# Status & Stage
Co-Sell Referral Status & Stage Guide
---
Managing referrals across different cloud marketplaces can be complex because AWS, Azure, and GCP all use different terminology for their statuses and stages.
Fours unifies these into a single, standardized **Fours Status** to help you track your deals easily without needing to memorize specific definitions for every cloud provider.
This guide explains what each Fours status means and how it maps to the specific status or stage in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
## Status Overview & Mappings
The table below shows the correspondence between the unified Fours Status and the native Partner Status/Stage.
| Fours Status | Explanation | AWS Mapping | Azure Mapping | GCP Mapping |
|--------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|------------------------------------------|----------------------------|---------------------|
| **Draft** | The referral is saved as a draft in Fours and has not been submitted to the cloud partner yet. | (Not yet synced) | (Not yet synced) | (Not yet synced) |
| **Pending Create** | The referral is currently being processed by Fours and will be created on the partner portal shortly. | Pending Create | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| **Create Failed** | The submission failed. You can hover over the status icon to see the specific error message. | (Error) | (Error) | (Error) |
| **Update Failed** | A later update to an existing referral failed to reach the cloud partner. The referral still exists — hover over the status icon to see the specific error message. | (Error) | (Error) | (Error) |
| **In Review** | Successfully submitted. Waiting for the cloud partner to review. | Status: Submitted, In Review | SubStatus: Pending (Outbound) | State: SUBMITTED |
| **Pending Acceptance** | Action Required: You received an inbound referral. Please accept or decline it to proceed. | Status: Received (Engagement Invitation) | SubStatus: Received (Inbound) | (N/A) |
| **Action Required** | Action Required: The cloud partner requires updates. Please modify the referral based on feedback and submit again. | Status: Action Required | (N/A) | (N/A) |
| **Rejected** | The referral was rejected by the cloud partner. | Status: Rejected | SubStatus: Declined | State: NOT_ACCEPTED |
| **Expired** | The referral expired because it was not approved or rejected within the time limit. | Status: Expired | Status: Expired | (N/A) |
| **Active** | The referral is active. It has been accepted by the cloud partner or created as a self-led referral. | Status: Approved | Status: Active & SubStatus: Accepted | State: ACCEPTED |
| **Closed Won** | The referral has been successfully closed as Won. | Stage: Launched | SubStatus: Won | Stage: MIGRATION_IMPL |
| **Closed Lost** | The referral has been closed as Lost. | Stage: Closed Lost | SubStatus: Lost | Stage: CLOSED_LOST |
| **Closed Error** | The referral was closed by the cloud partner due to a validation or system error. | (N/A) | SubStatus: Error | Stage: CLOSED_ADMIN |
## Azure-only Columns
Two extra columns appear on the **Azure** tab of the referral list. They are shown by
default, and they are removed automatically when you switch to a non-Azure tab — AWS and
GCP have no equivalent, so there is nothing to show.
### Microsoft Status
**Microsoft Status** is Microsoft's own copy of the referral state, shown next to the
unified Fours Status. Use it when you need to reconcile against what Partner Center
displays rather than what Fours has normalized.
Microsoft expresses the state as a **Status** plus a **Substatus**:
| Part | Values |
| --- | --- |
| **Status** | `New` · `Active` · `Closed` · `None` |
| **Substatus** | `None` · `Pending` · `Received` · `Accepted` · `Won` · `Lost` · `Declined` · `Expired` · `Error` |
The pair is what carries the meaning — for example, `Active` + `Accepted` is a referral
Microsoft has taken on, while `Closed` + `Won` is a referral Microsoft considers won. The
Fours Status column above collapses these pairs into a single value.
### Co-sell Type
**Co-sell Type** records how the deal is being run with Microsoft:
| Value | Meaning |
| --- | --- |
| **Co-sell** | Both you and Microsoft are actively working the deal together. |
| **Partner-led** | You lead the deal; Microsoft has visibility but is not selling alongside you. |
| **Private** | The referral is kept private to your organization. |
## Understanding Key Features
### 1. Unified View
Instead of juggling AWS "Stages," Azure "Sub-statuses," and GCP "States," you can rely on the **Fours Status** column to know exactly where a deal stands in the lifecycle.
Each status carries an in-product tooltip. Hover the status on any referral to read the
same explanation the table above gives, without leaving the list.
### 2. Error Troubleshooting
If a referral enters the **Create Failed** or **Update Failed** state:
**Hover:** You can hover your mouse over the status in the list view to see a card containing the specific error message explaining why it failed.
