Using Sales Order Form Templates: Templates and Examples

Sales orders are generated in response to the purchase requests your customers have sent to you. Along with the complete information of the order, a sales order indicates that you have made a sale against that particular buying request.

When you have a business-hour rush, it is wiser and recommended to use one of the sales order templates which act as a boon. A template lets you have all the details entered without you having to bother about missing out on any essential information. Usually, manually prepared sales orders may skip one or more important information.

A template can help you with the following:

Establish clear expectations for both the parties, buying and selling.
Enlist all the information comprehensively.
Enhance customer satisfaction.
Improve productivity
You receive accountability from your customers

Having seen some of the benefits of using a sales order template, let’s look at the other points that would be discussed in this post.

What is a sales order?
What should you include in your sales order?
How the vendor-customer sales order process unfolds?
Examples
Sales orders vs. purchase orders (POs)
Tools to help you manage your sales orders
Download 5 Free Templates of Sales Order

What is a Sales Order?

A document that carries the information of your sale to a particular customer is called a Sales Order. A sales order is created and issued once a customer has expressed their intent to purchase your product. You will be issuing it out to the customer before you have delivered the goods.

It is an important document for both the buyer as well as the seller. For the buyer, it is vital to know the cost, the billing, the details of the product, the returns, etc. which is included on the sales order.

For the seller, it would be helpful to assess the following information:

Send out timely orders
Share the bills
Follow up with the customer object, clarifications, transactions, and so on.
Keeping a track of all your sales
Keeping the customer information updated.

To summarize, sales forms are an integral part of the bigger sales process which entails many other significant documents such as invoices, purchase orders, receipts, sales quotations.

What should You Include in Your Sales Order?

With the kind of details and the diverse amounts of information that go into preparing a sales order, it could be a tedious job. This section depicts the details of the points that are included in your sales order.

Here they are:

Customer’s details: This section includes the complete name, contact details of your customers. It helps you identify the customer to whom you have made the sale.

Your company’s details: The sales order needs to have all the details which mark the identity of your organization. The name, complete address, email address, contact numbers, company logo, should all be included. Ensure that the font and the color schemes used present all the information in a clear and concise manner.

Purchase Order: The PO is supposed to be used as a reference document and should be mentioned in your sales order. Mentioning the PO makes it easier to connect the sales details to the purchase request placed by the customer.

Billing Details: Having all the details of your customer such as their billing address, along with all the other details. This will be assisting while you prepare your invoice for the order. The billing details will also include the expected date of delivery and the way you plan to ship the product.

Product Information: Fundamentally, all the related information of the product is enlisted in the sales order. The name of the product, the quantity ordered, the quality, or the variant of the product are the details that are to be presented here. This is mentioned clearly so that any instances of errors in delivery or a mistake in the quantity of the product are avoided.

Pricing Details: Whenever a product is placed for order and its order is prepared, there could be a total, sub-total, grand-total; each of which gives a gist of the pricing that has gone into the final price of the product. These details will also include any service charges or fees for processing. You may also need to add any discounts that you have offered on the product.

This section would also enlist any delivery charges that are applied to the product; and of course, the customer must also know what is the amount of taxes that come along with the product. Eventually, it details the way in which you have priced your product.

Terms and Conditions: When a customer makes a purchase from you, it is your duty to let them know of any terms and conditions that are laid on the product. It is important to learn about the customer behavior as it is important for a long term and improved customer relationship. These could be any policies on the return of the product or the refund if asked by the customer. There could also be the details of a recurring payment that the customer would need to pay.

It is always advisable that you clearly pan out all the terms and conditions in order to avoid any discrepancies or fallouts with the customer at a later stage.

Approval of the Sales Order: Approvals include the signatures of your sales team like the manager or the salesperson.

So, these are the details that need to go in the sales order for a flawless sales process.

How does the Vendor-Customer Sales Order Process Take Place?

Here is the point to point description of a uniform sales order process is given as follows:

After your sales call, meeting, demo, or RFQ (request for quotation), the lead may contact you for pricing information.
Upon receiving their sales proposal or quote, you prepare and send a customized version.
If your prospect wants to negotiate the price or terms at this point, they issue a purchase order once they are satisfied with the arrangements.
The sales order prepared by you must include all the details that were discussed in the previous section. This also has the information from their PO and a confirmation of the terms they set forth or agreed to.
To acknowledge receipt and approval of your sales order form, your customer signs it and returns it to you
In your sales order, you specify how the goods or services will be prepared and delivered to your buyer.
In the event that your product or service is successfully delivered or performed, you generate and send an invoice to your customer based on the order details.
This sales order process may not involve you personally in every step, depending on your role and company size. By understanding how that process unfolds, you will be better able to answer your customers' questions and work out any order errors or delays.

