The Life of an Order — how work moves through the OS

🧭 Getting around the OS

Everything runs in the browser at csr.microflexfilm.com and signs in with your @microflexfilm.com Google account. Your sign-in is your signature — records carry your name automatically, so never work under someone else's login.

The three doors

1. The front door — /home.html — big tiles, one per station (CSR desk, tickets, blueprints, vendor POs, receiving, SQF, packing slips…). When you don't know where something lives, start here.
2. The ⌘ button — bottom-left corner of every page — opens "Go anywhere in the OS." No page is a dead end.
3. Inside the OS app — click the MFX logo (top-left) any time to reach the launcher: a type-anything ask bar ("quote for Acme", "log a call with Developlus", "open Weston profile") plus big cards for each workflow. The top nav is always there: Quotes · Packing Slips · Requests · Customers · Calendar · Comms · Library.

Two habits that keep records honest

① Watch the sync badge (top-right in the app): ● Live means your work is saved to the cloud for everyone; ● Local means it is not — don't close the tab until it's Live. ② Press ? anywhere in the app for shortcuts, and use 🎓 How this page works / the OS Guide tab when you're new to a room.

1 A request arrives — log it before you work it

Every ask — sample, quote, dieline, artwork/proof, reorder, reorder-with-change, pricing, new project, question, complaint — becomes a card on the request board. If a client said it, it goes in; memory is not a system.

1. OS app → Requests → ＋ New request (or type it in the ask bar: "new request — sample for Weston").
2. Pick the type, the client, write what they actually asked for, set an owner and a due date. An unowned request is a dropped request.
3. Work it on the board (statuses run to a close). The needs-attention chips — overdue, unassigned, no due date — are the morning sweep.
4. Log every touch in the Comm Log (call, email, visit) so the whole team sees the story. "＋ Log now" is on the Home cards.

2 Quotes — price it, send it, get it signed

1. ＋ New quote opens the wizard. Pick the client first — contact, phone, terms and ship-to autofill from the profile, and saved ship-tos appear as a dropdown.
2. Choose the product type (pouches, labels/rollstock…) and fill the spec: size, colors/copies, material, laminate, zipper, coating, die. The engine prices 4 quantity tiers with margins live.
3. Save to Library — that issues the MF number and puts it on the shared board. Your worksheet also auto-saves as your personal draft, so a refresh never eats work.
4. Preview the branded doc (internal vs client view), then 🖨 Print / Save PDF — a true 8.5×11 on the company document system.
5. Publish to the portal to send a signature link — the client reviews and signs online, and the signature lands back on the quote by itself.
6. Keep the status honest: In Progress → Sent → Won / Lost (with a loss reason). "Needs Attention" is the board asking you to look.

Teammates can leave estimate notes on a quote with @name pings — use them instead of side-texts so pricing questions stay on the record.

3 The client's PO arrives — verify it, don't retype it

POs arrive through the client portal (file or web form) or are entered by staff. Each lands in the PO inbox on the Orders view, waiting to be matched against its quote.

1. Open the PO from the inbox — the match screen shows the PO beside the quote.
2. Work the five-point match, ticking each line only after you actually checked it: ① Price agrees with the quoted unit/extended price for that quantity · ② Quantity equals an accepted tier · ③ Spec (size, material, colors, finishing) agrees with the quote · ④ Ship-to and date are right and achievable within quoted lead time · ⑤ Terms and freight match what was quoted.
3. Something off? ⚠ Exception — write what doesn't match; it goes back to the client instead of into production.
4. All five verified → Accept. The OS creates the Sales Order itself — no retyping.

4 The Sales Order — the commitment, signed

Accepting the PO mints the SO with its quote, PO, quantity tier and a first ticket line already attached. The order card's workspace has four tabs — 📃 Quote · 📎 PO · 📋 Sales Order · 💬 Comms — so the whole story lives in one place.

1. Open the Sales Order tab — the branded SO doc with barcode, order lines, deposit and terms.
2. 🖊 Send for client signature — copies a signing link; the client signs online and the signature lands on the order automatically.
3. When the deposit arrives, 💰 Approve — deposit received.
4. Use the Comms tab's two lanes: 📝 Internal note stays in the order history; 🌐 Send to client posts to their portal page instantly.

5 The green light — the Job Passport gates

An order may not touch a press until every gate is green. The passport shows exactly what's missing — in plain words, with the owner implied:

All green → 🟢 Release to Production. Not green → the card lists what's waiting, so "why isn't this running?" always has an answer.

6 The Job Ticket — FO-60-60, assembled not retyped

1. Type any number you have — quote, SO, or customer PO — and the ticket assembles itself from what the OS already knows (client, spec, quantities, due date, the legacy M-quote history for repeat work).
2. Complete the amber gaps — amber means missing, not optional. Confirming requires at minimum: items with quantities, the company, and a due date.
3. Confirm issues the ticket number from the server counter — one series, no duplicates, the physical book is retired.
4. Print — the branded FO-60-60 front and Production Planning back, with a scannable TKT code-128 barcode. The back is the material ledger: base / lamination / plates / die with date, spec, PO#, batch-lot, location, qty.
5. Its vendor POs appear as chips that open the PO log — and the PO page cross-links back.

7 Blueprints — the controlled recipe

The blueprint is the product's recipe — dimensions, structure, inks, die, routing, quality specs, approved artwork — not its history. It moves Draft → gated review → Approved; a ticket line locks the exact revision it was made against, and the run executes against that locked snapshot.

