Sales Inquiry (Internal) Applet

Purpose and Overview

The Internal Sales Inquiry Applet is where your team records sales inquiries before they become firm commitments such as quotations or sales orders. It brings together the customer (or prospect), the sales agent, line-level products or services, delivery and billing context, optional collection and contra lines, and supporting files—so everyone works from one structured document instead of scattered notes or email threads.

An internal sales inquiry is typically a draft-friendly document: you can build it up over time, save changes, and when your process allows, mark selected records as FINAL from the listing or from the document screen. Depending on your company’s setup, you can also export the document and use Convert to create an Internal Receipt Voucher (the screen warns that converting cancels the current inquiry—treat this as a deliberate, controlled step).

Document Status Reference

Before You Start

• You need a customer that exists in master data (you will select it on the Account tab). If the customer is missing, ask your administrator to add it to master data.
• Prepare the line items you will need—product codes, quantities, or links to jobsheets or prior quotations if your process uses them.
• Know your sales agent and credit terms defaults, or have your company’s standard policy ready.
• If your company uses member cards or CRM contacts, have that information ready.
• Decide if you will use delivery details, collections, contra, or department headers—your administrator can show you which tabs are enabled.
• Check your permissions: can you create inquiries, finalize them, and convert to receipt voucher if needed?

If you are unsure whether search tabs (Jobsheet Item, Quotation Item, Previous Sales Inquiry) apply to your login, ask your administrator or finance team lead.

Glossary

Key Features Overview

Who Benefits from This Applet?

Sales representatives and internal sellers:

• Start inquiries quickly with Create and a guided tab layout (Main, Account, Line Items, and more)
• Pull lines from Search Item, Jobsheet Item, Quotation Item, or Previous Sales Inquiry so you do not re-key data
• Attach files, add contra lines, and refine pricing and tax-related fields per line before anything is committed downstream

Sales managers and team leads:

• Review open inquiries from the Internal Sales Inquiry Listing with Posting Status, amounts, and key dates visible
• Use FINAL on the listing to post multiple selected inquiries in one action (only rows that are not already final are updated)
• Open the Line Items menu for a cross-document line view when you need visibility without opening every header

Finance and operations staff:

• See transaction amounts and posting status alongside branch and customer context
• Rely on structured Collection and Contra sections when your process ties inquiries to settlement logic
• Use Export (PDF, CSV, DOCX, or ZIP, depending on configuration) for internal checks or handoff

Administrators and configuration owners:

• Control defaults, field visibility, printable formats, branch behaviour, feature visibility, and permissions from Settings
• Let users override layout with Personalization (for example default branch, location, language, tab orientation, and column layout)

What Problems Does This Solve?

The informal inquiry problem:

Without a dedicated inquiry record, early-stage sales work often lives in spreadsheets, chat messages, or ad hoc documents. That makes it hard to know which version is current, who owns the customer context, or what was promised before a quotation or order exists.

The Internal Sales Inquiry Applet solution:

• Single source of truth for each inquiry, with a full header, account, and line structure shared with other internal sales applets in the platform
• Flexible line sourcing so items can be added from catalog search, jobsheets, quotations, or past inquiries for the same customer
• Clear posting state via Posting Status (for example DRAFT when empty) and FINAL when your process locks the document
• Operational depth where you need it: delivery instructions, department header fields, collections, contra, attachments, related documents, and issue links on lines
• Controlled conversion to Internal Receipt Voucher when your business rules call for it, with an explicit on-screen warning about cancelling the inquiry

Key Features Overview

Key Concepts

The inquiry framework

Listing columns you can expect

The main listing is a data grid with advanced search, column layout toggle, and client-side pagination. Columns are driven by your environment but commonly include:

• Document reference (primary document number column on the screen)
• Posting Status (blank values may display as DRAFT)
• Branch, Customer Name, Sales Agent
• Amount Txn
• Updated Date, Created Date, Transaction Date

Tabs versus expansion panels

The create and view screens can show the same information either as horizontal tabs or as stacked expansion panels. Your administrator controls this behaviour through applet and personalization settings (for example vertical orientation and which panels start expanded). If you cannot find a section, scroll the page or expand collapsed panels.

Line item detail tabs

When you add or edit a line, you typically work through Item Details, optional Costing Details (unless hidden by settings), Pricing Details, and Issue Link. Edit Issue, Worklog, and Log Time appear in the dedicated Line Items menu flow when your process uses those features.

