diff --git a/controllers/orderController.go b/controllers/orderController.go
index 16f25a1..a311a35 100644
--- a/controllers/orderController.go
+++ b/controllers/orderController.go
@@ -303,6 +303,24 @@ func (ctl *OrderController) CreateOrderv3(c *fiber.Ctx) error {
 		}
 	}
 
+	// 🛠️ Strategy 3: some clients send the header under "orders" but the line
+	// items as a SIBLING top-level "items" array rather than nested inside
+	// it. Strategy 2's OrderWrapper only has an "orders" field, so
+	// encoding/json silently drops that sibling key — the order header
+	// parses fine but data.Items ends up empty, which used to let the order
+	// go through with zero items and skip the stock check entirely (the
+	// pre-validation loop below iterates over data.Items). Pick it up here
+	// if strategies 1/2 left Items empty.
+	if len(data.Items) == 0 {
+		type ItemsWrapper struct {
+			Items []models.OrderDetail `json:"items"`
+		}
+		var itemsWrapper ItemsWrapper
+		if err := c.BodyParser(&itemsWrapper); err == nil && len(itemsWrapper.Items) > 0 {
+			data.Items = itemsWrapper.Items
+		}
+	}
+
 	// Double check we have the required ID
 	if data.Tenantid == 0 {
 		return c.Status(http.StatusConflict).JSON(fiber.Map{
@@ -312,6 +330,18 @@ func (ctl *OrderController) CreateOrderv3(c *fiber.Ctx) error {
 		})
 	}
 
+	// An order with no line items has nothing to check stock against — the
+	// pre-validation loop in CreateOrder simply wouldn't run, silently
+	// creating a phantom header-only order that never deducted stock.
+	// Reject it outright instead.
+	if len(data.Items) == 0 {
+		return c.Status(http.StatusBadRequest).JSON(fiber.Map{
+			"code":    http.StatusBadRequest,
+			"message": "Order must contain at least one item",
+			"status":  false,
+		})
+	}
+
 	if strings.TrimSpace(data.Orderdate) == "" {
 		data.Orderdate = time.Now().Format("2006-01-02 15:04:05")
 	}