Sales Orders entry
Sales Orders are created as goods and services are sold. Confirmations, Delivery Notes and Picking Lists can be produced from the orders and the Invoices created automatically.
The amount of documentation that is produced is regulated by the Options you select.
If you are not familiar with transaction entry, please refer to the Transactions topic.
This topic describes the entry of a transaction in your Home currency. Please refer to the Order/Credit Note Detail topic for information about entering a currency order.
Before you start
System Options
System options are used to control how all orders are entered and processed, these are generally non-changing settings, as opposed to Transaction options, which are set for the current session only or for individual orders.
Customer Terms
Associated with each Customer record, there is a Terms window where the standard terms for each Customer are set. You should ensure that they are appropriate for the Customers for whom you are going to enter orders, though you can change them temporarily from within the order Header window (see below).
Transaction Options
Transaction options enable you to control how transactions are entered and processed. Changes you make to the options will remain selected for the current working session. When you exit the accounts at the end of your session, you will be prompted to save the changes you have made, if you respond No, the options will be reset.
Entry of an Order
The entry of an Order is very similar to the entry of a Sales Ledger Invoice, in that it has the same Header, Detail and Total windows. There are additional processes when the invoice and other documents are being printed and processed.
When you are ready to enter an Order:
Select Sales Order Processing
Select Orders to display the order Header window will be displayed.
Header window
The order Header window is similar to the Invoice window, but has additional entry fields.
Transaction Options
Before entering an order, you should check the transaction options that will be applied to the entry.
Having checked the transaction options, you can no proceed to enter the Header details for the order.
Header data fields
Enter or select the Order Customer account code. Enter the code if you know it, if not, click on the search icon to open the Customer List window. You can select an account from the list with a double click. You can use the search pane on the Customer list window to help you to locate the customer record you require, or, you can enter the first few characters of the code before opening the list window to limit the records that are retrieved.
The Delivery address and Invoice address. When a valid code has been entered, the Customer record will be retrieved and the Delivery and Invoice addresses displayed in the fields to the right of the order account code field. These addresses will have been setup for the Customer in the Multiple Addresses window on the Customer record. The Deliver to: and Invoice to: buttons will display the Multiple Addresses window, from which you can select alternative addresses for this order or enter a new address 'on the fly'.
Customer Orders. This button, just below the Order Customer account field, will display the Customer Orders drill-down window. You can use this window to view the orders received from the selected Customer. Initially the list will show batched orders which are outstanding. Click on the Orders menu to change the list, you select View All or View Outstanding. There is additional functionality on this window that enables you to duplicate previously placed orders in whole or in part, please refer to the "How to" topic Duplicating an Order.
The Order Status. The order will be given the status that you have selected to be your default order status. The status for the order (and the default status) can be changed on the Status menu opened from the drill-down button alongside the Status text. The status of the order can also be changed by ticking the Urgent option. Flagging an order as Urgent will change the Required By date in accordance with the delivery times entered in the Customer's Terms.
Do not part deliver This option is only available if the transaction option to batch the order has been selected. If you tick the Do not part deliver option and you attempt to part deliver the order from the batch, a warning message will be displayed. You can ignore the warning and proceed to part-deliver if you wish.
The Order Date will default to the system date but you can be changed. The order will be posted to the current Sales Ledger period of the current year. If you have been granted the multiple period posting privileges, you will be able to change the period and the year to post to future periods.
The Required by date will be the order date plus the delivery days defined in the Customer's Terms. This date can be changed.
The Terms button enables you to review and change the terms for this order and for this invoice Customer.
GB VAT and the Currency options are not active when the order is in the Home currency. Please refer to the Order/Credit Note Detail topic for information about entering a currency order.
User Keys enable you to attach reference information to this order, such as the sales person involved. This can be used later when selecting transactions for reports.
The Customer Reference can be entered if they have provided one with their order or you wish to use your own.
If the Transaction Option Batch Order has been selected, an additional Batch Reference field will be displayed. This will be repeated on following orders until you change it.
A Description can be used to enter a brief description for the order. This will be printed on some invoice formats.
The Accounts Notes will be displayed on the tab card. If you click on the card you will be able to edit the notes. If the option Use combined Detail and Total window has been de-selected in your System Options, these Notes will be available from a menu.
This completes the order Header window. When you tab out of the Description field, the Detail window will be displayed ready for you to enter details of the order.
Detail window
The Sales Order Detail window is similar to the Sales Invoice Detail window and is used to enter the details of the order. Here you will be entering detailed information about the items being purchased not just the value.
You can set a transaction Option to bypass some of the fields on the detail window; you can still move the cursor into these fields if you wish, they will just be omitted from the tabbing sequence. The fields that can be bypassed are marked with a * (star symbol) in the text below.
Use the Entry menu to select whether this item is to be a Stock Entry, a Price Entry or a Text Entry. The menu will default to the entry setting selected in you Sales Order System options.
