Order Deposit
Big Business includes Deposit on the Sales Order import mapping. This allows you to import a paid amount from an online store and have it automatically converted into a Payment.
Big Business 12 updates this feature to create Prepayments.
This Soution describes this feature. (6636)
When importing Sales Orders, from a Text file or from an online store,
Order Entry
Working with Sales Orders (6429)
A sales order represents an unshipped order for a customer. Because the customer hasn't been billed, the dollar amounts on sales orders don't affect your finances. However, items entered on a sales order are allocated against the available quantity.
When you are ready to ship the items on order, you can convert the sales order into an invoice to record the shipment, making any changes necessary to reflect partial shipments. See "Carrying Information Forward" in Chapter 2 for information about converting the order.
Every sales order has its own window, which can show three different kinds of information.
• Click the Order tab to enter or view basic information about the customer and items.
• Click the Expanded tab to enter or view expanded information about the customer and items.
• Click the Profitability tab to see how the terms of the sales order affect your bottom line. You can adjust prices and profit levels to ensure that both your needs and the customer's are met.
• Click the Invoices tab to see the status of the order, including which items in this sales order have been invoiced.
• Click the Shipping tab to enter or view shipping information--for addressing and tracking.
Order Creating
Creating a New Sales Order (6430)
The way you create a sales order depends on whether you have already generated a
quote for this order.
• If a quote exists, you can either convert it into a sales order or load the quote information into a blank sales order. See "Carrying Information Forward" in Chapter 2 for more information.
• If no quote exists, you need to enter information into a blank sales order. You need to enter two types of information--customer and item information.
You can add printed and internal comments to the sales order, if desired. See "Adding Comments" in Chapter 2 for more information.
Order Customer
Entering Customer Information (6431)
The first information you need to enter into a sales order is the customer. The customer you choose determines the addresses that appear in the order as well as several other kinds of information.
You enter the customer information by choosing from the Customer QuickChoose list or by typing the customer listing. Big Business fills in the company name, address, salesperson, ship method, and terms from the Customer Card.
With the exception of the customer terms, you can change the information that is automatically filled in. These changes apply only to this quote; they aren't applied to the Customer Card.
Three fields are optional and need to be filled in by hand:
• The Customer PO Number field can be used to enter an order number supplied by
the customer.
• The Department field lets you keep track of which department of your business
generated the order.
• The From Quote Number field lets you specify a quote from which to load infor-
mation. See "Loading Quote Information," later in this section, for details.
Order Items
Entering Item Information (6432)
You enter item information by typing all or part of the item code or description into the appropriate column of the Line Items list. If you don't type enough characters to identify an item, you'll be prompted to choose from the Item List when you move to another column.
• The unit price and tax status are automatically filled in based on the Item Card. The price is determined by the price level assigned to the customer. You can change the unit price for this sales order. The tax status of an item can only be changed in the Item Card.
• After the basic item information is filled in, you enter a quantity. When you place the order, the quantity you enter is added to the Quantity Allocated field in the appropriate Item Card. The extended price is calculated based on the item price and the quantity you enter.
• The Comments field is optional. You can use it for short notes about the item.
• The Other Charges field near the Total field is optional. The field's label depends on the setting in the Customer Preferences window. Amounts entered in the field are added to the total.
• The E.T.A. column displays the E.T.A. date from the Item Card if there isn't enough inventory to fill the order.
If you enter a bundle item, a line for the bundle itself appears along with lines for each of the items in the bundle. Depending on how the bundle is set up, prices may appear in the bundle line or in the lines for the component items. See "Working with Builds and Bundles" in Chapter 5 for more information.
Order Status
Understanding the Order Status (6433)
The Status field in the sales order shows the status of your order. There are five
possible status levels:
• On Hold means that the order has not yet been placed. When you first open a sales order, it is on hold and no inventory changes are made to the Item Card. When you save it, Big Business asks if you want to place the order. If you choose not to, the order remains on hold. If the order is placed, its status becomes Placed.
• Placed means that the order has been placed, but no items have been shipped. When the order is placed, the Quantity Allocated field is updated on the Item Card of each item in the sales order.
• Partial means that some items have been shipped, but there are still items open from the order. Items shipped are subtracted from the Quantity On Hand field on the Item Card. (An item is considered shipped when you generate an invoice that includes the original order number.)
• Filled means that all items have been shipped.
• Closed means that you no longer expect to ship any items from this order. Closing the order means that any open items (items that have not been shipped) will be removed from the Quantity Allocated field in the appropriate Item Card. You close an order by clicking the Closed checkbox.
