Creating a Sales Order¶

Purpose¶

It records the sales order, links it to stock and to a booking, and follows it until it is delivered.

Who does this¶

MK outbound staff who record an order to sell goods to a customer.

Before you start¶

You have the right account (see Permissions and Access).
The record and date you are working on are correct.
Words you do not know are in the Glossary.

Access¶

Shipping > Outbound Orders

Before you create anything¶

Search by date, order number, reference, booking or container.
Open anything that looks like a match before creating a new order. A duplicate order is expensive to undo.

Creating the order¶

Choose Ocean or Local.
Enter the sales agreement, booking, container and size, the parties, the timing, and the lines.
Save once.
Reopen the order and check the number, the header, every line, and the links to the agreement, the booking and the equipment.

An ocean order saved without a booking, container or size will be accepted. Treat that as incomplete and fill in what is missing rather than moving on.

Setting aside stock¶

Saving the order does not set stock aside. It creates lines with nothing allocated.

Open the Allocation Workbench.
Select the exact lot you are drawing from.
Enter the quantity and weight you are allocating.

Then reopen the order and check the allocation. The weight on the order line is not the same thing as an allocation, and the stock left in the lot is the real check.

Booking, equipment and paperwork¶

Check the booking number, container, size and seal on the link.
The booking itself, and the packing list that comes from it, are separate jobs. This order does not complete them.

Once the equipment is linked to a delivery, a scale ticket or a transload, the booking, container and size cannot be changed. Check them before that happens.

Doing the physical work¶

The weighing and the delivery are done in their own screens. Come back to the order afterwards and check:

the scale record
the equipment load
the times
the allocation
any delivery or packing evidence

Readiness shown on the order is only a summary of those. It is not a separate fact.

Once a scale record exists, the timing fields and the order status on the order are held to it. They will not change to something the scale does not say.

Changing an order¶

Open the order and check the allocation, the equipment, the scale, the delivery and the cost first.

Adding, changing or removing a line updates the equipment summary and the scale link.
A line that has stock allocated cannot be deleted.
A line with stock allocated can still be changed, and that will not put the stock or the lot balances back. If you need to change quantities, check the lot balances afterwards.

If something goes wrong¶

Situation	What you do
The order is not in the list	Narrow the search and reload before treating it as missing.
An ocean order has no booking or container	Fill it in now. It will not be rejected, and it is needed later.
The allocation does not match the order	Check the lot you allocated from and the quantity remaining on that lot.
The booking or container will not change	Equipment is already linked to a delivery, scale or transload. Ask before forcing it.
A line will not delete	Stock is allocated to it. Work through the allocation first.
The status will not change	The scale record says otherwise. The scale is the authority.
Someone else saved while you were editing	The last save wins. Reopen and check.

Who owns the next step¶

Outbound staff own the order. Stock is the warehouse's, weighing is the scale operator's, and the delivery is the driver's — see The working day, step by step.

The full step-by-step¶

This page is the short version. The screen-by-screen procedure with every field and recovery step is here:

Outbound Orders