Glossary

Selling and shipping has its own shorthand, and SKU adds a few terms of its own — especially around fulfillment, where the plan and the shipment are two different things. This glossary defines every term used across the sales order guides in one or two plain sentences, with a link to the guide or concept page that covers it in depth.

Numbers

3PL (Third-Party Logistics) — An outside company you pay to store your inventory and pack and ship your orders, instead of doing it in your own warehouse. SKU hands shipments to a 3PL when you dispatch a fulfillment to a provider such as ShipHero, ShipStation, or Shipfusion.

A

AFN (Amazon Fulfillment Network) — Amazon's own fulfillment: you send stock to Amazon, and Amazon picks, packs, and ships the order. An AFN order (also called an FBA order) ships outside SKU, so it never draws down your local inventory or realizes local COGS — SKU only mirrors what Amazon shipped. See Amazon FBA, MCF, and externally fulfilled orders.

Allocation (inventory allocation) — A commitment of specific on-hand or incoming stock to a sales order line. Each allocation carries a state — Planned (a backorder, nothing physical committed yet), Awaiting Receipt (covered by an incoming purchase order), Allocated (on-hand stock reserved to the line), Fulfilled (shipped), or Cancelled (a terminal audit row) — and this is what SKU counts as "committed", not inventory movements. See Inventory allocation and backorders.

Amount due — What the customer still owes on an order: the order total minus payments taken minus any store credit applied. See Record payments and apply store credit.

Approve — The action that commits stock to an order and moves it out of draft. Approving marks the order Open (or Reserved), creates the inventory allocations, and lets the order enter the fulfillment pipeline. See Approve, reserve, and allocate stock.

Archive — Hiding an order from the working list without deleting it. Archived orders keep all their data and can be unarchived at any time. See Close, cancel, archive, and delete orders.

Awaiting pickup — A fulfillment state for Click and Collect orders: the goods are staged for the customer to collect, but no shipment record exists yet. The shipment is created only when the order is marked as picked up. See Fulfill a sales order.

Awaiting tracking — A fulfillment state where the order has been dispatched to a carrier or 3PL but no tracking number has come back yet. The order stays Open while it waits. See How sales order status works.

AWD (Amazon Warehousing & Distribution) — Amazon's bulk-storage service. Stock sent to AWD is tracked as externally held inventory and can feed Amazon fulfillment; units it ships count toward the order without a local inventory movement. See Amazon FBA, MCF, and externally fulfilled orders.

B

Backorder — Demand on an order that can't be covered from stock yet. The line stays open with a Planned allocation and is filled automatically once inventory arrives. A backorder is a derived state of unallocated demand, not a separate record. See Inventory allocation and backorders.

Backorder queue — The list of all lines waiting on stock, with an ETA drawn from any linked incoming purchase order. When stock frees up — a purchase order is received, or a reservation is released — SKU auto-allocates it to the oldest waiting demand first (FIFO). See Inventory allocation and backorders.

Bundle (kit) — A product sold as one line that's made up of several component products. For allocation and fulfillment the bundle explodes into demand for each component, while the customer still sees a single sold line. See Manage order lines.

C

Cancel — Ending an order early. Cancelling deletes any non-shipped shipments, cancels open allocations, stamps the remaining unshipped quantity as cancelled, removes the accounting transaction, and closes the order — while preserving inventory movements on lines that already shipped so COGS history stays intact. Orders that originate in an external channel must be cancelled in that channel. See Close, cancel, archive, and delete orders.

Channel order (sales channel order) — A sales order that originated on a connected marketplace or storefront — Shopify, Amazon, WooCommerce, Faire, or the point of sale — and was imported into SKU as a canonical sales order. SKU mirrors the channel record and writes fulfillment back to it. See How channel orders sync.

Click and Collect — In-store or curbside pickup. Marking line quantities for pickup parks the fulfillment as awaiting pickup until the customer collects. See Fulfill a sales order.

Close — Marking an order complete. An order closes automatically once every line is fully shipped, or you can close it manually. Closing is blocked while active backorders exist or any product line is still unmapped. See Close, cancel, archive, and delete orders.

COGS (Cost of Goods Sold) — The direct cost of the units you actually sold — essentially what you paid for those specific units. SKU realizes COGS only at fulfillment, when it consumes FIFO layers and writes the cost basis onto the shipment. See How fulfilling moves inventory and realizes COGS.

