Special orders

A special order is a part bought for a particular ticket rather than for the shelf. When you add a part to a repair order or sales order and there isn't enough at your location, the shortfall is recorded as backordered. Meridian then tracks that shortfall until the part is ordered, and after that until it arrives.

Read the chip on a part line

Every part line that is short, or has a part on order, shows a small chip under its description. Tap it to see the details and the next step.

"Supplier back-order" is different. It means the vendor is out of the part and it will ship late, and it appears as its own label on the PO.

Order a part for a ticket

A part you typed onto the ticket

A part line you typed by hand, with no catalog part behind it, has no chip. It shows Order for this ticket under the line instead. Tap it and the same dialog opens. Before you order, it tells you what will happen:

• The number isn't a part in your shop yet. Meridian saves it as a one-time part from the number and description you typed, so the order, its arrival and the return window are tracked on the ticket. Nothing is added to your parts catalog.
• The number is already in your catalog, or was ordered before as a one-time part. The line is linked to that part. Any on the shelf here are reserved for the ticket first, and only the rest is ordered. If the shelf already has enough, the dialog says so and nothing is ordered.

The line keeps its description and price. Once it's ordered, the line shows the usual chip. If your shop bills parts it doesn't have on hand (Settings › Inventory), lines never wait on a part, so the button isn't shown. Because ordering a typed part also changes the ticket line, you need permission to edit tickets as well as to order parts.

A draft PO commits nothing: no stock moves, nothing posts, and nothing goes to the vendor. Advisors can put a part on a draft. If an advisor doesn't see a cost, the vendor's price on file is used.

POs an advisor created

An advisor can do anything to a PO they created: edit its details, mark it submitted, cancel it and receive it. They can also change or remove lines they added to someone else's draft. Other people's POs and lines stay with Parts. Parts can do anything to any PO.

• The PO shows who created it, for example Created by you · Tue 9/24.
• Mark Submitted asks first: "Mark PO-00042 as sent to Acme Parts? Do this after you've placed the order with them. Meridian doesn't send it."
• Cancel PO says which tickets go back to Needs ordering.
• Edit Details leaves out freight and tax, which Parts sets.
• In the order dialog an advisor can tick mark submitted for a new PO or their own draft, and link to a line on a PO they created.

An advisor never sees vendor cost: the PO shows a Summary of lines, ordered and received instead of totals. On someone else's PO there's no Actions menu, just "Parts reviews this draft and sends it to the vendor." A PO an advisor prints says Internal copy — prices omitted. Not for sending to the vendor.

Change or remove a line on a draft PO

On a draft PO, each line you may change has a pencil (Change qty) and a trash can (Remove). You need at least 1; use Remove to take a line off. Cutting a line below what its tickets need asks first, for example "Cut LELL101 to 1? RO-12345 needs 2, so 1 goes back to Needs ordering." Removing a line asks the same way. Those tickets need ordering again, and their Order History says so.

Removing the last line leaves an empty draft ("No lines on this PO. Add parts from a ticket, or cancel it."). Once a PO has been sent to the vendor its lines can't change here; ask Parts to change the order with the vendor.

Waiting Parts when you order

The dialog can move the ticket to Waiting Parts for you. What it shows depends on the setting (see Settings):

• Ask each time (the default): a Set RO-12345 to Waiting Parts box, ticked on repair orders and unticked on sales orders. It moves back to its previous status when its parts are here.
• Always for repair orders: a line says the repair order will move. Sales orders still ask.
• Never: nothing is shown and the status never changes.

If the ticket is Waiting Approval, Completed or invoiced, the dialog says its status won't change. If it's already in Waiting Parts because someone put it there by hand, the box offers to move it back automatically when its parts are here. The PartsTech Place order step offers the same choice.

When a PO line is for tickets, the PO says so under the line, for example "For RO-12347 (2) · 1 stock — Acme Freight". The printed PO shows the ticket number without the customer's name.

The Special Orders list

Open it from Parts & Inventory → Special Orders. The badge counts parts that need ordering plus drafts that haven't been sent.

