Hold inventory from quotes and invoices

Decide when a quote or invoice reserves stock, whether short items can be backordered, and which shipping options appear on documents that ship goods.

In the sidebar, open Settings, then choose Document Defaults under Sales & Billing. The page address is /settings/org/billing/document-defaults. Scroll to Inventory fulfillment and Shared shipping methods.

Before you start

• These settings only matter if you track stock in Nova. If you sell services only, leave them as they are.
• Your role needs the billing document templates permission to open the page.

Steps

1. Under Inventory fulfillment, set Allow quote inventory reservations to On if a quote may hold stock before it becomes an invoice.
2. In Quote reservation expiry, type how many minutes a quote's hold lasts. Leave it at 0 for no automatic expiry. Like the next switch, it is greyed out until quote reservations are allowed.
3. Set Reserve inventory on quote acceptance to On if an accepted quote should reserve its tracked items automatically. This switch is greyed out until quote reservations are allowed.
4. Set Reserve inventory on draft invoice to On if a draft invoice should hold stock and update the hold as its lines change.
5. Set Allow backorders to On if a document may be sent or paid with more of an item than you have, leaving the shortage open as a backorder.
6. With backorders on, set Require explicit backorder approval to On if the person sending the document has to choose how to handle the shortage before it goes out.
7. Set Require stock or capacity before an invoice is sent or paid to On if an invoice with a short item, or with a service that uses scheduled capacity and is not booked yet, has to be put right first. Nova then refuses to send the invoice or collect on it, saying "Some items are short on stock or capacity. Resolve them before this invoice is sent or paid."
8. Under Shared shipping methods, type your Ship via options separated by commas, for example Courier, Pickup, Freight. Leave it blank if you never ship goods.
9. Press Save defaults. The button reads Saved for a moment.

What you see

• Each switch shows On or Off. A greyed-out switch depends on another one above it.
• The Ship via options you type become the choices on quotes and invoices that ship physical goods.
• A red message under Quote reservation expiry or Ship via options means Nova could not read the value. Use a whole number of minutes, or plain labels separated by commas.

If something looks different

• Reserve inventory on quote acceptance is greyed out: turn on Allow quote inventory reservations first.
• Require explicit backorder approval is greyed out: turn on Allow backorders first.
• Save defaults is greyed out: a field still has an error.
• The page says you do not have access: your role cannot open billing document settings. Ask your admin.

Open Document Defaults