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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

  1. Confirm order (Draft to Confirmed): runs the credit check and reserves the stock for each line.
  2. 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".
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.