Credit note — See Sales credit.

Custom field — A per-tenant field your team defines to capture extra data on an order (for example a project code or a delivery instruction). Custom fields can be filtered on in the list. See Add notes, tags, and custom fields.

D

Dispatch — Handing a planned fulfillment to a carrier, 3PL, or Amazon MCF so they can ship it. Until a fulfillment is dispatched it exists only as an intent inside SKU. See Fulfill a sales order.

Disposition — The policy that decides what happens to returned stock when it's received — restocked into sellable inventory, sent to a quarantine or different warehouse, or scrapped. See Returns, credits, and refunds.

Draft — The default status of a new order: no stock is committed, and the order isn't yet in the fulfillment pipeline. Drafts may omit lines. Approving turns a draft into an Open (or Reserved) order. See How sales order status works.

Dropship — A fulfillment method where your supplier ships the order directly to your customer, so the goods never pass through your warehouse. In SKU a dropship request turns selected lines into a supplier purchase order and bypasses local allocation. See Create a dropship request.

E

Exchange — A swap order created from an existing one: SKU clones the chosen lines into a new order (its number carries an -E- marker before a date stamp, for example, SO1234-E-20260710), and automatically creates and approves a sales credit for the original value to fund it. The two orders stay linked. See Resend and exchange an order.

Externally fulfilled quantity — Units on a line that were shipped outside SKU — by Amazon FBA, MCF, or AWD — rather than from your own stock. These count as fulfilled without writing a local inventory movement or COGS. See Amazon FBA, MCF, and externally fulfilled orders.

F

FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) — Amazon's service that stores your stock and ships your Amazon orders for you. In SKU an FBA order is an AFN order: it ships outside SKU with no local inventory movement or COGS. See Fulfill via Amazon FBA or MCF.

FIFO (First In, First Out) — An inventory rule where the oldest stock is used or sold first. SKU tracks stock in dated cost layers and, when a shipment is fulfilled, consumes the oldest layers first to set the COGS. See How fulfilling moves inventory and realizes COGS.

Financial line (charge line) — A non-product line that adds a cost or fee to the order — shipping, handling, or a miscellaneous charge — with its own tax treatment and accounting code. See Add discounts and charges.

Fulfillable status — A list filter that groups orders by how much of them you can ship right now from stock: all, some, or none. It's derived on the fly from each line's availability, not a stored value. See List columns and filters.

Fulfillment order (FO) — The plannable, per-warehouse intent to ship part of an order: which lines, from which warehouse, by which method, and to which provider. One sales order can have several fulfillment orders (one per warehouse or split). The FO is the plan; the SOF is the shipment that executes it. See Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution.

Fulfillment status — One of the three independent status axes on an order (alongside order status and payment status): unfulfilled, partially fulfilled, fulfilled, over-fulfilled, awaiting tracking, awaiting pickup, or out of sync. SKU recomputes it from the order's shipments and lines. See How sales order status works and the status reference.

G

Gift card — A stored-value card sold or redeemed at the point of sale. Selling a gift card is untaxed; redeeming one is a tender type at checkout. See Sell at the point of sale (POS).

I

Inventory movement — A record of stock entering or leaving a location. Fulfilling a shipment writes negative movements that carry the FIFO cost basis; voiding a shipment reverses them and restores the layers. See How fulfilling moves inventory and realizes COGS.

Invoice — In SKU an invoice is a generated PDF of the order plus its accounting transaction — there is no separate invoice record. Download the PDF and generate the transaction from the order. See Generate invoices, packing slips, and accounting.

L

Line (sales order line) — A single item on an order: a product, a bundle, or a charge, with its quantity, price, and discount. A line has no status column of its own — its fulfillment state (unfulfilled, partly shipped, fully shipped, backordered) is computed from its quantities. See Manage order lines and the status reference.

M

MCF (Multi-Channel Fulfillment) — Amazon's service that ships orders from other channels out of your Amazon (FBA) inventory. In SKU you can create an MCF fulfillment or link an existing one to an order; the units ship from Amazon with no local movement. See Fulfill via Amazon FBA or MCF.

