Enter sales orders (command-o or control-o)

The Enter sales Orders function is available in two different sections of Daybook. Full functionality is available within the sales Orders Volume - designed specifically for sales Order Processing and integration with the sales Ledger. Some order processing functions are available from within the EnquiryWriter Companion to the Diary Manager volume (See the Diary manual for more details).
Orders entered here will refer to sales made to clients. If items are out of Stock, or are always only purchased for specific sales, then a Purchase Order form can be immediately printed for the goods through integration with Purchase Order Processing.

The information requested for each Order is as follows:

State

The title of the screen reflects the current State of the Order. The default on creating a new sales Order 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 (using the ‘View Orders’ function described below), 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 sales Orders.

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 do 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 Order Items have been entered.

Order date

The date of the Order will be assumed to be today’s, but can be changed.

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 sales Order, if you type in an appropriate Source (and have set the Source up correctly on the Core menu in the Data Manager), an Order 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 Orders to be entered with the same Source. This facility depends on the File State of the Order on screen. It will be available if the File State has been allocated Functions Access to the Copy Previous function.

Terms

If the Terms field was completed on page two of the Company record screen, the information is copied over to the Order. If not, a multiple list of Terms options appears for you to choose from, describing the Invoice payment terms relevant to the Order. These are automatically transferred to the Invoice.

Type

This can be used for any number of purposes, allowing groupings of Orders 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 sales Orders whose Products match certain criteria is much slower. Also, it is non-exclusive (for example, a hardware Order with a single training day would mean that the Order would be found when searching for Training Orders and Hardware Orders). 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.

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.

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 Order or, alternatively, who entered the Order to Daybook. 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 Daybook 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. Daybook 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.

Delivery method

A multiple list of possible delivery methods appears for you to choose from, which can be changed by clicking the list’s modify button. This field is entirely optional.

Analysis

If appropriate, enter here the Analysis Code of your department or branch of your Company dealing with this order. 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.
When creating Invoices from sales Orders whose Analysis is blank, a default Analysis will be applied to those Invoices and their Items, taken from that specified for the user in their Personnel record.

Layer

This field is enterable only if the Multi-layer Accounting companion volume is present. It defaults to the Actual Layer set up in Preferences. When Invoices are produced from this sales Order, the Layer will be posted to the sales Ledger and from there to the General Ledger.
Similarly, Purchase Orders created from this sales Order will be allocated to this Layer, as will Stock Movements of the Delivery Type.

Order items…

The Items included list contains a list of all the goods and services ordered. Click the [+] button in the palette or use <command-N> (Macintosh) or <control-N> (Windows) to create a new line ready for entry. The fields shown in the included list are fully user-definable using the ‘Definitions’ option on the [Editable/Selectable mode] button in the bottom right-hand corner of the included list.

You can manually sort the Items. With the included list in Selectable mode, click on the line you wish to move and drag it to its new position. You can also sort the items using the [Sort] button in the Buttons Palette. The sort order will be retained for the next time you view the Order - each Order Item has a Sort field used for this purpose.

Below are described all the Order Item fields that could possibly be displayed in the list.

Product code

Type in all or part of the Product Code in conjunction with the @ sign, and the name of the Product will be confirmed underneath.
Product name
The Product Code is in fact optional: you can also go to this second Product Name box and type any text to give a full description of work done, or add items such as Delivery at the Invoicing stage without reference to a Product Code.

Description

This defaults to the Description of the Product in the Products File. Double clicking on the Order Item will bring it up in a full screen layout containing a check box which should be switched on if you want this Description to be printed on paperwork associated with this Order. The default of this check box is determined by the setting ‘Print their Items’ Descriptions’ in the sales section of Preferences. If printed, the Description will appear under the Product Name, slightly indented and in a font one size smaller.

Qty

Enter the quantity required. note that any Product that requires Serial Numbers for Stock control purposes must be entered singularly. You may use the ‘Duplicate an Item’ function (see Functions below) to save typing.

Price per

This is an additional field that is used when both the sales and Cost Amounts of an Order Item are calculated. The calculation used is Amount = (Quantity/Price Per)*Price or, if the Amount field is changed, Price = Amount/(Quantity/Price Per). It should be used when the sales and Cost Prices brought in from the Product record refer to a multiple quantity of that Product.

