Setting up job costing using the Data Manager Core menu

It is recommended that, when setting up the Transaction Type whose Code you are entering here, you switch on the check box entitled ‘Prevent use of this Transaction Type in Nominal/General Ledger postings’. Invoices should be created in the Sales Ledger and from there posted to the General Ledger - they should not be entered directly to the General Ledger and switching this check box on will prevent this happening. Using this Transaction Type in the General Ledger carries with it the risk that your Trade Debtors account will no longer equal the sum of your Sales Accounts. For the same reason, you should also switch on this check box for the seven other Transaction Types whose Codes also appear on this Preferences screen, and for all Accounts affected by those Transaction Types.

Many files in Enterprise 6 can have their contents subject to a secondary level of classification. For example, the Sales Order file might contain the sub-divisions of ‘Enquiries’, ‘Quotations’, ‘New Orders’, ‘Confirmed Orders’, ‘Cancelled Orders’ and ‘Lost Orders’. There might be functions which are appropriate to one sub-division but not another. For example, creating and printing Invoices would be acceptable for ‘Confirmed Orders’ but not for ‘Enquiries’, while for printing a quotation the preference would be the other way round. The sub-divisions are known as ‘File States’ and they a completely user definable. The files which feature File States are Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Jobs and Projects. This function is used to carry out this definition. The title bars in the entry screens for these files each contain Upgrade and Downgrade buttons which are used to change State. They also show a numeric code which can be overtyped and which is a concatenation of the File Code and the State Code. When you have added or modified any File State, you will be asked, ‘Do you want to rebuild the File States tables according to any changes made?’. If you click [Yes], the updating is carried out. If you click [No], the lists of States shown in the More Choices windows may no longer match the States allocated to records, and the default States for new records will not be changed until Enterprise 6 is restarted. This will also apply to other users if you make changes while they are logged on. The File State screen appears as follows—

State code

This field, which can hold three characters, is not required to be unique over all files, but should be unique for the definitions you make for one file. The automatic creation process will create codes such as 10, 20, 30 which are in a sortable order. Room for later expansion is also provided in this structure. The alphabetic sorting of these State Codes will determine how the Upgrade and Downgrade buttons work, so the structure is very important. The lower the code, the lower the State. For example, ‘Enquiry’ might be code 10, while ‘Confirmed Order’ might be code 40. Letters can be used as well as numbers.

Listing name/entry name/abbreviated name

Listing Name is a maximum of 21 characters long, and is the text used to refer to the State on screen in listing layouts and More Choices windows. Entry Name is 31 characters long, is always in uppercase, and is used as the heading of entry pages. For Projects, for example, you might create ‘Provisional - PROVISIONAL PROJECT’, ‘Confirmed - CONFIRMED PROJECT’, ‘Current - CURRENT PROJECT’. Note that if you want the word ‘PROJECT’ to appear when looking at the Projects entry screen, you must add it here - it will not be appended automatically. Abbreviated Name is used where the State Name needs to be very compact - such as on field names of entry screens. It is only 7 characters long.

File number

This field is used to refer to the file for which you’re defining States. File Numbers of files for which File States should be defined are 024 for Sales Orders, 026 for Jobs, 057 for Purchase Orders and 089 for Projects. This is most easily done by means of the File Names pop-up menu that appears when you click on the grey downward facing arrow.

Functions access…

Click on the functions which are applicable to the State on screen. Bullets (•) appear beside the enabled functions. These functions are described below.

Acknowledgement

Allows the printing of Order Acknowledgements.

Authorisation

Allows the printing of Order Authorisations.

Copy previous

Allows the use of the Copy Previous function, which should be restricted once data has begun its ‘processing’ stages. Also controls whether entering a Source will create an Order Item for the Source’s associated Product.

Credit check

This activates two credit checking routines at the point of upgrading to the State in question. The first routine checks the Company’s current Default Credit Stage, and if that Credit Stage’s check box ‘Prevent State change if Credit Check is allocated to State’ is switched on, it will not allow the upgrade. The second routine checks the credit balances of the Company and brings up the same credit checking window as occurs when you specify a Company.

Delivery notes

Allows the printing of Delivery Notes.

Full details form

Allows the printing of the Full Details Form.

No deletions

Prevents the Deletion of records with the relevant State. On entry layouts the Palette [Delete] button will be greyed appropriately when you press the Upgrade button. This greying can’t apply to the listing layout, which may contain more than one State, so when you try to Delete you may get a message ‘The File State … does not allow Deletions’. You may wish to prevent deletions for confirmed orders, for example, which has attached stock movements and invoices.

