Sales Order Processing - Logistics - In Depth

The de Facto S5 Sales Order Processing module is fully integrated with the other Logistics Suite modules of Stock Control, Purchase Order Processing and Transport, as well as the Financial Suite and Production, Costing and CRM modules. The Purchase Order Processing module benefits from all the key features found across the Logistics module.

The Sales Order Processing module is critical in most businesses, as it controls your interface to your customers. This interface may be the result of either pro-active, or re-active Telesales, EDI, or E-Commerce. de Facto S5's Sales Order Processing module can be easily configured to handle them all.

Differing workflows can be configured to handle transactional processing in a variety of ways, enabling each customer to be handled differently, as required.

In fact, the strength of S5 often lies in its detailed combination of features. This is most obvious within Sales Order Processing, where the key features highlighted below enable almost any requirement to be easily handled.

This highly flexible facility allows products on a sales order to be easily ordered from suppliers and the stock receipts to be held specifically against the originating sales order. Options are provided for automating direct shipments, adding to existing purchase orders and for exclusively linking orders.

The sales order processing module provides a comprehensive way to handle large contract orders, which have multiple call-offs. Each time a call-off is made from the original contract it will inherit the pricing from the contract, although this can be updated if required. At all times the original and contract balances are maintained and reports can be run on the state of the contract.

Contracts and call-offs can be linked on a back-to-back basis to equivalent sales orders. As with all other types of logistics transactions, they can also be linked to the job-costing module for performing detailed contract costing.

The scheduling function offers another option for the handling of large orders; these differ from contract orders as they allow the forward deliveries to be planned. Each delivery will be given its own quantity, requested and promised date; these can then be used in the forward planning of stock levels.

Order options allow for the recording of such optional data as source, rep, invoice hold, complete shipment, and for requested and promised for dates. Order lines can be processed for either description only, product lines or kitting lines.

Fast entry options, designed to speed up repetitive data entry tasks, are available for all types of transactions. The required fields for these options can be specified by user and transaction type. Template based order entry can be configured to allow standard product lists to be used, either globally or per customer. This option can speed up data entry tremendously for certain types of business. Templates can be based on previous orders, price lists, special template orders or a simple list held on the customer record.

Within de Facto S5, the user may also take advantage of special entry windows for telesales fast entry. These windows allow the user to specify a table of fields they wish to use for entry. They can also be produced on a bespoke basis, and include complex functionality to improve this key aspect of the software.

During order entry, the user always has clear sight of current and free stock levels by warehouse. For certain businesses, the need to carry out real-time stock allocation is a key requirement which de Facto S5 supports as standard.

A further useful option shared by all de Facto S5 transaction types is the ability to have both internal and external references, as well as a unique system number for all transactions. Descriptions and notes facilities are available at both the header and the detail level on all transactions. User-entered reference and description data can be corrected easily after posting.

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Sales Order - Order Entry

The S5 Sales Order Processing window is an example of the highly configurable nature of de Facto S5, and as such has a large number of different display possibilities.

The de Facto S5 sales order processing module provides facilities to handle the processing of back orders automatically; these orders are included within the batch process picking routine, and therefore all back orders can be shipped as soon as they are required and stock is available.

Forward orders are also handled automatically, and stock can be held for these orders to ensure that they are available for picking at the required time. Further options exist for ensuring that either individual order lines or whole orders are picked. Options also exist for the automatic completion of orders after the first shipment, and the recording of any non-shipments as missed sales. Orders can also be completed manually if required.

Carry forward options are provided for use in the retail sector, whereby distributors commonly do not carry back orders. In these circumstances, when placing an order, the user will be given an option of rolling forward the previous outstanding items onto the new order.

The de Facto S5 price and discount structures offer a comprehensive series of options. Facilities include either quantity breaks or multiple bands within a price list. These can be set as net prices, discounts or mark-ups. There are additional facilities for total order volume, weight or value-based discounts or bands. Discounts or bands may also be applied to subtotals by product groups within an order, based on volume, weight or value.

