About sales order processing options

A sales order of the SO type is created to represent a customer request to buy goods in a specified quantity on a specified date.

In a typical distribution organisation, the customer order may be taken over the phone or received by e-mail.

Alternatively, if sales quotes are involved in your sales process, quotes can be used as templates for repeating orders for a particular customer.
In this case, you can create sales orders by copying the quotes.
To copy a quote to a sales order, you use the Sales orders (SO301000) window: Once you have selected the quote, select Copy order in the Actions menu.
You can select whether to recalculate discounts on sales orders copied from quotes.
After you copy a quote to a sales order, the quote remains open until you cancel it.

New orders of the SO type will be saved with the On hold status by default, if the Hold orders on entry check box is selected for this order type on the status depends in the Order types (SO201000) window.
A reference numbers for new orders are generated according to the number series assigned to this order type in the Order types (SO201000) window.

A new sales order of the SO type is created by using the Sales orders (SO301000) window.

For a sales order, you specify the following information:

• The customer, its location, and its tax information (VAT zone and VAT registration ID)
  To facilitate order processing and tracking, you can attach scanned images or electronic versions of original customer orders to sales orders.
  
  
• The payment terms
• The payment method, if it is different from the default one
• The shipping rule for the order and for each order line
• The shipping terms
• The carrier to be used for shipping
• The included stock and non-stock items with their quantities, units of measure, and unit prices

For items that have lot or serial numbers tracked in Visma.net ERP, you can specify these numbers, thus reserving these particular items for the sales order.

For each line selected on the Details tab of the Sales orders (SO301000) window, you can view the item availability information at the bottom of the window.
If you notice that the ordered goods are not available, you can select the Actions - Place on back order action for the order.
If the ordered items are out of stock at the shipping warehouse only, you can split order lines into multiple allocation schedules to fulfill the order by transfers from other warehouses.
To ensure that your order will be fulfilled in a timely fashion, you can reserve the specified item quantities for the order (by marking them as allocated).

For details on creating a sales order (of the SO type), see: Create a sales order and Create a sales order with allocations.

You may need to reorder a sales order's lines, for example, if you need the lines of the printed document to be in a specific order, or if the customer wants you to sort the document lines in some custom order.

Also, you may need to reorder a line or multiple lines in the existing sales order, or add a new line at the beginning of a list or in the middle of the list. You can reorder the lines of a sales order until it has been completed.

The order number of each sales order line on the Document details tab is shown in the Line order column (which is hidden by default).
Once you reorder the lines, the system automatically regenerates the order numbers for each document line.
You can select the lines to be reordered in any combinations, such as the following:

• A single sales order line (for example, line 3 or 8). To select a single line, click it.
• Multiple non-contiguous lines (for example, lines 1, 3, and 7).
  To select these lines, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking the row selector next to the needed lines.
• A contiguous group of sales order lines (for example, line 5 through line 9).
  To select a group of lines, select the first line in the group, and hold the Shift key down while clicking the last line in the group.
  (Alternatively, you can click the first line and then press Shift+Down arrow until all the needed lines are selected.)
• A non-contiguous group of sales order lines (for example, line 5 through line 7, and line 10).
  To select a non-contiguous group of lines, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking the row selector next to the needed lines.

All selected lines are grouped, and thus are moved contiguously, even if you have selected multiple non-contiguous document lines.
After you have selected the needed lines, move them to the new place in the table in one of the following ways:

• Drag the selected line or lines to the place where you want to move them.
  A thin red line between the table lines shows where these lines will be inserted.
  Once you drag the selected lines, the system moves these lines and regenerates the line order numbers for all the lines in the table.
• When you need to move sales order lines between pages, cut the selected sales order lines and paste them to the new place in the table.
  To cut the lines, press Ctrl+X, or right-click the table and then click Cut row.
  Then click the line above which the cut lines should be inserted, and press Ctrl+V; alternatively, you can right-click the table, and then click Insert cut row.

Once you reorder the lines, the system automatically regenerates the line number for each document line.
These numbers are used for numbering lines in the printable reports, such as printable sales order shown in the Sales orders (SO301000) window.
You can cancel the line reordering by clicking Cancel in the window toolbar before you save these changes.

You can insert a single line to any place in the document.
To do this, click the line above which the new line should be inserted and then press Shift+Insert, or right-click the needed line and then click Insert row.
The system adds a new blank line.
When you finish populating the line information and save your changes, the system automatically regenerates the line numbers for all lines in the table.

You may start to create a sales order by copying and pasting another sales order, which you use as a template.
In such a case, you need to change the customer ID specified for the sales order to another one.
You can change the customer ID in the Customer field of the Sales orders (SO301000) window for a sales order that has one of the following statuses:

• On hold
• Open (if the order is new)
• Credit hold (if the order is new)
• Back order (if the new order has been placed on back order manually)

When you change the customer ID in the sales order, the system preserves the following information:

• Order type, order number, and description
• Currency ID, currency rate type, and currency rate
• Document date and date when the customer wants to receive the goods
• Order-level shipping rule, and shipping rules in the order lines
• Item IDs and warehouses specified in the order lines
• Hard allocations of inventory
• Notes, activities, and attachments

When you change the customer ID in the sales order, the system updates the following document settings by using the settings of the newly selected customer:

• Credit verification status
• Salesperson commissions
• Customer-specific settings on the Document details, Financial settings, Payment settings, and Shipping settings tabs
• VAT and freight VAT category
• Group and document discounts
• Unit prices, except manual unit prices for which the Manual price check box is selected in the document line
• Line discounts, except manual line discounts for which the Manual discount check box is selected in the document line

The system does not automatically save the document after you change the customer ID, so you can easily cancel these changes.

There are some restrictions on changing the customer in a sales order.

You cannot save the customer change in a sales order in any of the following cases:

• The sales order has the Open status and is subject for approval.
• The sales order has a linked shipment, invoice, IN issue, or drop-ship purchase order.
• Credit card payments have been authorised or captured for the sales order.
• Customer ledger payments or prepayments have been applied to the sales order.
• The currency of the newly selected customer differs from the currency that was previously specified in the sales order, and the system cannot override the currency in the sales order.
  
  (This could happen if the currency override is not allowed for the newly selected customer.)

To avoid situations when the system does not allow you to override the customer, we recommend that you create order templates by currency and by each unique set of shipping rules, to make sure that shipments are processed as expected.

The way the order will be fulfilled depends on the shipping rules specified for the order and for each line of the order in the Sales orders (SO301000) window.
The shipping rule specified for a line on the Details tab defines whether the stock item should be shipped only with the full ordered quantity or it can be shipped partially in one shipment or multiple shipments.
For detailed information, see: About shipping rules.

The sales order has a default shipping rule if a rule has been specified for the customer in the Customers (AR303000) window or for the customer location in the Customer locations (CR303010) window (if the Business account locations functionality is enabled in the Enable/disable functionalities (CS100000) window).
If there is a default shipping rule for the customer or customer location, the system inserts the default rule for the order for each line of the order; however, you can override the shipping rule for any line and for the order if needed.

By default, a credit check is performed for orders of the SO type, and the system displays a warning if the customer fails the credit check.
However, if you want to instead hold sales orders on a failed credit check, you can select the Credit check on entry check box in the Order types (SO201000) window for the SO type.

If the customer fails the credit check, the order gets the Credit hold status.
Orders placed on credit hold can be released from credit hold if customer payments were entered or order amounts were appropriately decreased.
To release these orders from credit hold, you can perform the Release from credit hold action in the Process orders (SO501000) window.
This initiates credit checks for each selected order, and gives the order the Open status if the credit check is successful.