How do you create a sale to an external customer in tspoonlab and generate the sales delivery note?
In this article, you'll learn how to set up your company details for the delivery note, create a sale to an external customer in tspoonlab, add the products you sell them, and accept and send the sale to generate the sales delivery note as a PDF. You'll also see which statuses a sale goes through and how to check the cost, contribution and Food Cost of each sale you've sent.
This article is for bakeries, central kitchens, caterers and any other business that uses tspoonlab to sell ingredients, recipes or dishes to other businesses. This is B2B (business-to-business) selling, for example to restaurants, shops, hotels or distributors. To follow the steps, you need access to the "Customers" and "Sales" modules in "Management".
A sale to an external customer is a manual sale: you create it yourself in tspoonlab, without going through a POS (Point of Sale) system. Before you create the first sale, the external customer must be set up in tspoonlab with its products for sale and their prices. If you haven't done this yet, follow the article Create an external customer with its products and selling prices.
How do you add your company details to the sales delivery note?
The company details shown on the sales delivery note, such as the name and the NIF/CIF (tax ID), are those of the Cost Centre you sell from. In tspoonlab, you set them up from the "Cost centers" menu at the top right. Check them before you create the first sale to an external customer.
At the top right of tspoonlab, click "Cost centers" and select "Edit".
In the "Cost centre - Edit" pop-up window, check that "Select cost centre" shows the Cost Centre you sell from (in the example, Restaurante) and fill in the "General data" section:
Identification details: "Name", "Code", "Fiscal name" and "NIF/CIF".
"Health registration". To add more than one, click "Add registration".
Contact details: "Address" (with postcode and city), "Plus Code", "Email" and "Phone".
Click "Ok". The Cost Centre details are saved and tspoonlab shows them in the header of every sales delivery note. In the example, the delivery note shows the name "Restaurante" and the NIF/CIF B86561412.
How do you create a sale to an external customer in tspoonlab?
You create a sale to an external customer in tspoonlab from the "Sales" module in "Management", with the "New sale" option.
Create the sale and choose the external customer
You create the sale to an external customer with the "New sale" option in the three-dot menu next to the sales search box.
In the top menu of tspoonlab, click "Management" and then "Sales".
Click the three-dot menu next to the sales search box and select "New sale".
In the "New sale" window, fill in the sale details:
The first field shows the sale number that tspoonlab suggests. In the example, V00000.
In the customer field, select the external customer you're selling to. In the example, the customer is called "External Customer" and has the code A00002.
Select the day of the sale and, if you need to, the time.
Click "Ok". The sale's pop-up window opens, with the external customer's name and "Edit order" in the title. In the example, "External Customer - Edit order".
Add the products you sell to the external customer
You add the products of a sale to an external customer in the sale window ("External Customer - Edit order" in the example), from the products for sale you set up for that customer.
Click the "Product/Menu" field and choose the product or menu you're selling. You can choose the products and menus you added to the external customer's products for sale.
If you want to see all the external customer's products for sale at once, click "Show as checklist". The window shows the customer's products for sale as a list where you tick the ones you're selling.
Enter the "Quantity" you're selling and adjust the "Amount" if needed. tspoonlab suggests the "Amount" excluding VAT (Value Added Tax), based on the product's selling price. In the example, 5 boxes × €16.20 = €81.00. If you need to, add a "Comment" on the product's line.
Check the send data and save the sale
The send data is the header of the sale to an external customer: the information that appears on the sales delivery note, such as the delivery note number, the send date and the time.
If you want to complete or change the sale header, click "Show send data".
Fill in the send data you need. The header has the "For", "Delivery note number", "Send date", "Time", "Person", "Num. Pax", "Num. Tickets", "Comment", "Delivery note" and "File" fields. Use "File" to attach a file to the sale.
Click "Ok". The sale is created with the "Pending to be accepted" status and appears in the "Management" → "Sales" list, under its month (in the example, October 2026).
📌 Note: By default, tspoonlab doesn't generate the delivery note number automatically. You can enter it in the "Delivery note number" field or turn on automatic generation, as explained in the section "How do you get tspoonlab to generate the sales delivery note number automatically?".
What statuses does a sale to an external customer go through?
A sale to an external customer goes through three statuses in tspoonlab. You can see the status in the grey bar with the customer's name, inside the sale:
"Pending to be accepted": the sale has been created, but you haven't accepted or sent it yet. Every new sale starts with this status.
"Accepted": you've confirmed the sale. The grey bar shows the date and time it was accepted and the amount still to be sent.
"Sent": you've sent the products to the external customer. tspoonlab generates the sales delivery note and deducts the products sent from the store.
Accepting the sale is optional. If you don't need that step, send the sale straight from "Pending to be accepted" to generate the sales delivery note.
📢 Important: A sale that is "Pending to be accepted" or "Accepted" doesn't deduct any stock yet and has no sales delivery note. tspoonlab deducts the products marked as "Sent" from the store and generates the delivery note when you send the sale. If you leave an accepted sale unsent, your store's stock doesn't reflect those products going out.
