Order statuses
The life of a ticket: what each status means, what moves it forward, and what happens to your books at each step.
Every ticket in Meridian carries a status that tells the whole shop where the job stands. The Shop Board, the orders list, and the order page all show the same status — move it in one place and it moves everywhere.
The lifecycle
A repair order normally walks this path:
Open → In Progress → Completed → Invoiced → Closed
with two holding statuses — Waiting Parts and Waiting Approval — that a job can drop into and out of along the way, and one escape hatch — Voided — for tickets that should never bill.
| Status | What it means | What usually triggers it |
|---|---|---|
| Open | Written up and in the queue — nobody is on it yet. | Writing up a new ticket, or converting an approved estimate. |
| In Progress | A tech is actively working the job. | The tech clocks on, or anyone marks it In Progress. |
| Waiting Parts | The job is stalled until parts arrive. | Choosing Waiting on Parts when a needed part isn't on the shelf. |
| Waiting Approval | The job is stalled until the customer says yes — usually to added work found during inspection. | Sending an estimate or DVI findings for approval. |
| Completed | The work is done and the ticket is ready to bill. | Mark Completed on the order, or dragging the card to the Completed lane. |
| Invoiced | The bill is final and the customer owes the balance. | Finalize as Invoice on the order page. |
| Closed | Paid and archived — off the active queue. | Close Order, once the job is completed or invoiced. |
| Voided | Cancelled. The ticket is dead and anything it posted is reversed. | Rare, and every void is recorded in the audit log. |
Moving an order
There are two places to move a ticket:
- The order page — open the order and use the Actions menu: Mark In Progress, Waiting on Parts, Mark Completed, Finalize as Invoice, and Close Order.
- The Shop Board — drag a card between lanes, or use the card's move menu. The board only allows moves that make sense; a card dropped on an invalid lane snaps back.
The board's allowed moves:
| From | Can move to |
|---|---|
| Open | In Progress, Waiting Parts, Waiting Approval |
| In Progress | back to Open, Waiting Parts, Waiting Approval, Completed |
| Waiting Parts | back to Open, In Progress, Completed |
| Waiting Approval | back to Open, In Progress, Completed |
| Completed | back to In Progress (reopen), Invoiced |
Invoicing and closing always happen from the order page, where you can see the money side before you commit.
What happens behind the scenes
- Completed stamps the finish date. If your shop has turned on auto-invoicing, marking a job Completed invoices it in the same step.
- Invoiced is the money moment: the sale posts to your books (the balance shows up in AR aging), the parts on the ticket are taken out of inventory at their real cost, the invoice and receipt PDFs are saved to the order's documents, and the vehicle's mileage and last-service date update from the ticket.
- Closed archives the ticket and removes it from the active queue. Closing doesn't move any money — that already happened at Invoiced.
- Voided reverses whatever the ticket did: an invoiced ticket's posting is backed out of your books, and an un-invoiced ticket's reserved parts go back on the shelf.
Odometer required at intake
If your shop requires mileage at intake (a Preventive Maintenance setting), Meridian will refuse to complete, invoice, or close a repair or PM ticket on a vehicle until an odometer reading is entered. Enter the mileage on the order and try again.
Estimates have their own endings
An estimate shares the working statuses above, plus three of its own:
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Converted | The customer approved and the estimate became a repair order (or sales order). The estimate stays for the record; work continues on the new ticket. |
| Expired | The estimate's good-through window passed without approval. |
| Closed | You closed the estimate without converting it — the customer passed on the work. |
An estimate never touches your books. Money only moves when the converted repair order is invoiced.
Who can move orders
Everyone in the shop can see orders. Moving them is part of order writing:
- Owners, managers, advisors, and technicians move orders day to day — into the shop, onto parts hold, to completed.
- Parts, accounting, and view-only users see order status but don't change it.
- Deleting an order outright is limited to owners and managers — and once a ticket has billed, the right tool is a void or a return, not a delete.
Your shop can fine-tune this per person — see Who can do what.