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Sales Order |
  
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Sales Order |
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Overview
The Advanced Accounting Sales Order module provides a sophisticated and flexible way to track customer orders while managing your inventory more efficiently. Orders can be set to ship immediately or you can reserve stock from on hand for future shipping, backorders can be filled automatically, orders can be processed for inventory at multiple locations, and an open S/O can have additional items added, or have products invoiced from it, at any time.
For a more complete look at how a Sales Order system can be used, see the section Using a Sales Order System below.
Below is a list of the available programs in the Sales Order module with a brief summary of each.
J - Generate Recurring Invoices
O - Enter/Change Ship/Due Dates
P - Print Invoice Register
Q - Print Invoice History
R - Enter Estimate
S - Print Expired RSO
Enters new sales orders and allows you to add to or edit those previously entered. You can change a sales order until it is completely invoiced. The print routine within this program prints a copy of the sales order that can be used as a point-of-sale slip. You can also run SO-F, Print Invoices and SO-G, Post Invoices for a single sales order directly from this program.
If you want to track which customers still have outstanding orders or which products are ready to be shipped, this program will assist you by printing a listing of the non-invoiced items on any open sales orders. You can sort this report by customer code, product code, or sales order number. You can also choose to print sales order totals only or line item detail, listing each product and the quantity ordered.
In order for you to be able to stage and fill orders prior to having the delivery invoice printed, this program prints a packing slip for each open sales order. This program lets you print slips for as few as one sales order at a time. The packing slips list the sales order number and quantities sold, and include a check-off box for your warehouse personnel to fill in the actual quantities shipped. You can also print packing slips from completed invoices if desired.
Prints a listing of S/O line items on backorder. Included are the product code and description, the customer, sales order number, ship date, units to ship, and units on backorder. You may limit and sort this report by product code or estimated shipping date.
This program allows you to release entire sales orders that were marked as not ready to ship. You can release line items by using SO-A, Sales Order Entry.
Prints the delivery invoices generated from your sales order entries on invoice forms or on blank paper. You may choose a range of invoices to print, or print all invoices not yet printed. After the invoices are printed, you can choose to post the invoices printed.
If you want to delay posting until the end of the day, or for some other reason want to post your invoices separately from the printout process, use this program to do so. You can choose to post all invoices that have already been printed, or to post only those from certain sales orders, limited by a range of sales order numbers.
Prints standard shipping labels for a range of sales order or invoice numbers or an invoice date range. You may also choose how many labels to print for each invoice.
I - Recurring Sales Order Entry
Allows you to enter a template for identical periodic transactions such as a contract for routine customer service or maintenance. You can enter these items as a recurring sales order, then you simply generate and invoice them periodically. If the transaction changes, the recurring sales order can be edited and retained. A recurring sales order can only be entered for items that you maintain in your Inventory Control system.
J - Generate Recurring Sales Orders
Generates the current sales order from the recurring s/o template.
Displays information about previously posted invoices. You can search by Invoice Number, Customer Code, Sales Order Date or Sales Order Number. Once you have found an invoice you can continue searching using that same index.
Delete invoices in the invoice history file, and displays the invoice information (invoice number, amount, etc.) as each invoice is purged. Unless you are running out of room on your disk, and are unable to expand further, we don't recommend purging your invoice history file.
Quick report for calculating sales for a specific period. This is based on both sales orders outstanding and invoices posted.
Reprints invoices printed previously.
O - Enter/Change Ship/Due Dates
Change the expected ship or due dates for an invoice previously posted.
Using a Sales Order System
The simplest transaction for a sales and inventory accounting system is taking an order for which all items are in stock, printing the invoice and shipping the items. However, complicating factors inevitably arise. What do you do when an ordered item is out of stock? How can you reserve items from inventory on hand without shipping them? Can you add items to an open sales order if you receive a call from your customer requesting additions to an earlier order?
The sales order system used in Advanced Accounting is a collection of programs that provides you with powerful yet easy to use methods of integrating your inventory and sales operations. Advanced Accounting's sales order system contains the following basic elements:
| · | Automatic backorder tracking |
| · | Inventory reserving |
| · | Multiple invoices against a single sales order |
A sales order in Advanced Accounting is a record of a customer order which can have multiple delivery invoices applied against it. It serves as a record of invoiced and shipped products, and can also serve as a record of inventory out of stock and backordered, as well as a record of inventory held in reserve for a later delivery.
