---
title: Lifecycles
description: The states things move through, who moves them, and what cannot be undone.
sidebar:
  order: 5
---

The states things move through, who moves them, and what cannot be undone.

## A conversation

One email conversation and everything hanging off it.

```
                       new mail arrives
                              │
                              ▼
   Needs processing ──────► Read ──────► Closed
        ▲    ▲                 │            │
        │    └── new mail that │            │
        │        changes the   │            │
        │        requirement ──┘            │
        └───────── new mail on a closed conversation ┘
```

| State | What it means | Who moves it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Needs processing** | Never processed, or the last run did not finish, or mail has arrived that changes the requirement, or documents remain unread | The system, at sync; a person, by processing it |
| **Read** | A complete reading — line items, parameters, suggested products — and nothing outstanding | The system, on a successful run |
| **Closed** | Finished for now. Off the open inbox | A person, by closing it |

- A closed conversation is not processed.
- New mail on a closed conversation **reopens it automatically** — closing is "done for now", not "done forever" (R3).
- Re-processing **replaces** the previous reading; it does not patch it (R13).

## An opportunity

The commercial job. Several conversations can belong to one opportunity.
"Lead" and "opportunity" are stages on the same record — there is no conversion
that migrates rows.

Matched, in this order: the customer's project reference, then the project
name, then our quotation number.

Stage history is kept as it happens. Time-through-the-funnel cannot be
reconstructed later from a current-stage column.

## A document's commercial type

Separate from open/closed — this says what the mail *is*.

| Type | What it means |
| --- | --- |
| **Enquiry** | A request for a quotation |
| **Purchase order** | An order the customer is placing |
| **Order acknowledgement** | Amendments, revised dates, cancellations on something already ordered |
| **Revision request** | A change to a requirement already quoted |
| **Other** | Service, finance, or unrecognised — unrecognised becomes a review item |

Once a person corrects the type by hand, later mail never changes it again (R6).

## A document attached to a conversation

```
   Waiting ──► Read
       │
       └────► Failed ──(person retries)──► Waiting
```

Failed is final unless someone explicitly retries that one document (R49).
Nothing retries it automatically.

## A quotation

Versions are kept. Sending records that it was issued — unlike a download-only
draft, send is a real state. A later PO is compared to the quotation it
accepts.

An option choice made against a line that has since changed identity is
**withheld**, and the person must confirm or discard it (R36). Discarding
cannot be undone.

## A sales order

Raised after PO-vs-quote verification, or manually when there is no inbound PO
(a separate permission). Amendments are revisions. ERP handoff is the step
after a confirmed order; retries are against the row, not against a message
that already forgot the state.

See [Enquiry to quotation](/business/workflows/enquiry-to-quotation).