Inventory-based Business Sales Orders Look Up Prices Use this screen to instantly look up the price for any item for any customer in any quantity on any date. This screen will show you all the possible prices for the item, including the list price, the discount price, the contract price, the quantity break price, and the promotional price, using the rules you specify when you set up your customers, items, and special price records. It will show the extended amount of the lowest price (or the contract price if specified in the Master Company Controls). In this screen you also have access to the history of purchases the customer made of the item, including quantities and prices. Enter Orders The Sales Order Entry screen handles three types of transactions: "O" - A sales order which documents what the customer ordered and what was shipped; this eventually becomes an invoice (after the pick slip is printed and the order is released); these transactions are entered for the purposes of tracking the order until it is fulfilled and shipped, customer invoicing, and maintaining accurate inventory records. "I" - An invoice which documents the sale of merchandise already shipped; these transactions do not go through the order fulfillment and release steps; they are entered for the purposes of customer invoicing and maintaining accurate inventory records. "C" - A credit memo to reverse an erroneous invoice or to enter merchandise returns. Sales Order Processing Most distributors take orders, give the warehouse personnel a pick slip so that they may gather the items on the order, pack the goods, and invoice the customer for those items which they actually shipped, while documenting what products were not available at the time so that they may eventually be shipped (if allowed by the customer). The turnaround time on this process may be anywhere from hours to days to weeks. Because of the time lapse, it is important to keep careful track of the progress of the order. That is basically what the MyBooks sales order processing is about. The four basic steps of sales order processing are: Enter the order Print the pick slip Correct and release the order Print the invoice One more step is required to update all the sales analysis, customer, and history files, and pass the invoice accounting information to your accounts receivable functions (Collect Your Money tab). This is the posting process which is described below. The Sales Order Entry Process The sales order entry process sequentially displays two data entry screens. The first screen accepts the "header" information for an order: customer, ship-to information, terms, etc. The second screen allows entry of the inventory items (products) that are to be shipped: item code, quantity, unit of measure, shipping warehouse, etc., and also the totals for freight, taxes, sales commissions, and invoice summary information. Credit Checking During entry of the header information, and as each line item is entered, the program checks various criteria to determine whether or not to warn you of a credit problem with the customer. One such criterion is this 'Maximum Average Payment Days' as defined in the Master Company Control (see the Maintenance ToolBox). Each time a customer makes a payment on an invoice, the system factors the payment date and amount into a weighted 'average payment days' for the customer. If you specified a maximum days allowed in the Master Company Control record, the program compares the actual average days to this maximum when determining what action to take. In addition, when the credit hold flag in the customer record is set the 'Y' the operator is blocked from entering any new sales for the customer. Multiple Ship-to Addresses The first order entry screen requests a ship-to location for this customer order. This location is a user-defined code which identifies a record in the "Ship-to" file containing the shipping address. You may enter an unlimited number of ship-to addresses for each customer. If you do not enter a "Ship-to" location code on the order entry screen, the ship-to address will default to the customer's address in the Customer file. Entry of Line Items The second data entry screen in the order entry process handles the entry of order line items. You enter one line of information for each product on the order; this screen accommodates a virtually unlimited number of lines. The information for each line includes the identifying code of the item, the unit of measure, the quantity ordered, the quantity shipped (this is skipped in the initial entry stage and completed in the release phase), the warehouse from which you will ship this item, and the item price. (For serialized items, a serial number is also tracked per line, but that is not entered until after the item is picked.) You may add, change, and delete line items, as long as the order has not yet been released or printed as it then must be assumed that the goods or invoice already have been sent to the customer. NOTE: The inventory stock levels are adjusted in real-time manner here. As soon as a sales order line item is entered, the quantity available for the item is reduced. For invoices (type "I") the actual quantity-on-hand is reduced. Entry of Non-inventory Items You may enter an order which contains items that do not have assigned product (or item) codes. These non-inventory items are entered by using a dummy item code which is prepended by an asterisk (*). You will then be prompted for a description, cost, price, price class, and other inventory information for this item. Void Orders Sales orders may not be deleted. Instead, you may use the 'Void Orders' function to nullify any order that should not have been entered. In this way, all order numbers appear on the