Below is a description of the prompts from the ‘Order Details’ section for a Customer Sales Order:
Date required
Enter the date when the order is required. The current system date is used as the default date required. This date is also referred to as ‘Delivery Date Required’. One of the main uses of the “Date Required’ is in selective picking. When generating picking dockets for orders, you can select outstanding orders with a Delivery Date Required up to a certain date. Note also that if the required date entered here is beyond the period specified for Forward Orders (set in System Options), then the order is considered a ‘Forward Order’ which means the products ordered aren’t committed to a sale and are not included when calculating the stock’s available quantity. See Stock Formula for further details.
Override Terms
Select the Override terms required. There are 3 terms selections available:
- Age on Invoice Date – ageing in the customer ledger occurs based on the invoice date and the age periods specified during system set up of the Ageing Details
- Fixed Invoice Ageing – the terminology for this ageing is configurable e.g. it might be called ‘6 months interest free’. The Ageing Date is fixed and set in the Calendar/Ageing Details configuration routine. Ageing in the customer ledger occurs based on the fixed ageing date and not the invoice date
- Entered Invoice Ageing – the terminology for this ageing is configurable e.g. it might be called ‘Negotiated Terms’. Ageing Date may be entered by authorised users. If the user is unauthorised to enter ageing date, the order goes on hold until an age date is entered
Ageing Date
If you are ageing on invoice date, entry to this field is not required.
If you are ageing using Fixed Ageing, the ageing date is loaded from the date specified in Calendar/Ageing set up, and may not be changed.
If you are using Entered Invoice Ageing, the user may enter the Ageing Date if their User Details order entry setting ‘Allow Invoice Ageing Date Entry’ is ticked. If using Entered Invoice Ageing and no age date is entered, the order goes on hold until an age date is entered.
Invoice Date
You can leave ‘Invoice Date’ blank if you would like the date of the invoice to be the same date as the invoice was generated. If you would like to back date or forward date the invoice, you can enter the required date here. The invoice date is used for debtors ageing (where Fixed or Entered Ageing are not being used as an override).
For Manual Despatch, the Invoice Date is expected to be back dated. Since this could be easily missed by data entry operators, you can choose to make Invoice Date a required field using the ‘Mandatory Invoice Date in Manual Despatch’ option in System Options > Sales-orders.
Customer Order Number
Enter the customer’s purchase order number or reference that refers to this order. This is essentially recording the customers Purchase Order number if provided to you. You can use this reference to search for orders as required so it can be a common link that both parties can quote to each other. Depending on your needs, you can make entry to this prompt mandatory or optional via the ‘Mandatory Customer Order Number’ setting in the System Options configuration. You may also override the system setting on a per user basis via the User Details ‘Override Optional Customer Order Number’ setting.
Market Segment
You can change the ‘Market Segment’ recorded against an order at this prompt. The market segment is defaulted from the Customer Details. You can change the market segment if/when required on an order. Market Segment is used in the Sales Analysis system so it can be important to get the setting accurate per order. In sales, there is a subtle difference between the ‘customer’ market segment and the ‘order’ market segment – the customer market segment is the market segment currently held on the Customer Details. The order market segment is the market segment recorded at the time of processing the order. In essence the order market segment becomes the “Sale Time Market Segment” in the Sales Analysis system.
NOTE: You may not use a market segment that has been flagged as ‘inactive’.
Sales Rep
You can change the “Sales Rep’ recorded against an order at this prompt. The sales rep is defaulted from the Customer Details. You can change the sales rep if /when required on an order. Sales Rep is used in the Sales Analysis system so it can be important to get the setting accurate per order. In sales, there is a subtle difference between the ‘customer’ rep and the ‘order’ rep – the customer rep is the rep currently on the Customer Details. The order rep is the rep used at the time of processing the order. In essence the order rep becomes the “Sale Time Rep” in the Sales Analysis system.
NOTE: Rep may also be used when calculating commissions and actual vs budgeted sales comparisons.
Order Class
Select an ‘Order Class’ for the order. Order Class is a method of categorising orders. For example, your order classes might be: Email, Fax, Phone, E-commerce, Store, EDI etc. Order Class is defaulted from the System Options ‘Sales Order Class’ setting. For orders created from E-commerce, the order class is automatically defaulted to the orders based on the settings held against each order class.
Picking Method
Choose a ‘Picking Method’ for your order. Picking Method is defaulted from the Customer Details for Sales Orders or from the Issuing Location for Transfer Orders. You may override the default on an order by order basis as required. Refer to Picking Methods for more details.
No. of Labels with Picking Docket
Enter the number of labels to print when the picking docket is printed. You can leave this prompt blank or enter zero if you do not print labels with picking dockets. The number of labels prompt uses a default from the User Details ‘No. of Labels in Order Entry’ user default setting.
Contact Details
Use the ‘Contact Details’ option to associate a contact with the order being entered/edited. This allows you to include customer contact information for the sale. Details like name, phone and email address of the person placing the order can be captured for future use. You can search for existing contacts if the client has provided their details previously as shown below
or users can enter new contact details if required as shown.
Note that for customers that are not marked as ‘cash sale accounts’, the contact is linked to the Customer Account with a special ‘order contact’ type which means the details are available for use next time they order. New contacts are not linked for Cash Sale accounts as typically there would be too many cash sales customers to make that worthwhile.
You can search for orders by contact details using advanced search function to make finding orders for a given client easier.