Sell Products

You create a sales order or sales invoice to record your agreement with a customer to sell certain products on certain delivery and payment terms.

Note

Use sales orders if your sales process requires that you can ship parts of an order quantity, for example, because the full quantity is not available at once. If you use sales invoices, then Business Central assumes that you ship the full quantity when you post the invoice. If you sell items by delivering directly from your vendor to your customer, as a drop shipment, then you must also use sales orders. For more information, see Make Drop Shipments. In all other aspects, sales orders work the same way as sales invoices. For more information, see Invoice Sales.

You can negotiate with the customer by first creating a sales quote, which you can convert to a sales order when you agree on the sale. For more information, see Make Sales Quotes.

After the customer has confirmed the agreement, for example after a quote process, you can send an order confirmation to record your obligation to deliver the products as agreed.

When you deliver the products, either fully or partially, you post the sales order as shipped or as shipped and invoiced to create the related item and customer ledger entries in your system. When you post the sales order, you can also email the document as a PDF attachment. You can have the email body prefilled with a summary of the order and payment information, such as a link to PayPal. For more information, see Send Documents by Email.

In business environments where the customer pays some time after delivery, according to the payment term, a posted sales invoice remains open (unpaid) until the Accounts Receivable department verifies that payment is received and applies the payment to the posted sales invoice. For more information, see Reconcile Payments Using Automatic Application.

In business environments where the customer pays immediately, for example by PayPal or cash, payment is recorded immediately when you post the sales order as invoiced, that is, the posted sales invoice is closed as fully applied. You select the relevant method in the Payment Method Code field on the sales order. See under step 8. For electronic payments, such as PayPal, you must also fill in the Payment Service field. For more information, see Enable Customer Payments Through Payment Services.

You can even create directly-paid orders for non-registered customers by first setting up a "cash customer" card, which you point to on the sales order. For more information, see Set Up Cash Customers.

You can easily correct or cancel a posted sales invoice resulting from a sales order before it is paid. This is useful if you want to correct a typing mistake or if the customer requests a change early in the order process. For more information, see Correct or Cancel Unpaid Sales Invoices. If the posted sales invoice is paid, then you must create a sales credit memo to reverse the sale. For more information, see Process Sales Returns or Cancellations.

The item card can be of type Inventory, Service, and Non-Inventory to specify if the item is a physical inventory unit, a labor time unit, or a physical unit that is not kept on inventory. For more information, see Register New Items. The sales order process is the same for all three item types.

You can fill customer fields on the sales order in two ways depending on whether the customer is already registered. See steps 2 and 3 in the following procedure.

To create a sales order

Choose the icon, enter Sales Orders, and then choose the related link.
In the Customer field, enter the name of an existing customer.

Other fields on the Sales Order page are now filled with the standard information of the selected customer. If the customer is not registered, then follow these steps:
In the Customer field, enter the name of the new customer.
In the dialog box about registering the new customer, choose the Yes button.
On the Select a template for a new customer page, choose a template to base the new customer card on, and then choose the OK button.

A new customer card opens, prefilled with the information on the selected customer template. The Name field is prefilled with the new customer's name that you entered on the sales order.
Proceed to fill in the remaining fields on the customer card. For more information, see Register New Customers.
When you have completed the customer card, choose the OK button to return to the Sales Order page.

Several fields on the sales order are now filled with information that you specified on the new customer card.
Fill in the remaining fields on the Sales Order page as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

Note

If you allow the customer to pay immediately, for example, by credit card or PayPal, then fill in the Payment Method Code field. The payment is then recorded as soon as you post the sales order as invoiced. If you select CASH, then the payment is recorded in a specified balancing account.

You are now ready to fill in the sales order lines with inventory items or services that you want to sell to the customer.

If you have set up recurring sales lines for the customer, such as a monthly replenishment order, then you can insert these lines on the order by choosing the Get Recurring Sales Lines action.
On the Lines FastTab, in the Item field, enter the number of an inventory item or service.
In the Quantity field, enter the number of items to be sold.

Note

For items of type Service, the quantity is a time unit, such as hours, as indicated in the Unit of Measure Code field on the line.

