Lifecycle & stages

The stage answers one question at a glance: where is this job right now? It drives the color of the WO chip everywhere in APEX, the stage pill, the list KPIs, and the timeline your customer sees on the portal.

The seven stages

Stage	What it means	Who typically moves it there	What happens next
`RECEIVED`	The unit is in the building and the WO exists. Every new work order starts here.	Receiving / front office	Route it to inspection.
`INSPECTION`	Teardown and evaluation: find out what the unit needs and what it will cost.	Shop supervisor / inspector	Findings become lines and a quote; work is approved.
`IN_WORK`	On the bench — the shop is actively working it. Labor and material accumulate.	Shop supervisor / technician	Work completes → QA; or a shortage sends it to AWAITING PARTS.
`AWAITING_PARTS`	Progress is blocked on material. Pairs naturally with an AWAITING PARTS hold.	Shop / stores	Parts arrive → back to IN WORK.
`QA`	Quality is verifying the work and the paperwork before release.	Technician hands off; QA owns it	QA passes → READY TO SHIP. See what QA reviews.
`READY_TO_SHIP`	Certified and boxed — waiting on logistics.	QA / shipping	The Ship + consolidate action.
`SHIPPED`	Gone out the door. Terminal: totals are frozen and revenue is recognized.	Only the Ship + consolidate action	Invoice and portal visibility — see Documents & shipping.

Moving a job between stages

There are two places to advance a work order:

The record header. The Lifecycle row on the work order shows one button per stage with the current stage highlighted. Click any stage to move the job there. A confirmation toast names the WO and the new stage.
The row peek drawer on the list shows a single Advance → button that moves the job to the next stage in the sequence — the one-click path for triage. The exception is READY TO SHIP: shipping only happens through Ship + consolidate, so use that button — an advance into SHIPPED is refused.

Screen: The top of a work order record. Under the header, a “Lifecycle” row of seven small stage buttons — RECEIVED, INSPECTION, IN WORK, AWAITING PARTS, QA, READY TO SHIP, SHIPPED — with the current stage filled in. The SHIPPED button is grayed out; hovering it shows “Use Ship + consolidate to ship”. At the far right, a prominent Ship + consolidate button.

The stage buttons do not force the sequence — you can move a job backward (say, from QA back to IN WORK for rework) or skip a stage. Use that freedom deliberately: every move is recorded, and your customer sees the stage journey on the portal.

Why SHIPPED is different

SHIPPED is not a stage button — it is grayed out in the Lifecycle row. Shipping has commercial side effects (a shipment record, cost consolidation, revenue on the books), so it only happens through the Ship + consolidate action, and a work order in SHIPPED refuses a second ship. While the job sits in SHIPPED, the lines grid is frozen. The full shipping walkthrough is in Documents & shipping.

Stage history

APEX keeps the complete stage history on the work order: every move, from which stage to which, who made it, and when. Shipping adds its own entry. Your customer sees this journey as a plain-language timeline on their customer portal — another reason to keep stages honest as the job progresses.

Roles: Stage moves are open to any staff member with access to the work order — APEX records who made each move rather than restricting who may make it. Agree on shop conventions for who advances QA and READY TO SHIP.