Price groups and fixed discount groups can be applied to individual order lines or product group totals within an order, and these permit customer price variations by product group. Multiple Price Lists linked to a customer allow customer special prices or price groups to over-ride general price lists. Standard lists of price groups can be assigned to customers, to speed up new account creation.

All price and discount lists can have multiple versions, thus maintaining a fully detailed pricing history. In addition, there are further facilities for using validity dates on pricing. The combination of pricing hierarchies and validity dates allows the handling of special offers or promotions, including over-lapping promotions.

Date-based validation may be set by order date, or requested, promised or 'hold until' delivery dates. Options for 'floating' prices allow prices to be applied at the point of despatch or delivery confirmation.

Price Lists can be held in any currency, and discounts can be transferred to sales orders as either net prices, or gross price and discount. A series of parameters control the application or accumulation of multiple discounts on the same order. Posting controls allow separate accounting for discounts, if required.

Linked price lists allow selling price lists to be linked to buying price lists and formulae applied for fixed price or percentage mark-up of base prices, quantity breaks and band prices. Automated facilities exist for the maintenance of price lists from sales orders, so that re-negotiated prices can automatically update the price list.

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Sales Order Pricing Parameters

Within any business, Product Pricing is one of the most potentially complex aspects. de Facto S5 provides extensive options, not only over pricing itself, but also over they way in which a price is arrived at using the pricing parameters.

To assist with maintenance of price lists a number of powerful new features have been added to S5. These include an option which allows the use of custom scripts to handle the updating of prices within a list, between multiple lists or to set other data such as the priority supplier. A new command in the price list window allows the importing and updating of new prices into the current displayed version of the price list.

WinTi from Commidea.com has now been integrated with de Facto S5. This enables S5 to provide a new integrated option for the handling of credit / debit cards during sales order processing. This provides for real-time online pre-authorisation and debiting of cards. WinTi is suitable for use in both cardholder present and cardholder not present situations.

WinTi is secure, as it utilises address verification (AVS) and card security code (CSC) validation, and is able to support multiple merchant account processing, corporate purchasing cards and multi-currency processing. It allows for fast transaction authorisation.

The de Facto S5 integration provides on-line pre-authorisation at point of order entry, debiting of cards at point of dispatch or invoicing and automated creation and allocation of sales ledger receipts. All credit card data is held securely using 128bit 'Blowfish' encryption, keeping customer card details confidential from all users.

For those companies in a telephone sales environment, the ability to prompt users with special offer products is a key requirement. The de Facto S5 sales order processing module provides a flexible facility for defining global, customer group or customer specific promotions for an individual or range of products. These promotions are then prompted for during the order entry process, or can be incorporated into specially designed telephone sales entry windows.

This facility is especially useful for monitoring the full effect of a promotion. A promotion forecast can be built using from historical data, and then a user-defined formula can be applied to the history to create the forecast. Forecasts can be customer and product specific. Actual sales data is then updated against the forecast, and reports can then be produced to compare the forecasted effect of the promotion against the actual effect.

A new sales order processing customer window has been created to specifically focus on the needs of busy customer services users. The window provides a non accounting focus for all customer related activity.

The window allows the viewing of multiple types of data simultaneously, with new methods for inputting and updating of data. It specifically enables the quick and easy viewing and maintenance of the following data types relating to a customer: Address data, Contacts, CRM Events and Sundry customer related data.

As these are increasingly common in many sectors, de Facto provides the ability to automatically accrue for these. These can be based on a combination of a flat turnover percentage, or a value per product, which in turn can be either a percentage, or flat rate per unit. These accruals are then taken into account in gross margin reporting, and can be used for analysis purposes to calculate final rebate payments or credits.