Quick Start Guide

Eight steps to your first inquiry

1. Open Internal Sales Inquiry from the sidebar.
2. Click + (Create) on the listing. The Create Internal Sales Inquiry screen opens.
3. Click the Main tab. Set Transaction Date, Sales Agent, and Credit Terms as your policy requires.
4. Click the Account tab. Open Entity Details, click Select Customer, and choose the customer.
5. Click the Line Items tab. Click Add (or + on the line list) to open Select Line Item.
6. Choose a source tab: Search Item (manual lookup), Jobsheet Item, Quotation Item, or Previous Sales Inquiry. Select a row and proceed to Add Line Item.
7. On Item Details, enter Quantity Base (how many units), confirm UOM (for example EA for each or BOX for box), and set Unit Price. The system calculates the line total automatically; if discounts apply, set the discount field, and if tax applies, confirm the tax field shows the correct rate. Click ADD to save the line. Repeat for more lines.
8. Click CREATE (first save). The inquiry is saved and appears in listing for further edits, attachments, or finalization.

Two common workflows

Path 1 — Sales Staff Creating an Inquiry

1. Create → fill Main/Account/Lines → CREATE
2. Reopen from listing → add more lines, attachments, related documents → SAVE
3. Pass to manager or finalize when ready → FINAL from view screen

Path 2 — Sales Manager Finalizing Multiple Inquiries

1. From listing, select multiple rows (checkboxes)
2. Click FINAL
3. System posts all selected rows that are not already FINAL

Detailed walkthrough (sales)

Goal: Create a sales inquiry with full tab-by-tab detail.

Open Internal Sales Inquiry → click +. The title is Create Internal Sales Inquiry.

Main

• Set Transaction Date with the date picker.
• Select or type Sales Agent from the configured list.
• Choose Credit Terms (payment or delivery terms your company uses).
• Enter Reference (internal or customer reference number) if needed.
• Set optional Currency (defaults to company currency).
• Add Remarks for internal notes.
• Use Select Member if the customer has a loyalty membership.
• Use Select CRM Contact if your CRM process requires linking a specific contact.

Account

1. Click the Account tab.
2. Open Entity Details.
3. Click Select Customer (or create one if your permissions allow).
4. Review Ship To and Bill To address fields. Update if different from the customer’s defaults.

Line Items

1. Click the Line Items tab.
2. Click Add or the + icon on the line toolbar.
3. The Select Line Item dialog opens. Choose a source:
   • Search Item — find items from the catalog manually.
   • Jobsheet Item — pull lines from a linked jobsheet (if enabled).
   • Quotation Item — copy lines from a prior quotation for the same customer (if enabled).
   • Previous Sales Inquiry — reuse lines from an earlier inquiry (if enabled).
4. Select a row from the chosen source.
5. The Add Line Item editor opens. Work through:
   • Item Details: Confirm UOM, Quantity Base, and Quantity by UOM.
   • Costing Details (if visible): Review or enter cost fields if your role permits.
   • Pricing Details: Set Unit Price, discounts, and tax configuration.
   • Issue Link (if enabled): Attach a work issue or ticket for tracking.
6. Click ADD to save the line. Repeat for more lines.

Optional Sections (if enabled by your administrator):

• Delivery Details — shipping instructions, delivery date requests
• Collection — payment settlement terms
• Department Hdr — cost centre, profit centre, project codes for GL allocation
• Contra — offset amounts (used by finance when configured)

Final Actions

• Click CREATE to save the new inquiry. It enters the system in DRAFT status.
• The saved inquiry appears in the listing and can be reopened to add attachments, link related documents, or update lines.
• When ready, open the inquiry from the listing and click FINAL to post it, or select multiple rows in the listing and click FINAL to post several at once.

Review and finalize inquiries

Goal (Sales Manager): Confirm and finalize open inquiries.

1. From Internal Sales Inquiry Listing, use Advanced Search if you need to filter by criteria your administrator set up (for example by branch, customer, or date range).
2. Review the grid: columns show Posting Status, Customer Name, Sales Agent, Amount, and key dates.
3. Click a row to open View Internal Sales Inquiry. Review all tabs: Main, Account, Line Items, and any settlement-related sections.
4. To post a single inquiry, click FINAL (if the button is enabled).
5. To post several inquiries at once:
   • Select multiple rows in the listing using the row checkboxes.
   • Click FINAL.
   • The system posts all selected rows that are not already FINAL.
6. For line-level questions without opening every inquiry, open the Line Items menu from the sidebar, find the line in the listing, and use Edit Line Item to drill in.

First-time setup

Goal (Administrators): Configure the applet for your organisation.

