SultanaExpress

PLATFORM · CAPABILITIES · AS OF 2026-08-01

Everything after the handshake.

Tech pack. Sample. Capacity. QC. Customs. Escrow. Invoice. Certificate. Eight stations, one platform — every rule enforced on the server, every claim carrying its status tag.

Beta — September 2026

—

What "platform" means here

Finding a factory is not the hard part. The hard part is the workflow that follows: the spec, the sample approval, the production slot, the inspection, the border, the money, the paperwork, the proof. SultanaExpress makes that chain native product primitives — escrow on a real double-entry ledger, sample-gated production, bookable factory capacity, AQL quality control — self-serve, not a managed service bolted onto a directory.

One Go service is the application, and it is the only thing trusted. The database stores rows; it does not decide who may read them, does not move money, and does not encode rules. Every price, every status change, every permission is computed on the server. As of 2026-08-01 the build plan counts 649 steps; 304 are done, hardest half first — the money spine, tenant isolation, the manufacturing engines. No change merges without passing 52 merge-blocking CI checks.

One honesty rule governs this page: a finished backend is not the same as a screen you can click. Every capability below carries a status tag, and the tags mean exactly what they say. The supplier workspace is usable today — verification, catalog, pricing, inventory, quotes, orders. The buyer app is a shell. Both facts are on this page.

How to read the status tags

  • BUILT — engine + UI: the backend module is finished and CI-proven, and the screen that drives it has shipped. You can click it today.
  • BUILT — engine only: the backend is finished and tested; the screen is not built yet. The platform does this — you cannot self-serve it yet.
  • IN PROGRESS: in build right now.
  • PLANNED: spec written, not built. Never described in the present tense.
  • PLANNED (shape-only): the data model, ports and events ship now; the provider integration or rules are deferred on purpose.

01

The eight stations

This is the chain the platform owns. For each station: what it does, the mechanism that makes it hard to cheat, and its build status as of 2026-08-01.

  1. 01 · Tech pack

    BUILT — engine only

    The spec is written once and locked.

    You author points of measure with ± tolerances, grading rules, a bill of materials, colorways with Pantone references. Samples, orders and inspections pin the exact spec version they were placed against. Nobody can quietly change the spec mid-order.

    The mechanism

    Spec versions are append-only — the database refuses UPDATE and DELETE on them, the same rule as the money ledger. Editing a published spec mints a new version. When you award work, the winning factory gains access to that exact spec — minted by the award event itself, audited, and revoked when the order closes.

  2. 02 · Sample

    BUILT — engine only

    Bulk cannot start without your approval.

    The sampling ladder — proto, fit, pre-production — is a server-run state machine, and the pre-production (PP) sample is always mandatory. If you reject a sample, a new round opens; the old one stays as immutable history.

    The mechanism

    The start-production command returns 409 CONFLICT unless an approved PP sample exists for the order's pinned spec version. Bulk production cannot start — the platform returns a refusal, not a reminder.

  3. 03 · Capacity

    BUILT — engine · supplier UI IN PROGRESS

    An accepted quote reserves a real production window.

    Factories publish real capacity — lines, monthly throughput, lead times. When your quote is accepted, a booking decrements that capacity. Two buyers cannot be promised the same slot, and the promised ship date is computed from booked load, not typed into a static field.

    The mechanism

    Bookings walk tentative → confirmed → consumed on the server. The server refuses a sub-minimum order: a below-MOQ quantity returns 422 and rolls back the whole transaction, resolved from the supplier's own rules, most specific first. The supplier-facing capacity screens are in build right now (phase 112).

  4. 04 · QC

    BUILT — engine only

    Inspection math from the international standard.

    Inline, final and pre-shipment inspections compute sample sizes and accept/reject thresholds from ANSI/ASQ Z1.4. Measurements are checked against the exact locked spec version. A Time-&-Action calendar tracks cutting, sewing, finishing — and a slipping milestone alerts when it slips, not at delivery.

    The mechanism

    The AQL resolver is table-driven and unit-tested against reference vectors — held to the same correctness class as the money ledger, because a wrong computation passes defective lots. Third-party inspectors (SGS, Bureau Veritas, Intertek) are modelled first-class; today their reports upload as structured documents.

  5. 05 · Customs

    PLANNED (shape-only)

    A declaration, not a status flip.

    Cross-border orders will carry a real customs declaration with HS/GTİP classification, a duty estimate for display, and preferential-origin proof (A.TR, EUR.1). The Turkey→EU lane is the point: zero customs duties on industrial goods — textiles and apparel included — under the EU–Türkiye Customs Union.

    The mechanism

    The declaration will be a state machine — draft → submitted → cleared, held or rejected — triggered by the shipment's border-crossing event. Duty figures will be shown as estimates for display only; live rates and origin rules arrive in phase 2 with a customs broker. The data model and events are already specified in the plan, so the integration lands as an adapter, not a rebuild.

  6. 06 · Escrow

    BUILT — engine only

    Your money is an accounting fact, not a status flag.

    You pay into escrow; the factory is paid when you — or QC — accept the goods. Release is acceptance-gated, not delivery-gated: delivery only opens your acceptance window.

    The mechanism

    Escrow is an account state on a double-entry, append-only ledger. Balances are always derived from the record; the database refuses edits and deletes, and a correction is a reversing entry. Only the payment provider's signature-verified callback can mark money captured — no API endpoint can. Card numbers never touch our servers. The engine is built and proven in test mode; real money turns on at phase 150, behind payment-counsel, CPA and payment-provider sign-off by design.