In some distribution scenarios, suppliers will give special prices to their distributor to support their sales into a specific customer. This normally wreaks havoc with gross margin reporting within the distributor's business. The de Facto S5 logistics suite offers a solution whereby customers can not only have their own sales prices, but also a cost price for the product.

de Facto S5 will then carry out all of the complex accrual accounting behind the process, to ensure that both management accounts and margin reporting are accurately maintained.

Fly Kitting is a fast way of building a priced bill of materials within a line of sales order or quotation. This can then either be picked as part of the sales order picking process or alternatively, have a works order automatically generated for the kit, for independent processing.

Products can be set to automatically generate works orders, which are linked on a back-to-back basis to the originating sales order. The resulting works orders can then be processed either manually, or as part of the sales order picking process.

The de Facto S5 sales order processing module provides comprehensive EDI /XML facilities. These can handle incoming orders, delivery schedules, proof of deliveries and outgoing order acknowledgments, despatch advises (ASN's), delivery notes and for invoices.

New facilities enable the access to Post Code Address Files for address, company and individual data searching, selection and auto uploading via integration with QuickAddress Pro. With QuickAddress Pro, just a postcode and premise number are needed to generate complete and correctly formatted addresses, and even incomplete or partially inaccurate data can return complete results, saving you up to 80% on keystrokes.

QuickAddress Pro can be further enhanced with the addition of a full name to any specified residential address. A full address along with the names of the people living there can be returned from as little as a postcode and premise number. Optional data packs are available for access to Dun & Bradsheet for access to SIC codes, Employee numbers and more.

After a simple server based installation of the QAS data packs, integrating with de Facto S5 is easy to configure.

de Facto S5 is eServices enabled, with the ability to use on-line or off-line ordering as well as order status checking, usage history and product catalogue facilities to the customer. Orders can carry out optional stock checks if required; template orders can be used for repeat type customers.

On-line order status information can be viewed, and this can include expected shipment times, and links to web enabled carriers where applicable. Product catalogues can take advantage of URL's held within the de Facto S5 product database to publish graphical data, PDF format data sheets or even software downloads to the web site.

These provide a mechanism for de Facto S5 to automatically calculate shipment charges based on the schedule a customer or order is linked to, their distance band, and the shipment weight, volume or value.

Each delivery address and therefore sales order can be assigned to a default delivery route. These delivery addresses can then have default delivery routes and drop times for each day. The delivery routes can furthermore be used as defaults for the load planning in the transport module.

Each sales order can hold order dates, requested and promised delivery dates. These delivery dates can be varied by order line if required, using the scheduled orders. The dates are then used to organise the forward shipment plan held by the expediting system.

This option includes the ability to define multiple delivery addresses with linked invoice address. Each delivery address can have ideal delivery and routing dates/times stored, as well as standard notes for copying onto sales orders.

The customer record also allows the specification of all of the pricing and discounting options to be applicable to the customer, as well as the customers own product code and description lists. Other data such as default delivery schedule, nominal interface, and order entry requirements such as compulsory order number and contact can also be specified.

de Facto S5's comprehensive credit control facilities are tightly integrated into the sales ledger module. Credit checks are run during and after order entry, and at picking and delivery confirmation stage. Credit checks will validate credit limits, due dates of outstanding invoices, and periods of inactivity with the customer, as well as the last credit check dates.

Once held, only authorised users can remove an order from hold. Orders can be removed from hold temporarily or permanently. Cash receipts can automatically release an order from hold. On-line credit control is immediately available to the sales order processing user.

The de Facto S5 sales order processing module provides all the standard facilities for transaction entries you'd expect, including quotations, orders and credits. User defined transaction types may be used to dictate the data entry methods, processing options, document printing and accounting treatment.

The sales order processing module allows the creation of quotations, which are entered using all of the same facilities that are used by sales orders. Quotations can be converted to orders, with the order maintaining a link back to the originating quotation. Quoted prices are also recorded directly against the product on the customer details. Quotation activity for particular products can be taken into account on re-order calculations in the purchase order processing.