Sales Order Register and the sequential integrity of the order number is maintained. Print Edit List If you wish to review all the order data you have entered (prior to printing a batch of pick slips) use this function to print it all in a compressed list format. Print Pick Slips After a sales order is taken and entered, someone must gather the products on the order and pack them for shipment. The Pick Slip facilitates this process. It is a hard-copy document that contains the product order information from the sales order. Warehouse personnel use this to know what items, and how many of each to pick, or gather, for this order. They also mark the pick slip indicating any items that were not available in the warehouse at the time. The pick slip is printed automatically upon completion of the entry of an order. If this is not desired, pick slips may be printed in batches after a number of orders have been entered. This is controlled by a flag in the Master Company Controls in the Maintenance Toolbox. Release Orders A sales order is updated with the actual quantity shipped and marked as released so that an invoice may be printed. Three types of releases may occur: Unconditional Release - Release the order exactly as it was entered with no alterations. Correcting Release - Change the order to match the quantity shipped, along with any other changes that may have occurred. The status of the balance of a partially filled order must be specified. The choices are to mark the unfulfilled items for backordering or to flag them as out of stock, which essentially cancels the remaining unshipped balance. If the order contains serialized items, the serial numbers must be entered here. Reopen Release - This function reopens an order from the released state to allow for corrections. This step is not possible if the invoice for the order has already been printed. Print & Post Invoices After the release function is performed, invoices are printed and posted for filled sales orders (type "O") and transactions that were entered as filled invoices (type "I") or credit memos (type "C"). Unfilled items marked for backordering are placed in the Backorder file along with the invoice header information for that order. The Post Printed Invoices function updates the inventory quantities and sales statistics in the inventory files. It also creates records in the Accounts Receivable (Collect Your Money tab) files for monitoring unpaid invoices. Completion Billing & Credit Memos If in your particular business you turn orders around very quickly and do not wish to use the entire sales order process, you may instead use the 'completion billing' method by entering the invoice information after the goods are packed and shipped to the customer. To do this, you use the type "I" transaction (invoice). Invoices and credit memos (type "C") are entered in the same manner. Creating invoices and credit memos is a simple three step process. The three basic steps are: enter the invoice, print it, and post it. You can print each invoice (or credit memo) upon completion of entry, or choose to print your invoices in batches after entering them all. The Invoice & Credit Memo Entry Process The entire invoice and credit memo entry process is virtually the same as that for sales orders, with the following notable exceptions: the quantity shipped for each line item must be entered serial numbers for serialized items must be entered credit memos should have negative line item quantities Everything else is the same as sales order entry—the two screen entry, the credit checking, the multiple ship-to addresses, the unlimited number of line items, the entry of non-inventory items, the voiding process, and the edit list. All this is described above. Enter Quotes Customer quotes are entered in virtually the identical manner as sales orders (see below). They are, however, kept in a separate 'Quote' file where they remain until you delete them. If a quote needs to be turned into an order, it is a simple matter of specifying the quote number during the first stage of order entry. At that point, the details of the quote are immediately copied into the current order, after which you may make as many changes to the header information, line items, etc., as necessary. The quote itself is left as it was in the quote file so that it may be used again (as often as needed) to create an actual sales order. All details of all quotes are available in the on-line inquiry screens, and a 'Quote Edit List'. In addition, detailed and summary Quote Analysis reports are available to show you how many quotes your salespeople are creating and how many are turned into actual sales. Formal quotes may be printed to send to the customer. Recurring Orders Orders that are repeatedly taken from the same customers in virtually the same manner (e.g., service contracts, blanket orders, etc.) need not be entered each time they need to be issued. Instead, the 'Recurring Orders' function allows you to enter them once, and then simply copy them into the sales order file whenever needed to ship, print the invoices, and complete the process. The recurring order entry is virtually identical to the normal order entry. Back Orders Running the Fill Backorders process is an operator-initiated function which allows the operator to reissue an order for the remaining unshipped items from the original sales order. This backorder becomes a new order with quantity and item information and invoice header information. It must then go through the complete fulfillment cycle, i.e., print a picking ticket, pick stock and ship, and release the order for invoicing and posting. The fulfillment process allows you to recreate orders only from line items for which there is currently available stock, or