SM Space · Sales & Invoicing
Sales Order Software for Quotes, Orders and Invoices
SM Space Sales is the sales order software inside the SM Space ERP system. It runs the whole path from an enquiry to a paid invoice — quotes, orders, stock reservations, picking, delivery, invoicing and credit notes. Every invoice posts straight into your accounts, so the sales figure and the ledger are the same number.
The paperwork from “what does it cost?” to “the money is in”, in one place.
Last updated: September 2026
A quote becomes money in the bank
- QuoteQT-000418
- SO-000871$24,600
- Reserved32 held, 8 backordered
- Deliveredthe 32 that shipped
- Invoicedfor 32, not 40
- Paidallocated to the invoice
- Postedinto the ledger
Three prices, one winner
Northgate Supply · 200 units
- Price agreed with this customer $41.00 won
- Promotion $43.00 September offer · 10% off the list price
- Price list · 200+ band $45.50 Trade · the 1–199 band is $48.00
- Typed by hand$36.00 refused — below the 12% margin floor of $38.08
net price 36.00 is below the minimum margin of 12% over cost 34.00 (floor 38.08)
the number in the box, and every number it beat
Asked, not assumed
the same check, in two places
On the customer’s screen
- Limit$50,000
- Open orders$46,200
- This order$6,800
over by $3,000warning — nothing stopped
On confirming the order
- Limit$50,000
- Open orders$46,200
- This order$6,800
over by $3,000confirm refused
same numbers, same code — different place, different consequence
Who has to approve this
asked before either one is sent
- SO-000871 · $24,600 2 to approve Sales manager, then Finance
- SO-000872 · $940 nobody goes straight to confirmed
you find out before you submit, not after
Held in the warehouse’s own book
SO-000871 · Steel bar 12 mm
- Asked for0on the order line
- Reserved0into Inventory’s own record
- Backordered0kept on the order, not dropped
Purchasing screen · available 0 held by SO-000871
one number, not two systems agreeing overnight
Above: a quote becoming a paid, posted invoice; three candidate prices with the winner named and a hand-typed price refused for breaking the minimum margin; the same credit check warning in one place and refusing in another; an approval route shown before the order is sent; and stock reserved in the warehouse’s own record, with the shortfall kept as a backorder.
What you can do
- Turn an enquiry into a quote, and a quote into an order, without retyping a line
- Price a line from customer prices, promotions and price lists, and see which one won
- Check a customer’s credit before you commit, not after they don’t pay
- See who has to approve an order before you send it for approval
- Reserve stock against the order, and keep the shortfall as a backorder
- Pick, pack and deliver, with a delivery note that posts the stock movement
- Invoice a whole order, or just what you actually delivered
- Take a payment and allocate it across the invoices it settles
- Handle a return with an inspection before the credit note is raised
- Ship straight from your supplier to your customer without the goods coming to you
- Bill a contract on a schedule, and pay commission on what was sold
01
Pricing Rules That Show Their Working
Most systems put a number in the price box. SM Space puts the number in the box and then shows you every price it considered and why this one won.
Northgate Supply order 200 units. Three rules could apply: the price you agreed with them, the September promotion, and your Trade price list — which has a 200-and-over band at $45.50 and a 1–199 band at $48.00. The screen lists all three, marks the winner, and names the rule behind it: the agreed customer price of $41.00 beat the promotion at $43.00 and the price list at $45.50.
Type a price by hand and the same screen holds the line. Someone enters $36.00 on an item that costs $34.00, against a policy that requires 12% margin. It is refused, and told why: below the floor of $38.08. You set the floor, the discount ceiling, and whether hand-typed prices are allowed at all.
Unit price $41.00 price agreed with this customer
| Price | Rule | Where it came from |
|---|---|---|
| $41.00 | Price agreed with this customer won | set for Northgate Supply · valid to 31 Dec |
| $43.00 | Promotion | September offer · 10% off the list price |
| $45.50 | Price list · 200+ band | Trade · the 1–199 band is $48.00 |
refused $36.00 typed by hand — the item costs $34.00 and this customer group requires 12% margin
net price 36.00 is below the minimum margin of 12% over cost 34.00 (floor 38.08)
Three rules could have priced this line and all three are on the screen, so nobody has to ask why the number is what it is. The floor, the discount ceiling and whether a price may be typed by hand at all are yours to set.
02
Customer Credit Limits and Credit Control
The same credit check answers in two places, and where you ask it decides what it does.
Ask it on the customer’s screen and it is a warning. It never blocks, whatever the answer. Ask it by confirming the order and the same code refuses the confirm. One piece of logic, two behaviours — so the warning can never disagree with the block.
Northgate’s limit is $50,000. They already have $46,200 of open orders on the book. The new order is $6,800, which takes them to $53,000. On the customer screen that is a warning that they are $3,000 over. On the confirm button, the order does not go through. You decide which stage the check runs at, and an over-limit can be set to go for approval instead of being refused.
One smaller thing: check an existing order, find the customer is over their limit, and the alert still goes out even though nothing was stopped. Being over the limit is true whether or not anybody pressed confirm today.
On the customer’s screen
- Credit limit$50,000
- Open orders$46,200
- This order$6,800
- Would take them to$53,000
over by $3,000
a warning — nothing was stopped
On confirming the order
- Credit limit$50,000
- Open orders$46,200
- This order$6,800
- Would take them to$53,000
over by $3,000
the confirm is refused
Same customer, same figures, same code — asked in two places. You choose the stage the check runs at, and an over-limit order can be sent for approval instead of being refused outright.