The Quotation facility allows the user to maintain full accessibility of the quotation history and all associated pricing information, such as discounts applied. Where materials or products are subject to rapid fluctuations in cost, the Sales Quotation feature gives the user the ability to time limit the quotation, with an associated 'valid until' date. Should the customer commit to an order, the quotation can be changed to a Sales Order with a single command. Full traceability is still maintained after this conversion, giving instant access to the history of all stages of the transaction. Using Events with Quotations, the user can easily set up chasing reminders, enabling them to efficiently monitor and detail the progress of a quote.

The sales order processing module allows the creation of credits, which are entered using all of the same facilities as sales orders. Credits can be based on sales orders, deliveries or invoices. Credited goods can be returned into QC warehouses, and quantities can be updated against the original sales order for shipment, if required. Price only credits can be given against lines where the price was invoiced incorrectly. These price credits will then update the gross margin reporting correctly.

de Facto S5 allows warning and handling notes to be defined per product, customer and customer/product combination. These notes can automatically be copied through onto sales order notes for document printing, if required.

Notes are available as either document header or footer notes or attached to the individual order line. Separate notes can be held for printing on order acknowledgments, picking lists, delivery notes and invoices, for example.

There is also the ability to define different formats for product notes, using stored product information and user-entered text. These can be automatically printed on the sales documentation.

The de Facto S5 sales order processing module can be configured to suit many different work flows, and offers very flexible control over when and how the different stages of processing are carried out. Options exist for processing orders directly to an invoice, or for stepping through many stages from allocation, picking, packing, loading, despatching, proof of delivery to invoicing.

Each stage can be carried out for either an individual order, or using the batch process screens on a selection of orders.

Processes can select stock either automatically or manually, the automatic process taking into account such elements as quality, best before dates, warehouse, unit of measure and age of batch. A variety of picking documents can be produced, from individual packing slips to consolidated picks for a range of orders.

Functions can again be performed for individual orders or a range. The user can then confirm shipment weights, transport costs, packers details and shippers waybill number. Delivery confirmation can as a result be used to record proof of delivery numbers before being released for invoicing. de Facto S5 provides options for the optimised handling of bulk picks, for the efficient picking of 100's of orders.

As with the other processes, Invoicing can be carried out on a single order, or on a range of orders via the batch processing facility. Options exist for holding invoices, consolidating or editing prices before producing, and posting the invoices.

The sales order processing module provides a dedicated type of order handling for the trade counter scenario. This allows for fast order entry, followed by cash receipt and production of a combined order and receipt. The receipts element handles multiple cash types and the allocation of cash to a till. This feature can be linked into the automated opening of till drawers, and integrated use of bar code scanners.

Trade counter enhancements have recently been made for faster and easier processing. This feature will be especially useful in busy trade counters, such as builders merchants.

All transaction types when posted are immediately updated to the respective ledgers, including the nominal ledger. Automated postings for such items as stock, cost of sales, work in progress, and accrual accounting can be made. All postings are defined via sophisticated 'Nominal interfaces' which control the selection of nominal accounts and cost centres for stock accounts or adjustment codes, for example.

This option provides the ability to store budgets and record actual data for quantity, sales value and cost value. Data can be stored for any combination of customer, product and supplier information, such as 'customer by product group' or 'Supplier by customer type'. This data can then be used for statistical reporting.

de Facto offers standard facilities for defining multiple levels of analysis codes on all types of records and transactions, at both the header and the detail levels. These codes can have user-definable titles and choice lists. Many standard reports can then use these analysis codes to select and sort data.

This provides the ability to specify a range of accounts which can be considered as a group for overall credit checking purposes.

