# Record a sale and collect payment

Record what a distributor sells to a shop and what the shop hands back on one document, confirm it to create the invoice and the credit note, then collect all or part of the cash.

A distribution is one visit to one customer: the goods sold, the goods returned, and how the shop pays. A distributor records his own from the **Distribution** menu; a manager can record one for any distributor.

## Before you start {#before-you-start}

- The **Distributor** access right is enough for a distributor's own distributions. A **Distributor Manager** chooses the distributor and may change the prices and the taxes of the lines.
- The distributor needs a confirmed opening. A distribution is linked to his open opening when it is saved, and the closing counts only the distributions linked to it.

## Record the distribution {#record}

1. Open **Distributors/Distribution** and click **New**.
2. Choose the **Customer** and the **Payment Type**: **Direct** when the shop pays on delivery, **Deferred** when it pays later. Choose the **Distributor**; a distributor's own name is already there.

![Deferred means the shop pays later; Direct means it pays on delivery.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10392-1ebc3ed3/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_payment_type-en.png)

3. In the **Sales** tab, add each product sold with its **Qty**. **In Stock** shows what is left in the distributor's Sale warehouse. The **Price** and the **Taxes** come from the customer's distribution price, else from the product.

![The sales line; In Stock is what the distributor still carries.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10396-fa02a4dd/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_lines-en.png)

4. In the **Returns** tab, add what the shop hands back. These goods go to the distributor's Returns warehouse, never back among the goods he sells.

![A box the shop hands back, on the same document as the sale.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10400-24ab88d1/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_returns-en.png)

5. Click **Save manually**, then choose **Confirm** in the **Actions** menu. Confirm is refused when the Sale warehouse lacks a product, unless **Inverse Selling** is on in [Distributors settings](distributors-settings). Once confirmed, the delivery and the return are done, and a draft invoice and a draft credit note wait for the payment.

![Confirmed, with a draft invoice for the sale and a draft credit note for the return.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10404-bc059291/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_confirmed-en.png)

Before confirmation, **Total Sales** and **Total Returns** add up the lines without taxes; afterwards they show the totals of the invoice and the credit note, taxes included. On a phone, the counters sit behind the lightning button of the form.

## Collect the payment {#payment}

1. Choose **Register Payment** in the **Actions** menu. The **Amount** proposed is what is due, the sales minus the returns; type less for a partial payment. The **Cash Journal** is the distributor's own.

![The amount the shop pays now; it may be less than what is due.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10406-5ef67e37/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_payment_amount-en.png)

On a phone, the dialog opens full screen with the same fields and buttons.

2. Click **Create Payment**. The credit note and the invoice are posted and matched, and the payment goes into the distributor's cash journal. **Payment Status** shows **Paid**, or **Partial** with the **Remaining Amount** still due.

![Partly paid; the remaining amount is still due from the shop.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10408-ebd005b2/distributors-sale-and-payment-sale_partial-en.png)

**Register Payment** stays in the menu until nothing remains due. The invoice and the credit note are ordinary customer documents: see [Customer invoices](/docs/customer-invoices).

## Print the documents {#print}

**Print Roll** opens the invoice and the credit note on one narrow page for a receipt printer, with its own **Print** button and a **Back** button. **Print A4** downloads both documents as one PDF file.

![The invoice and the credit note on a narrow roll page, ready for a receipt printer.](https://jaah.app/web/image/10412-7e1de7b2/distributors-sale-and-payment-roll_page-en.png)

**Send by Email**, also in the **Actions** menu of a confirmed distribution, opens a message to the customer with the distribution details; it leaves when you click **Send**.

## FAQ {#faq}

### Confirm says the stock is insufficient. {#insufficient}

The distributor's Sale warehouse holds less than the lines ask for. Hand him the goods with an opening, or turn **Inverse Selling** on to allow selling beyond the stock.

### Can I change a confirmed distribution? {#change}

No. A Distributor Manager can choose **Cancel & Reverse**: the delivery and the return are reversed, the invoice and the credit note are cancelled or reversed, and the distribution becomes **Canceled**. **Reset to Draft** then brings it back to a draft.

### What happens to a Direct distribution nobody paid? {#unpaid-direct}

The closing pays it: **Compute** posts its invoice and records the payment from the distributor's cash journal on the closing date. A **Deferred** distribution stays open until its payment is registered.

### Where does the cash go? {#cash}

Into the distributor's cash journal, whose balance is the cash he holds. At closing, the cash he hands in moves to the cash journal of the branch.

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- Source: https://jaah.app/docs/distributors/record-a-sale-and-collect-payment
- Updated: 2026-10-23
- Version: Distributors 19.0.1.1.0
- Verified: 2026-10-23