Order status tracking
Answer “Where has my order reached?” without asking three people.
Keep the current order stage visible internally and share the customer-facing status that is actually useful.
SO-2087
Kamath Traders
- Receiveddone
- Confirmeddone
- Preparingdone
- Ready to dispatchcurrent
- Dispatchednot yet reached
- Deliverednot yet reached
- Owner
- Operations · Mihir
- Stock
- All lines allocated
- Dispatch task
- Packed, awaiting vehicle
- Customer commitment
- Promised 28 Oct
- Current operation
- Dispatch document pending
- Status
- Confirmed
- Progress
- Preparing
- Expected dispatch
- 27 Oct
Same order.The customer does not need every internal detail.
Status should answer the next useful question.
- ReceivedDid you get my order?
- ConfirmedCan you supply it?
- PreparingIs it being worked on?
- Ready to dispatchWhen will it leave?
- DispatchedHow is it travelling?
A status nobody was going to ask about is a field, not a status.
Use statuses that match the real fulfilment process.
- Received
- Confirmed
- Preparing
- Ready to dispatch
- Dispatched
- Delivered
Your stages may be different. The useful status is the one that reflects real operational progress — a stage nobody updates is worse than no stage at all.
Internal status and customer status do not have to be identical.
Internal
- Waiting for stock allocation
- Picking
- Packing
- Dispatch document pending
- Ready
Customer
- Confirmed
- Preparing
- Expected dispatch 27 Oct
Share enough information to answer the customer’s question without exposing unnecessary internal detail.
Make the exception visible too.
A problem the customer discovers on the delivery date was a problem somebody knew about on the 24th.
Whether the customer is told, and by whom, is a decision for your business. Nothing here sends a message on anybody’s behalf.
Example order
SO-2098
One line short
- Expected dispatch
- 27 Oct
- Issue
- One item waiting
- Internal owner
- Operations
- Customer status
- Preparing — revised dispatch pending
Who needs to see order status?
- Salesperson
- Enough to answer the customer without ringing the warehouse.
- Order desk
- Everything, because they are the ones being asked.
- Operations
- The task, not the commercial detail.
- Accounts
- Dispatched and delivered, where it matters for invoicing.
- Customer
- The answer to their question.
- Dealer or distributor
- Where that relationship exists, at whatever level you agree.
Six readers, one order, six different useful amounts of detail.
Status updates should come from the process where possible.
Updated separately
- A manual status sheet
- A phone call to the warehouse
- A WhatsApp update
- An email update
Updated once, by the process
- The order process updates the status once
- Every view reads the same thing
The exact source depends on which fulfilment, warehouse, dispatch or business systems are connected. Where a step is not connected, somebody still updates it by hand — and a page that pretended otherwise would be selling a connection you do not have.
Where can status be shared?
- Internal order bookThe order desk’s own view.
- B2B portalWhere the customer checks it themselves.
- Salesperson viewOn the same screen they placed the order from.
- A message to the customerWhere that has been configured.
- Dealer portalWhere that relationship exists.
Not every channel is automatic. Which of these carry a status, and whether it arrives by itself, depends on what is connected and what you decide to share.
Before the status, and after it.
- B2B Ordering PortalThe place a customer looks instead of ringing you.
- Sales Rep OrderingWhere the order started, and where the salesperson checks on it.
- Order Approval Workflow“Waiting for approval” is a status too, and somebody is waiting on it.
- Order to CashThe whole journey this order is one stretch of.
How many people get asked for the same order status?
Show us how your team tracks and communicates order progress today. We’ll help identify where the status can come from one process instead of several updates.