Bulk order processing

The Order Processing screen turns many sales orders into draft invoices in one step, while you wait. It lists the orders in your scope that still have quantity left to invoice, lets you tick whole orders or individual lines, and creates one draft Invoice per order. It draws available stock as it goes, and anything it cannot draw stays pending on the order for a later run. It needs no prior allocation, so it is the shortest route from confirmed orders to invoices for one branch and one day.

The Sales app's Bulk Conversion entry is a different screen. It queues the selection as a background conversion batch that you can follow, retry and cancel. See Bulk conversion and conversion batches.

Overview

Order Processing comes after order capture and before invoice posting. Orders are created on the web, on the mobile app or by integration, as described in Creating a sales order. This screen invoices them. You then review, post and print the resulting invoices, as described in Invoices.

The screen has two tabs:

• Orders invoices whole orders: every line with quantity still pending, at its full pending quantity.
• Order Lines invoices only the lines you tick, each for the quantity you enter.

When to use it

• At the end of a day or a route, to invoice all the orders a branch took.
• When you want invoices straight away and on screen, and do not need a batch record to follow later.
• When you want to invoice part of an order now and leave the rest for later.

Use Bulk Conversion instead when the run is large, when you want it to run in the background, or when you want a record of what was converted that you can retry and cancel. Use allocation when stock should be reserved for orders before anyone invoices them.

How xMatix handles it

• One order at a time. Process sends the selection to the server, which works through it one order after another. Each order is saved on its own, so a refused order does not undo the others.
• Stock is drawn at invoice time. For each line, the item decides where stock comes from. Lot-tracked items draw from item lots. Other stock-tracked items draw from stock on hand. Lines with no item, and items that do not track inventory (services, charges), are invoiced as they are.
• Stock is matched to the order. Stock must be at the order's own branch and partner account. Where the line names a SKU, lot type or storage location, the stock must match those too. Lots on hold are never drawn. Stock used by one line in a run is not offered to the next.
• Shortfalls stay pending. A line with only part of its stock is invoiced for what was found. The rest stays as pending invoice quantity on the order line.
• Nothing is posted. Each invoice is created in Draft. Posting to inventory and the general ledger happens on the invoice afterwards.

Prerequisites

• Your security profile lets you view the Order Processing page, run the Bulk Order action on Order, and update orders. See Permissions.
• The page is reachable from your menu. It ships without a navigation entry, so your administrator adds it to an app first. See Configuration.
• Orders with quantity still pending invoice. Pending invoice quantity is the line quantity, less any cancelled quantity, less what is already invoiced.
• For stock-tracked items, stock at the order's branch and partner account (and unheld lots for lot-tracked items).

Procedure

Step 1 — Open the screen

Open Order Processing from the app where your administrator placed it. The filter bar is at the top, with the Orders and Order Lines tabs underneath.

Step 2 — Set the scope

Fill in the required filters. The list loads as soon as they are set; there is no search button.

• Partner Account (the selling company) and Branch. If an active resource record is linked to your user, they are filled in from its Default Partner Account and Default Branch. If your organisation runs only one company or one location, that filter is hidden and not needed.
• From Date and To Date. Both start at today. The list shows orders whose Document Date falls in this range.

You can narrow the list further with Sales Executive, Route and Account. If you have a resource record, Sales Executive starts filled in with you, so you see only your own orders. Clear it to see every executive's orders. Route offers only the routes of the chosen executive, and Account offers only the accounts on that route's stops. Changing a filter clears the filters that depend on it.

The list shows up to 500 orders, newest first. It includes every order with pending invoice quantity, whatever its status. The list header shows how many items match. Use Search to filter the loaded rows by document number, partner, branch, account or status. Refresh reloads the list.

Step 3 — Choose what to invoice

On the Orders tab, tick the orders to invoice. Each ticked order will be invoiced in full: every pending line, at its full pending quantity.

On the Order Lines tab, tick individual lines instead. Each line shows Available Stock, Quantity, Pending Invoice Quantity and an editable Requested Quantity. Ticking a line fills Requested Quantity with the pending quantity; typing a quantity ticks the line. Enter less than the pending quantity to invoice part of a line and leave the rest pending. You can tick lines from several orders. Each order still gets its own invoice, holding only its own lines.

The screen checks each ticked line's Requested Quantity when you press Process. It must be greater than zero, it cannot exceed the pending quantity, and for a stock-tracked item it cannot exceed the available stock.

