When to use this flow
Use New Direct Order when the customer has already sent you a purchase order and you're skipping the quote stage entirely. Typical triggers:
- Repeat customer ordering the same parts they've ordered before.
- Blanket-order release (customer is drawing down against an open blanket).
- A phone call where pricing was agreed verbally and the PO is on its way.
If the customer is asking "how much?" — use New Quote instead. Direct Order is for when pricing is already settled.
Step 1: Open the wizard
From the main menu, go to Plating → Sales → Sale Orders. You'll land on the Sale Orders list.
In the toolbar above the list, click the + New Direct Order button (marked ① below).
A dialog slides in showing the full order-entry form. The entire wizard fits on one screen — all the sections you'll fill are visible below.
The numbered boxes above are what the rest of this guide refers to. Before you start typing, read the next section.
Step 2: Mind the warning banner (box ①)
The blue banner at the top of the dialog says:
Changes are not saved until you click Create & Confirm Order. Closing this window (Esc or X) discards your entries.
That's exactly what it means — hitting Escape or the X in the top-right throws away everything you've typed. There's no auto-draft, no recovery. Finish the order in one sitting.
Step 3: Fill the Customer panel (box ②)
The CUSTOMER section has three fields:
| Field | What to enter |
|---|---|
| Customer | Start typing the customer name. The dropdown narrows as you type. Pick the customer from the list. |
| Customer Job # | Optional. The customer's internal job reference (theirs, not ours). Shown on every work order and the PDF so cross-referencing in email is painless. |
Once you pick a customer, the system auto-fills the Invoice Address and Delivery Address from the customer record's defaults. Pick a non-default address from the ⌄ dropdowns if needed.
If the customer has a default Invoice Strategy set on their record, it auto-fills into the panel on the right — you'll see it later when you land on box ④.
Step 4: Attach the PO (box ③)
The PURCHASE ORDER panel has two mandatory fields:
- Customer PO # — the text reference from the PO itself (e.g.
PO-AMPH-77841). - PO Document — click Upload your file and pick the customer's PO PDF.
Both are required. Create & Confirm Order stays greyed out until these are filled.
Step 5: Set the three deadlines (box ④)
The SCHEDULING panel has three dates — all optional but strongly recommended:
| Date | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Planned Start | When you intend to begin work. Defaults to today. Leave as-is unless the customer's parts haven't arrived yet. |
| Internal Deadline | Your target for completing the work. Shows up on the shop floor as scheduling pressure. |
| Customer Deadline | The date you've promised the customer. Drives the acknowledgement PDF and downstream notifications. |
Click each field to open the date picker, or type a date directly (05/15/2026).
Rule of thumb: Customer Deadline = what the customer expects. Internal Deadline = a few days earlier, so you have buffer. Planned Start = when the shop should pick up the work.
Step 6: Blanket + partial-shipment flags (box ⑤)
Two toggles under the scheduling block:
- Blanket Sales Order — tick this if the customer's PO is a blanket covering multiple releases over time.
- Block Partial Shipments — tick this if the customer insists on all-or-nothing shipment. Common for aerospace customers with AS9100 qualification.
Both show up prominently on the PDF acknowledgement so the customer sees what they agreed to.
Step 7: Add part lines (box ⑥)
The Lines tab is where the work of the order happens. Each line represents one part + treatment combination.
Click Add a line inside the grid. A row appears with these columns:
| Column | What to fill |
|---|---|
| Part | Click and start typing the part number. The dropdown is pre-filtered to this customer's catalog. |
| Primary Treatment | Pick the main coating (e.g. "EN Mid-Phos — Commercial"). Auto-populates from the part's default treatment if one is set. |
| Qty | Integer quantity. |
| Unit Price | Per-piece price. Auto-fills from the customer price list if one is set up. Editable. |
| Subtotal | Computed (Qty × Unit Price). Read-only. |
| Part Deadline | Per-line deadline. Defaults to the Customer Deadline above. Override if a specific part has a tighter or looser date. |
| WO Group | Free-text tag (e.g. WO#1, WO#2). Lines sharing a tag get batched into ONE Manufacturing Order. Use this to put similar-batch parts together on a single travelling rack. Leave blank and each line gets its own MO. |
Warning decoration: if a line is missing the part, treatment, price, or quantity, the row highlights amber. A banner appears at the top of the wizard until you fix or delete every incomplete row.
Adding additional treatments per line
Click any line to expand it. In the drill-in form you'll find Additional Treatments — a multi-select for extra pre- or post-treatments (e.g. passivation after the main plating). These apply on top of the primary treatment.
Repeat-order shortcut: Add From Prior SO
If this order is essentially a repeat of one the customer placed before, use + Add From Prior SO (button above the lines grid). A dialog opens; pick a past confirmed sale order for this customer, tick the lines you want to copy, hit Copy Selected Lines. The rows land in your current wizard pre-filled — just review quantities and per-line deadlines, then you're done.
Step 8: Check the totals (box ⑦)
As you add lines, the footer updates:
- Line Count — number of line items.
- Total Qty — sum of piece quantities across all lines.
- Order Total — full value before tax.
These are your sanity numbers before confirming.
Step 9: Notes (optional)
Click the Notes tab next to Lines. Two kinds:
- The big textarea is the internal notes field — private to your team, never shown to the customer.
- External notes (customer-visible) can be set on the SO after creation.
Step 10: Create & Confirm (box ⑧)
Review everything one last time — the totals should match the PO.
Click Create & Confirm Order (green, bottom-left).
What happens behind the scenes:
- A
sale.orderrecord is created with all your fields. action_confirmruns immediately — no draft/sent state in between.- The
FP: Order Confirmationemail template auto-sends to the customer's primary contact, with the Sales Order PDF attached. - Manufacturing Orders are auto-created: one per WO Group tag, or one per untagged line if you didn't group.
- You're dropped onto the new SO's detail page.
From here the MOs are ready for planning.
Step 11: Send the PDF manually (optional)
The auto-email already fired on Create & Confirm. If you want to send another copy — for example to a second contact, or after adding an internal note you want to share — use the Send button at the top of the Sales Order form.
The composer opens pre-filled with:
- The
FP: Order Confirmationtemplate body. - The Sales Order PDF attached automatically.
- The customer as recipient.
Edit any of those, then click Send inside the composer. Clicking Cancel discards without sending — unlike the wizard itself, the compose dialog honours cancel correctly.
What can go wrong
"Create & Confirm Order" button is greyed out
Usually means Customer PO # or PO Document is missing. Scroll up and check box ③.
Banner says "Some lines are missing quote information"
One of your line rows is incomplete (missing part, treatment, price, or quantity). The offending row is highlighted amber. Click into it, finish the missing field, or click the 🗑 icon to delete it.
Part dropdown is empty for this customer
The part isn't in the customer's Part Catalog yet. Either:
- Add the part first (Plating → Sales → Part Catalog → New), then come back. Or,
- Tick One-off Part on the line — this lets you enter any part number without adding it to the reusable catalog. Best for prototype or quote-only parts.
I pressed Escape and lost everything
Yes — the wizard doesn't auto-save. The warning banner (box ①) pointed at this exact risk. Start again; next time, finish in one sitting.
The acknowledgement email didn't fire
Check Settings → Technical → Email → Outgoing Mail Servers — if your SMTP relay is down the email queues rather than errors. The SO is still created correctly; the email just waits. Re-send with the Send button on the SO form once SMTP is back up.