Sales · Daily operations · 6 min read

Change a confirmed order

Raise a change order, cancel the open balance of an order, and understand who must approve.

Before you begin

• The order is confirmed. Drafts are simply edited.
• Know what has been delivered and invoiced: an order cannot go below those quantities.
• A change that raises value is approved by another person who holds document.confirm.

Request a change

1. Open the order and go to the Changes tab.
2. Press Request change.
3. For each line you want to change, enter the new Quantity (the dialog shows "now N") or the new Unit price (shows "now X"). You can also add a line.
4. Enter the Customer's reference (for example "Email 02-10"), up to 120 characters.
5. Submit the request.

What happens depends on the change:

• A pure reduction (for example 10 units down to 8) is applied at once: "Change applied." The total is recalculated and the change is listed as Applied.
• A price increase, a quantity increase or an added line is recorded as waiting: "Change order recorded." The order stays unchanged until it is approved.

If you go below what is already delivered, invoiced or cancelled, the system refuses: '<line>: <n> is already delivered, invoiced or cancelled; the order cannot go below it. Return or credit it instead.'

Approve a change order

1. A different user who holds document.confirm opens Sales > Orders > Price approvals and looks at Change orders waiting (Order, Change, Customer, Total before, Asked by, Customer reference).
2. They open the change and press Approve, or enter Why is it rejected? and reject it.

On approval the change is Applied: the order quantity or price changes, the draft delivery order follows the new quantity, and the credit reservation grows. A customer on a Hard block who would now be over the limit is refused.

Rules that refuse:

• 'Somebody other than the person who asked must approve this change.' The requester cannot approve their own change.
• 'Approving a change order needs the right to confirm orders.' The approver lacks document.confirm.
• 'Say why it is rejected.' A rejection needs a reason.

Before and after pictures of the order are kept on the Changes tab and in History, and the audit trail records who asked and who decided.

Cancel the open balance

When part of an order will never be delivered, cancel what is still to come instead of leaving it open.

1. On the Changes tab choose Cancel what is still to come.
2. Select a Reason: Customer cancelled, Price not accepted, Cannot supply or Other.
3. Enter a Note. It is required for reasons marked "Needs a note" (Other is one): 'This reason needs a note.'
4. Press Cancel open balance.

You see "Open balance cancelled." For an order of 10 with 6 delivered, 4 are cancelled and the Delivery status becomes Fully delivered. You can add your own reasons under Sales > Configuration > Return and cancellation reasons.

What happens next

• The order total, delivery order and credit reservation follow the applied change.
• Invoices already raised are not changed. If you reduced an order that was invoiced beyond the new quantity you are refused, so correct it with a credit note instead (Returns and credit notes).
• The Delivery & invoicing tab shows the new To deliver and To invoice figures.

Good to know

• A reduction is applied without a second approval and needs only the draft right. Treat the Customer's reference as your evidence and review the Changes tab in your regular checks.
• To go back to a draft before anything is delivered use Reset to draft (Confirm an order and handle credit holds).
• Cancel on the whole order needs document.cancel.