Converting Between Documents
Turn an estimate into an order, an order into an invoice or a delivery note, an invoice into a receipt or a credit note. Conversion opens a pre-filled form — the source document is linked, never consumed.
A sale usually passes through more than one document. Conversion is how you move from one to the next without retyping the lines. It lives in one place — the More → Convert to section on the source document — and it always does the same thing: it opens a new, pre-filled form. Nothing is posted, and nothing about the source changes, until you save.
What converts into what
Only the destinations that make sense for a type are offered. There is no free-form "convert to anything".
| From | Offers | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Estimate | Invoice · Sales Order | The two ways an accepted proposal proceeds. |
| Quote | Invoice · Sales Order | Same as Estimate. |
| Sales Order | Invoice · Delivery Note | Bill it, or dispatch it first. |
| Invoice | Record Payment · Credit Note | Record Payment opens a receipt; Credit Note opens a return. |
| Delivery Note | Invoice | Bill for goods already dispatched. |
| Credit Note | Customer Refund | Turn a credit into cash going back out. |
| Sales Receipt | — none | A cash sale is already complete. Use Returns or Refunds from the Lifecycle panel instead. |
| Receipt | — none | A receipt is the end of the chain, not a step in it. |
The full chain, when a business uses every step:
How a conversion behaves
The section only renders when at least one destination applies to this type and you hold create permission on the destination.
Customer, currency, line items, quantities and rates carry over. The date defaults to today, not to the source's date — you are creating a document now.
Nothing is locked. Remove a line the customer dropped, change a quantity that was only partly delivered, add a line that was agreed later. A conversion is a starting point, not a transcription.
The new document is created with its own number and its own journal. The source keeps its number, its status and its journal.
Converting an estimate does not close it, and converting an order does not fulfil it. Those states are derived from what has actually been created against the source and are shown on its Lifecycle panel. An estimate whose value has partly moved onto an invoice reads Partly converted; an order that has been partly delivered reads Partly fulfilled.
When Convert to disappears
The section is withheld entirely when any of the following is true:
| Condition | Why |
|---|---|
| The document is voided or deleted | A withdrawn document is not a basis for a new one. |
| An approval workflow has it pending or in progress | Nothing may proceed from a document that has not been agreed. |
| The status is Paid, Fulfilled, Billed, Issued, Invoiced or Confirmed | The document has completed its purpose. The one exception: an Issued credit note stays convertible to a refund. |
| You are signed in as a Portal user | Portal users read; they do not create. |
| You lack create permission on the destination type | The destination is dropped from the list rather than shown and refused. |
The two conversions that look like something else
Record Payment on an invoice is a conversion. Whether you click the blue Record Payment button in the page header or pick it from Convert to, both open the same pre-filled receipt form. It appears twice on an unpaid invoice for that reason.
Take Payment on a sales order is a different route: it opens a sales receipt rather than a receipt, turning an open order into a completed cash sale in one document. It appears only when kitchen mode is switched on for that centre, and disappears once the order is paid, fulfilled or voided.
Related
- What each destination posts: Invoices, Receipts, Credit notes, Delivery notes.
- Reading how far a document has progressed: The Lifecycle panel.
- Choosing a path for your business: Sales cycles.