Job status & ledger guardrails

N78-Ops is a front-end field tool, not an accounting system — your accounting software is the single source of truth for your books. N78-Ops keeps your job statuses on a strict, forward-only track so the data it hands to QuickBooks stays clean and accountant-ready.

🔄 Standard operational pipeline (what can change)

Follow the steps in order. Each step automatically triggers the matching local document update:

[ APPROVED ] → Generate quote / draft invoice
▼
[ SCHEDULED ] → Lock operational window
▼
[ COMPLETED ] → Finalize invoice & lock completion date
▼
[ PARTIALLY PAID ] → Reduce invoice balance / issue payment receipt
▼
[ PAID IN FULL ] → Lock historical ledger (balance = $0.00)

🛑 Hard lockouts & rules (what CANNOT be changed)

To ensure absolute data integrity, the local database enforces strict, non-negotiable boundaries:

• No reversals (strict forward-only): You cannot move a job status backward through the pipeline (for example, Completed cannot be changed back to Scheduled or Approved).
• Paid in full finality: Once marked Paid in full, the transaction is closed and becomes a permanent historical financial record. It cannot be edited, deleted, or moved to any other status (including Declined).
• Declined finality: A Declined status is an archival dead-end. It cannot be moved back into an active operational or billing state — start a new quote if the client returns.

🛠️ Financial exception handlers (how to fix mistakes)

If a finalized or paid transaction needs an adjustment, you do not change the status button. Instead, use the explicit one-tap actions in the Corrections card on the quote (under Job progress). The fastest way there is Fix a payment on the dashboard — pick what happened (bounced payment, refund, or a customer who won't pay), choose the job, and N78-Ops opens it on the Corrections card. Each action keeps the original record intact for the audit trail and tells you what to post in QuickBooks (your source of truth):

• Refund (Paid / partially paid): the Record refund action reverses money you returned to the customer (cash, card, or bank) and reopens or closes the balance accordingly. In QuickBooks this is a Refund Receipt linked to the original transaction; the original invoice/payments stay in place.
• Payment returned (NSF): when a check bounces or a payment is reversed by the bank, tap Payment returned (NSF). The recorded payment is reversed (kept, voided, for audit) and the invoice reopens as still owed — it is not the same as a refund. Record the bounced check, and any NSF fee you re-bill, in QuickBooks.
• Write off (bad debt) on a Completed / invoiced job: tap Write off (bad debt). The balance stops counting toward your accounts receivable and the original invoice is preserved; the status is not reverted. Post the matching Credit Memo to Bad Debt Expense in QuickBooks.

Wrong details on an invoice you already sent (not a payment problem)? See Fix a mistake on a sent invoice for correcting a wrong amount, line item, tax/taxable status, or terms.