Orders and jobs: from intake to production

Flexoworks uses an Order to capture incoming work and a Job to run that work through production. They are linked concepts, but they are not the same record.

An Order answers “what did the customer request?” A Job answers “what exactly are we producing, where, and who owns it?”

The model at a glance

Concept	What it represents	Where it belongs
Order	An intake record with the customer’s request, source files, contact details, and requested specifications	Orders
Job	A production container with its own files, assignments, location, stage, production lines, comments, and activity	Jobs
Production line	One defined unit of work inside a Job: Plate, Mounting carrier, or Design	A Job’s Production lines section

The normal relationship is: one Order → one or more Jobs → production lines inside each Job Converting an Order can create several Jobs when one customer request contains separate products, designs, file groups, due dates, or production requirements. A Job can also be created directly, so not every Job has a source Order.

Open Orders

Review submitted customer requests and manually entered intake work.

Open Jobs

Plan and follow the work that the production team will perform.

Read O and J identifiers correctly

Flexoworks gives the two record types different prefixes:

O-0042 is Order 42. Its direct address ends in /orders/42.
J-0042 is Job 42. Its direct address ends in /jobs/42.

The numeric parts can match by coincidence. O-0042 and J-0042 are still different records and are not necessarily related. Use the Created jobs and Source order links to confirm the real relationship; never infer it from the number.

Understand the intake queue

The Orders page is an intake queue, not a production schedule. Its default Active view contains work that is ready for the team to review.

English Flexoworks Orders page with State All selected and Submitted and Converted records in the intake queue — With State: All selected, the Orders queue shows Submitted and Converted intake records together.

An Order can have these statuses:

Status	Meaning
Draft	A customer has started the intake form but has not submitted it. Drafts do not appear in the team’s Orders queue.
Submitted	The request is in the active intake queue and can be reviewed, supplemented with files, and converted.
Converted	The reviewed Job or Jobs have been created. The Order remains as the source record.
Cancelled	The intake record was closed without conversion.

The Archived state filter contains Converted and Cancelled Orders. Choose All when you need active and archived intake records together. An Order created inside Flexoworks with Add order enters the queue as Submitted immediately; Draft belongs to an unfinished customer intake session.

What stays on an Order

Open a Submitted Order to check the requested Job name and due date, customer, material, colors, finished size, notes, and source files. Team members can add files and internal comments while the Order is still Submitted.

English Order details page showing an O identifier, Submitted status, requested job details, source files, customer, and notes — A Submitted Order keeps the customer's request and source material together before production work is created.

An Order does not move through Intake, Prepress, Imaging, Washout, QC, and Shipped. Those are Job stages. It also does not own the production lines that operators complete. Keeping intake and production separate preserves the original request even when the production plan changes.

When to create a Job directly

Use Jobs → New job when the work is already understood as one production unit and you do not need a separate intake record. For example, a repeat job agreed with an existing customer may be ready to schedule immediately. In the Add prepress job form, review the customer and contact, optional billing payer, location, manager, optional designer, Job name, due date, notes, and artwork files. The due date and initial files can be left blank and added later. The new Job receives a J- identifier and starts at Intake. Add its production lines from the Job details page.

Create an Order first when the request still needs triage, may need to split into several Jobs, or should retain a clear customer-intake trail. Create a Job directly when the production unit is already known.

Convert one Order into production Jobs

Only a Submitted Order can be converted. Open it and select Convert order to jobs.

1. Review the proposed Job drafts

Flexoworks reads the intake details, active source files, customer context, and available production data, then prepares editable drafts. A suggestion is a starting point, not an approval: nothing is created until you select Create jobs.

English Convert order to jobs dialog showing a two-draft count, an editable Job draft, and selected source files — The conversion workbench can split one Order into several reviewed production Job drafts.

For each draft, review or choose:

customer and contact;
a different billing company or contact, when applicable;
production location, manager, and optional designer;
Job name, optional due date, and notes;
which active Source files belong to this Job;
at least one Production line.

Use Add job when the Order needs another production Job. Remove an unnecessary draft or change its file group and production lines before submitting. Every draft is editable, including drafts marked Suggested or Fallback.

Conversion is a one-time operation. Build and review every Job needed from the Order before selecting Create jobs.

2. Know exactly what conversion creates

Conversion does not rename the Order into a Job. It creates new production records from the drafts you approved:

reviewed Job fields become the customer, payer, location, assignments, name, due date, and notes of each new Job;
selected active Order files are copied into each Job, not moved away from the Order;
the reviewed production lines are created inside their respective Jobs;
each Job starts at Intake and receives its own J- identifier;
each Job stores a Source order link back to the original O- record.

If the Order has active files, each Job draft must select at least one of them. The same source file can be selected for more than one Job, giving each Job its own copy. Archived Order files are not available for conversion. If a manually entered Order has no active files, its Jobs can be created without a copied source file. The original Order files, intake details, comments, and activity stay on the Order. Comments are not copied into the Jobs. Order-specific fields can inform the suggestions, but the values and production lines in the reviewed drafts are what define the new Jobs.

3. Follow the links in both directions

After successful conversion, the Order changes to Converted and its Created jobs section lists every new Job. The original request remains available for reference.

English Converted Order details page showing the Converted status and a Created jobs list with J identifiers — A Converted Order lists every Job created from it, even when the request was split.

Open any converted Job and look for Source order. Copied files also show Copied from order beneath the filename, so the team can trace production material back to its intake source.

English Job details page showing a Source order card with the original Order name and O identifier — The Source order card on a Job returns the team to the original intake record.

Choose the right record

If you need to…	Work in…
review what a customer sent	Orders
keep a request together before deciding how to produce it	Orders
split one request into separate production units	Convert order to jobs
assign people, location, and production stage	Jobs
define plate, mounting carrier, or design work	a Job’s Production lines
start known production work without intake	Jobs → New job

Overview

Core concepts

Floor terminals

Workflows