Sales Orders
A confirmed customer commitment. Tracks fulfillment. No journal, no AR.
A sales order records a confirmed customer commitment that has not yet been invoiced or delivered. It is the operational contract between you and the customer — it says what was agreed, at what price, and how much has been fulfilled. Sales orders have no financial impact: no journal entries, no AR movement, no stock movement. They are pure fulfillment tracking.
When to Use Sales Orders
Sales orders sit between an estimate (proposal) and an invoice (financial event). They are appropriate when:
- There is a delay between order confirmation and delivery
- Fulfillment is incremental — part of the order ships now, the rest later
- The business needs to track backlog and committed quantities
- Operations needs visibility into what to pick, pack, and ship before finance needs to invoice
If you invoice immediately on order confirmation, you may not need sales orders — go directly to invoice.
Creating a Sales Order
Navigate to: Sales → Sales Orders → New
Form Fields
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Customer | Required. Searchable dropdown. |
| Date | Required. The date the order was placed. |
| Items | Same item table as invoice: Item, Qty, Rate, Discount, Tax, Amount. |
| Subject | Optional. A title for the order. |
| Center/Location | Shown when the business has centers. The branch or fulfillment location. |
| Project | Optional. Link to a project. |
| Note | Optional. Internal notes or customer instructions. |
| Attachments | Optional. |
| Recurring | Optional. A sales order can be made recurring like an invoice. |
Status Lifecycle
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Draft | Saved without posting. Not confirmed. |
| Open | Confirmed order. Awaiting fulfillment. Zero quantities delivered or invoiced. |
| Partly fulfilled | Some quantities have been delivered or invoiced. Remaining quantities are still outstanding. |
| Fulfilled | Every quantity has been delivered or invoiced. Order is complete. |
| Voided | Order cancelled. Remains in system for audit. |
The status is derived from the posted delivery notes and invoices created from the order — never typed. A draft child counts for nothing; the same units delivered and then invoiced count once, not twice.
Fulfillment Tracking
The order's Lifecycle panel compares what was ordered with what has been delivered:
- A sentence — "50% of the ordered quantity delivered — shortage of 12", or "Fully delivered"
- Per item: Ordered, Received, and the difference
- Once invoices exist: whether they were billed at the order rate, and billed against ordered totals
Fulfillment updates automatically when you convert the sales order to a delivery note or an invoice.
Converting a Sales Order
Convert to Invoice
Navigate to: Sales order page → More → Convert to → Invoice
The invoice form pre-populates with every line. Edit quantities to bill part of the order, then save. The order reads Partly fulfilled or Fulfilled according to what has been covered.
Convert to Delivery Note
Navigate to: Sales order page → More → Convert to → Delivery Note
Use this when goods need to be dispatched before invoicing. The delivery note records the physical movement of inventory. Inventory is reduced when the delivery note is saved. Invoice separately afterwards — from the delivery note, so the invoice does not reduce stock again.
You can convert a sales order to a delivery note or an invoice as many times as you need, editing the quantities on each new document to the part being covered now. The sales order stays Open or Partly fulfilled until all quantities are covered. This supports staged delivery and billing for large orders.
Related
- Dispatching against the order: Delivery notes.
- Billing the order: Converting between documents.
- Reading fulfilment and the shortages it finds: The Lifecycle panel.
- Watching the open pile: Tracking sales documents.