Skip to content

Overview

The Document Phase Management extension controls and automates the lifecycle of sales and transfer documents in Business Central. You define your own set of phases (document states) that reflect the internal processes of your company, and you set the conditions under which a document moves from one phase to the next. When a document enters a phase, the actions assigned to that phase run automatically – for example, the document is released, items are reserved or the customer receives an e-mail notification.

Thanks to this, standard documents pass through the process automatically and users only deal with exceptions – documents that are waiting for a manual decision or that ended with an error.

The main components of the extension are:

  • Document Phases – a user-defined set of phases for each document type, including the conditions for moving into the phase (previous phase, reason code, payment method, payment status, waiting interval).
  • Phase Actions – automated operations that run when a document enters a phase (release, automatic reservation, deleting reservations, deleting the document, e-mail notification). Additional actions can be added by extensions.
  • E-mail Notifications – notifications to the customer with a custom e-mail body layout, subject and attachments (generated reports or uploaded files), translatable per language.
  • Phase Management – a report, usually scheduled in the job queue, that checks the documents and switches them to the next phase when all conditions are met.
  • Manual Phases – phases that users can select on the document themselves, e.g. a phase for cancelling an order.
  • Phase Log and Action Log – a complete history of phase changes and executed actions, including error messages and the Restart and Continue function.
  • Role Center Extension – new cues and menu items in the Sales Order Processor role center that show documents with failed phase changes.

Supported Document Types

Each document type has its own independent set of phases and actions:

  • Sales Order
  • Sales Invoice
  • Sales Credit Memo
  • Sales Return Order
  • Transfer Order
  • Posted Sales Invoice
  • Sales Archive

Additional document types can be added by extensions.