from backordered items regardless of current stock levels. Set Up Customers Set up one record for each of your customers using the Customer File Maintenance program. Here, you can add new customer records, make changes and corrections to existing customer records, and delete any unwanted, unused customer records. Not all fields are required in this program, but the more information you enter, the more the system will service you. To enter a new customer record, simply click on the New Customer button. The program will assign a unique key to the record and then lead you through the rest of the entry process. To call up an existing record, you may use the powerful, instant, and natural method of the Appgen Cross-Reference record identification feature. Otherwise, you can simply click on the Select Customers button to choose the customer you are looking for from a list. Set Up Ship-to Addresses Each customer may have any number of addresses to which they require you to ship goods. Enter these alternate addresses to make sales order entry quicker and accurate, as each order requires both the customer's billing and ship-to address (they may be the same). Set Up Special Prices INVENTORY ITEMS AND PRODUCT PRICING The MyBooks Inventory-based Business system includes a sophisticated pricing matrix that is really quite simple to set up an use with just a little knowledge. The following paragraphs describe everything you need to know to successfully set up and maintain your product pricing. Price Class of Items Items with similar characteristics may be grouped together by user-defined price classes. These price classes become part of the pricing scheme as described in paragraphs to follow. Price classes determine whether or not an individual customer will be allowed quantity breaks on items; they also define individual cost-plus pricing or discounts for each customer. Examples of items which might be grouped in the same price class are as follows: items with similar pricing margins items that belong to a family of products items that appeal to a specific buying market Quantity Breaks Quantity Price Breaks are assigned to individual items rather than to the price classes of items. A separate file, the Special/Promo Price file, contains a record for each item with quantity price breaks; this record has the quantity price break levels and the corresponding price for each level. Quantity price breaks are not universally available to all customers. Each customer record in the Customer file has a list of price classes for which that individual customer can obtain quantity break pricing. An example is described later. PRICE DETERMINATION As each item on an order is entered, the sales order entry program will perform up to six different methods of price calculations and will select the lowest price available. These six methods of price calculation are as follows: Straight quantity price break depending upon the quantity ordered. This method is extended to specific customers for specific price classes only, and may include a valid date range for the price. Contract price with quantity breaks. A separate contract may be set up for each customer for specific items and specific quantity pricing. The contract price may be unique to a specific customer or may be shared by multiple customers, and may include a valid date range for the price. Promotional price with quantity breaks. Individual items may be set up with promotional pricing that has a beginning and an end date, and that includes quantity price breaks. Cost-plus price based upon a markup over the cost of an item. This method is extended to specific customers for specific price classes only. The markup percentage may be set individually for each customer and for each price class for that customer. Discount price based upon a discount off of the list price of an item. This method is extended to specific customers for specific price classes only. The markup percentage may be set individually for each customer and for each price class for that customer. List price. If none of the above prices are available to a specific customer, the list price for a particular item will be used. For any particular item being sold, some of these price determination methods may not be available to all customers. Your own particular pricing scheme will determine which methods are available to which customers. STRAIGHT QUANTITY PRICE BREAKS Figure 2.9, above, illustrates the process of determining if straight quantity price breaks for an item are available for a specific customer. The steps of this process are as follows: Using the item code, the Inventory Item file is read. If the "Break Pricing" for this item is N (no), then straight quantity price breaks for this item are not available. If "Break Pricing" is Y (yes), continue with the next step. The Customer file record for this customer is read. If the price class of the item being sold is listed in this customer's record AND the Qty Break flag for that price class is set to Y (yes), the straight quantity price break IS available. Otherwise, the straight quantity price break for this item is not available to this customer. Using the part number and a CODE of "Q", the Special/Promo Price file is read. The CODE "Q" indicates that this record in the Special/Promo Price file contains straight quantity price breaks. Based on the quantity ordered, the straight quantity price of $14.00 is obtained. SETTING UP STRAIGHT QUANTITY PRICES To set up straight quantity break prices for an item, you must enter a record for this item in the Special/Promo Price file using a CODE of "Q" to indicate quantity pricing. Set up the desired quantity break levels and prices as described below. Also enter the effective and ending dates during