The sections below will introduce you to the sales order features and describe three possible business situations using these sales order features, from a simple system to a more complex example.
Automatic Backorder Tracking
How to Use Backorders
The Advanced Accounting inventory backorder feature allows you to keep records of orders for your out of stock items, then fill the orders without entering additional invoices when the items become available. For example, let's say you take an order for 10 widgets, and you only have 5 on hand. When you enter the items on sales order, the program beeps an alert and displays your order as:
· 5 widgets as a Ship Qty
· 5 widgets as a B/O Qty (backorder quantity)
You need to ship the first five right away, so you print the delivery invoice, ship 5 widgets, and post the transaction. Then you receive a shipment from your widget distributor and update your inventory. You can now print invoices again using the backorder auto-fill option, print the delivery invoices for your formerly backordered items, and ship them.
The backorder feature frees you from having to track backorders manually. Any time you print a backorder list, you can compare those items to a report of available inventory, and use the auto-fill option to remove the backorder and generate a shipping invoice at the same time. All the inventory and sales information is updated automatically within the system.
How Advanced Accounting Handles Backorders
As you enter line items on a sales order, the system checks the inventory quantities on hand and fills the ordered quantities until an item is out of stock. At this point a backorder is created. The backorder remains in the system until one of three conditions is met:
| · | You receive inventory, fill the backorder quantity, and print and process the invoice |
| · | You reduce the original amount of the order to the amounts available |
| · | You delete the sales order or line item on the sales order |
Invoices are automatically created for any ordered products with unreserved quantities on hand. When printing invoices, you are given the option of automatically filling any backorders that may now have items on hand. The program cycles through all open, ready-to-ship sales orders and rechecks the availability of backordered line items. If the quantities are available, the program will fill all the backorders possible and print the appropriate invoices.
The Sales Order system will also allow you to sell products you don't have on-hand. When you enter a line item and there aren't enough units to ship the program will give you the option of keeping negative inventory (below 0). This gives you the flexibility of invoicing items you don't have or if you actually do have the product but it wasn't counted correctly, or returned to inventory and not recorded.
Inventory Reserving
How to Use Inventory Reserving
The inventory reserving feature of Advanced Accounting allows you to reserve inventory for a sales order, then hold the order in the system until you are ready to release it for invoicing. This is accomplished through the use of a "ready-to-ship" flag for the sales order as a whole or for the individual line item.
For example, assume that a customer asks you to place some goods on hold for him until the first of the month. You enter the sales order, but you set the ready-to-ship flag in the sales order header to N. The ordered items will be transferred from Units on Hand to Units on Sales Order so that another order will not be able to use them.
When your customer is ready to receive the order, use the sales order release program and indicate that you are ready to release the items on hold. Then you can print your shipping invoices and ship the order in the usual manner.
The inventory reserving feature has a great deal of flexibility because you have the option of reserving an entire sales order's contents or individual line items in a sales order.
How Advanced Accounting Handles Inventory Reserving
A default setting for the ready-to-ship flag can be stored in SY-A-B, Enter/Change Invoicing Defaults. You can also change these settings as an individual order is entered. If you operate under a simple "ship if available" procedure, you should set your default to Y.
If the setting for either the header or line items is N (hold, not ready to ship), the quantities for the order will still be reserved from on hand, and the order (or the selected line items) will not appear with the ready-to-ship items in the following documents/procedures:
· Packing slips
· Invoice printing
· Invoice posting
The "not ready to ship" orders will be held in the system until you release them to be shipped. The release may be done in one of two ways:
| 1) | Use SO-E, Release Sales Orders and follow the prompts. This program will automatically release the entire sales order. |
| 2) | Call up the existing sales order in SO-A, Enter Sales Orders. You can then change the items that are ready to Y. Don't forget to change the Ready field in the header to Y also. |
For more examples of how to use the backorder and shipping flag features of Advanced Accounting, see the section on Model Sales Order Systems below.
Multiple Invoicing and Adding to an Existing Sales Order
An open sales order is any customer order that has at least one open item that has not been invoiced and posted. In order to allow you to recall a sales order for alteration or review, a sales order number is automatically assigned. New line items can be added to an open sales order. You can also delete or change items that are on the order if they have not yet been invoiced.
