Orders

An order is a batch of cards, from draft to delivered.

Building an order

Orders → New order, or add people from Ready to produce.

Pick the card holders to include. Only people with an approved photo can join an order; anyone without one is counted and left out, and the portal says so. Each person is printed on the design for their holder type (students on the student design, staff on the staff design), so a mixed order comes out right with no sorting on your part.

When a person is added, their details are fixed onto the order: the card prints what the record said at that moment, even if the record changes later. If someone uploads a better photo while the order is still a draft, use the draft’s refresh option to pick up newer photos before submitting.

Submitting

Submitting is the moment the order becomes real. Three things happen at once:

• the print room is told: admins and print operators get a notification in the portal and an email;
• the card artwork starts rendering, so by the time an operator looks at the queue the files are ready;
• the order’s contents are locked. An empty order cannot be submitted.

The six statuses

An order only ever moves forward.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Being put together, and can be changed. The Orders page opens on this tab
Submitted	Handed to the print room; artwork is rendering
In production	The print room has taken it on; jobs are queued to a printer
Printed	Every card is out of the printer. This is when cards are issued: serial numbers are assigned, digital IDs go out, and the cards become live credentials
Shipped	On its way, with the carrier and tracking number recorded (the tracking number becomes a link for the usual New Zealand carriers)
Completed	Delivered and done

An order can be cancelled until printing starts. Cancelling also withdraws any cards from that order that are already waiting in the print queue.

Priorities and due dates

Orders carry a priority (standard, rush or emergency) and an optional due date. The Orders list marks anything due soon or overdue, so a rush job is never found by accident.

Reprints and replacements

A card spoiled during printing is handled in the print room and reprinted automatically; see the print queue. A card that needs replacing after the order finished (lost, stolen, damaged, a name change) uses Request reprint on the order item, which starts a new draft order for the replacement.