How to Create Invoices Only for Shipped Items in Zoho Inventory

While this works in simple cases, many businesses face a common issue:

Invoices are created for all ordered items — not just the items that have been shipped.

This becomes a serious problem in real-world operations, especially when:

• Partial shipments are common
• Orders are fulfilled in multiple packages
• Billing must reflect actual shipped quantities
• Warehouse and accounting processes are separated

👉 In short:
Your invoice does not reflect reality.

Why This Happens

Zoho Inventory is designed around a Sales Order → Invoice workflow.

However, actual operations often follow:

👉 Sales Order → Package → Shipment → Invoice

The missing link is that:

Invoices are not natively tied to Packages.

So even if you carefully manage shipments using Packages,
the invoice still pulls all items from the Sales Order.

Real-World Impact

This limitation can cause:

• Overbilling customers
• Manual corrections in invoices
• Confusion between warehouse and accounting teams
• Increased operational errors

For businesses handling logistics, wholesale, or distribution,
this becomes a daily friction point.

The Solution: Invoice Only Packaged (Shipped) Items

To solve this, we developed a custom extension that:

✅ Retrieves only packaged items
✅ Matches quantities based on shipment
✅ Generates invoices based on actual fulfillment

How It Works (High-Level)

Instead of relying on the default flow, the extension:

1. Retrieves Package data via API
2. Extracts shipped item quantities
3. Maps them to the corresponding Sales Order
4. Creates an Invoice with only shipped items

👉 This ensures:

Invoice = What was actually shipped

Before vs After

Default Behavior

• Invoice includes all Sales Order items
• Ignores shipment status

With Custom Extension

• Invoice includes only packaged items
• Matches real shipment quantities

Use Cases

This approach is especially useful for:

• Wholesale businesses
• Distribution companies
• Warehousing operations
• Companies with partial fulfillment workflows

Why Not Just Use a Marketplace Extension?

There are similar extensions available in the Zoho Marketplace.

However, in many cases:

• Business workflows differ
• Custom fields are required
• Approval flows need to be integrated
• Edge cases (partial shipments, returns, etc.) must be handled

👉 That’s where customization becomes essential.

When You Should Consider This

You should consider this solution if:

• You frequently ship orders in multiple batches
• Your invoices must strictly match shipped quantities
• Your team is manually adjusting invoices
• You want to eliminate operational errors

Final Thoughts

Zoho Inventory is a powerful platform, but like any system,
it doesn’t cover every real-world scenario out of the box.

The good news is:

With the right customization, you can align the system with your actual operations.

 Need Help?

If you’re facing similar challenges,
we can help customize Zoho Inventory to match your workflow.

Feel free to reach out 👇
👉 https://www.fujibiz.com/contact