Sales orders — overview

A sales order is how you record what a customer bought and track it from the moment the order lands to the moment it ships, gets paid, and closes. Every sales order in SKU.io carries a customer, a currency, and one or more line items, and it moves through a predictable lifecycle you can follow at a glance — whether you keyed it in by hand, imported it, or it flowed in automatically from a sales channel like Shopify or Amazon.

You manage sales orders under Orders → Sales Orders. To start a new order from the list, click Add Sales Order (or press C). To ring up an in-person sale instead, go to Orders → POS Register.

The sales order lifecycle

A sales order moves through five stages of work: you create it as a draft, approve it to commit stock, fulfill it by shipping the goods, invoice and collect payment, and close it once the order is complete. You can cancel an order at any time before it closes. The demo order SO-DOCS-0001 — customer Blue Bottle Retail, three lines (Stainless Water Bottle 750ml, Insulated Tumbler 500ml, Reusable Straw 4-Pack), shipping from Main Warehouse — is a typical example.

1. Draft. A new order starts as Draft: fully editable, and not holding any stock yet. Create one by hand, import a batch from a spreadsheet, or scan a customer PO. See Create a sales order and Manage order lines.
2. Approved. Approving an order moves it to Open and creates the allocations that commit on-hand stock to each line. Anything you can't cover falls to the backorder queue. See Approve, reserve, and allocate stock.
3. Fulfilled. You ship the goods — from your own warehouse, direct from a supplier, or through Amazon. Fulfilling consumes inventory, realizes COGS, and writes tracking back to the sales channel. See Fulfill a sales order.
4. Invoiced and paid. You record payments (and apply store credit), then generate the invoice PDF and the accounting transaction that syncs to your books. See Record payments and apply store credit and Generate invoices, packing slips, and accounting.
5. Closed. An order closes when every line is fully shipped, or when you close it by hand. See Close, cancel, archive, and delete orders.

Reserving is an alternative to opening

When you approve, you can choose to reserve the order instead: it still commits stock through allocations, but stays out of the active shipping flow until you're ready. Cancelling, on the other hand, is a terminal branch — a cancelled order releases its stock and closes. How sales order status works explains both.

Guides in this section

Create and enter orders

• Create a sales order
• Manage order lines
• Add discounts and charges
• Import sales orders
• Convert between orders and quotes

View, edit, and annotate

• View and edit a sales order
• Add notes, tags, and custom fields

Approve and allocate stock

• Approve, reserve, and allocate stock

Fulfill and ship

• Fulfill a sales order
• Create a dropship request
• Fulfill via Amazon FBA or MCF
• Split, move, and merge fulfillments
• Void, restore, or reset a shipment

Get paid and document

• Record payments and apply store credit
• Generate invoices, packing slips, and accounting

Returns and replacements

• Process returns: RMAs and credits
• Resend and exchange an order

Close and work the list

• Close, cancel, archive, and delete orders
• Bulk actions on the sales orders list

Sell in person

• Sell at the point of sale (POS)

Understand the model

Once you've worked your first order, these guides explain how the pieces fit together underneath.

• How sales order status works — the three independent status axes and how each is derived.
• Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution — how a fulfillment plan (the intent) becomes a shipment (the execution).
• Inventory allocation and backorders — how stock is committed to lines and how backorders queue and release.
• How fulfilling moves inventory and realizes COGS — what shipping does to your stock and your cost of goods sold.
• Warehouse routing and the warehouse lock — how orders split across warehouses and why a warehouse freezes once fulfillment begins.
• How channel orders sync — how marketplace orders import and how fulfillment writes back.
• Returns, credits, and refunds — the RMA → return receipt → sales credit pipeline.
• How order financials flow to accounting — how revenue, discounts, and tax post to your books.
• Order events and automation — the lifecycle events that trigger automations and webhooks.
• Amazon FBA, MCF, and externally fulfilled orders — how orders that ship outside SKU.io behave differently.

One order tracks three statuses at once

The five lifecycle stages above are the everyday view. Behind them, each order tracks three independent status axes — order status, fulfillment status, and payment status — that each advance on their own. So an order can be Open, Awaiting tracking, and Partially paid all at the same time. You don't need this to work your first order; when you're ready, How sales order status works explains why, and the status reference lists every value.

Reference

• Sales order status reference — every value across all six status groups.
• Fields reference — every order-header and line field.
• List columns and filters — what each column, filter, and saved view shows.
• Order detail and mobile reference — the anatomy of the order detail page and the mobile experience.
• Permissions reference — which permission gates each action.
• Glossary — SOF, fulfillment order, allocation, backorder, RMA, MCF, dropship, and more.

Next steps

• New to sales orders? Start with Create a sales order.
• Ready to ship? See Fulfill a sales order.
• Selling in person? Read Sell at the point of sale (POS).
• Want the full status picture? Read How sales order status works.

Video transcript

To create a sales order, click Add Sales Order, choose your customer — here, Blue Bottle Retail — and click Create Draft. The customer's store, currency, and addresses fill in for you.

On the draft, add each product the customer ordered — search by SKU or name, choose it, and it drops onto a new line. Set the quantity for each line. The line total and the order total update as you type.

When the order is ready, click Approve. It moves to Open, and on-hand stock is allocated to each line — reserved just for this order.

To ship, open Fulfill, confirm the items and the warehouse, and record the shipment. The stock is deducted, and a fully-shipped order closes as Fulfilled.

That's the full cycle — created, approved, shipped, and closed, with your inventory and costs updated automatically.