Limitations
What still needs a person, what the rail has not opened yet, and what cannot be undone.
The basis for workarounds and honest conversations. Everything here is a statement about the product as specified, plus what the signed-in rail has actually opened.
Needs a person, by design
| Gap | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unknown sender | An origin email that matches no party contact is shown by the company or contact read from the signature. No party is created, and the product does not invent a customer |
| Untyped document | A message it cannot classify becomes a review item, not a silent drop |
| PO mismatch | Differences against the quotation are held. Nothing raises an order on a mismatch. Settling a row and editing a PO value on the PO check are not saved: the page says “Not saved — kept until you reload”. Re-matching and an Office Head’s decision are saved. Which differences hold up an order are proposed rules, awaiting Flowtech’s confirmation |
| Deemed acceptance and holidays | The deemed-acceptance date skips Sundays only when the PO says working days. FlowOS does not know holidays, so they always count, and no alert is sent when the date nears |
| Inferred and assumed values | They never satisfy a required parameter, except the ambient temperature and pressure assumed for a liquid (R16). Someone chases the customer or accepts the gap |
| Unconfirmed options | No rating is not a hiding. Someone decides whether to quote them |
| Failed document | An attachment that cannot be read — broken, password-protected, a format the reader does not know, a scanned PDF or picture the picture reader could not read or may not be sent, or one that takes more than 30 seconds — is listed as not read, with the reason. A picture or scan is asked once more straight away only when the picture reader failed with a temporary fault, not when it came back empty, was cut off or ran out of time. After that a document is tried again only when the email is processed again, which today means a developer reprocesses it |
| Client changes not tied to a line | A change a client asked for that was read before FlowOS saved which line it belongs to is placed on its line when the line is opened. There it holds automatic confirmation and shows under From the client, but it does not move the card to To review or count in the card’s strip. A change saved with its line does both. Accepting it ties it to the line |
| Approval of the order | A sales person cannot approve or hand off to the ERP. That is the office head |
Works, with stated limits
| Capability | The limit |
|---|---|
| Reading scanned documents | A word or number the picture reader cannot read with certainty is written [illegible], and requirement reading takes it from the file or leaves it unstated; a faint or low-resolution scan can therefore leave more for a person to fill in. A scanned PDF attached to an enquiry is transcribed by the picture reader while model calls are on, but only when every mailbox the email was delivered to is one requirement gathering covers, which is the test mailbox until a zero-retention agreement is recorded; if any mailbox is not covered, it is listed as needing character recognition. The scanned pages of a typed PDF are transcribed on the same terms, each run of them on its own, and until they are, the PDF’s text carries a note where they stand. The reader has three minutes each time it is asked; a scan it does not finish in that time, or whose text runs past its length limit, is listed as not read and no part of it is kept. A picture attached to an enquiry is transcribed the same way, and its text is marked as read from a picture; pictures and scans attached to other emails are not read. No recognition confidence is recorded |
| Fields of a product named only after the read | A product offered only when named has its own fields read only when the enquiry names it. One that is chosen later, through Try next (a bypass rotameter offered for a flow above every glass tube’s range), by a reviewer’s pick, or because a client change names the line afterwards, was not named when the enquiry was read, so its own fields are empty and shown as missing for a person to fill. Processing the email again does not change this |
| Splitting a multi-instrument enquiry | Not reproducible run to run, so re-processing can produce a different split — which is why a rate, discount, quantity or skip typed on a quotation is withheld when its line is gone or offers another item code (R36) |
| Pictures in an email’s text | A picture shown in the body of an email (up to about 512 KB) is part of the email, not a document, so enquiry reading does not read it, even when it is a client’s screenshot of a specification; ask for it as an attachment. The change reader does read a picture pasted into a client’s own words in a later email, such as a screenshot of a revised table (see Client changes below), but not one in our quoted offer or the client’s signature |
| Gathering requirements from customer mail | Gathering sends an email’s text and attachments to an outside model with no retention restriction. Until a zero-retention agreement is in place it runs only for mail delivered solely to the test mailbox; any other email is refused when it is queued |
| Client changes and purchase orders | Mail from a client that is linked to an enquiry, other than the email that started it, is read by the change reader for what it asks to change, and the reading is recorded on Mail Debug under Client changes. The reader also reads comments typed onto a PDF the client attaches, such as our quotation sent back, pinned to the line and row they point at. A hand-drawn mark with no words is listed for a person. A revised document’s own text is compared with the enquiry’s lines, and each difference is listed as a change to confirm, never applied (R128); a document is revised only when its name or heading carries a revision mark (never number 0) and it revises a file the client sent earlier on the enquiry, and a reply that says it replaces the earlier document is not recognised. When an email is moved to another enquiry that has no current requirements yet, the changes already listed for it on the first enquiry stay open until a person decides them. Before a quotation is issued, the lines a document adds are gathered as new lines (R120). A picture pasted among the client’s words, such as a screenshot of a