# Fulfil an Order

Pick, pack and ship, in part or in full, and read what is still outstanding.

Fulfilment is three documents, and an order can sit part-way through all of them. That is a normal state rather than an unfinished one.

1. **Picklist**: Pulled off the shelf
2. **Package**: In the box
3. **Shipment**: Gone, and off your count

## Work an order out of the door

- **Open the confirmed order**

  Everything downstream is raised from here, and the record shows what has already been done to it.

  ![A sales order record showing its number and status, the customer, the ordered lines and quantities, the totals and an activity panel recording what has happened to it.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/sales-orders/sales-order-detail.png)
- **Generate a picklist**

  Only when somebody other than the order taker is picking. When it is the same person, go straight to the package.
- **Create a package for each carton**

  Packing what was picked rather than what was ordered, so a short pick stays visible.
- **Ship each package**

  The count falls here, and the reservation is released as fulfilled.

## Reading what is left

| State | Reserved | Shipped | What it means |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open | None | None | Nothing is committed yet |
| Confirmed | All of it | None | Nothing has left yet |
| Partly shipped | The balance | Some | A backorder exists |
| Shipped in full | None | All | Fulfilment is done |
| Cancelled | None | None | The reservation was released |

> **Warning:**
>
> **Cancel rather than delete**
>
> Cancelling releases the reservation and leaves a record of what was agreed and dropped. Deleting frees the same stock and leaves no explanation of why the customer did not get their order.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Invoice what shipped**
>
> Billing the whole order when half of it is on backorder is how a customer ends up paying for goods they have not received.