Complete these steps when rolling out the applet:

• Feature visibility: Settings → Feature Visibility — enable or disable Line Items, Settings, Personalization menus per your rollout plan.
• Default selection: Settings → Default Selection — set default company, branch, location, language, and date format.
• Field settings: Settings → Field Settings — mark fields as mandatory, visible, or hidden to match sales and finance policies.
• Printable formats: Settings → Printable Format Settings — choose PDF layout for exports and prints.
• Branch settings: Settings → Branch Settings — align branch-specific behaviour if your organisation uses multiple branches.
• Permissions: Under Settings, review Client-side permission listing, Permission set, User, Team, Role — grant CREATE, EDIT, FINALIZE, CONVERT, and SETTINGS access to the right groups.
• Webhooks (if used): Settings → Webhook — connect external automation (only after staging tests).
• Test pilot: Create a test inquiry, add lines from each source tab you enabled, save, finalize, and export to confirm the workflow works.

Working with the Inquiry Listing

The Internal Sales Inquiry Listing is the home screen for the applet.

• Create opens a blank document in Create Internal Sales Inquiry.
• Advanced Search runs a configured query; when results are returned as a bounded set of document keys, the grid loads those rows.
• FINAL applies Posting Status FINAL to every selected row that is not already final.
• Column toggle switches between single- and double-column layouts on wider screens.
• Row click opens View Internal Sales Inquiry for the selected document.

Document Structure: Tabs and Panels

View screen (existing inquiry)

On View Internal Sales Inquiry, the main sections appear as tabs (or panels) including:

The view toolbar also provides RESET, FINAL, and SAVE (unless SAVE is hidden by Hide generic document save button in settings). Use Back to return to the listing.

Create screen (new inquiry)

Create Internal Sales Inquiry exposes Main, Account, Line Items, Delivery Details, Collection, Department Hdr, and Contra. Attachments are handled after save flows in your environment; follow on-screen navigation for Add Attachments when it appears in the inquiry journey.

Line Items

Select Line Item

Select Line Item offers four tabs:

• Search Item — find catalog items.
• Jobsheet Item — pull from jobsheet context.
• Quotation Item — pull from quotation lines.
• Previous Sales Inquiry — copy lines from an earlier inquiry for the selected customer.

Choosing a row feeds the Add Line Item flow.

Add Line Item

Add Line Item walks through Item Details, optional Costing Details, Pricing Details, and Issue Link. Costing can be suppressed by applet settings unless a user is allowed to see it for specific cases.

Edit Line Item

Edit Line Item mirrors the add layout with SAVE on the toolbar. Line-level behaviour may respect the inquiry’s posting status (for example stricter edits after finalization—follow your organisation’s rules).

Related documents and contra from the inquiry flow

Dedicated columns in the page stack include Add Related Documents and Add Contra when your navigation reaches those steps—use them to link supporting evidence or contra entries without losing the inquiry context.

Line Items Menu

The separate Line Items route provides:

• Line Items Listing — a grid of lines across inquiries.
• Edit Line Item — focused line editing.
• Edit Issue, Worklog, and Log Time — when issue tracking and time logging are part of your process.

Use this area when operations or support teams need line-centric visibility.

Finalize, Save, and Reset

• SAVE persists header, account, and line changes on the view screen when available.
• FINAL sets posting status to FINAL from the view screen or for multi-selected rows on the listing.
• RESET reloads the document state according to your implementation—use it when you need to discard unsaved UI changes and refresh from the server copy.
• CREATE on the create screen saves a new inquiry for the first time.

After FINAL, the inquiry is locked: in most setups both header fields and line items cannot be edited. If an amendment is required after finalization, the usual paths are to VOID and recreate the inquiry, or follow your company’s amendment process — contact your administrator for tenant-specific procedures and who may perform those actions.

Export and Convert

Export

Under Export, choose the format your administrator enabled—typically EXPORT AS PDF, EXPORT AS CSV, EXPORT AS DOCX, or EXPORT AS ZIP. This is useful for internal approval packs or customer-facing summaries when your policy allows.

Convert

Convert shows a clear warning: converting to an Internal Receipt Voucher cancels the current sales inquiry. Use this only when your finance process explicitly requires that path.

Configuration & Settings

Settings are organised under Settings in the applet sidebar (exact labels may vary slightly by tenant).

Applet-level behaviour also honours master flags such as optional Dimension, Profit Centre, Project, Segment, SST, and WHT segments, custom status slots, pricing column visibility, hiding costing details, hiding the generic document SAVE button, vertical versus horizontal orientation, default column layout (SINGLE vs DOUBLE), and which expansion panels open by default—configured through your platform’s settings model for this applet.

Personalization

Under Personalization, users with access can adjust:

• Personal Default Selection — overrides for branch, location, language, default tab orientation, and default column layout (personal choices override applet defaults where allowed).
• Sidebar — shortcut and navigation preferences.