Step 4 — Pick the stock options

Under Lot method, choose FIFO (first in, first out, the default) or LIFO (last in, first out). This sets which lots a lot-tracked item draws first. Lots are ordered by when they were created.

Exclude Stock Out is a switch with two effects:

• On the Order Lines tab, if any ticked line fails the quantity check, the button shows how many lines fail. Pressing it unticks exactly those lines, and a message reports how many lines were excluded. It also turns the switch on.
• With the switch on, an order from which nothing at all can be drawn is skipped instead of being refused.

Press it again to turn it off.

Step 5 — Process

Press Process. The button shows how many orders or lines are ticked. If any ticked line fails the quantity check, a Please review the information below. dialog lists each line and its problem, and nothing is sent. Correct the quantities, or use Exclude Stock Out, and press Process again.

Otherwise the page shows a Processing... overlay until the server has worked through every order. Keep the page open until it clears.

Step 6 — Review the result

• If every order went through, Processing Completed reports how many orders were processed.
• If some orders were refused, a dialog titled N of M could not be processed. lists each refused order with its reason, then how many were accepted.

Processed orders leave the Orders tab, and their processed lines leave the Order Lines tab. When you processed from the Order Lines tab, the order stays on the Orders tab, because its other lines may still be pending. Refused orders stay listed and selected, so you can correct them and process again.

Step 7 — Post the invoices

Open Sales → Invoices. Each processed order now has an invoice in Draft, linked to the order. Review, post and print it as described in Invoices.

Fields

Filters

Orders tab

Order Lines tab

Business rules

• What makes an order eligible. An order appears when at least one line has pending invoice quantity and the order matches the filters.
• Quantity per line. The Orders tab invoices each line's full pending quantity. The Order Lines tab invoices the Requested Quantity, capped at the pending quantity.
• Lot splitting. A line that draws from several lots becomes several invoice lines, one per lot, with the line discount shared out in proportion.
• Partial stock. A line with part of its stock is invoiced for what was drawn, and the remainder stays pending on the order line.
• No stock for an order. If no line of an order can draw any stock, the order is refused with one message per line: "No stock available to allocate for item '…' (requested …). Cannot create invoice line." For lot-tracked items the message says "No lot available" instead. With Exclude Stock Out on, the order is skipped instead: it produces no invoice but is counted as processed.
• Already invoiced lines. Without Exclude Stock Out, an order whose ticked lines have nothing left to invoice is refused with "No pending invoice quantities found in the selected order lines to create invoice." With it on, such lines are skipped.
• What the invoice carries. Each invoice takes the order's customer account, branch, partner account, visit, price list, discount group, sales executive, order discount and owner. Its Document Date is the processing time in UTC, so an invoice raised just after midnight India time can carry the previous day's date.
• Order charges. Document-level charges and discounts on the order go onto the first invoice raised from it. A later invoice for the rest of the order does not repeat them.
• Advance payments. Payments taken against the order are applied to the new invoice according to the Finance setting Apply unapplied payments to new invoices and bills, as for any invoice raised from an order. See Invoicing and payments.
• Order Document State. Releasing an invoice from a single order moves its Document State to Invoiced or Partially Invoiced. This screen does not. To see how far an order has been invoiced, read the pending invoice quantity on its lines, or the invoices linked to it.

Example

A branch dispatcher invoices the day's orders for the Pune branch of Sunrise Beverages.

1. They open Order Processing. Partner Account and Branch are already filled from their resource record, and both dates show today. They clear Sales Executive, which was filled with their own name, and twelve orders appear.
2. One order is for a customer whose payment is under review, so they leave it unticked and tick the other eleven on the Orders tab.
3. They leave Lot method on FIFO and press Process (11).
4. A dialog reports 1 of 11 could not be processed. One order of 40 cases of a seasonal juice shows "No lot available to allocate for item 'Mango Nectar 1L' (requested 40). Cannot create invoice line." It also says 10 of 11 were accepted.
5. Ten orders leave the list. The refused order stays, and they leave it for tomorrow's run after the stock arrives.
6. In Sales → Invoices they find ten new Draft invoices. One of them is for 30 of the 50 cases of cola that were ordered; the other 20 are still pending on that order.

Training

Practice exercise

In a sandbox, create two orders for the same branch with today's date. Give the first order 10 units of a stock-tracked item that has 6 in stock, and the second 5 units of a service item. Open Order Processing, select both on the Orders tab and press Process.

Expected result: Processing Completed reports 2 orders. The first order's invoice has 6 units and its line keeps 4 pending. The second order's invoice has all 5 units. Both invoices are in Draft. Press Refresh: the first order reappears with its 4 pending units, and the second does not.

