Overview

Sales orders are used to record all orders placed and credit notes raised with the company for goods and services.  Orders and credit notes are entered by a unique debtor number and items being ordered or credited are selected by a unique part number.  Custom lines are available to enter order lines for non inventory items and text lines for additional descriptions and instructions.  

Where applicable, stock is temporarily allocated from stock on hand as each inventory order line is entered.  Items out of stock are placed on back order unless the item is unavailable for re-ordering.  Stock can also be forced onto back order to maintain stock levels or reserve stock for selected clients.  As the sales order is being saved, stock levels are checked again to ensure availability (another order may have be saved in the interim) and the stock on hand figures are updated.

Depending on system settings, sales orders can be entered as one of the following Order Types:

• Invoice Order - stock is allocated and the form can be processed to invoice the debtor.  Back order records are created when the form is processed.
• Reserve Order - stock is allocated but the form cannot be processed until changed to an Invoice Order or Active Order
• Forward Order - stock is not allocated and the form cannot be processed until changed to an Invoice Order or Active Order
• Active Order - stock is allocated and the form can be processed into the debtor account from the sales order screen only.  Back order records are created immediately on saving the form

System settings determine whether the order is automatically printed on saving or at a later time.  Provided at least one item of stock can be supplied at the time of printing, the notation Printed appears in the top right corner of the screen.  The inventory levels in the stock on hand are updated immediately.

Sales orders can also be raised for a Job Costing invoice and Service Manager labour and materials.

When a sales order is processed, the General Ledger and Debtor record is updated accordingly.

Invoice Orders

The advantage of Invoice Orders are that they can be processed in batch using the Process Orders menu item.

The disadvantage is that back order records are not created unless the order is processed.

Active Orders

The advantage of Active Orders is that multiple deliveries can be made on the same snapshot.  For example, customer orders 10 on Tuesday and 4 are allocated.  Backorder records are raised for 6.  The user can leave the order unprocessed as D01.  Then when stock arrives on Friday, use the Manual Back Order Release form to deliver the 6.  The History Comment on the sales order line shows 10 being delivered.  It doesn't show the 4 and then the 6.

The disadvantage is that Active Orders must be processed from the sales order entry form.  They can't be processed in batch from the Process Orders menu item.