Statuses and lifecycle: what each state means

A status tells you where a record is in its own lifecycle. The same word can mean something different on another record type, and a custom label does not change the underlying business meaning. The most important rule is to keep discovery, qualification, commercial outcome, billing, settlement, fulfillment, and service resolution separate.

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Leads: qualification, not revenue

A Lead represents a prospect that is still being evaluated. The standard lifecycle includes states such as New, Contacted, Qualified, Lost, and Disqualified, while a workspace can customize the visible labels and colors. Qualified means the Lead passed the qualification workflow and the commercial Deal was created or linked according to the lifecycle contract. A Lead is not won. Winning belongs to the Deal. If a workspace contains a custom Lead label that sounds like a sales outcome, do not use that label to replace the actual Deal close lifecycle. Why this matters: Lead-to-qualified reporting answers whether prospecting and qualification are working. Win rate answers whether Deals are closing. Mixing those events destroys both metrics.

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Deals: open pipeline and final outcomes

Deals represent commercial opportunities. Open stages can describe progress such as New, Qualified, or Proposition according to the workspace configuration. The Deal outcome separates active pipeline from final results. Final outcomes include Won, Lost, and Disqualified in the current lifecycle model. Closing a Deal is not the same as dragging a card for visual organization. Final outcomes affect reporting, close dates, reasons, won value, and sales-cycle metrics. Use Close a Deal for the supported close flow.

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Quotes: proposal state and date-based expiry

A Quote is a commercial proposal. Common states include Draft, Sent, Viewed, Accepted, and Rejected, while the workspace can configure labels and colors. Expiry deserves special care. The business meaning of an expired Quote comes from the valid-until date and current time. Do not assume a stored status label is the only source of truth for whether a Quote is past its validity period. That distinction allows automation and reporting to identify a sent or viewed Quote whose validity date has passed even when nobody manually changed its label.

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Invoices: document state, posting, and settlement

Invoice lifecycle has several dimensions that should not be collapsed into one word. Drafting means the commercial document is still being prepared. Posting is an accounting action when the workspace has the required entitlement and permission. Posting can create the financial effect that turns the Invoice into a ledger-backed receivable. Payment state describes how much valid settlement has been recognized. An Invoice can be unpaid, partially paid, or fully paid according to the payment records and settlement rules. Void and refund are corrective commercial or financial actions with their own permissions and consequences. Do not manually treat an Invoice as paid because the customer says they transferred money. Record and clear the Payment using the supported workflow.

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Purchase Orders: what you asked a supplier to provide

Purchase Order status describes the procurement document and its progress. Ordered quantity and received quantity remain separate. A partially received Purchase Order is still open for the outstanding quantity. Receiving the rest later should continue the same procurement relationship rather than pretending the original order was fully complete. A Purchase Order is not Accounts Payable by itself. It represents an order, not necessarily a supplier Bill.

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Goods Receipts: what actually arrived

A Goods Receipt records the physical receipt against purchasing. Drafting the receipt and posting it are different events. Posting is the point where the receiving record is applied to inventory according to the current workflow. Damaged or on-hold quantities should not be treated as ordinary available stock simply because the truck arrived.

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Tickets: service progress and resolution

Ticket statuses are configurable around the service workflow. Common lifecycle concepts include New or Open, In Progress, Waiting, Resolved, and Closed. SLA calculations also use response and resolution timing, not only the visible status label. A Ticket can therefore be at risk because of elapsed service time even before someone manually changes the status.

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Configurable labels versus fixed meaning

Lynka lets workspaces configure status labels and colors in several areas. That flexibility is useful for matching the language a small business already uses. But some lifecycle semantics remain important for reporting and automation:

• Lead qualification is not Deal win.
• Quote validity depends on date, not only a label.
• Invoice payment depends on recognized settlement.
• Posting is not the same thing as sending a document.
• Purchase order receipt quantity is not the same as ordered quantity.
• Ticket SLA depends on timing and service events, not only status color.

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When a status looks wrong

Before editing configuration, ask whether the problem is the label, the record state, or the underlying transaction. If a Quote says Sent but the valid-until date passed, the issue may be date-based expiry. If an Invoice says Partially Paid, inspect Payments. If a Deal looks open after a final outcome, inspect the close lifecycle rather than only the stage label.