Orders – order, project and production management

Overview

The Orders module is used to record orders, projects and production jobs from the receipt of an inquiry through handover and invoicing. Each order stores deadlines, responsible persons, prices, costs and revenues, notes, attachments and assigned products. The module also links the order with work recorded in Work Reports, with Tasks, with customers in CRM and with documents from other modules (invoices, orders, cash desk, warehouse), so the entire history of the order is visible in one place. It is used both by ordinary employees who work on the order or take care of it, and by supervisors and managers who monitor profitability and deadlines.

Key features of the Orders module

Recording of orders with number, name, deadlines, priority and responsible persons
Tracking of the offer and negotiated price, invoiced amount, planned costs and gross profit
Automatic overview of the order's actual revenues and costs from linked documents
Notes with custom types, permissions and automatic logging of change history
Attachments, links to documents and folders in the Documents module
Assignment of products and assemblies to the order, including warehouse reservations
Closing orders against further changes
Import of orders from a file and AI summary of the order's status

Access and settings

This chapter describes how to get into the Orders module, how to configure the module to suit the company's needs, and what permissions exist for working with orders. The Orders module has a large number of optional fields and switches, so each company will set it up differently – it is therefore worth going through the settings right at the start, before creating the first order.

How to get into the Orders module

Open the Orders module (order, project and production records) from the main menu by selecting Orders. A list of all orders you have permission for is displayed. If the logged-in user has permission to manage the module settings, they also see a Settings link in the page header, which opens the Orders module configuration.

Orders module settings

The Orders module settings are available via the Settings link on the module's main screen and may only be changed by a user with permission to manage the settings. The module has a large number of optional fields – every order field (deadlines, prices, responsible persons, description, attachments and others) can be individually enabled or hidden in the settings, so each company can adapt the order form to only what it actually uses. A field that is not enabled in the settings does not appear in the order form at all.

Settings: basic fields and the source of the customer name

In the Orders module you can enable the display of the Order number field (optionally mandatory and/or unique – when uniqueness is enabled, the system checks live while typing whether the number already exists for another order), the Contract name field (optionally mandatory), the optional additional Name of sub-order field for distinguishing partial parts of the order, and also Date of entry and Resolution deadline (the deadline for resolution). The customer's name can be set in three mutually exclusive ways: manual text entry of the company name, selecting a company from the CRM module (optionally including a branch and contact person), or selecting a company from the Customer Records. Without a selected option, the customer field does not appear in the form at all.

Settings: deadlines, priority and responsible persons

In the Orders module settings you can also enable the Priority field (shows a selection of the configured priority levels and a column in the table), Customer (a company selected from CRM, may differ from the customer), Tender processor, Contract guarantor and Contract Manager (all three as a user selection), the Email manager when selecting/changing it option (when the manager is assigned or changed, they automatically receive an email with the order's details), the Team responsible for the order (selection of several users) and the List of suppliers (multiple selection of companies from CRM – this field is shown in the order form only if the Customer option is also enabled) and the text field Place of realization.

Settings: prices, costs and finances

The order's financial fields are enabled separately: Offer price and Negotiated price (both with a currency option), Invoiced (amount excluding and including VAT), Direct costs of materials and services (plan) and Number of hours worked (plan). The Automatically calculate from issued invoices option switches the Invoiced field from manual entry to an automatic calculation from the actual issued invoices linked to the order. The Gross profit option shows the automatically calculated difference between the offer price and the planned direct costs. The Revenue / Cost / Profit option adds three colored columns with the actually realized amounts to the order list – they are visible only to users with the order cost/revenue permission. The settings also contain the Default hourly rate field, which the system uses for all new orders when calculating work report costs, until the rate is filled in manually for a specific order.

Settings: attachments, notes, documents and products

The Description switch enables a text field with a detailed description of the order (shown only when creating a new order). The Attachments switch allows uploading files to the order, and the Notes switch allows notes to be written. The Link to a document in the Documents module and Link to a folder in the Documents module options let you connect the order to a specific document, or to an entire folder, in the Documents module. The Pcs in stock in products to order option adds a manual field with the quantity in stock to the assigned products – it serves as a substitute for the Warehouse module where the warehouse is not used.

Settings: order priorities

In the Orders module you can set up to seven priority levels, each with its own name, text color and background/badge color. The Highlight the whole row with the background color option determines whether the color appears only on a small priority badge, or highlights the entire order row in the table. A priority level without a filled-in name is not used in the priority list. Example: a company can have the priorities "Low" (green badge), "Standard" (no highlighting) and "Emergency" (whole row highlighted in red), so that urgent orders are visible in the list at first glance.