For those companies involved in a fully integrated logistics chain, de Facto S5 now provides options for the creation and transmission of Advanced Shipment Notifications (ASN). Systems such as Sainsbury's Firewing follow this ASN standard. The ASN facilities in de Facto S5 can be used to notify a customer in advance as to what to expect in their upcoming deliveries. The data will include much of the information on the original purchase order, as well as such things as carton ID's, content descriptions and transportation details.

The benefits of these electronic shipping notices can be found in improved planning for receiving and warehousing operators, and a reduction in shipping errors through better visibility and validation in the transportation process.

A new feature has been added to improve the ability to handle the picking of multiple orders to a separate location, for subsequent packing. Options have also been added to allow pick waves to be generated, and for increased flexibility in the criteria used to select orders to pick.

Facilities have been added to allow for the building of individual packages within a shipment. These packages can contain sub-lists of their contents. Using carrier links, they can be used to generate carrier specific labels, or for inclusion within detailed advanced shipment notifications.

Have been improved by the addition of global fixed discount groups, each of which can comprise multiple fixed discount price lists. This new feature reduces the amount of discount and price maintenance required in a variety of situations.

de Facto S5 now provides a facility for the generation of carrier-specific packaging labels, including weighbill and routing data. We have commenced with Omega-Securicor, and plan to add others, based on user demand in the future.

Facilities have been added to easily control and restrict which products are available to customers, and in what quantities. These facilities are ideal when some form of authorisation is required from the customer head office, or from the supplier.

Customer organisational and product groupings enable the customer focused analysis of sales and marketing activation. Features have been added to allow for analysis using the customers own organisational and product groupings, i.e. Reps, Regions, Business units, etc.

To further extend the ability to produce customer focused analysis, de Facto S5 allows the customers own periods to be stamped onto transactions. This is especially useful when dealing with large organisations, such as the retail multiples.

A new Mailing Control facility has been added to the Marketing features of S5.

A further facility has been created to define Media Sources, so that the particular media source which has led to this particular sale can be recorded in the Sales Order. This information can then be used to provide an analysis of the success of marketing activity.

The Sales Order Processing module now has a new Profit Control System, which has been integrated into sales quotations and order processing. This allows the easy control over profit margin percentage and value by the user. It further allows easy access to the price and discount history for both the sale, and for potential required purchases. Full logging of any authorised margin overrides is provided, as is the ability to handle cost price control for non stock items.

Advance picking against anticipated stock from sales orders and production. Designed for use in 24/7 operations where 'the van can't wait for the admin office'.

de Facto S5 now provides the ability to access an MRP planning window from within a sales order or quotation. This window allows the user to quickly see when materials will be available to manufacture the selected products.

Rental - new facilities for anyone requiring the ability to handle rental based items within sales order processing.

A new Sales Order Module option is now available (from v5.0). 'Enquiry' allows you to begin a conversation with a customer and to obtain product price and stock availability information prior to deciding if the enquiry is to be saved as an order or as a quotation. This enhances the flexibility and efficiency of Sales operations.

A new Picking option (from v5.0) allows Vistas to be used to filter the order lines (expediting) which are to be auto picked from the selected orders. This simple option can be used in quite powerful ways, especially when considered in conjunction with order schedules, etc.

This function allows the user to look ahead to see whether stock will be available by the promised dates on Sales Orders. The checking can be done either automatically or manually, depending on the settings.

A new feature has been added to v5.1 to enable an e-mail to be sent to a predetermined e-mail address whenever a Sales Order is put on hold. A new event can also be created as a consequence if required.

This feature allows an unlimited number of templates to be set up in a matrix form, similar to a spreadsheet. Each can then be set up to display data and calculate different pricing scenarios for the user to compare and evaluate.

