3. The system automatically transmits a digital stock release document to the warehouse, a digital shipping notice to the shipping department, and records the sale in the open sales order file. The structure of this file includes a CLOSED field that contains either the value N or Y to indicate the status of the order. Closed records (those containing the value Y) have been shipped, so the customer can now be billed. This field is used later to identify closed records to the batch procedure. The default value in this field when the record is created is N. It is changed to Y when the goods are shipped to the customer. The sales clerk can determine the status of an order in response to customer inquiries by viewing the records.