Merge group (sales order merge group) — A set of separate orders combined so they ship together — allowed only when they share the same warehouse, provider, and ship-to address. Each order keeps its own identity and writes tracking back to its own channel. Merge groups are created from the fulfillment flow. See Merge fulfillment orders across different orders.

Merged shipment — One physical shipment that covers several fulfillment orders — from the same order or across merged orders. The fulfillment view flags it so you know the tracking is shared. See Split, move, and merge fulfillments.

MFN (Merchant Fulfillment Network) — Amazon's term for orders you ship yourself rather than via FBA. When you fulfill an MFN order in SKU, SKU pushes the tracking back to Amazon to keep the marketplace order in sync. See How channel orders sync.

Multi-currency (FX snapshot) — An order transacts in the customer's currency, but SKU reports and posts it in your base currency using an exchange rate captured at order time. That snapshot keeps historical orders stable even as rates drift. See How order financials flow to accounting.

N

Need mapping (unmapped line) — A line — usually imported from a channel — whose SKU didn't resolve to a product in SKU. Unmapped lines are highlighted and block fulfillment until you link them to a product. See Manage order lines.

Nominal code — An accounting reference (also called a general-ledger or account code) that tells your bookkeeping which category a sale or cost belongs to, so amounts land in the right place on your reports. See How order financials flow to accounting.

Note (pinned note) — A free-text comment on an order. Pinning a note surfaces it in a banner above the tabs so the whole team sees it. See Add notes, tags, and custom fields.

O

On Account — A point-of-sale tender that records the sale as owed by the customer rather than paid now, leaving an amount due to collect later. See Sell at the point of sale (POS).

Order link — A stored relationship joining a parent order to a child order it spawned — a dropship, resend, exchange, or merge — so you can trace the family. See Resend and exchange an order.

Order status — The master status axis: draft, reserved, open, closed, or cancelled. A cancelled order is stored as closed with a cancellation timestamp. See How sales order status works and the status reference.

Out of sync — A fulfillment state that means SKU's shipment records and the channel's fulfillments no longer agree — for example a shipment was deleted in SKU but the channel still shows it shipped. It's cleared with the reset-fulfillment-status action. See Void, restore, or reset a shipment.

Over-fulfillment — Shipping more of a line than the order called for. SKU flags the order over-fulfilled and closes it, deliberately surfacing the surplus rather than hiding it. See the status reference.

P

Partial fulfillment — Shipping some units or lines now and the rest later. The order stays Open with a partially fulfilled status until everything ships. See Fulfill a sales order.

Payment status — The third independent status axis, derived from money taken and refunded: unpaid, partially paid, paid, partially refunded, or refunded. A full refund uniquely also closes the order. See How sales order status works.

Pick list — A warehouse picking sheet generated from a fulfillment order's lines, telling staff what to pull and from where. Pick lists attach through fulfillment orders, so they exist only once those are created. See Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution.

POS (Point of Sale) — SKU's in-store register. A completed POS sale creates a sales order that's already Open and paid, drawing stock from the register's warehouse. See Sell at the point of sale (POS).

Pricing tier — A price level attached to a customer (for example wholesale or retail) that sets the default unit prices when you add that customer's products to an order. See Create a sales order.

Proforma fulfillment order — A placeholder fulfillment order SKU creates when an order is approved, so the fulfillment plan exists before you dispatch anything. See Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution.

Proration (tax allocation) — Spreading a shared amount — a whole-order discount, a shipping charge, or its tax — fairly across the individual lines, usually by each line's value, so every unit carries its correct share. See Add discounts and charges.

Q

Quote — A pre-order pricing document. Converting a quote snapshots its lines and pricing into a draft sales order while keeping the two linked for provenance. Quotes share the sales order list, accessed through the quote filter. See Convert between orders and quotes.

R

Register session — A cashier's open shift at the point of sale, tied to one warehouse and an opening cash float. Closing the session reconciles the counted cash against what SKU expected. See Sell at the point of sale (POS).

Reserve (reservation) — Committing on-hand stock to an order or line ahead of shipping. Reserving an order marks it Reserved; reserving stock to a line creates an Allocated allocation. Releasing a reservation frees the stock back to the pool. See Approve, reserve, and allocate stock.

Resend — A free replacement order created from an existing one, for example to re-ship a lost or damaged parcel. SKU clones the chosen lines at zero value (the number carries an -R- marker before a date stamp, for example, SO1234-R-20260710) and links it to the original. See Resend and exchange an order.