When inserting a sales quotation an existing template can be assigned or a new one inserted specific to the quotation. Called the 'Standard Cost Details' window it will then use the cell calculations to pull through the data and values relevant to the products in the quotation. The data in 'cells' may be amended as necessary to create the required pricing structure. Columns are then selected to be the selling price, intended cost price and intended supplier. These values are then updated to the quotation detail line selling prices, overwriting any existing values, and the Haggle window.

de Facto S5 now (v5.1 onwards) has the capacity to recalculate the 'Free Capacity' to deduct drop offs from the total capacity within the Transport Planning Unit and Transport Planning Extra Unit values (e.g.. Gross Weight and Pallets). This provides precise functionality for handling drop offs and collections. As each transport request is assigned to a load and updated the Assigned Transport Allocation and Transport Load windows will show the maximum free capacity of the vehicle available at that time.

The Transport Allocation window displaying assigned loads now also shows the Sales Transaction type as a 'Collection' or 'Drop'.

The current feature whereby a product can be flagged as an alternative to another specified product has been significantly enhanced. The new functionality allows the alternative products to be automatically added to a Sales Quotation. It further allows products in a Sales Quotation to be flagged as alternatives to another 'on the fly'.

This enables the Sales Quotation to be raised for a product to also include a list of alternatives, more expensive options but quicker delivery, or a cheaper 'own brand' alternative, for example.

Sales Order packaging has been enhanced to enable 'packs within packs'. For example, products on a sale order can be packed into boxes, the boxes may be shrink wrapped together and then palletised for despatch.

Packaging items may now be categorised as consumable and flagged as waste, or marked as returnable. Returnable packaging can be added to the order as a chargeable rental item.

If a customer is set on Credit Hold from either the Sales Ledger customer record or from Sales Order Credit control, the 'On Hold' warning icon displayed on the Sales Ledger customer record will now also be displayed on the Customers window within Sales Orders.

The current Sales Orders process status function has been improved (in v5.2) to prevent Sales Orders from being edited except by authorised users. An order with an edit hold may still be processed unless the process status is also flagged as 'Prevent Processing.

An extra field has been added (in v5.2) to the Sales Order Packing window to display the product record secondary code.

The option to insert a Sales Order Enquiry has been added to the Sales Orders > Customers window. Clicking on the SOP button displays the options to create an Order, Credit, Quotation or Enquiry.

The Sales Order report 'Missed Sales Analysis' has been amended to clarify the data. Now both the Ordered Quantity and the Missing Quantity use the same ordered UOM unit. Previously the Ordered Quantity used the ordered UOM but the Missing Quantity was reported in the Base Unit measure.

A new column to show the missed order value has been added.

Two new features have been added the Sales Order Customer window.

1. Hide Scratch Pad - A new option on the Sales Order Customer window allows the scratch pad to be hidden enabling a larger area to display data from the Sales Order history Vistas. The user may toggle between the two views. If required, the option to hide the scratch pad may be set as the default for each customer type record. If this is selected the toggle option is not available and the scratch pad cannot be viewed unless the customer type view is changed.

2. Sales Order History Drop Down Menu - In previous versions only one Vista each could be defined as the default for Sales Order transactions and Sales Order details, a drop down menu has been added to enable different vistas to be selected thus changing the data which can be viewed.

When a Sales Order Credit or Purchase Order credit is created using the 'Base On' function, a 'Linked Transactions' icon is displayed on the transaction header. The linked transaction window lists the transaction upon which it was based and a 'Go To Transaction' button opens the related transaction.

When a product has been assigned to a Metrics group this information is now indicated in all sales and purchase order transactions. In the transaction detail line window if the selected product belongs to a Metrics group the letter 'M', coloured blue, will be displayed near the top of the window. Clicking on the 'M' opens a window displaying the metric details for that product.

Each of the categories listed below will have multiple versions exploiting the many options that the standard reports provide.

In addition to Purchase Order specific reports, de Facto S5 provides a comprehensive series of Standard Reports, many of which can be easily parameter driven by the user. S5 further provides the Vistas feature, which are a powerful and easy way of selecting, sorting, displaying and working with data from either single or multiple tables.