Sales & Order to Cash

Quote, take orders, ship and invoice on the Sales console: credit checks, stock reservation, delivery reversal, credit notes and the customer master.

The Sales Console

The Sales console is the sales desk's workspace: quotes, sales orders, delivery notes, invoices and the customer list on one screen, with every line priced by your price lists and every order checked against the customer's credit. It replaces keying sales documents into the generic datastore editor.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Sales:

Sales — the Sales console: quotes, orders, deliveries, invoices and customers
Pricing — the price lists, rules and price simulator the console prices lines from

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

Customers — the customer master as a datastore list
Sales Quotes, Sales Orders, Delivery Notes, Sales Invoices and Sales Credit Notes — the raw document lists, for looking up and auditing

Who can open it

The console is for admin-tier users whose security group holds the ERP: Sales role, and for architects. The role decides which consoles a person reaches; the company grant decides which companies they work in. Read access to a company shows its documents, write access lets you raise and change them. Roles and company access are granted in ERP Setup (see Getting Started with ERP).

A salesperson sees a customer's credit position but cannot change the credit limit, put a customer on stop or switch off reminders. Those belong to Accounts Receivable, so the person paid on a sale never sets the customer's credit.

The screen

Company: choose one company or All my companies. Amounts across several companies are shown in the currency most of them use.
The figures: Open quotes, Orders to deliver, On credit hold, Ready to invoice and Sales this month (net of credit notes, compared with the same days last month, with a six-month trend). Click a figure to open the documents behind it.
Tabs: Quotes, Orders, Deliveries, Invoices and Customers.
Filters on each document tab: Status (Open (not finished), Every status, or one status), Customer, a date range, Salesperson, and a search box for the number, customer, PO or reference.
New quote and New order open the line editor.

Raising a quote or an order

Press New quote (or New order) and choose the Company and Customer. Currency, salesperson and delivery address come from the customer.
Add lines: Item, Qty and, optionally, Disc. %. The Unit price fills itself from your price lists and rules, and each line explains itself: which price list, which quantity break, which rules applied, the margin and the tax.
Watch the Stock column: it shows what is available and marks a line short when there is not enough.
Save with Save draft, Save and mark as sent (quotes) or Save and confirm the order (orders). On an order the second button changes to Save and ask for credit approval when the order would take the customer over their credit limit, and is disabled when the customer is on stop.

Typing your own price over the engine's price is allowed only for holders of the Override sales prices permission. The line then shows Overrides the price list and keeps the price it replaced.

Working with one document

Open a document to see its details, lines, progress (what each order line has shipped and been invoiced), related documents and history. The buttons along the top are exactly the moves you may make now: Confirm order, Create delivery note, Cancel order and so on. A step you cannot take is listed under Why ... not offered with the reason, so nothing is silently missing.

Print / PDF opens the document on its company letterhead and Send by e-mail sends it as a PDF (see Document Output & Letterheads). The Attachments & notes card holds files and notes for the document.

What goes wrong

"No company to work in": your group has the role but no company access. Ask an ERP administrator to grant it.
Invoicing is not offered: invoices are raised by Accounts Receivable, so on the Sales console the step reads as not offered and the delivery appears on their To invoice list.
A price shows "–": no price list prices that item for this customer, currency and date. Check it in the price simulator.

Worked example

A sales administrator at a distributor opens Sales, picks the UK company and sees two orders on credit hold. They open the Quotes tab, raise a quote for 40 cable kits, and the line shows the trade list price with the 25-unit quantity break applied. They save it as sent and print it. When the customer accepts, they open the quote and press Create sales order, which copies the lines at the quoted prices and marks the quote Accepted.

Recommendations

Grant ERP: Sales and ERP: Receivables to different groups so selling and credit stay separate.
Give Override sales prices to few people; every override is recorded on the line.
Read the price explanation on the first orders after a price list change.
Use the figures as the day's work list: credit holds first, then orders to deliver.