• Needs ordering lists short part lines on open tickets that aren't on a PO yet, oldest first. Needs vendor filters to parts with no vendor or cost on file. Fix those with Set up sourcing. Select several and choose Order selected: one draft per vendor. You'll see a preview of which drafts will be created or added to before anything is saved.
• On order lists parts on a PO for a ticket. Drafts are grouped by PO with Open PO-… to submit. Parts on a transfer to their ticket's location are here too; the In transit filter shows just those ("MAIN → BRANCH · shipped Thu 9/26", with View TR-…).
• Arrived lists parts that were received for a ticket but aren't reserved yet, and says how many are available where they landed. Reserve 1 holds it for the ticket. If nothing is left (it was sold first), Order again puts the line back under Needs ordering; the earlier order stays as stock. At the top, To send groups parts waiting at a hub for another location, one heading per destination ("To BRANCH · draft TR-2026-0031 · 3 parts · not shipped", with Open TR-… to ship). A part not on a draft has Send to BRANCH.
• Received, not sold lists every part that came in for a ticket that isn't billed yet, reserved or not, with how long it has waited, what it's worth and the days left to return it — see Parts received, not sold.
• No longer needed lists parts ordered for a ticket that doesn't need them any more — see When a ticket no longer needs a part.

The badge counts parts that need ordering, drafts that haven't been sent, parts that arrived but aren't reserved, parts reserved at a hub that haven't shipped yet, and reserved parts whose return window ends within 7 days. For Parts (anyone with full purchasing) it also counts No longer needed.

When a ticket no longer needs a part

Sometimes the part is on order, or has arrived, and the ticket stops needing it: you remove the line, cut its quantity below what's on order, or the ticket is voided. Meridian never stops you doing that. It asks what should happen to the part, and if nobody decides right away, it goes on the Special Orders list under No longer needed for Parts.

Removing any line now asks in a dialog ("Remove line?"). When a part is on order for the line, the dialog says so, for example "LELL101 ×1 is ordered for this line on PO-00042 (Vendor One, due Thu 9/26)", and offers what you're allowed to do:

• Take it off PO-00042 — the line comes off the PO (on a draft, nothing was sent; if it was the draft's only line, the draft is left empty). On a PO that was already sent, Meridian doesn't contact the vendor: call them to cancel it. Only offered while nothing has arrived.
• Keep it as stock — the PO stays as it is; the part goes on the shelf when it arrives.
• Return it to Vendor One — only once the part has arrived, and only if the vendor takes it back. It shows how long the return window has left and the restocking fee. If the vendor doesn't take the part back, or the window has closed, the choice is shown greyed out with the reason. Choosing it opens a vendor return, pre-filled, after the line is removed.
• Let Parts decide (the default) — it goes on the list under No longer needed.

If the part had already arrived and was reserved for the ticket, removing the line puts it back on the shelf as ordinary stock straight away — it can be sold to someone else before Parts decides.

What you can choose depends on your role. Parts can do anything. An advisor can take a part off, or keep it, only on a PO (or a PO line) they created themselves; on someone else's PO the dialog just says "Parts will decide what to do with it." If you have no purchasing access at all, you see the same notice. Returning a part needs vendor-returns access.

Cutting a quantity works the same way. Change a line from 3 to 1 while 3 are on order and Save asks first: "You're changing LELL101 from 3 to 1. 2 of the 3 on order for this line are no longer needed (PO-00042)." Only the 2 are decided; the 1 still on order stays with the line.

If the part is already on a transfer to the ticket's location (it was received at another location first), the dialog just says so and Parts decides: it can't come off the PO, because it has been received. It arrives at the ticket's location as ordinary stock, the receive sheet says "No longer needed for RO-12345", and Parts keeps it or returns it from there.

Decline & defer and the Foreman command bar never ask: a part on order for the line goes to Parts, and the message says so ("Parts will decide about LELL101 on PO-00042."). A ticket voided through the API does the same. An auto-drafted part that was never sent just goes away with the line, as before.

