Registering Sales digitally is really the core objective of iXpole. The whole application is built around the concept of sales automation. As iXpole is quite unique in its approach, there are quite some concepts and terminology in the tool that are not used in other tools. It is important to understand the terminology and concepts if you want to properly understand the inner working of the iXpole tool

In this article we will sum up the majority of concepts and terminology that makes iXpole unique. We will explain these concepts and what their importance is for you in your daily use of the tool.


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Here is an overview of the concepts and terminology you should get acquainted with. They will all be explained in more detail below:

  1. Sale
  2. Draft versus Final Sale
  3. Sales Lines
  4. Invoice versus Invoice Document
  5. Payment
  6. Sales Documents
  7. Sales Templates

1. Sale
As described elsewhere, you register a Sale in iXpole by grouping different types of data together with an eye on
  • Having an overview of all Products/services a specific Account is entitled to for different Calendar Items
  • Automating all processes related to the fulfilment of your VIP related services.
The Sale will not only be used to register entitlements but also to prepare all necessary actions for the correct invoicing of the services and goods sold.

2. Draft versus Final Sale
Any Sale registered in iXpole can have one of the two following statuses:

  • Draft: a Draft Sale is a Sale that hasn't been confirmed yet. This status is typically used for a Sale that is still in negotiation with a customer. 
    • Entitlements have already been registered in the Sale and any Product with a limited inventory (Seat, Parking, ...) will already be reserved so that they can not be registered in an other Sale. However,
    • In this status the system will not yet initiate the automated processes
  • Final: When a Sale is set from Draft to Final, iXpole will automatically initiate all of the sales automation processes. Some of these processes are irreversible. For that reason a Final Sale can no longer be altered. Before setting a Sale to Final you should make absolutely sure that the Sale 100% reflects what has been agreed with the customer. It is possible to cancel (part of) a Final Sale but it is not possible to add more Products to a Final Sale. If you need to add more, you will have to create another (sub-)Sale
3. Sales Lines
Whenever you link a Product (Seat, Parking, Catalog Item, ...) to a Sale (i.e. sell that Product to an Account), this Product and the number of units you have sold will be listed in the Sale. We call this a Sales Line. 
One Sale can contain many Sales Lines, typically grouped per Season and/or per Product Group.

4. Invoice versus Invoice Document

  • Invoice
When you register a Sale in iXpole you will also have to register when your customer is supposed to pay certain parts of the Sale. 
This is done by creating one (or more)  Invoices in iXpole. Each Invoice will be characterised by
  • a date on which the Invoice will be sent (invoicing date)
  • an amount that will be invoiced on that date.

Example:
If you sell 4 Seats (4,000€), 2 Parkings (400€) and a Catalog Product (600€) the total value of the Sale will be 5,000€). I f you have agreed with your customer that he will pay in 4 instalments (of 1,250€) each, you will create 4 Invoices in iXpole for 1,250€ each and will set the date of each Invoice according to what was agreed with the customer. 

  • Invoice Document
The Invoice Document is the invoice (document) that will be generated by the invoicing system. 
Remember, iXpole does not generate and send real (legal) invoices. It merely prepares the data for an external invoicing system to generate the legal invoices and send them to the customers. 
When an Invoice Document is generated by the invoicing system the following meta data of the document can be imported into iXpole:
    • document number
    • due date
    • any other reference  
5. Payment
Even if you agree with your customer to spread the invoicing of a Sale over multiple instalments, it is still possible that your customer only pays a part of an Invoice (deliberately or by mistake). 
It is possible to log multiple Payments per Invoice in iXpole , with the related amount and date.

In other words
  • 1 Sale can be split in multiple Invoices
  • 1 Invoice can be split in multiple Payments
6. Sales Documents
A Sales Document is a document template that will be imported in iXpole (by support@ixpole.com). It can be used for the automatic generation of a proposal, an order form, a contract or any other sales related document you would like to automatically generate from iXpole. 
The document template will be configured with Placeholders, meaning that every Placeholder in the document will be replaced by the relevant information when iXpole is requested to generate the document. 
Typical placeholders are 
  • <<customer.name>> will be replaced by the Account name
  • <<sales.salescode>> will be replaced by the reference number of the Sale
  • <<sales.salestotal>> will be replaced by the total value of the Sale
  • ...
7. Sales Templates
A Sales Template is a Sale that has been pre-filled with a number of Sales Lines. The main objective of the Sales Template is to allow iXpole Users to save time with the creation of certain Sales that always have the same content.