Sell on sales orders

A sales order records what a customer has agreed to buy. Saving it holds the stock in its warehouse; confirming it commits you to deliver. From there the order is shipped in Inventory and invoiced in Receivables, and it closes once everything on it is shipped and billed.

Create an order

1. Go to Sales ‣ Transactions ‣ Orders and click New order.
2. Pick the Customer. The currency, payment term, sales rep and subsidiary fill in from the customer, so check them rather than retype them.
3. Check the Date, and enter the Delivery date the customer expects.
4. Pick the Warehouse the goods leave from, so stock can be held for the order.
5. Check the Sales rep. An order needs one before it can be confirmed.
6. On the Lines tab, pick the item in Item / description and enter the Qty. Click Add line for each further item.
7. Click Save draft.

The order is saved as Draft with its own number. Each stocked line now holds its quantity in the warehouse, so the stock cannot be promised to another customer.

Prices come from the customer’s price list: the listed price shows faintly in Unit price, and the order uses it unless you type another. Disc. % and Disc. amount give a line discount, and Tax group sets the tax. Under the lines, a discount can be taken off the whole order. The Posting profile tab shows Use default, which means the customer’s profile. The Notes tab holds Customer notes and Internal notes, which only your staff see.

Each save is checked against the rules in the Sales settings, such as a minimum order amount, and against the customer’s credit limit.

Note

An order is for goods you ship. A line for a service cannot be invoiced from the order on screen, and an order holding one cannot be closed. Bill services on their own invoice.

Confirm an order

Confirm the order once the customer has committed, so the warehouse can ship it.

1. Open the draft order from Sales ‣ Transactions ‣ Orders.
2. Click Edit if anything needs changing, and Save draft again.
3. Click Confirm, then Confirm in the dialog.

The order shows Confirmed and can no longer be edited. Fulfill order now appears on it.

A draft that is no longer wanted can be deleted: open it and click Delete. If it was converted from a quotation, the quotation comes back as Accepted.

Check the stock held for an order

Open a saved order to see, on each line, how much is Shipped, on Backorder and Invoiced.

When the warehouse has a line’s full quantity free, it is held for the order and the line shows no backorder. When it has not, the whole line shows on Backorder. As stock arrives in that warehouse, backordered lines are held in the order they were placed, oldest first, as far as the new stock goes.

Example

A tile wholesaler has 300 boxes of a floor tile in stock. A builder orders 200, and a shop then orders 150. The builder’s 200 boxes are held; the shop’s line shows 150 on Backorder. When a delivery of 500 boxes is received, the shop’s 150 are held before any later order.

Saving the draft again replaces the held stock with the new quantities. Cancelling the order frees it.

Hold an order for credit

Each time an order is saved, Axon Suite adds its total to what the customer already owes in that subsidiary: their posted invoices, less their posted payments. If the result is above the customer’s credit limit, what happens depends on the Credit tab of the Sales settings:

Settings	What happens to the order
Credit limit check and Block orders on credit hold both on (the default)	The save is refused with The customer account is on credit hold.
Either of them off	The order is saved with the status Credit hold, and waits for someone to release it.

A customer whose Credit limit is 0 has no limit, and their orders are never held.

Release a credit hold

When you decide to sell to the customer anyway, for example because they paid by bank transfer this morning, release the hold.

1. Open the order with the status Credit hold.
2. Click Release credit hold, then Release credit hold in the dialog.

The order shows Confirmed, as if it had been confirmed, and can be shipped. To refuse the sale instead, click Cancel order.

Ship and invoice an order

Shipping and invoicing happen in their own modules, each starting from the order.

1. Open the confirmed order and click Fulfill order. A shipment opens with one line for each item still to ship. Continue in Ship sales orders.
2. When the shipment has shipped, invoice it in Receivables. See Invoice the shipments of a sales order.

As shipments go out, the order shows Partially shipped, then Shipped. Its Related tab lists each shipment, invoice, return and journal entry. When the last invoice posts and every line is shipped and invoiced, the order shows Closed.

To tell the customer the goods are on the road, click Out for delivery on a confirmed or partially shipped order. The status changes to Out for delivery; the order can still be shipped, closed or cancelled.

Close an order

Close an order by hand when the customer will take no more of it, for example when they accept 90 of the 100 units ordered.

1. Make sure every shipment of the order has been invoiced.
2. Open the order and click Close order.
3. Click Close order in the dialog.

The order shows Closed and cannot be reopened.

Caution

Closing does not free the stock still held for lines that were not shipped, and a closed order cannot be reopened. When part of an order will never ship, cancel the order instead: cancelling frees the held stock, and what has already shipped stays shipped.

Cancel an order

Cancel an order the customer withdraws, at any point before it is fully shipped.

1. Open the order and click Cancel order.
2. Click Cancel order in the dialog.

The order shows Cancelled, and the stock it held goes back to free stock. A cancelled order cannot be reopened. Goods already shipped on it stay shipped; invoice them or take them back with a return.

Status	Meaning
Draft	Saved, holding stock, not yet confirmed. You can edit or delete it.
Credit hold	Over the customer’s credit limit, waiting to be released.
Confirmed	Committed; ready to ship.
Out for delivery	Marked as on its way to the customer.
Partially shipped	Some lines or quantities have shipped.
Shipped	Every stocked line has shipped in full.
Closed	Finished: shipped and invoiced, or closed by hand.
Cancelled	Withdrawn.

Messages you may meet

Message	What to do
The order must name a field representative and a warehouse before it is confirmed.	Click Edit, pick the Sales rep and the Warehouse, save, and confirm again.
The customer account is on credit hold.	The order would take the customer past their credit limit. Collect a payment, raise the credit limit, or ask an administrator to let orders go on hold instead.
An order ships from a warehouse, so one must be named.	Pick the Warehouse.
This subsidiary’s sales settings require every order to state a delivery date.	Enter the Delivery date.
The order subtotal is below the minimum this subsidiary’s sales settings allow.	Add to the order, or ask an administrator about the Min order amount.
The order carries more lines than this subsidiary’s sales settings allow.	Split the order in two.
The header discount exceeds this subsidiary’s maximum and requires price-override authority.	Lower the discount under the lines to the Max discount %, or ask someone allowed to change prices.
Line-level discounts are not permitted here; applying one requires price-override authority.	Remove the line discounts, or give a discount on the whole order.
A field that cannot be changed after creation was sent with a different value.	The order came from a quotation, whose lines and discounts cannot change. Put the lines back, or create a new quotation.
The sales order is not in a state that allows this.	The order has moved on since you opened it: reload it and check its status. On Close order, it also means a shipment of the order is not yet invoiced, or the order holds a service line; invoice the shipment first.