The value in the field will default to the Price Per entered for the Product. It is impossible to set the Price Per field to 0 - in this event, it will reset itself to 1.

The field is a Real number, which means that you can use Decimal places if you require, though this will of course make Amounts rather less intuitive.

Note that when Daybook is launched for the first time, this field will not appear in the Items included list. If you would like it to appear, select ‘Definitions’ using the [Editable/Selectable mode] button in the bottom right-hand corner of the Items list, click [+] in the Buttons Palette, choose Price Per from the Fields pop-up, choose the Column Number (probably 3 to appear after Quantity) and finally click [√] twice.

The Price Per field will not appear as a column on the standard Daybook forms, but can be added to the SuperReport forms. To do so, duplicate the ‘SRQtyT’ box in the Items section of the forms, then double-click and rename it ‘SRPricePerT’. The ‘T’ stands for Text, because the value is converted to a text value, so that 1 can appear as 1 instead of 1.0 whilst 1.5 still appears as 1.5. You will want to add a column heading above the new field - use the [A] Palette tool to create one (in 10 point Times Italic if you have modified the default forms)

WARNING: This feature should be used with caution since a Price Per is not specified for each Product and therefore cannot be brought in together with a Products’ default sales and Cost Prices upon entry of a Product Code. Stock control also does not take account of the Price Per field.

Alloc

If the Stock control volume is present, this figure represents the allocations made against the Order Item. If this figure matches the Quantity field, the Order Item is fully ‘satisfied’, though not yet necessarily shipped. This figure is not enterable - it is for reference only. Use of the Allocation function will cause it to alter appropriately.

Price gr

If you have the Price Matrix companion volume, when you enter a Product Code, Daybook will search the Price Tables for the best match and place the appropriate Price Group here.

This can be modified by the user. Please refer to the Price Matrix section of the Core Data manual for more details.

Disc

This figure represents the percentage discount being given to the Client for this Item. If a figure is entered here, Daybook will calculate the percentage discount based on the Retail Price and place the resulting figure in the sales field. Similarly, if the sales figure is altered, Daybook will calculate the discount that the alteration represents and place the figure in this field.

Depending on the setting of the Preference ‘Transfer Discount to Inv Product’, which appears in the sales Orders & Ledger section, when Invoices are created from Orders, each Order Item that contains a Discount figure can, 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.

Retail

When the Product Code is entered, Daybook brings in to this field the Actual sales Price from the Products file. If you change the figure and you have the appropriate clearance entered as part of your personnel record and the Product is one which permits such changes, you will be asked if you want to update the price stored for the Product.

Sales

This represents the actual price at which this Item is being sold to the Client, and is therefore the figure which appears on the Invoice. When the Product Code is entered, Daybook brings in to this field the sales Price from the Products file. If a percentage figure has been entered to the Disc field, Daybook will calculate the percentage discount and place the resulting figure in this field. Similarly, if this figure is altered, Daybook will calculate the discount that the alteration represents and place that figure in the Disc field. If the line is being used purely for description, leave the Price at 0.00. The zeros will be replaced with blanks on printed forms.

Cost

Like the sales Price, the Cost Price defaults from the appropriate figure in the Products file. If there is more than one possible Supplier for any given Product, the one with the lowest cost price is chosen. If you change the figure and you have the appropriate clearance entered as part of your personnel record and the Product is one which permits such changes, you will be asked if you want to update the price stored for the Product.

If there is Stock available from which the Item can be taken, the Cost Price will alter after the Allocation process to show the actual cost price of the Item. If the Quantity is greater than one, and the Allocated Items carry different Cost Prices, this field will show the average Cost Price. If there is no current stock and it is necessary to raise a Purchase Order, the Purchase Order will take the price for the item from this field.

Margin

A percentage margin figure is calculated from the difference between Cost and sales prices.

Alternatively, if the Margin field is changed, the sales Price field is updated.

There is a Preference in the sales section ‘Calculate margin on a Cost Plus basis’ which controls whether the figure shown is a percentage of the Cost Price or of the sales Price.

Amount

The Amount figure is calculated as (Quantity/Price Per)*Price, or, if changed, will update the sales Price backwards.

VAT

The VAT Code of S - Standard is assumed for each item. Change this if VAT does not apply.