The No longer needed list

Each row shows the part, the ticket it was ordered for, who removed it and when ("Line removed by Dana · 9/24", "Quantity cut", "Ticket voided"), the PO and whether it has arrived, and for an arrived part the vendor's return terms ("Window closes in 6 days · 15% restocking fee", "Window closed 9/20", "Vendor doesn't take this part back"). The buttons are the ones you may use:

• Take off PO — for a PO already sent, it asks first and reminds you to call the vendor.
• Keep as stock.
• Return to vendor — opens a new vendor return with the PO line and quantity already picked and the reason set to Special order refused (you can change it). Creating the return settles the row. Until you create it, the row stays on the list.

If Parts cancels the whole PO, or takes the line off a draft, a row that hadn't arrived settles itself. If the part arrives before anyone decides, receiving records it, so the row shows Arrived and offers a return instead of taking it off.

On the PO, the line says No longer needed for RO-12345 (1) · Decide, linking to the list. After a part is taken off a PO that was already sent, the line keeps a note until the PO closes — "1 taken off 9/26 by Dana — call Vendor One to cancel" — so whoever receives knows why the vendor may ship more than the PO now says.

When the part arrives

Open the PO and choose Receive items. Before you confirm, each line bought for a ticket says what will happen, for example:

• "1 for RO-12345 · Acme Freight → will be reserved";
• "→ goes on the shelf; the ticket is flagged" (when your shop puts arrivals on the shelf);
• "1 for RO-12345 (BRANCH) → will be reserved here at MAIN and put on a draft transfer to BRANCH.";
• a warning when RO-12345 already has parts reserved at BRANCH, so receiving it at MAIN won't reserve it. Change the location to BRANCH to reserve it.

After you confirm, the same dialog shows what happened: each ticket that got parts, Reserved or Not reserved and why, tickets that got parts from the extra stock ("Also reserved from this delivery"), and any ticket that moved back from Waiting Parts. Print tags prints one pull tag per ticket line. A receipt that went only to stock just closes.

A part is reserved only if it's really on the shelf. If the stock at that location is already owed to other tickets (for example, another ticket was billed before its part arrived), the part is still received, and the ticket says "Arrived, but stock at MAIN is already owed to other tickets." Receiving is never refused because of the ticket.

Pull tags

Tags print six to a letter sheet with cut lines: the RO number in large type, the customer, the unit, the part and quantity, the bin, the PO and the day it arrived. A tag for a hub receipt has a black band, SEND TO BRANCH · RO-12345 · TR-2026-0031, and under it "Ship TR-2026-0031 in Meridian before it leaves MAIN." If your shop puts arrivals on the shelf, the tag says HOLD FOR RO-12345 — not reserved in Meridian. You can reprint them any time from Print pull tags on the PO.

Reserve

Reserve holds what's on the shelf at the line's location for a short line, whether or not it was special-ordered. Use it when a part came in some other way (a stock PO, a transfer, a count) and the line is still short. You'll find it on the line's chip, on the Special Orders Arrived tab, and on the technician's job screen. If nothing is left, the chip says so and offers Order again and, when another location has it, Transfer from BRANCH.

Waiting Parts clears itself

A ticket the system put in Waiting Parts (or that someone moved there with "move it back when the parts are here") returns to its previous status on its own as soon as no part line on it is short, however the parts arrived: received on its PO, reserved by hand, reserved from other stock, or the short line was cut or removed. Order History says so, for example "Moved back to In Progress automatically — LELL101 reserved on receipt of PO-00042 (received by Dana)".

• A ticket with another short part that nobody ordered keeps waiting.
• A part held at another location for this ticket (received at a hub for a branch ticket) still counts as short until it's received here, however the rest of the ticket's parts arrive.
• If your shop puts arrivals on the shelf, the ticket keeps waiting until someone presses Reserve.
• A person's own move is never undone. When you choose Waiting on Parts… from a ticket's Actions menu while a part is short, a box asks whether to move it back to In Progress when the parts are here (ticked). Moving a ticket into Waiting Parts on the Shop Board always takes that option; turn it off from the ticket with Stay in Waiting Parts.
• The ticket header shows Waiting on 2 parts and, when it will move back by itself, "moves back to In Progress automatically".
• Tickets whose parts were reserved in the last day show a green Parts arrived label on the Shop Board, the tickets list and the technician's My Work.

