The order journey, from enquiry to delivery
Every stage of a Flyte job end to end: who does what, what the customer and factory see, which emails go out and what each status means.
This is the whole Flyte process in one place: from a customer's first enquiry, through design approval, confirmation, production and freight, to the goods arriving. If you understand this page, almost every other screen in Flyte makes sense.
#Hold on to this first
There are usually three parties in a job: you, your customer (often a reseller, such as a club or uniform supplier) and their customer (the people who will wear the garments). Most "why does it work like this?" questions are answered by asking which of the three a screen or email is talking to.
- Your customer's customer can approve a design and enter sizes and quantities.
- Only your customer can commit the money, so the order always comes back to them to confirm.
- Emails and approval pages carry your customer's logo and colours, so they can forward them on.
#The journey at a glance
| Stage | Who acts | What happens | Emails |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Enquiry | Customer, or your team | An enquiry becomes a visual job | Enquiry received to whoever raised it; New enquiries to team members who opted in |
| 2. Visual | Your designer | Designs are drawn up and sent for approval | Visual ready to review to the visual's contact (and any CCs) |
| 3. Decisions | Customer or their customer | One decision per product: approve and order, approve for later, or request changes | Visual response receipt to the visual's contact; the designer is told about changes |
| 4. Draft order | Automatic | Anything approved with an order becomes a Draft order | (Receipt above carries the next button) |
| 5. Customer confirms | Your customer only | PO number, freight, delivery address and required-by date are given; quantities lock | Review & confirm your order (for orders you built), Confirm your order — reminder |
| 6. You confirm | Your team | You check it, set the ETD and confirm | Order confirmed to the order's contact; Requested date cannot be met if needed |
| 7. Purchase order | Your team | A PO is raised per factory and submitted | New Purchase Order to the factory (bilingual, PDF attached) |
| 8. Factory accepts | Factory | Accepts with an ETD, or requests changes | Change approved / rejected to the factory where relevant |
| 9. Panel prints | Factory, then you, then customer | Production photos are approved per product | Production samples ready, then Production approval update |
| 9a. Sample (some orders) | Factory, then customer | A full pre-production sample is approved before bulk | Pre-production sample ready, then a decision receipt |
| 10. Production complete | Factory | Goods are made and ready to ship | Bell for your team |
| 11. Left the factory | Your team or the factory | A shipment is built and marked as departed | Order has left the factory, one per order |
| 12. At your warehouse | Your team | The shipment is received | — |
| 13. Out for delivery | Automatic with Garment Works, or your team | Goods go out on the local leg | Out for delivery (one per parcel, where Garment Works is used) |
| 14. Delivered and closed | Your team | Marked delivered; closed once the PO is paid | — |
The rest of this article walks through each stage.
#1. The enquiry goes in
An enquiry starts one of two ways:
- your customer adds products to the Locker Room (the basket in their portal) and submits, or
- your team creates one with New visual job, for example after an email or phone call.
Either way it becomes a visual job under Visuals, with a reference such as VIS-0123. The person who raised it gets an Enquiry received email so there's a record. Every admin gets a bell; only team members who switched on New enquiries in their team emails also get an email.
If a customer pressed Request a price on a product marked Price on enquiry, the job arrives with a Price requested chip. Quote this turns it into a quote.
Watch out
New enquiries emails are off for everyone by default. If nobody seems to be told about enquiries, check Settings → Team & access.
#2. The designer builds and sends the visual
The assigned designer adds the products, front and back images, logo placements and detailings, marks each product ✓ Done, then presses Send for Approval.
The visual's contact (plus anyone in CC emails) gets a Visual ready to review email with a link. The link needs no login, on purpose, so it can be forwarded to the person who actually signs off. If the customer doesn't respond, a Visual waiting — reminder can go out if follow-up reminders are switched on.
#3. The customer decides, per product
The approval page asks for one decision per product, not one for the whole job:
- Approve & Place Order — sign it off and order now. Opens the size and quantity grid.
- Approve for Later — the design is right, but don't order yet.
- Request Changes — send it back to the designer with a note.
The rule that surprises people: there are no half-orders. An order can only be placed once every product on the visual is approved. Choose Request Changes or Approve for Later on any product and Approve & Place Order disappears on all of them. This stops a job being half in production and half still in design. Products approved for later stay approved and can be ordered together once the changes come back.
Customers can request changes on some products and leave the rest undecided. They can also press Send to my customer for approval to pass the visual to their own customer, whose link shows no prices.
When decisions are submitted, the visual's contact gets a Visual response receipt listing what was decided on each product. If changes were requested, the visual's designer is emailed.
#4. A draft order is created
If anything was approved with an order, Flyte raises a Draft order straight away. The receipt email carries Confirm Order Details, and, where products were approved but not ordered, Raise Order Now.
Orders can also start without a visual: from the customer portal's Locker Room, or with New order when a customer emails you their PO.
