# Sales overview

> How quotes, invoices, credit notes, payments and receivables fit together in OneBooks, and which screen to use for each step.

Canonical: https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/overview/
Language: en
Documentation index: https://docs.getonebooks.com/llms.txt

The **Sales** group covers everything between a customer asking for a price and the money arriving in your bank. Each document has a clear job, and each posting to the ledger happens at one well-defined moment.

![The Invoices list with status chips, outstanding and overdue totals and the Create Invoice button](https://docs.getonebooks.com/screenshots/en/sales-invoices-list.webp)

## The sales cycle

| Step | Document | Posts to the ledger? |
|---|---|---|
| Offer a price | **Quote** | No — quotes never touch the books. |
| Bill the customer | **Invoice** | Yes, when it is **sent**: receivable, revenue and tax. |
| Get paid | **Payment** | Yes, when recorded: cash or bank against the receivable. |
| Take goods back or reduce a bill | **Sales return** (credit note) | Yes, when **confirmed**: reverses revenue and tax; a **refund** is a separate cash step. |
| Give up on a bad debt | **Write-off** | Yes: bad-debt expense against the receivable. |

**Customers** are the people and companies you bill. **Receivables** is the report of who owes you what, by age.

## Which screen do I use?

- Quote a job → **Sales → Quotes** → [Quotes](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/quotes/)
- Bill a customer → **Sales → Invoices** → [Invoices](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/invoices/)
- A customer paid → **Record Payment** on the invoice, or **Sales → Payments** → [Payments received](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/payments/)
- Goods came back or an invoice was too high → **Sales → Sales Returns** → [Sales returns and credit notes](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/sales-returns/)
- An invoice was a mistake → **Void** it → [Invoice statuses, void and write-off](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/invoice-statuses/)
- The customer will never pay → **Write off** → [Invoice statuses, void and write-off](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/invoice-statuses/)
- Who owes me? → **Sales → Receivables** → [Receivables and aging](https://docs.getonebooks.com/sales/receivables/)

## Numbering

Invoices, quotes and returns are numbered automatically with your prefixes (INV-, QUO-, CN-…). Numbers are assigned when the document is created and never reused, so a voided invoice keeps its number.

## Related

  - [Your first invoice](https://docs.getonebooks.com/getting-started/first-invoice/)
  - [How the ledger works](https://docs.getonebooks.com/accounting/how-it-works/)