Create sales orders

Sales orders are a contractual agreement between you and the customer for the provision of goods and services for a price. The sales order defines the terms (prices, quantities and times) by which you will deliver products or provide services.

For a more detailed overview, see What's in a sales order?.

Sales order process

The key stages in the sales order process are:

1. Create a new order, or convert a quotation or pro forma to an order.

2. Despatch the order, to record that you've sent out the goods, and to remove them from stock.

3. Print invoices that include any despatched items on the sales order.

4. Post the invoice to create the sales invoice transaction and update the customer account and nominal accounts.

For a more detailed overview, see The sales order process.

Create sales orders

You can create orders in the following ways:

• As a single new order.

  Goods ordered in this way are despatched from the warehouse with a despatch note. An invoice for payment is generated separately.

• Copy an existing order and amend the details. This does not copy payment details, order number or dates.

• Convert a quotation to an order (in the Sage 200 desktop).

• Convert a pro forma invoice to an order (in the Sage 200 desktop).

• Use a repeat order template (in the Sage 200 desktop).

You can also create purchase orders on the back of sales orders, known as back-to-back orders (in the Sage 200 desktop).

Note: You can't create sales orders for customer accounts that are on hold.

Sales order status

Once created, sales orders have one of these statuses, shown as the Order status / Document status:

• Live: The order has been generated and is in the process of being fulfilled. Some invoices or credit notes still need to be posted for the order.

• Completed: The order has been fully despatched and invoiced, or has been cancelled. Invoices and credit notes have been posted for the sales order, and the customer and nominal account balances have been updated.

• On hold: The order has been put on hold to stop any further processing of the order. For example, the order has been queried because the customer has exceeded their credit limit.

See Check the progress of sales orders.

Settlement discounts and payments

• In the UK, VAT on an invoice is only discounted when it is paid within the settlement discount period.

  On each invoice, VAT is calculated by default on the full invoice value. If the invoice is paid within the settlement discount period, a VAT adjustment is required, to account for the discounted VAT.

• In Ireland, VAT is calculated on the full value of the invoice regardless of any settlement discount.

When you produce invoices from sales orders, each invoice states the amount of discount (net and VAT) that can be claimed if the invoice is paid early, as well as the full amount (net and VAT) due after the settlement discount period. This means that there is no need to issue an additional VAT only invoice, if the customer pays within the discount period. However, internal VAT adjustments will be required.

When creating sales orders, you enter the amount of settlement discount on the Invoice Details tab of the order. When the invoice is printed, Sage 200 calculates the VAT for the full amount before settlement discount is applied, and adds the required text to the invoice.