Dataflow - Order Processing

Order Numbering

Order numbers can be generated automatically by the system. Alternatively, system parameters allow entry of user-defined references giving greater control over the allocation of order numbers to individual departments.

Customer History

Extensive on-screen enquiries allow you to review current and historical orders, drilling down into the order progress through delivery and invoice. A comprehensive customer review window of previous orders placed, showing account and pending document balances, period and cumulative turnover, and a detailed history (quantities and prices) by item and sales order, is also available form both the enquiry and order entry windows.

Credit Control

Comprehensive authorisation options for credit control and handling customers "on stop" allow you to deal with specific customer circumstances easily and individually.

Quantities, Prices and Discounts

Sales Order Processing enables you to set and amend pricing so that it's right for the product, the customer and market conditions. Comprehensive options for pricing and discounts include quantity breaks, start dates and promotional dates, unlimited price bands in association with customer price and discount matrices, pricing by unit of measure, foreign currency prices, and many more.

Sales Order Processing includes optional features for multiple units of measure with split-pack options, and variable price and quantity formats.

Various price calculation options are also available, e.g. price x quantity, price x weight, price x weight x quantity or unit price only.

Notes

A Notepad facility lets you record conversation or other contractual details. These notes can be included on the printed documents if required. Notes are available as either document header or footer notes or attached to the individual order lines.

Delivery Dates

In addition to the order date, each sales order can hold a promised delivery date. These delivery dates can be varied by each line on an order, if necessary and used to call off planned deliveries on contract orders.

Copy Orders

To avoid unnecessary re-keying of a similar or repeat order, a previous order can simply be copied and then amended as appropriate.

Delivery Notes

Delivery Note documents can be generated from individual orders, or as a batched process. Batch or serial numbers and bin locations will be automatically prompted for where appropriate, or can be automatically allocated by the delivery process. Each document generated can be reviewed to allow variable data such as weights to be recorded.

Sales Order Processing does not just deal with the straightforward orders; it also handles the difficult ones too. Part-deliveries are easily processed leaving back-orders outstanding awaiting delivery, and they can optionally be printed on the delivery note document.

Where orders are under-delivered and are not going to be fulfilled, these can be closed off. Part or full delivery of multiple orders on the same delivery note can also be easily consolidated onto one document. Part deliveries can be disallowed on all orders or on an order-by-order basis.

Weights can be automatically calculated and recorded on receipt notes.

Sales Invoicing

As with the Delivery processes, Sales Invoicing can be carried out on a single order, or processed as a batch. Multiple delivery notes can be consolidated onto one invoice, in part or in full.

Additional lines can be added to invoices, such as delivery charges, or for other goods or services not included on the original order. Credit lines can also be added to deal with the return of items, such as crates or pallets.

Invoices can also be generated directly from orders where a separate delivery note is not required.

Back-to-Back Ordering

Among the many features or order processing is the powerful back-to-back order facility, which enables you to generate one or more purchase orders for the items required on a specific sales order.

Quotations

Quotations can be raised and then subsequently converted to orders.

Scheduled Orders

Repeat orders can be set up and scheduled to be automatically generated. Schedules can be set by selecting a regular period, i.e. each month, or by entering specific dates on which they are to be generated.

Customer Returns

The Sales Order Processing module features integrated processes for the handling of customer returns and credit processing, including the ability to return goods to stock, and generate credits to the customer.

Links to Stock Control

Sales Order Processing does not operate in a vacuum; it works with your stock control processes to give you the complete picture.

Free stock can be allocated to orders creating back orders where necessary, or stock can be allocated to orders when despatch notes are raised. Alternate part numbers can resolve out-of-stock situations, or stock can be taken from alternate locations. Stock can be re-allocated from one order to another for priority despatches.

During order entry the operator can quickly view all stock balances including free, physical, short, allocated and on order figures.

Document Storage

dataflow includes the ability to attach any number of documents to transactions recorded through Sales Order Processing, e.g. contracts, original purchase orders etc. Documents in any format - Word, Excel, scanned images etc. - can be attached. These can then be viewed from the comprehensive dataflow enquiry screens, including those reached by drill-down and across.

Links to documents attached to orders, delivery notes and invoices are transferred through to the transactions posted to the Sales Ledger, including those where an invoice may be the result of a number of orders or delivery notes. This allows you to view all the original documents that have resulted in an invoice from one simple transaction enquiry screen, instead of having to scour many different screens searching for the relevant transactions.

Data Interchange

Sales Order documents can be imported and exported using XML.

Reports

Order reports can be produced by customer, product and due date. In addition to reporting outstanding orders, orders which have been despatched but not yet invoiced, along with those which have been invoiced but not yet authorised, can also be analysed.

The Forward Load of Outstanding Orders Report gives a clear indication of what is due for delivery, and where any shortages may exist.

The Accruals report and enquiry option enables you to compile provisions on outstanding events by Nominal code and Cost Centre.