How to Invoice Sales Orders | Latner Software Documentation

Invoicing a Sales Order turns the quantities you have actually fulfilled into a customer invoice, so a sale reaches your accounts without anyone re-keying the lines.

Overview

A sales order is a promise; an invoice is the bill. Latner keeps the two apart on purpose, because parts turn up in dribs and drabs and you rarely want to hold the whole order hostage to the one item still on back order. Invoice Sales Order lets you bill what you have, when you have it, and come back for the rest later.

Invoicing runs from the sales order's Options menu, and only once the order is Quoted or Partially Invoiced.
Only fulfilled quantities can be invoiced. A line with nothing fulfilled does not appear in the dialog at all.
You choose which lines to invoice and how much of each, so one sales order can produce several invoices over time.
The order moves to Partially Invoiced while anything is still outstanding, and to Invoiced once every line is fully invoiced.
The new invoice is linked back to the sales order and appears on the order's Invoices tab.
Delivery is not a prerequisite. You do not need a transport docket, a picking list or an inspection to invoice.

Before You Begin

Invoicing is permission gated, and one setting decides what status the resulting invoice starts in.

Requirement	Where to Find It
Convert Sales Order permission	Security › Permission Groups › Sales › Option › Convert Sales Order
Sales Order screen permission	Security › Permission Groups › Sales › Screen › Sales Order
Customer Invoices screen permission, to open the invoice afterwards	Security › Permission Groups › Customers › Screen › Customer Invoices
Default Sales Order Customer Invoices to Completed (optional)	Security › Settings › Customers
A sales order at Quoted or Partially Invoiced, with at least one fulfilled quantity	Sales › Sales Orders

Default Sales Order Customer Invoices to Completed, on the Customers tab of Security › Settings. Left off, sales order invoices are created as Open

That setting decides the starting status of the invoice, and the starting status decides when stock actually leaves the warehouse. With the setting off, the invoice is created Open and someone has to run Complete Invoice before Stock and Serialized Stock lines are marked as sold. Equipment on an Asset/Equipment line is different: it is sold the moment the invoice is created, whatever the invoice's status.

Invoicing the Sales Order

Step 1 - Check what has been fulfilled

Open the sales order from Sales › Sales Orders and look at the Details tab. The Qty Fulfilled column is what invoicing works from, and Qty Invoiced shows how much of each line has already been billed. If you cannot see those columns, add them from Customize above the grid.

How a line becomes fulfilled depends on what kind of line it is:

Admin, Transport and Labour - fulfilled as soon as the line is added, because there is nothing physical to track.
Stock - fulfilled by the quantity allocated out of the warehouse, so a line ordering more than you hold is only part fulfilled.
Serialized Stock - fulfilled once a serial number has been assigned to the line.
Asset/Equipment - fulfilled once an equipment number has been chosen, which also reserves that machine for sale.

Sales order SO0006 before invoicing. Line 2 has nothing fulfilled, so it is the one line that will not be invoiceable

Step 2 - Mark the sales order as Quoted

An Open sales order cannot be invoiced. While the order is Open, Invoice Sales Order stays greyed out in the Options menu with the tooltip "Mark the Sales Order as Quoted before Invoicing".

Choose Options › Mark as Quoted to move it on. Options › Email Sales Order does the same thing as a side effect, so an order you have already emailed to the customer is usually Quoted already.

The Options menu on an Open sales order. Invoice Sales Order is disabled and its tooltip explains why

Step 3 - Open Invoice Sales Order

With the order at Quoted, choose Options › Invoice Sales Order. Notice that Add Sales Order Detail switches off at the same time, and Reopen Sales Order appears in case you need to go back and change the lines.

The same menu once the order is Quoted. Invoice Sales Order is now available and Reopen Sales Order has appeared

Step 4 - Check the invoice header

The dialog opens with the order's own details across the top. Only one of them can be changed:

Sales Order, Customer, Site, Branch - read only, carried straight from the sales order.
Invoice Date - required, and defaults to today. It is the date shown on the invoice and the date the due date is calculated from, using the customer's payment terms.

Under that, every line with something left to invoice is listed with its Qty Ordered, Qty Fulfilled, Qty Invoiced and a proposed Qty To Invoice, and the running Sub Total, Tax and Total sit under the table.

