Orders & production

Sales order to work order: why both, and how

The sales order is what the customer wants; a work order is what the factory makes, one item at a time.

Already have the sales order. Why make a work order too?

A sales order is the customer's order: many items, rates, delivery. A work order tells the floor to make one item, in a quantity you choose, on a machine. Splitting them lets you make part now, make for stock, or move stock between customers.

1Sales order vs work order

	Sales order (SO)	Work order (WO)
Is	What the customer wants	An instruction to make something
Items	Many: every variant the customer ordered	One item (one variant)
Quantity	What the customer ordered	What you decide to make now: can be less than the order, or several WOs for one line
Tracks	Rate, value, ready to ship, dispatched	Made, rejected, machine, targets, ready date
Ends when	Everything is dispatched	Its quantity is made

Make part now

Order of 500: make 200 this week on Press 1, the rest next week as a second work order.

Make for stock

A work order with no customer builds stock for orders you expect.

Stock can move

Mats made for one order can serve a more urgent one: reprioritise, see reading a sales order.

2Create the sales order

WhereSell → New Sales Order

Sell, then New Sales Order, then Customer, then New Item, then Create Work Orders For All — 1SellIn the left menu.
2New Sales OrderEnter the customer's order.
3CustomerType to search, or add a new one.
4New ItemEach variant, qty and rate. The margin estimate shows as you type.
5Create Work Orders For AllTick to make the work orders straight away.

Pick the customer (new customers get a region for reports).
Pick the mat, narrow with chips (Thickness 18), type qty and rate. The estimated margin appears.
Type the customer's PO number in Reference and save.

100 mats at ₹7,500: estimated margin 38.6%.

3Create the work orders

WhereSell → Sales Orders → open the order → Create Work Order

Create Work Order (order), then Create Work Order (line) — 1Create Work Order (order)A draft work order for every line.
2Create Work Order (line)Only this line. Open the draft to set a smaller quantity, machine and start.

4What a work order needs (and nothing more)

WhereProduction → Work Orders → New Work Order (or open the draft made from the order)

Item and quantity.
Who it's for: the customer, or several orders under Masterbatch. Empty = make to stock.
Machine: so it joins that press's queue.
BOM, only if this order runs on a different recipe.

Item, then Quantity, then Customer, then Masterbatch — 1ItemThe one variant to make.
2QuantityHow many this work order makes: the whole line or part of it.
3CustomerWho it's for. Empty = make to stock. Created from a sales order, this is filled in.
4MasterbatchOne run for several orders of the same variant: Add sales order, and how much each gets.

Machine, then BOM, then Schedule & targets, then Material cost — 1MachineAssign the press. The order joins that machine's queue.
2BOMThe recipe this order uses. Pick another live or archived recipe here, or change it later on each log.
3Schedule & targetsPlanned start (first order on a machine only) and shift targets.
4Material costEstimate for this quantity before you save.

Tip

The recipe can be changed in two places: on the work order (every log uses it) or on a single log under Confirm materials.

The work order starts as a draft. Open it to set the quantity (lower it to make part now), the machine, the start and the shift targets. A line can have more than one work order; its production progress adds them up.

Still stuck?

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