which this quantity pricing will be available. Leave the ending date blank if the prices are to remain in effect until changed. You must also set the Break Pricing field in the Inventory Item file for this item to Y (yes) and select a user-defined price class code for this item. To allow this quantity pricing to specific customers, enter the selected price class code in their customer record AND set the Qty Break field of that price class to Y (yes). These customers will then be eligible to receive the appropriate quantity price on this item. CONTRACT PRICE Figure 2.11, above, illustrates the process of determining if a special contract price for the item being sold is available to this specific customer. Contract pricing includes quantity price breaks for the items on that contract. The steps of this process are as follows: Using the customer number, the Customer file is read. The Customer's record is then checked for a contract number. If there is no contract number in the Customer's record, then contract pricing is not available for this customer. Using a combination of the item code of the item being sold and the contract number, the Special/Promo Price file is read. A CODE equal to the contract number indicates that this record in the Special/Promo Price file contains quantity prices for that specific contract. Using the quantity ordered, the special contract quantity price of $14.00 is obtained. Important Note: You may assign the same contract number to multiple customers. This capability allows you to set up special pricing for a selected group of items and make that pricing available to a selected group of customers. SETTING UP CONTRACT PRICES To set up contract pricing of an item, you must enter a record for this item into the Special/Promo Price file using the contract number as the "CODE" of that record. Set up any desired quantity break levels and prices as described below. Also enter the effective date and the ending date during which these contract prices will be available. Leave the ending date blank if the pricing is to remain in effect until changed. Any customers who have this contract number in their customer record will then be eligible to receive the appropriate contractual quantity price for this item. PROMOTIONAL PRICE Figure 2.13, above, illustrates the process of determining if a promotional price is available for the item being sold. Promotional pricing is related to the item itself and is available to all customers. Quantity price breaks may also be set up for promotional items. The steps of this process are as follows: Using the item code of the item being sold and a CODE of "P", the Special/Promo Price file is read. The CODE "P" indicates that this record in the Special/Promo Price file contains prices for a promotional item. Using the quantity ordered, the promotional price of $9.00 is obtained. SETTING UP PROMOTIONAL PRICES To set up a promotional price for an item, you must enter a record for this item in the Special/Promo Price file using a CODE of "P" to indicate promotional pricing. Set up any desired quantity break levels and prices as described below. Also enter the effective date and the ending date during which these prices will be available. Leave the ending date blank if the pricing is to remain in effect until changed. All customers ordering this item will then be eligible to receive the appropriate promotional quantity price on this item. COST-PLUS PRICE Figure 2.15, above, illustrates the process of determining if a cost-plus price for this item is available to this specific customer. The markup percentage for cost-plus pricing may be set individually for each customer and for each price class for that customer. The steps of this process are as follows: Using the item code, the Inventory Item file is read to determine the price class of the item being sold. The Customer file record for this customer is then read. If the price class of the item being sold is listed in this customer's record AND the "List/Cost" flag is set to "C" (cost), then cost-plus pricing is available. Otherwise, cost-plus pricing is not available on this item for this particular customer. To obtain the cost-plus price, the normal cost from the Item file is marked up by the percentage for this price class for this particular customer. In the example shown, the cost-plus price is $25.00, which is $20.00 plus 25 percent. SETTING UP COST-PLUS PRICES Cost-plus pricing is available only to specific customers and only for specific price classes for each particular customer. To set up cost-plus pricing for a specific price class for a specific customer, enter that price class into the customer's record in the Customer file; in this price class entry line, you must also set the "List/Cost" field to "C" (cost) and enter the markup percentage into the PERCENT field. This customer is now eligible to receive the indicated cost-plus percentage markup price on any inventory items which are in the specified price class. DISCOUNT PRICE Figure 2.17, above, illustrates the process of determining if a discount price for this item is available to this specific customer. The discount percentage for discount pricing may be set individually for each customer and for each price class for that customer. The steps of this process are as follows: Using the item code, the Inventory Item file is read to determine the price class of the item being sold. The Customer file record for this customer is then read. If the price class of the item being sold is listed in this customer's record AND the "List/Cost" flag is set to "L" (list), then discount pricing is available. Otherwise, discount pricing is not available on this item for this particular customer. To obtain the discount price, the list price