What Is a Sales Order?

A sales order (often just "order") is a confirmed commitment from a customer to buy a specific set of products, usually created by converting an accepted quote. It carries the same company, contact, and line items as the quote it came from, but represents a firmer stage of the deal — the customer has agreed, not just been offered a price.

An order has its own status lifecycle distinct from a quote's — typically draft, confirmed, then moving through fulfillment stages (processing, in progress) to completed, or cancelled. Once fulfilled, an order is the source document an invoice is generated from, again carrying its line items forward as a snapshot rather than a live link back to the product catalog.

Keeping quote, order, and invoice as three linked but distinct documents — rather than one record reused for everything — is what lets each stage of the deal be tracked and reported on independently, while still tracing an invoice all the way back to the quote that originated it.