Quotations, proformas, orders and challans (B2B documents)

What it is

A business sale rarely starts with the invoice. You quote, the customer confirms, goods move, and only then does a GST tax invoice get raised. Accounting → Quotations & orders keeps that chain in one place:

Quotation → Proforma invoice → Sales order → Delivery challan → Tax invoice

The first four are *not* tax documents and never touch the books. Each has its own numbered series per financial year (prefixes in Accounting settings — QT, PI, SO, DC by default), and a number is never reused: a cancelled document keeps it. The last step raises the real tax invoice in your gapless invoice series and posts it — from there, corrections are by credit or debit note only.

From quotation to invoice — a walkthrough

1. New quotation. Pick the customer (their GSTIN, PAN and state fill in; the place of supply follows the state), add lines before GST, set the validity date, check the terms (per document type, from settings). Create.
2. Send it. *Email to customer* sends the print view to the party's email (logged under Communication → History), or copy the *Share link* — it opens without a login. Mark it *sent* or *accepted* as the conversation goes.
3. Convert. On the quotation, choose what it becomes: a proforma (asks for payment before supply — says "not a tax invoice" and prints your bank details with a UPI QR for the exact total), a sales order, a delivery challan, or straight to the tax invoice. Lines, party, ship-to and terms are copied; the quotation is marked *converted* and the two are linked in the *Chain* box.
4. Delivery challan (rule 55). Goods leaving without a sale yet — job work, approval, quantity settled later. Pick the purpose; it prints "Not for sale — …". Record what comes back under *Goods returned*; the challan closes when everything is back or it is invoiced. Over the e-way threshold the e-way bill panel appears on the challan itself.
5. Tax invoice. An admin presses *→ Tax invoice* (date and due date; blank due date = the party's credit days). The invoice is numbered, posted, printable with bank details and UPI QR, and linked back to the document it came from.

Any open document can skip steps — a quotation can go directly to a sales order or the tax invoice.

Customer credit

On a party: Credit limit ₹ (0 = none) and Credit days (0 = pay on receipt). When a sales order, challan or tax invoice would take *what they owe now + this document* over the limit, you see a warning on the form and the page. Switch on Refuse documents over the credit limit in Accounting settings → Customer credit, and the document is refused instead (record a receipt or raise the limit first). Quotations and proformas never block — nothing has been committed yet.

Statement of account

Party → Statement of account (also linked from the receivables ageing report): opening balance, every invoice, receipt, credit note and adjustment in the range, running balance, closing. Print it or download the Excel. Your bank and UPI details print at the foot.

Payment reminders

For manual invoices with a due date, the daily job payment-reminders emails the party: *N days before* due (3 by default), *on the day*, and *every K days* overdue (7 by default). One email per rule per invoice, never twice — each attempt is a row in Communication → History (reminder.before, reminder.due, reminder.overdue_14 …) marked sent, failed or skipped with the reason. Settings live in Accounting settings → Customer credit and payment reminders. WhatsApp reminders wait for an approved template worded for an invoice; until then the switch records a *skipped* line and sends nothing.

Receipts with TDS

A customer who deducts TDS pays you less than the invoice. On the receipt (invoice page or Receipts & payments) type the amount that reached the bank and TDS deducted by customer. The books show: bank up by the amount, *TDS receivable* (asset 1304) up by the TDS, the customer's balance down by both. Part payments are fine — the invoice page shows what is still open after each receipt.

Bank details and UPI

Accounting settings → Bank details and UPI on documents: account name, number, IFSC, bank, branch, UPI ID. Tax invoices and proformas print the block and a QR that opens the customer's UPI app with the exact total prefilled. Leave it blank to print nothing.

Who can do what

Staff with the Sales documents key create, convert, email and share quotations, proformas, orders and challans and record challan returns. Raising the tax invoice, credit limits and the settings stay with the admin.