Not every sale starts with a sales order. Sometimes a customer calls, you do the work, and you just need to bill them. Simple, right? In Round 15 we entered sales orders, and in Round 17 we shipped them. Today we ask a more basic question: how do you enter a plain sales invoice — no order, no shipment, just a bill?
In Dynamics GP, the honest answer starts with another question: which kind of invoice? GP gives you three different windows, and picking the wrong one is a classic new-user mistake. Business Central gives you one page. Let’s walk through both.
How You Do It in Dynamics GP
GP splits invoicing across three modules, and each one has its own window, its own rules, and its own limits.
Option 1: Receivables Transaction Entry. This is the classic accounting route, covered in Microsoft’s Receivables Management documentation. Go to Sales, open the Receivables Transactions list, and choose Sales/Invoices. The document type is set for you, and the document number comes from your Receivables Setup Options. Enter a description, a batch ID, and a document date. You can record sale amounts, costs, commissions, freight, miscellaneous charges, and tax — then check the account distributions and post the batch.
Here’s the catch: Receivables Transaction Entry knows nothing about your inventory. You type dollar amounts, not items. Bill a customer for six widgets here, and your item quantities never move.
Option 2: the Invoicing module. GP’s separate Invoicing module has its own Invoice Entry window that does handle inventory items. But it’s a stand-alone module — it doesn’t connect to sales orders, and Microsoft stopped enhancing it years ago in favor of Sales Order Processing.
Option 3: Sales Order Processing. The same Sales Transaction Entry window from Round 15 can create a stand-alone invoice: pick the Invoice document type, choose a Type ID, and enter your items. It updates inventory and flows to Receivables when you post. This is the route most GP shops standardize on — per Microsoft’s Sales Order Processing guide — but it means your billing clerks work in a distribution module even for a simple service bill.
So before anyone types a line, your team needs to know the rules: amounts only? Receivables. Items, no orders? Invoicing (legacy). The full picture? SOP. Three windows, three answers, and the batches post differently too.
How You Do It in Business Central
Business Central has one answer: the Sales Invoice page. Microsoft’s invoice sales guide walks through it.
Step 1: Open Sales Invoices and pick the customer. Press Alt+Q, type “Sales Invoices,” and choose New. Select the customer by name. If the customer is brand new, just type the name — BC offers to create the customer from a template on the spot, then drops you right back into the invoice.
Step 2: Enter lines — any kind of lines. Here’s where BC quietly solves GP’s three-window problem. Each line has a Type field: pick Item to sell inventory (quantities update automatically), pick G/L Account to bill straight to a ledger account (consulting fees, freight recovery, a one-off charge), pick Resource to bill labor time. Mix them on the same invoice. One document handles what GP spreads across three modules.
Step 3: Discounts and totals, handled. Line discounts recalculate the line amount as you type. If invoice discount terms are set up for the customer, BC applies them automatically. Totals update live at the bottom of the page, and the Customer Statistics box shows the customer’s balance while you work.
Step 4: Post and Send. One action posts the invoice and sends it the way the customer prefers — typically a PDF by email, with the body prefilled with a payment summary. The posted invoice lands in Posted Sales Invoices with its final number, and every ledger entry is a click away. Typo on a posted invoice? The built-in Correct and Cancel actions reverse and redo it cleanly — no manual void dance.
And if the customer buys the same thing every month, Get Recurring Sales Lines pulls in their standard lines so you don’t retype them.
Side by Side
| Dynamics GP | Business Central | |
|---|---|---|
| Where you start | Three windows across three modules | One Sales Invoice page |
| Invoice with inventory items | SOP or Invoicing module only | Item line type |
| Invoice straight to a G/L account | Receivables Transaction Entry only | G/L Account line type — same page |
| Mix items and charges on one bill | Pick your module carefully | Mix line types freely |
| New customer mid-invoice | Stop, set up the customer first | Create from template without leaving |
| Sending the invoice | Print or Word templates / add-ons | Post and Send emails a PDF automatically |
| Fixing a posted invoice | Void and re-enter | Correct / Cancel actions |
| Repeat monthly billing | Retype or batch tricks | Get Recurring Sales Lines |
Why BC Comes Out Ahead
GP’s three-window split isn’t carelessness — it’s history. Receivables, Invoicing, and SOP were built in different eras for different jobs, and each still does its job. But your team pays for that history every day: training on which window to use, fixing entries typed into the wrong one, and reconciling modules that record the same kind of sale differently.
Business Central collapses the whole question. One page takes items, G/L accounts, and resources on the same invoice, creates customers on the fly, emails the bill on posting, and cleanly corrects mistakes afterward. The system stops asking your billing team to be module experts — they just bill.
Thinking About the Switch?
Aisling Dynamics supports GP teams across all three invoicing routes, and we help companies move to Business Central when one page should be enough. If your staff still debates which invoice window to use, meet our team, browse the GP vs. BC hub, or contact us at (251) 293-0555.
Come back tomorrow for Round 19: sales credit memos — reversing a sale in GP vs. BC’s Copy Document shortcut.