Waybills for dispatched orders
How a distributor dispatches orders with waybills using the Wholesale add-on, and why each dispatched order still needs an invoice raised by hand.
By Achekam · · 4 min read · For Logistics businesses in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya
A distributor's day ends at the loading bay. Orders from spaza shops, supermarkets, pharmacies or hardware stores are picked, checked, loaded and sent out with a driver and a waybill for each drop. The truck leaves, the goods are delivered and signed for, and the business has done everything except the one thing that pays for it: billing the customer.
That last step is where money leaks. An order that was dispatched but never invoiced is stock given away. This article explains how a distributor in South Africa, Nigeria or Kenya handles orders, dispatches and waybills with Achekam's Wholesale add-on, and the invoicing step that, for now, has to be done by hand.
Orders confirmed, dispatched and given a waybill
With the Wholesale add-on, a business keeps price lists with quantity breaks and trade customers with credit limits, terms and a hold. Orders are confirmed, dispatched, and given a printed waybill.
The waybill travels with the goods. It tells the driver where to go and what to drop, and it gives the customer a document to check the delivery against and sign. A signed waybill coming back to the office is the evidence that the order arrived, and it is the document you will reach for if a customer later says a carton was missing. A waybill is a close relative of the bill of lading used in shipping; Investopedia's article on the bill of lading explains how such a document serves as a receipt and a contract of carriage for shipped goods.
Good dispatch habits:
- confirm an order only when the stock is available to pick;
- print the waybill at loading, not before, so it shows what actually went on the truck;
- have the customer sign and date the waybill on delivery, with any shortages noted;
- bring every signed waybill back to the office the same day.
Dispatched orders are not invoiced or posted
Here is the gap to plan around. Dispatched wholesale orders are not invoiced or posted to the ledger. Confirming and dispatching an order records the order and produces the waybill, but it does not create a receivables invoice, does not add the amount to the customer's balance, and does not post revenue or VAT.
Until an invoice is raised, the dispatched order does not exist as far as the books are concerned. The customer's statement will not show it, the ageing will not chase it, and the month's sales will be understated.
Raising the invoice yourself
Raise the invoice for each dispatched order in Accounting. A business creates customer invoices as drafts it can change or delete, and issuing one takes the next number in its sequence and posts it to the ledger as debtors, sales and output VAT. An issued invoice can be downloaded as a PDF on the business's letterhead and e-mailed from the invoice.
Three current limits shape how you do it:
- Lines are typed. Invoice lines cannot be picked from the business's product list, so invoices do not move stock or post cost of sales. Type each line from the dispatched order, at the price the price list gave.
- One revenue account. All invoice revenue posts to Professional Services Revenue (4100), and a line cannot name another sales account. Agree with your accountant how sales of goods are reclassified for reporting.
- Cost of sales. Because invoices post no cost of sales, agree with your accountant how the cost of goods dispatched is recorded each month.
Put the order and waybill number in the invoice's description, so anyone can trace an invoice to the delivery it bills.
Trade customers, limits and holds
Trade customers carry credit limits, terms and a hold on the Wholesale screen. At the till, a sale charged to a trade customer's account writes a receivables invoice and checks the account's hold and credit limit, unless a supervisor or manager overrides it with a reason.
For orders, treat the limit and hold as a rule your team applies before confirming: look at the customer's balance and ageing, and do not confirm an order for a customer on hold without a manager's say-so. Receivables are aged into 0-30, 31-60, 61-90, 91-120 and over 120 days, with overdue totals, but only invoiced amounts appear there, which is one more reason to invoice dispatched orders promptly. Reading the ageing customer by customer is covered in shipper accounts and ageing.
A dispatch-to-invoice check
Make one person responsible for proving that every dispatched order has been invoiced. A daily check, done before the next day's loading:
| Step | What to compare |
|---|---|
| List the day's dispatched orders | From the Wholesale screen |
| List the day's issued invoices | From Accounting, by date |
| Match them by order or waybill number | Every dispatched order should have one invoice |
| Investigate anything unmatched | A missing invoice, a returned load, a cancelled drop |
| File the signed waybills | With the invoice reference written on each |
Short deliveries need care: invoice what was signed for on the waybill, not what was ordered. If a customer refused part of a drop, the invoice should reflect the goods they actually accepted.
Manufacturers who sell through dealers face a similar set of steps, covered in dealer price lists and waybills.
Starting tomorrow
Run the dispatch-to-invoice check for the past week before changing anything else. If it finds dispatched orders with no invoice, raise them now, then make the check part of every evening's close, so no load leaves the yard without a bill following it.
General guidance only, not advice on your own circumstances. Tax and payroll rules change: check the current position with the authority or your adviser.