Settings: order numbering

The format of the automatically generated order number consists of fixed text (Prefix, optionally also a second Prefix2), a choice of whether the year should be included in the number (two digits, four digits, or not at all), and a Sequence number with a set number of digits – for example, if you enter 4 digits, the generated number will look like "ZAK20240001". If the entire setting is left empty, the order number is always entered manually. If you do not want the numbering to start from one in a given year, simply edit the last generated number manually and the sequence will continue from it the next time a number is generated.

Settings: note types

The Orders module allows up to 15 note types to be configured. The first type, Change, is fixed and cannot be modified or disabled – the system uses it to automatically log the order's change history, it is visible to everyone, and it is not possible to restrict who may write to it. For the other note types, each one individually has a name, color, icon, an Active flag and three permissions: who Sees notes of that type, who Can enter them and who Can edit them – for each of these three permissions you choose either "All", or specific selected users. An empty note type row (without a filled-in name) is not shown in the type list.

Settings: optional order fields

In addition to the fixed fields, the Orders module lets you configure any number of custom (optional) fields – text, numeric, date, selection lists, file upload fields, user selection, a date with a warning of an approaching deadline, and other types. For each optional field you set a name, a type, the Can fill in/Sees permission ("Anyone", or only selected users), the Mandatory flag and the Show in the basic table flag, which permanently adds the field to the columns of the order overview table. If a specific user is explicitly allowed on an optional field, this gives them the right to edit that order, even if their general order permission is otherwise lower. An empty optional field is not shown in the order form.

Settings: closing orders

The Closing an order option enables the ability to close an order in the Orders module – a closed order can then not be edited by any user, until someone with the appropriate permission opens it again. This option also includes the assignment of the separate Close Orders permission to individual users. Without enabling this option, the close button on the order detail does not appear at all, and orders cannot be closed.

Permissions and access rights to the Orders module

Basic access to the Orders module is set separately for each user, in five levels. It is selected on the User rights tab in the module settings.

Permission level	What the user may do
No access	Does not see the Orders module at all
Read where it is listed	Sees only orders they are somehow connected with (for example, they are the author), without the option to edit them or create new ones
Read where it is listed, edit yours and enter new ones	In addition, may create a new order and edit those they created themselves
Read all and edit all	Sees and edits all of the company's orders
Read, edit, and delete everything	In addition, may also delete and copy orders

Regardless of this level, two exceptions apply: no one may edit a closed order until a user with the permission to close orders opens it again, and the author of an order may always edit it, even if their general order permission is lower.

Separate permissions and note rights in the Orders module

Independently of the level above, the Orders module also assigns Access to order costs/revenue – it allows seeing the Cost and Revenue tabs on the order detail, the colored Revenue/Cost/Profit badges in the list, and the financial data in the AI summary; without this permission a user does not see these figures anywhere. There is also the optional Close Orders permission (shown only if the order closing feature is enabled in the settings). Notes have their own permission system, independent of the one described above – for each note type, the settings separately determine who may see, enter and edit notes of that type. Only a user with permission to manage the Orders module settings may change the module settings and the assignment of user permissions.

User interface

The interface of the Orders module consists of an overview table with a filter on the main screen, and the detail of an individual order divided into cards. Which columns and cards actually appear in the interface depends on the module settings – so two companies may have the Orders screen arranged differently. The following chapters describe the main screen, the filters and the order detail in detail.

Main screen of the Orders module

The main screen of the Orders module shows the heading "Orders" and an overview table of all orders the logged-in user has permission for. Above the table is a collapsible Filter (closed by default, opened and closed with an icon in the header), the Only active / All switch based on the Active status, and, if at least one price column is enabled, the With foreign currencies / Converted to CZK switch. There are also the Add (create a new order), Import (import orders from a file) and Deleted (recycle bin with a list of deleted orders) buttons.

Filters and search in Orders

The filter in the Orders module offers the following criteria: Active status (Only active / Only inactive / all), The order number contains, The order name contains, The name of the sub-order contains (only if the column is enabled in the settings), the Date of entry from–to and Date of resolution from–to ranges, a Priority selection, Customer name includes or a Customer from CRM selection (depending on how the source of the customer name is configured), the Closed – No/Yes switch (only if order closing is enabled in the settings), and the In the notes contained in text field. The filter is triggered with the Search button, and the Cancel button clears all entered criteria. The order table itself also offers text search, sorting by columns, a choice of the number of displayed rows, and an advanced search tool for combining several conditions at once.

