nothing moves on its own, and the customer only hears from you when you tell them.

The stages

Awaiting payment › Pre-press › In production › Ready for dispatch › Dispatched › Completed. On the job’s Where is it? card, click any stop to move there, backwards as well as forwards. If dispatch is locked by an unpaid invoice, or some supplier work isn’t back, you’re asked to confirm before going past it rather than stopped.

Under the stepper are four checkpoints you can tick as you go: Artwork received, Proof sent, Proof approved, Sent to print. They record a time and change nothing else.

On the board

Jobs opens on the List. Click Board at the top for a column per stage, every open job a card in its column, soonest due first. Drag a card into another column to move the job there. It asks what the stepper asks: an unpaid invoice holding the job offers Override & continue, and supplier work that isn’t back offers Continue anyway.

• Each card shows the job number, when it’s due (Today, Tomorrow, or how many days late), the customer and what it is. In Pre-press it also shows the Artwork, Proof and Approved ticks.
• Waiting on them says the next move is the customer’s: payment, artwork, or a proof they haven’t approved yet.
• The chips above the board, such as 2 late, 1 due today and 3 waiting on customers, each show just those cards. Click again to show them all.
• Dispatched shows the last 7 days. Completed and cancelled jobs stay on the List; Completed jobs › at the foot of Dispatched takes you there.
• A paused job’s card doesn’t drag: it moves on when its change order is approved or rejected. On a phone, tap a card to open the job and use its stepper.

Telling the customer it’s ready

This is a button, never automatic. On a collection job, from Ready for dispatch onwards, the customer panel offers Tell them it’s ready to collect. On a delivery job, from Dispatched onwards, Tell them it’s on its way. Fill in the Courier and Consignment / tracking ref under Dates, courier and notes first if you have them. The email carries no money.

When the job changes

1. Click Pause / change order. The job pauses where it is and you land on Raise a variation.
2. Change the quantity, material, size or price on a line, + Add item, or Remove from job. Then Raise variation and Confirm & raise.
3. Back on the job, the Change order waiting on you card has Approve and Reject. Approving is what resumes the job.

Approving sorts the money out for you, and the modal says which before you click. Nothing paid yet: the invoice is voided and reissued, or a draft is corrected in place. Already paid and the price went up: a supplementary invoice, with dispatch locked until it’s paid. Already paid and the price went down: a credit note. Wording only: the invoice is corrected without any of that.

Cancelling

Cancel job voids any unpaid invoice and keeps any that has money on it. Reopening a cancelled job is picking a stage; voided invoices come back under new numbers.

The same job again

Duplicate at the top of the job creates a fresh draft quote with the same spec, including any approved variations, for the same customer unless you change it.