The Line Amount field is updated to show the value in the Unit Price field multiplied by the value in the Quantity field.

The price and line amounts are shown with or without sales tax depending on what you selected in the Prices Including Tax field on the customer card.
In the Line Discount % field, enter a percentage if you want to grant the customer a discount on the product. The value in the Line Amount field is updated accordingly.

If you have set up special item prices on the Sales Prices and Sales Line Discounts FastTab on the customer or item card, then the price and amount on the quote line are automatically updated if the agreed price criteria are met. For more information, see Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements.
To add a comment about the quote line that the customer can see on the printed sales quote, write a text in the Description field on an empty line.
Repeat steps 9 through 12 for every item that you want to sell to the customer.

The totals under the lines are automatically calculated as you create or modify lines.
A new customer card displays the information on the selected customer template. Fill in the remaining fields. For more information, see Register New Customers.
When you have completed the customer card, choose the OK button to return to the Sales Order page.

Several fields on the sales order are now filled with information that you specified on the new customer card.
Fill in the remaining fields on the Sales Order page as necessary. Hover over a field to read a short description.

You are now ready to fill in the sales order lines for products that you are selling to the customer or for any transaction with the customer that you want to record in a G/L account.

If you have set up recurring sales lines for the customer, such as a monthly replenishment order, then you can insert these lines on the order by choosing the Get Recurring Sales Lines action.
On the Lines FastTab, in the Type field, select what type of product, charge, or transaction that you will post for the customer with the sales line.
In the No. field, select a record to post according to the value in the Type field.

You leave the No. field empty in the following cases:
- If the line is for a comment. Write the comment in the Description field.
- If the line is for a catalog item. Choose the Select Catalog Items action. For more information, see Work With Catalog Items.
In the Quantity field, enter how many units of the product, charge, or transaction that the line will record for the customer.

Note

If the item is of type Service, or the Type field contains Resource, then the quantity is a time unit, such as hours, as indicated in the Unit of Measure Code field on the line. For more information, see Set Up Item Units of Measure.

The value in the Line Amount field is calculated as Unit Price x Quantity.

The price and line amounts are with or without sales tax, depending on what you selected in the Prices Including Tax field on the customer card.
If you want to give a discount, enter a percentage in the Line Discount % field. The value in the Line Amount field updates accordingly.

If special item prices are set up on the Sales Prices and Sales Line Discounts FastTab on the customer or item card, the price and amount on the sales line automatically update if the price criteria is met. For more information, see Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements.
Repeat steps 9 through 12 for every product or charge you want to sell to the customer.

The totals fields under the lines are automatically updated as you create or modify lines to display the amounts that will be posted to the ledgers.

Note

In very rare cases, the posted amounts may deviate from what is displayed in the totals fields. This is typically due to rounding calculations in relation to VAT or sales tax.

To check the amounts that will actually be posted, you can use the Statistics page, which takes into account the rounding calculations. Also, if you choose the Release action, the totals fields will be updated to include rounding calculations.
In the Invoice Discount Amount field, enter an amount that should be deducted from the value shown in the Total Incl. Tax field.

If you have set up invoice discounts for the customer, then the specified percentage value is automatically inserted in the Invoice Discount % field if the criteria are met, and the related amount is inserted in the Inv. Discount Amount Excl. Tax field. For more information, see Record Sales Price, Discount, and Payment Agreements.
To only ship a part of the order quantity, enter that quantity in the Qty. to Ship field. The value is copied to the Qty. to Invoice field.
To only invoice a part of the shipped quantity, enter that quantity in the Qty. to Invoice field. The quantity must be lower than the value in the Qty. to Ship field.
When the sales order lines are completed, choose the Post and Send action.

The Post and Send Confirmation dialog box displays the customer's preferred method of receiving documents. You can change the sending method by choosing the lookup button for the Send Document to field. For more information, see Set Up Document Sending Profiles.

The related item and customer ledger entries are now created in your system, and the sales order is output as a PDF document. When the sales order is fully posted, it is removed from the list of sales orders and replaced with new documents in the list of posted sales invoices and the list of posted sales shipments.

Sell Products

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To create a sales order

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