Understanding the Transaction Cycle

When a customer purchases a product, the transaction cycle occurs as follows:

An order is created. This order has no impact on accounting processes. It is not A/R or revenue: the order is simply a proforma invoice that creates a record of the order in the system.
An order created without an invoice is referred to as an "open order." There are certain scenarios in which this can be useful, as an open order allows staff to make changes to the order before it is invoiced.

See the help topic, Using Open Orders for more information.
An invoice is created, which credits revenue and debits A/R. An invoice is created for any order that has any portion of a payment on it, or if the Bill Me payment option and “Create Invoice” were selected during checkout. Invoices do not replace orders, and multiple invoices can be associated with one order.
Payment is applied, which debits Cash and credits the AR account.

When a transaction is completed and paid in full, all three of the steps above take place at once.

Differences Between Orders & Invoices

Orders and invoices record the details of accounts receivable transactions in re:Members AMS. Every invoice has an associated order, and the term "open order" refers to an order that has not yet been invoiced. While they display similar information, open orders and invoice records each have certain unique properties. The table below outlines these unique features.

Action Type	Open Orders	Invoices
Are GL entries created?	No	Yes
Is the customer committed to pay?	No A proforma invoice is created, but the customer is not committed to complete the purchase.	Yes Customer is committed to pay/complete the purchase.
Receivable created on balance sheet?	No	Yes
Line items editable?	Yes Line item amounts on an open order can be changed.	No Line item amounts on an open order cannot be changed.
Mass void possible?	Yes	No Invoices must be canceled individually.
Discount codes applicable?	Yes Discount codes can be applied to an open order even after the order has been created.	No Discount codes cannot be applied to an invoice.
Can a payment installment schedule be applied?	Yes	No