Production Order Statuses in Business Central: A Practical Guide for Planners and Shop Floor

Reading Time: 3 minutes

After 15 years implementing Business Central and NAV (and 30 years in ERP overall) in factories in UK, Greece and other European countries, I still see many production planners and manufacturing managers getting confused with the Production Order statuses. So I sat down to write this simple guide, only at header level, exactly how you need it every day.

1) Overview: The Five Statuses at a Glance

In Business Central, the Status in the Production Order header shows exactly what phase your job is in.

Here is the real picture from the field:

• Simulated → only for costing and what-if. Not so common (0–10%).
• Planned → the system suggestions from MRP. This one you see everywhere (40–70%).
• Firm Planned → you have decided “yes, we go with this”. Medium (15–40%).
• Released → the order is now on the shop floor.
• Finished → job is closed and costed (I explain separately).

2) What Each Status Really Means

A) Simulated

This is like a ghost order, my favourite for quick calculations. You use it for customer quotes, new products or when you want to test different ways to produce something without touching the real system.

Real Greek example: Customer calls and wants price for 300 pieces of stainless parts. I create Simulated order, I change the Routing from laser to waterjet, and in two minutes I show him the difference. He decides immediately. Zero risk, very clean.

B) Planned

These are the orders that MRP throws at you. The system says “you will probably need to make this”. You can still play with quantity, dates, even delete them.

In practice, every Monday morning the planner runs the planning worksheet, drinks his coffee, looks at the exceptions, combines some orders to make better batches, and then promotes the serious ones to Firm Planned.

C) Firm Planned

Now it becomes serious. This status tells purchasing and production “this is real, start preparing”. The planning engine mostly leaves it alone after this.

This is the moment I always tell my customers: check with suppliers, check capacity, and only then move forward. In many Greek factories the production manager wants to see all Firm Planned orders before anyone releases them.

D) Released

The order is now alive. Operators can post consumption, output, everything. You start seeing real WIP.

Important lesson I learned many times (especially in Greece): Do not Release early. If materials are not there or machines are not ready, you only create stress, big WIP and angry people. Better wait one or two days and Release when you are really ready.

3) How Statuses Move in Real Life

Normal way:

Simulated → Planned → Firm Planned → Released → Finished

Smaller factories often go straight Planned → Released.

Sometimes you can change back from Released to Firm Planned if you made a mistake (but not always, depends on permissions).

The critical points are:

• When you make it Firm Planned, system starts protecting dates and quantities.
• When you Release, real postings start and finance begins to see WIP.
• When you Finish, everything closes and variances appear.

4) Finished Production Orders

When you change status to Finished, the system closes the job:

• Clears all WIP
• Posts the finished goods to inventory
• Calculates material, capacity and overhead costs
• Posts all variances to General Ledger

This is where finance people suddenly become very interested. They want to see why actual cost is different from standard.

From my experience in many factories, the best plants review variances every month. If you see always the same high variances on certain items, usually your BOM or Routing needs update.

My Best Recommendations (from 15 years on BC and 30 in ERP)

• See Planned as a conversation with the system.
• See Firm Planned as a serious promise to the factory.
• Release only when you are really ready. This is very important.
• Always keep your BOMs and Routings Certified. This one thing saves you from many headaches.
• Review and finish orders quickly so finance can close periods without drama.
• Put realistic planning parameters (lead times, lot sizes, safety stock). Bad parameters create too much noise and too many Planned orders.

If you understand these five statuses deeply, your cooperation with Business Central becomes much smoother. I have seen this many times in both small Greek workshops and bigger UK manufacturers.

Any question about how this works in your factory, you can ask me.