What an order is
A sales order is a promise to supply. It does not change the books or the stock. What it does is keep a list of what is still to be delivered or billed, so delivery notes and invoices can be made from it without retyping.
Open Sales order (menu Sales Entries › Order). The Status is Not used, Used on gdn, Used on bill, Expired or Cancelled; where your company uses approval, an Approved or Un-approved tag sits beside it.
Take an order
- Choose Add
- Start from a quotation if there is one
- Fill the header
- Add the products
- Save
Approval
Where your company uses approval for sales orders, an approver opens the order and chooses Approve. The approver sets an Approved QTY for each line (never more than ordered). Only the approved quantity can be delivered or invoiced. Un-approve takes the approval back while nothing has been used. Without an approval system, the whole order quantity is available at once.
An advance against an order
Choose Receipt on the order to record money received in advance. It is a receipt voucher against the order. When the invoice is made from that order, the receipt moves onto the invoice by itself and counts as paid: see Receive money from a customer and What clears what in the customer's account.
After saving
| You want to | Do this |
|---|---|
| Deliver goods | GDN creates a goods delivery note from the order (Deliver goods with a goods delivery note) |
| Bill straight away | Start a Sales Invoice and find the order in Order no (From quotation to order, delivery note and invoice) |
| Give up the whole order | Order cancel: you type Cancel to confirm; it cannot be rolled back |
| Give up part of it | Use Sales order cancellation (Cancel an order or part of it) |
| Change it | Edit, until a delivery note or invoice has taken any of it, or it is approved |