Order Pipeline
A Kanban-style visual board that shows all purchase orders grouped by status — drag cards to advance orders without leaving the board view.
Overview
Order Pipeline presents the same purchase order data as the Purchase Orders list screen, but arranged as a drag-and-drop Kanban board. Each column represents a status stage. Moving a card to a different column instantly updates the order's status — no need to open the detail view for routine status changes.
This view is designed for purchasing managers who need a quick visual overview of where all active orders are in the procurement cycle.
Standard Order Stages
Key Features
Kanban View
Drag order cards between stages. See the order count and total amount for each stage.
Quick Filtering
Filter by vendor, product category, due date, or assignee to focus on the orders that matter.
Automatic Alerts
Get notified automatically when an order sits in a stage too long. Define escalation rules for delayed deliveries.
Invoice Matching
Match the vendor invoice against the order and delivery note with a 3-way match. Get alerted when a discrepancy is detected.
Custom Stages
Add or remove stages to match your process. Define required documents and approval conditions for each stage.
Stage History
Track how long each order stayed in every stage and who moved it.
Board Columns
The pipeline always shows seven columns, one per order status:
| Column | Orders shown |
|---|---|
| Draft | Internal working documents not yet sent to vendors |
| RFQ | Requests for Quotation raised and awaiting vendor response |
| Sent | RFQs sent to the vendor, including their Vendor Portal link |
| To Approve | The vendor submitted a quote via the Vendor Portal — awaiting buyer review |
| Confirmed | Approved purchase orders — goods on the way |
| Received | Completed orders with goods received into inventory |
| Cancelled | Cancelled orders |
Each column header displays the count of orders in that status and the total value of those orders.
Drag-and-Drop
To advance an order to the next status, drag the card from its current column and drop it into the destination column. The order's status updates immediately.
Only Forward Transitions Are Allowed
The pipeline follows the same status rules as the Purchase Orders screen: Draft → RFQ → Sent → To Approve → Confirmed → Received, plus a Cancelled branch from any open status. Dragging a card backward (e.g. Confirmed back to Sent) is not a valid transition and will not be saved.
Order Cards
Each card on the board shows at a glance:
- PO Number — the unique order reference
- Vendor Name — the supplier for this order
- Order Total — grand total for the order
- Expected Arrival — the target delivery date
- Overdue Indicator — clock icon shown for Confirmed or Sent orders whose expected arrival date has passed
- Approval Badge — shown when the order value requires approval and the order has not yet been received or cancelled
- Billing Dot & Invoice Status — a colored dot plus icons indicating whether the order has been invoiced and whether payment has been made
- Partial Receipt Bar — a progress bar showing how many units have been received versus ordered, shown once any quantity has been received
Billing Filter
Above the board, filter chips let you narrow the visible cards by billing status:
- Unpaid — orders with no invoice attached
- Invoiced — orders that have an invoice but have not been paid
- Paid — fully paid orders
Selecting a filter chip hides cards in other billing states across all columns. Deselect the chip to return to the full board view.
Toolbar Summary
The toolbar at the top of the board shows two aggregate figures across all orders (not just the currently-visible/filtered ones):
- Total Orders — count of every order in the pipeline
- Total Value — sum of all order grand totals
AI Assistant
A floating AI Assistant tab on the right edge of the screen opens a chat panel scoped to the orders currently visible on the board (respecting your active billing filter) — PO number, status, vendor, total, billing status, expected arrival, approval requirement, and received vs. total quantity for each order. Since the board has no row selection, the assistant always analyzes the full visible set rather than a manual selection. It can help you:
Bottleneck Detection
Identify columns/statuses with an unusually large backlog, or orders stuck in RFQ/Sent too long.
Approval Triage
Surface orders still needing approval, especially high-value ones.
Overdue Review
Flag Confirmed/Sent orders whose expected arrival date has already passed.
Partial Receipt Review
Highlight orders that are only partially received and may need follow-up.
Any assistant response can be saved as a report to My Reports for later reference, and the assistant respects your configured Writer Engine (Local CLI, Ollama, or API) from Settings → Agentic.
Relationship to Purchase Orders
Order Pipeline and Purchase Orders share the same underlying data. Any change made in one view is immediately reflected in the other. Use whichever view fits your current task:
Use Purchase Orders when…
You need to create a new order, edit line items, view full order details, review a vendor's submitted quote, or handle approval.
Use Order Pipeline when…
You need a visual overview of procurement progress and want to advance orders through statuses quickly by dragging.