Order hold processing

Sterling Order Management System Software allows for one or more hold types to be applied to an order. A hold type prevents an order from being processed by transactions that are associated with that hold type.

A hold can be in three different statuses:

• Created, when the hold has just been applied to an order, and has not yet been examined.
• Rejected, when the hold has been reviewed by a supervisor who decided that the order should not be processed.
• Resolved, when the hold has been reviewed by a supervisor who decided that the order should be processed.

Order Hold types can be applied in the following ways:

• Manually: a supervisor may feel that an order needs to be placed on hold for fraud check, and applies the hold through the Application Console. It is possible to configure a particular hold type so that only users of a specific group, or set of group, can apply the hold to an order.
• Automatically at draft order creation: every time a draft order is created, it is placed on a specific hold type by default.
• Automatically at draft order confirmation, or order creation: every time a draft order is confirmed, or an order is created without going through the draft status, it is placed on a specific hold type by default.
• Automatically upon resolution of another hold type: if a certain hold type is resolved, it can trigger another hold type automatically. This is specified in the hold type that is being applied on resolution of the other.
• Automatically when a specific modification type occurs: hold types can be configured to be placed automatically when a certain modification type occurs at the order, order line, release, or release line levels, for instance a fraud check hold whenever a new payment type is added.
• Conditionally: Holds can be applied at either Order or Order Line level that meet a certain condition.
• Automatically when an order requires approval: if an order meets the conditions necessary to require approval, a configured hold type is triggered.
  Note: When a draft order is created, the order is not placed on hold, even if the order requires approval. However, when a draft order is confirmed, and the order meets the conditions necessary to require approval, the order is placed on hold.

Independently of how the hold is applied, it is possible to specify a condition that determines whether or not the order should be put on hold. For example, you could want to only place orders with a specific payment status on hold. You can use the condition builder to do this on a hold type.

By default, all transactions are allowed to process an order or order line that is on hold. Using the Applications Manager, you can specify which transactions are prevented from processing an order that is in a particular hold type. Transactions that can be configured to not process orders on hold are known as hold type enabled transactions, and are defined at the document type level for a given enterprise. Custom transactions that are not derived from an abstract transaction are all hold type enabled.

Two transactions need to be configured to process orders or order lines that are in a hold type, and remove them from that hold: one for holds in created status, and one for holds in rejected status. Holds can be resolved manually, and it is possible to specify a set of user groups with the authorization to do so. That too is done at the document type level for a given enterprise in the Applications Manager. Additionally, based on a configuration rule, order approval holds can be resolved automatically when an order is changed.