A change order amends a sales order that has already been confirmed, adding items, removing them, or adjusting quantities and prices, without unwinding the original. It is how you handle the real world, where a customer scales an order up or down after it is agreed, while keeping a clean record of what changed.
- What a change order can and cannot change
- How it updates the parent order
- Why it is administrative, not a stock movement
How it behaves
What it changes
A change order is raised against a confirmed sales order and carries the deltas: it can add new lines, remove existing ones, and adjust quantities and prices. It does not touch the order header, the customer, delivery address and payment terms stay as agreed. It runs Draft, Review, Confirm, Cancelled.
It updates the order's deliverables
When a change order is confirmed, it rebuilds the parent order's deliverable quantities from the deltas and recalculates the order total, so the order always reflects the latest agreed scope. The original order and each change remain on record, so the history of how the deal evolved is auditable rather than overwritten.
Worked example
A customer confirms an order for 100 units, then asks for 120. Rather than cancelling and re-raising, you raise a change order for +20; on confirmation the order's deliverables and total update to 120, with the change recorded as its own document.
Edge cases and good practice
- Change orders, not silent edits, keep the evolution of a deal auditable.
- Header stays fixed; use a change order for lines and quantities, not for changing the customer or terms.
- Stock follows delivery, not the change order itself.
Related
- Reference: Sales Order (the parent)
- Reference: Credit Note