Confirm despatch

You must confirm the despatch of the goods and services on your sales orders, before you can print invoices for your customers. Only the allocated quantity of the order is despatched. If you despatch goods that are stored in more than one bin in a warehouse, you must confirm the amount you want to despatch from each bin.

You must record the despatch of:

Stock items.
Miscellaneous items.

You can choose to record the despatch of these items:

Free text items and service/labour items.

This confirmation method is set by default in the SOP Settings - Processing tab, but can be amended for an individual item.
Invoice and order items.

You can choose to record despatch by selecting Item requires despatch when you first create the invoice and order item.

You don't confirm despatch for additional charge items, so this affects when you can print the invoice that includes the additional charge. The additional charge item can be invoiced when the sales order is full or part despatched, and ready to invoice. If a sales order doesn't contain any items that require despatch, then you will be asked if you want to print the order invoice immediately when you save and confirm the order. So if an order only contains additional charge items, and doesn't require despatch, you can print the invoice including the additional charge when you save and confirm the order.

Sales Order items

You can set the sales order item to require despatch processing. The order line is then marked as Pending Despatch until you Confirm Despatch. The order is then marked as despatched and the invoice can be printed.

Free text items and service/labour items

You can choose how to record the despatch of free text and service/labour items. This is set by default in the SOP settings Processing tab. You can also change the despatch method on the Sales Order. You can despatch these items in the following ways:

Confirm with goods despatched/received

Service and free text items are despatched with stock items.

Use the Confirm Goods Despatched and Received options. The free text items are available to despatch with the stock items.
The free text items and stock items appear on the same despatch note.
You must record the despatch of the item before it can be invoiced.

Confirm as service / free text

Service and free text items are despatched separately.

Use Confirm Service/Free Text Items options.
The service and free text items are on separate despatch notes.
You must record the despatch of the item before it can be invoiced.

No confirmation required

The despatch of service and free text items is not recorded.

No despatch note is printed.
The service free text item can be invoiced without despatch.

You can choose to print despatch notes automatically as part of the despatch process. You must have selected Print despatch notes when order despatch is confirmed. This option is set in the SOP settings Document Printing tab.

You do not record the despatch of the goods for a trade counter order. When you save a trade counter order, the invoice is produced automatically. All lines on the order marked as despatched.

You can choose to record tracking and shipping information when you despatch order items. For example, you can record courier and tracking details, and shipping details such as an Incoterm and a reason for export. You can enter these details immediately when you confirm the despatch, or enter them later by using Amend Tracking Information. To use this, you must first enable Record tracking on despatch in SOP Settings - Processing. See Record tracking information for despatches (sales orders only).