What is order management, for a small business: knowing where every order stands. Which have been raised, which are in progress, which are done and waiting to be invoiced, and which were paid and closed, with the price on each and a date on every change. The enterprise version of the phrase means channels, warehouses and carriers; the small-business version means one list that the office and the technician both read. This guide is the small-business version, with the orders priced free on the worksheets on this site and the list kept by Jobcardo Pro.
Every order on one list
Order management begins when every work order, sales order and service order sits on one list against its customer, each with a number, a date and a status. A whiteboard, a text thread and a spreadsheet are three lists, and the order that is done and not invoiced falls between them. One list, readable by status, is most of what a business of two to fifteen people means by order management.
A status that moves, and a history that keeps it
Raised, in progress, done, invoiced and paid, closed. Each move is dated against the login that made it, along with any added line or changed figure, so the question of when the job was finished or when the deposit was taken is answered from the record. That dated history is the difference between managing orders and remembering them.
The price on the order, and where the retail OMS is a different thing
An order list without the price is half a system. Each order carries its own priced worksheet: labour, parts, tax, discount, shipping, deposit and balance, worked free on this site's worksheets and kept in Pro. A retailer managing orders across channels, warehouses and carriers needs an order management system in the other sense, and this estate serves that from its retail hub rather than from here.
Questions people ask about what is order management
What is order management in simple terms?
Tracking every order a business raises or receives from the moment it exists to the moment it is paid: what it is, who it is for, who has it, what it costs and where it stands.
Is order management the same as an OMS?
An OMS is the retail and supply chain version, with channels, warehouses and carriers. Small-business order management is the list with a status and the price on every order.
Do I need software for order management?
You need one list with a status and a price on every order. Jobcardo's worksheets price the orders free; keeping the list is the paid plan.