Group four of six
Orders
An order gives you a stream of dates and statuses. Some of them are rules the market enforces, some are claims a person typed, and the interface shows them in the same typeface.
One question separates most of this group
Who is making this promise, and what happens automatically if it is broken? A rule of the market runs on its own. It does not need anybody to remember it, it does not care whether you agreed, and it will fire on schedule while you are asleep. A promise from a person needs that person, and nothing happens by itself when it lapses.
Once you know which of the two you are looking at, most order confusion resolves without any further thought. The interface will not tell you, because it renders both the same way, so this is a question you have to bring to the screen rather than one it answers.
A date with something behind it, and a date without
Orders / Pair 23A delivery window against A delivery estimate
One of these dates has a consequence attached to it. The other is a prediction with nothing behind it.
The test: Ask what happens on the day after. A window has an answer, an estimate has none
One request moves a clock, the other moves the money
Orders / Pair 24A request for more time against A request to release funds
Two apologetic messages, one control on the order screen, and only one of them ends your claim.
The test: Ask where the balance sits one minute after you press. Held is time, gone is release
Asking for a ruling, or handing over information
Orders / Pair 25A dispute against A report
Both feel like telling staff about a problem. Only one of them produces a decision about your balance.
The test: Ask what the process ends with. Money moving is a dispute, a note on conduct is a report
A word in a database, and an event in a record
Orders / Pair 26An order marked shipped against An order that has shipped
A status flag is typed by a person. A record kept by somebody else is not. They read the same on your screen.
The test: Ask whether any record outside the market says the same thing. If not, it is a claim
Nothing new to report is not the same as bad news
Orders / Pair 27Tracking that is not moving against A parcel that is lost
Silence in a record is not a finding. Loss is something a record states or a rule declares.
The test: Is there a new entry saying something changed, or only an absence of new entries
A rule that runs by itself, and a date somebody prefers
Orders / Pair 28An automatic timer against A deadline a vendor gives you
One date runs on its own whether anyone asks. The other is somebody telling you what they would like.
The test: Ask who can move the date. If the person who named it can move it, it is a preference
Why timers matter more than anything else here
Everything with a timer on it has a moment where your options narrow permanently. Before that moment you have every option. After it you have whatever the market allows for orders in that state, which is usually much less and sometimes nothing.
That makes timers the only thing in this group worth putting in your own notes. Not the estimates, not the statuses, not the messages. The moments after which something you can do now becomes something you cannot.
What this group leaves alone
Nothing here is about what is in a parcel, how anything is packed, or what any of it is. The pages deal with records, rules and money. A sibling problem is how to word what you send to somebody, and that is not covered on this site at all.