Sales Module Guide
Use Sales to quote customers, take orders that hold stock, invoice and collect, bill on a schedule, price per customer, and give customers a portal of their own — with Inventory, POS and Finance connected underneath.
Sales turns a customer's interest into a quote, a commitment into a sales order, and delivered goods or services into invoices and payments. It connects to Inventory (orders reserve stock; invoices check it out), to POS (the till uses the same price lists), to Finance (invoices post revenue, payments settle receivables) and to eTIMS, which files invoices when they are issued.
Who Uses Sales
- Sales staff who write quotes, send them and record customers' answers.
- Managers who approve quotes and maintain price lists.
- Warehouse teams who fulfil sales orders and approve the check-outs invoices raise.
- Finance users who approve invoices, review credit holds, record payments and run recurring billing.
Sales Lifecycle
- Create or confirm the customer, with their credit limit and, if they have one, their price list.
- Write a quote; approve and send it. The customer accepts or declines online, in the portal, or by phone.
- Convert the accepted quote to a sales order and confirm it: stock on the shelf is reserved, the rest backordered.
- Invoice the order in one go or line by line as it ships — or invoice a quote directly when the stock is on hand.
- Approve each invoice (it files to eTIMS where that is on), check its goods out, and record payment.
- Correct a mistake with a credit note, and review sales, payment and customer reports.
Sales Records
| Record | Purpose | Guide |
|---|---|---|
| Customer | The buyer, contacts, credit limit and price list. | Customers |
| Quote | An offer with a valid-until date and an online accept link. | Quotes & Sales Orders |
| Sales order | The commitment; reserves stock and invoices in parts. | Quotes & Sales Orders |
| Proforma invoice | A print of a quote or order for advance payment; never filed to eTIMS. | Quotes & Sales Orders |
| Price list | Customer-specific prices with quantity breaks and dates. | Price Lists |
| Invoice | The tax invoice; posts revenue and is collected against. | Invoices |
| Recurring schedule | Raises one invoice per period on its own. | Recurring Invoices |
| Portal access | A customer's own sign-in to invoices, statement, quotes and payment. | Customer Portal |
| Payment | Money received against an invoice. | Payment Recording |
| Credit note | A correction or return against an invoice. | Credit Notes |
Permissions And Credit Controls
Quotes (view, create, edit, approve, delete), sales orders (view, manage), price lists, recurring invoices and the customer portal each have their own permissions, and raising an invoice from a quote or an order needs the permission to create invoices. Quote approval is on by default and can be switched off in Settings. A customer with a credit limit has new invoices checked against it; one that would go over is held until someone overrides it with a reason.
Common Mistakes
- Creating duplicate customer records.
- Typing a price on a line instead of leaving it to the customer's price list.
- Invoicing a quote directly when stock is short, instead of taking a sales order.
- Leaving an invoice's check-out unapproved, so the stock and the revenue never move.
- Cancelling a paid or checked-out invoice instead of issuing a credit note.
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