  7. 07 · Invoice

    PLANNED

    Documents rendered from data, not uploaded.

    Commercial invoices, proformas and packing lists will generate from real order, customs and shipment data — Incoterms 2020 materialized per shipment. Turkish tax (KDV, tevkifat) will compute on the server; e-Fatura and e-Arşiv will clear through a GİB-licensed integrator.

    The mechanism

    Tax will be a versioned server-side lookup over jurisdiction × product class × customer type × transaction type — a browser will never send a tax figure. Clearance will advance only on signature-verified webhooks. Correctness will be walled by a deterministic golden-case CI matrix — never an LLM judgment. v1 is Türkiye-only; EU VAT is designed behind the same port and deliberately not built yet.

  8. 08 · Certificate

    BUILT — engine only

    Certificates verified, tracked, never leaked.

    Suppliers upload OEKO-TEX, GOTS, GRS, BSCI, ISO certificates and lab reports once. Each one is verified by an operator; the platform tracks validity and warns before a certificate lapses. Buyers filter on schemes — you can declare "products must be GOTS + GRS" and matching honours it.

    The mechanism

    Status moves pending → verified, rejected or expired only through an audited operator action — the old self-set "verified" checkbox is gone. Public cards show scheme, issuer and validity only; the certificate number and file never leave the platform.

02

Under the chain: the platform layer

All eight stations stand on one shared base. The same honesty rule tags this layer too.

  • Search in three languages, visibility built on the server

    BUILT — engine only

    Search products and factories in English, Turkish or Arabic — Turkish dotted and dotless İ handled correctly, typo tolerance included. Every visibility filter is built on the server; the browser is never trusted. Unverified suppliers are not down-ranked — they are not indexed at all. The index is a projection of the event log, rebuildable from scratch.

  • One messaging system

    BUILT — engine only

    Direct, order, RFQ and quote conversations run through one thread model. Attachments open only for the conversation's participants; a non-participant gets "not found" — existence never leaks. Every attachment rides the governed media pipeline.

  • Notifications are facts, not best effort

    BUILT — engine only

    A notification is a side-effect of a committed business fact, never a best-effort client call. It is durably written or retried — never silently dropped. Preferences are per user, per category, per channel: in-app, push, email.

  • Reviews only from real transactions

    BUILT — engine only

    Only companies that completed an order with each other can review — every rating on the platform attaches to real money that changed hands. Reviews are one of three trust signals — alongside certifications and KYB business verification — shown side by side and never blended into one composite score.

  • A private-by-default document plane

    BUILT — engine + supplier UI

    No public bucket exists — anywhere. Every file — artwork, lab dips, KYB documents, inspection photos — is virus-scanned before it is ever shown, authorization-checked on every open, and served through short-lived signed links. Your spec is your IP. It is treated that way.

  • A multi-sector engine

    BUILT — engine only

    Three industries run on one unforked engine; home textiles shipped with zero sector-specific code. A merge-blocking gate scans the core for sector special-casing and plants seven deliberate violations on every run to prove its own teeth. Adding a sector is a data entry, not an engineering project.

03

What we deliberately haven't built yet

A capabilities page that lists only what works is an advertisement. This one also lists what does not exist yet. Each item has a phase number in the plan — and this page changes when the status does.

  • Live card payments. The escrow engine is built and proven in test mode. Real money turns on at phase 150 — behind payment counsel, CPA and payment-provider sign-off. Those answers gate go-live by design; they never gated the build.

  • Buyer self-serve. The buyer app is a shell today; search, checkout and tracking screens are in the build queue. The supplier workspace is further along — verification, catalog, pricing, inventory, quotes and orders have shipped. Beta opens supplier-first.

  • Live carrier tracking. v1 records tracking events through a manual adapter. Carrier API integration arrives in phase 2 through a parcel aggregator; freight stays manual.

  • Duty calculation. Duty figures will be shown as estimates. Live rates and A.TR/EUR.1 origin rules arrive with a customs broker.

  • EU VAT / OSS. v1 tax is Türkiye-only. EU VAT is designed behind the same port — not built.

  • Net terms, letters of credit, factoring. Modelled in full and feature-flagged off. A net-terms request will return 409 CREDIT_DISABLED until the commercial and legal answers land.

  • Qualified e-signature. v1 contracts will be click-to-accept with a server-computed evidence seal. Turkish e-imza and eIDAS QES are a deferred adapter swap.

  • A live Digital Product Passport. The schema, traceability chain and ports are specified in the plan and ship ahead of the regulation; the EU data-carrier standard is 2027 regulation. When it lands, it lands as data plus one adapter — not a re-architecture.

  • Mobile apps. We built and ran an iOS marketplace before this rebuild. The new platform's mobile apps come after the web apps.

  • An admin console and promotions. Operator screens are stage 11 of the plan; nothing computes a promotion in v1. Neither is claimed until it ships.

Beta — September 2026. Turkey first, then Europe.

The platform opens supplier-first. Early-access suppliers are invited into the beta cohorts first; buyers come off the waitlist in order. Free for buyers. For suppliers, every system is free for the first 3 months at launch.

Apply for Supplier Early AccessJoin the Buyer Waitlist

Status tags on this page are re-derived from the build plan at every publish. As of 2026-08-01: 304 of 649 steps done, 62 of 145 phases closed.