The sales process, although similar to the middle school dating experience, involves a series of documents that outline terms and confirm orders between vendors and customers. A sales order is an official document sent by a vendor to a customer outlining sales terms on a potential order, which kicks off the vendor's fulfillment process. It differs from a purchase order in that it comes after the PO and includes details about the price and quantity of the official order. A quote precedes the SO and provides hypothetical prices, quantities, timelines, and discounts. The difference between an invoice and a sales order is that an invoice requests payment after the order has been fulfilled, while a sales order sparks the seller to take action and begin fulfillment. The sales process typically involves sending a quote, receiving a purchase order, reviewing it, and then sending over a sales order confirming the details from the PO. After the SO is sent, the vendor starts the fulfillment process, sends an invoice requesting payment, receives payment according to the terms in the SO and invoice, and finalizes the transaction with a receipt summarizing the charges. Sales orders offer benefits such as accuracy, accountability, organization, and transparency by reiterating sales terms, ensuring accountability, organizing resources, and providing clear expectations for customers. A sales order template should include company logo, name and contact information, customer name and contact information, shipping information, date of transaction, sales date, order number, and customer ID, as well as lines for product/service descriptions, quantities, unit prices, and total prices. Automating the sales process can simplify it by turning RFQs into qualified leads, storing leads in individual profiles, following up with leads to increase conversions, auto-populating forms with contact information, processing orders and initiating fulfillment, setting triggers to send pre-populated forms, creating and sending invoices, and scheduling payment reminders.