The system can build the next document for you from the one you are looking at — an order from a quotation, an invoice from a delivery, a goods receipt from a purchase order. The lines come across already filled in. These are the rules that apply every time, whichever pair of documents you are working with.
The rules that always apply
- The source has to be confirmed. A draft has nothing to build on, so the buttons do not appear on one.
- You need permission for the document being created, not just the one you are looking at. Being allowed to see an order does not mean you are allowed to raise an invoice from it.
- What comes out is already confirmed and recorded. This is the one that surprises people: a generated document is not handed to you as a draft to review. It is live the moment it is created.
- Only what is left comes across. The system tracks how much of each line has already been passed on, so a second run offers only the remainder — and the button disappears once nothing is left.
- The source locks behind you. Once anything has been generated from a document, that document can no longer be unlocked or deleted until you remove what came from it.
Generate the next document
- Open the confirmed document you are working from.
- Find the generate button at the top of the page — it is named after what it creates, such as Generate Invoice.
- In the window that opens, check the lines. Reduce a quantity if you are only passing part of it on.
- For goods you track by batch or serial number, choose which ones in the sub-window on that line.
- Confirm. The new document opens, already recorded.
A few things worth knowing
- You can combine several sources into one document. Where it makes sense — several deliveries onto one invoice, several purchase orders onto one goods receipt — the window also lists the other eligible documents for the same customer or supplier. Tick them and they all come onto one.
- A whole-document discount does not carry across a partial run. A discount on the total cannot be split sensibly across part of it, so it is left off and you re-apply it. Everything else — dates, terms, references, line detail — comes with the lines.
- Check the connections rather than guessing. Linked Documents on any document lists what it came from and what came from it.
Where to go next
The chains themselves are covered separately, because each one has a decision in it:
- From quotation to money in the bank — the whole sales journey, and the fork in the middle of it.
- Deliver first, bill later — one route through that fork.
- Bill first, deliver later — the other one.
- From purchase order to paying your supplier — the same shape on the buying side.
- Taking goods back and crediting a customer — undoing part of a sale.
Why a generate button is not there
- The document is still Draft. Confirm it first.
- Everything has already been passed on, so there is nothing left to generate.
- Your role does not include creating that kind of document.
- The order has been closed or cancelled. Reopen it first.
- You have already committed to the other route through the chain — see the two flow guides above.