Direct Sales Order
A Sales Order records a confirmed customer commitment to buy goods or services at agreed prices, before any stock moves or invoice is raised. It reserves the sale in TamilAccounting and becomes the source document for the delivery and invoice that follow.
Where to find it
Go to Sales > Orders > New Order. The form opens in a popup window, so you can raise an order without leaving the list you were working in.
Before you start
- The customer must exist, and must have at least one branch.
- The items you intend to sell must exist in Items and Services.
- A sales type (price list) should be set up, since it decides whether the prices you type include tax.
- You need the
SA_SALESORDERpermission.
Header field reference
| Field | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | Yes | Who is buying. The list shows your most recent and most transacted customers first, up to ten at a time, and you can search to narrow it. Use the + button to create a new customer without leaving the form. |
| Customer Branch | Yes | The specific location, office or division of that customer. One customer can have many branches, and the branch drives the default delivery address and the tax group applied to the order. |
| Reference | Yes | The Transaction Reference that uniquely identifies this document type. The format comes from your pattern in Setup > Transaction Reference, and you can overtype the value without changing the pattern. |
| Date | Yes | The date the order was received. This date drives item pricing and the quantity on hand shown against each line. |
| Required Delivery Date | No | The day the customer wants the goods. Defaults to the order date plus your default delivery lead time, or to the due date implied by the payment terms. |
| Customer Reference | No | The customer purchase order number, if they gave you one. Maximum 25 characters. Printed on the order so the customer can match it to their own paperwork. |
| Sales area | No | The geographical area or market segment this sale belongs to. Used for sales analysis reporting. |
| Payment | No | The payment terms, such as Cash Only or Pay After 10 Days. Selecting a prepaid term reveals the PrePayment Required field. Changing the terms recalculates the required delivery date. |
| PrePayment Required | Yes, when prepaid | Appears as the first field under Order Delivery Details once a prepaid payment term is selected. It sets the amount that must be collected before the system will allow the delivery to be processed. |
| Price List / Sales Type | No | Which of your Sales Lists to apply, for example Retail or Wholesale. This also decides whether line prices are entered inclusive or exclusive of tax. |
| Deliver from Location | No | The warehouse the goods will be issued from. It determines the quantity on hand shown on each line and, later, where stock is drawn from. |
| Auto Work Order | No | A checkbox for manufacturers. See Auto Work Order below. |
| Comments | No | Free notes about the order. These carry through onto the delivery and invoice. |
Dates
Two dates drive a Sales Order, and they do different jobs.
| Date | What it controls |
|---|---|
| Date | The date the order was received. Item prices and the quantity on hand column are both resolved as at this date. |
| Required Delivery Date | When the customer expects the goods. It defaults to the order date plus your default delivery lead time, or to the due date implied by the selected payment terms, and can be overtyped. |
The second date field is shared across the sales documents and is relabelled to suit each one: Required Delivery Date on an order, Valid until on a quotation, Invoice before on a delivery, and Due Date on an invoice.
Customer credit and balance
Once a customer is selected, the form shows their financial position so you can decide whether to take the order at all.
- Customer Current Credit — the credit still available to them, based on their credit limit less what they already owe.
- Customer Current Balance — the total they currently owe you across all open transactions.
Check the credit figure before committing stock to a large order. A customer whose credit status is blocked can be stopped from transacting entirely — see Customer Credit Status.
Branches and Departments
Branches and Departments organise operations and improve tracking across the company.
- Branches represent separate business locations or units of the same company, for businesses operating across several cities, offices or sites. They give you transactions by location, inventory and stock movements per branch, and branch-wise accounting and reporting. Enable them under Setup > Preferences > Use Branches Only.
- Departments are internal divisions of the organisation, each responsible for a specific function, and let you analyse a sale by the part of the business that generated it.
Line items
Each line is one item or service being sold. The line grid has these columns.
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Item Description | The item being sold. Type to search by code or description. |
| QOH | Quantity on hand at the selected location, as at the order date. Shown for information only, since an order does not reserve stock. |
| Quantity | How many units the customer is ordering. |
| Unit | The unit of measure, taken from the item record. |
| Price Before Tax or Price After Tax | The unit price. The column heading changes to match the selected sales type: it reads Price After Tax when that sales type is tax inclusive, and Price Before Tax when it is not. If tax is switched off entirely it simply reads Price. |
| Discount | Line discount percentage. Defaults to the discount on the customer record. |
| Total | Calculated line value after discount. |
Read the price column heading before typing a price. Entering a tax inclusive figure into a Price Before Tax column is the most common cause of an order total that does not match what the customer was quoted.
Auto Work Order
For manufacturing companies, ticking the Auto Work Order checkbox and adding a manufacturable item to the line details creates the work order automatically, linked to this sales order. It saves raising the work order as a separate task, and keeps production tied to the demand that triggered it.
