An order's lifetime goes through multiple, definitive stages. At each stage, you can use SureFire to tell you the dollar volume of orders in that stage. Some of the stages we want to be very brief and short-lived - for example, the volume of orders that have been shipped but not invoiced - that should be at most a few days' worth of volume - less if you invoice at time of truck close (then it should be zero). Reporting on these stages consist of two values - an "Activity" value and a "Bucket" value. The "Activity" value - and there may be 2 of them for a particular stage - tells you how much volume occurred in a period of time (day, week). The "Bucket" value tells you what volume is currently in that stage. As mentioned, some stages may have multiple days worth of volume, while, for other "Buckets", multiple days of volume in them would be a warning sign. So let's talk about the stages in chronological order:
In general, a bucket will have an "Activity" that puts volume (orders) into that bucket, and an "Activity" that removes volume from that bucket. Usually, the "Activity" that removes volume from a certain bucket will be the same Activity that adds volume to the next bucket.
Bucket 1: Orders that have been entered but not yet Confirmed. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Orders entered Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Orders Confirmed
Bucket 2: Orders that are Confirmed that have not been put in a Production Slot. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Orders Confirmed. Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Orders Slotted
Bucket 3: Orders Slotted that are not yet on a Production Schedule. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Orders Slotted. Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Slots to Production
Bucket 4: Orders in Production that are not yet Produced. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Slots to Production, Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Production Reporting
Bucket 5: Orders Produced but not yet Shipped. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Production Reporting. Activity that removes volume form the Bucket: Shipment Reporting
Bucket 6: Orders Shipped but not yet Invoiced. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Shipment Reporting. Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Order Invoicing
Bucket 7: Invoices that have not yet been sent into the Financials. Activity that puts volume into the Bucket: Order Invoicing. Activity that removes volume from the Bucket: Invoice A/R Posting
The amount of volume in Buckets 1-6 is completely visible on the Orders Tab by adjusting the filters. Bucket 7 is visible on the Invoices tab by adjusting the filters.
Even though there are 2 Activities per Bucket (an "IN" Activity and an "OUT" Activity), the "OUT" Activity of a Bucket becomes the "IN" Activity of the next Bucket. In this way, you can "prime" the pump by knowing the first value (in this case, the Orders Entered Today, better known as the Order Activity Report under Reports on the Orders Tab), and once you know that and can get the value inside the Bucket, you know the "Out" value as well. Here's an example:
At the beginning of the day, you set the filters on the Orders Tab and get the total Orders not yet Confirmed as $25,000. At the end of the day, you do the same thing, and this time, it is $22,000. Then, you run the Order Activity Report, and find that it says you added $30,000 of orders into the system. This means that the number of orders Confirmed can be calculated as Starting Bucket + Order Entry - Ending Bucket = Confirmations Activity
Use the Confirmations Activity volume as the "IN" number for Bucket #2, snapshot the volume totals for Bucket #2, and then calculate the Orders Slotted Activity. You can compute all the Bucket Activities in this way.
Fortunately, you don't have to - just subscribe to the Buckets Notification and get that data sent to you at the end of every day. SureFire will even summarize if for you for a Week or Month.