💡 Tip: To find the sales you still need to accept or send, open the three-dot menu next to the sales search box and choose "Search for pending approvals" or "Search for pending sends".
How do you accept a sale to an external customer?
You accept a sale to an external customer in tspoonlab from the three-dot menu in the customer's grey bar, inside the sale.
In "Management" → "Sales", open the sale. In the external customer's grey bar, click the three-dot menu and select "Accept".
The sale changes to the "Accepted" status. The grey bar shows when the sale was accepted and, on the right, the amount still to be sent in "Pending". In the example, the sale was accepted today at 14:47 and €81.00 is pending.
How do you send a sale to an external customer and generate the sales delivery note?
When you send a sale to an external customer, tspoonlab generates the sales delivery note and deducts the products sent from the store. The "Send" option is in the three-dot menu in the customer's grey bar and works whether the sale is "Pending to be accepted" or "Accepted".
In the sale, click the three-dot menu in the external customer's grey bar and select "Send".
The send window opens ("External Customer - Send order" in the example). Check the send data in the header, such as "Delivery note number", "Send date" and "Time", and fill in any you need.
Tick the "Sent" box for each product you're sending to the external customer and check the "Quantity". When you tick "Sent", the fields on the line become active and you can change the "Quantity" if you're sending a different quantity from the one in the sale.
If you're sending all the products exactly as they are in the sale, click "Mark all as sent" to tick them all at once.
If you're selling productions, check that the "Store" and the batch in the "Lots" column are correct on each line.
Click "Ok". The sale changes to the "Sent" status and tspoonlab generates the sales delivery note with its number, in the example DV00000. In the external customer's grey bar you'll see the delivery note number, the sale history (when it was accepted and sent), the "Delivery note" link, and the cost and contribution of the sale.
📌 Note: In the default traceability mode, tspoonlab automatically assigns each product the last batch that came into the store. If your account works in First-Expired, First-Out (FEFO) mode, you need to specify the batch of each product when you send the sale. Find out more in Traceability in sales: recording outbound batches.
How do you view the sales delivery note as a PDF?
You open the delivery note of a sale sent to an external customer as a PDF from the "Delivery note" link in the customer's grey bar, inside the sale.
In "Management" → "Sales", open the sent sale and click "Delivery note" in the external customer's grey bar.
tspoonlab opens the sales delivery note as a PDF. The delivery note shows:
the name and NIF/CIF of your Cost Centre, which you set up in "Cost centers" → "Edit";
the delivery note number, the date and the external customer;
a reception details section;
one line per product, with the code, batch, expiry date, price, VAT, quantity, unit and amount.
At the bottom of the delivery note you'll find the base, the VAT rate, the VAT amount and the total of the sale.
How do you check the Food Cost of a sale to an external customer?
A sale sent to an external customer shows its cost, Food Cost and contribution in tspoonlab, both for the whole sale and for each product, as well as the base, the VAT and the total.
In the external customer's grey bar, tspoonlab shows these figures for the whole sale:
"Cost": the cost of all the products sold. In the example, 5 boxes × €5.40 = €27.00.
The percentage next to the "Cost" bar: the Food Cost of the sale, that is, the cost as a percentage of the base excluding VAT. In the example, 27 ÷ 81 = 33.33%.
"Contribution": the base excluding VAT minus the cost. In the example, 81 − 27 = €54.00.
"Base", "VAT" and "Total", on the right. In the example, €81.00, €8.10 and €89.10.
Below each product, tspoonlab shows the same figures per sales unit: the price excluding VAT (€16.20/Box), the "Σ Cost" (€5.40/Box), the "Contribution" (€10.80/Box) and the line's Food Cost (33.33%).
At the bottom of the sale, the VAT table breaks down the "Base" and the "Fee", that is, the VAT amount, for each VAT rate. In the example, a base of €81.00 with 10% VAT gives a fee of €8.10.
📌 Note: tspoonlab can only calculate the cost, Food Cost and contribution of a sale if the products sold have a cost. If a product has no cost, the sale doesn't show its Food Cost. If you can't see the Food Cost of a sale, check that the ingredients, recipes and dishes you've sold have a cost in tspoonlab.
How do you get tspoonlab to generate the sales delivery note number automatically?
By default, tspoonlab doesn't generate the delivery note number for sales: you enter it yourself in the "Delivery note number" field of the send data. To have tspoonlab generate the sales delivery note number automatically, turn on the option in the sales settings.
In the top menu of tspoonlab, click "Options" and select "Settings".
In the "Sales" section, tick the "Automatically generate the delivery note number" box.
Click "Save". From then on, when you send a sale, tspoonlab suggests the delivery note number in the "Delivery note number" field of the send window (in the example, DV00000). When you click "Ok", that number is assigned to the delivery note.
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