What are purchase order milestones, and how does Endless track their progress?

Milestones are five fixed stages that every purchase order has: Pre-production, Production, Pre-shipment, Shipment, and Delivery. The status says exactly where the order is. The milestone groups statuses into a stage, and Endless sets it from the status:

• Pre-production: In Review, Issued, and Confirmed
• Production: In Production
• Pre-shipment: Quality Control and Awaiting Shipment
• Shipment: In Transit and Partially Delivered
• Delivery: Delivered

Draft, Closed, and Canceled purchase orders do not have a current milestone. The milestone cards on the purchase order show earlier stages as Completed, the current one as In Progress, and later ones as Not Started. For a Closed order, all show Completed.

To track something like a sample approval, add a note with the progress update or on the purchase order, and upload photos on the purchase order’s Documents tab. Contact Endless support to discuss adding your own milestones.

Select a milestone card, then choose “Update Progress” to set its Progress percentage, its Timeline Status, and an optional note. This changes only the milestone. It does not change the purchase order’s status, and the dialog says so. The percentage fills the progress bar in the header, and the note appears as the latest update with your name. The Orders at Risk count on the Purchase Orders page uses the Timeline Status.

Timeline Status is set by hand, so mark a milestone Delayed or At Risk yourself when a date passes. Not Started, On Track, At Risk, Delayed, and Completed mean whatever your team decides.

Set a milestone’s Start Date yourself, under the milestone header. Changing the status leaves milestone dates as they are. The day count shown next to the current milestone in the header (“Day 4 of 30”) counts from that Start Date, and the total also needs the milestone’s expected completion date. Contact Endless support for help with milestone completion dates.