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Order Ops

Sales Order

A sales order is the seller's internal record of a confirmed customer order, created from the buyer's purchase order. It drives picking, packing, shipping, and invoicing. When a retailer's EDI 850 purchase order lands, it becomes a sales order in the supplier's ERP, ideally with no manual re-keying.

Purchase order vs sales order

A purchase order and a sales order are the same transaction seen from two sides. The buyer issues a purchase order; the seller records a sales order from it. The buyer's PO number is carried on the sales order so both sides reference the same deal across the acknowledgment, the shipment, and the invoice.

How sales orders get created

A sales order is either keyed by hand from a PDF or email, or created automatically from an EDI 850 or an extracted document. Automatic creation is faster and removes the typos that cause short shipments, billing disputes, and chargebacks. The goal is a structured sales order without touching a keyboard.

Related Terms

Purchase Order (PO)
A purchase order (PO) is a buyer's official offer to purchase goods, listing items, quantities, prices, delivery dates, and ship-to location. It becomes a binding contract once the seller accepts it. In EDI it is the 850 transaction, the document that starts most B2B order flows.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents like purchase orders and invoices in a standard electronic format. It replaces paper, fax, and email so two trading partners' systems can transact directly, without anyone re-keying the data.
Three-Way Match
A three-way match is an accounts-payable control that compares three documents before an invoice is paid: the purchase order, the receiving record, and the supplier invoice. The quantities, prices, and terms must agree across all three. If they match, payment is approved. If they do not, the invoice is held for review.

Learn More

EDI 850 Purchase Order GuideERP-EDI Integration GuideERP IntegrationOrder Processing Automation

Frequently Asked Questions

They are two views of one transaction. The buyer creates a purchase order to place the order; the seller creates a sales order to fulfill it. The same PO number links both records.

A sales order lives in the seller's ERP or order management system. It is generated from the incoming purchase order, whether that arrives as an EDI 850, a PDF, or an email.

Sources: ASC X12 standards body

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