revised table, is transcribed by the picture reader and read like typed text, on the same terms as the rest of the email; at most five pictures are read per email, smaller ones such as icons and logos under 200 pixels long or 20 pixels high are passed over, a picture over 512 KB is not read, and a picture that is not read is named, such as “Image 2 in the email body”, among what could not be read. A protected PDF, even one locked only against editing, is listed as unreadable and its comments are not read. Before a quotation is issued, FlowOS applies to the lines only an answer to one of our queries, into an empty field (R117), and a line a client adds in writing (R120); every other change waits for a person. Mail outside the test mailbox is read by keyword alone until a zero-retention agreement is recorded, whether model calls are on or off; mail to the test mailbox waits while model calls are off and is read once they are back on. A purchase order is read for its lines, prices, taxes and terms and compared with the quotation it accepts, but nothing is applied to the enquiry. The reader takes at most five PDFs for column positions, each up to 10 MB and 40 pages, and mail outside the test mailbox is not read until the zero-retention agreement is recorded. A later enquiry email reaches its queue at a later sweep, not as it is processed. The sweep runs every few minutes and queues waiting mail oldest first, 500 at a time, so purchase orders waiting for the reader count among the 500 and later mail can wait behind them. An answer to one of our queries is queued whatever its kind only once it is linked as a reply to that query, which nothing does yet |
| Accepting a client’s change | Accepting a change on a quotation’s revision list records the decision and marks it for the next revision; starting the revision writes into its draft only the changes that give one plain value (a quantity, a removal, a discount, the validity, the warranty), and a person edits the rest by hand (R119). A change FlowOS could not place on a line is still listed, as Line not identified. FlowOS does not record which revision an email cited, so it cannot say that a cited revision was never sent |
| Mail answering a quotation made outside FlowOS | It can be linked to its enquiry, by FlowOS or by hand as Quote not in FlowOS, and is read for what it asks to change, but nothing compares it with that quotation. Mail that reaches only a staff mailbox FlowOS does not sync is not linked at all |
| Fetching earlier mail | FlowOS looks only in the mailboxes the email arrived in, so a client email a salesperson forwarded from their own mailbox finds nothing, and it fetches at most 50 earlier emails for one email. An enquiry rebuilt from earlier mail holds the client’s first ask, not later rounds agreed outside FlowOS, and nothing compares the mail with an ERP quotation. It is off until it is turned on, and mail that arrived before then is fetched only when it is processed again |
| Typing a forwarded conversation | A forward whose colleague wrote a note of their own is typed as one email and not unfolded. An email inside a forward keeps only its text: its formatting and pictures are not kept, and a file reaches it only when the file’s name carries a quote, purchase order, customer reference or sales order number its text names; a file whose name matches two of the emails inside goes to neither. Searching the inbox, or filtering it by type, finds a forward by its own subject, sender and type, not by the emails inside it. Its time is read from its quoted header, on India’s clock when the header names no zone, and a date written with slashes is read month first; an email whose header gives no time takes the time of the next older one. When the emails inside sit on two enquiries, the rest are linked to neither. An email inside that FlowOS already holds under a subject edited since is stored again rather than recognised. A sales-order acknowledgement, inspection or dispatch email inside is typed but records no stage, as when it arrives by itself. In typing the forward itself, an email inside it whose meaning is only in its attachments, such as “please find attached”, is passed over. The newest step can be misread: a client’s request for changes read as a follow-up leaves the forward typed as the quotation before it |
| Correcting an email’s type | A type can be set from the screen only on mail waiting in Needs Review (Reclassify) or by linking an email by hand; an email already read has no control to change it. A client’s email typed as a Quotation or a Sales order is not read for what it asks to change, and only one typed as a purchase order is read as a purchase order, so a purchase order FlowOS read as Other is read for its changes alone, and one read as a Quotation or a Sales order is linked, by FlowOS or by hand, but not read |
| Lines locked by an issued quotation | Picking a family, editing or checking a field and picking by item code are refused on a line an issued quotation covers, until a revision is started. Review, fluids and moving a line between projects are not locked, so they can still change a line the quotation already priced |
| Pinning an item code | A pinned code the same size as the stated size, or larger, or one that fixes a row other than size such as a pressure range, replaces the customer’s stated value with no caution. Only a smaller code is flagged |
| Very large enquiries | Document text is capped in total. Beyond the cap whole documents are dropped from the end |
| Product coverage | Enquiries are read for the categories of the item group master: flow meters, rotameters, level indicators, level switches, level transmitters, pressure transmitters and sight glasses. Accessories asked for on their own (mating flanges, manometers, IoT devices) are read as lines of their own, but are never ranked: a person picks the family and item code, and the line is confirmed on that pick. Anything else is flagged, when the language-model service is reachable, as something Flowtech does not make; its quotation line has no product and is skipped before issuing. What counts as outside range on a line comes from a list of products (R92) that has no screen to edit it yet. The regret note on the quotation and the regret mail are not built |
