Tweet

Sales Orders in QuickBooks - How They Can Help Your Business

Guest post by: Scott Gregory

Article Overview: Don't overlook this very functional feature found in certain versions of QuickBooks. It has helped simplify the operations of thousands of businesses.

Sales Orders in QuickBooks - How They Can Help Your Business

The Premier and Enterprise versions of QuickBooks have a feature called "sales orders" that can end up being very beneficial and a great time-saver for many businesses. An easy way to think of a sales order is this - it is a document you can use in QuickBooks to track a customer order that is in-house that hasn't shipped yet.

For example, let's say you had to special order some parts for a customer that aren't going to arrive for four weeks. You can use the sales order form in QuickBooks to keep track of this customer order while you are waiting for the parts to arrive. Even better, you can turn this sales order into an invoice when you are ready to ship with just the click of a button - no re-typing needed!

The sales order happens after the estimate but before the invoice. You can create an estimate, and then when the customer wants to order, turn the estimate into a sales order (again with just a click). Once the order is built and/or is ready to ship, you can then turn the sales order into an invoice. The use of sales orders is completely optional, but can be a huge time-saver.

More benefits of using sales orders in QuickBooks Premier or Enterprise:

* Consolidate multiple customer orders into one invoice - you can choose from a list of sales orders for a given customer, click OK and have them all consolidate into one invoice.

* Create partial invoices -a sales order is the perfect tool to use for tracking partial shipments. If your customer has ordered 150 widgets and you can only ship 60 of them right away, create a sales order for the 150 widgets and then invoice for the 60 that are shipping now.

* Tracking backorders - in the example above, you have a backorder of 90 pieces. The sales order is the perfect place to track it until it has shipped completely. (Hint: Go to Reports > Sales > Open Sales Order by Customer report) for easy tracking.

* Using the sales order fulfillment worksheet -Once you begin using sales orders in QuickBooks, you can then take advantage of this feature. It is a great way to assess all of your open orders in one place and it can help you make decisions on what to ship and what not to ship. Please see my related article on the sales order fulfillment worksheet for more details.

Don't mess around trying to "trick out" estimates in QuickBooks Pro trying to get them to behave like a sales order does. I've seen some real doozies that have been created in QuickBooks Pro to get estimates to mimic sales orders. Use the sales order feature instead - you'll find it very easy to use.

If you see the benefits of using sales orders and need to upgrade, be sure to save some dough and get a discount on Premier or Enterprise. Remember, all your data in QuickBooks Pro will upgrade to Premier or Enterprise, so you won't have any headaches there. I can get you some pretty substantial discounts on QuickBooks - please drop me an e-mail for more information.

Related Articles
  QuickBooks 2011: Improvement to Closing Date Functionality
  Can I Move from QuickBooks Pro to Premier or into QuickBooks Enterprise?
  Understanding the Differences Between QuickBooks Upgrades and QuickBooks Updates
  Tip on Better QuickBooks Performance
  The

Article Tags: quickbooks sales orders, quickbooks tips, sales orders in quickbooks, turning estimate into sales order



Related Forum Posts
New Small Business Topic - Hello everyone, I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section? Here's a list of what we currently have: Angel Investors Branding Bank Loans Business Coaching Business Plan Franchises (New) Insurance Legal Marketing Public Relations Sales Small Biz Loans Venture Capital
Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing
Re: Online Sales and Marketing vs Traditional - [quote="ltrahan":31w9r2iz]Hi Evan, I am noticing that many of the posts in the Sales/Marketing section deal with online marketing, SEM and and SEO and Affiliates. I was wondering if it might be a good idea to separate that section into two; 1) Online Sales and Marketing; 2) Traditional Sales and Marketing[/quote:31w9r2iz] I second the request...
Getting Started In Your New Internet Business - I always think it’s fun and exciting to start a new Internet business. I know for me that I would do something that I’m interested and passionate about. Otherwise the new venture doesn’t last for long. As it’s just as important to have passion, motivation and interest, there are a few areas that help me succeed in business. Promoting Your Internet Business I would call this the “show me the money” part of the business. Without money or income, there is no business. Therefore it’s important to promote your business and turn your promotional activities into sales. At every opportunity, try to promote your business through passive means: e.g. through your stationary, letterheads, emails, brochures and any other promotional material you may use. Even if it’s just an article you write for a directory, remember to put your website address at the bottom of it. In the past, I made stickers of my logo that I could easily stick on my products. Also I made sure that every email I sent out to a customer had a company logo in it. This all helps with creating the brand for the business. It’s crucial to develop a marketing plan that will not only sell your products, but also your brand. Here are some other articles I recommend to read to help you promote your Internet business: * Spreading The Word: Turbocharge Your Traffic * Converting Traffic Into Sales Part 1: Generating Leads * Converting Traffic Into Sales Part 2: Profiting From The Back-End * 12 Sales Effective Marketing Tips Operating Your Business This is the “lifeblood” of the business and I’m amazed at the amount of businesses that still operate without having good systems in place. An electrician I use from time to time asked me how I maintain my book work and said he doesn’t know how to do it. I was shocked because I’d known him to be trading for over 2 years and he probably doesn’t know how much money is being made in his business or let alone lost. What I am saying is to not be like my Electrician friend and make sure you buy an accounting software to track all your accounts and paperwork. I would suggest hiring a book keeper because it will save you the hassle and time of doing it all yourself. Some good software packages out there that are under $500 like MYOB Accounting and QuickBooks will be more than sufficient when you start out. Another area that most people forget or get caught out on are getting the appropriate insurances for your business. The most common are public liability insurance, fire, burglary, vehicle and workers compensation insurance. All these can be easily found via a quick search on Google. I would recommend ensuring both public liability and fire insurances are in place before even running your business. Keeping Pace And Staying Up To Date This may sound all too overwhelming when you have to promote, operate your business and keep up to date with your industry. Believe me it’s not as hard as it sounds. Take the first step and join a trade association or your local Chamber of Commerce. You will find it both informative and beneficial to your business. To know what is happening in your area and within your industry can help you make better decisions for promoting your product or service. Whether it may be time to change a product line or add more services to your business, you will be keeping up with the industry and making sure you are not missing out on opportunities. Also it’s a great way to network and promote within your trade associations and Chamber of Commerce. Simply write an article to contribute and it can be used as great public relations (P.R) for your business. Also I emphasise to have a well prepared business plan created before starting your business, because this will be your starting point. A business plan is useful for so many areas for your business from sourcing finance to implementing a growth strategy for the next 5 years. Once it’s written down, it will become a living breathing document that you can update and review over time. I’ve just finished preparing my business plan for this business which took nearly 3 weeks to complete but I can tell you that it is well worth the time and effort to do. Learn how to put your own business plan together and I can guarantee you that you’ll get finance and negotiate business deals much easier. The Future Of Your Internet Business Starting your Internet Business is rewarding and if you look into those areas I have mentioned, then you will have a good foundation to running a successful Internet Business. Take action today and know that you deserve to live your dream. Tyrone Shum Internet Business Coach
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The True Cost of Employee Turnover

How to Sell to the Price Driven Customer

4 Steps To Hypnotize Your Business Prospects

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.