Order Lifecycle and Fulfillment
What to know
The order lifecycle moves an order through states such as Draft/Created, Activated, Fulfilling/In Progress, Fulfilled, and Closed/Canceled. Understand that order activation is the trigger that creates fulfillment orders and kicks off orchestration. Fulfillment progresses through fulfillment order states (e.g., created, allocated, in progress, completed, canceled) and line-item-level statuses.
Know the fulfillment operations: allocate, create shipment, create invoice (when billing is tied to fulfillment), cancel, and return. Understand how partial fulfillment and partial cancellation work at the line-item and quantity level, and how those propagate back to the order summary.
Traps
- Don't confuse order status with fulfillment order status - they are separate state machines.
- A common trap: assuming canceling an order cancels everything instantly. Cancellation must respect what has already been fulfilled/shipped.
- Questions may imply fulfillment and invoicing always happen together; invoicing depends on configured billing/invoicing rules and may occur at different points.
- Watch for return vs. cancel confusion: returns apply to shipped/fulfilled items; cancellations apply to unfulfilled quantities.
Rule of thumb
Track quantity math: ordered = fulfilled + canceled + open. Any operation should reconcile against this balance, and partial operations adjust only the affected quantities.
Worked example
A customer orders 10 units. Orchestration creates a fulfillment order for 10. The warehouse ships 6 (fulfillment order line partially fulfilled). The customer cancels the remaining 4 before shipment. Result: 6 fulfilled, 4 canceled, 0 open - the order summary reflects the split, and only the 6 fulfilled units are eligible for return.