Document lifecycle and statuses

Every document carries a status, and every document type has its own set of moves between statuses. BillFlow only ever offers the moves that make sense from where a document is, so nothing skips a step or slips backwards by accident. Each move is recorded in the document's history.

Try it

Lifecycle explorer

Pick a document type and walk it through its statuses. Only the moves the product allows are offered.

Document typeInvoiceQuotationEstimateProforma InvoiceDelivery NoteWaybillReceiptPurchase OrderSales OrderCredit NoteDebit NoteStatementPacking List

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Path so far

1. Draft

From Draft, you can

IssuedCancelled

Draft, then issued#

A new document starts as a Draft. Drafts have no number, can be edited freely and can be discarded without leaving a gap in your numbering. Issuing is the step that makes a document official: it reserves the next number for that type, locks it to the document and freezes a snapshot of the content. Invoices, quotations and their relatives all go through Issued before they can be sent, so nothing reaches a customer unnumbered.

Money documents#

An invoice moves from Issued to Sent when you record that it went out. Viewed exists in the machine, but no control in BillFlow sets it today. From there payments take over: recording a payment moves it to Partially Paid or Paid depending on the balance, and a document past its due date can be marked Overdue. Paid is final. An issued invoice that should never have existed is Voided, which keeps its number on record; only a draft can be Cancelled.

Proforma invoices follow the same machine. Receipts, purchase orders, sales orders, credit notes, debit notes and statements use a simpler one: Draft, Issued, Sent, Viewed and Void, and a draft can be Cancelled.

Quotations and estimates#

A quotation is issued and sent like an invoice, but its customer answers it: Accepted or Rejected. Expired exists in the machine for when a quotation's validity lapses, but BillFlow has no validity-date field — that's whatever your terms text says — and no control sets the status today. An accepted quotation, or one accepted in part, is Converted into an invoice that remembers where it came from. The tables below show every move each machine allows, including ones no button reaches yet.

Delivery documents#

Delivery notes, packing lists and waybills carry goods rather than money. They move from Draft to Dispatched, then In Transit, then Delivered; delivery notes and packing lists can also record a Partially Delivered drop, while waybills cannot. Delivered is final.