Quotes and Sales Orders

A quote records what a customer has been offered; a sales order is the commitment to supply it. Confirming an order checks the customer's credit and reserves the stock, and from then on the order's status follows what has really shipped and been invoiced.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Sales:

Sales — the Quotes and Orders tabs, where quotes and orders are raised and moved on

Admin Panel → ERP - Setup:

Approval Matrices — where credit release can be routed through an approval matrix

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

Sales Quotes — every quote; the badge counts quotes sent and not yet answered
Sales Orders — every order; the badge counts orders waiting for a credit decision

The quote lifecycle

Send to customer (Draft to Sent): locks the lines. Print or e-mail the quote from here.
Revise (Sent to Draft): reopens the lines for changes.
Customer accepted (Sent to Accepted).
Mark as lost (Sent to Lost) and Withdraw (Draft to Lost): both ask for a reason, which is kept on the quote's history.

A quote can become an order once it is Sent or Accepted. Create sales order copies the lines at the prices quoted, and the quote moves to Accepted by itself.

Expired quotes

The editor's Valid until date is the quote's expiry. When sent quotes pass it, the Quotes tab says how many and offers Mark them lost: each moves to Lost with the reason "Expired". The same job can run daily as the scheduled task Sales: expire quotes past their date, which ships switched off (see Tasks).

The order lifecycle

Confirm order (Draft to Confirmed): runs the credit check and reserves the stock for each line.
If the check fails, use Request credit approval (Draft to Credit Hold). You can add a note for the approver, such as "customer has promised payment Friday".
An approver uses Approve credit (Credit Hold to Confirmed, which reserves the stock) or Decline credit (Credit Hold to Cancelled, reason required). The salesperson can Recall a held order back to Draft.
From Confirmed the order moves by itself to Partially Delivered, Delivered and Invoiced as deliveries ship and invoices post, and back again if a delivery is reversed. Nobody presses these.
Finish with Close (when Delivered or Invoiced) or Close short (Partially Delivered, reason required), which releases any stock still reserved.

Cancel removes a draft. Cancelling a confirmed order asks for a reason and is refused once anything has been delivered or invoiced from it.

How the credit check works

On stop or inactive: a customer on stop cannot have an order confirmed or sent for credit approval, whatever the amounts.
No limit: a Credit Limit of 0 means no limit, and the order confirms.
Exposure: what the customer owes on posted invoices (less cash received and not yet applied), plus open orders and unposted invoices, plus this order, all converted into the company's currency, is compared with the limit. The result is written on the order as its credit note line, and the order editor shows the position live as the order grows.

Releasing a held order needs the Approve sales credit permission, and the person who asked for approval cannot approve it. If you want credit release routed, staged and audited instead, enable the shipped matrix Sales order credit release on the Approval Matrices screen; it ships disabled with a single Credit controller stage. Approval matrices in general are covered under Approval Matrices.

What goes wrong

"Customer ... would go over its credit limit": the message gives what they owe, what is ordered and what this order adds. Request credit approval or take a payment first.
"The credit check could not be completed: there is no ... rate today": the order is in another currency and there is no exchange rate for today. Add the rate.
No Confirm button, and the save button is disabled: the customer is on stop. Save the order as a draft and talk to Accounts Receivable.
Approve credit missing: you asked for the approval yourself, or you do not hold Approve sales credit.

Worked example

A customer with a 10,000 limit already owes 7,200 and has an open order for 1,500. A salesperson enters a 2,000 order and the button reads Save and ask for credit approval. They save it with the note "renewal of annual contract". The credit controller, who holds Approve sales credit, opens the order from the On credit hold figure, sees the exposure of 10,700 against 10,000, and presses Approve credit. The order is confirmed and its stock reserved.

