A confirmed order, a completed delivery and a paid invoice are different events. Distinguishing them helps sales, logistics and finance understand the same case without adding together items that represent different things.
Track documents and their relationships
Keep the references linking orders, delivery records, invoices and payments. One order may produce several deliveries, and one payment may cover several invoices. Those relationships need to remain visible to explain an outstanding balance.
Define statuses with each team
“Complete” means different things to warehousing and finance. Prefer explicit stages: awaiting preparation, partially delivered, invoiced, payment awaiting reconciliation. Specify the evidence and person authorising each stage.
Treat exceptions as cases
Returns, credit notes, disputes and partial payments should not disappear into free-text comments. Assign a reason, an owner and a next action. Commercial and accounting decisions remain with authorised people in the business.
Test reconciliation before reporting
Take a few complete cases and reconstruct their journeys. Check that a return or credit note is not counted as a new sale. Compare tracking with reference documents before using totals in a performance review.
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