Sales Order

Last updated: June 20, 2026

A sales order is the committed agreement to supply. Where a quotation only offers, an order is the live record of a deal the customer has accepted, and it stays open while the work of fulfilling it happens: allocating stock, delivering in drops, and billing in stages until everything is shipped and paid. It is the hub the rest of the sale revolves around.

What you will learn
  • How an order is generated from a quotation, or built directly
  • What the Order, Change and Processing tabs are for
  • The order lifecycle and the fulfilment statistics it tracks
  • How invoicing by item differs from invoicing by amount
The sales document chainQTNQuotationSOSales OrderINVInvoiceDODeliveryOne order can spawn several deliveries and several invoices over its life.
The order is the middle of the chain, feeding both deliveries and invoices simplified mockup

Anatomy of the screen

Unlike the quotation, the order is a multi-tab document because it has a life to track, not just a price to state:

  • Order tab – the line items, the same shared editor as everywhere else, plus the customer and document blocks. Here you also record the customer order code (their purchase-order number), a planned delivery date and the warehouse location.
  • Change tab – where enabled, the linked change orders that adjust quantities after the order is live, kept separate so the original agreement and its amendments are both on record.
  • Processing tab – where inventory is enabled, the fulfilment view: ordered quantity, what is still pending, what is being procured or produced, and what is released from stock, with fill buttons to action each.

How it behaves

Lifecycle

An order runs Draft, Verify, then Open (processing), with an optional Hold, through to Complete; it can be Cancelled. While goods are going out it shows a delivery state. The milestones Order, Pending, Delivery and Complete give a plain reading of how far along it is.

Fulfilment statistics

The order continuously tracks ordered, processed, delivered and invoiced quantities. These are what let it sit half-shipped and half-billed without losing count, and they drive the milestone display.

Payment tracking

Alongside the goods, the order tracks money: how much has been invoiced, how much received, any adjustments, and the payable balance that remains. The order is therefore the single place to see both physical and financial completion.

Two ways to invoice an order

An order can be billed by item (you pick the lines and quantities to invoice) or by amount (you bill a lump sum and the system prorates it across the order, reducing each line in proportion to overall progress). Amount mode is how staged or contract-style billing works; the balance simply carries forward to the next invoice. The mechanics live on the invoice page.

Worked example

Acme accepts your quote, so you generate an order for thirty widgets and record their PO number. Stock for twenty arrives first, so you raise a delivery for twenty; the delivered statistic moves to twenty, pending to ten. You invoice those twenty by item. A week later the last ten ship and are billed, the statistics fill, and the order moves to Complete.

Edge cases and good practice

  • Change orders, not silent edits. Once an order is live, prefer a change order to alter quantities so the original commitment and the amendment are both auditable.
  • Hold parks an order without cancelling it, for example while waiting on a customer confirmation or a credit check.
  • Watch the statistics, not just the status. An order can be Complete on delivery yet still carry a payable balance; the two tracks are independent.

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