Sales is where you manage customer orders from start to finish: creating an order (or accepting a quote), allocating stock, shipping the goods, invoicing the customer, and recording payment. When a customer changes their mind, you can also process returns and refunds against the same order. Orders can be created by hand, imported from a CSV file, or brought in automatically from a connected sales channel.
This article is a map of the Sales module: where it lives, the stages a sale order moves through, and the companion articles that cover each stage in detail. If you are new to Sales, read this first, then follow the links to the task you need.
Where Sales lives
In the main navigation menu, Sales expands to reveal an Orders item. Click Orders to open the sale order list at #sales, which shows every order and quote for your company. From the list you can search, filter, sort, run bulk actions, and open any individual order.
Each order opens in its own order workspace. The workspace shows the order itself, the order header, its line items, and the main actions (Ship, Invoice, Return, Refund), with a side panel of linked sections down the right:
- Shipments – picking, packing, and dispatching goods. This section also holds the Pending shipment link, which opens the order’s stock allocations.
- Invoices – creating invoices and recording payments.
- Payments – the payments recorded against the order’s invoices and refunds.
- Returns – items the customer has sent back.
- Refunds – money refunded to the customer.
Each section lists the documents already raised against the order, and you open one by clicking its entry. You do not have to touch every section for every order: a simple order can be shipped and invoiced straight from the action buttons on the order itself, and the side-panel sections fill in as you go. The Payments, Returns, and Refunds sections appear only once there is a payment, return, or refund on the order.
The order list also offers Create (start a new order), Import… (import orders from a file or channel), and Bulk Actions for acting on several selected orders at once. These are covered in their own articles, linked below.
The sale order lifecycle
Every sale order carries a status that reflects where it is in its life. There are four statuses:
- Quote – a draft offer to the customer. Nothing is committed to inventory yet. Only quotes, and open orders that have no shipments or invoices yet, can be deleted.
- Open – an active, working order. Stock can be allocated, and the order can be shipped, invoiced, and paid.
- Closed – the order is finished. An order closes automatically once it is fully shipped, fully invoiced, and fully paid. You can also finish an order in one step with the Close Order action, which allocates, dispatches, and invoices every remaining item and then closes the order (this ships and invoices the outstanding lines for you, so it moves stock rather than just flipping the status).
- Canceled – the order has been cancelled and can no longer be edited.
Alongside the order status, each order also shows a stock status (Awaiting Stock, Ready To Ship, Fulfilled, or On Hold), an invoicing status, and a payment status. These three tell you at a glance how far the order has progressed through fulfilment, invoicing, and payment.
A typical order moves through these stages:
- Create or accept. Start a new order from the list (Create), import one, or begin from a quote. Accepting a quote uses the Create Order action, which moves the order from Quote to Open.
- Allocate stock. Reserve available inventory against the order’s line items. Open the allocations screen from the Pending shipment link in the Shipments section of the order’s side panel. Batch- and lot-tracked items can be reserved by batch.
- Ship (pick, pack, dispatch). Create full or partial shipments from the order by selecting items and clicking Ship. Each shipment is then picked, packed, and dispatched from its entry in the Shipments section.
- Invoice. Create full or partial invoices by selecting items and clicking Invoice.
- Record payment. Record payments against an invoice by opening it from the Invoices section, until the order is fully paid.
Returns and refunds run alongside this flow rather than at a fixed point. Both are actions on the individual order workspace:
- Returns bring items back from the customer. Create a return by selecting items and clicking Return.
- Refunds return money to the customer. Initiate a refund by selecting items and clicking Refund.
Put On Hold is not an action on the individual order. It is a bulk action on the order list: select one or more orders, then choose Put On Hold from Bulk Actions to place their stock allocation on hold when you are not ready to fulfil them yet.
The Close Order action is not a passive status change. It auto-allocates, dispatches (ships), and invoices every item still outstanding on the order, and then closes it; if the order is still a quote, it accepts the quote first. Because it moves stock and raises invoices for all remaining lines in one step, only use it when you genuinely want the whole order shipped and invoiced. An order that already has shipped lines cannot simply be cancelled; you must return those items first.
Only quotes, and open orders that have no shipments or invoices yet, can be deleted. Once an order has been shipped or invoiced, it can no longer be deleted.
Quotes and dropshipping
Quotes are the starting point for orders you have not yet committed. They are managed in their own area of the product and have dedicated articles; this overview covers what happens once a quote becomes an order.
Dropshipped orders route fulfilment to a supplier instead of shipping from your own stock. Dropshipping has its own workflow and articles. Both are linked from the Sales section index.
Before you start
A few things make the Sales workflow run smoothly:
- Customers. You need a customer on the order. You can pick an existing customer or add contact details as you create the order.
- Products and stock. Line items come from your product catalogue. To allocate and ship, the items need available stock in the location you are shipping from. Orders that cannot be filled yet sit at Awaiting Stock.
- Locations. Stock is allocated and shipped from a warehouse location, so make sure your locations are set up.
- Taxes, price lists, and currency. Orders respect the tax class, price list, and currency you choose on the order header, so having these configured keeps totals correct.
Where to go next
- Find and filter sales orders – search, filter, and navigate the order list.
- Create and edit sales orders – build an order, add line items and charges.
- Sales order statuses and actions – what each status means and the actions available at each stage.
- Sales order allocations – reserve stock, including batch reservation.
- Shipments: picking, packing, and dispatch – fulfil orders.
- Invoices and payments – invoice customers and record payments.
- Returns and refunds – process returns and issue refunds.