How AION automates Order-to-Cash

Where each step lives in AION

Step	AION menu	What it does for you
1. Quote	Sales → Quotes	Quote template → auto-convert to SO with one click
2. Sales Order	Sales → Orders	Reserves stock, drives pick lists, tracks promised dates
3. Credit check	Automatic at SO save	Blocks order if limit breached or overdue invoices exist
4. Pick / Pack	Sales → Shipments → Pick	Mobile/tablet-friendly pick lists with lot & expiry capture
5. Ship	Sales → Shipments → Ship	SLA engine posts COGS entry automatically
6. Invoice	AR → Invoices → Generate from Shipment	One-click invoice, ZATCA XML output, QR code
7. Receipt	AR → Receipts → New	Record wire, check, cash; auto-apply by reference
8. Cash application	AR → Cash Application	Match receipts to invoices, handle shorts/partials
9. Bank rec	Cash Mgmt → Bank Rec	Import statement, auto-match

Two SLA resolvers power the accounting

• Order management SLA resolver — fires on shipments, posts COGS / inventory entries
• Receivables SLA resolver — fires on invoice approval and payment receipt

You never click “Post to GL.” Ship a sales order and COGS moves. Approve an invoice and revenue is recognized. Receive a payment and AR is reduced. The GL stays in sync with physical reality, continuously.

How AION fixes the seven SMB problems

A. Orders enter the system immediately

Sales reps have a mobile-friendly SO entry screen. Even a van sales rep at a cafe enters the order on a tablet before driving away. The SO exists in the system from the moment of commitment — not days later.

B. Credit check is automatic

The customer master holds a credit limit per customer. When saving a new SO, AION calculates:

Remaining credit = Credit Limit − Current AR − Open SOs not yet invoiced

If remaining is negative or if the customer has invoices > 30 days overdue, the SO is blocked with a clear message. Only an authorized user (credit analyst or CFO) can release it, and the release is logged with their name, timestamp, and a required comment.

This isn’t a policy document that gets ignored — it’s the system refusing to let a risky order go through.

C. Shipment and invoice stay tied

AR invoices are generated from the shipment, not entered independently. The invoice inherits:

• Items and quantities (from what was picked and shipped)
• Lot numbers (for traceability and recalls)
• Pricing (from the SO)
• Customer + terms (from the customer master)

If the customer disputes a quantity, you can pull the shipment, the pick list, the packing slip — all tied together.

D. COGS is always current

When a shipment is posted, AION looks up the current period average cost of each shipped item and uses it for the COGS entry. This cost includes:

• All receipts in the period (FX variance included)
• Opening stock at the prior period’s cost
• A weighted average calculation

Every sale is costed with the real cost of that item at that time. Your gross margin report — sliced by SKU, by customer, by channel — tells you the truth.

E. Revenue recognition follows shipment

AION’s default policy: revenue is recognized at shipment, matching IFRS 15 for point-of-delivery sales. The invoice date and the shipment date are both captured, so you can run cutoff reports that show any shipments without invoices or vice versa.

For long-term contracts or over-time recognition, you configure exceptions — but the default is clean and defensible.

F. AR aging updates in real time

The aging report runs against live data, not a snapshot. A 30-day bucket is 30 days because today minus invoice date = 30 days, not because someone ran a month-end batch. Collections see problems as they emerge, not 60 days later.

G. Cash application has a trail

Every payment received is recorded against the bank account and then applied — either automatically (if the customer referenced an invoice number) or manually by an accountant with a recorded reason. A partially-applied receipt stays open on the customer’s ledger until the rest is allocated.

Short-pay, over-pay, discount, FX variance — each has its own workflow with its own audit trail.

Configuration you do once

• Customer master — credit limits, payment terms, tax treatment, default price list
• Price lists — per customer, per region, per channel; with effective-from/to dates
• Credit policy — limit check tolerances, overdue thresholds, who can override
• SLA account rules — which GL accounts for COGS, revenue, VAT output, AR by customer
• Shipment workflows — single-step ship-only, or pick-pack-ship separation

After that, O2C runs itself.

Next lesson

In Lesson 4 — Lab, you’ll walk a retail sale to Panda end to end in our live demo — seeing COGS and revenue post the moment you click Ship.