THE DOOD FIELD GUIDE
Ecommerce operations: connect orders, stock and accounts
Define the handoffs behind an online sale so fulfilment, customer support and finance work from compatible records.
By Mrunal Walke ↗ Separate the states of a sale
An order can be accepted while payment is pending, partly fulfilled while still open, or refunded after shipping. Keep order, payment and fulfilment states separate. A single “done” checkbox cannot describe those differences accurately enough for every team.
Choose an owner for inventory
Decide which system owns available stock and how reservations change it. Map store product identifiers to the inventory item master. Handle cancellations, returns and partial shipments explicitly. Use your own identifier conventions consistently; a barcode image alone does not create the stock record.
Plan for repeated events
Payment and store integrations may retry an event after a timeout. Store the source event or order identifier so the receiving workflow can recognise work already performed. Keep failed events visible and make replay a controlled operation rather than a second manual order.
Test an exception before launch
Try one paid order, one partial shipment and one return. Trace each through customer communication, inventory and finance. Agree who fixes a mismatch and how the correction is recorded. The first phase should cover a small set of real order states before adding more channels.
Keep the workflow connected.
MAKE IT PART OF YOUR WORKFLOW
A useful tool. A connected business.
Bring your customer, inventory and accounting workflows together. Tell us where the handoff gets difficult.