Prevent downgrade

This option can make it impossible for a user to downgrade. It applies to the State from which you are downgrading.

Prevent if delivered

This option makes it impossible to change to a given State if the Order already has one or more Order Items that have been Delivered. It might be appropriate to switch this on for Cancelled Orders.

Prevent if invoiced

Likewise, makes it impossible to change to a given State if the Order already has one or more Order Items that have been Invoiced. Automatically allocated to Cancelled Order.

Prevent if stock allocated

Again, makes it impossible to change to a given State if the Order already has one or more Order Items that have had any Stock Allocated.

Prevent upgrade

This option can make it impossible for a user to upgrade. It applies to the State from which you are upgrading.

Purchase ledger

This allows access to Purchase Ledger functions, where available.

Purchase orders

This allows access to Purchase Ordering functions, if this volume is present. It would be appropriate to switch this on for Confirmed Orders.

Sales ledger

This allows access to Sales Ledger functions (printing Proformas and Invoices) if this volume is present.

Stock control

This allows access to Stock Control functions (the Allocation/Unallocations options on the Functions menu) if this volume is present.

Warn on downgrade

This produces a warning message on downgrading. It applies to the State from which you are downgrading.

Warn on upgrade

This produces a warning message on upgrading. It applies to the State from which you are upgrading.

Preferences

There are three sections of Preferences that contain settings relevant to Sales Order Processing. These screens and settings are described below.

User details   (command-1 or control-1)

The single setting on this section relevant to Sales Order Processing is the [Order Item] button. This can be used to test and/or change the number that is the ‘base’ for the Order Item Number unique sequence. This number is incremented whenever a new Order Item is created. In normal circumstances, this button will only be used when importing Order Items into another data file. In such a circumstance, there is a risk of a duplicate Order Item Number when creating a new Order Item. Therefore, the button should be used to record the last Order Item Number used in the old data file, and to change that in the new data file to that recorded.

Sales orders and ledger   (command-5 or control-5)

Default days for orders required date When entering Orders, the default Required Date is determined by adding the figure entered here to the current date.

General company price group

This setting requires the Price Matrix companion volume to be present. Please refer to the Companion Volumes chapter in the Reference manual for more details.

Default credit stage

When creating a Sales Order and the Client does not have a current Credit Stage, Enterprise 6 will use this Credit Stage as a default. This will enable consequent Invoices to enter the debt collection process. See the section elsewhere in this chapter on Credit Stages for more information.

Calculate prices to … decimal places

Wherever Prices or Discount percentages are calculated by Enterprise 6, they will be calculated and stored to an accuracy specified here. This can be used to overcome the problems associated, for example, with giving Discount percentages on very low prices, which are aggravated if the Quantities are large. For example, a Quantity of 1000 at a Unit Price of £0.26 and with a Discount of 10% will result in a Sales Amount of £230.00 with the preference set to 2, but £234.00 with it set to 4. The preference can be set to between 2 and 6 decimal places, with a default of 2. ‘Amounts’ (as opposed to ‘Prices’) and all accounting numbers are not affected by this setting, and are carried out to 2 decimal places. Note that this setting does not affect the way that the Prices are actually displayed - this is also set to 2 decimal places.

Default payment terms

When creating an Invoice and the Client does not have default Payment Terms in its record, Enterprise 6 will use these as a default.

Default currency code

If you intend to use the Multi-currency volume, enter here the code of your principal currency. Default previous source for enq/qtn/ord When entering Enquiries, Quotations or Orders, Enterprise 6 will remember the Source of the previous one entered and place it in the new one, if this is switched on. In most cases, since only a minor field is affected, this will not have any significant impact as a labour saving device. However, in some cases, where the Source has an attached Product, this Product will be brought into the new Order as well. For example, you may be entering a batch of Orders which are in response to an advertisement offering a free gift. As you enter the Orders, each will default to the Source (the advertisement) and each will automatically have one Product attached as an Order Item (the free gift). Note that switching this preference on will have a detrimental effect on Enterprise 6’ processing speed.

Allow sales people full order processing

If this box is checked, personnel using the EnquiryWriter companion volume within the Diary Manager will have access to the full Order Processing screen and functions - i.e. cost prices, margin information, the ability to print Purchase Orders, and so forth, providing the relevant volumes are present. If it is not checked, the Enquiry handling screens will be simpler, with no Order Processing or Stock Control features. Sales personnel will be able to enter Orders, but not process them.