The VAT amount will be calculated automatically. The wildcard can be used to bring up a list of possible VAT Codes.

Item total

This figure is calculated by the system as the Item Amount inclusive of VAT.

Purchase order no

If an Order Item requires to be ordered from your suppliers before you can fulfil the client’s needs, you may here allocate the item(s) a manually-numbered Purchase Order Number, and use the ‘Print Purchase Order’ option described below. Alternatively, typing “N” will ensure that the Item is ordered either when you next run the ‘Batch Purchase Orders’ function in the Purchase Order Processing volume or when you use ‘Print Purchase Order’. In this case, the Purchase Order Number will be created automatically and placed in this field by the function.

If required, you can set up your File States (in the Data Manager) to ensure that the Order must be of at least Confirmed Status before the Purchase Order functions can be used.

OD/order date

When an Order Number is entered, the purchasing order date is made today’s automatically, though this can be changed.

Supplier

When the Product Code is entered, the Company Code of the Supplier is brought in to this field, providing the Product in question has previously been given Supplier details. If the Product has two or more potential Suppliers, the one with the lowest cost price will be selected.

The Supplier reference may of course be entered or changed, possibly using the wildcard (@) to look up the Company Name. If a Company is selected which is not a recognised Supplier for the Product, if you have the correct clearances in your Personnel record and if the Product is one that permits such changes, Daybook will ask whether the Company is to be added to that Product’s list of Suppliers. If it is to be added, the cost price for the new Supplier in the Product record is taken from the figure in the cost price field of the Order Item.
If the Item is out of stock, a Purchase Order will be raised in favour of the Company in this field. If the Item is in stock, this field will carry a record of the Supplier Company once the Allocation process has been completed.

Date received

This field records the date the Item was received into Stock. This information is taken from the Stock control volume. The field will be altered by the Allocation process if the Item arrives in Stock after the Order has been entered.

Invoice no

If an Invoice has been printed for the Item, its Invoice Number will be stored here. In order to produce an Invoice (which can be done using one of three available functions on the Print menu), either enter the next Invoice number using a manual, paper system to keep track of the numbers used, or type in the letter N (for New Invoice). Use of the letter N will ensure that the invoice will be picked up by the Batch Invoices routine. This process ensures maximum flexibility in that it is possible to pick out individual Items from a sales Order for Invoicing. note that the sales Ledger must be present if the system is to produce Invoices.

If required, you can set up your File States (in the Data Manager) to ensure that the Order must be of at least Confirmed Status before the Invoicing functions can be used.

Invoice date

The Invoice date field will be filled in automatically when an Invoice is created and need not be typed or changed.

Delivery date

The Delivery date field may either be left blank, to be filled in automatically when a Delivery note is printed with an Invoice, or may be typed in advance for individual (or all) Order Items. This process allows for partial Deliveries of Orders in a fashion independent of that for Invoices.

Serial no

This field will contain the Serial Number of the Item, although this will probably not be known when the sales Order is first entered. The allocation process will automatically bring in a Serial Number, whether via the ‘Allocation’ function on the Functions menu (used for Items in stock at the time of entering the Order), or via the Stock control volume (when an Item placed on order to satisfy this Order is received into Stock).

The Serial Number Tracking companion volume needs to be present if you wish to make an entry to this field. If the Product is one that Daybook knows to carry Serial Numbers (specified on the Products screen) and the companion volume is present, you can only enter an Order Item quantity of one. If the customer requires more than one, you will need to enter as many Order Items as the quantity required. This task is made less laborious by the ‘Duplicate an Item’ function.

As with all Entry screens, the View menu of ‘Enter sales Orders’ can be used to view or create items in files related, or, indeed, unrelated to the sales Order being entered or viewed.

The View menu is one of the major methods used by Daybook to achieve full inter-volume integration.

For example, ‘View Diary Items’ can be used to review and/or add items to your Diary.

Selecting the function will cause previous Calls, Letters, Visits etc of the Company whose sales Order is on screen to be listed in summary. You may see one in detail, and modify it, by double-clicking; or can add a new item by using the [+] button. See ‘Enter to Diary’ for details of all the information stored in the Diary. NB. This function launches a new process, it will not work if Multi-processes have been disabled from the File menu. If no Diary Items exist for the Company in question, you will simply be given the option to create one or to return to the sales Orders screen.

