Issue when cloning sales invoices

I seem to recall that this was a problem some years back. When I clone a sales invoice, it clones the sales quote reference number as well. I cannot see any logical reason to retain this field because when you are cloning an invoice, you are generally wanting to issue a new invoice with the same inventory on that invoice.

Is there some way to prevent the sales quote ref number from being cloned as well? Thanks

You are correct. This was the object of discussion within the past year or so. But no, you cannot prevent a sales quote reference on a sales invoice from being cloned. Here is the reasoning:

  • A clone should be an exact clone. So behavior that varied somewhat from tab to tab was standardized. Clones now clone everything.
  • The exception that proves the rule is that reference numbers for the transaction being cloned (not references to other transaction types, like your example) follow the Form Default for the transaction type. The reason for this is that some users operate under mandatory regimens requiring sequential numbering of things like sales invoices. If an old sales invoice number were cloned, that would defeat the purpose of the Form Defaults.
  • It is also possible that a transaction like a sales quote or sales order leads to many sales invoices for serial deliveries. If the reference of the other transaction type were not cloned, you would have to go look it up, leading to possible errors. But if it turns out not to be needed, it is easier to delete the obsolete one than recover it.

In that case, we need a Copy to Sales Invoice option. I can’t comment on other people’s usage, but the only reason that I use the clone option is to clone the sales items in the invoice and I just want to change the client I am invoicing.