| Naming an enquiry’s categories | Named from the subject, attachment names, what the client wrote and a short excerpt of each converted attachment: its headings, table column names and a few lines that name a product. A product named only deep inside a long attachment, past the excerpt, or in an attachment that could not be converted, such as a photograph, can be missed; an enquiry where nothing is found is marked unresolved, and every category is checked when its line items are identified. Jev is told not to count a product listed only in an index or abbreviations page as asked for. An attachment informs Jev’s answer but never marks a product asked for on its own, so a product named only in a tender’s standard pages, such as a spares list or a vendor checklist, is not added; a product Jev is unsure of stays unsure even when an attachment names it, but a product the client names in the email’s subject is gathered all the same. Only a product’s own name or a phrase for its kind counts: a bare category word such as “rotameter” or “flow meter” does not, and a negation (“not required”) is not read. An email where Jev is sure of no category and whose subject names no product’s own name is not an enquiry. When a client is found, a colleague asking in their forwarding note for a different product is not read as the client’s request; with no client found, the whole email, the colleague’s words included, is read as the request |
| Reading the client’s asks | Read from what the client wrote, or, with no client found, from the whole email, the colleague’s words included, never from attachments. An attachment whose name marks it as the client’s terms (GTC, T&C, terms, general conditions) is listed by name and not read; terms in an attachment named otherwise are not noticed. A due date written only in an attached RFQ is not found. At most 40 of the client’s lines that may ask something are read; in a longer enquiry, the lines after them are not read as asks. “Within 3 working days” is counted as three calendar days. A client’s own email is dated on India’s clock, wherever they are, and a forward whose client sent time cannot be read is dated from when it was forwarded |
| Reading the client’s contact | Read from the client’s signature and From line. Only the first 15 lines of the signature are read. A contact printed only on a letterhead inside an attachment is not read, and the contact is not yet matched to the party master. Only Indian phone numbers are read; an overseas number is not recorded, nor is a number the forwarding colleague wrote. A GSTIN whose check digit is wrong is left out. The state is filled from the PIN only where its first digits belong to one state |
| PIN geography for routing | PIN-to-State/UT lookup uses the Department of Posts’ All India Pincode Directory from Open Government Data (OGD) Platform India, distributed under the Government Open Data License – India (GODL-India). Cross-State PINs remain ambiguous and are held for administrator review. |
| Union Territories in routing | The initial coverage places the 28 States in zones. No zone covers Delhi, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands or Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, so an enquiry from one of them stays unassigned for an Administrator until someone adds the territory to a zone in the Sales Office Master |
| An office’s zone | The Sales Office Master changes the States a zone covers. It does not create a zone or move an office to another one; an office’s zone is set outside the app, and an office in the Unplaced zone receives no routed mail |
| Six-digit numbers in a signature | The client’s PIN is the first six-digit number in their signature that is not in the list of numbers after a phone label such as “Tel” or “Mob”. A reference or PO Box number, such as “Ref 450012” or “PO Box 400001”, is read as the PIN, with a state filled from it, when it comes before the address’s own PIN or the signature has none |
| How a header can depend on another | A header’s visibility and material follow one parent only: it is hidden on “not applicable” or on a named set of that parent’s choices, or takes that parent’s material. Its answers can instead be decided by one or more headers, through “Decided by”, which maps deciding choices to an allowed answer — several choices may lead to one answer. A header’s mappings may together involve at most 10,000 combinations of choices; beyond that publishing is refused. There is no “any other choice” catch-all — a new choice added to a parent asks nothing extra, and is answered by no mapping, until some header names it |
| Enforcing a mapping | Item codes offer and accept only the answers a mapping allows. A quotation line takes its options from its enquiry line: the product’s fills follow the mappings and its menu offers only what they allow, while a value the customer stated that they do not allow is kept and marked Not offered by the product (R77, R78). An item code released before a mapping changed keeps its answer until it is next edited |
| Rated limits for switches | Published switch datasheets leave temperature and pressure blank. Family-level figures are used; a specific model may be tighter. Verify against the latest datasheet before final selection |
| Web-sourced limits | Limits for the families the guide does not cover come from Flowtech’s web pages or other makers’ datasheets, not from the guide. A rating that varies with size is held at its lowest figure, so some sizes are rated higher than shown. A family no source rates has no limits. The source of each limit is stored but not shown on any screen |
| Copies of a client email | A re-send is a copy, and is not read again, only when it comes from the same client within 30 days of the first, reached the same office, and adds nothing, in the client’s words or a forwarding colleague’s (R2a). Words are compared only when they come to forty letters and digits or more, so the same short note of real words, such as “revised qty 10”, arriving twice on the same files is read both times. Only a fixed list of greetings and filler words counts as filler, for the client and a forwarding colleague alike: a colleague’s signature with no closing line such as “Regards” above it, or a note such as “please see below”, counts as words, so that forward is read again. A colleague’s reply to colleagues, with nothing of its own and no files, over a client’s email forwarded inside Flowtech is compared on the client’s words alone, and is a copy of the email held only when those words come to forty letters and digits or more and the subject is the same, whatever files that email had. A copy is recognised only against mail processed after origins began to be recorded; mail processed before that has none |