‘View Purchase Orders’ and ‘View sales Ledger’ allow you to bring up lists of all the Purchase Order and sales Ledger records related to the Order Items of the sales Order on screen.

‘View Attendees’ lists all Attendees whose Order Company, Order Contact and Event Code match those of the Order on screen.

Full details of ‘View Subscription Details’ can be found in the sales Order Processing companion volumes chapter.

Note that this menu is available on the sales Orders input screen and also when listing sales Orders. In the latter instance, highlight the sales Orders you wish to print and select a function.

All forms printed will use the address and VAT Number details appropriate to the Analysis Code entered for the Order. If such details are blank for that Analysis, or the Order’s Analysis Code is not specified, then this information will be taken from the User Details section of Preferences. The availability of many of these functions depends on the Functions Access set up for the current File State of the Order on screen.

Quotation form (command-1 or control-1)

This function prints the Order in the form of a quotation. normally, it would only be used for sales Orders which are at the Enquiry or Quotation stages, probably when viewing from the EnquiryWriter companion volume.

Using this function with an Enquiry will cause it to be converted automatically to a Quotation. The Quotation date (shown on Page 2 of the sales Order screen) will be set to the date of printing.

There is a choice of term between ‘Quotation’ and ‘Estimate’ available. The setting is on the Terminology screen in the Data Manager volume.

If you have SuperReport, the Quotation will be printed using the ‘SR Order Quote’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook form will be used.

Quotation WP

This function transfers the Order Item information to the Diary for incorporation into a letter to the client. Use of this function will ensure that a record is kept in the salesperson’s Diary (and also as part of the information stored for the Client company) that a quotation has been sent and therefore the Diary’s Call Back functions can be used to ensure that the quotation is followed up. This function requires the Word Processing volume to be present.

Using this function with an Enquiry will cause it to be converted automatically to a Quotation. The Quotation date (shown on Page 2 of the sales Order screen) will be set to the date of printing.

There is a choice of term between ‘Quotation’ and ‘Estimate’ available. The setting is on the Terminology screen in the Data Manager volume.

Order authorisation (command-2 or control-2)

This Prints an Order Authorisation form, detailing the customer, date, items ordered with prices, and leaving a space beneath for signatures.

If you have SuperReport, the Order Authorisation will be printed using the ‘SR Order Auth’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook form will be used.

Order acknowledgement (command-3 or control-3)

This Prints an Order Acknowledgement form similar to the one above, but without signature spaces - you may use it to confirm to a customer a sales Order already placed.

If you have SuperReport, the Order Acknowledgement will be printed using the ‘SR Order Ack’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook form will be used.

Full order details (command-4 or control-4)

This report essentially duplicates page 1 of the sales Order screen. Its main function is for use as a hard copy record of the sales Order.

Purchase order (command-5 or control-5)

This function creates and prints any or all Purchase Orders required to supply the Order Items necessary to complete the Order. If the Stock control and the General Ledger volumes are present, this function will create Stock Movements and post them to the General Ledger.

The most common way of raising new Purchase Orders will be to use the ‘Items by Purchase Order Number’ function. If you leave the subsequent dialogue box blank, the function will look for Order Items without a Purchase Order Number and without Stock allocated. It will then look at the different Suppliers for the different Order Items and create and print the appropriate number of Purchase Orders addressed to the correct Suppliers. You can also use this function to re-print existing Purchase Orders related to the sales Order on screen simply by specifying the Purchase Order Number when Daybook asks which one is to be printed. If you use the ‘Selected Items’ function, Purchase Orders will be created for Order Items that you have highlighted. In this case, highlighted Order Items that already have a Purchase Order Number will not be purchased again. In Selectable mode you can highlight multiple lines using the <command>/<control> and <Shift> keys. In Enterable mode you can only highlight the line containing the cursor.

If you have SuperReport, the Purchase Order will be printed using the ‘SR Purch Order’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook Purchase Order form will be used.

Proforma invoice

This function prints a proforma invoice and requires the sales Ledger to be present. When the function is selected, Daybook asks which Invoice Number is to be printed. This dialogue box can be left blank and every Order Item currently without an Invoice Number will appear in the Proforma, which will have a Proforma Invoice Number generated by Daybook. This Number will be prefixed with the letter P. On returning to the Order screen, every Invoice Number field will be completed appropriately. If any of the Items already contain Invoice Numbers, they will not appear in the Proforma. It is also possible to manually enter an Invoice Number to selected Items and to print a Proforma just for those Items.

