A sales order records what a customer has committed to buy — the items, quantities and agreed prices — before the goods go out. It takes no payment, moves no stock and posts nothing to the books. When you deliver, you convert the order into an invoice for what is going out; an order delivered in two or more goes is invoiced in parts, and SeroBooks keeps track of what is still to go.
Opening Create Sales Orders
- Customers ▸ Create Sales Orders
- Home ▸ Sales Orders (in the Customers band)
- New Sales Order on the Sales Orders list
Step by step
- Open Create Sales Orders.
- Choose the CUSTOMER — a sales order needs a named customer.
- Add the items and quantities ordered from the item bar; check prices, line discounts and tax. See Invoice lines.
- Add a DISCOUNT, SHIPPING charge or NOTE on the right if they are part of the order.
- Click Create Sales Order — $… (or F9). Save & New saves it and starts another.
SeroBooks confirms Sales order (number) created for (customer) — fulfil it from Customers ▸ Sales Orders. If Package slip is ticked under When this is saved, a packing slip prints for the warehouse, with the bins to fetch each line from.
The sales order form
The form is the invoice form in sales order mode. What differs:
| Part | On a sales order |
|---|---|
| Header, lines and totals | As on an invoice: customer, credit position, addresses, date, lines, discounts, shipping, tax and the order total. |
| Settlement | Not shown — a sales order takes no payment. |
| Create Sales Order — $… | Saves the order. F9 or Ctrl+S. |
| Save & New | Saves it and starts a blank order. |
| Estimate instead | Saves the lines as an estimate instead. |
| Invoice instead | Turns the form into an invoice, keeping the lines — for a customer who is taking the goods now. |
From Create Invoices, Order saves an invoice-in-progress as a sales order in the same way; from an estimate being revised, Order does the same. See The invoice buttons.
If no customer is chosen, SeroBooks says Pick the customer first — a sales order is a commitment by a named customer.
What a sales order does
- Books: nothing is posted. No Accounts Receivable, income or tax until you invoice it.
- Stock: nothing moves and nothing is reserved. The invoice takes the stock out when you deliver. The Sales Order Fulfillment Worksheet shows how much of each order your stock on hand can cover, and what other open orders want of the same item.
- Progress: each order is Ordered, Partial or Completed as invoices are raised against it. See The Sales Orders list.
Delivering and invoicing
When goods go out, open the order in the Sales Orders list and click Convert (or Convert to Invoice on the order). SeroBooks loads the quantities still to deliver at the agreed prices into Create Invoices; adjust them to what is actually going and save the invoice. See The Sales Orders list.
Common problems
| Problem | What to do |
|---|---|
| Pick the customer first… | Choose the customer before saving. |
| The save button is grey. | Add at least one line. |
| The order does not appear in the list. | Check the list's period and status filter. |