Understanding Picklist Statuses in Ply 🗂️

Quick context: what is a picklist?

A picklist in Ply is an organized list of materials to be pulled from a warehouse and transferred to a truck or job. It's how admins prepare and dispatch materials without requiring techs to gather parts themselves. Picklists are often created in response to a field request.

Status Flow Overview

Most picklists follow this path; but can branch at "Needs Refill."

⚠️ Important: Stock only moves when you mark a picklist as Completed. Changing status to Waiting for Pickup or Ready to be Assembled does not transfer any stock. The actual inventory transfer happens automatically only when the picklist is marked as Completed.

🔔 Quick reference: all statuses at a glance

Status	What It Means	Who Acts	Stock Moves?
🔴 Needs Refill	One or more items have insufficient stock to fulfill the list	Admin	❌ No
🟢 Ready to Assemble	All items have enough stock — ready to be pulled and packed	Admin	❌ No
🔵 Waiting for Pickup	Materials are packed and waiting for the tech to collect	Admin / Tech	❌ No
✅ Completed	Materials have been picked up and delivered to the destination	Admin / Tech	✅ Yes — auto
⚫ Archived	Picklist is inactive and removed from the main view	Admin	❌ No

1) Needs Refill

A picklist gets this status when at least one material on the list doesn't have enough quantity available at the source warehouse to fulfill the requested amount. The picklist can't move forward until the shortage is resolved.

🔍 How to identify the blocked items:

Open the picklist; items with insufficient stock will be highlighted with a red or orange alert. The picklist will show exactly which materials are short and by how much.

This happens when one or more materials on the list don’t have enough stock available in the warehouse.
These items will be marked with an alert.
You’ll need to either restock those materials or choose how to handle them before completing the picklist.

What you can do:

📦 Restock the warehouse first
Receive a purchase order, create a transfer from another location, or manually adjust quantity; then come back, and the picklist will automatically update to Ready to Assemble.
🗑️ Remove the low-stock items from this picklist
If the job can proceed without those items, remove them from the list and fulfill the rest. The tech can request the missing items separately later.
📋 Create a new picklist for just the low-stock items
Split the order; fulfill what you have now, and track the shortage as a separate picklist that you can fulfill once stock arrives.
🛍️ Create a Purchase Order directly from the picklist
Ply lets you generate a PO for the missing items without leaving the picklist screen; so you don't have to manually recreate the order.

2) Ready to be Assembled

Every material on the picklist has enough quantity available at the source warehouse. The warehouse team or admin can now physically gather (pick) the materials and prepare them for delivery to the truck or job.

This status signals that the list is cleared for fulfillment.
Once reviewed, it can be marked as Completed to trigger the actual transfer.

📋 This status = time to pick the materials.
Walk the warehouse, pull each item from the shelf, and prepare the bundle. Once everything is physically packed and ready, advance the status to Waiting for Pickup so the tech knows it's ready for collection.

3) Waiting for Pickup

The materials have been physically gathered and set aside for the technician. This status acts as a handoff signal; the warehouse team is done with their part, and the tech just needs to come pick up the bundle.

🔔 The tech should be notified at this stage.
When a picklist reaches this status, let the assigned tech know their materials are ready. Ply will show the picklist in their view; but a quick heads-up via your usual communication channel speeds up collection.

Use case:

Often used when preparing restock kits or job-specific material bundles.
Acts as a "holding" step until materials leave the warehouse.

4) Completed

All materials have been picked up and delivered to their destination: the truck, job site, or another location. Marking a picklist as "Completed" is the trigger that actually moves stock in Ply.

➡️ Critical: This is when stock moves:

When you mark a picklist as completed, Ply automatically deducts each material from the source warehouse and adds it to the destination location (truck or job). No separate transfer needed. This is the only status change that triggers a stock movement.

➡️ Who can mark it as completed?

Both Admin and Tech can mark a picklist as Completed; either from the web or mobile app. Typically the tech does this when they've confirmed receipt of the materials.

➡️ Don't mark as Completed prematurely

If you mark a picklist as Completed before the materials are actually delivered, Ply will still move the stock. Make sure the tech has physically received the items before completing.

Key behavior:

Materials are moved to the assigned location automatically when this status is set.

5) Archived

Archiving a picklist removes it from your main workflow view without deleting it. Use this for old or cancelled picklists that you no longer need to act on but want to keep for reference or reporting.

✅ After completing old picklists

Archive completed picklists periodically to keep your active queue uncluttered, especially in high-volume operations.

🚫 For cancelled or invalid picklists

If a job was cancelled or the picklist was created by mistake, archive it instead of leaving it stuck in an incomplete state.

What it does:

The picklist is removed from the main workflow views.
You can still access it for reference if needed.

➡️ Archived ≠ deleted
You can always access archived picklists from the "Archived" filter view; they're still there for records, reports, and reference. Nothing is lost.