Recommendations

Always fill in Valid until on quotes, so expiry can be handled in one click.
Grant Approve sales credit to the credit controller, not to the sales team.
Use Close short rather than leaving part-delivered orders open; it frees the reserved stock.
Keep rates up to date if you sell in other currencies, or the credit check cannot run.

Deliveries and Shipping

A delivery note records what is leaving the building against a sales order. Shipping it takes the stock out, posts the cost of sales and moves the order on. A delivery shipped by mistake can now be reversed rather than worked around with a credit note.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Sales:

Sales — the Orders tab to create deliveries and the Deliveries tab to pick and ship them

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

Delivery Notes — every delivery note; the badge counts notes raised and not yet shipped

Who does it

Holders of ERP: Sales or ERP: Inventory can create and ship delivery notes in the companies they have write access to. Accounts Receivable can read and edit them but not create them.

Creating a delivery note

Open a sales order that is Confirmed or Partially Delivered and press Create delivery note.
The panel lists every line still open with Still open, Available and Take. Take starts at what can be promised now; a line marked short has less available than ordered.
Change the quantities if you are shipping part of the order. A line left at 0 stays open for a later delivery.
Confirm. The new delivery note opens in Draft.

An order made up only of services has nothing to deliver. Its Create delivery note step is shown as not offered, and the order is invoiced straight from the order instead.

Picking and shipping

On the draft delivery, the Lines and picking card asks for Ship from: the location the stock leaves.
For lot- or serial-tracked items, choose the Lot / serial per line, or leave Earliest expiry first (automatic). A line with None on hand will be refused when you ship.
Press Save picking, then Ship.

Shipping does three things in one step: it releases the order's reservation for those quantities, issues the stock (earliest expiry first unless you picked lots) with its cost of sales journal, and moves the order to Partially Delivered or Delivered. A delivery note for services only skips the stock issue. How stock movements and valuation work is covered in Stock & Inventory.

A shipped delivery appears on the Receivables console's To invoice list until it has been invoiced in full.

Reversing a shipped delivery

Use Reverse the delivery (Shipped to Reversed) when goods were shipped by mistake: wrong goods, wrong quantity, wrong customer.

Open the shipped delivery note and press Reverse the delivery.
Give the reason. It is kept on the delivery's history.
The engine reverses every stock movement the delivery posted, cost of sales included, rebuilds the order's reservations from what it still has to deliver, moves the order back (for example from Delivered to Partially Delivered) and opens the order lines again for a new delivery.

Reversal is refused once anything has been invoiced from the delivery. In that case raise a credit note against the invoice with a return location, which brings the goods back into stock (see Sales Invoices and Credit Notes in this section).

A draft delivery that will not ship can simply be cancelled; its quantities go back to the order.

What goes wrong

Create delivery note is not offered: the order is not Confirmed or Partially Delivered, the customer is on stop, or the order is services only.
Ship is refused for a lot-tracked line: nothing of that item is on hand at the Ship from location. Choose another location or receive the stock first.
Reverse the delivery is not offered: the delivery has already been invoiced. Credit the invoice instead.

Worked example

An order for 100 sensor units is confirmed with 60 in stock. The storeman presses Create delivery note; Take shows 60 and the line is marked short. They confirm, pick lot L2409 from the main warehouse and ship. The order shows Partially Delivered with 40 still open. Next morning they notice they picked the wrong customer's order, press Reverse the delivery with the reason "shipped against wrong order", and the 60 units return to stock and to the order's reservation.

Recommendations

Give the warehouse ERP: Inventory so they can ship without holding the Sales role.
Pick lots by hand only where the customer asks for a specific lot; otherwise let earliest expiry decide.
Reverse before you invoice: once invoiced, the correction is a credit note.
Close short an order whose balance will never ship, so its reservation is freed.

