Orders and documents
Business documents share one machinery: numbering, lines, totals, currency, approvals, a trail, a PDF and a mail. What differs between them is what they mean.
| Document | Means |
|---|---|
| Quotation | An offer, not yet a commitment |
| Order | A commitment, from the customer or to a supplier |
| Delivery note | Goods left, stock moved |
| Invoice | Money is due |
| Credit note | Money is owed back |
| Purchase invoice | Money is due to somebody else |
Lines
A line points at a variation and carries quantity, unit price, discount, tax and total. Because it points at the catalogue rather than repeating it, a part number on an invoice is the same part number the warehouse scans.
Numbering
Document numbers come from a register: a prefix, a counter, a reset period. Numbering is per organization and per document type — two firms never share a sequence, and neither do two document types.
Currency
Every document carries a currency and, when it differs from the organization's own, the rate it was converted at. Rates are a register with history, so a document made last month keeps last month's rate.
Approvals
A document type can require approval before it goes out — the four-eyes rule. Who approves and above which threshold is configured; the decision lands in the trail.
PDF and mail
Every document type has a PDF template and a mail template. The wording of what your customers receive is yours to edit, per organization, without touching code.
Change the template, not the document
If an invoice looks wrong, it is nearly always the template. The document holds values; the template decides what is shown and how.
Sign and pay
A document can be sent for signature and payment. The customer opens a link, signs, pays, and the document records both — no account required at their end.
Blanket orders
A framework agreement: an agreed quantity and price, called off over time. Each call-off is an ordinary order that draws down the remaining quantity, so the agreement and the deliveries never disagree.