As this function produces a Proforma, the resulting invoice will not be posted to the General Ledger, and the Invoice date is not placed in the appropriate field of the Order Items.

If you have SuperReport, the Proforma will be printed using the ‘SR Invoice’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook Invoice form will be used.

Delivery note

A Delivery note may be printed in two places: from this option, or alongside an Invoice when these are printed - see below.

When using this option, there are four options available as to which Order Items are to be included in the Delivery note. These are: ‘Allocated Items’, ‘Items By date’ (<command- 6>/<control-6>), ‘All Items not Delivered’ (<command-7>/<control-7>) and ‘Selected Items’.

The second of these options requires a Delivery date to have been entered to the Order Item(s) to be delivered, while the others do not - they will assume you want to print a new Delivery note (rather than reprint an old one). Once printed using one of these three options, the current date will be put into the Delivery date field. The Items By date option can either be used to print Items to be delivered if you have already entered Delivery dates manually (this gives you more flexibility in the selection of Items and in the Delivery date to be printed), or it can be used to reprint an old Delivery note.

Depending on the settings on the Stock control settings of Preferences, you may, after be printing a Delivery note, be asked whether you wish to post an appropriate Stock Movement.

Full details of the implications of this query can be found in the next section, which describes the printing of Invoices and Credit notes.

If you have SuperReport, the Delivery note will be printed using the ‘SR Delivery’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook Delivery note form will be used.

Invoice or credit note

This function works in a similar fashion to ‘Print Proforma’ (details above), except that it is possible to post the Invoice to the General Ledger.

There are four options for printing Invoices: ‘Allocated Invoices’, ‘Items By Invoice no’ (<command-8>/<control-8>) ‘All Items not Invoiced’ (<command-9>/<control-9>) and ‘Selected Items’.

If you select the second option, you are first asked which Invoice Number to print. You can type ‘N’ to Invoice all the items you have marked for a New Invoice, or type in a manually created number that likewise has already been allocated to the relevant Items. Alternatively, leave the dialogue box blank to Invoice all Items not so far invoiced. Select the fourth option to include Order Items on the Invoice that you have highlighted - a check will be made that the highlighted Items have no Invoice Number or an Invoice Number as ‘N’. In Selectable mode you can highlight multiple lines using the <command>/<control> and <Shift> keys. In Enterable mode you can only highlight the line containing the cursor.

Whichever option is selected, Daybook will then create the Invoice and ask you if you would like to view it before printing. If you want to modify it, you can do so here. You might, for example, want to address it to a contact in the Accounts Department.

Once you are happy with the Invoice, go to the Functions menu and select ‘Print Invoice’.

Once the Invoice has been printed, on returning to the Order screen you will find that the Invoice Number and the Invoice date fields of each Order Item on the Invoice will have been updated.

Depending on the settings on the Stock control settings of Preferences, you may, after be printing a Invoice, be asked whether you wish to post an appropriate Stock Movement. You can set this posting to occur either here, or after the printing of a Delivery note. The Data Manager settings can also be used to determine whether the posting is to be automatic (ie invisible) or after a warning. If you have defined more than one Movement Type with the ‘Used for Invoices’ check box checked, Daybook will ask you to select the required Movement Type even if you have set the posting to Automatic. If the Movement Type you choose has a different Minus Stock Type to that of the Stock Item currently allocated to the Order Item(s) in question, Daybook will ignore that defined for the Movement Type and use the allocated Type for that particular item. Only those Products whose ‘Maintain Stock Levels’ check box is switched on will be included in such a Stock Movement.

In a situation where you have entered a Serial Number to an Order Item, Invoiced it and posted the Delivery Type Stock Movement without checking, you risk losing accuracy in your stock records because the Serial Number does not exist anywhere else and therefore the current physical stock would not be reduced, as a matching item could not be found.

Consequently, Daybook checks for Products defined as Serial Numbered and for Movement Types defined as Enforcing Current Serial Numbers. If both are the case, and the Serial Number is not valid, it will object to posting the Delivery-Type Stock Movement. You would then have to manually allocate a correct Serial Number using the ‘Allocate Stock’ function, and repost the Stock Movement using the 'Delivery Type Stock Movement' function.