Stock Entry
For a stock item, enter the code if you know it, if not click on the search icon to open the Stock Records list window. You can select a stock item from the list with a double click.
You can use the search pane on the Stock Records list window to help you to locate the stock record you require or you can enter the first few characters of the stock code, before opening the list window, to limit the records that are retrieved.
If the stock item is a Sub Analysis type, an additional field will be displayed to enable you to enter or select the correct sub-analysis.
If the stock item is a Serial Number type, an additional field will be displayed to enable you to enter or select the serial numbers.
Price Entry
For a price item, enter the code if you know it, if not click on the search icon to open the Price Records list window. You can select a price item from the list with a double click.
You can use the search pane on the Price Records list window to help you to locate the price record you require or you can enter the first few characters of the price record code, before opening the list window, to limit the records that are retrieved.
Text Entry
No code is required, you will just be entering the text describing the item ordered in the detail field. Text must be entered or the line will be deemed to be invalid.
For a Stock or Price Entry, the default Selling Price (Price Line 1) for the selected item will be displayed.
When a quantity is entered, the Value and Net value will be calculated.
If any Line Discount has been entered in the Customer's terms, then this will be shown and will be reflected in the Net value.
If you have selected a Text Entry you do not have to enter a Quantity or a Price but if you do, a Value and Net value will be calculated.
BTB If this is ticked, the order will be passed to the Consolidate Requests function, so that a Purchase Order for a replacement can be raised.
Qty* Enter the required quantity.
Price* For stock and price record items the default Selling Price for the selected item will be entered for you. This can be changed by typing in a different price or by selecting a different selling price from the Selling Price Table opened from the button.
The system option Show Cost Price for All Entries, found in Stock Control Options - Transactions, will automatically display a Cost Price pop-up window as you tab out of the Price field. This window enables you to see the Cost Value, the Sales Value and the Profit and Margin % for the current line of the order and the order total. See Cost Price pop-up.
The Value will be calculated as Qty x Price.
The value of the Discount* will be calculated and displayed. You can over-type this with another figure if you have agreed a specific discount for this order.
If a % discount has been applied from the Customer's terms, it will be shown on the right but if you over-type the discount the % will be set to zero.
If you enter a value but then enter a %, the value of the discount will be recalculated using the % you have entered.
In both cases, the discount amount (as entered or calculated from the %) will be included in the Net value calculation.
The Net value will be calculated as Value less Discount.
On the right hand side of the window, there are some additional fields that you may need to use.
Available - this button will open a stock record window for the selected stock item enabling you to view the stock quantities from the stock record.
Analysis* - This field will contain the default Sales Analysis code. You can enter or select a different Sales Analysis code; the search button will display a list of codes from which you can select.
Stock Analysis* - This field will only be available if you have selected Update Stock to Nominal in the System Control Stock Options. It will contain the default Stock Analysis Code. You can enter or select a different Stock Analysis code; the search button will display a list of codes from which you can select.
See also Order of Precedence of Analysis Codes.
VAT - This is initially determined by the Analysis code that is being used but you can change it if required. Enter or select a different VAT code; the search button will display a list of codes from which you can select.
If the VAT code is changed, the Net value will be recalculated until you have tabbed to, or past, the Detail field.
After that, you should always check that the values are updated if you go back and change the VAT code.
Line Disc % - This field will display the Line Discount % from the terms held on the Customer's record.
If you change the line discount %, the values shown in the Discount field and Net value fields will be updated.
See the notes for the Discount field (point 7 above).
Total Discount - The value in this field is calculated using the Total Discount % from the terms held on the Customer's record. The field is display only and cannot be changed. The value is Net value x Total discount %.
Cost* - If you are using the Costing module, the entry of a Project code and Cost Centre code in these fields will ensure that the costing project is updated with the value of the detail line. The search button will display a list of codes from which you can select.
Detail - If this is a Text entry line, you must enter some text in this field. For Stock and Price entries, you can enter a description for the detail line.
When you have finished entering the details for the line:
Tabbing from the Detail field will add the detail line to the totals grid at the foot of the window (or to the Totals window if you are not using the combined entry window).
The Detail line entry window will be cleared ready for you to enter another detail line.
Continue until you have entered all the lines of the order. If you start a new Detail line that you do not require, use the Clear button to clear the detail on the line. You will not be able to save and process the order if a partially completed order line exists.
Click on OK to save and process the order. See Processing Sales Orders.
Totals window
If you are not using the combined entry window, the detail lines you have entered will be shown on a separate Totals window which will be open below the other windows.
You can switch to view this window at any time by clicking on the Totals icon on the toolbar.
There are no entry fields on this window, it just lists the Detail lines that you have entered for the order.
A double click on a line will re-display the line in the Details window.
The option Use combined Detail and Total window is found in System Control Options - Transactions. Untick the option to use separate Header, Details and Totals windows.