Light ERP: quote to order, order to invoice

Modustra IQ is a CRM first, but a manufacturer's sale does not end when the quote is won. The ERP layer carries it the rest of the way: the quote becomes an order, the order is invoiced as it ships, and the invoice lands in QuickBooks, all from the same record, with nothing typed twice.

It is deliberately light. It is not trying to be your general ledger; that is what QuickBooks is for. It covers what happens between winning the work and getting paid for it, and hands the accounting off cleanly.

Everything stays traceable. An order records which quote it came from, an invoice records which order, and the pricing notes that justified the number on the quote follow it onto the order. When something comes back, returns and credits close the loop against the same order.

Converting a quote copies every line onto a new order, so later edits to the quote never change what was ordered. Adjust the ordered quantity per line, or set it to zero to leave a line off, add the customer's PO number, the order date, and the promised date, and the quote moves to the archive, where it can be restored if it ever needs converting again.

An open order carries its confirmation, which can be printed or emailed to the customer, and it is invoiced from the same screen. Every line starts at what is left on it: invoice the whole order at once, or invoice what shipped and leave the rest outstanding. When the last line is invoiced, the order closes.

The invoice itself is a document your customer can read: your company block, their billing and ship-to addresses, PO number, and contact, then the lines with quantity, unit price, and amount, in each, hours, or whatever unit the line was sold in. Print it, save it, email it, or send it to QuickBooks with one click, and void it if it should never have gone out.

A return is raised against the order the goods came from, with the customer's PO, who raised it, and when. Each line records what is coming back and what happens to it, and receiving the goods puts the ones going back to stock on the shelf in Inventory. The goods value shown is what they were sold for, not what the customer is owed; a credit note settles that separately, so a return and a credit are never confused for each other.