If a Proforma has already been printed, it is possible to convert this to an Invoice without altering the Invoice Number field in every Order Item. Choose the Items By Invoice no option, and enter the Proforma Number. Daybook then asks whether it should convert this Proforma to an Invoice. If this procedure is followed, Daybook simply duplicates the Proforma.

The ‘Items By Invoice no’ option can also be used to print a copy of an Invoice. Type the required Invoice Number in the dialogue box and Daybook will then confirm that this is an existing Invoice and ask if you would like to print another.

It is important to note that once an Invoice has been raised, many of the fields cannot be altered. Therefore invoices should not be raised for line items that will subsequently need altering and if this does occur, further lines will need to be added. Similarly, if a Credit note needs to be raised against one of the Invoices, this cannot be done by altering the Invoice Number to a Credit note Number. A new line has to be created (ie a new Order Item) to match the invoice line (possibly using the Duplicate function) but with negative values for the Cost and sales figures. Daybook will pick up from these negative values that it is a Credit note. The negative figures also have the function of cancelling out the positive figures on the corresponding invoice, so that the total cost, value and margin of the Order remains accurate.

If you have SuperReport, the documents will be printed using the ‘SR Invoice’ form, unless you select the function while holding the <Option> or <Alt> key, in which case the standard Daybook form will be used. In cases where the invoice and delivery addresses differ, the form ‘SR Invoice DT’ will be used.

The availability of many of these functions depends on the Functions Access set up for the current File State of the Order on screen.

Add product items (command-p or control-p)

This function is one of several labour-saving devices associated with the Items… included list.

When there are many Items (of different Product Codes) to attach to an Order, this function is used to create the Items together, rather than individually.

The function initially brings up the Quick Search dialogue box for the Products file, as shown below: Whether using this or the more comprehensive dialogue box, and there are many sales Items to create, care should be taken to make a wide enough selection to cover all the products required. If the products are too diverse, the Sets and Search functions on the palette can be used to build up a set containing each product to be added to the sales Items.

Once the list on screen comprises the products to be added to the Order as sales Items, it can be accepted by clicking [√] and Daybook then confirms that it is to create the appropriate number of sales Items. note that if any the lines in the list are highlighted, Daybook will take its cue from those lines, not the total number of lines in the list.

When the sales Items have been created, their details such as quantity and cost can be modified as required.

QuickAdd items (command-d or control-d)

This function provides one of the easiest methods of adding Order Items to Orders, combining as it does the steps of creating the Order Items and assigning Products to them.

Accessing the function brings up the following dialogue box— This window's mode of operation combines normal Daybook and spreadsheet practices. As with a spreadsheet, there is an ‘editing line’ where text can be entered or edited. The fields in this line appear in white. Below this appear listed Order Items which you would like to be added to the Order. For each Order Item, you can specify as appropriate a Product Code, Product Name and Quantity. While this window is on screen, the Items in the listing area remain as ‘potential’ Order Items, and it is this that gives this function its speed advantage over the usual method of creating Order Items.

There are two basic methods by which data can be input. The first method is to work Item by Item, entering as required and in turn a Product Code, Product Name and Quantity in the editing line. Use the key to move across from field to field, and then press to transfer the Item to the listing section below. When you press , the editing line is cleared, and the cursor is returned to the Product Code field for the next entry. / or the [+] button in the Palette can be used instead of .

Alternatively, you can work column by column. Using this method, first enter a whole series of Product Codes, pressing after each one. Then, using the arrow keys or the mouse to highlight the first Item again, place the cursor into the next field to be completed.

You would then enter a Quantity for each Item, again pressing after each one.

There is, in fact, no requirement to complete the Product Code first.

If you switch on the ‘Repeat’ check box, pressing will cause a new entry to be created in the entry line with the same details as the previous item.

You can enter a Product Code, Short Code or Product Name to the Product Code field, and bring up a selection window from which the appropriate Product can be chosen in the usual way.

The up and down arrow keys also operate, and you may of course click with the mouse on a line and/or editing field. The [-] button in the Palette can be used to remove Items.