Total Details
Below the line items you will find the order totals section.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Sub-total | The sum of all line item totals, before additional charges or discounts. |
| Shipping Charges | Any delivery or freight cost you are charging on the order. |
| Discount % | A percentage discount applied to the order total as a whole, on top of any line discounts. |
| Tax Details | The total tax for the order, with a breakdown by tax showing the rate and the calculated amount, for example GST 5% - 2.00. |
| Round Off / Discount | A fixed adjustment to the final total, for rounding or a small negotiated reduction. |
| Update | Recalculates the totals after you change any of the fields above. |
Delivery Details
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Delivery Address | Where the goods are going. Defaults to the address of the selected customer branch and can be overtyped for a one-off delivery. Maximum 255 characters. |
| Shipping Company | The carrier handling the delivery. |
| Comments | Free notes that carry through onto the delivery and invoice. |
Custom Fields
Custom fields let you add your own inputs when the standard form does not capture something your business needs. You can create text boxes, dropdowns, radio buttons, check boxes, date pickers and amount boxes, and place them in the form header, the line items or the footer.
- Enable the feature under Setup > Preferences > Show Add Custom Field on Forms.
- Once enabled, an Add Fields option appears in the header and footer, and an Add Field option at the top centre of the line items section.
- Remove custom fields at any time from Setup > Custom Fields.
Attachments
You can attach documents or images to the order — a signed purchase order, a delivery receipt, a contract, or anything else supporting the transaction. Click the attachment or browse option in the order form, select the files, and they are stored against the order for future reference.
Draft Option
You can save an order as a draft before finalising it, which is useful when you need to part-complete an order and return to it later.
- Click Draft while creating the order.
- The order is saved without affecting stock and without creating any financial entries.
- Find it again in the order list, where it carries a Draft status.
- When you are ready, open the draft and click Place Order to finalise it.
How to create a sales order
- Go to Sales > Orders > New Order.
- Select the Customer, then the Customer Branch, and check their available credit.
- Check the Reference, and set the Date and Required Delivery Date.
- Choose the Price List / Sales Type and the Deliver from Location.
- Tick Auto Work Order if the order includes items you will manufacture.
- Add each item with its Quantity, Price and any Discount, then add the line to the order.
- Enter Shipping Charges and any overall Discount, then click Update and review the tax breakdown and total.
- Confirm the Delivery Address, add Comments and any Attachments.
- Click Place Order, or Draft if you are not ready to commit.
What happens in the background
A Sales Order is a commitment document, not an accounting one. When you place it, TamilAccounting:
- Posts nothing to the General Ledger. No receivable, no revenue and no tax is recognised at this point.
- Moves no stock and does not reserve it. The quantity on hand shown on each line is indicative, so two orders can be taken for the same unit.
- Stores the order so it can be turned into a delivery later, tracking how much of each line is still outstanding.
- Creates a linked work order, if Auto Work Order was ticked and the order contains a manufacturable item.
Value and stock only start moving at the next step. The delivery reduces stock and posts the cost of goods sold, and the invoice raises the customer receivable and the tax.
Prepayment
When you are dealing with new customers, unfamiliar buyers or high-value transactions, you may want the money before the goods. Selecting a prepaid payment term turns the order into a prepayment flow.
- Select a prepaid Payment term on the order.
- Enter the PrePayment Required amount that must be collected up front.
- Raise the prepayment invoice against the order and collect the money.
- The system releases the delivery once the required amount has been received.
Prepaid orders behave differently downstream. On a prepaid delivery the sales value is also posted to revenue and to the deferred income account set in your company preferences, rather than waiting entirely for the invoice.
Related transactions and actions
Once the order exists, you can drive the following steps from the order view or the orders list.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Delivery | Issues goods from the warehouse against the order, updating inventory and tracking the shipment. Part delivery is supported — the balance stays on the order. |
| Work Order | Starts production for manufacturers. Created automatically and linked to the order if Auto Work Order was ticked. |
| Prepayment Invoice | For orders on a prepaid term, requests the amount set in PrePayment Required before delivery is allowed. |
| Edit or cancel | An order can be edited while open, and cancelled if nothing has been delivered against it. |
Rules and limits
An order stays open until every line has been fully delivered. Part delivery is normal: deliver what you have, and the balance remains on the order for a later delivery.
- Customer, branch, reference and date are all mandatory.
- The reference must be unique for this document type.
- Changing the customer after lines are entered re-prices those lines against the new customer currency and sales type.
- A prepaid order cannot be delivered until the required prepayment has been collected.
- Draft orders affect nothing until they are placed.
Sales Orders Report
To review orders in bulk rather than one at a time, use the Sales Orders Report under Reports. It lists orders over a date range with their delivery status, so you can see what is still outstanding. The Sales Orders List covers the same ground interactively, with filters and inline actions.
Related pages
- Sales Orders List — find, filter and action existing orders
- Sales Order View — read an order and its delivery history
- Quotation — the step before an order
- Order to Delivery — the step after an order
- Customer Credit Status — how credit limits and blocking work
- Sales Types — how price lists and tax inclusion are set up
- Sales Areas — how sales areas are set up