Sales Invoices and Credit Notes

A sales invoice records what a customer owes; posting it raises the receivable, the revenue and the output tax in one journal. A credit note reverses part or all of a posted invoice, and it must now say why the credit was given, because that reason is printed on it.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Receivables:

Receivables — the To invoice and Invoices & credits tabs, where invoices and credit notes are raised and posted; the badge counts those raised and not yet posted

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

Sales Invoices — every invoice; the badge counts invoices not yet posted
Sales Credit Notes — every credit note, and the record screen where a credit note's return location is set

Who does it

Invoices and credit notes are created, approved and posted by holders of ERP: Receivables. The sales team can read them but not raise them, so the Sales console shows invoicing as "not offered" and the work appears on the Receivables console instead. Posting needs post access to the company.

Raising an invoice

Open Receivables → To invoice. It lists shipped deliveries and orders for services with quantity not yet invoiced, and the net value to invoice.
Press Invoice on the row. A draft invoice is created for everything still to invoice on that delivery or order, at the order's prices.
Open the draft to check it, then press Approve, then Post to the ledger, or Approve and post in one step. Before posting you are told if the invoice is dated before the last invoice the company issued.

An order line can only be invoiced once, whether through its delivery or straight from the order. An approved invoice can be sent back with Return for amendment (reason required) or cancelled; cancelling hands its quantities back to the delivery or order.

What posting does

Ledger: debits the trade debtors control account with the gross total, credits sales with each line's net and output tax with the tax, using the posting rules for sales invoices. A line's own account wins, then its item's, then the customer's Default Revenue Account.
Due date: the invoice date plus the customer's Payment Terms (days). Ageing and reminders run from it.
Pricing and commission: the discount rules used on the lines are counted against their budgets, and commission is accrued to the salesperson.
The order moves to Invoiced when everything on it has been invoiced.

The invoice moves to Paid by itself when receipts or credits settle it in full, and back to Posted if an allocation is removed. A posted invoice is never edited: correct it with a credit note.

Raising a credit note

Open a Posted or Paid invoice and press Create sales credit note.
Enter how much of each line to credit. A line left at 0 is not credited.
Fill in Reason for the credit, for example "2 units returned faulty" or "price agreed after dispute". It is required and printed on the credit note.
If goods are coming back, open the draft credit note from Architect Panel → ERP - Sales → Sales Credit Notes and set its Despatch Location (shown on the console as Returns to). Leave it empty for a price-only credit.
Approve and post it as you would an invoice.

Posting reverses the invoice's journal for the credited amounts, applies the credit to the invoice it came from, reverses the commission accrued on those lines, and, when a location is set, brings the goods back into stock at cost. A lot- or serial-tracked item is matched to the lot that was delivered to that customer.

What goes wrong

A credit note will not post with "Say why the credit is being given": the reason is empty. Credit notes raised before the reason field existed need one added before they post.
"say which location the returned ... goes back into": a line has no location and the header has none either. Set the Despatch Location, or remove it for a price-only credit.
Nothing appears on To invoice: the delivery has not shipped yet, or it has been invoiced in full.
Post is not offered: you have write but not post access to the company.

Worked example

A delivery of 60 units ships on Monday. On Tuesday the receivables clerk opens To invoice, presses Invoice on the delivery, checks the draft and presses Approve and post. The invoice falls due in 30 days. A week later the customer returns 2 faulty units. The clerk opens the invoice, presses Create sales credit note, credits 2 units with the reason "2 units returned faulty", sets the credit note's Despatch Location to the returns bay, and posts it. The invoice's balance drops by the credited amount and the 2 units are back in stock.

Recommendations

Invoice from To invoice rather than from orders, so nothing shipped is missed.
Write reasons for the customer: they are printed, not just filed.
Decide returns at the credit: set a location only when the goods physically come back.
Keep invoice dates in order; heed the warning before posting a back-dated invoice.

Customers, Tax Codes and Intercompany

The customer master holds who you sell to and on what terms: currency, payment terms, credit limit, tax treatment, billing contact and addresses. Two fields added in October decide how services are taxed and mark a customer that is really one of your own group companies.

