Purpose
This routine is used to set and adjust the various “Standard Stationery Messages” that are used in Online Advantage on the important “Documents” within the system. These documents are typically the ones that are sent externally to customers/suppliers and so have additional formatting requirements over and above normal reports from the system. The full list is as follows:
- Back Order Statement
- Credit Note
- Despatch Docket
- Invoice
- Order Confirmation
- Purchase Order
- Point Of Sale Docket
- Pickup Advice
- Quote
- Remittance Advice
- Request for Quote
- Royalty Statement
- Settlement Discount Adjustment
- Debtors Statement
- Transfer Invoice
- Transfer Docket
This facility can be used for numerous purposes – here’s some examples of common uses:
- Changing Document Titles e.g. from “Credit Note” to “Tax Adjustment Advice”
- General seasonal greetings e.g. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas etc.
- Bank Account details shown for payment on Debtors Statements/Invoices
- Highlighting of “Specials” on Invoices, Credits, Despatch Dockets
- General marketing messages e.g. New Product range
- Delivery rules/times on Purchase Orders e.g. No deliveries after 5pm
Data Input
Step 1 – Message
Document
Select the document you wish to set or maintain the message for from the list of standard stationery types.
Message
Enter the message you wish to print on stationery documents when they are generated. This can be multiple lines of text and usually appears at the foot of documents (though that depends on how your stationery is formatted).
Heading
Enter a heading for the document. If you do not enter anything here, a default heading will be used on the document when it is generated. The heading appears at the top of the document (depending on your stationery format).
Default headings are:
- SETTLEMENT DISCOUNT ADJUSTMENT
- CREDIT NOTE
- PICKUP ADVICE
- TRANSFER INVOICE
- TRANSFER DESPATCH DOCKET
- DESPATCH DOCKET
- DRAFT ORDER CONFIRMATION
- ORDER CONFIRMATION
- QUOTATION
- INVOICE
Remove Formatting
Select this option to suppress printing of underline and line characters that would print to form “boxes” on stationery print. This option is only relevant to the Online 2000 terminal emulation printing and is not applicable to Online Advantage. You would use it if you were printing on pre-printed stationery.
Override Graphical Printing
This option is for situations where you are using the Online 2000 terminal emulation system to enter transactions, but are using Online Advantage reporting to print stationery documents. In this case, you would have the System Option to use Online Advantage reporting for all stationery switched on. If you wanted certain stationery documents to continue to print via the legacy Online system, then you can override the system setting by selecting this option for the required documents.
Special case – Purchase Orders
For Purchase Order documents there are additional inputs for “local” and “foreign” tax messages. These messages appear near the totals of the purchase order.
Return to the Top
Step 2 – Emails
Some documents can be delivered electronically (via Electronic Document Delivery – or EDD). For those documents that can be emailed, in the Standard Stationery Messages you can set up how the email will be formed.
Subject
Enter the text you want to use as a subject for the email.
For example, if you are sending statements via EDD, the subject might be ‘Statement from My Company Pty Ltd’
Body
Enter the text you want to use as the body of the email.
For example:
Dear Valued Customer,
Please find attached a statement of your account.
Regards,
Accounts Receivable Department
My Company Pty Ltd
From Address
The ‘from address’ is the address the email recipient will perceive the email as being sent by.
In normal cases, the ‘from’ address of an email is derived from the email address of the user sending the email. In the case of documents such as statements however, it is often necessary to send from a generic email address such as’accounts@mycompany.com.au’.
Attachment Name Format
This is the name that will be used as an attachment.
For example, if invoices normally email with an attachment name of I1234_180115.pdf you can override the attachment name here and form it like Invoice.pdf.
Technical note: Be careful when formatting attachment names as characters like / and \ are not allowed because it interferes with the software finding the correct directory path for the attachment.
Placeholders
There are special ‘reserved’ terms that can be used as placeholders for the email details above which will tell the system to replace the term with the corresponding data dynamically when the email is being sent out. As an example, to show the document number being emailed just include the term ((DOCNO)) in the subject, body or attachment name section. Read here for a full list of all the placeholder syntax per stationery type.