The Invoice Sales Order dialog. Only three of the order's four lines are listed, because the fourth has nothing fulfilled

Step 5 - Choose what to invoice

Latner proposes everything you are entitled to bill: each line's Qty To Invoice starts at Qty Fulfilled minus Qty Invoiced. Trim it from there:

Required - untick a line to leave it off this invoice entirely. Its quantity drops to 0 and the totals fall away with it.
Qty To Invoice - click the cell to type a smaller number, then confirm with the tick. You cannot go above the fulfilled-but-not-yet-invoiced quantity, and no more than two decimal places are accepted.

The totals at the foot of the table update as you go, so the figure you see there is the invoice you are about to raise.

Trimming the invoice: the Labour line is unticked and the hose line is being cut from 6 to 4

Step 6 - Create the invoice

Click Create Invoice. Latner raises the invoice and shows a confirmation with a link straight to it. If you have unticked everything, or zeroed every quantity, nothing is created and you will see "Please select details to create invoice" instead.

After Invoicing

Qty Invoiced on each billed line goes up by the amount you invoiced.
The sales order's status becomes Partially Invoiced if any line still has quantity left to bill, or Invoiced once every line is fully invoiced.
The invoice appears on the order's Invoices tab, and in the full list under Customers › Customer Invoices.
On the invoice, Source reads Sales Order and Linked To points back at the order. The order's purchase order number and sales rep are copied across, and the due date comes from the customer's payment terms.
Equipment on an Asset/Equipment line is sold immediately, with a Sold movement recorded against it. If the line had Convert to Customer Owned ticked, a serialised machine becomes customer owned rather than simply sold, so you can keep servicing it.
Stock and Serialized Stock only leave the warehouse when the invoice reaches Completed, either because the setting defaults it there or because someone runs Options › Complete Invoice on the invoice.

The Invoices tab lists every invoice raised from this order, with its status

The resulting customer invoice, created Open and linked back to SO0006

Once every line is fully invoiced the order locks down: you cannot add or delete lines, reopen it or cancel it, and you cannot swap the stock, serial number or equipment on an invoiced line. If something was billed wrongly, run Options › Cancel Customer Invoice on the invoice rather than crediting it. Cancelling gives the quantities back, reverses the equipment sale and returns the order to Quoted or Partially Invoiced; a credit note only adjusts the money and leaves the order looking invoiced.

FAQs

Invoice Sales Order is greyed out. Why?

The order is still Open. Invoicing is only available at Quoted or Partially Invoiced, and hovering the greyed-out item spells this out: "Mark the Sales Order as Quoted before Invoicing". Use Options › Mark as Quoted first. If the item is missing altogether rather than greyed out, you do not hold the Convert Sales Order permission.

One of my lines is missing from the Invoice Sales Order dialog.

It has nothing left to invoice. The dialog lists only lines where Qty Fulfilled is greater than Qty Invoiced, so a line still waiting on stock, a serial number or an equipment number is left out. Fulfil it and it will appear the next time you invoice.

The order says Partially Invoiced but I invoiced everything the dialog offered.

That is expected when a line is not fully fulfilled. The status looks at the ordered quantity, not the fulfilled one, so an order with five pumps ordered and none in stock stays Partially Invoiced no matter how much of the rest you bill. Fulfil the remaining quantity, or use Options › Raise Purchase Order to order it in, then invoice again.

Can I invoice the same sales order more than once?

Yes. A Partially Invoiced order can be invoiced again as often as you need, and each run bills only what is still outstanding. This is the normal way to handle an order that ships in stages.

Do I have to deliver the goods, or complete a transport docket, before I can invoice?

No. Invoicing works from Qty Fulfilled and never looks at Qty in Transit or Qty Delivered. Transport dockets, picking lists and pre-sale inspections are all optional as far as invoicing is concerned.

The invoice is raised but the stock is still showing in the warehouse. Why?

The invoice is still Open. Stock and Serialized Stock are only marked as sold when the invoice reaches Completed. Run Options › Complete Invoice on the invoice, or turn on Default Sales Order Customer Invoices to Completed in Security › Settings › Customers so future sales order invoices skip that step.

I invoiced the wrong quantity. How do I undo it?

Cancel the invoice, do not credit it. Options › Cancel Customer Invoice on the customer invoice reduces Qty Invoiced back on the sales order lines, returns stock to allocated, reverses an equipment sale and rolls the order back to Quoted or Partially Invoiced. A note about the cancellation is required, and an invoice that has already been paid cannot be cancelled. Create Credit Note from Invoice is a financial adjustment only: it does not give the quantities back.

A line is priced at $0. Will it still be invoiced?

Yes, as long as it has a quantity. Zero-priced lines are billed deliberately, because it is the invoice line that triggers the sale of the item behind it. Leaving a free-of-charge item off the invoice would leave it sitting in stock.

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