#5. Your customer confirms — the commercial gate
The order stays at Draft until your customer confirms it. This is the step people ask about most, and it is not a double-up. The confirmation page is the only place these four things are asked:
| Detail | Asked when ordering | Asked at confirmation |
|---|---|---|
| Sizes and quantities | Yes | Yes — last chance, then locked |
| Names and numbers | Yes | — |
| Their PO number | No | Yes |
| Air or sea freight | No | Yes |
| Delivery address | No | Yes (or "I'll confirm the address later") |
| Required-by date | No | Yes |
The page shows the earliest standard date: the longest product lead time, plus freight transit, plus local delivery when the goods come through your warehouse. Ask for sooner and the order is flagged URGENT for your team. Their name and the time are recorded against the confirmation.
On submit the order moves to Ready to Check. It is still a draft and no factory work has started, but it is now your move.
For orders that arrived as an emailed PO, use Send for Review & Confirmation instead. You key in their PO number, freight, address and date first, and they get one link that reviews the artwork per product and confirms the details together. Don't use it on orders raised from a visual, whose artwork is already approved.
Good to know
Customer emails about an order go to the order's contact only. If no contact is set, nobody is emailed. See Who receives customer emails.
#6. You check it and confirm it
Check the quantities, pricing and delivery date, then press ✓ Confirm Order. An order can't leave Draft or Ready to Check without an ETD, because this is the moment a promise is made to the customer.
The contact gets Order confirmed. It carries no pricing, so your customer can forward it to theirs. If your ETD is later than the date they asked for, they also get Requested date cannot be met. Messaging the customer on the order unlocks at this point.
#7. Raise the purchase order
Tick confirmed orders and press Create PO from selected. Flyte groups the lines by factory, creates one PO per factory, and prices them from the products' buy prices. An order waiting for its PO shows Scheduling.
When you press Submit to Factory, the PO and its orders move to Submitted. The factory's notification users get a New Purchase Order email in English and Chinese with the PO PDF attached, and the PO appears in their portal. Draft POs are never visible to the factory.
#8. The factory accepts
On the factory portal the factory either:
- presses Accept & start production, which needs an ETD. The PO moves to Production, and the ETD flows to the linked orders; or
- presses Request changes with a reason. The PO moves to Not Approved, the reason lands in the PO's messages and your Approvals, and they wait for you to edit and Resubmit to Factory.
Factories can't change prices directly. They propose a change, and you approve or reject it in Approvals.
#9. Panel prints, before the full run
Before running the whole order, the factory photographs a sample of each product and submits the photos. You review them and send them to the customer, who approves or requests changes per product. The customer gets Production samples ready, then a Production approval update receipt once everything is decided.
Approval is judged per order, not per PO. Once every product on an order is approved (or marked as a repeat order needing no panel prints), that order moves to Production.
Some orders also need a full pre-production sample (PPS). If the order is ticked as needing one, the factory makes and ships a sample garment first. The customer gets Pre-production sample ready and can approve and start bulk, approve with changes, or ask for another sample. Bulk production doesn't start until they approve.
#10. Production complete
The factory presses Production complete. The PO moves to Ready to Ship, and each linked order follows:
| The order has | It becomes | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| A freight method | Ready to Ship | Book the freight |
| No freight method | Awaiting Shipping Instructions | The factory is waiting on you; set the freight method |
#11. It leaves the factory
A shipment is built under Freight from the PO lines. When the goods physically leave, Ship now — left factory is pressed. Only then do the PO and its orders move to Shipping, and the customer gets Order has left the factory, often with production photos. Drafting a shipment is not shipping.
#12. At your warehouse
Press Received at Warehouse on the shipment. Orders on it move to Received (arrived, being checked, waiting for local delivery). The PO moves to Delivered, because the factory's job is finished, or Closed if it is already paid.
#13. Out for delivery
If your account uses Garment Works, the order moves to Out for Delivery when it is invoiced there at packing, and the customer gets an Out for delivery email with the local tracking link. If only part of the order can go, they get an email for every parcel: "Part of your order is on its way", "Another part…" and "The rest of your order is on its way".
#14. Delivered and closed
Nothing marks an order Delivered on its own; your team does it. Closed means delivered and the PO paid in full.
#Two journeys, not one
Freight is the international leg from the factory to your warehouse: the air or sea choice made at confirmation. Local delivery is the last leg from your warehouse to the customer. A PO set to ship direct to the customer skips the local leg.
#Holds
At any stage your team can Put on hold… an order with a reason, and the factory is told. Factories can put POs on hold too, and only they can release their own holds.
#Common questions
Why can't the customer click Approve & Place Order? Another product on the visual is set to Request Changes or Approve for Later.
The customer approved the visual. Why do they confirm too? Because confirmation collects the PO number, freight, address and date that nobody has asked for yet, and it is your customer's commercial decision.
The customer confirmed but got no "Order confirmed" email. That email goes when your team confirms from Ready to Check, and only to the order's contact.
A PO isn't showing on the factory portal. It is still Draft. Press Submit to Factory.
The order is Ready to Ship but not Shipping. A shipment has to be created and marked Ship now — left factory.