The Draft status introduces an initial staging phase to the ConnectSx Beacon event lifecycle, positioned immediately before Open. It allows sales representatives, distributors, operations teams, and Beacon AI (Kevin) to capture upcoming surgical cases and inventory events as placeholders the moment they are anticipated, even when essential details—such as the procedure date, facility, or physician—are not yet confirmed. Draft events remain completely isolated from downstream operations, ensuring preliminary entries never skew reports, inflate commission calculations, or trigger premature customer communications.
The Role of Draft Status in the Event Lifecycle
Beacon events traditionally progressed directly from creation to active scheduling. The addition of Draft status establishes a protected entry point at the start of the workflow:
Lifecycle Stage | Event Status | Primary Function & Operational Impact |
0. Staging | Draft | Temporary placeholder for incomplete or tentative cases. Excluded from all reports, explores, commission calculations, and automated notifications. Automatically deleted after 30 days if unapproved. |
1. Scheduled | Open | Fully scheduled active case. Visible across schedules, calendars, and daily digest emails. Inventory can be marked as used and quotes can be generated. |
2. Billing Review | Pending PO | Inventory usage has been recorded and submitted for billing. Sales orders (Device Use Tickets) are generated and shared with the healthcare facility. |
3. Invoicing | Pending Payment | Purchase order number has been entered or marked as external. Invoices are generated and distributed for payment collection. |
4. Completed | Paid | Final stage where invoice receipt and sales representative commissions have both been verified and marked paid |
Important Guardrails:
One-Way Progression: Once an event is approved and advances to Open (or any later status), it can never be transitioned back to Draft.
Directory Record Protection: If a draft references a physician, facility, or procedure, Beacon automatically blocks the deactivation of those directory records until the draft is approved or deleted.
30-Day Expiration: Any draft event that remains unapproved 30 days after its creation is automatically and permanently purged from the system along with its attachments and associated records.
Behind-the-Scenes Isolation: What Drafts Do and Do Not Do
While an event remains in Draft status, Beacon enforces strict boundaries to protect organizational reporting and compliance:
Reporting and Looker Explores: Excluded from every event list, count, export, and Looker analytics explore when no specific status filter is applied.
Commissions: Completely excluded from sales totals, commission calculations, and unpaid commission dashboards.
Notifications and Messaging: Suppresses the
EVENT_SCHEDULEDalert, writes no tracking audit rows, publishes noEVENT_CREATEDintegration messages, and excludes the event from the daily scheduled events digest email.Quotes and Pricing: Preference cards attached to a draft will not trigger automated quote generation until the draft is approved to Open.
Inventory and Custody: Containers and product lines can be associated with a draft record, but they do not write to
event_inventoryor alter field inventory custody. Actions meant for active cases—such as Mark Used Inventory, Reopen Event, or Cancel Event—are disabled.
How to Create and Manage Draft Events
You can create a draft manually from the console or capture one conversationally through Beacon AI.
Creating a Draft Manually
In the left navigation menu, go to Events and click Create New (or Add Manually).
Fill out known case information.
To intentionally stage the event as a draft, use the clear control next to the Date field to leave the date blank, or proceed with any required field left unfilled.
When required fields are missing or the date is cleared, the action button dynamically changes from Save to Save as Draft.
Click Save as Draft to preserve your progress without triggering scheduling alerts. If no event name is entered, Beacon automatically assigns a standardized placeholder name.
Locating Drafts in the Console
Because drafts represent tentative work, they are hidden from the primary Events view by default to keep daily schedules clean:
Events List View: Open the Status filter dropdown and check Draft. Drafts without scheduled dates display with a blank date field rather than being hidden.
Events Board View: When you have at least one visible draft, a dedicated Draft column appears to the left of the Open swimlane. If you have no active drafts, this column automatically hides to save space.
Direct Links & Kevin: Opening a draft from a search result, direct link, or Kevin chat response bypasses the standard Event Detail page and opens the record directly in the Create Event modal in draft state.
Editing or Deleting a Draft
Navigating Steps: In the draft modal, click Next to move between Step 1 and Step 2 freely, even if Step 1 contains incomplete fields.
Saving Intermediate Work: Click Save as Draft from either Step 1 or Step 2 to save your updates without advancing the status. Beacon does not autosave drafts, ensuring you control when revisions are committed.
Manual Deletion: To discard an unwanted draft immediately, click Delete draft in the modal header. This permanently removes the draft, any associated file attachments, and container associations.
Approving a Draft to Open Status
When all case specifics are confirmed, the draft can be approved to enter the active scheduling and billing pipeline.
Open the draft in the modal via the Events List, Board, or direct link.
Verify all required fields across both steps:
Event Type
Assigned Representative
Facility
Procedure (if required by event type)
Physician
Event Date (Mandatory for approval; an event cannot move to Open without a confirmed date)
Advance to Step 2. If any required field is missing or invalid on either step, the Create button remains disabled, and the specific missing fields are listed directly alongside the button.
Once all validation requirements pass, click Create.
Beacon conducts a final server check:
Verifies the assigned representative holds authorized directory assignments for the selected facility and physician.
Verifies the facility is not on credit hold.
Verifies user permissions and record concurrency.
Upon approval, the event updates to Open status. Beacon executes the create-path triggers once: the
EVENT_SCHEDULEDnotification is dispatched, tracking audit rows are recorded, any preference card quote is compiled, and the event flows into active calendars, Looker reports, and daily digests.