Where to find it

Admin Panel → Sales:

Sales — the Customers tab: search, create and edit customers, see their open balance and recent documents

Admin Panel → Receivables:

Receivables — the same Customers tab, where credit terms are set

Architect Panel → ERP - Sales:

Customers — the customer datastore; the badge counts customers on stop

Architect Panel → ERP - Reference Data:

Customer Classes — Retail, Trade, Strategic and your own classes, used for class pricing and reporting

Creating a customer

Open the Customers tab and press New customer. The form has five sections: Who they are, Trading terms, Billing, Delivery address and Notes.
Enter the Customer code (unique; this is what the sales ledger, statements, ageing and reminders carry) and Name.
Choose the Company. ERP administrators and Finance can also choose Shared by every company for a customer every company trades with.
Set the Customer class, Account manager (new documents take them as salesperson, and commission is accrued to them) and, if they trade electronically, the EDI trading partner.
Under Trading terms set Currency, Payment terms (days) and the tax codes described below.
Under Billing, the Billing e-mail (invoices, statements, reminders) is where every e-mailed invoice, statement and reminder goes.
Press Save the customer.

Credit terms belong to Accounts Receivable

Credit limit, On stop - orders refused, Stop reason and Never send payment reminders can be changed only by holders of ERP: Receivables or ERP: Finance. A salesperson sees the credit position but the fields are read-only, with a note saying who sets them. Putting a customer on stop always needs a reason, which is shown to whoever is then refused. See Receivables & Dunning for credit control.

Tax codes on sales lines

Default tax code: when set, every line on the customer's documents uses it instead of the item's own sales tax code. Use it for an export, EU reverse-charge or tax-exempt customer.
Tax code for services (optional): when set, a line for a service item, or a line with no item at all (project billing, a typed charge), uses this code instead. This is for regimes where the customer's location sets the rate but the item decides whether it is taxable, such as US sales tax on professional services. Leave it blank to use the default tax code for every line.
With neither set, each item's own sales tax code decides.

Tax codes themselves are maintained by Finance; see Tax Codes and VAT Box Mapping.

Intercompany customers

When a customer is itself one of your group companies, choose that company in Is one of our group companies (on the datastore, the field is Group Company). Leave it at No - an outside customer for everyone else. Consolidation and the intercompany views read this link to find trade within the group, instead of guessing from customer codes or names. It is offered only when your group has more than one company.

Editing customers outside the console

A customer created or edited on the Architect Panel's Customers list, the record screen, the API or an import is held to the same rules as the console: the code must be unique, currency, terms, credit limit, e-mail and country codes must be valid, credit terms can be changed only by Accounts Receivable or Finance, a stop needs its reason, and a customer with sales documents cannot be deleted. Make an unused customer inactive instead: it keeps its history but no new quotes or orders can be raised for it.

What goes wrong

The credit fields are greyed out: you hold ERP: Sales only. Ask Accounts Receivable.
A customer cannot be deleted: it has sales documents. Untick Active - can be sold to.
A US services invoice carries sales tax: the customer's Tax code for services is blank, so the default code was used. Set an exempt code there.
Statements and reminders are not e-mailed to a customer: their billing e-mail is empty.

Worked example

A UK group sells consultancy through its US company to a New York customer whose goods are taxed at the local rate. The sales administrator sets the customer's Default tax code to the New York rate and its Tax code for services to an exempt code. An invoice with one hardware line and one consultancy line now taxes the hardware and not the consultancy. The same administrator records the Dutch subsidiary's customer account for the UK parent with Is one of our group companies set to the UK company, so the sale appears in the intercompany views at month end.

Recommendations

Agree customer codes before go-live; they appear on statements and in the ledger.
Fill in the billing e-mail for every customer you invoice electronically.
Set Tax code for services wherever services and goods are taxed differently.
Link every intercompany customer to its group company.
Deactivate rather than delete.