| Recovering the client behind a forward | Only the mailbox’s own domain and the addresses on Flowtech’s list of its other addresses count as Flowtech. A colleague writing from any other address, such as a personal one not on the list, is taken for the client. Behind our own mail, such as a forward of our reply to the client, the first outside sender is taken for the client, even a supplier. An enquiry with no outside sender, such as a colleague restating a client’s request, is read from the colleague’s words, with no client or contact. The “On … wrote:” line a reply quotes the client under, as Gmail and most phone apps quote, does not name them, so such a reply is read whole, the colleague’s words included, with no contact, unless a header further down names someone outside. A forwarded header naming no address gives no client |
| An internal reply that carries our own offer | A colleague’s reply to colleagues saying only “PFA our offer” or similar, with our own offer attached over a forwarded enquiry, can be read as a second enquiry when FlowOS is sure of it; when it is not, it waits in Needs Review instead (R7) |
| Plastic lines | Only PP is offered as a plastic end connection, and only on the families whose datasheet lists it. An FRP line is checked like a plastic one: it prefers an FRP end connection and then a plastic one, is steered to PP where the family offers it, and waits for review rather than being confirmed as gathered. Lined and metal lines are not checked against the end connection, and PVC, CPVC and HDPE lines are all treated as thermoplastic. On a thermoplastic line only, the standard plastic pipe outside diameters (63 to 630 mm) are read as nominal bores on a bare main line size (R94); other bare numbers are read as nominal bores, and an FRP line is read as written. Which materials suit which line is configuration Flowtech has not confirmed (R93) |
| Corrosion data | Measured rates exist for a minority of fluids; a published band covers more but not all. Where neither exists, options can’t be checked |
| Matching the fluid | A fluid the library does not hold, and a mixture of fluids, are left for the reviewer to choose; a mixture is matched only where the library names that mixture. A fluid named without its strength, where the library holds several, is a guess, as is one stated more than 15 points from every entry. A misspelling is recognised only in one word of six letters or more. The reading model is asked for the closest fluid only where the wording shares an uncommon word with a library name, so a term the library has no word for, such as a trade name it does not list, stays unmatched until the library gains that name. A service or installation location is read as the fluid only when its wording names a library fluid: a tank name the library has no word for stays an application, and the fluid is not worked out from an application. A service or application may still take the closest library fluid as a guess, as a fluid wording does; an installation location or position never does. A row stating an upper and a lower liquid keeps both for a person to choose. A cell under a fluid heading is taken as the fluid even where it holds something else. Library density and viscosity are single figures, not corrected for temperature |
| Unlisted fluids | A fluid recorded as not in the library is kept on its own line. There is no list of them across enquiries, so one is added to the library from that line, and the next enquiry naming it is unmatched until then. Added from a line, it holds only the properties that line’s product checks and no corrosion grades: until its grades are entered on the Substance Master it gets no corrosion warning and its wetted materials and lining can’t be checked. Nothing converts a property held in another unit when it is added |
| Assumed values | The range around an operating value is filled only where the pressure or temperature is held as numbers. Wording becomes numbers when it is gathered only if it is plain figures with a unit, in the wording or in its column’s heading, including a combined heading such as “NORM/MAX”; “6 bar max” and a pressure or temperature with no unit stay as written and get none; a flow with no unit is kept as figures, with the unit of the enquiry’s other flow lines where they agree on one (R107). A worded value gathered before this was read keeps its wording until a one-off backfill reads it the same way; that leaves alone any line a person has worked on, and clears the scoring verdict of each field it rewrites, since the verdict was given on the wording. Wording on a range or number with a unit can be turned into figures in line review with Convert, which a person chooses and which is not done as the line is gathered; where the words hold no figure, the person types them in. Until then the field holds the wording, and the line cannot be sized on a flow held so. “ATM” and “ambient” stay as written and are filled with the ambient figures instead (R17). A confirmed line still follows the fluid library: its inferred values change if the library’s do. Conductivity is never inferred: the library says only whether a fluid conducts |
| Automatic confirmation | No line is confirmed as it is gathered. A line confirmed from its product suggestion (R71) does not read the check: one holding a value marked not found, a defaulted quantity or an unplaced value that holds it for a person is still confirmed once its fluid is settled, its product fits with a size and nothing is missing, when someone with inbox approval opens the enquiry’s lines; a line whose product suggests a material the fluid attacks, with nothing lining it, waits for a person. An auto-confirmed line can still hold assumed values |
| Values saved at once in line review | A fluid chosen on the fluid card, an option picked from an unresolved menu, and an accessory picked from the options offered for it are saved as soon as they are chosen, outside Save changes. The line is not suggested again first, and a fluid that moves the line to another product family does so without asking; the product strip shows the new family once it is saved |
