Workflow design · scope to your operationFrom trigger to finished work
- Enquiry
- Scope and site facts
- Costing and approvals
- Accepted version
- Delivery milestones
- Invoice readiness
- Collections and reconciliation
The rules that matter
Every handoff refers to the accepted scope version. Discount, credit, delivery and payment approvals have separate owners.
When the normal path breaks
Scope changes after acceptance; deposit missing; partial delivery; disputed milestone; old quote referenced.
Uncertain inputs go to an assigned owner with the source, reason and next decision. Failed writes are reconciled before retrying, so a recovered connection does not create a duplicate order, payment or stock movement.
How we would measure it
Accepted-to-delivered time; unbilled completed work; handoff rework; collection timing.
Sample representative work before the build, including difficult cases. Compare the same task mix after launch; include review, exception handling and system upkeep in the time used.
Start with one accountable slice
Map the first input, the final accepted result and who can approve it. Agree source systems, read/write access, rules, exception ownership and acceptance checks. Run representative normal, failure and recovery cases before expanding across teams.
What makes this suitable for larger teams?
Role-based access, separation of preparation and approval, versioned rules, an action history, duplicate protection, reconciliation, alerts and a named recovery owner. Private deployment or customer-controlled infrastructure can be scoped where needed. These are design requirements to validate, not an unsupported promise of perfect source data or regulatory compliance.
Before you buildQuestions about this workflow
Specific answers to help you judge the fit, the information needed and the decisions your team keeps.
When is a connected quote-to-cash workflow worth building?
It is useful when sales, delivery and finance repeatedly re-enter or reinterpret the same accepted work. First check what your existing CRM, quoting and accounting tools already handle. The custom scope should address specific broken handoffs, such as accepted lines losing their delivery milestone or invoice reference.
What happens if an accepted quote changes?
Preserve the accepted version, then show the proposed scope, price and milestone differences as a change requiring the appropriate approval. Reconfirm any affected customer commitment. Delivery tasks and invoice preparation should move to the new version only when that change is accepted through your agreed process.
Can sales discounts, credit and delivery approval have different owners?
Yes, define authority for each decision instead of treating quote acceptance as approval for everything that follows. A discount may need sales approval, credit needs the authorised finance role, and delivery requires operational capacity. The workflow should expose the specific outstanding gate without restarting unrelated approvals.
How do partial deliveries and milestones affect invoicing?
Map invoice eligibility to the accepted commercial terms and the evidence required for each milestone or delivered line. Track what has already been billed and what remains open. A completed warehouse task or a deposit request is not automatically permission to issue the full contract invoice.
Can the workflow follow overdue invoices without chasing disputed work?
Keep the accounting balance, agreed due date and dispute status separate and current. An eligible reminder can follow your approved contact rules, while a disputed milestone goes to its owner. Reconcile payments before another reminder so a stale balance does not trigger unnecessary customer contact.
What should we connect and measure first?
Choose one repeatable sales-to-delivery handoff with identifiable quote versions, customer references and completion records. Validate its normal path, scope amendment and partial delivery before adding collections. Compare re-entry effort, handoff corrections and unbilled completed work; measure cash timing separately from any genuinely additional revenue.