Customers who can see their tickets in the customer portal see Waiting Parts whether a person or the system set it. No message is sent to them.

Stock that arrives for backordered lines

When stock arrives at a location without being ordered for a ticket (a stock PO, a transfer, a count, a customer return, or a part freed up by a removed line or a voided ticket), Meridian reserves it to backordered lines at that location: tickets in Waiting Parts first, then the oldest line first. It only uses what's available and never takes stock another ticket holds. Stock no short line needs stays unreserved. This is on by default; turn it off in Settings.

For technicians

The job screen in the field app has a Parts for this job card (titled Parts on order when the ticket is grouped into jobs) listing what the job is waiting on: "Reserved · bin A-12 at MAIN", "Ordered · due Thu", "At MAIN — to be sent here on a transfer", "On its way from MAIN on TR-2026-0031", "Arrived — not reserved yet" or "Not ordered yet — ask Parts". When the part is on the shelf, Reserve 1 holds it for the job. Ordering stays with Parts.

Auto-draft

With auto-draft on, adding a short part puts the shortfall on a draft PO for the part's preferred vendor by itself. When several tickets need parts from the same vendor, they share one draft. Auto-draft skips a part when:

• another location has it (transfer it instead);
• it's already on order;
• it has no vendor or no cost on file (it stays under Needs ordering).

Change the line's quantity or remove it, and the auto-drafted line follows, as long as the draft hasn't been sent. The same happens when the shortfall is covered some other way (stock reserved with Reserve, filled from other incoming stock, a transfer or count, or the ticket reopened with stock on hand): the auto-drafted PO line shrinks, is removed at zero, and a draft left with no lines is deleted. POs already sent are never changed. Nothing auto-drafted is ever sent: Parts reviews each draft and marks it submitted.

Waiting Parts when a line auto-drafts

With Ask each time, adding a part to a repair order that will auto-draft stops to ask, with Set RO-12345 to Waiting Parts ticked: press Enter to add it, or untick the box first. Quick-add moves the ticket without asking, and its confirmation offers Keep In Progress to undo the move. Lines from kits, Foreman and PartsTech move the ticket only under Always for repair orders.

Ask when adding a line

With the short-stock setting at Ask when adding a line, picking a part you don't have enough of shows a choice before the line is added. For example, "Only 0 available here · 3 at BRANCH." Then choose Add as backordered, Add & order for this ticket, or Cancel. Quick-add asks too. Lines added in the field, from kits or by Foreman never ask. They're backordered, and they show up here.

Where special orders are received

In Settings → Inventory → Special orders, choose where a part ordered for a ticket is delivered:

• Each location receives its own (the default). A service truck with no dock can name a location that receives for it.
• All through one location. Every special order is received at the hub you pick.
• Choose per location. Set a receiving location for each location, with optional Vendor exceptions for vendors that deliver somewhere else.

A part received at one location for another location's ticket is reserved there and put on a draft transfer to the ticket's location. See the next section.

Special orders received at another location

When your shop receives special orders at a hub (or a dock receives one for another location), the part goes to the ticket's location on a real inventory transfer that carries the ticket. That keeps each location's stock right at every step: at the hub until it ships, in transit on the truck, and at the branch once it's received and reserved there.

1. Receive at the hub. The part is reserved for the ticket at the hub, and Meridian puts it on a draft transfer to the ticket's location. The receipt says "On draft transfer TR-2026-0031 to BRANCH — ship it when it goes on the truck." Several parts for the same location collect on one draft. Nothing moves yet.
2. Ship it when the truck leaves. Open the transfer and choose Ship, or tap Ship TR-… on the ticket's chip when everything on the draft is for that ticket. Shipping takes the part off the hub's shelf and releases its reservation there; the ticket's line is short at its own location again, covered by the part on the truck, so it doesn't show as needing ordering. If the part was never drafted (or its draft was cancelled), Send to BRANCH on the chip or on Special Orders ships it on a new transfer of its own; it asks first, because the hub's count drops as soon as you confirm.
3. Receive at the branch. The transfer's receive sheet says, per line, "1 for RO-12345 → will be reserved at BRANCH." When you confirm, the part is reserved to the ticket line there, the chip reads Arrived · reserved, and a ticket waiting on it moves back from Waiting Parts. If fewer arrived than shipped and the rest is still coming, only what you counted is reserved; the rest stays in transit.

