Milestones and SOPs

A milestone is one step you track, written as an outcome an email can show: "Deposit received", not "Chase the deposit". Each quote, booking and job has its own milestones. A phase is an optional named group of them.

An SOP (standard operating procedure) is your checklist, written once: the phases and milestones for the quote, booking and job stages. Each milestone has a criterion that says what evidence shows it is met, in your own words:

Cited evidence shows the customer accepting the price in writing. A verbal yes reported by staff is not enough.

The ledger never evaluates a criterion. The agent reads it when it judges.

Versions

An SOP is published as a version, such as v1. A published version never changes. To change your process, publish v2.

Attaching a version to work is called adopting it. The agent adopts a version at the quote, the one you chose or set as the default, and the quote's bookings and jobs follow it with no further step. A job with no quote adopts its own.

Work keeps the version it started on. When you retire a version, no new work can adopt it, but work already on it stays on it.

Work without an SOP

The ledger allows it, but the skills never judge a milestone on work that follows no SOP. Until an SOP is adopted, the agent only leaves a memo saying what arrived. Write your SOP first: see Write your SOP and the example SOPs.