Orders, contracts, invoicing, supplier bills, pricing and demand planning are one feature set, switched on together. This article explains how to turn it on, what appears when you do, who can use it, and the order to set things up in.
Turning it on
The whole capability is controlled by the Orders & Demand Planning switch in Account Settings.
With the switch off, the menu entries and screens are hidden and the background jobs skip your account entirely — the nightly sales contract release does nothing, for instance. If a colleague can see Sales Orders and you cannot, check the switch and your roles before anything else.
What appears
Two menu sections, plus additions to Setup and Products.
| Section | Contains |
|---|---|
| Orders | Orders Dashboard, Sales Orders, Sales Contracts, Purchase Orders, Invoices, Bills, Accounting Exports |
| Demand Planning | Dashboard, Stock Policies, Stock Alerts, Forecasts, Forecast Accuracy, Forecast Settings, Demand Plans, Production Planning, Production Calendar, Procurement Plans, Supplier Forecasts, AI Recommendations |
| Setup → Orders | Currencies, FX Rates, Tax Zones, Tax Codes, Tax Code Mappings, Price Lists, Supplier Contract Prices, Order Settings |
| Products | The KIT and MISC product types, which exist to be sold |
Roles
Five roles come with the orders feature set, on top of the roles you already use:
| Role | For |
|---|---|
| Pricing Admin | Maintaining price lists, contract prices and the pricing setup. |
| Accounting Admin | Currencies, tax setup, numbering and the accounting configuration. |
| Invoice Issuer | Raising and issuing invoices and credit notes. |
| Invoice Exporter | Pushing documents to Xero, MYOB or QuickBooks and running exports. |
| Bill Entry | Entering and approving supplier bills. |
They are separate on purpose. Raising an invoice, approving a supplier bill and posting to the ledger are different jobs, often done by different people, and separating them is what makes that possible.
QA roles matter here too. Anyone working with goods receipts can place a QA hold, but only QA User, QA Manager and Admin can release one. See QA hold, release and reject on goods receipts.
Setting up, in order
Each step depends on the one before, so this sequence saves rework:
- Currencies and your base currency — everything financial is denominated in these. Add FX rates if you trade in more than one.
- Tax zones and tax codes — needed before any document can tax itself correctly.
- Price lists, and contract prices where you have agreements. Prices resolve themselves once these exist.
- Customers and suppliers — give each their currency, price list and tax defaults, which is what makes new documents fill themselves in.
- Products — sell prices and tax codes, plus any KIT or MISC products you need.
- Order Settings — document number prefixes, padding, reset and scope. Worth deciding before you issue your first invoice, since it affects new documents only.
- Integrations and tax code mappings, if you are pushing to an accounting system.
- Roles — give people the ones they need.
Then start trading: raise orders, receive and dispatch goods, invoice and bill.
How the documents connect
| Chain | Path |
|---|---|
| Selling | Sales contract → sales order → dispatch → invoice → accounting |
| Buying | Purchase order → goods receipt → bill → accounting |
| Planning | Contracts and orders → demand plan → production and procurement plans |
Each step can be started from the one before it, and every link is kept — so from an invoice you can reach the dispatch, the order and the contract that produced it.
Things to know
- Everything is scoped to the site you are working in. If a list looks empty, check which site you are in.
- Existing inventory and traceability features are unaffected by the switch. Goods receipts and dispatches work as they always have; orders add documents in front of and behind them.
- Switching off hides rather than deletes. Documents already raised remain, and reappear if the switch goes back on.