A few things to know:

• A part reserved at the hub for a branch ticket doesn't count as Parts arrived for that ticket, and doesn't take the ticket out of Waiting Parts. That happens when the branch receives it.
• Cancelling a draft transfer leaves the part reserved at the hub; Send to BRANCH is offered again.
• Cancelling a transfer that already shipped puts the part back on the hub's shelf and reserves it there again when it can.
• If the part at the hub was sold or used before it shipped, shipping is refused and names the part and the ticket: "LELL101 for RO-12345: MAIN has none left to ship." Nothing is shipped.
• If part of it is written off as lost on receipt, the ticket's line needs ordering again.
• A draft transfer that carries parts for tickets can't be edited line by line; ship it, or cancel it and send again.
• The transfer page shows who each line is for ("For RO-12345 (1) — Acme Freight"), and the ticket's Order History records "Part sent to BRANCH" and "Part arrived at BRANCH".

One line, parts in two places

A line can need parts that end up in different places: a repair order at BRANCH needs two hangers, one has already arrived at BRANCH and the other is still reserved at the hub, waiting for the truck. Meridian keeps each of them reserved where it is, so nobody at the hub can sell the one that's waiting.

On the ticket the part is still one line with its total quantity, price and total. Under the description, Meridian lists where the parts are, each with its quantity and its usual status:

• 1 Arrived · reserved
• 1 Reserved at MAIN · send to BRANCH

Each status opens the same menu as on any line (Send, Ship, Reserve, the PO), and says which part of the line it is about ("This is 1 of the 2 on this line. The other 1 is at this ticket's store."). A part reserved from ordinary stock reads Reserved from stock. When everything is back at the ticket's store and reserved, the list goes away and the line reads like any other.

Editing the line edits all of it:

• Quantity is the line's total. Raising it adds the extra at the ticket's store (reserved from stock there, or short and needing ordering). Lowering it takes off the parts that aren't here yet first, then any held at another store, and only then parts already reserved here. The edit box says which before you save. A part on order that's no longer needed goes through the usual choice: take it off the PO, keep it as stock, or let Parts decide.
• Price, description and taxable apply to the whole line.
• Remove removes the whole line, and puts each part back on the shelf where it is.
• Invoicing: parts reserved at another store are billed from that store's stock. If some of the line hasn't arrived anywhere, Bill the N here counts every part that's reserved, wherever it is.

Customers never see any of this: the invoice, the PDF, the invoice link, the customer portal and the API all show one line with the total quantity. Technicians see one entry per part on the job screen, with a line for each place: "1 reserved at BRANCH · bin A-12", "1 at MAIN · to be sent to BRANCH".

Invoicing a ticket with parts that haven't arrived

A ticket with a backordered part can still be invoiced, but the shop decides how. The Invoice Summary says "2 parts haven't arrived", and so does the Finalize as Invoice item in the Actions menu. On the board, the card reads "1 part not arrived".

When you invoice such a ticket (Finalize as Invoice, Close, Mark Completed when your shop invoices on completion, a drag to the Invoiced lane, or Close & Invoice at the POS), Meridian asks: This invoice has backordered parts, do you want to continue to bill? The prompt lists each part that isn't here, with its state, and offers the ways to deal with it:

• Reserve — the part is on the shelf at this location; reserve it to the ticket. If that was the last one, the invoice goes ahead.
• Receive PO-… — the part came in but the PO was never received. This opens the PO with its receive dialog; afterwards, Back to returns you to the ticket to finish invoicing. Without purchasing access the prompt says to ask Parts.
• Order it — nobody has ordered it yet. Opens the order dialog.
• Remove the line — only for a part that isn't on a PO, and not when some of it is here.
• Bill the N here — some of the line is here and reserved, the rest isn't. On a repair order the line is cut to what's here and bills; what's still on order stays on its PO and goes to stock when it arrives (it won't come back to this customer on its own). On a counter sale the rest moves to the new Sales Order.
• On a counter sale: Bill what's here, move the part to a new Sales Order (see below).
• Invoice anyway — bill the part before it arrives. Only this button counts as billing ahead, and the ticket's history records who did it and for which parts.