Return receipt — The record created when returned goods physically arrive. It restocks inventory according to the disposition policy and can spawn a sales credit. It's the step that moves stock, as opposed to money. See Returns, credits, and refunds.

RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) — The document that authorizes which lines of an order may be returned. It's the first step in the returns pipeline, before the goods arrive (return receipt) and before money goes back (sales credit). See Process returns: RMAs and credits.

S

Sales credit (credit note) — A record that puts money back to the customer against specific order lines — as a refund, store credit, or an offset — and posts its own accounting transaction. A credit can be issued with or without a physical return, and issuing one alone doesn't restock inventory. See Process returns: RMAs and credits.

Sales order (SO) — The central record of a sale: who is buying, what, at what price, and where it ships. Its lifecycle runs create → approve → fulfill → invoice → close. See the sales orders overview.

Sales order fulfillment (SOF) — One executed shipment: the record that actually moves inventory, carries the tracking, and writes back to the channel. A SOF executes a fulfillment order (the plan); one fulfillment order can produce one or more SOFs. See Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution.

Sales rep — The salesperson credited with an order. SKU inherits the customer's default sales rep when you pick a customer and never overrides one you've already set. See Create a sales order.

Saved view — A named combination of columns, filters, and sort that you can save and switch back to from the list. See List columns and filters.

Shipping provider — A carrier or 3PL integration — Starshipit, ShipStation, ShipHero, Trackstar, Shipfusion, Veracore, Shippit, or ShipMyOrders — that a fulfillment is dispatched to. The provider ships the parcel and returns tracking, which SKU records on the shipment. See Fulfill a sales order.

Short-ship — Shipping fewer units than a line ordered and leaving the rest. Unlike over-fulfillment, a short-ship keeps the order partially fulfilled rather than closing it. See the status reference.

Split — Dividing work so it can ship separately: splitting a fulfillment order into more than one shipment, splitting a line's quantity, or splitting a line across warehouses. See Split, move, and merge fulfillments.

Store credit — A balance held in a customer's wallet that can be applied to an order as a form of payment, or issued back to them from a refund. See Record payments and apply store credit.

Subscription edition — The recurring product instance a line is pinned to when it comes from a subscription. Writing the line adjusts that edition's consumed quantity. See Manage order lines.

T

Tag — An organizational label you attach to orders to group and filter them. Tags are purely organizational — they have no effect on fulfillment or finances. See Add notes, tags, and custom fields.

Tender — A method of payment taken at the point of sale — cash, card, store credit, gift card, or On Account. A split payment combines more than one tender on a single sale. See Sell at the point of sale (POS).

Tracked job — A long-running background operation — a bulk delete, import, or email — that reports its progress in the job tray so you can watch it finish. See Bulk actions on the sales orders list.

Two-tier fulfillment — SKU's model of splitting shipping into a plan (the fulfillment order) and its execution (the shipment, or SOF). Understanding the two objects explains why an order can be dispatched but not yet shipped. See Two-tier fulfillment: intent vs execution.

V

Void (vs delete a shipment) — Two ways to reverse a shipment. Voiding soft-cancels it: the rows stay for audit and inventory is reversed. Deleting hard-removes it. A shipment already shipped at a carrier needs a force-void; some shipments (for example MCF or a merge group) can't be voided. A void can later be restored. See Void, restore, or reset a shipment.

W

Walk-in order — An order with no saved customer, typical of a counter or point-of-sale sale. SKU allows a blank or inline (unsaved) customer. See Create a sales order.

Warehouse lock — A safeguard that freezes a line's or a shipment's warehouse once fulfillment has started, so stock already committed or shipped can't be silently moved to another location. Attempts to change it are refused. See Warehouse routing and the warehouse lock.

WFS (Walmart Fulfillment Services) — Walmart's outsourced fulfillment: you send stock to Walmart, and Walmart ships your Walmart orders. Like FBA, WFS units ship outside SKU with no local movement. See Amazon FBA, MCF, and externally fulfilled orders.

Writeback (channel writeback) — Pushing a shipment's tracking and fulfillment back to the marketplace or storefront the order came from, so the channel order shows as fulfilled. SKU's shipment is authoritative for shipped state. See How channel orders sync.