Order types in Sales Customer Relationship Management

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated October 7, 2025
  • 3 minutes to read
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    Summary of Order types in Sales Customer Relationship Management

    In ServiceNow Order Management, there are two primary sales order types:customer ordersandservice orders. Understanding their differences helps you select the appropriate type for your business processes. Customer orders are used to purchase or change products or services, while service orders handle the activation and post-sales requests for services that were previously activated and delivered.

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    Key Features

    • Customer Orders: Represent purchases of tangible or digital products, consisting of one or more line items with product-specific details. They use the TMF622 Product Ordering API and support add, change, and delete actions. Decomposition breaks them down into product, service, and resource orders.
    • Service Orders: Represent technical fulfillment of non-commercial services, including activation and post-sales service requests. They consist of line items based on service specifications, use the TMF641 Service Ordering API, and support additional MACD (Move, Add, Change, Delete) actions like disconnect, suspend, and resume. Decomposition creates service and resource orders for fulfillment.
    • Order Identification and Lifecycle: Both order types have unique IDs with prefixes—ORD(nnn) for captured orders, SO(nnn) for service domain orders, and RO(nnn) for resource orders. Approved service orders decompose into actionable service and resource orders that manage fulfillment.
    • Roles: Different roles manage each order type, such as order agents and fulfillment managers for customer orders, and service order agents and managers for service orders.
    • Inventory Impact: Customer orders affect sold product inventory, whereas service orders impact product inventory relevant to service fulfillment.
    • Industries: Both order types suit all industries, but service orders are especially preferred in telecommunications.
    • Service Order Fulfillment Actions: Service orders support key actions—Deliver (providing ordered items) and Qualify (validating service/product fulfillment feasibility). Qualification requests are created via external APIs, while Deliver is the default fulfillment type within ServiceNow Order Management.

    Key Outcomes

    By correctly selecting and managing customer and service orders, you ensure accurate, efficient fulfillment of product sales and service activations or modifications. This structured approach supports comprehensive order decomposition, clear role assignments, and streamlined inventory management. It also enhances your ability to track and fulfill complex service requests, which is particularly critical in industries like telecommunications.

    Customer orders and service orders are the two main type of sales orders in ServiceNow Order Management. Learn about their differences and how to select an appropriate order type for your use case.

    Use customer orders for ordering products or services. Use service orders for the activation of new services or for the post-sales requests for the services that were activated for and delivered to customers at earlier dates. By using this process, you ensure that service orders are correct and handled efficiently throughout the entire fulfillment process. The following table compares customer and service orders and lists the differences between the two.
    Aspect Customer order Service order
    Definition Orders for products (tangible or digital) that a customer wants to purchase or change.

    Orders for services that are non commercial in nature and only require technical fulfillment.

    Use service orders for the activation of new services or for the post-sales requests for the services that were activated for and delivered to customers at earlier dates.
    Order record structure
    • Customer order record with one or more line items based on the product offering.
    • Includes product specification, characteristics, and values.
    • Service order record with one or more line items based on service specification.
    • Includes service specification, characteristics, and values.
    TMF APIs for order capture TMF622: Product Ordering API TMF641: Service Ordering API
    MACD order options
    • Add
    • Change
    • Delete
    • Add
    • Change
    • Disconnect
    • Suspend
    • Resume
    Decomposition
    • It's based on product, service, and resource specification, and rules.
    • Upon approval, order is decomposed into product, service, and resource orders.
    • Can create multiple domain orders (product, service, resource) per line item.
    • It's based on service specification and rules.
    • Upon approval, order is decomposed into service and resource orders.
    • Typically creates service and resource orders per line item.
    Unique roles
    • Order agent [sn_ind_tmt_orm.order_agent]
    • Order fulfillment manager [sn_ind_tmt_orm.order_fulfilment_manager]
    • Service order agent [sn_ind_tmt_orm.service_order_agent]
    • Service order manager [sn_ind_tmt_orm.service_order_manager]
    Inventory impact Sold products Product inventory
    Suitable for All industries All industries, highly preferred for the telecommunication industry

    Differences between the pre- and post-approval service orders

    Like customer orders, captured service orders also have an ID with a prefix of ORD(nnn). The Order Category field in the order forms indicates if the order is for a Product (a customer order) or a Service (a service order). These labels enable you to identify the type of order.

    When you approve a captured service order for fulfillment, the post-approval decomposition process generates actionable service orders and resource orders. You may see a single service order, multiple service orders, and resource orders that are associated with your approved service order.
    • Service orders with a prefix of SO(nnn) are referred to as domain orders. These orders, and their related resource orders, with a prefix of RO(nnn), must be fulfilled to complete the service order line items on the captured service orders.
    • The resource order manages the resources required to fulfill the services that the customer is requesting.
    • These domain orders manage the fulfillment of the requested service orders.
    To learn more, see Order decomposition.

    Order types for service orders

    The following are the two key fulfillment actions for service orders:
    • Deliver: Involves providing the ordered items to the customer once the order is ready.
    • Qualify: Validates whether a service or product can be fulfilled before actual execution.

    Service qualification request orders with fulfillment type as Qualify can only be created in the ServiceNow Order Management system using APIs from external qualification request systems. When you capture an order using Order Management, the orders are created with the fulfillment type as Deliver.