Order table columns

The order table shows only the columns enabled in the Orders module settings, in this order: Order number, Contract name, Name of sub-order, Date of entry, Resolution deadline, Priority, Customer with the branch and contact underneath, Customer, Tender processor, Contract guarantor, Contract Manager, Team responsible for the order, List of suppliers, Place of realization, Offer price, Negotiated price, Invoiced (with and without VAT), Direct costs of materials and services (plan), Gross profit, conversion rate (only in the view with conversion to CZK), colored Revenue / Cost / Profit badges (only with the order cost permission), Number of hours worked (plan), Site handover, Handover of the order planned and actual, Warranty until, any optional fields marked for display in the table, and finally the Active and Actions columns. Each row has a View detail icon, a Copy icon (only with a higher permission) and a Delete record icon (only with delete permission), both with a confirmation prompt before being carried out.

Order detail – cards and tabs

The detail of a specific order in the Orders module is divided into cards and tabs: the basic order data with the enabled fields, the Description card, the Attachments card, the Notes card, the Products card (if the products module is enabled), the Tasks for this order card, optionally divided into custom task groups, the Cost tab and the Revenue tab (both only with the order cost/revenue permission), and the Related documents card with a chain of documents from the offer through to the issued invoice. In the header of the detail there is a button to generate the AI order summary, an external link icon next to the heading, and, for orders with closing enabled, a Close or Open button. A closed order is highlighted on the detail with the red text "CLOSED".

Basic operations

Basic operations in the Orders module include creating a new order, editing an existing order, copying it, closing or opening it, and deleting it if necessary. The procedures for each of these operations are described in the following chapters.

Procedure: Creating a new order

In the Orders module you create a new order using this procedure:

Click the Add button on the main screen of the Orders module.
Fill in the customer – depending on the settings, either a manual company name, a selection from CRM (optionally also a branch and contact), or a selection from the Customer Records.
Fill in the mandatory fields, i.e. Order number and Contract name, if the settings require it, and the other displayed fields – deadlines, priority, prices, responsible persons and the like.
Optionally fill in the Contract description and upload Attachments – both of these fields are shown only when creating a new order, not when editing it later.
Click Save. Once saved, the detail of the newly created order opens.

Tip: If the order number format is filled in the Orders module settings, the system suggests a new number automatically based on the last number used in the current year, so there is no need to enter it manually.

Procedure: Editing an order

You edit an existing order on its detail in the Orders module:

On the order detail, click the Edit button – the button is inactive if you do not have permission to edit the order, or the order is closed.
Edit the required fields.
Click Save. For selected changed fields, a note of type Change is automatically created with the old and new value, and the order detail is displayed again.

Note: If closing is enabled in the Orders module and the order is closed, it cannot be edited in any way whatsoever until a user with permission to close orders opens it again.

Procedure: Copying an order

Copying in the Orders module is used to quickly create a similar order:

In the order list, click the Copy icon on the relevant row (available only with a higher permission).
The same form opens as when creating a new order, pre-filled with data from the copied order; a new order number is generated if automatic numbering is set.
If the products module is enabled in the system, you can check Copy incl. products – all products and assemblies assigned to the original order will also be copied with the same quantity.
Click Save.

Procedure: Closing and opening an order

The closing function is shown in the Orders module only if it is enabled in the settings.

On the order detail, click the Close button (requires the Close Orders permission).
A closed order is marked on the detail with the red text "CLOSED" and cannot be edited by anyone until a user with the appropriate permission opens it again with the Open button.

Procedure: Deleting an order

Deleting an order in the Orders module requires the highest permission level (Read, edit, and delete everything):

In the order list, click the Delete record icon on the relevant row, or the Delete button on the order detail.
Confirm the prompt "Delete? – Do you really want to delete this record?".

A deleted order disappears from the regular list and moves to the recycle bin, which you open with the Deleted button on the main screen of the Orders module.

Working with an order – notes, attachments, documents and products

In addition to the basic data, the Orders module also lets you add supplementary materials to an order – notes, attachments, links to documents and assigned products. Whether the individual cards are enabled is governed by the module settings; their use is described in the following chapters.

Notes on an order

Notes in the Orders module are used to record comments, history and communication around the order, if this feature is enabled in the settings. You add a new entry as follows:

On the order detail, click Add in the Notes card.
Select the Note type – only the types you have permission to write are offered.
Optionally check Private – the Can also see field appears, for selecting users who will see the note even though it is private.
Fill in the text of the note (the field on the screen is labeled "Contract description", but it is actually the content of the note itself, not the description of the whole order), and optionally attach files.
Click Save.

