Tutorial: Customer Orders |
The Portal provides facilities to track and monitor customer orders. In this tutorial we will discuss the maintenance and reporting on customer orders in the Portal.
This tutorial outlines the features of the Customer Orders Menu. The Customer Orders Menu can be opened by selecting the Menus link followed by Customer, Services and Customer Orders from the Navigation Menu. Two sections make up the Customer Orders Menu, Orders and Reports, and there is also the standard Menus and Logout links found in the Navigation Menu throughout.
In this section of the tutorial we will discuss the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu. The Orders section focuses on the maintenance of customer orders, providing screens to create, edit, finalise, print and delete customer orders from the Portal. Select the Orders link in the Customer Orders Menu to open the Orders section.
The first link in the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu allows you to create a New Customer. The process of creating a new customer is described in detail in the Customer Maintenance tutorial. Similarly, the Edit Customer link in the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu allows you to edit an existing customer, a process which is also described in the Customer Maintenance tutorial. In this section of the tutorial we will investigate the other two links in the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu, Find Order and Edit Order.
The Find Order link in the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu opens the Customer Order Search screen. This screen allows you to search for an order by its order number. Enter the Order Number to search for and select the Site to search. Press the Search button to load the details of the order. The Order Number, Customer Name, Account Number, Status, Order Date and Due Date are displayed for the order. Select the Order Number link in the report to open the Customer Orders screen with the details of the order loaded.
Select the Edit Order link from the Orders section of the Customer Orders Menu to open the Find Customer (Orders) screen. This screen is very similar to the Find Customer screen, except that once a customer is selected the Customer Orders screen is opened instead of the Customer Maintenance screen. Use the Custom tab in the Find Customer (Orders) screen to search for the customer by Name, Customer Number, Customer ID or Card Number. Alternatively, select a tab with a letter to display all customers whose surname begins with the selected letter.
After you have selected the customer, the Customer Orders screen is opened. The Customer name and Code are displayed for your reference. Select an Order Number to edit an existing order or New Customer Order to create a new one for the selected customer. Select the Location for the order. As the order is updated, the Pending Total and Order Status are automatically updated and displayed for your reference. There are three tabs of information that need to be filled in for a customer order:
Customer, containing the contact details for the customer. These will be automatically loaded from the customer database when you select the customer but can be edited if necessary.
Details, allowing you to enter the Due date, any Deposit paid, a Purchase Order number and any miscellaneous Instructions for the order.
Items, allowing you to add items to the order. Enter the Item Code for an item in the provided field and press the Add button to insert it into the order grid. Alternatively use the Find button to search for the item if you do not know the item code. As each item is entered, the item's Description and Unit Price is displayed for your reference. Edit the number of cartons, order quantity and supplied quantity for the item and press the Update button to save the line to the order. The Delete button allows you to remove a line from a customer order.
Use the Print button to open a PDF version of the customer order. This can subsequently be printed or saved to disk as needed. The Invoice Order button appears if the customer has a valid debtor account. Press this button to create a debtor invoice for the order. Click on the Finalise button to finish the order when all items have been delivered to the customer and the order has been signed off. Note that once an order is finalised it cannot be edited. You can also use the Delete Order button to remove the order from the Portal if historical reporting on customer orders is not needed.
A series of reports exist in the Portal aimed at helping maintain your Customer Orders records. In this part of the tutorial we will investigate the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu. Click the Reports link in the Customer Orders Menu to open the Reports section.
The first link in the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu, Customers, opens a report that lists the contact details of each of the customers that have an order currently in the Portal for the selected Site. For each customer in the report, the customer's Name, Site, Address, Suburb, State, Postcode, Phone Number, Mobile Number and Fax Number are displayed. Clicking on a customer's name opens the Customer Orders screen, allowing you to edit an existing order or create a new one for the selected customer.
The Summary link in the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu opens a report that outlines totals of orders made for each customer at the selected Site during a specified period. The Type drop-down allows you to filter this report by order status - Pending, Finalised, Delivered, Deleted or All.
Selecting a customer's name in the Summary report opens a popup menu allowing you to perform the following functions:
Edit this Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
Show Items Purchased by this Customer, opens the Supplied Items report which lists the items that the selected customer has ordered during the period. This report can also be filtered by Site and period, and the Display drop-down list allows you to report on the Top 5, Top 10, Top 15 and so on number of items.
Select Customer Order for this Customer, opens the Customer Orders screen, allowing you to edit, print or create a customer order for the selected customer.
The Orders (Due) link in the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu opens a report that outlines details of orders that are due during the selected period for the specified Site. The Type drop-down list allows you to filter the report according to the status of the orders - Pending (default), Finalised, Delivered, Deleted, Cancelled or All. Information displayed in the report includes the Customer Name, Account Number, Site Name, Order Number, Order Status, Order Date, Due Date, Deposit, Total Amount and Amount Due.
Click on a customer's name to open a popup menu to allow you to perform the following functions:
Edit this Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
Edit Customer Order, opens the Customer Orders screen allowing you to edit, print or create an order for the selected customer.
Reprint Customer Order, opens a PDF version of the order which can subsequently be printed or saved to disk as needed.
The Prep List link in the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu opens a report that lists the details of the orders for the selected Site during the specified period. The Type drop-down list can be used to filter the report according to the status of the orders. Information displayed in this report includes the Customer's Name, Phone Number, Order Number and Due Date. For each item in the order, the Item Description and Code, Unit Price, Number of Packs Ordered, Quantity Ordered and Line Total are displayed. Totals are displayed for each order with the Deposit Paid and Amount Due displayed.
Select a customer's name to open a popup menu with the following functions:
Edit this Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
Edit Customer Order, opens the Customer Orders screen allowing you to edit, print or create an order for the selected customer.
Reprint Customer Order, opens a PDF version of the order which can subsequently be printed or saved to disk as needed.
The Picking List link in the Reports section of the Customer Orders Menu opens a report that displays the items ordered at the selected Site during the specified date range. The Type drop-down list allows you to filter the report according to order status - Pending, Finalised, Delivered or All. The report displays the Item Code, Item Description, Order Number, Quantity Ordered, Packs Ordered, Unit Price and Line Total is displayed for each item ordered. Totals are displayed for each order and the report as a whole.
Select an item code to open a popup menu, allowing you to perform the following functions:
Edit this Customer, opens the Customer Maintenance screen allowing you to edit the details of the selected customer.
Edit Customer Order, opens the Customer Orders screen allowing you to edit, print or create an order for the selected customer.
Reprint Customer Order, opens a PDF version of the order which can subsequently be printed or saved to disk as needed.
In this tutorial we have looked at customer ordering in the Portal in detail. We have discussed the maintenance of customer orders and displayed the reports that help in tracking and packing of customer orders.