Under Block there is no "anyway": receive, reserve, order or remove the parts first. Nobody can override it.

Complete, invoice later. If your shop invoices automatically when a ticket is marked Completed, the prompt also offers Mark completed, invoice when parts arrive. The ticket moves to Completed and is not invoiced — nothing invoices it later on its own. The ticket shows "Completed, not invoiced" with an Invoice button, and its board card says "Not invoiced", until someone invoices it.

API keys and assistants invoicing through finalize_invoice get the same answer: refused with BACKORDER_CONFIRM under Warn until they pass confirmBackordered: true, and refused with BACKORDER_BLOCKED under Block.

Split a counter sale

On a counter sale you can bill what's here now and move the backordered parts to a new Sales Order, which waits for them. It is offered:

• At checkout, before payment. When the sale has parts that aren't in stock, the POS shows a banner above the payment pad and waits for you to choose: Bill what's here now, move the rest to a new Sales Order, Bill everything now (not under Block), or Take a deposit. The pad stays locked until you choose.
• From the ticket's Actions menu: Move backordered parts to a new Sales Order… shows what moves, what stays, and each sale's new total.

After the split:

• The original sale keeps its number, its payments, any deposit and the sale discount, and bills what's here. Its invoice says "Parts on order, billed separately on Sales Order SO-…".
• The new Sales Order gets its own number, shows Split from SO-…, and starts in Waiting Parts. A sale has one such Sales Order; moving more parts later adds them to it. It can't be invoiced until its parts arrive, whatever your invoicing setting. Its print is a special-order slip, not an invoice. You can take a deposit on it.
• When the parts arrive and are reserved, it moves out of Waiting Parts. Invoice it like any other sale; it isn't invoiced by itself.

Each sale is taxed on its own, so the two totals together can differ from the original by a cent.

A split isn't offered on repair orders, and it's refused when a payment larger than what would be left has already been taken, a split payer is set, the customer has opened a pay link, the sale discount is more than what would be left, a part hasn't been ordered yet (order it first), the part belongs to a kit, a partly missing part carries a core charge, or nothing on the sale is here yet. The prompt and the dialog say which.

Settings

The Special orders card sits directly below the short-stock setting in Settings → Inventory:

• Draft special orders automatically. Choose Off, Non-stock parts only (recommended, and the default), or All parts.
• When a special-order part arrives. Reserve it for the ticket (recommended, the default) or Put it on the shelf and flag the ticket, which leaves it available until someone presses Reserve.
  • Reserve other incoming stock for backordered lines (on by default; only while arrivals are reserved). See above.
• Put the ticket in Waiting Parts when a part is ordered. Never, Ask each time (recommended, the default) or Always for repair orders.
• Where special orders are received. See above.
• Invoicing with backordered parts. Allow (bill without comment), Warn (recommended, the default: show what's missing and the ways to deal with it) or Block (hold the invoice until the parts arrive; no override).
• On counter sales, offer to move backordered parts to a new Sales Order (on by default). Under Allow it governs only the Actions menu item.

Non-returnable parts and the special-order slip

Tick Non-returnable on a part (part → Edit → Settings) when customers can't return it once it's ordered for them. The special-order slip for a Sales Order waiting on parts marks that line "Non-returnable" and prints Special-order parts may not be returnable. above the signature. A vendor return policy that says the vendor won't take the part back prints the same notice. The slip's signature line reads I agree to purchase the parts listed when they arrive.

The card is greyed out while the short-stock setting is Allow negative, because nothing is ever backordered then.