Calculate margin on a ‘cost plus’ basis

When entering Sales Order Items or Job Cost Items, the option is available to display the margin as a percentage of the Sales Price or of the Cost Price. Which option is chosen will also accept how the Sales Price is calculated if a percentage figure is entered by the user to the Margin field. Switch this check box if you would like the margin to be displayed as a percentage of the Cost Price.

Calc standard margin from actual sales price

Normally the Standard Margin would be calculated as the difference between Standard Sales and Cost Prices, but if Standard Sales prices are not used - just Standard Costs for commission purposes - then the check box should be set to make the figure more useful.

Print delivery address on order forms

If switched on, the Quotation, Order Authorisation and Acknowledgement Forms will be printed with the Delivery Address (if specified) instead of the Order’s Page 1 address (ie instead of the main Company address).

Print orders’ and invs’ comments

Both the Sales Order and Invoice screens contain Comments fields which can be printed on associated paperwork. To print them, a printing check box on page two of the relevant screen should be switched on. If you would like this check box switched on by default (ie you would usually like these Comments printed), switch this preference on. The Comments appear as the first item on the Invoice or Sales Order form.

Print their items’ descriptions

When entering Products, there is a Description field available to record details of the Product (perhaps key specifications). If you would like these Descriptions to appear on Invoices and Sales Order paperwork, switch this preference on. The description will appear on the line(s) below the Product Name, slightly indented and in a font size one size smaller. Note that this Preference affects the printing of Purchase Orders as well as of Sales Orders.

Transfer discount to inv product

If switched on, when Invoices are created from Orders, each Order Item that contains a Discount figure will, in the corresponding Invoice Item, have text of the pattern ‘@ 20% Discount’ added to the Product Name. This will therefore be printed on the Invoice.

Enforce credit checks

Enterprise 6 has a two-stage credit-checking procedure. The second, more serious, stage is governed by this check box. If switched on, it will not allow Confirmed Orders to be saved, or New Orders to be upgraded to Confirmed Status if the Client is in breach of their Credit Terms (either overdue, or over their limit). A window appears informing you of their current credit situation and which Credit Stage they have reached.

Show credit checking window

This check box governs the first, less serious stage of the credit-checking process. When entering a Confirmed Order for a client that is in some way in breach of their Credit Terms, if this check box is switched on, Enterprise 6 will display a window warning of this breach, but only in an advisory capacity. In other words, the User can override the warning and confirm the Order if desired.

Credit notes use separate unique no.

If this check box is switched off, Credit Notes will be produced as part of the Invoice Number sequence.

Company status on enquiry

When a Company places an Enquiry or Quotation for the first time, their Status can be altered automatically by Enterprise 6. Enter here the Status to which you want the Company changed when they first place an order. Note that if the Status has already been set to the Company Status on Order (ie they are already clients), entering a new Enquiry or Quotation will not cause their Status to be downgraded to that of enquirer.

Contact status on enquiry

Similarly, the Status of the Contact who placed the first Enquiry or Quotation can be altered automatically by Enterprise 6. Enter here the Status to which you want the Contact changed when they first place an order. Again, downgrading will not take place.

Company status on order

When a Company places an Order for the first time, their Status can be altered automatically by Enterprise 6 when the Order is accepted. Enter here the Status to which you want the Company changed when they first place an order.

Contact status on order

Similarly, the Status of the Contact who placed the first Order can be altered automatically by Enterprise 6. Enter here the Status to which you want the Contact changed when they first place an order.

The items on this screen that are relevant to Sales Order Processing are described below. It is likely that you will have already considered these fields when setting up the General Ledger. Note that, if creating a new data file using the Business Templates system, the fields will be filled in with default values. If you change any of the significant Accounts or Transaction Types, be sure to amend the fields on this screen appropriately.

Current year periods

Type in the start and end Periods of your current financial year, eg 91/04 to 92/03. These fields will be automatically updated when the Close Financial Year function on the Utilities menu is run.

VAT accounts

Type in the actual Account numbers of the two VAT Accounts - the one used to process the current VAT Return, and the one used as a control Account to maintain current VAT Payments owing.

Cash VAT suspense account

If you wish to use Cash VAT processing, switch on the Cash VAT check box and enter here the appropriate Account Code of your Cash VAT Suspense Account.

Default standard VAT

Type in the VAT Code of the preferred default, which will be used everywhere in Enterprise 6 where VAT is calculated.

Invoice posting trans

Type in the Transaction Code of the Transaction Type you have created to post Sales Invoices. The Transaction type will describe a posting in which the Debit Account is Trade Debtors and the Credit Account is a default Sales Analysis.