1. New product: create the blueprint, fill the sections, pass the four gates, approve.
2. Repeat order: start from the client's Items & specs — ⟳ Reorder carries the last quote and the approved blueprint forward; the reorder-radar flags items past their usual cadence.
3. Change requested? Revise the blueprint — never edit around a locked revision. The old revision stays on the record.

8 Vendor POs — buy the material in one click

1. Pull the ticket first — the page pins the legacy-estimate and catalog spec cards (the lead times and house pricing the estimator knew) and links the job.
2. One click: next number from the server counter, vendor and pricing autofilled, the branded FO-80-80.15 PDF matching the quote design.
3. You email the PDF to the vendor yourself — nothing sends itself. Mark the ticket number on the PO so the join survives.
4. Film, supplies and plates each have their template family; the film POs carry the house pricing catalog inside them.

9 Receiving — count it in, close the loop

1. Scan or type the PO number.
2. Count what actually arrived — short/over is flagged automatically; don't "fix" a count to match the paper.
3. The receipt lands on the PO the moment you log it — purchasing's match (PO ↔ receipt ↔ invoice) and the order's Material: Received gate both read it.

10 Runs & QC — make it, prove it, release it

1. ▶ Start the run on the locked ticket line — the QC checklist comes from the locked recipe itself.
2. Tick the checks off as you actually do them. A failed check parks the run on a real quality hold — it is not a note, it blocks.
3. Quality investigates and releases the hold; only then can the run close.
4. Close with good and scrap counts — the item's run history (date · SO · PO · qty · material) builds itself from this.

11 SQF daily checks — the floor's food-safety record

1. The day opens itself at 05:30 — today's required checks appear by station. Scan the station QR or open Today.
2. Work each check pass/fail; N/A needs a reason. Answer what you actually observed.
3. Sign on screen with your finger. An independent verifier signs too — the same person can't do both.
4. A critical fail raises a hold and can block a press until it clears — that's the system doing its job, don't work around it.
5. QA: approvals, the register, and per-day printing live on the SQF page; the printout is the Daily SQF Log.

12 The packing slip — the paper the truck waits for

1. From sales order (the normal path): pick the SO — client, ship-to, attention, customer PO, quantities, quote and ticket refs arrive already filled.
2. Complete the shipment facts: lot/batch per line (shop practice: the vendor PO number), ordered/shipped/B-O (back-order fills itself), carrier · service · tracking/PRO, cartons, pallets, gross weight.
3. Options per slip: Show prices (off by default — the slip is not an invoice) and Blind ship (strips Microflex branding for broker shipments).
4. 📄 Save & view → 🖨 Print — one letter page on the company document system with a scannable PS barcode and Packed / Checked / Received signature lines. Sign it physically at the dock.
5. Manual slips (＋ New packing slip) work the same from a blank form — pick the client and the profile autofills.

Every slip is a permanent record: drafts can be discarded, but a Final slip can only be voided with a reason — it stays on the record marked VOID. The client's profile lists every slip under 🚚 Packing slips.

13 Invoice & payment — what the OS tracks today

Straight truth: the OS does not generate customer invoices yet. Invoices are issued from the accounting side; payment questions and remittances go to payments@microflexfilm.com (it's printed on every Sales Order). What the OS does hold is the five independent status tracks on each sales order — Commercial · Production · Fulfillment · Invoice · Payment — because "made", "shipped", "invoiced" and "paid" are four different facts.

How to record the money facts (v134): open the order’s workspace — the side rail’s 💵 Money section records Invoiced (type the invoice number accounting issued) and Paid in one click each; who and when land on the order history, and clearing a mark asks for a reason. Then on the first of every month, finance opens 💵 Money reconcile on the Orders page: it cross-checks the whole month — shipped (from Final packing slips) against invoiced against paid — with totals and two flags. 🔴 Red = shipped but never invoiced: chase those first, that is the money that leaks. 🟠 Amber = invoiced over 30 days and still unpaid. Print it, work the flags, done.

14 The client profile — check it before you pick up the phone

One card per client holds: 👥 stakeholders (who to call) · 📥 work — requests & quotes · 📦 items & specs (the finished-goods library with reorder radar) · 🛠 tooling (dies & plates and who owns them) · 🎨 artwork & approvals (the ladder the gates read) · 📈 service & quality (win rate, complaints, NCRs) · 🗂 billing & terms + saved ship-tos · 📞 interactions · 🚚 packing slips · 🕓 the activity timeline.

Maintenance is everyone's job in passing: log the call, add the stakeholder you just met, keep ship-tos current (brokers ship to co-packers — never assume the billing address), and move the artwork ladder when a proof goes out or comes back.

⭐ The ten golden rules

1. If it isn't in the OS, it didn't happen. Calls, asks, promises — log them where the team can see them.
2. Say the number. MF / SO / TKT / PO / PS on every email, note and question — the number is how records find each other.
3. Never retype what the OS knows. Accept the PO, pull the ticket, pull the slip — retyping is where errors breed.
4. Amber means missing, not optional. Fill the gap or name the owner who will.
5. Green gates or it doesn't run; released or it doesn't ship. No verbal overrides.
6. Answer what you actually observed. A signed check you didn't perform is a false record with your name on it.
7. Your sign-in is your signature. Never work under someone else's account.
8. Watch the sync badge. ● Live before you walk away.
9. Records are corrected, never erased. Void with a reason, revise the blueprint, log the exception — the trail is the point.
10. When you're lost, click the logo — or ask the ask bar. Every room explains itself; "How this page works" is one click away.