| Not placed values | A value is kept with its line whenever the reading cannot show which field holds it. A figure that two labels share, or wording a field holds in other words, can therefore appear both in a field and under the line’s unresolved requirements. A description longer than 150 characters is checked part by part, so it is not repeated whole, but a part a field holds in other words, or as a figure without its unit, is still listed. Where wording a field holds appears more than once in the description, its first mention is the one left out. |
| Rows of a table | A line is given every cell of its row only where the rows above it name its columns and agree with what the reading called the row’s cells. A PDF table whose rows differ in width and a datasheet laid out one property per row are left as the reading wrote them; where the reading holds less than the whole of such a line, the line is kept beside it as an unresolved passage and not in the line’s own fields, and a figure that also appears elsewhere in the document does not show as missing. A cell under no heading is kept under its column’s number. A scan or picture read from the file is not checked this way |
| Fluid read from a name | A fluid is read out of a name only for dosing and storage; “fuel oil drum” gives the line no fluid by its wording. What stands before “dosing” or “storage” is taken as written, so “bulk storage tank” reads “bulk” as the fluid, for a person to correct. Whether a service names plant is read from a fixed list of words: a place written with none of them, such as “utility area 3”, is shown as the line’s fluid, not in the library. A fluid heading spelt otherwise, such as “Meida”, is not read. A line whose row states no substance, in an email’s prose or a table read column by column, keeps the service as the reading model wrote it, which can join the phase or a place to the fluid; and a quotation line with no service still falls back to the library fluid’s name, a guess included |
| Rows not read as lines | The check for rows left without lines reads tables in the email’s own text or in a document read from its text. A table with no tag column is checked only for tags shaped like a tag a line already holds, so a schedule none of whose rows became a line is not checked unless it has a tag column, and a tag shaped unlike its neighbours, such as GAA07CF511 beside 90GCN02CF503, is not named. A PDF table converted as running text and a document read from its file alone are not checked. A cancelled row is named too, and the reading model is asked about it once more. The check is a note on the enquiry, not a stop: an enquiry whose rows are still unread after the second attempt, or whose second answer cannot be used, is saved with the lines it has. A second attempt costs one more reading of all the enquiry’s documents |
| Min., Nor. and Max. columns | Separate columns are read into a quantity’s rows only where the reading model already filled one of them; a quantity it left empty stays empty and the cells are listed as stated with no field. Pressure, temperature and flow are read this way, into their minimum, operating and maximum rows; a design flow has no row on any product. A row with two groups of such columns, or a cell that is not one clean figure, is left as the reading wrote it |
| Process values | Whether an unplaced value is a process value is read from a closed list of words in its label and units after a figure in its value. A label spelt otherwise, such as “Meida” for media, is read as descriptive, so it does not hold the line |
| Scanned PDFs and pictures read from the file | A picture, and a scanned PDF the picture reader has not transcribed, are read from the file alone and their values are checked against what was read from them. The check therefore tests how the reading was filed into catalogue fields; a figure misread from the file itself passes it, and two readings of one scan can differ. A PDF that has converted text is read from that text with the file beside it, and checked against the text; so is a scanned PDF the picture reader transcribed, which it does only when every mailbox the email reached is one requirement gathering covers. A PDF over 10 MB is read from its converted text alone, where a table with headings on several rows, or one continued over a page, can lose its column labels |
| Not found in the enquiry | The check gives a verdict and how sure it is, never a reason, and is not run again after a value is edited. It is told which line a value belongs to by the line’s own row text. The passage shown beneath a mark is the one the value was read from, often a single table cell, so it shows a difference in the value itself and not which line the passage belongs to. A mark whose passage reads the same as the value is not proof the value is wrong. A unit given only in a table’s column heading is not in a cell’s passage, so such a value keeps its mark, with its sentence pointing to the heading |
| Shared requirements | Only what a shared requirement states under a catalogue field is filled into the lines. One kept in the customer’s own words stays beneath the lines, as does a conditional one. A filled value says it is shared but does not show the passage it was read from, which is with the shared requirement beneath the lines. The scoring verdict of a shared value is not kept, so one the check did not find in the enquiry is not marked |
| Client remarks | A line is excluded automatically only from the remark, status, note or comment column of its own row (R112). A status written outside the table, such as “Sr. 15 to 26 are on hold”, is not read onto the rows it names, so those lines stay in review |
| Design values and ranges | A design value and the range field are filled from a pressure or temperature the enquiry states as numbers, or from the assumed ambient conditions; a design value shows in the line’s design row and prints on the quotation. A design temperature at 1.3 times the maximum depends on the unit: it is taken on the figure as written, in °C or °F alike, and none is assumed for a maximum at or below 0 °C. An absolute pressure is not converted to gauge before its range and design value are worked out. No flow meter or rotameter datasheet has a design flow row, so the line shows no design flow, and a quotation prints none (R87) |
