Ledgers
A ledger is the running account of one thing: a customer, the sales income, VAT, cash, a bank. Every ledger has a debit side and a credit side, and its balance is the difference.
- A customer is a ledger, kept under Sundry debtors by default. What the customer owes you is that ledger's debit balance.
- Sales is a ledger too. Each product can name its own sales ledger; a product without one uses the company's sales ledger from Configuration.
- VAT and discounts are ledgers behind the sales adjustments (see VAT, discounts and sales adjustments).
- Cash and bank are ledgers that receipts are deposited to.
Vouchers
A voucher is one numbered document that records a movement: it debits some ledgers and credits others by the same total. Each kind of voucher has its own numbering series (see Document numbering for sales).
| Document (screen) | Records ledger entries | Moves stock |
|---|---|---|
| Sales quotation | No | No |
| Sales order | No | No |
| Goods delivery note | No | Yes: the goods leave the warehouse |
| Sales invoice (all forms) | Yes: the customer owes, sales income and VAT are booked | Yes, unless it was made from a delivery note (the note already moved the goods) |
| Sales return | Yes: reverses the sale | Yes: the goods come back |
| Sales return (Provisional) | No, until it is approved and becomes a sales return | No, until approved |
| Sales additional (add-on voucher) | Yes: an extra charge or cost tied to an invoice | No |
| Receipt voucher | Yes: money in, the customer owes less | No |
| Goods delivery (trip record) | No | No |
The full list of documents that move stock, with the warehouse, the value and the time, is in Which documents move stock, and how.
The invoice is the sale
In this guide "sales invoice" and "sales bill" mean the same document. The invoice is the voucher that puts the sale into the books, so everything else in selling either leads up to it (quotation, order, delivery note) or corrects it (return, cancel). See The sales documents and how they link for the chain and What a sale changes in the books for exactly what the invoice changes.