03
Sales Order Approval Routing
Open an order and ask who has to approve it. You get the answer before you submit it, based on the value, the customer’s group and the salesperson.
Order SO-000871 at $24,600 comes back with two steps: sales manager, then finance. Order SO-000872 at $940 comes back with no steps at all — nobody has to approve it, so it goes straight to confirmed. “Nobody” is a real answer here, and you get it without submitting the order and waiting to find out.
SO-000871 $24,600
- 1Sales manager
- 2Finance
over the $10,000 band, and a Trade customer
SO-000872 $940
nobody straight to confirmed
under every band — goes straight to confirmed
The route is worked out from the value, the customer’s group and the salesperson, and you can ask for it before you commit to anything. An order that needs nobody says so.
04
Stock Reservation and Backorders
Confirm an order and it holds the stock. Not in a sales-side list of its own — in Inventory’s own reservation record. SM Space Sales has no reservation table.
So a line needing 40 units with 32 on hand reserves 32 and keeps 8 as a backorder on the same order, rather than dropping the line. And the buyer looking at the purchasing screen sees those 32 units become unavailable at the same moment, because it is the same number, not a copy that catches up overnight.
Reserving twice does not double-hold: it only ever takes the part that is not held yet. You decide when reservation happens — on confirming the order, or when the pick list is made.
The sales order
- Asked for40
- Reserved32held for this order
- Backordered8kept on the order, not dropped
The purchasing screen, same moment
32 0
available — held by SO-000871
Inventory’s own reservation record. Sales does not keep a second one.
Reserving twice does not double-hold: only the part that is not held yet is ever taken. You decide when this happens — on confirming the order, or when the pick list is made.
How SM Space sales order software compares
The one-line answers buyers usually ask for, before the longer argument underneath them.
- Multi-currency Price lists, quotes, orders and invoices each carry a currency.
- Credit limits The same check warns in one place and blocks in another.
- Approval routing by value By amount band, customer group and salesperson.
- Partial invoicing Invoice the whole order, or invoice one delivery.
- Backorders The shortfall stays on the order rather than being dropped.
- Drop shipment Your supplier ships straight to your customer.
- Cloud Runs in a web browser, nothing to install.
- Audit trail Every document keeps who did what, and when.
How it fits with the rest of SM Space
Nothing here is a copy of somebody else’s number.
- Quote writes
- Sales order writes
- Delivery note writes
- Invoice writes
- Customer payment writes
- reads Inventory — the stock is held here
- reads Accounting — the invoice is a journal
- reads Purchasing — what is short, and drop shipments
The stock hold lives in inventory management, which is why the purchasing screen changes the moment the order reserves. The invoice posts into accounting and finance as a journal, so the sales figure and the ledger agree without anyone keying it twice — and you can see an invoice’s accounting entries before you post it. A drop shipment raises the order in purchasing and procurement. What lands in the books is driven by posting rules you can read and change. Reporting and dashboards reads the same live rows, and audit and compliance keeps the record of who changed what. Six sales documents can be put on the shared approval routing, which is where you decide who has to sign an order off and what happens when nobody answers.
Who this sales order software is for
Small and mid-sized businesses selling physical goods, where the paperwork has outgrown the tools. You are quoting from a Word template, somebody keeps promising stock that is already promised, and you find out a customer is over their limit when the invoice ages past 60 days. SM Space is a cloud ERP system — it runs in a web browser, with no server to install.
Frequently asked questions
- What does SM Space Sales do?
- It runs the paperwork from an enquiry to a paid invoice: quotes, sales orders, pricing, credit checks, approvals, stock reservations, picking, packing, delivery, invoicing, customer payments, returns and credit notes. Every invoice posts into the SM Space ledger, and every stock hold sits in the SM Space inventory record, so sales, warehouse and accounts are reading the same numbers.
- Can I set different prices for different customers?
- Yes. A price is resolved from three sources: a price agreed with that customer, a promotion, and a price list with quantity bands. The screen shows all the candidates and names the one that won. You also set the guardrails — a minimum margin, a maximum discount, and whether anyone can type a price by hand at all.
- Can it stop an order going through when a customer is over their credit limit?
- Yes. Confirming the order runs the credit check and refuses the confirm when it fails. The same check on the customer’s screen only warns, so the salesperson sees it coming. You choose the stage the check runs at, and you can set an over-limit order to go for approval instead of being refused.
- What happens if I don’t have enough stock to fill an order?
- It reserves what it can and keeps the rest as a backorder on the same order, so the line is not dropped and nobody has to remember it. The hold goes into the inventory record that every other part of SM Space reads, so the shortage is visible to whoever is buying. If you would rather a line was reserved in full or not at all, that is a setting.
- Can I invoice part of an order?
- Yes. You can invoice the whole order, or invoice a single delivery — so a customer who got 32 of the 40 units they ordered gets an invoice for 32, and the rest is invoiced when it ships. Payments are then allocated across the invoices they settle.
- Is this a CRM?
- No. It starts at the quote, not at the lead. There are no pipelines, no contacts to chase and no deal stages. SM Space Sales is order paperwork: what the customer is buying, what it costs, whether they can have it, when it ships and whether they have paid. If you run a CRM for the chasing, this picks up where it stops.
Quote, order and invoice in one place.
Book a 30-minute demo and we’ll price a real order in front of you — your customer, your price list, your credit limit.
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