Create and manage sales orders

by Intuit •

89 •

Updated 8/5/2026 03:27

Use sales orders to track products customers want to buy before you send an invoice. A sales order is a non-posting transaction, so it reserves items from inventory without affecting your books. When the order is ready, you can convert it into an invoice or a purchase order in a few steps.

Note: You can create sales orders manually if you have QuickBooks Online Plus, QuickBooks Online Advanced, or Intuit Enterprise Suite. To use sales orders in QuickBooks Online Simple Start and Essentials, you’ll have to purchase the Inventory add-on.

What you'll need

An active QuickBooks Online Plus or Advanced subscription
Inventory items set up in QuickBooks Online
Discount and shipping turned on in your Sales settings (Take me there)

Create a sales order

To create a sales order, follow these steps.

Select + Create.
Select the customer for the sales order. Review the shipping address and update it if needed.
Add the products and their quantities. Select Tax if tax applies.
(Optional) To apply discounts or fees, select Settings ⚙, then select the Discounts and fees dropdown. Turn on Sales order total, Discount, or Shipping fee.
Fill in any taxes, discounts, or other fees.
(Optional) Add a note for the customer or an internal memo.
Select Save. To print the order, select Print.

When you save a sales order, the committed quantity for those products updates. This helps you see when it’s time to restock.

Note: If you select a customer who uses a different currency, you can update the exchange rate on the order. Once you turn on multi-currency, you can't turn it off or change your home currency.

Tip: If you added an item for revenue recognition, you can set up the revenue recognition schedule on the invoice you create from the sales order.

Create a sales order from an estimate

You can also create a sales order from an existing estimate.

Go to All apps , then Customer Hub, then Estimates (Take me there).
Find the estimate in your transaction list.
Select the Action dropdown, then select Convert to sales order.
Review the new sales order and update details if needed.
Select Save.

Note: To see the linked estimate, open the sales order and check the Linked transactions section. You can also select the link icon on a line item.

Manage and filter sales orders

Go to All apps , then Sales & Get Paid, then Sales orders (Take me there).
To find a specific order or group of orders, select Filter.
In the Action column, select the dropdown , then select what you want to do. Options include:
- Convert to invoice
- Convert to purchase order
- Cancel order
- Mark as shipped
- Close order
- Email
- Print
- Delete

Next steps

Convert a sales order to an invoice or purchase order

When you're ready to bill the customer, convert the sales order into an invoice. If you need to order stock to fulfill the request, convert it into a purchase order instead. A single sales order can be linked to more than one invoice.

Go to All apps , then Sales & Get Paid, then Sales orders (Take me there).
Find the sales order in your list.
In the Action column, select the dropdown , then select one of the following:
- Convert to invoice to bill the customer.
- Convert to purchase order to order stock from a vendor.
Review the invoice or purchase order.
Select Save.

When you create an invoice from a sales order, the order's status changes to Invoiced. After the customer pays, the status changes to Paid.

Edit or delete a sales order

You can edit a sales order if it's still open and not fulfilled. This includes orders that haven't been invoiced, orders that were invoiced but not paid, and orders whose linked invoice was voided or deleted. If the accounting period is closed and there's no invoice, you can still make changes.

Go to All apps , then Sales & Get Paid, then Sales orders (Take me there).
Select the sales order.
Choose what you want to do:
- To edit the order, select Edit, make your changes, then select Save and close.
- To review prior changes, select More actions, then select Audit history.
- To delete the order, select More actions, then select Delete. Select Delete again to confirm.