The system tracks what needs doing. You decide when, and it handles the rest.
The technical retouching was dealt with back at step three. What is left here is whatever a parent asked for specifically, and production itself, which from this point is a few clicks.
What the order brings with it
A paid order is what tells you there is still work to do. If a specific retouch request came in against a frame, that frame is flagged and waiting for you. Until you tell the system it is finished, that order cannot go into production, so the unretouched version cannot be produced by accident, or worse, sent out.
The other orders are not held up by it. Only the one that genuinely has work outstanding waits.
The system handles the deadlines for you. It knows when each step has to be finished for the date promised to the parent to hold, so even under heavy load you can see exactly what order to work through the retouching in, and when each one is due.
The retouch loop closes itself
Beyond the retouching itself there is nothing for you to do. Download, retouch, upload, done. You do not have to think about preserving the original, because that happens automatically.
As soon as a frame is finished, every order that was held up moves on towards production by itself. Remembering which order was waiting on what is not your job.
Production in a few clicks
You select the orders to be produced and start them. The files are generated in the right format, a passport photo for instance, and passed on to the lab: either by upload or as a downloadable package, depending on how that particular partner works.
Identical items are merged automatically. If twelve children across three classes ordered the same product with the same frame, it naturally goes down as a single production item.
Your own lab or an integrated partner
Where production goes is decided per product. What you make in-house stays with you; what a partner makes goes to them automatically. You do not have to choose between the two, and a single order can use both.
One production run can involve several partners: if you have the prints made in one place and the gift items in another, for example.
Tell us which lab you work with.
We will look together at how the work from one shoot would reach them.