The subscriptions menu

This is the right-hand menu in the Sales Order Processing volume. Since all of the setups and entries are done via Products and Orders (as described above), this menu is simply used to process the Subscriptions. Its functions enable you to issue Deliveries, Invoices and Renewal reminders.

Once the Mailing process is over, you will be asked, 'Do you now want to record these Renewal reminders as Done?'. Usually, you will want to, in order to prevent re-mailing the same reminders.

This function displays the Order Items More Choices window, then immediately shows the Subscriptions More Choice window on top. This means that once you have chosen the Subscriptions search criteria, you can then add Order Items criteria, such as Confirmed Orders only.

The Subscriptions criteria default to Type ISS (for ‘Issue’) and Date To Do up to today, but you may want to add a search by Product Code if you wish to limit deliveries to just one publication or group of publications.

Enterprise 6 then lists the Order Items found that need Deliveries to be Issued. You can select from this list in the normal way before pressing [√] to continue. When you do so, Enterprise 6 asks, ‘Do you want to print Delivery Notes, or to use a different SuperReport form?’. If you have set up forms such as Labels or Despatch Notes, you could select one of these, otherwise choose the Delivery Notes option. This prints standard Enterprise 6 Delivery Notes (or their SuperReport equivalent), one for each Company to which the Order Items relate. Therefore, multiple Items from different Orders can appear together on one Delivery Note.

Once printing has been completed, Enterprise 6 will ask, ‘Do you now wish to mark any relevant Subscription Details as Done?’. One would normally say [Yes], which means that these same Items will not now appear in the list to deliver until another of their Issue Dates is reached. Note, though, that if you have got behind on Issues, it is possible for the same Item to appear twice in quick succession (that is, in two separate runnings of the function), because only one Subscription Detail line will be marked off as Done each time it is run.

In the case of Orders for Products with the Perpetual Issues & Billing check box switched on, after printing Delivery Notes Enterprise 6 will ask ‘Do you now wish to mark any relevant Subscription Details as Done?’. If you say [Yes], the ISS line will be given a Date Done, and will be duplicated as a new To Do item with the next relevant Issue Date. Thus if you Viewed Subscription Details for the Order Item the list would now contain three items- one BIN and two separate ISSs.

On selecting this function, the Order Items More Choices appears, with the Subscriptions one on top. The Type field defaults to ‘B@’ in order to find all Billing Subscriptions records. If you have Order Items of different Subscription Billing Types (the available options are BIP - Bill Invoice & Payment, BIN - Bill Invoice but No Payment, BNP - Bill No Invoice but Payment, BNN - Bill No Invoice & No Payment), you should specify which one you want to search for, and should run this function once for each Type in use.

After having clicked [Find], you are shown a list of Order Items meeting the criteria specified. As usual, you can manually select items if appropriate. After clicking [√] to accept the list, you are asked the standard question 'Create x Invoices / Credit Notes?', and the subsequent checking, printing and posting processes are exactly the same as for printing multiple Invoices from Orders.

Internally, the Invoices are created slightly differently, because the 'Amount Ex Tax' is taken from the relevant Subscriptions record rather than from the Order Item, and the Product Name may be altered as specified in the Subscription Details. If there are several Orders from the same Company on the system, all needing Subscriptions Invoices, they will all appear on a single Invoice. In other words, this applies when a client has taken out subscriptions to several products or publications and the issue of each is due at the same time.

Note, however, that one Subscription Order Item can only appear once on an Invoice. This means that if you are behind with your Invoicing, and two or more Subscription Billing lines belonging to the same Order are actually 'due' according to the dates of your initial search, only the oldest will actually appear on the Invoice. In this situation, you would need to run the Billing process twice or more in succession in order to catch up.

After the Invoices have been Posted, but not if they have been Batched, you are asked 'Do you want to post Receipts against any of these Invoices?'. If you say [Yes] you are simply shown the normal Receipts listing, containing the Invoices you have just created. From here you can post Receipts against some or all of the Invoices. This can be done very simply by highlighting all Invoices against which payment has been received on a particular date, irrespective of Company, and clicking the [Receipt] button.

In the case of Orders for Products with the Perpetual Issues & Billing check box switched on, once the Invoices have been sucessfully created and posted based upon the original BIN lines, then, after a request for confirmation, these will be marked with the Date Done and Invoice Number, and duplicated to create the next BIN To Do line.

The implication of the above duplication system used in the ‘Issue Deliveries’ and ‘Subscription Billing’ functions for Perpetual items is that its successful implementation depends on the functions being run at the appropriate times. If you were to omit a month then the system would continue to work, but the Specific Dates would remain a month behind unless you altered them manually. Note also that if for any reason an Order Item has more than one To Do Issue or Billing Subscription Item, then the duplication will not take place - it will be assumed that the extra Item(s) should be Done before any new ones are created. This duplication system ensures that open-ended Subscriptions can be fulfilled for as long as necessary.

In the event that such a Subscription does come to an end, you should go to the original Order, View the Subscription Details for the relevant Order Item, and type “Stop” into the Invoice Number field of both the ‘To Do’ Subscription Items that you will find there - ie both ISS and BIN. These will be at the bottom of the list of Order Items. Typing “Stop” will cause the Date Done to be filled with the current date, thereby preventing any further action being taken. Removing the To Do items with the [-] button would have the same effect, but would mean that there would be no record of when the Subscription was stopped.

This option is also available from the Word Processing Volume's Mailing menu under the title 'Subscriptions Renewals'. It requires the Word Processing volume to be present.

The searching process is as for Deliveries and Billing (described above), but with the default Type Code of ‘REN’. If you want to send a Letter that is specific to one Product, you should specify that Product in the More Choices window.

After clicking [Find] and confirming the list of found Order Items by clicking [√], you are asked ‘Do you want to mail each Subscription individually (x Items), or once to each different Ordering Company (y Items) ?’ If you choose the [Subscription] button, one Document will be printed for every single Order Item that is found. In other words, a single Company might receive several reminders, one for each Subscription requiring Renewal .

You then have access to very detailed information: any field from the Orders, Order Items, Subscriptions or Products files can be inserted into the Document. A sample letter might read: ‘You placed an Order with us on «[ORDERS]Order Date» for a «[ORDER ITEMS]Product Name». If you wish to continue with your Subscription, please place an Order at the current price of £«[PRODUCTS]Sales Price».

’If, on the other hand, you choose the [Company] button, a single Document will be printed for each different Company that has been found in the search, irrespective of how many of its Subscriptions are due for Renewal. In this case, you cannot access specific information about the Order Items or Subscriptions for inclusion in the Document, but the «ProductsD» variable can be inserted, which will list the Product Names of the Subscriptions, together with Quantities.