Sales
Invoices, receipts, credit notes, POS, deferred revenue, and customer management.
Sales is the cash-in engine. It covers the whole path from a first conversation with a customer to money in the bank — proposals, orders, dispatch, invoices, receipts and returns — and it produces the journal entries that Finance then presents in the ledger. Nothing in Sales is posted twice, and nothing is posted by hand.
Three questions Sales must answer
| Question | Where to look |
|---|---|
| What does this customer owe me? | The customer page — Outstanding, Overdue, Unapplied payments and Credit available, all as at a date you choose. |
| Which invoices are overdue? | Sales → Invoices → the Overdue tile, which totals the exposure as well as listing it. |
| Which cash has not been applied yet? | Sales → Receipts → the Unmatched and Partly Matched tiles. |
What each document posts
Documents in Draft post nothing at all. Only a saved, live document reaches the ledger.
| Document | Journal? | What posts | Stock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice | Yes | DR Accounts Receivable · CR Sales Revenue (net of discount) · CR Sales Tax Payable. Stock items add DR Cost of Sales / CR Inventory Asset. | Out |
| Sales receipt (cash sale) | Yes | DR the deposit account you chose · CR Sales Revenue at gross · CR Sales Tax Payable · DR Discount Allowed. Stock items add DR Cost of Sales / CR Inventory Asset. | Out |
| Receipt | Yes | DR Bank or Cash (net of withholding) · DR each withholding-tax account · CR Accounts Receivable at gross. A settlement discount adds DR Discount Allowed. | — |
| Credit note | Yes | DR Sales Revenue · DR Sales Tax Payable · CR Accounts Receivable. Returned stock items reverse: DR Inventory Asset / CR Cost of Sales. | In |
| Customer refund | Yes | DR Accounts Receivable · CR Bank or Cash. | — |
| Opening balance / Statement | Yes | DR Accounts Receivable · CR Opening Balance Equity. | — |
| Delivery note | No | No journal. It is a goods movement, not a financial event. | Out |
| Estimate | No | Nothing. A proposal is not a transaction. | — |
| Sales order | No | Nothing. A commitment is not a transaction. | — |
| Proforma invoice | No | Nothing. It is a quotation in invoice clothing. | — |
| Invoice link | No | Nothing. The real invoice the recipient creates is what posts. | — |
The delivery note already took the goods out. When you convert it to an invoice, that invoice posts cost of sales without reducing stock again. A sales receipt is never suppressed this way — a cash sale is always terminal.
A discount on an invoice line simply reduces revenue and the receivable — no Discount Allowed line is posted, because you never billed the higher figure. A discount on a cash sale or given for early settlement does post to Discount Allowed, because there the higher figure was real. The asymmetry is deliberate.
Three sales cycles
| Cycle | Who uses it | Documents | Cash timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail / counter | Walk-in customers, cash sales | Sales receipt alone | Immediate — the deposit account is debited on saving |
| Standard B2B | Wholesale and trade customers on credit | Estimate → Sales order → Delivery note → Invoice → Receipt | Deferred — a receivable at invoice, cash at receipt |
| Direct invoice | Services, projects, retainers | Invoice → Receipt | Deferred — no proposal or order stage |
Start here
Working with any sales document
The page, the lists, the numbering, and the four things you can do to a document after it is posted. Learn these once and every document type follows.
Invoices
The core credit sale. Saving recognises revenue, creates the receivable and takes stock out — in one action, with no separate posting step.
Getting paid
Record what arrived, then decide what it pays. The journal posts when the receipt is saved; matching is a separate act that moves no money.
Before the invoice
Propose, confirm and dispatch. None of these three posts a journal — but a delivery note does move your stock.
Selling at the counter
Cash and card sales where invoice and payment are one document. The till lists these as Cash Sales, and every one of them is paid by definition.
Returns, credits and refunds
Reduce what a customer owes, or give money back. Two separate documents because they do two different things to your books.
Customers
The record that sets every default downstream, the page that answers the whole AR position for one customer, and the statement you send them.
Billing on a schedule
Repeat an invoice on a timer, share one as a public link, or record a prepaid contract against a liability account.