Sales Orders and Delivery Notes

Sales orders let you confirm a customer order, reserve stock, ship in parts with a delivery note, and raise tax invoices against remaining quantities. Navigate to Sales → Orders. Delivery notes live under Sales → Delivery Notes.

This is ship-then-bill for stock. Service lines invoice without a delivery note. Direct New Invoice and Cash Sale still work and do not need an order.

What this is not

• Reservation is not a sale. Sending an order does not drop quantity on hand, does not post VAT, and does not post cost of sales.
• A delivery note is not a tax invoice. Prefix GDN (not DN — debit notes already use that). The PDF footer and the delivery-note page say “This is not a tax invoice.”
• Quotes still do not reserve. An accepted quote can become either invoices or one sales order, not both.
• Direct invoices and cash sales remain. They cannot take units another order has reserved.

Creating a Sales Order

1. Click New Order (or the empty-state button on Sales → Orders)
2. Select the customer. Line tax defaults from that contact’s default tax rate (Contacts → Bookkeeping). Tax-exempt contacts get No tax.
3. Optionally enter Customer PO (the customer’s own purchase-order number — this is not an Anchor sales order number)
4. Add line items. Optionally pick a catalogue item — stock or service. Stock lines can set a warehouse. Free-text lines without an item are still valid. Catalogue lines do not show an Account picker.
5. Set issue date and optional delivery date. Currency fills from the customer; you can override it.
6. Save as draft. Nothing is reserved yet.

Draft numbers are SO-#####. You can also convert an accepted quote (see Quotes).

Editing a Draft

A sales order can be edited while it is still a draft (before it is sent).

1. Open Sales → Orders and click the draft
2. Click Edit
3. Change the customer, dates, Customer PO, notes, currency, or line items
4. Save

Sent, part-delivered, delivered, fully invoiced, and cancelled orders cannot be edited this way.

Deleting a Draft

Delete on a draft moves it to Settings → Trash for 30 days. The SO number is not reused. If the draft came from a quote, that quote can be converted again.

Sent orders cannot be deleted. Use Cancel when there are no live delivery notes or invoices.

Sales Order Fields

Status Flow

Draft → Sent → Part delivered → Delivered → Fully invoiced
              ↘ Cancelled (no live deliveries or invoices)

1. Draft — being prepared. Zero reservation.
2. Sent — confirmed. Stock lines are reserved.
3. Part delivered — some stock has gone out, or some lines have been invoiced
4. Delivered — all stock lines are fully delivered. Service-only orders never use this status.
5. Fully invoiced — nothing left to deliver or invoice
6. Cancelled — voided. Remaining reservation is released.

The order detail shows per-line Ordered, Delivered, Invoiced, To deliver, and To invoice (units, not only money).

Sending Sales Orders

When you click Send on a draft, a dialog lets you:

• Send Email — enter the recipient, subject, and message. Optionally attach the PDF.
• Mark as Sent — change the status without emailing

Either action reserves stock for catalogue stock lines. Available quantity drops; on-hand does not. There is no stock movement and no journal. Service and free-text lines are not reserved.

Send fails if a stock line needs more whole units than are available (on-hand minus already reserved). There is no backorder. The line editor may warn when other orders already hold stock (for example, “Only 3 available”); that hint does not block save — Send is the hard check.

Email history and resend are on the order detail page, as for quotes and invoices.

Delivery Notes

A delivery note (GDN-#####) records goods leaving the warehouse. Create it from the sales order — Deliver on a sent order with outstanding stock. There is no “New Delivery Note” button on the list; the empty state on Sales → Delivery Notes is “Open a sales order and record a delivery.”

The deliver dialog lists outstanding stock lines and defaults to remaining quantity. You can ship a part shipment.

On create the note is issued immediately (no draft):

• Reserved quantity drops, then on-hand drops (one issue)
• Cost moves DR Goods delivered not invoiced (GDNI, 1350) / CR Inventory
• No VAT and no cost of sales on the delivery note

Delivery notes reject service catalogue lines and free-text lines. Those invoice from the order without a DN.

Delivery note page

• Banner: This is not a tax invoice.
• Lines: item, location, quantity
• Download PDF — title Delivery Note, footer “This is not a tax invoice.”
• Send email — emails the packing document; does not move stock again
• Cancel — restocks on-hand, reverses the GDNI reclass, and re-reserves if the order is still open. Blocked if those units have already been invoiced

Statuses: issued or cancelled.

Invoicing from a Sales Order

Create invoice on the order opens a confirm: “Creates a draft tax invoice for remaining delivered stock and remaining service quantities.”

• Stock can be invoiced only up to delivered minus already invoiced (and minus other draft invoices from this order)
• Service (and free-text) invoice remaining ordered qty — no delivery note required
• The draft does not yet count as invoiced. Tallies move when you send the tax invoice
• The invoice page links From SO-#####. Line Edit is hidden on these drafts — you cannot replace the lines

Sending that tax invoice posts accounts receivable, revenue, and output VAT as usual, and for SO-linked stock:

• DR Cost of sales / CR GDNI at the delivery cost
• No second stock issue — the goods already left on the GDN

Direct invoices (no sales order) still issue on-hand and post DR COGS / CR Inventory when sent.

You can raise multiple invoices from one order. Over-invoicing is rejected.

Close leftover

Close leftover cancels undelivered remainder (and uninvoiced service) and releases leftover reservation. It does not create delivery notes or invoices.

It is hidden while delivered stock is still unbilled, and the API returns an error if you try anyway — you cannot abandon shipped goods without a tax invoice.

Cancelling an order

Cancel on a sent order releases remaining reserved stock. It is allowed only when there are no live (non-cancelled) delivery notes and no invoices linked to the order (including drafts).

To unwind a fulfilled order: void the tax invoice first (GDNI comes back; goods stay with the customer), cancel the delivery note (restock), then cancel the order.

Quotes

On an accepted quote you can:

• Create an invoice from this quote — existing progress-invoice path
• Create sales order — copies lines into a draft sales order. Still no reservation until you send the order

You cannot do both. After a sales order exists, the invoice convert button is hidden and View sales order is shown. After any invoice from the quote (billedTotal or a converted invoice), Create sales order is hidden.

A quote converted to a sales order cannot be deleted.

Stock and GDNI

*Available stays the same on a GDN because reserved and on-hand fall together.

GDNI is the control account Goods delivered not invoiced, default code 1350 (Settings → Control Accounts, advanced roles). It holds delivered-not-invoiced cost on the balance sheet until the tax invoice.

Inventory lists show on hand, reserved, and available separately. Do not read on-hand as sellable.

A credit note against an SO-linked invoice does not put goods back on the shelf and does not reverse GDNI. Physical returns of ordered stock are not in this workflow yet.

PDF Download

• Sales order: Download PDF on the order (title Sales Order, not Tax Invoice)
• Delivery note: Download PDF on the note (title Delivery Note, footer disclaimer)

Customise under Settings → Templates. Sales Order and Delivery Note are separate template types. See Templates.

Related

• Quotes — offers; no reservation; one convert path
• Invoicing — tax invoices; direct invoices still issue stock on send
• Inventory — on hand, reserved, available
• Purchase Orders — purchase analogue (PO → GRN → bill)
• MCP Server — sales order and delivery note tools

API Reference