What does the Sales Order Processing module do?
The Sales Order Processing module records orders for parts which you receive from your customers. It allows you to despatch parts to your customers against the sales orders. It prints despatch notes and invoices.
Key features
- Supports more than one customer for the same part.
- Records price breaks and minimum order quantities.
- Allows different prices for the same part to different customers.
- Allows pricing in different currencies.
- Supports scheduled orders.
- Supports call off orders.
- Supports many delivery addresses on one order.
- Supports many deliveries against one order line.
- Prints despatch notes.
- Creates sales invoices.
- Maintains full material traceability.
- Supports customer specific carton labelling.
- Supports EDI with customers.
Is it suitable for my business?
The Sales Order Processing module is designed for manufacturers, not for distribution businesses. If you have a relatively small number of customers for whom you make parts to their specification, this module will be ideal.
If you have your own products which you make for stock, and then sell from stock, this module will be ideal.
If your customers place scheduled orders, this module will be ideal.
It is not suitable for distribution businesses who have many thousands of customers placing many small orders, and who do not carry out any manufacturing.
Customers
The module maintains a customer file which records details of each of your customers. A customer may have a number of different delivery addresses, and the names of your contacts at each address can be stored.
Prices
The module records which parts you sell to each of your customers. It stores the prices and price breaks agreed with each customer for each part. This allows you to sell the same part to different customers at different prices or in different currencies, and to link different customer part numbers for the same part to your own internal part number. You can even set up different prices for each delivery address, so that your price can include transport to distant locations. You can specify a transit time for goods to reach a customer address after they have left your factory. This allows the planning system to adjust works order due dates to ensure that deliveries to distant customers are made on time.
There are effectivity dates on each set of prices so that you can introduce price changes in a controlled way. The system will automatically pick the correct price dependent on the date of a sales order line.
Sales orders
Each order received from a customer is recorded as an order header. This contains the customer’s purchase order number and invoice address. The module allocates a unique internal sales order number to each sales order header which is used by the module to track sales orders.
The parts ordered by the customer are recorded in order lines. Each order line specifies a requirement for a quantity of a part to be delivered to a particular delivery address on a certain date. A number of order lines for the same part but with different delivery dates form a scheduled order. When you change the details of an order line, the module stores the old values so that you can see a history of schedule changes.
When parts are delivered against an order line, each batch of parts is recorded in an order delivery. Each order delivery specifies a quantity of parts delivered against a sales order line on a specified date from a specified tin. Since the order delivery records the tin number of the parts, the system maintains full traceability from manufacture onto the sales invoice.
The module can send order confirmations to the customer via e-mail or fax.
A customer can place a call off order where he commits to buying a quantity of parts before a specified date, but does not specify exactly when he wants them delivered. The total order quantity is recorded as a call off order line. When the customer requests a delivery of some of the parts, the call off order line is automatically reduced by the quantity delivered. You can plan production against the total call off quantity. You can see when a customer has not taken delivery of all the parts he has ordered before the agreed date.
If required, a sales order can remain open indefinitely, even if it has no incomplete sales order lines. This supports automotive customers who place a single purchase order for the model life of a vehicle.
Once an order from a customer has been recorded, the Works order processing module is used to raise works orders to manufacture the parts.
Despatch note
The Works order processing module moves finished parts into finished parts stores.
The Stock control records what finished parts you have in stock, and their locations.
The Sales Order Processing module prints a picking list of parts available to despatch to a particular customer. When the parts have been retrieved from stores, a despatch note is created by scanning the bar-codes on the tin tickets, thus ensuring material traceability from raw material to despatch note. The system allows part deliveries against a line on a sales order.
You can see at any time your delivery position against orders and schedule, and produce a report of overdue orders. You can produce analyses of turnover for each part and customer.
The system prints despatch notes for each customer and delivery address.
Carton labels
The module can print carton labels, with or without bar-codes if you require. Each carton label can have a unique number, so that you can achieve full traceability to carton level. If a customer has a problem he can give you the carton number, and you can trace the manufacturing history and materials in that carton right back to the suppliers of the raw materials.
Sales invoices
The system produces sales invoices directly from the despatch note, and applies material surcharges, setting and packing charges automatically.
The invoice details are passed to your book-keeping system for payment collection.
Reports
The module produces reports of order intake by part and customer, overdue orders, and order history by period, part, and customer.