| Corrosion warnings on a line | Read from the published bands only; measured rates are not read yet. Shown only for requirements gathered after wetted parts began to be recorded with the line, so an earlier line shows none until it is gathered again. Eighteen chart materials are recognised — SS 304, SS 316, SS 316L, carbon steel, PTFE, PVDF, PVC, PP, FRP, Hastelloy C, titanium, aluminium, tantalum, copper, PFA, neoprene, glass and acrylic — and wording that names two of them, such as a lined part or PTFE + Neoprene, gets no warning. Grades beyond the original steel chart come from published resistance charts and cover only the fluids those charts name: one compatibility chart for most materials, two makers’ charts for Hastelloy C, titanium and PTFE on fluids that attack stainless steel, which the compatibility chart mostly does not list, and a maker’s chart alone for tantalum and PFA. Glass is recognised but not graded, so a glass part gets no warning |
| Mapped menu values | A mapped option may add a standard the customer did not write. It is taken above 80% without asking a person, and what the customer wrote is shown beside it. The reading matches against the category’s menu, so a mapped option may be one the product finally picked does not offer, which then shows as not offered. Inches compare the same however they are written: 1/2”, 1/2”, 1/2″, 1/2’’, 1/2 inch and ½” |
| Menus the product fills | Few headers carry a condition yet, so until the catalogue is authored most menus the enquiry leaves blank read Default, and a Condition mostly comes from the size, a copied material, the fluid’s corrosion grades or a header another choice switches off. A header with two defaults whose condition the catalogue does not yet encode stays open for a person. A wetted part’s material is chosen from the fluid’s grades only where the fluid library grades that material (R79). A lining is chosen the same way, only where the library grades both the metal it covers and the lining (R89). A stated value the product does not offer leaves the headers that depend on it filled as if it were not stated. A text, number or range default a datasheet states shows as the product’s value (R90), except on a field the product takes from Flowtech or supplies after the order, which follows R122 |
| A scale on an earlier rotameter reading | A rotameter line read before 5 November 2026 whose only flow is a scale the enquiry asked for (“0–100 LPH”) held that scale as its Flowtech Flow Range. It no longer sizes, prices or prints from it (R108); reading the enquiry again reads the scale as its minimum and maximum flow |
| Flowtech fields on earlier readings | An enquiry’s requirements read before field sources existed (5 November 2026) do not record which fields Flowtech provides. On those lines a Flowtech row is locked only once a product is picked, and a person can still edit a value the enquiry stated for it; reading the enquiry again applies R122 |
| Option notes | A note on an option, such as a size it is limited to, is shown beneath the option for a person to read. FlowOS does not check it |
| Other wordings of a library value | They start empty. Until some are added, wording that is not an option’s name is matched only by the reading model |
| Accessories | An accessory’s own details, such as a drain valve’s size or a gasket’s material, stay in the customer’s wording. A request to leave a default component out is not read; a person removes it from the list |
| Values saved before options were matched | Requirements gathered before menus were matched to options keep their values as written until the stored values are matched, a one-off step in each environment. Until then a menu value whose wording is not an option’s name reads Unresolved, with no options to pick, and accessories show as one menu value or a single item, with none of the product’s default components |
| Number, range and text wording | Unchanged: these fields still take the customer’s wording, and a worded pressure stays wording until it is read (R65) |
| Gathering requirements | Pending enquiries are hidden from all inbox users. Gathering starts by itself only for an enquiry’s first email, and only while requirement gathering is switched on: an email read while it is paused stays pending until it resumes. An email whose gathering failed is not tried again by itself. A later enquiry email of the same enquiry, on its conversation or joined from another, never changes the requirements by itself, so a revision is picked up only when a Developer processes that email again from the mail debug page, which replaces the current requirements with what that one email holds, review work included. Terminal failures show in Needs Review only to people who read across all offices: Administrators, Developers and Stakeholders |
| Amended purchase orders and cancellations | Until order tracking arrives, an amended purchase order is read as a Purchase order, and a cancellation, hold or new delivery date as a Follow-up or Other. Neither is compared with the order it changes |
| Mail on another conversation | An enquiry’s card holds the mail of every conversation that has an email linked to the enquiry, such as its enquiry email or a reply sent from FlowOS, and an enquiry can have several. An enquiry email on another conversation joins the enquiry only when it comes from the same address under the same subject, carrying a reference or project number, within 60 days, or names the enquiry’s customer reference (Inbox). Mail that is not an enquiry (a revision request, purchase order or follow-up) is linked to the enquiry and quotation it answers (R97) and joins that enquiry’s card even on another conversation, and a linked revision request lists the enquiry’s quotation under Quotes Needing Revision. Mail that matches several quotations or enquiries, and a revision request or purchase order that matches nothing, waits in Needs Review; other mail that matches nothing stays listed under Other mail |
| Linking post-quote mail | Until FlowOS records the quotations it sends, only a quote number links a quotation version: the reply-to-our-send and same-client lines steps find nothing, and the other steps link the enquiry alone. The quotation version an email is linked to and the quoted-outside-FlowOS mark show in the email’s mail summary, and a lapsed validity on the change’s row on the revision list (R118). An email that arrives as a colleague’s reply carrying the customer’s mail as quoted history, with no forward marker, is matched on the customer’s attachments only. A customer’s enquiry email corrected to a revision request still shows as an enquiry in the inbox, and does not list its quotation under Quotes Needing Revision. Mail Flowtech sends to someone outside Flowtech that matches several quotations, or none, is left unlinked rather than sent to Needs Review. A lead portal’s domain, such as TradeIndia’s, never identifies a client; a customer reference still links mail from the portal’s exact relay address to an enquiry that holds mail from that address (R98) |