See "Understanding Item Inventories" in Chapter 5 for detailed information about how sales orders affect item inventory.
Order from Quote
Loading Quote Information (6434)
If you have already created a quote that covers this transaction, you can save time by loading information from it into the sales order. If anything has changed, you can modify the order accordingly.
You load quote information by entering a quote number into the From Quote Number field on the sales order. See "Carrying Information Forward" in Chapter 2 for detailed instructions.
To create a sales order from a quote:
1. Click the Sales Order tool in the Customer toolbar.
2. In the blank Sales Order window that appears, enter a number in From Quote.
3. Choose Update to set new ETAs (or From Quote to use ETAs set on the Quote).
4. When you save the order, use the dialog box that appears to place the order or
keep it on hold.
Order Inventory
When you are placing a Sales Order for a customer it is convenient to know the status of your inventory. (3043)
Big Business 2.5 allows you check at a glance the inventory status of all Items on a Sales Order!
Click to the new Order with Ext. Line Items Tab on the Sales Order
Here you will find listed for each Item:
-Quantity Available (Quantity on Hand minus Quantity Allocated)
-Quantity On Hand
-Quantity Allocated (to other Open orders)
-Quantity on Order (from Vendors)
Now you can determine that Items need to be Ordered, Built, etc. before you save the Order and confirm availability to your Customer without leaving the Sales Order.
Order Prices and Profits
Adjusting Sales Order Prices and Profits (6435)
You can click the Profitability tab in a Sales Order window to see how the order affects your bottom line. The Line Items list shows the cost of each line item and the profit you make on it in both percentage and dollar amounts.
You can adjust the profit percentage, profit amount, and extended profit amounts. For example, you may need to reduce a price for a customer but still achieve a certain level of profit. When you change one entry, all related entries are also changed. If you change a profit amount, the price is adjusted automatically.
To adjust prices and profits:
1. Click the Profit tab in a Sales Order window.
2. Change price or profit entries as needed.
Order Notes
Use the new Order Preferences found in the Cust Prefs tool to automatically add any or all of the following Automatic Notes when printing built-in Sales Order forms:
Customer Code
Customer Listing
Total Quantity (total count of all Items on the Quote)
Boilerplate Text
Read the instructions below for maximizing the benefit of these options. (3264)
Big Business includes the option to automatically fill in Notes on Customer Sales Orders. All of these items are added during printing and work only with Built-In forms (not Custom Forms).
The following can be automatically added:
• Customer Code
• Customer Listing
• Total Quantity (total count of all Items on the Sales Order)
• Boilerplate Text
To enable this feature:
1. Open the Customer Prefs.
2. Click on the Order Preferences button.
3. Click the checkbox for each item you wish to add.
4. Fill in any Boilerplate text you wish to add.
5. Click the OK button.
Order Invoice History
Checking the Invoice History (6436)
You can click the Shipment tab in the Sales Order window to see which items you have shipped from this order. Items are considered shipped when you generate an invoice that includes the original order number. See ?Working with Invoices,? later in this chapter, for more information about invoices.
Every item shipped is listed on a separate line. The item information is taken from the invoice that records the shipment of the items.
To check the shipment history:
• Click the Shipment tab in the Sales Order window.
Order Prefs
Big Business allows you to set a Default Entry Tab for Sales Orders. (3331)
Big Business allows you to set a Default Entry Tab for Sales Orders.
To select the default entry Tab:
1. Open the Customer Prefs.
2. Click the Sales Order Preferences button.
3. Use the Pull-Down menu in Default Entry Tab.
4. Select “Order” or "Order with Expanded Line Items."
5. Click the OK button on Sales Order Preferences to save changes.
6. Click the OK button on Customer Preferences to save changes
Order Batch Delete
The ability to delete old Sales Orders en masse has long been requested by Big Business Users. (3212)
Big Business 2.5 adds the ability to Batch Delete Sales Orders. Because this Delete is permanent, you should exercise proper caution in its use. Refer to the section on Employee Access Privileges for restricting Access to the Batch Delete tool. You may also want to back up your Company data file, or export the selection of Sales Orders you are attempting to Delete, prior to deleting them.
Sales Order Batch Delete facilitates clean up of old Orders, especially those which were never filled and were never properly Closed. By searching for a particular date range or Status, you can selectively, and quickly, clean up your old Sales Orders to correct Allocations on Item Cards, and On Order amounts on Customer Cards.
