From request to invoice

The Operations part of the sidebar covers buying and selling goods and services: what you ask for, order, receive, quote, deliver and take back. Each step is its own document, and each one is started from the one before it, so the whole history stays linked. This page shows the chain. The pages that follow explain each screen.

You see these screens if your administrator has given you access to Procurement, Sales or Inventory, and the organization has those modules turned on. If a menu entry is missing, ask your administrator.

The buying chain

Step	Document	Started from	Who usually does it	Ends in
1	Purchase requisition	Nothing (it is the start)	Any employee asking for goods or services	Approved by the requester’s superior
2	Purchase order	A requisition, or nothing	Finance	Approved by the Owner
3	Goods receipt	A purchase order	Whoever receives the goods, but not the person who approved the order	Received
4	Purchase invoice (in Payables)	A Receipt line	Finance	Posted to the ledger
—	Purchase return	A goods receipt	Whoever sends goods back	Returned, then a supplier credit note in Payables on the Return line

Requisition ──▶ Purchase order ──▶ Goods receipt ──▶ Purchase invoice (Payables)
                                        │
                                        └──▶ Purchase return ──▶ Supplier credit note (Payables)

The selling chain

Step	Document	Started from	Ends in
1	Quotation	Nothing	Issued, valid until a date
2	Sales order	A quotation, or nothing	Confirmed by the Owner
3	Delivery	A sales order	Delivered
4	Sales invoice (in Receivables)	A Delivery line	Issued to the customer
—	Sales return	A delivery	Received back, then a customer credit note in Receivables on the Sales return line

Quotation ──▶ Sales order ──▶ Delivery ──▶ Sales invoice (Receivables)
                                  │
                                  └──▶ Sales return ──▶ Customer credit note (Receivables)

How documents chain

Each document draws from its source’s open lines. A line’s Open quantity is what is left to order, receive, deliver or invoice. You can take part of it now and the rest later; for example, receive 6 of 10 bolts today and 4 next week.
You cannot take more than is open. If you try, you see “That is more than is left open on the source line.”
The source must be approved and still open. A draft, rejected, cancelled or closed document cannot be drawn from.
The quickest way to start the next document is to open the source and select the button for the next step, such as New purchase order on an approved requisition or New delivery on a confirmed sales order. The new document opens with the source already chosen and its lines filled in.
Every document shows its family. Open any document in the chain and look at Document chain: it lists the documents before and after it, each with its status, and any invoices or credit notes made from them.

What posts to the ledger

Requisitions, purchase orders, quotations and sales orders are commitments: they post nothing. The documents that move goods do post:

a goods receipt brings the goods into stock at the order price;
a delivery takes them out of stock at cost;
a purchase return or sales return reverses what its source posted for the goods it covers.

Keeping an eye on what is open

Operations reports list what is still to receive, deliver and invoice: open purchase orders, goods received not invoiced, open sales orders and deliveries not yet invoiced.

Where to go next

Items and locations — set up what you buy and sell, and where you keep it
Working with trade documents — the lists, the document panel, statuses and actions
Buying: requisitions to returns
Selling: quotations to returns
Fixed assets