"Order to cash" normally refers to the business process

Business process

A business process or business method is a collection of related, structured activities or tasks that produce a specific service or product for a particular customer or customers...

 for receiving and processing customer sales. It follows "Opportunity to Order" and covers business-to-business

Business-to-business

Business-to-business describes commerce transactions between businesses, such as between a manufacturer and a wholesaler, or between a wholesaler and a retailer...

 (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) sales. The term is most prominent in the design and improvement of Enterprise Resource Planning

Enterprise resource planning

Enterprise resource planning systems integrate internal and external management information across an entire organization, embracing finance/accounting, manufacturing, sales and service, customer relationship management, etc. ERP systems automate this activity with an integrated software application...

 (ERP) systems such as SAP

SAP ERP

The SAP ERP application is an integrated enterprise resource planning software manufactured by SAP AG that targets business software requirements of midsize and large organizations in all industries and sectors...

 and some Oracle.

In many business model

Business model

A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value...

s a contractual relationship is established first via a Contract or Subscription. Orders are then received via different sales channels, such as phone, email, internet, sales person, EDI or fax. The contractual relationship is confirmed and the Orders are fulfilled through shipping

Shipping

Shipping has multiple meanings. It can be a physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo, by land, air, and sea. It also can describe the movement of objects by ship.Land or "ground" shipping can be by train or by truck...

 and logistics

Logistics

Logistics is the management of the flow of goods between the point of origin and the point of destination in order to meet the requirements of customers or corporations. Logistics involves the integration of information, transportation, inventory, warehousing, material handling, and packaging, and...

. On completion of key events an invoice is generated and booked as Sales (subject to "Revenue Recognition

Revenue recognition

The revenue recognition principle is a cornerstone of accrual accounting together with matching principle. They both determine the accounting period, in which revenues and expenses are recognized...

" requirements). If payment has not already been received, the debt is recorded and pursued through Dunning

Dunning (process)

Dunning is the process of methodically communicating with customers to ensure the collection of accounts receivable. Communications progress from gentle reminders to almost threatening letters as accounts become more past due. Laws in each country regulate the form that dunning can take. It is...

 cycles until the funds are received. Order to Cash is completed by the Customer Care process (enquiries, requests and complaints).

If we consider the ERP system flow, this is typically categorized into the following seven sub-processes:

• Customer presence
• Order entry (creation of order/booking of order )
• Order fulfillment
  Order fulfillment
  Order fulfillment is in the most general sense the complete process from point of sales inquiry to delivery of a product to the customer...
  
   (physical & digital fulfillment)
• Distribution
• Invoicing
• Customer payments/collection
• Cash Application
• Deductions (If invoice Short Paid by Customer)