Sales orders

“The customer said yes, paid ₹20,000 as token, and wants the goods in three lots.” Without an order you leave the quote marked accepted and remember the rest in your head, or you issue the full invoice early and move stock that hasn’t left yet. A sales order in BizOS records what the customer has committed to buy. Advances are taken against it, goods go out against it, and it is billed in one invoice or several, never beyond what was ordered.

When do I need a sales order?

Most shops bill straight from a quote and can leave sales orders off. Turn them on when any of these is everyday work for you:

• Goods you order in. The customer orders today; the stock arrives next week.
• Work that starts after a token advance. A contractor takes 30% before buying material.
• Delivery in parts. A distributor supplies 500 boxes over a month, a lot at a time, and bills each lot.

How do I turn sales orders on?

Go to Settings → Selling → Sales orders and switch on Use sales orders. The same page has Convert accepted quotes straight to a confirmed order (on by default; off means the order starts as a draft you confirm after checking) and the order numbering for the head office.

Turning the switch off later stops new orders, converts and advances. Orders you already have stay open to read, bill, close and cancel, and invoices and receipts still say which order they came from.

From quote to order to bill

Order statuses

The list filters by To bill · Draft · Billed · Closed · All, with a billed percentage bar on each part-billed order.

Progress is always worked out from the order’s lines and the invoices made from it, draft bills included. So cancelling or deleting a bill moves the order back by itself: there is no second record to fix.

How do I bill in parts against an order?

Open the order and choose Create bill. Each line shows Ordered, Billed, Delivered and To bill. You can bill:

• Everything left on the order.
• Picked quantities, line by line.
• Only what was delivered and not billed yet, once challans have gone out.

BizOS checks what is left on every bill made from the order and on every later edit of that bill, so two people billing the same remainder at once cannot both succeed. The bill carries the order’s rates and price level. A flat order discount is shared across the bills by line value; a percentage discount carries over as it is.

Can I change a confirmed order?

Yes, within limits that protect what has already been billed:

• A billed line cannot be removed, cannot drop below what has been billed, and keeps its rate, tax and discount.
• The customer and the price level are fixed once confirmed.
• A real change makes a new revision, printed as “Rev 2” on the order PDF. Saving without changes does not.
• Cancel is only possible while nothing is billed. After that, Close order with a reason (it can be reopened). Money taken as an advance on a cancelled or closed order stays the customer’s credit.

Advances against an order

An advance against an order is an ordinary customer advance (see Receipts & advances), tagged to the order:

• It gets a receipt from the order’s branch’s series, counts in the cash drawer, and goes to Tally as a receipt if you sync receipts.
• The order shows Received · Applied · Held, and its totals show Advance received and Balance.
• When a bill from the order is issued, the held money is applied to it automatically, oldest first, never more than that bill’s balance. You can un-apply it like any other allocation.
• The money can also settle the customer’s other bills on the same GSTIN.
• A draft bill from an order cannot have a payment link until it is issued, because the link would ask for the full balance before the advance is applied.

BizOS does not calculate GST on an advance for services. Ask your CA how they want it treated.

Committed stock and shortages

Open orders tell you what you have promised before the bill is made:

• The item page shows On hand · On order · Available, with on-order per branch.
• The order editor warns when a line asks for more than is available at the order’s branch.
• An order that is short at its branch says where the stock is (“Short at Anna Nagar by 4, Head office has 8”) and offers Send stock here, a pre-filled stock transfer.
• Low-stock lists add what is on order, and the suggested quantity to order counts it: reorder level plus on order minus on hand.

Committed stock is shown and warned about. It is never booked or reserved.

Challans and jobs from an order

• Make challan creates a delivery challan for the order’s lines still to deliver, at the order’s branch. A challan is evidence of delivery: it moves no stock and changes no invoice. The order shows a delivered quantity per line.
• Make job creates installation or service work at the order’s branch (see Jobs). That job is billed through the order.

Sending the order and the customer’s “Confirm order”

Send shares the order on WhatsApp, using the Order confirmation template with the PDF attached and a View order button, or by email with a link. Drafts and cancelled orders are never sent. The usual checks for the customer’s phone, email, opt-out and consent apply.

The order page the customer opens shows the order as printed, the advance received and balance, a payment link if one is live, and a Confirm order button. If the customer agreed on a call instead, a member can record that. Either way the confirmation is evidence only: it moves no status and posts nothing, and the first confirmation stands.

The order PDF uses your quotation template and can print line images and the customer’s PO number.

Following up on open orders

• Pending Sales Orders report in Reports: what is still to bill, by customer, item or branch, aged on the expected date (overdue, this week, later, no date), with a filter for lines short of stock.
• Orders to bill card on the dashboard: how many, the ₹ still to bill for members who can see money, and how many are overdue.
• Workflow triggers for automations: an order confirmed (by a member or the customer), billed, closed, or overdue (a daily check at 09:10 IST).
• Ask BizOS can list orders, make an order from a quote and bill an order.

Sales orders and branches

An order belongs to one branch, chosen when it is made (from a quote, the quote’s branch). Its bills, advances, challans and jobs are at the same branch, so the same GSTIN. You cannot bill an order from another branch: transfer the stock first. Branch-limited staff see only their branches’ orders. See Branches.

Sales orders and Tally

If you sync with Tally, sales orders can be kept in step with Tally’s Sales Order vouchers, so Tally’s Sales Order Outstanding and BizOS’s progress agree. It is its own sync setting (on in the Full two-way preset, off in the others), it needs items synced, and pulling orders from Tally needs BizOS Agent 3.3.0 or later. A bill from an order that Tally holds names the order, so Tally’s outstanding reduces as you bill. Orders post nothing to Tally’s books. Details in Tally ledgers & vouchers.

Who can do what

Billing an order also needs permission to make invoices, and taking an advance needs permission to record payments. On the mobile app, the office view has an Orders tab with confirm, create bill, record advance, share and PDF, and a New order button; closing, reopening, cancelling and editing an order are done on the web. See Roles & permissions.