What is sales order, asked plainly: it is the seller's written confirmation of a customer's order, raised before the goods ship. It names the goods, the quantity, the unit price, any discount, the tax, the shipping, the total, and how much is due on confirmation and how much on the invoice. The buyer's side of the same transaction is the purchase order; the document that follows the shipment is the invoice. This guide is the sales order in plain terms, with its arithmetic worked free on the sales order worksheet on this site and the record kept by Jobcardo Pro.
Who issues it and when
The seller issues the sales order in reply to the customer's purchase order, email or call, before anything is made, picked or shipped. It exists to confirm the agreement and to fix the figures, so the customer's bookkeeper later pays an invoice that matches something they have already seen. In Jobcardo Pro it is raised against the customer with the status confirmed and a date, and every later step is a dated change to it.
What it carries, and how the figures are worked
Units at a unit price make the line total; a discount comes off the goods; sales tax applies to the discounted goods; shipping is added; and the total is split into the deposit due now and the balance due on the invoice. The worksheet on this site takes the seller's own inputs and works every one of those figures on the page with no account, printed or saved as PDF as the confirmation. Whether shipping is taxable in your state is a question for your accountant.
What happens to it next
The status moves from confirmed to in progress to shipped to invoiced and paid to closed, each dated, and the invoice reads the order's figures rather than a memory of them. Keeping that record with a status and a history is Jobcardo Pro, one flat price for the team; raising the invoice, holding stock and booking a carrier are other products, and the sales order is done properly by staying the order.
Questions people ask about what is sales order
What is sales order in one sentence?
The seller's written confirmation of what a customer agreed to buy, at what price, raised before the goods ship.
Is a sales order the same as a quote?
No. A quote is offered before the customer agrees; the sales order confirms after they agree. The invoice asks for payment after shipping.
Do small sellers need sales orders?
Any seller confirming quantities and a deposit before shipping benefits from one, because it is the document the invoice reads from and the dispute-stopper when the balance is questioned.