How to Add & Use Production Statuses

Production statuses give your team a much clearer picture of where an order is within a specific decoration process – without changing the overall order status. In this article, you’ll learn how production statuses work, how they differ from order statuses, and how to configure and use them in Business Hub to keep production moving smoothly.

In this article

• Prerequisites
• What are production statuses?
• Order status vs production status
• Configure production statuses
• Set the default production status
• View production statuses in Business Hub
• Filter and update production statuses
• Customer visibility
• Best-practice tips
• Troubleshooting
• FAQs

What are production statuses?

Production statuses are used to track the individual steps within a specific decoration process. They are most commonly used for complex processes – such as screen printing – where an order moves through multiple stages like burning screens, going on press, post-press work, and finishing.

Unlike order statuses, production statuses are process-specific and are designed to help your production staff understand exactly where an order is in the workflow.

Order status vs production status

An order status answers high-level questions, such as:

• Have the blanks been ordered?
• Have the blanks been received?
• Has artwork been approved?
• Has the order been produced?
• Has the order shipped?

A production status breaks a decoration process into finer detail. For example, with screen printing you might want to know:

• Have the films been printed?
• Have the screens been burned?
• Is the job on press?
• Is it ready for bagging and tagging?

This gives managers and operators a much clearer snapshot of where work is at—without relying on a single “printed” or “not printed” state.

Configure production statuses

Step 1: Open production status settings

1. Go to Admin → Settings → Production & Order Settings.
2. Select Production Statuses.

Step 2: Add a new production status

1. Click Add Production Status.
2. Enter a Name (for example, Ready for Bagging and Tagging).
3. Choose whether the status applies to:
   • All processes, or
   • Specific processes (for example, Screen Printing only).
4. Select a Background Color to visually distinguish the status.
5. Click Save.

Set the default production status

For each decoration process, the first production status in the list becomes the default status for new orders using that process.

Production statuses are listed from top to bottom in Business Hub. If you reorder the list in Admin, the top status will automatically become the default for that process.

View production statuses in Business Hub

Production statuses appear in Business Hub only when an order includes the decoration process they are assigned to.

You can view production statuses in:

• Overview – alongside order statuses for quick filtering
• Production → Calendar View – for a timeline snapshot of work in progress
• Production → List View – for detailed sorting and filtering

Filter and update production statuses

Production statuses are especially powerful when filtering orders:

• Filter by Order Status
• Filter by Production Status
• Filter by Decoration Process
• Filter by Assigned Staff Member

For example:

• A press operator can filter for screen printing orders that are Ready for Press.
• A darkroom operator can filter for orders where Screens Need Burning.

Update a production status

1. Open the order in Business Hub.
2. Click Set Production Status.
3. Select the new status (for example, Screens Have Been Burned).
4. Save the update.

This immediately signals the next team member that the order is ready for the next step.

Customer visibility

Production statuses are strictly internal. Customers will not see production statuses when logged into their account. Only standard order statuses are visible to customers.

Why production statuses matter

• Give staff a clearer snapshot of where each order is in production
• Reduce confusion between departments and operators
• Improve filtering and workload management
• Help production managers identify bottlenecks faster

Best-practice tips

• Create production statuses per decoration process.
  Avoid using the same production statuses for every process. Screen printing, embroidery, and digital printing often require very different steps.
• Order statuses from earliest to latest.
  The top status becomes the default for new orders, so list statuses in the natural production sequence.
• Use clear, action-based names.
  Names like Screens Need Burning or Ready for Press make it obvious what the next step is for staff.
• Assign contrasting colors.
  Color-coding production statuses makes calendar and list views easier to scan at a glance.
• Train staff to update statuses consistently.
  Production statuses are most effective when every team member updates them as work progresses.

Troubleshooting

Production statuses are not appearing on an order

• Confirm the order includes a decoration process that the production status is assigned to.
• Check that the production status is enabled and saved in Admin → Settings → Production & Order Settings → Production Statuses.

The wrong production status is applied by default

• The first status in the list becomes the default.
• Reorder the production statuses so the correct starting status appears at the top.

Staff cannot find the orders they need

• Use the Production tab instead of Overview for more advanced filtering.
• Filter by Decoration Process and Production Status together for best results.

Customers are asking about production statuses

• Production statuses are internal only and are not visible to customers.
• If customers need updates, rely on order statuses or automated email notifications instead.

FAQs

What is the difference between an order status and a production status?

Order statuses track the overall lifecycle of an order (ordered, approved, produced, shipped). Production statuses track detailed steps within a specific decoration process.

Can I use production statuses for all decoration processes?

Yes. You can apply a production status to all processes or restrict it to specific ones. However, they are most useful for complex processes like screen printing.

Who can see production statuses?

Only internal staff using Business Hub can see production statuses. Customers never see them.

Can production statuses trigger emails or notifications?

No. Production statuses are used for internal tracking and filtering only. Notifications are driven by order statuses.

Do production statuses affect production scheduling?

Production statuses help you organize and filter work but do not automatically change production dates or schedules.

Additional Resources

• Production Statuses
• Production & Order Pending Times