SyteLine Customer Order to Invoice: Step by Step
How do I process a customer order from entry to invoice in SyteLine?
Also searched as
- SyteLine order to cash process
- SyteLine CO to shipment to invoice steps
- how to invoice a customer order in SyteLine
- SyteLine auto invoice not creating invoice
Short answer
A SyteLine customer order flows from Order Entry through pick, pack, and Customer Shipment, then to invoicing, either through the Auto Invoice batch utility or manual Invoice Entry, posting revenue and relieving inventory once the shipment is confirmed.
Applies to: SyteLine 8.x/9.x, CloudSuite Industrial (CSI) 10.x-11.x, Mongoose and classic UI
Process a customer order from entry to invoice
- 1Enter the Customer Order (CO) in Order Entry, adding line items, ship-to, and pricing (list, contract, or price code driven).
- 2Firm and release the order lines so they become visible to Planning/MRP and available to ship.
- 3Pick and pack the order: generate a pick list, confirm the picks, and stage the goods for shipment.
- 4Create the Customer Shipment record, entering shipped quantity, ship date, and carrier/tracking information.
- 5Confirm the shipment, which relieves inventory and creates the cost of goods sold transaction.
- 6Run Auto Invoice to generate invoices for all confirmed, uninvoiced shipments, or use Invoice Entry to create or adjust a specific invoice manually.
- 7Review the invoice register or edit list for pricing or tax exceptions before posting.
- 8Post the invoices to Accounts Receivable, which updates the customer's AR balance and the GL revenue and COGS accounts.
- 9Confirm the order's remaining open quantity is correct if the shipment was only a partial fulfillment.
Where each step lives in the module structure
The customer order itself is entered and maintained in Order Entry. Shipping is handled by the Customer Shipment form, typically reached from Order Entry > Shipments, which is where the pick, pack, and ship-confirm steps actually relieve inventory. Invoicing lives in Accounts Receivable, either through the Auto Invoice batch utility for volume invoicing or Invoice Entry for one-off and manual invoices.
Understanding that these are three separate forms feeding one order helps explain most order-status confusion: an order can be fully shipped and still show as not invoiced simply because the invoicing step has not run yet.
Auto Invoice vs manual invoice entry
Auto Invoice is a batch utility that picks up all confirmed shipments not yet invoiced, filtered by criteria such as customer or date range, and generates invoices in bulk. It is what most sites run daily or nightly to keep AR current. Manual Invoice Entry is used for cases the batch process is not built for: freight-only invoices, credit memos, or corrections to an invoice that already posted incorrectly.
Why an order won't invoice
The most common reasons a confirmed shipment does not turn into an invoice are the customer sitting on credit hold, the ship-to missing a tax code or tax jurisdiction, the shipment not actually being fully confirmed yet, or the order line already being fully invoiced against an earlier partial shipment. Checking the Auto Invoice exception log first, before digging into the order itself, usually surfaces which of these it is.
Partial shipments and backorders
When an order ships in multiple parts, each shipment can either generate its own invoice or be consolidated onto a single invoice for the order, depending on whether the customer or site is set up for invoice-by-shipment or invoice-by-order. A partial shipment leaves the remaining quantity open on the CO line, which continues to appear on open order and backorder reports until it ships or the line is cancelled.
Common pitfalls
- !A customer on credit hold blocks Auto Invoice silently without an obvious error message on the order itself.
- !A ship-to missing a tax jurisdiction or tax code causes Auto Invoice to skip the shipment entirely.
- !A missing price code or contract price setup leaves the CO line at list price unexpectedly.
- !Invoice-by-shipment vs invoice-by-order is a site or customer-level setting that surprises new users expecting one behavior and getting the other.
- !Invoicing before a shipment is fully confirmed can post cost of goods sold at the wrong cost if backflush or costing has not caught up yet.
- !Assuming a shipped order is automatically invoiced; shipping and invoicing are separate steps that both have to run.
How an ERP-grounded AI assistant handles this
Order status questions such as why a specific order has not invoiced are exactly what ERPray answers directly from the CO-shipment-invoice chain in SyteLine, citing the credit hold or missing tax code instead of a customer service rep walking three forms to find the block.
Frequently asked questions
Why did Auto Invoice skip my shipment?
Most commonly the customer is on credit hold, the ship-to is missing a tax code, or the shipment was not fully confirmed. The Auto Invoice exception log is the fastest place to check first before opening the order itself.
Can I invoice before shipping?
SyteLine's standard flow invoices against a confirmed shipment. Bill-in-advance or pre-billing is possible on some setups but generally requires a different order type or configuration, not the standard CO-to-shipment-to-invoice path.
How do I issue a credit memo?
Use Invoice Entry to create a negative invoice against the original order or invoice, or use a Return Material Authorization first if goods are physically being returned before the credit is issued.
What is the difference between invoice-by-order and invoice-by-shipment?
Invoice-by-shipment creates one invoice per confirmed shipment even if an order ships in several parts. Invoice-by-order consolidates all shipments against the order onto a single invoice. It is a customer or site-level setting, not something chosen per order.
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