from the Item file is discounted by the percentage for this price class for this particular customer. In the example shown, the discount price is $22.50, which is $30.00 minus 25 percent. SETTING UP DISCOUNT PRICES Discount pricing is available only to specific customers and only for specific price classes for each particular customer. To set up discount pricing for a specific price class for a specific customer, enter that price class into the customer's record in the Customer file; in this price class entry line, you must also set the "List/Cost" field to "L" (list) and enter the discount percentage into the PERCENT field. This customer is now eligible to receive the indicated discount percentage price on any inventory items which are in the specified price class. DEFINING QUANTITY BREAK LEVEL PRICES Quantity break pricing is available for the Straight Quantity, Contract, and Promotional pricing methods. Records in the Special/Promo Price file contain the quantity break prices for each item that is to receive quantity pricing. Figure 2.19 (below) is an example of a record in the Special/Promo Price file. The Maximum Quantity column defines the top end of each break level. The bottom of a break level is one greater than the previous level. In the example shown, the price when ordering a quantity of six to nine is $77.00. * 1.Code: Q * 2.Item Code 123 Cable Type Johnson Rod - Blue 3.Unit of Measure Each 4.Effective Date: 01/01/86 5.End Date: ......... Line Maximum Quantity Price ==== ================ ====== 1 1 90.00 2 2 85.00 3 5 81.00 4 9 77.00 5 14 74.00 6 9999 71.00 Figure 2.19 Quantity Break Prices Sales Orders: Reports & Lists Sales Analyses These reports are provided to aid you in identifying the strong and weak areas of your sales efforts so that you can make adjustments accordingly. By Price Class This report shows the percentage of sales and profits for each price class against the total sales and profits of all price classes. By Products & Services This report shows the percentage of sales and profits for each product and service against the total sales and profits of all products and services. By Customer This report shows the percentage of sales and profits for each customer against the total sales and profits of all customers. By Customer Class This report shows the percentage of sales and profits for each customer class (type) against the total sales and profits of all customer classes. By Sales Rep This report shows the percentage of sales and profits for each sales rep against the total sales and profits of all sales reps. By State This report shows the percentage of sales and profits in each state against the total sales and profits in all states. Quote Analyses This report shows, by sales rep, quotes that eventually were accepted and shipped. This is available in both a detailed and summary format. Sales Order Register This is a simple numerically-ordered list of sales orders, invoices and credit memos. Each line is a summary of a transaction showing the document type, document number, date, customer, sales rep, net amount, discount amount, tax amount, miscellaneous amount, freight amount, and total. Open Order Summary This summary list of open orders includes: order status, order number, order date, customer, ship date, sales rep, ship-to, ship-via, and order total. This list may be sorted by order status, customer, order date, or ship date. Items on Open Orders This is a summary list of all items on orders that have not yet been released. Information in this report includes item codes and descriptions, sales order numbers, order and ship dates, customer, quantity ordered, unit of measure, price, wharehouse, and sales rep. Invoice History These reports comes in three different versions: By Customer & Item This report shows summary information from the History file (invoices that were posted), sorted by customer and then by item. The information shown includes customer name, item, invoice number, date, quantity, unit price, extension, and totals. By Item & Customer This report shows summary information from the History file (invoices that were posted), sorted by item and then by customer. The information shown includes customer name, item, invoice number, date, quantity, unit price, extension, and totals. Document Details This report shows historical invoices in their detailed format. The report may be restricted to a range of invoice numbers, customers, and invoice dates. Customer Lists These are simple lists of the information you entered into the customer records using the Set Up Customers program. Details This shows all the information you entered into the customer records using the Set Up Customers program. Names & Addresses In this list you see each customer's name and address, telephone number, and sales rep. Ship-to Addresses This is a list of the information you entered using the Set Up Ship-to Addresses program. Customer Price List Since each customer may be assigned a unique discount for any price class, an individual price list may be printed for each customer. If a customer contract exists, the contract pricing is included in the individual customer price list. The date of the next price increase (if available in the inventory file) is printed on the price list for each item. You may also request a 'Standard' price list without any customer limitations. Special/Promo Prices This report simply lists all special and promo prices setup for a selected range of inventory items, sorted by item code. Other Lists These are simple lists of the peripheral data files that make data entry easier and more accurate. These files are maintained with the programs in the Maintenance ToolBox. Price Classes Shipping Methods Payment Terms Sales Reps Sales Tax Authorities