Let me be the first to welcome you to the Community space, @LC4100.
I appreciate you using the sales order as a replacement for work order in QuickBooks. The sales order feature does exactly like the work order which they link orders to specific customers and invoices.
So if you want to record a sale that you plan to fulfill in the future, then creating a sales order is a good way to go. You can include a field on the template for scheduling jobs. Just check both boxes next to Ship Date and change the text to something more appropriate like Scheduled Date or Job Deadline.
To learn more about how sales order works, please refer to this article: Create a sales order.
Know that I'm only a couple of clicks away if you need anything else. Have a fantastic day!