Getting started with sales orders

Use the Sales Orders module when you want to enter sales orders for your products and services. You can also use the Sales Orders module to create quotations.

Sales orders or Invoicing?

You can use both the Sales Orders and Invoicing module in Sage 200, and you don't have to exclusively use one or the other. You might want to use the Invoicing module for your service items and use Sales Orders to keep track of your products.

Much of the setup required for Sales Orders is the same for Invoicing, so you only have to do this once.

What's the difference?

Use Sales Orders when you want to track stock items throughout the order process. When you enter sales orders for your customers, you allocate stock items to the order which reserves them and prevents them from being sold to someone else. When you physically send the items to the customer you record the despatch. Once despatched, you can raise an invoice for the customer.

Use Invoicing when you don't need to track the despatch of your stock items. You can raise and print an invoice at any time. Your stock levels are only updated once the invoice is posted.

The sales order process

You can keep track of a sales order, from creation to supply fulfilment. Orders may be set up individually, or as a repeat requirement for a customer so that it is produced automatically in Sage 200 on a regular basis.

Depending on how you handle sales orders, you might not need to use all these features. For example, you might not use pro forma invoices, or print picking lists.

1. Create quotation.

   A sales order may begin life as a quotation. You can track and maintain quotations and then convert these to sales orders.

2. Create pro forma (in the Sage 200 desktop).

   Use the pro forma invoice if you require the customer to make payment before goods are despatched. You can convert pro forma invoices to sales orders.

3. Create sales order.

   • Add product and service items, free text lines, charges and comments

   • Change discounts and analysis codes.

   • Enter immediate payments.

4. Allocate stock.

   Stock can be allocated during the order lifecycle. This reserves the stock held on your system, so that you can keep track of the stock levels. Once order despatch takes place, these reserved stock items are removed from Sage 200.

   • Reserve the stock for this order.

     Available free stock is allocated to an order automatically.

   • Allocate further stock when it becomes available or change the warehouse (in the Sage 200 desktop).

5. Print order documentation (in the Sage 200 desktop).
   

   You can choose to print order documentation, such as:

   • Picking lists of items to assemble for the order, ready for despatch. The picking list shows the warehouse and bin location for each item on the order.

   • Invoices.

6. Despatch order.

   The order may be despatched immediately for over the counter sales, or it may need to wait for stock allocation.

   The despatch confirms that items have been sent to the customer, and also updates your stock levels.

   You must confirm despatch for stock items, free text items, and service/labour items.

   You can also add tracking and shipping information for the despatch, such as courier details, the Incoterm, or the reason for export.

7. Amend the order if required.

   Change or cancel any lines on an order, as long as they haven't been included on an invoice.

8. Print and post customer invoices (in the Sage 200 desktop).

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

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

     If payments have been received at the point of sale, as in over the counter sales, then the payment values are posted at the same time.

9. Handle returns (in the Sage 200 desktop).

   If a customer returns their order, you can process these by entering a sales return.

10. Report on order progress.

    To keep track of your sales orders, use the:

    • Sales Order List.

    • Workspaces and reports (in the Sage 200 desktop).

What's in a sales order?

Sales orders are created using customer details and the goods and services you supply.

You can produce an invoice for the sales order. The invoice only includes items from the sales order that have been despatched, which means you can have more than invoice per order.

Customer details

Goods, services and charges

The details section of the sales order consists of lines that itemise the goods and services requested, including any additional charges.

You can add the following line types in an order:

• Standard item.

  Standard items are:

  • Stock items which are managed in the Stock Control module.

  • Invoice and order items, which are managed in the Sales Orders module. You typically use these instead of creating stock items. They are not subject to any stock control and cannot be ordered using purchase orders.

• Free text item.

  Free text items are one-off items that have a value but don't have stock record.

  Use free text items for:

  • Anything that requires a value and is not covered by a standard item.

  • To add descriptive text to an order.

  You can choose to process a free text item in the same way as a standard item.

• Additional charges.

  Additional charges are added to an order to cover costs such as delivery, or insurance.

  You can add these as a one-off charge, or create records for charges you use regularly.

• Comment lines.

  Use a comment line to add information to an order.

  The comment is generally printed on the order documentation. You can choose to prevent the comment printing, if you want to keep it private.

Location

For each item in the order, you can choose the warehouse the stock is to be supplied from.