V8 - Sales orders and the Sales orders list

A sales order is an order from a customer to buy products or services at a specified price. Sales orders are non-posting transactions, meaning that they do not impact your financials until they are converted into shipments and/or invoices.

Although QuickBooks Online has estimates, invoices, and sales receipts, it does not have sales orders. Therefore, sales orders created in SOS Inventory do not sync to QuickBooks Online.

If an estimate is accepted and your client wants to proceed with a sales order, go to the estimate record on the Estimates list and select Create a sales order from the Actions menu. SOS Inventory will import all relevant data from the estimate into the sales order. If the sales order is being added manually, use one of the methods listed in Adding and editing a sales order.

Sales orders list

Of all the transaction lists, the Sales orders list is arguably the primary workhorse of SOS Inventory. The sales order is the primary sales management tool for the sales workflow.

The Sales orders list's Actions menu offers many options for generating a transaction from a parent sales order: Create purchase order, Create transfer, Create job, Create work order, Create pick ticket, Create shipment, Create invoice, Create RMA (return merchandise authorization), and Create return. Another action available for sales orders is View profit/loss, which allows you to see the profit or loss for an individual sale.

Import via EDI and Generate invoices are two batch actions available for sales orders. The Generate invoices batch action creates invoices from the selected sales orders and adds a separate record for each to the Invoices list.

The actions available for sales orders depend upon your SOS Inventory plan.

For a general overview of how lists work in SOS Inventory, refer to List functions. See Action and batch action descriptions for more information about the actions available on lists.

Adding and editing a sales order

To add a sales order, use any of the following methods:

• Generate a sales order from another transaction (such as an estimate, invoice, etc.). Locate the parent transaction record on its appropriate list, then select Create sales order from its Actions menu. 

• On the Task bar, go to the Quick add > Sales > Sales order.

• Go to Operations menu > Sales > Sales orders, then select the Add new button on the list page.

An existing sales order can be opened for editing by selecting the Edit action of that transaction record on the Sales Orders list. Be sure to save your changes.

Since sales orders and other sales forms share many of the same fields, explanations for fields pertaining to any sales form type are listed on Sales form field descriptions.

Due Dates

The due date for each line item on a sales order can represent any of several different things. The due date can refer to the date that goods are expected from vendors, the completion date of manufacturing, or when the goods have been promised to the customer. The due date is important because reports (such as the Ready to ship report) can be sorted by due date, enabling the warehouse to know which orders should be fulfilled first.

Items on open sales orders

On the Items list (Operations menu > Inventory > Items), click on the number in the On SO column for an item record. The number is a clickable link that opens a table listing all open sales orders containing the item, as shown in the two screenshots below:

If an item is a component of an assembly that is on sales order, it will show in the list as well, as demand has been generated for that component. 

Backorders

Backorder tracking in SOS Inventory is accomplished via sales orders. Each line item on a sales order tracks the quantity ordered, as well as the quantity shipped. Any item ordered, but not shipped, constitutes a backorder. 

To track backorders, use the Backorder report (Operations menu > Reports > Fulfillment > Backorder report) or the Open Sales Order Detail report (Operations menu > Reports> Sales > Open sales order detail.

If you receive goods from a supplier, go to the Ready to pick/ship report (Operations menu > Reports > Fulfillment > Ready to pick/ship) to see which orders you now have enough stock on hand to ship. These reports are also described on the Reports page.