Examples

Sales order forms have proved their utility for almost all businesses. They have especially helped in bringing a drastic improvement in your transactions. Let’s look at some of the examples here:

Rush sales or Cash Sales: It is convenient to have a form that distinguishes and documents walk-in sales, cash purchases, and same-day customer orders.

The fulfillment of orders by a third party: By acting as their intermediary, you can track and follow up on orders picked up, provided, or delivered by a third-party vendor.

Scheduling agreements: Specialized sales orders are covered in long-term agreements. Schedules describe when, where, and how services and materials will be delivered to your customer over a specified period of time.

Digital sales orders: Digital sales orders are prepared, sent, and filled out using a laptop or mobile device instead of paper forms. In addition to including digital signatures, digital sales orders can be managed in real-time, can be used to import data from other systems, and can be easily imported from other systems.

Sales Orders Vs. Purchase Orders (POs)

The basic difference between the Sales Orders and the Purchase Orders is that the sales orders are generated by you i.e. the company and therefore, are the internal documents. On the other hand, a purchase order is created by the customer and is an external document.

It can be understood from the following statements:

PO or the purchase orders are the documents issued by the customer in order to let the vendor or seller know that they are interested in making a purchase.

Sales orders are issued by the vendor to let the customer receive the acknowledgment of the PO. Moreover, it also lets the customer know that the vendor confirms the terms and conditions associated with the delivery of the products and goods.

The following table provides the detailed format of the dissimilarities of the Purchase orders and sales orders.

Sales Order	Purchase Order
It is an internal document.	It is an external document.
It is created by the vendor and is sent to the purchaser.	It is created by the purchaser and is sent to the vendor.
It indicates a formal agreement for the sale of goods to a customer.	It indicates the purchasing intent of the customer from a particular company.
It is usually issued against the receipt of a purchase order from a customer.	It is usually issued once the vendor’s quote is received.
It includes the confirmation of the details such as the terms, conditions, and other information related to the product.	It includes all the terms, policies, conditions in response to the purchase request.
The document acts as proof of the sale of the goods or services.	The document acts as proof of purchase of certain goods or services.

Tools to help you manage your sales orders

Automating certain aspects of your sales documentation is a smart idea. With digital tools and integrations, you can stay connected to your customers wherever you are.

In addition, using tools designed specifically to manage sales order documents has many benefits.

Getting rid of duplicate entry work reduces your paperwork load.
Your sales order can be better tracked if you receive alerts when a document has been opened and read.
As a result, you can schedule more efficient follow-ups with customers, which results in more sales closings.

Download 5 Free Templates of Sales Order

We have compiled 5 free templates of sales orders to make your tasks easier. Download them here.

How can Deskera Help You?

The manual process of making entries and preparing sales orders is an outdated process nobody wants to follow. These techniques do not even impress the customers and are prone to a lot of mistakes. Deskera CRM and Deskera CRM Plus are tools you need to make that world of a difference from the way you process your sales and orders.

From sales pipeline to the purchase orders, Deskera CRM Plus provides you with access to all the necessary details under one roof.

Deskera CRM and CRM+ offer great advantages for business owners, which will ultimately lead to improvements in their income statement, profit and loss statement, and balance sheet, among others.

Using Deskera CRM, you can digitize customer service. You can also utilize this software to plan out your team's work to improve preciseness.

Deskera CRM is a simple, fully-featured platform that can help you with contact and deal administration, sales pipeline management, email marketing campaigns, to name a few.

Key Takeaways

Quick rerun of the important points observed in the article:

A document that carries the information of your sale to a particular customer is called a Sales Order.
A sales order is created and issued once a customer has expressed their intent to purchase your product.
A sales order typically comprises information such as customer’s details, seller’s details, purchase order specifications, billing details, product information, pricing details, terms and conditions, and approval of the sales order.
Some examples of sales order scenarios are cash sales, orders from third parties, and scheduling agreements.
Sales orders are different from purchase orders in many aspects. PO or the purchase orders are the documents issued by the customer in order to let the vendor or seller know that they are interested in making a purchase. Sales orders are issued by the vendor to let the customer receive the acknowledgment of the PO.