To Batch Delete Sales Orders, using the Sales Order QuickSearch:
1. Find those Sales Orders you wish to delete.
2. Click the Batch Delete tool to Delete all Sales Orders in the current Sales Order List.
Big Business will display a confirmation dialogue offering to Continue or Cancel.
3. Select Continue to permanently Delete all Sales Orders in the list.
Big Business will display those Sales Orders which could not be deleted.
If you select one Sales Order in the List and click Batch Delete, Big Business will display a dialogue with a choice of Deleting the selected Sales Order, Deleting all Sales Orders in the List, or Canceling.
All Sales Orders can be deleted.
Order Shipping
Big Business prints Shipping Labels for packages and large envelopes. You can print these labels from Searches or from individual transactions. If the sheet labels you are using have been used previously, you can specify the the row and column of the first available label to use the remainder of the sheet. (3204)
Big Business prints Shipping Labels for parcels which do not have a preprinted return address. The layout is a standard mailing label of 3&1/3 by 4 inches with six labels on a page. These labels are widely available in Laser and Inkjet formats, including the Avery(R) label, 5164. Big Business prints Shipping Labels from many of the QuickSearches and individual transactions.
Big Business includes the ability to print on a previously used sheet of labels to assure that no labels go to waste. When printing Shipping Labels, specify the Row and Column of the next available label on the sheet, and Big Business will start with that label. Label usage is from right to left and then top to bottom. For example, the second label used is on Row one, Column two.
Order RMA
From time to time a customer may wish to return an item and you may need to generate an RMA or Return Merchandise Authorization. This solution outlines how to perform this process and to receive the items back into inventory. (5171)
This document describes how to process a RMA for customers who wish to return products back to you.
Schedule Returned Items
To create a RMA for items that will be returned back to you from your customers, open the Sales Order tool in the Customer toolbar. For each of the items, enter the item in the line items section and enter a negative quantity for the quantity returned. Big Business will correctly calculate all of the taxes and totals automatically. If a customer wants to exchange items, you can mix positive and negative quantities together on the same order.
Printing RMAs
You can print out your RMAs on specially designed forms by clicking the print button and selecting one of the RMA Print Options.
Order Scheduling
Scheduling Customer Sales Orders is a frequent topic for support inquiries. Industries such as manufacturing often receive single orders, which specify multiple future shipments at specified dates or intervals, and "drop dates" after which the order should be canceled if undelivered.
Big Business does not include any any tools directly designed for tracking:
• Multiple ship dates on a single customer order
• Drop dates, after which the order should be canceled
This Solution provides several suggestions which creative users have suggested for scheduling Sales Orders. (3562)
Sales Orders in Big Business include Line Item ETA dates, intended to provide an availability date for a given item:
• Today if it's in stock or not inventoried
• The ETA date from the Item Card, which is next ETA for open Purchase Orders
• Today plus Vendor ETA days as listed on the Vendor Card
Once you have assigned ETA dates to a Customer Order, you can seach for Open Orders with ETAs in a specific date range by using the Q&A tool:
1. From the InfoCenter toolbar, select the Q&A tool
2. Using the Toolbar popup to select Orders
3. Double-click the question,
Order Number
Check Order # in the Sales Order Prefs. This feature applies to the Sales Order tool, when using the using the Edit Order # option. It also applies to Imports, including Cloud Services and Web API.
(6554)
Big Business includes Check Order # in the Sales Order Prefs.
This feature applies to:
• Sales Order - when using the Edit Order # option to enter order numbers it will display an Alert when the number entered is already in use by another Sales Order.
• Imports - it will cancel the Import if Order # is mapped and the number is already in use by another Sales Order.
• Cloud Services - it will cancel the Import if Order # is mapped and the number is already in use by another Sales Order.
• Web API - it will skip the Order and report this exception in the API Response
To enable Check Order #:
1. Go to Customer Prefs
2. Click on Sales Order Prefs
3. Click the checkbox for Check Order #
4. Click OK to save Sales Order Prefs
5. Click OK to save Customer Prefs
Order Closed
Big Business 13 adds new Closed options for Orders. In addition to the Closed checkbox on the Order window, there is now a Mark Closed option on Orders Search.
Closed Orders:
• are locked so they cannot be changed
• cancel any Qty Open and update Allocations
• lock Invoices [new]
• can be Unclosed [new]
Order Cannot Close
Cannot Close Orders is a new setting in Employee Access that lets you Block employees from closing sales orders.
Big Business 13 adds Restricted Access settings to the Employees Search and the Update tool for changing many employees at once. The choices are Block and Allow.