Note: The Change note type is created automatically in the Orders module – when selected order fields are edited (number, name, deadlines, priority, company, Active status, planned hours, prices, customer, tender processor, manager, team, suppliers, adding an attachment, editing the description, and also closing/opening), the old and new value is written to the notes without any user action.

Attachments to an order

In the Orders module you can upload attachments to an order, if this feature is enabled in the settings. On the detail, in the Attachments card, click Add and upload files by dragging and dropping them or directly in the document browser. Up to 60 files can be uploaded at once. After saving, a note of type Change is automatically created for each added attachment.

Links to documents and folders in the Documents module

An order in the Orders module can be linked to a specific document or to an entire folder in the Documents module, if these cards are enabled in the settings. For a link to a document, first select the folder and then the specific document within it; for a link to a folder, it is enough to select the folder itself. In both cases, click Add in the relevant card of the order detail and confirm the choice with the Save button.

Products and assemblies on an order

If the products module is enabled in the system, the Products card is shown on the order detail, where you can record which products or assemblies are linked to the order:

In the Products card, click Add product/assembly.
Select the product or assembly and enter the quantity – the system immediately shows which sub-products or sub-assemblies are needed for the selected item.
Click Save. For an existing item, only the quantity can be edited later; the product selection itself can no longer be changed when editing.

From the row of an assigned product, you can directly create a "production task" in the Orders module, or (if the warehouse is enabled) a production item via the "Produce" icon. If the warehouse is enabled, you can click to reserve a specific product item, or use Book everything in stock and Release reservations in bulk. Without the warehouse enabled, you can instead allow, in the Orders module settings, a manual field with the quantity in stock directly on the product.

Advanced features

In addition to standard record-keeping, the Orders module offers bulk import of orders from a file, export of the order list, generation of an AI order summary, and printing of a Production guide for manufacturing. These features are especially appreciated by companies that take over orders from another system, need to quickly get an overview of an order's status without studying all the cards, or hand the order over to production.

Procedure: Importing orders from a file

Import in the Orders module allows you to create a larger number of orders at once from a file prepared in the Pohoda accounting system:

On the main screen of the Orders module, click the Import button.
Select the file format for the import (currently only "Pohoda - XLSX" is available).
Upload the file in XLSX format into the Attachments field.
Click Save. Up to 1000 orders are imported at once; an order with the same number as one that already exists in the system is skipped. Once finished, a message with the number of orders actually imported is shown.

Note: The uploaded file must be in XLSX format corresponding to Excel 2007 and later, otherwise the import reports a wrong file version error.

Export: Order list to Excel

The order overview table in the Orders module can be exported to an XLSX workbook, just like other tables in the application – using the export button above the table. Only the columns you currently have shown in the table are reflected in the export, and, if you used the filter before exporting, only the filtered orders. The export is suitable for further processing the order list outside the application, for example for reporting or printing an overview for a meeting.

AI order summary

The AI summary feature in the Orders module generates, on request, a text summary of the status of the selected order:

On the order detail, click the AI order summary button in the card header.
The system displays a summary of the order's current status, warnings about margin, invoicing and any delay in deadlines, and a recommended next step.

The generated answer is stored for 7 days, or until the order's key data changes – repeatedly opening the same summary therefore does not consume further AI credits; these are deducted only when a genuinely new summary is generated. If the company runs out of credits, information about the lack of credits is shown instead of the summary, with the option to buy more. If the summary temporarily fails due to an outage, a message is shown stating that this service is not available and that it needs to be tried again later.

Printing the Production guide

The "Production guide" print report is launched from the Tasks card in the Orders module:

In the Tasks card, for a specific task, click the printer icon.
A print report opens with all the order's data, the task description, the assignees, notes and the attached product, including its sub-components and parent assemblies, and printing starts automatically.

Order statuses

An order in the Orders module can be in three independent statuses, whereby Active and Open/Closed are unrelated to each other and combine freely.

Status	What it means	How a record enters it	Who may do it
Active / Inactive	Serves only as a filtering flag; it has no effect on the ability to edit	The Active checkbox in the order form; a new order is Active by default	Anyone who may edit the order
Open / Closed	A closed order is locked against any editing for all users and is excluded from order selection elsewhere in the system	The Close / Open button on the order detail, only if the feature is enabled in the settings	A user with the Close Orders permission
Deleted / not deleted	A deleted order disappears from the regular list and moves to the recycle bin	The Delete record icon on the row or the Delete button on the detail, with confirmation	A user with the highest permission level (Read, edit, and delete everything)

Integration with other modules

An order in eIntranet does not exist in isolation – it is linked with Work Reports, Tasks and CRM as the main sources of data, and also with Documents, Products, Warehouse, sales and purchase documents, and Protocols. The following chapters describe what data flows between the modules and in which direction.

