# Create a Sales Order

Raise it, confirm it to reserve the stock, and understand what confirming has just made unavailable.

The order is where a promise becomes a claim on your shelf. Raising one is quick; confirming one is the decision.

> **Before you start:**
>
> A customer with a shipping address, and the items you intend to sell.

## Raise one

- **Go to Sales Orders and select Sales Order**

  Choose the customer. Their shipping address, payment terms and rate list fill in from the record.

  ![The Sales Orders list with its Sales Order action and columns for Sales Order Date, Sales Order Number, Reference Number, Purchase Order Number, Customer, Salesperson, Status and Total.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/sales-orders/sales-orders-list.png)
- **Record their purchase order number**

  The **Purchase Order Number** field is the customer's own reference. Trade accounts usually will not pay an invoice that does not quote it.
- **Add the lines**

  Each resolves to a variant where the product has them. The rate comes from the rate list if there is one, and from the item otherwise.
- **Check availability before you commit**

  Available is stock on hand minus what other open orders have already reserved, which is the number that decides whether you can promise a date.
- **Confirm it**

  This is the step that reserves. Leaving the order open reserves nothing at all.

> **Warning:**
>
> **An open order is the most common way to oversell**
>
> The item still reads as fully available, so the next order takes the same units. If the customer has agreed, confirm it.

## What confirming does

| Figure | Effect of confirming |
| --- | --- |
| Stock on hand | Unchanged. The units are still on your shelf |
| Reserved | Up by the ordered quantity |
| Available | Down by the same amount |
| Anything in the ledger | Untouched. No money has moved |

> **Tip:**
>
> **The salesperson field is worth filling in**
>
> It is the only thing on the order that says who owns the relationship, and it is what a sales report groups by afterwards.