Run pre-quote and production surveys through approval

Six states: Draft › In Progress › Completed › Pending Approval › Approved, with Cancelled to the side. The header buttons enforce it strictly:

When is approval required?

Two rules, both from Site Surveys › Configuration › Settings: every production survey requires approval while Require Production Approval is on (the shipped default), and any survey requires approval when its total surveyed area differs from the quoted area by more than the Approval Threshold (%) (default 5).

What approving a production survey does

Approval is not a formality. For each completed line linked to an order line it adds the Measured Qty to the order line's surveyed quantity, and writes the surveyed floor, location and sill height back onto it. The write-back runs exactly once per survey — a survey that has already posted its quantities will not post them again, even if the workflow is replayed. If the journey stage mapping is configured, approval also moves the technical request forward to the mapped stage. This is why re-opening approved surveys is not offered: corrections go through a new revision survey instead.

Both forms share the same skeleton: a guidance strip that always names the next sensible action ("Add the first survey item", "Continue measuring 3 of 5", "Waiting for approval"…), the Survey Details and Assignment groups (request, opportunity, customer and order are read-only links; Surveyor, Scheduled Start/End are yours to set), a Time Tracking group filled by Start/Complete, and a row of live tiles — items done, completion %, surveyed area, plus quotations (pre-quote) or quoted area, area difference and not-ready count (production). The tabs:

Header utilities on both types: Print PDF, Export Excel, Export CSV, Email Report (a dialog pre-addressed to the customer, with an optional Excel attachment), plus a Duplicate smart button that copies the survey back to Draft without times, signatures or approvals.

A pre-quote line is deliberately lean: code, description, floor, location, Width and Height (mm), quantity, computed area, a Done toggle and the result badge. A production line adds the ordered reference — Quoted W/H and Quoted Qty — next to the measured values, a computed Diff %, the Not Ready toggle, and a scissors button to split multi-unit items.

Opening a line (the external-link button) reaches the full item form: three aperture width and three height measurements — the surveyed dimension is set to the minimum of what you enter — two diagonals, sill height, tangent points, the site-condition dropdowns (window position, drainage face, the four aperture finishes, opening section, threshold, scaffolding), the exhaust cut-out block, the fittings and finishes boxes, two photos, a voice note, freehand and CAD sketches, remarks, and the measurement provenance (typed, laser, or inherited from the quote, with device and timestamp).

Rules the lines enforce:

The production form carries the manufacturing hand-off. Copy from Pre-Quote (Draft, no items yet) pulls the pre-quote's measurements and site conditions as a starting point — never its photos or done flags. A read-only Profile and Glass group shows the order's profile, colours, glass and accessories. Each line shows the Production Design thumbnail and, for design-capable products, buttons to Create/Edit the production design in the designer and to view its Design Analysis. Compare to Order opens a read-only side-by-side of every item — ordered width, height, area and sill against surveyed — with totals and difference percentages.

Once the survey is Completed or Approved, Create Production Order builds a production order from the completed items: measured quantities, the item's production design and analysis (falling back to the sale-order line's design when the survey line has none — each fallback is noted in the production order's log). Items that are completed but did not Pass are still copied, with a chatter warning naming them so they can be removed by hand. A Production smart button counts the linked orders afterwards.

The Actions menu on the survey lists offers Bulk Assign Surveyor (draft surveys — set the surveyor and optionally a new date at once), Bulk Approve / Bulk Reject and their type-specific variants (Bulk Approve Pre-Quote, Bulk Approve Production…). The bulk production approval performs the same quantity write-back as the form button, per survey; bulk reject demands a rejection reason and posts it on every survey. Selections in the wrong state are refused — "Please select at least one survey in Draft state." / "…in Pending Approval state."

"Cannot start a Production Survey without any survey items." — the linked order has nothing left to survey (all quantities delivered) or the survey was created without an order; add items, or use Copy from Pre-Quote.

"Survey already has items. Please delete the existing items before copying." — Copy from Pre-Quote only fills an empty survey.

"No completed pre-quote survey found for this task." — the pre-quote is still in Draft or was cancelled; it must have been started to be a source.

"The survey must be Completed or Approved before creating a quotation." — finish the survey first; the Create Quotation button follows the same rule.

"No product found for: … configure the Color & Material mapping…" — the quotation wizard found no product for the chosen profile and colour on those items; complete the Color & Material mapping or set each line's product by hand in the wizard.

"No production survey found for comparison. Please create and complete it first." — Compare to Order was pressed from a pre-quote whose order has no started production survey yet.

An approved survey needs correcting — approved surveys are closed on purpose (their quantities are posted). Have the surveyor raise a re-visit request from the portal, or duplicate the survey; the duplicate starts in Draft with quantities unposted.

The survey went to Completed although you expected an approval step — the area difference is within the threshold and it is not a production survey with Require Production Approval on; check the Settings.