| Sending a quotation | FlowOS does not send a quotation yet. The PDF is downloaded and sent from the salesperson’s own mail; sending is next |
| Accessory lines | A quotation has no lines for items that came from no enquiry line |
| Application on a quotation | Typed on the quotation header. The seeded datasheets have no application field, so no line states one and a new quotation’s application starts blank |
| A rate table listed by a second header | Rates saved against a second thing a header’s price depends on, such as a flange bore or a valve material, are not read on a quotation, whose line states its size and not that. The option adds nothing and the line is flagged in amber, saying what the rates are listed by; the rate is typed on the line where one applies |
| Confirming or excluding a line | Needs inbox approval. The seeded Sales person role holds it for the enquiries assigned to them, and the Office head role for the office’s; a sales person’s Confirm on someone else’s enquiry is refused. A quotation is generated only once every line it covers is confirmed or excluded (R38) |
| A deleted quotation’s number | Not used again: a quotation deleted before it was ever issued leaves a gap in the number series (R85), also when a PDF of its draft was downloaded and shared. A quotation with an issued version cannot be deleted; only the draft of its revision can be discarded |
| A quotation that was sent | Quoted means a quotation was issued in FlowOS. FlowOS reads the Inbox folder only, so a quotation sent from Outlook is not seen, and an enquiry quoted that way is not in Quoted |
| Closing an enquiry | Nothing closes an enquiry as won, lost or regret yet. An enquiry stays on the board in its last stage, and Ordered is the furthest it goes |
| Enquiries without a ready assignment | Enquiries awaiting manual requirement gathering, unable to be gathered, or whose gathering failed stay out of the standard inbox. Unmatched or unassigned mail is held for people who read across all offices: Administrators, Developers and Stakeholders |
| Order of cards | Cards are ordered among those loaded. “Show more” brings in older ones |
| An enquiry with every line excluded | It sits in Ready to quote with nothing to quote |
| An email corrected away from Enquiry | It keeps its card |
| New mail for a new colleague | Mail that arrived before a person was added shows as new to them |
| Mail sent for review on an enquiry’s conversation | It is listed on Needs Review by its mailbox or assignment, so the enquiry’s owner may not see it there |
Known data gaps (catalogue)
| Gap | Consequence |
|---|---|
| Steam has no density or viscosity in the fluid library | The fluid library’s Steam says it is not flammable, not toxic and does not conduct, and gives a maker’s dielectric constant for it. Its density and viscosity stay empty, so a steam line is still sized on the density worked out from its pressure and temperature (R29, R84). No published chart grades it, so it carries no corrosion grades. Steam named only by its grade, such as LPST, MPST or HPST, is not matched to it yet; such a line is still read as steam |
| Some added fluids are partly sourced | Sodium chlorite (31%), steam and crushed briquette carry no corrosion strength, since no chart grades them on stainless steel. Chlorine dioxide solution has no density, because its strength is not stated, and crushed briquette has no dielectric constant. Nitric acid (5%) and sodium chlorite (31%) do not say whether they conduct. A value no source states is left empty rather than estimated |
| Sodium metabisulfite is unrated | No published chart — no verdict, rather than one invented |
| Some materials are deliberately unmapped | Aluminium against process fluids is not rated when every option using it is external hardware |
| Process variables are managed from the editor only | A new process variable can be created, or an existing field made one, but none can be renamed, retired or unflagged from the app yet |
| Options values can only be added | A value added to an options field or process factor (Fluid Type’s Steam, say) cannot be removed or renamed from the app, and it appears on every datasheet using that entry |
| One concept under several keys is warned, not refused | A datasheet that holds a row-library entry under a key its category’s other families do not use still publishes. The editor lists it under Same concept, different key after the save, but cannot change a key, so engineering corrects the rows. Only the datasheet being saved is checked, so older splits elsewhere in a category show when that family is next saved. See Decodification Master |
| A price cannot be removed | The Pricing Library enters a price or overwrites one; it has no control that removes one. A library value with current prices, a price band with rates against it and an item code whose bands carry rates therefore cannot be deleted, or moved to another family, from the app |
| Process factors steer only the preview and suggested products | A header’s hard limits and conditional defaults steer the datasheet’s price preview and the menus the product picked for a requirement line fills on its review (R77), which a quotation line then carries; item codes are not filtered or defaulted by them. An enquiry answers only operating temperature and pressure, line size, viscosity, density, conductivity, centre-to-centre distance, insertion length, and the fluid’s phase as Fluid Type; flow is not answered. Answers are taken in each factor’s standard unit, and unit conversion is not built yet: a line’s figure answers a factor only when the factor uses the unit the line holds it in, except that a factor in absolute bar takes the gauge figure plus an assumed atmosphere, as an assumed value |
| Some families cannot be sized yet | Reflex and transparent gauges, the level transmitters, the cable float and conductivity switches, the differential pressure transmitter and the tiny glass tube rotameter show “Sizing not available”; each says what it waits for where a reason is stated, and otherwise that no table, range or released size exists |