**Detail Page:** The error message is also visible directly on the referral detail page.
#### Failures that don't change the status
Not every failure shows up as **Create Failed** or **Update Failed**. Some leave the referral's
status exactly as it was (**Active**, for example) and put a red **!** on the status tag
instead:
- **Hover** the tag. Instead of the usual status explanation, the hover card shows the reason,
under an **Update Failed** label.
- **Open the referral.** On an AWS, Azure, or GCP referral, a banner at the top of the detail
page reads `Update Failed: `.
- **Find every affected referral.** With AWS, Azure, or GCP selected in the referral list, add
the filter **Update Status** = `FAILED`.
The mark clears on its own the next time the same action succeeds, so there is nothing to
dismiss.
Situations that produce the mark include:
| What failed | The reason shown | What to do |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A CRM change failed Fours' AWS update check, so it never reached AWS | Starts with `CRM sync rejected:` | See [Referral Syncing → Troubleshooting](/cosell/cosell-syncing/#troubleshooting) |
| Accepting or declining an AWS engagement invitation | The error AWS returned | See [Inbound Referral](/cosell/cosell-inbound/#if-accepting-or-declining-an-aws-invitation-fails) |
| A CRM stage mapped to Won could not close a Fours co-sell | What blocked the close | See [CRM Closed Won didn't close the co-sell](#crm-closed-won-didnt-close-the-co-sell) below |
#### Cross Cloud Conflict
Not every blocked change shows up as a failure. If you enabled the
[**Prevent duplicate Closed Won** validation rule](/cosell/cosell-configuration/#prevent-a-duplicate-closed-won),
Fours checks — before moving a referral into the guarded stage — whether the same CRM
opportunity has **already transacted in a different cloud**. When it has, the stage change is
skipped rather than rejected: nothing is saved, nothing is pushed to the partner, and no error is
returned.
Because that skip is silent, the referral detail page raises a dismissible yellow
**Cross Cloud Conflict** alert instead. It tells you:
- which automatic action was skipped, and the stage it would have moved to;
- which cloud the deal appears to have already transacted in;
- the CRM record value that matched, and a link to the conflicting offer.
**What to do:** open the linked offer and confirm which cloud the deal genuinely closed in.
If this referral should close too, move the stage in the partner portal directly, or turn the
validation rule off for that stage mapping. Dismissing the alert only hides it — it does not
apply the skipped change.
#### CRM Closed Won didn't close the co-sell
This applies to **Fours partner-to-partner** co-sells. When the CRM opportunity linked to your
copy of the co-sell moves to a stage mapped to **Won** in your
[stage mapping](/cosell/cosell-configuration/#picklist-value-mapping), Fours closes the co-sell
as Won for you. Only the seller's copy (the one linked to your CRM) is closed this way.
The automatic close runs the same checks as the **Close Won** gate. If one of them fails, the
co-sell stays open, and the right-hand panel of its detail page shows an amber
**Action Required** card headed **CRM opportunity closed won**, with the reason. The most
common reasons:
| Reason on the card | What to do |
| --- | --- |
| The co-sell hasn't been accepted yet | Only an **Active** co-sell can close as Won, so the co-sell has to be accepted first. |
| The final deal value is missing | Add a deal value greater than 0. |
| The deal value currency is not set | Set the currency. |
| A partner's commission terms are still incomplete | Finish that partner's commission terms. |
If you are the seller and the co-sell is **Active**, the card also offers
**Complete & Close Won**. It opens the [Close Won gate](/cosell/cosell-outbound/#board-view),
where you supply what is missing and close the deal. The card disappears once the co-sell is
closed as Won.
```d2
direction: down
crm: "CRM opportunity moves to\na stage mapped to Won"
sync: "Fours CRM sync\n(seller's copy)"
check: "Close Won checks pass?" { shape: diamond }
won: "Co-sell closed as Won"
card: "Co-sell stays open\nAction Required card names the reason"
gate: "Complete & Close Won\n(seller, Active co-sell)"
crm -> sync -> check
check -> won: "yes"
check -> card: "no"
card -> gate: "fix the cause"
gate -> won
```
For the rest of the deal page, see [Track and Respond to Deals](/prm/track-and-respond-to-deals/).
### 3. Inbound vs. Outbound Logic
**In Review:** Generally applies to **Outbound** referrals (deals you sent to the cloud partner) that are waiting for their approval.
**Pending Acceptance:** Applies to **Inbound** referrals (opportunities the cloud partner sent to you) that require your acceptance.