Each document is recorded at the branch where it happened
Why an order, an invoice, or a payment belong to the branch where the sale happened rather than to whoever recorded it, how the cash register decides at the point of sale, and what happens to a payment covering supplier bills from several branches.
An order, quotation, purchase, expense, or supplier bill gets recorded at the branch it was created from, and that never changes afterward. That's what makes it possible to see sales, purchases, and results split by branch with full confidence. This article explains that rule and its special cases: an order's invoice and payment, the point of sale, and payments that cover several supplier bills at once.
Reading time: ~5 min
When to use this
- You want to understand why a report splits sales by branch and where that data comes from.
- You invoiced or collected an order from a different branch than the one it was created in, and you're not sure which one it counts toward.
- You switched branches with an open cash shift and the application stopped you.
- A supplier bill payment covers bills from more than one branch and you want to know which one it belongs to.
Before you start
- This article assumes you already understand what a branch is and how it's picked or switched. See Branches: what they are, who gets into each one, and how many your plan allows.
- The permissions to create, invoice, and collect each type of document are the same as always; there's no extra permission for working with branches. See Orders and Payments and payment methods.
The branch is set when the document is created, and never changes after that
An order, quotation, purchase, expense, and supplier bill get recorded at the branch you had active at the moment you created them. That value is locked in from that instant on: there's no way to edit it afterward, not even with administrator permissions.
That's what makes a branch-by-branch sales or purchase report trustworthy: it reflects where each operation actually happened, not where the person looking at the report happens to be today. It's the same idea you already saw with the branch name on the e-CF voucher - see Branch Name on the e-CF Voucher - and with the inventory that gets deducted on a sale, see Inventory is per branch too.
An invoice and its payment belong to the order's branch, not to whoever recorded them
When you invoice or collect an order, the invoice and the payment it generates inherit the order's branch, not the branch of the person performing that action or the branch that person happens to be active in at that moment.
This matters in one specific case: if an order was created at one branch and, for whatever reason, someone invoices or collects it while active at a different branch, the invoice and the payment still count at the branch where the sale originally happened. The money belongs where the sale was made, not where it ended up being collected.
A common example: an order taken at the "Downtown" branch but collected later by someone whose active branch at that moment is "North". The invoice and the payment count toward "Downtown" - that branch's report shows the sale correctly, and "North"'s report doesn't get inflated with a sale that isn't actually its own.
At the point of sale, the cash register decides
At the point of sale the rule is deliberately different: a sale gets recorded at the branch that owns the physical cash register processing it, regardless of the active branch of whoever is behind the counter.
That's what guarantees the printed receipt and that register's cash count always match the real branch where the drawer physically sits. A cash register belongs to a single branch from the moment it's created, just like an order or a supplier bill - that value doesn't change afterward either.
If you switch branches with an open cash shift
An open cash shift keeps belonging to the branch of the register it was opened at, even if you later switch your active branch. If you make that switch with a shift still open, the point of sale detects it and warns you: that shift belongs to another branch and you can't keep operating it from here.
Instead of continuing the previous shift, you're asked to pick a register at your current branch to open a new one. The shift you left behind stays open where it was - anyone with access to that branch can pick it up or close it - but you, now at the new branch, work with a register that belongs there.
A payment covering several supplier bills at once belongs to the whole company
When a single payment settles two or more supplier bills in one operation, that payment doesn't get tied to a specific branch - it belongs to the company as a whole. That makes sense: if the bills it groups belong to different branches, there wouldn't be one single correct branch to assign it to.
This doesn't change anything about the supplier bills themselves - each one still keeps the branch it was recorded at - only the payment that groups them is treated as a company-wide movement. See Supplier payments for the full flow of that kind of payment.
Common mistakes
| Symptom | Likely cause | Solution |
|---|---|---|
| A sale shows up in a branch's report you didn't expect | The invoice and payment belong to the order's original branch, not to whoever recorded them | This is expected behavior - check which branch the order was created at |
| The point-of-sale report shows a sale at a different branch than the cashier's | A POS sale belongs to its cash register's branch, not the user's active branch | This is expected behavior - check which branch that register belongs to |
| The point of sale asks me to open a new shift even though I already had one open | You switched your active branch while a shift was open at another one | Pick a register at your current branch; the previous shift is still available from the branch it was opened at |
| A supplier bill payment doesn't show up tied to any branch in reports | The payment covers bills from more than one branch, so it's treated as a company-wide movement | This is expected behavior - check each supplier bill individually to see its own branch |
Frequently asked questions
Can I change the branch of an order or an invoice after it's created?
No. The branch is locked in at creation time and cannot be edited afterward, for any type of document.
If I void an invoice, does its branch change or get freed up?
No. Voiding a document doesn't change the branch it was assigned - it only changes its status.
Does this apply to quotations too?
Yes. A quotation gets recorded at the branch it was created from, just like an order, even before it's ever invoiced.
What happens if my business has a single branch?
Nothing different from what you already know: everything gets recorded at that one branch automatically, without you having to think about any of this.
Related
- Branches: what they are, who gets into each one, and how many your plan allows
- Inventory is per branch too
- Branch Name on the e-CF Voucher
- Supplier payments
- Cash register
- Point of sale (POS)
Last updated: 2026-09-07