Orders in relation to Work Reports, Tasks and CRM

The Work Reports module is linked to the Orders module through a card on the order detail that shows the hours worked and wage costs according to the user's individual or default hourly rate; a new report is created directly from this location. An automatic notification to the order manager can be enabled as soon as someone logs new work on the order. The Tasks module allows an order to have its own task groups, for example for larger production divided into parts – tasks are shown and created directly on the order detail, a "production task" can be created directly from an assigned product, and a Production guide with all the related order and product data can be printed for a task. The CRM module is the source for selecting the customer, the orderer, suppliers, branches and contacts, if so specified in the Orders module settings; for the selected company, a partner risk badge is also shown on the order detail, based on the risk check maintained in CRM.

Orders in relation to Documents, Products and Warehouse

The Documents module allows an order to be linked to a specific document or to an entire document folder. The Products and Warehouse modules are linked in that products and assemblies with the required quantity are assigned to the order; if the warehouse is enabled, the available quantity in stock is shown on the detail, reservation of items and creation of production is enabled, and warehouse issue notes related to the order are counted into its costs.

Orders in relation to documents – invoices, cash desk and purchase orders

Issued invoices are shown in the order's Revenue tab and are counted into its actual revenue, or they serve as a source for the automatic calculation of the invoiced amount. Received invoices are shown in the Cost tab, including the individual invoice items, and are counted into the order's actual costs – individual items can be manually excluded from the cost calculation. The Cash Desk module assigns income documents to the order's revenue and expense documents to its costs, except for documents that only pay an invoice already counted once. Received purchase orders can be the source from which an order is created, including taking over the purchase order's items as products for the order. The Related documents card on the order detail also shows a chain of documents from the offer through the received purchase order and delivery note to the issued invoice, supplemented with warehouse issue notes related to the order. If the Bank Statements module is enabled, payments matched to invoices related to the order can also be found in the overview of related documents.

Orders in relation to Protocols

If the Protocols module is enabled in the system and the logged-in user has permission to view protocols, a separate card is shown on the order detail with a list of protocols related to that order's number – it shows the protocol number, the protocol type, the company from CRM, the creation date and the author.

Troubleshooting

The following chapters answer the most frequent questions from users of the Orders module and offer tips on how to use the module more effectively. Most problems with saving an order are related to the settings of mandatory and unique fields or to the closed order status, so look at these two causes first.

Frequently asked questions about the Orders module

Question: Why can't I save a new order, with the Order number field showing a red border?

Solution: The Orders module settings have the order number uniqueness check enabled, and the entered value already exists for another order. Enter a different number, or let the field be generated automatically if numbering is set up.

Question: Why is the message "Error: Order number must be entered!" shown?

Solution: The Order number field is marked as mandatory in the Orders module settings and was left empty. Fill in the order number and save again.

Question: Why can't I edit an order even though I have permission for it?

Solution: The order is probably closed – the detail then shows the red text "CLOSED", and no one can edit it until a user with the Close Orders permission opens it again.

Question: Why don't I see the Revenue, Cost and Profit columns in the order list, even though a colleague sees them?

Solution: These columns, as well as the Cost and Revenue tabs on the detail, require the separate Access to order costs/revenue permission. Without it, the message "You do not have rights to the order's costs, ask your administrator for the setting." is shown – ask the module administrator to grant you this permission.

Question: Why does the import from a file end with an error about a wrong file version?

Solution: Order import only accepts a file in XLSX format corresponding to Excel 2007 and later. Save the file in this format and upload it again.

Question: Why isn't the List of suppliers field shown, even though it is enabled in the settings?

Solution: The List of suppliers field on the order form is governed by whether the Customer field is enabled – without the Customer option enabled, suppliers are not shown, even if the List of suppliers option is separately enabled in the settings. Also enable the Customer field in the Orders module settings.

Tips for working effectively with Orders

Tip: Enable the automatic calculation of the invoiced amount from issued invoices – it saves you manually rewriting amounts, and the figure will always match the invoices actually issued.
Tip: Use order priorities with the whole row highlighted for the most important level, so that urgent orders are visible in the list at a glance.
Tip: Copying an order including products is a faster way to set up repeating production than manually entering all the products again.
Tip: If you use the AI order summary regularly, open it again without worry – as long as the order's key data has not changed, viewing the same summary again does not consume further credits.
Tip: Close an order as soon as it is definitively finished and invoiced – this protects the historical data from an unwanted later edit.

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