Quick reference

• Required filters: Partner Account, Branch, From Date, To Date (dates default to today).
• Orders tab = whole orders; Order Lines tab = chosen lines and quantities.
• FIFO is the default lot method; held lots are never drawn.
• Stock must be at the order's own branch and partner account.
• A shortfall is invoiced in part; the rest stays pending on the order.
• Exclude Stock Out skips orders with no stock at all, instead of refusing them.
• Invoices are created in Draft; post them from Sales → Invoices.
• Need a batch you can follow and retry? Use Bulk Conversion.

Permissions

A user without the page permission does not see the page. A user who can open the page but lacks the action or update access gets an error when they press Process, and nothing is invoiced. The Sales Executive profile has the action but not the page, so executives cannot open this screen unless the page is granted to them. Profiles are edited in Security profiles.

Configuration

On the mobile app, a page set up with this screen runs through the batch-based conversion engine instead: it creates a conversion batch and shows its progress. That flow is described in Bulk conversion and conversion batches.

Common problems

An order was refused with "No stock available to allocate for item …"

No line of that order could draw any stock (for lot-tracked items the message says "No lot available"). Check that the stock is at the order's branch and partner account, matches the line's SKU, lot type or storage location, and is not in a held lot. To invoice the rest of the selection without these orders, turn on Exclude Stock Out and process again.

"Please review the information below." lists my lines

One or more ticked lines failed the quantity check: zero or blank, more than the pending quantity, or more than the available stock. Correct the Requested Quantity, or press Exclude Stock Out to untick those lines and process the rest.

"No pending invoice quantities found in the selected order lines to create invoice."

The lines you ticked were invoiced elsewhere after the list loaded. Press Refresh to reload the list.

An order I expected is not listed

Either nothing on it is left to invoice, or it falls outside your filters. Check the date range first, because both dates start at today. Next check Sales Executive: it starts filled in with you, which hides other executives' orders. Then check Partner Account, Branch, Sales Executive, Route and Account. Only the 500 newest matching orders are shown, so narrow the filters if you have more.

The invoice is smaller than the order

Part of the stock was missing. The invoice holds what was drawn, and the remainder is still pending on the order line. The screen does not list per-line shortfalls, so compare the invoice with the order to see what was short.

An order disappeared but has no invoice

With Exclude Stock Out on, an order with no drawable stock is skipped and counted as processed. Press Refresh: it comes back, because its quantity is still pending.

The Account list is missing a customer

The Account filter lists only accounts on the selected route's stops, at most the first 60. Clear Route to pick any account.

I see "Job Submitted" instead of "Processing Completed"

In your organisation the Bulk Order action has been set to run in the background. The invoices are created when the job runs. Check Sales → Invoices after a while.

"Bulk Action Failed"

The request itself failed, for example because of a lost connection or a missing permission. Refresh the list to see which orders were invoiced before you try again.

There is no Order Processing entry in my menu

The page ships without a navigation entry. Ask your administrator to add it to an app and grant you the page.

Common questions

Does Order Processing allocate stock or invoice it?

It invoices. The screen creates draft invoices directly, drawing stock as each invoice line is built, so no allocation is needed first. Nothing is reserved between runs: if another document uses the stock before you process, the order is invoiced for what remains. If you want stock held for specific orders before anyone invoices them, use allocation and release invoices from the allocated lines instead.

Are the invoices posted?

No. Every invoice is created in Draft, with the processing time as its document date. Nothing reaches inventory or the general ledger until you post the invoice, so you can review each draft first. E-invoicing and printing also happen on each invoice after posting. See Invoices.

Can one order be processed twice?

Not for the same quantity. Each run uses up pending invoice quantity, so a fully invoiced order drops out of the list. A partly invoiced order comes back with only its remaining quantity until it is fully invoiced or the rest is cancelled. Each run creates a separate invoice, so a customer can receive several invoices for one order.

What is the difference between Order Processing and Bulk Conversion?

Order Processing works while you wait and reports the result on screen; there is no record of the run itself. Bulk Conversion creates a conversion batch record, runs it in the background, and keeps a line for every converted record, so you can follow its progress, retry failures and cancel it. Use Order Processing for a quick daily run and Bulk Conversion for large or audited runs. See Bulk conversion and conversion batches.

Related topics

• The sales order lifecycle
• Allocating stock to orders
• Bulk conversion and conversion batches
• Invoices
• Invoicing and payments
• Troubleshooting sales
• Order reference