Maybe I have missed one important point. I don't want the OE person to change the status on the customer. I want the AR person to control the availability to ship the order.
That said I just went back & started again. I have "enter on new" only ticked in setup for the on hold.
I did a order for a customer ...completed. put that customer on hold and went back did a copy of the order, pop up notified customer on hold. proceeded with order, could not invioce ...all good.
Took customer off hold, cannot access the area to modify the existing order. I can copy the order and status reverts to the customer status..not on hold. We are in Multi currency if that makes any difference. If you want to view give me a call & we can hook up.