5. Online sale processing

Owner

You (solo operation)

Trigger

A customer completes checkout on the storefront — either a loose gemstone or a Make Your Ring configuration (a gemstone and setting variant linked as separate cart lines).

Approval

None needed for a standard sale — this procedure is execution, not a decision gate.

Procedure

1. Confirm payment has actually settled in Shopify Payments (or the configured processor) before doing anything physical with the stone.
2. Check that Shopify's inventory reduced the stone to 0 automatically. If it didn't, treat it as an inventory-control incident (Procedure 8) rather than ignoring it.
3. Retrieve the correct physical stone by SKU and double-check it against the order.
4. If the order is a loose gemstone (no linked setting line), skip to step 9.
5. If the order is a ring configuration, send the gemstone and setting to the jeweller with complete specifications: gemstone SKU and its physical attributes, setting SKU, metal, and ring size.
6. Confirm production cost and expected completion date with the jeweller before production starts.
7. Track custody of the physical gemstone by logging its movements — Sent to jeweller when it goes out, Received by jeweller on confirmation of arrival, Returned from jeweller when the finished ring comes back, then Shipped to client and Delivered to client. Record the tracking reference on every leg. A stone that has left the premises with no movement logged is a stone nobody can account for.
8. On return, inspect the finished ring before shipment: stone identity against its SKU and recorded attributes, setting, ring size, finish quality, and absence of damage. Only continue once it passes; otherwise send it back to the jeweller for correction.
9. Arrange insured, trackable shipping appropriate to the item's value.
10. Fulfill the order in Shopify with the tracking number attached.
11. Store proof of shipment — carrier receipt, tracking confirmation, photos of the packaged item — in the stone's document folder (Procedure 9). For a ring order, also file the jeweller's production cost and completion date, and the final inspection result.
12. Record the sale in the data file: the sale, its line or lines, and the payment. A ring configuration gets a RingOrders row linked to the sale, the setting design and the jeweller — see the data model and the field guide.
13. When the jeweller's invoice arrives, record it as an ExtraCosts row of type Ring making linked to that ring order — never to the stone. Until it's recorded, the ring's margin is an estimate.

Required evidence

• Payment confirmation.
• Tracking number.
• Shipment proof.
• For a ring order: jeweller specifications sent, agreed production cost and date, and the final inspection result.
• For a ring order: the RingOrders row, and the jeweller's invoice recorded against it.