This ability to add line items to an open sales order gives you a convenient and flexible way to record your customer orders, as the date you enter line items onto a sales order is independent of estimated shipping dates, and the dates of the generated invoices. When all goods are invoiced on the sales order, it is automatically deleted.
Model Sales Order Systems
Below are three sales order system models ranging from a simple backorder system to a distributor's model which uses inventory reserving and releasing extensively.
Simple Backorder Model
This sort of operation might be used by a small retailer or reseller who does not handle large volumes of goods, who usually has stock on hand to fill orders, but who uses the backorder feature to keep track of orders when a product is temporarily out of stock.
The following list of procedures represents the most common way that this sort of business can use the Advanced Accounting backorder feature. Use this procedure "as is" or adapt it to your needs.
| a) | Set the SY-A-B ready-to-ship default flag to Y; this assures that all sales orders and associated line items will be marked ready to ship as soon as they are entered. As you enter orders, both the overall invoice ready-to-ship flag and the individual line item ready-to-ship flags will be set automatically to Y. |
| b) | You can enter sales orders one at a time or several in one session. All line items on all sales orders that have units on hand will be invoiced. The only orders that will not ship completely are orders with backordered amounts. |
| c) | When you print and post your invoices, use the option to automatically fill backorders. If inventory receipts or order cancellations after the time the backorders were created have made more stock available for backordered items, the program will try to fill the backorders as it prints the invoices. |
Simple Inventory Reserve Model
This model represents a medium-sized reseller who can usually fill orders from inventory on hand but occasionally needs some inventory reserved for a high priority customer or a customer with a large standing order. This example is similar to the previous one, but the procedures are slightly different.
| a) | Set the SY-A-B ready-to-ship default flag to Y; this assures that all sales orders and associated line items are marked ready to ship as soon as they are entered. As you enter the orders, the ready-to-ship flag will be set automatically to Y. |
| b) | Enter sales orders either one at a time or several in one session. When you enter the sales order and want to reserve inventory for a later shipment or for a standing order, set the ready-to-ship flag on the sales order to N. This will hold the inventory until you are ready to release it. (If you want to reserve new items on an existing sales order with ready-to-ship items, just set the new line item ready-to-ship flag to N. Inventory is reserved for that order and no subsequent order can ship the reserved items.) |
| c) | When you print and post the invoices, any not-ready-to-ship items will not appear. When you are ready to send out the reserved order, use the sales order release program or the sales order entry program to change the ready-to-ship flags to Y. The order is then printed and processed like a regular order. |
These procedures still allow you to track any backordered items you may have on your sales orders. There is a backorder auto-fill option in the sales order release program, so you can try to fill a backordered item as you release it, or you can use the corresponding option when you print your invoices.
Distributor's Sales Order Model
This example is that of a high-volume distributor. Inventory stocks are generally low, or variable, and orders are not often filled from stock on hand. Back ordering and reserving inventory are the rule and not the exception. You will see that the sales order procedures are very different from those detailed above.
| a) | Set the SY-A-B ready-to-ship default flag to N. All sales orders and associated line items will be flagged accordingly. |
| b) | Use sales order entry to enter sales orders for your clients. |
| c) | Print shipping documents (packing slips) periodically and send them to the warehouse to stage and load orders. You can also provide packing slips to the warehouse and prepare invoices based on the information returned from the warehouse. |
| d) | When a receipt comes in from a supplier, print the backorder list. Use this list to release selected invoices, using the automatic filling of backorders option. |
| e) | You will typically print and post invoices once or twice per day in large batches. When you do, use the backorder auto-fill to fill whatever backorders remain on your ready-to-ship invoices. |
Priority Invoices
You may need to bypass some of these procedures from time to time in order to rush an order. Advanced Accounting provides the means to process a single order from start to finish.
| a) | Enter the sales order. |
| b) | Be sure to set all ready-to-invoice flags to Y on items to be shipped on that order. |
| c) | When the program asks whether or not to invoice the order enter Y. The program will automatically chain to the invoice printing program and from there to the invoice posting program if everything printed properly. |
This procedure can also be used for handling several priority sales orders, and applies to any of the models described above.
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