Shipping and Completing Sales Overview

Finale can handle a variety of process related to shipping and completing sales. At the simplest, a sale can be a single product shipped at one time from a company with a single location. Finale also can track complex sales consisting of a hundred or more distinct products split in multiple shipments with each shipment packed at different times and locations before being shipped to the customer.

The two basic entities in Finale for tracking the fulfillment of a sale are the sales order and the sales shipment. The sales order represents the plan and commitment to sell products to a customer. The sales shipment represents the actual process of packing specific stock and shipping it to a specific destination. The sales order may not have a corresponding sale shipment (for example if it hasn't been packed yet) or may have many sale shipments.

The sales order does not directly affect stock levels of products in your inventory. Only by creating and shipping a sale shipment can the you or the system update stock levels. The sales order only tracks the products that will be sold and the main location where the products will be sold from. The sales order does not track the specific lots that will be shipped - that is handled by the sales shipment. Similarly the sales order does not track the specific sub-locations where products will be packed from - that is also handled by the sales shipment.

By default the sales order start with a single blank sale shipment. To track split shipments, use the Add new shipment menu item on the actions menu on the sale shipments screen.