Audit Trail and Compliance

Sales inquiries use the platform’s generic document model and capture basic audit metadata that you can view as a user:

• Created By / Created Date: who created the inquiry and when.
• Updated By / Updated Date: the last user who updated the inquiry and the timestamp.
• Posting Status changes: when the document moved between posting states (for example DRAFT → FINAL) the change is recorded in the document history.
• Attachments metadata: who uploaded a file and when it was attached to the inquiry.

Where these appear depends on your tenant UI configuration — commonly you’ll see Created By and Created Date on the document header, and an activity or history tab showing status transitions. For full, system-level audit logs (for example exportable logs or security audit trails), consult your administrator or compliance team who can extract those from backend tooling or logging services.

FAQ

What is the difference between an internal sales inquiry and a quotation or sales order?

An inquiry is an early-stage, flexible record used to capture interest, rough lines, and context. Quotations and orders (see the Internal Sales Quotation Applet and Internal Sales Order) are typically the next formal steps when pricing is firm and fulfilment is planned. Your company defines when to move from one to the other.

Why does Convert warn that it will cancel the inquiry?

The Convert action creates an Internal Receipt Voucher and treats the inquiry as completed in that pathway. The warning is intentional so users do not convert by mistake. If you only need a PDF for a customer, use Export instead.

Can I finalize many inquiries at once?

Yes. In Internal Sales Inquiry Listing, select multiple rows using the checkboxes and click FINAL. Rows that are already FINAL are skipped.

Why is the Costing Details tab missing on a line?

Administrators can hide costing through applet settings, or visibility may depend on your role and the item context. If you believe costing should appear, ask your administrator to review Hide costing details and related permission settings.

Can I copy lines from a prior inquiry into a new one?

Yes. Use the Previous Sales Inquiry tab in Select Line Item (when adding a line) to pull lines from a previous inquiry for the same customer.

What should I do if advanced search says the result set is too large?

Add more filters or narrower criteria until the search returns a smaller set. The guard exists to keep the grid responsive and protect server performance.

Can I edit an inquiry after it is finalized?

Limited edits may be permitted depending on your company’s configuration. Check with your administrator on the exact rules. In most workflows, finalization locks the document. If a correction is needed, you may need to void and recreate, or follow your company’s adjustment process.

Who can change field labels or mandatory rules?

Users with access to Settings pages (especially Field Settings and related permission screens). Standard sales users should route change requests through that team.

What happens if I delete a line?

On the view screen, use the delete icon on the line (if permitted). The line is removed from the inquiry. If the inquiry is already finalized, deletion may be restricted.

Can I print an inquiry?

Yes. Open the inquiry, then scroll to the Export section and click EXPORT AS PDF (or other format). Your administrator configured the layout template under Printable Format Settings.

How do I know which inquiries are ready for conversion?

Typically, your sales manager or finance team will indicate when an inquiry should be converted to an Internal Receipt Voucher. This step is intentionally controlled (with a warning) to prevent accidental conversions. Only convert when your business process explicitly requires it.

What is the difference between Search Item and Jobsheet Item as line sources?

• Search Item — Manually finds products from the catalog.
• Jobsheet Item — Pulls pre-configured items from an existing jobsheet, useful if you are quoting services or work tied to a specific project or job.

Can I add lines after finalizing an inquiry?

In most workflows, FINAL locks the inquiry for major edits. Check with your administrator on whether line additions are permitted after posting. If you need to add items, you may need to create a new inquiry or follow an amendment process.

Who can finalize inquiries?

Permission is controlled by your administrator through Permission settings. Typically, sales managers, team leads, or delegated staff can finalize, while general sales users only create and edit drafts.

What if I need to change a customer after saving?

For new drafts, update the Account tab and click SAVE. If the inquiry is already finalized, check with your administrator on the amendment or void-and-recreate process.

How does member card selection work?

When you select a customer on the Account tab, you can optionally link a Member Card on the Main tab if the customer has an active membership. This may be used for loyalty points, discounts, or reporting. Ask your administrator if member card linking is required for your sales process.

Related Applets

• Internal Sales Quotation Applet — Upstream: when an inquiry is approved or pricing is firm, create or convert into a formal quotation for customer approval. Use the quotation applet to generate customer-facing proposals and route for approvals if required.
• Internal Sales Order — Downstream: once pricing and delivery are confirmed (often after a quotation), raise a sales order to start fulfilment and warehouse processes. The sales order drives pick/pack and delivery workflows.
• Internal Sales Invoice (Internal) Applet — Downstream billing: after goods or services are fulfilled, invoices are raised here to post revenue and create accounting entries. The invoice applet is the final financial posting step in the order-to-cash sequence.