Use this function to enter Enquiries (ie, Sales Orders of the lowest File State). Its screen appears as follows:
State
The title of the screen reflects the current State of the Enquiry. The default on creating an Enquiry will be the State defined in the Data Manager with the lowest Code (as sorted alphabetically). The arrow buttons can be used to upgrade or downgrade the State. The State Code can also be used to alter the State. Overtype the Code with either the new Code (in whole or in part) or the new File State Name (again either whole or in part). For example, typing “Q” here will be sufficient to alter to ‘Quotation’. The Code is a concatenation of the File Number (024 in the case of Sales Orders) and the State Code of the chosen File State.
The Order Processor can search for all newly entered Orders, check and process them as required and then change their current State to ‘Confirmed’. Each State can have various functions assigned to it. For example, on entering an order, and on upgrading to Confirmed Status, you could choose to have a Credit Check on both of the Company and any of its Superiors (ie parent Companies) made. You could also ensure that an Order is of ‘Confirmed’ Status before Invoices can be raised. These settings are established using the Files States function in the Data Manager.
Company
Type here the Company Code of the customer involved, or of the Stock Order company whose code was set up in Preferences. Enter the initial letters of a Company (or Surname for private individuals). If there is only one Company in your database starting with those letters, details will be brought up; if there is more than one you will need to choose from a selection on the right of the screen; and if there are none you will be prompted to [Create it] (See ‘Enter Companies’). You can also enter a Postcode or Telephone Number to bring in the correct Company.
On entering a Company Code (and on upgrading a New Order to a Confirmed Order), a Credit Check of the Company and any Superiors (ie parent Companies) is made. Depending on the settings on the Sales Orders & Ledger screen of Preferences, users will either be merely warned about Companies over their Credit Limit, or prevented from entering Enquiries.
Contact
Either after or before entering the Company, you can specify a Contact name. If you have put in the Company and enter an @ sign and there is only one Contact at that Company, his/her full name will be confirmed immediately. If more than one exists, you can select from a list that appears, or create a [New] one. You may also enter a Surname or Forename into the box and the system will search by these.
If no Company Code has been entered, you can enter a Contact Code or part of their first or surname. Selecting a Contact from the resulting list will cause the appropriate Company Code to be brought in as well.
Order Code
This number will be created sequentially by the system, so should usually be left alone. If you want to change the sequence, don’t do it here, but in the ‘Unique File Nos’ list within Preferences in the Data Manager volume. You may change the code manually to match your own method if required, but do so before Enquiry Items have been entered.
Note that the Order Code will remain the same throughout the life of the Enquiry, surviving all alterations of the File State. Therefore, when searching by Order Code, Enterprise 6 will find Enquiries and Quotations as well as full Orders, indeed all Orders will be found, whatever their File State.
Enquiry Date
The date of the Enquiry will be assumed to be today’s, but can be changed. The text of the field name will alter according to the current File State.
Source
Use of the wildcard (@) here will bring up a list of possible sources, from whom the Client first heard about your company. The EnquiryWriter companion volume can produce a report analysing the success of each Source.
It is possible to attach Products to Sources. For example, you might run an advertising campaign offering a free gift to everyone that places an order. When entering the Enquiry, if you type in an appropriate Source (and have set the Source up correctly on the Core Menu in the Data Manager), an Item line for the free gift Product will be created automatically. By having the Preference ‘Default previous Source for Enq/Qtn/Ord’ switched on, this process can be automated if there are many Enquiries to be entered with the same Source. This facility depends on the File State of the Enquiry on screen. It will be available if the File State has been allocated Functions Access to the ‘Copy Previous’ function.
Type
This can be used for any number of purposes, allowing groupings of Enquiries by type of work involved - for example, Equipment Sales, Training Orders or Support Contracts. Such classification would mainly be used for searching and reporting purposes. You could also use Product Codes for this purpose (if you have constructed your Product Codes to reflect this sort of division), but searching for Enquiries whose Products match certain criteria is much slower. Also, it is non-exclusive (for example, a hardware Enquiry with a single training day would mean that the Enquiry would be found when searching for Training Enquiries and Hardware Enquiries). Using Type for this purpose is therefore much faster and clearer. The Data Manager look-up list for Order Types is the same as that already used for Job & Booking Types.
Person
Enter the initials of the person responsible for the Client - the one who will receive commission if you work on this basis. Use the @ sign to see a list of the people available.
Taken By
This field defaults to the current user. It can be used to record who actually took the Enquiry or, alternatively, who entered the Enquiry to Enterprise 6. Again, the @ sign can be used.
Your Order No
Type in the customer’s Order Number, if applicable. If the Order on screen is at Enquiry or Quotation status, entering data to this field will cause Enterprise 6 to ask if you would like to upgrade to New Order.
Forecast Date/%
These fields are used mainly when entering Orders of Enquiry or Quotation status. Salespeople should use them to record the date by which they should be able to confirm the Order, and the percentage probability that the Order will be confirmed. There is an Order Forecasts report which uses these figures.
Required Date
Enter here the date by which the Customer requires the Order to be completed. Enterprise 6 places a default date in this field, and the relation of this default to the Order Date is set in Preferences in the Data Manager volume.
Currency
Enter here the currency in which you will be dealing. The default is set in Preferences, and the wildcard can be used to bring up a list.
Analysis
If appropriate, enter here the Analysis Code of your department or branch of your Company dealing with this Enquiry. As well as being used for reporting purposes, this ensures the correct address, VAT Number and other information appears on any stationery or forms printed which refer to this order.
Layer
This field is enterable only if the Multi-layer Financial companion volume is present. It defaults to the Actual Layer set up in Preferences. When this Enquiry is upgraded to Confirmed Order status and Invoices and Purchase Orders are created from it, they will be allocated this Layer Code. The Layer will then be posted to the Sales and Purchase Ledgers and from there to the Nominal ledger.
Enclosures…
When entering Products, it is possible to record enclosures that go with a particular product, such as special manuals or brochures. As you add Products to the Enquiry, appropriate Enclosures are listed here and can also be listed on WP documents associated with the Enquiry.
To obtain a larger version of this field, ensure your cursor is within it and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu. A larger version of the field also appears on page 2.