| Gas and steam conversions are simplified | A gas is converted as an ideal gas at an assumed 1.01325 bar atmosphere: a gas flow saved in review in m³/h is taken to Nm³/h at the line’s operating pressure and temperature, stated or assumed, on a line holding an operating pressure, whether or not the library holds the gas; a mass flow of a gas converts only for a gas matched in the library. Only a line whose fluid is a gas, stated or matched, has a flow taken between actual and normal volume; on a line whose fluid’s phase is not known, a flow saved in Nm³/h stays as written. A conversion resting on an assumed pressure, temperature or density is marked assumed, and the product suggestion only cautions where that figure alone would rule a product out. Pressures are kept as gauge: an absolute pressure saved in review is stored as gauge on the assumed atmosphere, never a site’s own. A saved Nm³/h or kg/h figure is worked out again from the stated figure when the line’s operating pressure or temperature is saved, and keeps only the stated figure where that fails, but is not worked out again when a shared requirement or the fluid library changes them, or a density is saved. Steam is sized, and a steam flow saved in m³/h converted, on its density, worked out from its pressure and temperature; a stated temperature below saturation at the pressure is taken as saturated and warns. The client’s steam grid is not interpolated: the column nearest the line’s density is read and scaled by the line’s density over the column’s, and a line at a printed saturated pressure reads its column as printed (R29) |
| Rotameter gas sizing ignores viscosity | A gas is sized on the water tables through the float equation at its operating density; no air tables exist yet |
| Inch thread sizes are not matched to codes | A size such as 1/2 in BSP sizes the meter but finds no released code; the inch-to-NB convention has not been stated |
| Orifice plates are sized by the line | The line size picks the plate; the bore is not worked out |
| Some sizing bases are unstated | The sizing reference does not state the turbine and metal-tube ranges’ basis, nor the acrylic-body and metal-tube floats. Metal tube ranges are read as water, and those floats are assumed SS 316, so their sizes carry a standing “sized on assumed conditions” warning |
| Family names are read, not inferred | Only a family the line or the enquiry’s subject or body states is used, and enquiry names count only when they agree on one family; FlowOS does not guess one |
| A line’s item code follows its size | A reviewer picks the product family of a line (R96), and the quotation takes the item code for the line’s size within that family. Neither line review nor the quotation can choose another item code of the family. Editing the line’s values can change it; a line whose product is not wanted is skipped on the quotation |
| Fluid properties from one outside source warn only | An opacity, solids or hazard property taken from a single safety data sheet or maker’s table never rules a family out |
| Viscosity and density are held at one temperature | A library value checked more than 30 °C from its 20 °C reference only warns |
| Density under 20 kg/m³ and gases that may be liquid | A density written under 20 kg/m³ on a line that is not gas or steam is read as a specific gravity and only warns; a gas or steam phase guessed from the fluid’s name alone keeps a figure written in kg/m³ as a density, but not one written with no unit. A library gas that may be liquid at the line’s conditions is only warned of, through phase, density and viscosity |
| Boiling is mostly assumed | Water is read against the steam tables and nine other liquids against their vapour-pressure curves, and only on a line that states both its operating temperature and pressure. Any other hot liquid gets a “may boil” note from its boiling point at 1 atm, and its phase is not changed |
| Unit conversion limits | Left in the customer’s unit for review: a mass flow on a line that states no density and whose fluid is guessed, not in the library, or neither a liquid nor a gas there; a viscosity in cSt against cP on a line that states no density and whose fluid is guessed, not in the library or not a liquid; an actual gas flow in m³/h against Nm³/h, or the reverse, as the enquiry is gathered, which needs the line’s own pressure and temperature (the product suggestion does read a gas flow in m³/h at the line’s operating point, where the line states a pressure, and a flow a person saves in review on a gas line is converted at it); steam stated in m³/h with no density stated as the enquiry is gathered; and a normal volume on a line read as a liquid. The water or air equivalent a rotameter is calibrated in is not worked out from the process flow. A density stated for a gas is not used as its normal density, since the conditions it was given at are unknown. An absolute pressure becomes gauge only with an assumed atmosphere of 1.01325 bar, never a site’s own. A vacuum written as a word, such as mmHg vac, a conductivity written with a small s, such as us/cm or ms/cm, and a length written mt or mts are left in the customer’s unit. NB/DN sizes are nominal designations, not measured millimetres; inch nominal sizes use a supported size table, and unsupported sizes are left for review. A size written with OD is read as its nominal bore only where the field is held in NB; an OD written in a bypass rotameter’s main-line-size text field is kept as written |
On the rail today
Identity, offices, employees, roles, email enrolment, the inbox, the catalogue masters, quotations (except sending) and this handbook are live screens. Sales orders, ERP handoff and MIS are in the product as specified; until each slice is on the screen the rail shows a placeholder that names it. That is a delivery fact, not a business-rule gap. See Capabilities.
Things that are irreversible
- Dismissing a withheld rate, discount, quantity or skip on a quotation cannot be undone.
- Discarding the draft of a quotation’s revision: its edits are lost.
- Deleting a quotation that was never issued: its draft is lost and its number is not used again.
- Deleting a user or a role is permissioned and audited; it is not undone from the screen.
Related: Coverage · Connected systems.