The Copy Document feature in Business Central lets you create a new sales order from a posted sales invoice – saving time on repeat orders and removing the need to retype every line.
What Copy Document Does
Copy Document is an action inside Business Central that lets you bring line information from one document into another. You select the document type you want to copy from, pick the specific document, and Business Central fills in the lines for you.
This saves time because you do not manually add each item, resource, or service again. You get the same quantities, descriptions, and prices from the original document – and then you can adjust from there as needed. Furthermore, the process is consistent, which means fewer mistakes than retyping lines by hand.
In short, this feature removes repetitive data entry and makes the sales team more efficient. Additionally, anyone on the team can use it – you do not need special permissions or technical knowledge to run a copy.
When to Use Copy Document
The most common situation is a repeat order. A customer calls and says they want the same items as last time. Instead of looking up the old invoice and retyping everything, you open a new sales order and use Copy Document to bring the lines across in one step.
However, this is not the only use case. You can also use it whenever you want to reuse line information from a previous transaction. For example, if a project requires the same set of services every month, this feature makes it easy to generate the next order without rebuilding it each time. As a result, it is also useful for standing orders and routine deliveries.
Moreover, the feature works with many document types, so it fits many different workflows. You will find it useful in more situations than you might expect.
How to Open Copy Document
First, create a new sales order and select the customer. At this point, the order is empty – you have only set the customer field. That is all you need before you start the copy. You do not need to fill in any other header information first.
Next, open the Prepare menu in the ribbon. There you will find the Copy Document action. Click it to open the window. Additionally, the window is simple – there are only a few fields to fill in before you confirm. The whole process takes less than a minute once you know the steps.
Selecting the Source Document
Filtering to Find the Right Invoice
The first field in the Copy Document window is Document Type. This tells Business Central what kind of document you want to copy from. Select Posted Invoice to copy from a posted sales invoice.
After you set the document type, click the assist button in the Document No. field. Business Central shows you a list of documents that match the type you selected. You can filter by customer so you only see invoices for the customer you are selling to. Furthermore, you can sort by date to find the most recent one quickly.
Confirming Your Selection
Select the document you need and click OK. Business Central now knows which document to pull the lines from. In other words, you have set the source – next, you choose how to copy the lines.
Include Header and Recalculate Lines Options
Now you will see two checkboxes at the bottom of the window. These control what gets copied and how.
The first is Include Header. If you check this, Business Central also copies the header fields – things like payment terms or shipping address – from the source document. Leave it unchecked if you only want the lines.
The second is Recalculate Lines. If you check this, Business Central recalculates the prices based on the current price list instead of the original document. On the other hand, leave it unchecked if you want to bring in the original prices exactly as they were.
For a typical repeat order, leave both unchecked and click OK.
What Happens After You Confirm
Business Central copies all the lines from the selected invoice into the new sales order. You will also see a comment line that records which invoice the lines came from. Indeed, this is useful for tracking – you and your team know exactly where those lines came from.
From here, you can add more lines if the customer wants anything extra. You can also adjust quantities and continue with the order as normal. In other words, the copy simply gives you a starting point – you are still in full control after that. Therefore, treat it as a fast way to pre-fill the order, not as a final step.
Document Types You Can Copy From
Copy Document supports more than just posted invoices. When you open the Document Type field, you see a full list of options. These include posted invoices, posted shipments, orders, and quotes. In fact, most of the common sales document types are available as a source.
Additionally, there is a set of archived document types – archived quotes, archived orders, and others. Business Central keeps archived versions under certain conditions, and the feature can reach them too. However, if you want to explore archive documents in depth, that topic is worth a separate guide.
For now, the posted invoice option is the most commonly used for repeat orders. It covers the majority of day-to-day scenarios where a customer wants to reorder something they have bought before.
Wrapping Up: Repeat Orders Made Simple with Copy Document
There are a couple of things worth noting before you click OK. Prices may have changed since the original invoice. Therefore, if you want current prices, check Recalculate Lines. If you want the historical prices exactly, leave it unchecked. Neither choice is wrong – it depends on what you agreed with the customer.
Also keep in mind that the comment line Business Central adds to the sales order is there by design. It links the new order back to its source. However, you can delete that line if you do not want it to appear on the final document sent to the customer.
You can also copy from documents that belong to a different customer, though that is rarely what you need for a standard repeat order. The customer filter helps you avoid pulling in the wrong invoice by accident.
Overall, Copy Document is one of those features that saves real time once you know it exists. Consequently, it is worth sharing with anyone on the team who handles repeat customer orders. Try it the next time a customer calls with a repeat request and see how much faster the process becomes.
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