008 — Sales Order Lifecycle¶

The order lifecycle is the heart of the platform. A single sale.order record carries two status fields: Odoo's native state (the ERP truth) and portal_state (the B2B business truth shown in both portals).

Portal State Machine¶

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> draft: customer creates a basket/draft request

    draft --> rfq_submitted: customer submits for quotation

    rfq_submitted --> rfq_updated: customer revises before pricing
    rfq_updated --> rfq_submitted

    rfq_submitted --> quotation_submitted: account manager prices & sends
    rfq_updated --> quotation_submitted
    rfq_submitted --> rejected
    rfq_updated --> rejected

    quotation_submitted --> po_submitted: customer accepts, sends PO
    quotation_submitted --> rfq_updated: customer edits → re-submits
    quotation_submitted --> cancel

    po_submitted --> in_progress: account manager confirms the order
    po_submitted --> cancel

    in_progress --> delivered
    in_progress --> cancel

    rejected --> [*]
    cancel --> [*]
    delivered --> [*]

State reference¶

`portal_state`	Business meaning	Mapped Odoo`state`	Owner of the next move
`draft`	Basket / draft request being built	`draft`	Customer
`rfq_submitted`	Request for quotation lodged	`draft`	Account Manager
`rfq_updated`	Customer revised the request	`draft`	Account Manager
`rejected`	Request refused	`cancel`	—
`quotation_submitted`	Priced quotation issued (PDF e-mailed)	`sent`	Customer
`po_submitted`	Customer sent their purchase order	`sent`	Account Manager
`in_progress`	Order confirmed and being fulfilled	`sale`	Account Manager
`delivered`	Fulfilment complete	`sale`	—
`cancel`	Cancelled	`cancel`	—

State changes arrive through a single update endpoint. Two transitions are not plain field writes — they delegate to real Odoo actions:

Transition	Delegates to	Side effects
→`quotation_submitted`	the quotation-send action	Renders the quotation PDF, sends theEcommerce: Portal Quotation mail template, sets `state = sent`
→`in_progress`	the order-confirm action	Runs Odoo's standard confirmation, sets`state = sale`

Guard rails¶

A transition to any state other than draft, rejected or cancel is refused if the order has no real (non-display) lines.
An unknown portal_state value is rejected outright.
Only the creator may delete a basket.
Editing an already-quoted order sets portal_pending_submit, marking it as changed but not yet re-submitted.

End-to-End Business Workflow¶

sequenceDiagram
    autonumber
    actor C as Customer Portal User
    participant P as Customer Portal
    participant API as Odoo REST API
    participant O as sale.order
    participant N as Notifications + e-mail
    actor AM as Account Manager (AMP)

    C->>P: browse catalog, add products
    P->>API: order create / order_lines create
    API->>O: draft order, per-customer sequence number
    Note over O: portal_state = draft

    C->>P: submit request
    P->>API: orders/update state = rfq_submitted
    O->>N: notify account manager (in-app + e-mail)
    N-->>AM: "New RFQ submitted"

    AM->>API: open RFQ queue, edit line prices
    API->>O: order_lines/update

    AM->>API: orders/update state = quotation_submitted
    O->>O: render quotation PDF
    O->>N: send quotation mail template
    N-->>C: quotation e-mail
    Note over O: portal_state = quotation_submitted · state = sent

    alt customer accepts
        C->>P: submit PO
        P->>API: orders/update state = po_submitted
        O->>N: notify account manager
        AM->>API: orders/update state = in_progress
        O->>O: confirm order → state = sale
        AM->>API: orders/update state = delivered
    else customer revises
        C->>P: edit lines
        P->>API: orders/update state = rfq_updated
        O->>N: notify account manager
    else cancelled
        C->>P: cancel
        P->>API: orders/update state = cancel
    end

Notification trigger points. The account manager is notified on exactly three customer-side transitions: rfq_submitted, rfq_updated, po_submitted — plus when a draft request is shared. Notifications are only sent when the actor is a portal user, so account-manager-side edits do not notify the account manager. E-mail delivery is globally switchable via a system setting; the in-app notification is always created.

The Shared-Request Flow¶

A parallel, lighter-weight flow that does not enter the RFQ pipeline.

sequenceDiagram
    actor C as Customer user
    participant O as sale.order (draft)
    participant N as Notification
    actor AM as Account Manager

    C->>O: mark basket as "action required" (portal_visible = true)
    O->>N: create notification + notify account manager
    N-->>AM: "<user> shared draft request <name>"
    AM->>O: review in AMP "Shared Request" queue
    AM->>O: mark handled (portal_visible = false)

portal_visible is the "action required" flag; it also drives the Action Required filter and dashboard counter in the Odoo ERP Back Office.

Requesting a Product That Is Not in the Catalog¶

sequenceDiagram
    actor C as Customer user
    participant R as ecommerce.product.request.line
    participant O as sale.order
    actor AM as Account Manager

    C->>R: create request (name, qty, reference URL) on an order
    Note over R: state = submitted
    AM->>R: pick up → in_progress
    alt product can be sourced
        AM->>R: link a created/matched product → product_added
        R->>O: auto-create the sale order line
    else cannot be sourced
        AM->>R: not_found
    end

The request line and the order line stay linked: unlinking or re-pointing the request removes or replaces the generated order line. The order carries a live count of unresolved requests, surfaced as a button on the ERP Back Office order form.

Sales Order Numbering and Labelling¶

Field	Origin	Shown to
`name`	Odoo's standard sale-order sequence	ERP Back Office
`portal_order_no`	Thecustomer company's own sequence (`portal_order_sequence_id`), generated on create	Both portals
`portal_label`	Free text chosen by the customer ("Q3 lab restock")	Both portals

Per-customer sequences mean each customer sees a continuous, private numbering series.

Planning and Attention Signals¶

Signal	Meaning
`portal_planned_order_date` + computed planning state	Late / On Time / Upcoming — drives urgency indicators
`portal_visible`	Action required (unread portal activity or shared request)
`portal_reviewed` + `portal_reviewed_date`	The customer has reviewed the quotation
`portal_print_quotation_date`	The customer printed/downloaded the quotation
`portal_pending_submit`	The customer edited a quoted order without re-submitting
`portal_messages_count`	Volume of portal-originated chatter
`account_manager_notes` / `account_manager_comment`	Internal note vs. customer-visible comment

Where Each State Appears¶

Surface	Queues
AMP (`/admin`)	Shared Request · RFQ Quotations · Quotations · Orders · Archived Orders
Customer Portal (`/company-profile`)	Draft Requests · RFQs · Orders · Archived
Odoo ERP Back Office	Orders Management → RFQ Quotations · Quotations · Orders; dashboard drill-downs for Action Required, New RFQs, Total RFQs; search filters per portal state