You can accept or cancel the window in the normal way by using the or / keys, the Palette buttons or the close box. If you cancel the window while there is more than one item listed you'll be asked if you're sure. As soon as the window is accepted, the requisite number of Order Items is created. This process involves looking up Suppliers and finding the cheapest. Even taking this into account, this function will be faster than the overall time required to add the Items in the normal way because of its concentrated nature. Additionally, the user only has this one waiting period, rather than many short pauses.

Duplicate an item (command-u or control-u)

If the cursor is in one of the Item lines, this function will duplicate that line in order to minimise typing. Daybook will ask how many times the line is to be duplicated. Any Serial Numbers, Purchase Order Numbers and Invoice Numbers present in the line will be duplicated as well, but these can be altered once the duplication process has finished.

Split an item (command-s or control-s)

This function should be used when an Order has an Order Item against which there has been a partial allocation of Stock. The function will create a new Order Item which by default will be given a Quantity of the unallocated amount. The original Order Item will have its Quantity reduced to the allocated amount.

After the Order Item in question has been highlighted and the function selected, Daybook will ask what Quantity is to be transferred to the new Order Item, with a default of the unallocated Quantity. A new Order Item will be created, with blank Invoice, Purchase Order and Delivery fields. The function can also be used as a simple Duplicate function, by specifying a Quantity to be transferred of zero.

To use this Function, the current File State must allow the printing of Delivery notes.

Copy previous

Use this function to copy the details of a previously entered Order record to the current record on screen (ie replacing it). The Order on screen must be of New Order Status or lower.

You are first shown a warning message, then shown the normal Orders Quick Search window to select an Order to copy. If you find more than one, highlight the correct one in the subsequent list and click the [√] button. After confirming that you are sure, the updating is done.

The Order Code and Status (Enquiry, Quotation etc) are unchanged, and unless the Preference for Copying Previous dates is turned on, so do the dates and Period of the Order.

The Event Code is also unchanged because this could otherwise lead to duplicate Event Orders. All Order Items are also copied, although Purchase Ordering, Serial Number, Delivery and Invoicing details are not copied into the new Order. The Order Items that existed for the Order being overwritten (if any, this function will usually be used for new records) will not themselves be overwritten - they will remain in addition to the newly copied ones.

The text ‘Copy of Order Code x’ will be added to the Comments 2 field on Page 2.

Allocate stock (command-l or control-l)

This function requires the Stock control volume to be present, and the cursor to be positioned in one of the Item lines (the Item line to which a Stock Item is to be allocated). Accessing this function brings up the Stock Allocation screen.

This screen shows all Stock Items of the relevant Product Code, which are allocated to Stock.

If the Stock Preference Maintain separate Current Stock & Levels for each Analysis is switched on, only Stock with the same Analysis Code as the sales Order will be shown. Use of the Show Allocated Items check box at the bottom of the screen will add to the list those items still in Stock but allocated to other Orders. If the Current Stock only contains items allocated to other Orders (as in the example illustration), they will be listed with this check box switched on. To allocate a Stock Item to this Order Item, it must first be unallocated.

This is straightforward if it is currently allocated to Stock, but should be done with care if it is allocated to another Order or Job.

Highlight the Stock Item to be unallocated, press the [Unallocate] button and finally press the [Allocate] button. The details described in the Order/Item/Company field will alter to reflect the change, showing the Stock Item is now allocated to this Order Item. This change will be visible when viewing the History of this Stock Item in the Stock control volume.

Note that the allocation screen will only be brought up if there is Stock available for allocation.

Allocate - auto (command-t or control-t)

This function is a highly automated way of allocating Current Stock to either one Order Item or all Items within an Order.

Due to its powerful nature, you are first shown a ‘notice’ window describing its function as follows: ‘This Function allocates Current Stock of Type [P], if available, to Order Item(s) for which Stock is maintained, where sufficient Allocations have not already been made’.

You are then asked ‘Do you want to Allocate to just the current Order Item or to all suitable?’, with the options of [Current] and [All]. In other words, the function can be used similarly to the manual Stock Allocation function above it, in that it operates on whichever Order Item the cursor is currently flashing in, or it can be used to automatically allocate Current Stock to all Order Items that need it.

Finally you are asked ‘Are you sure?’, before the allocations take place with no further intervention.

The allocations are made on the following basis: a) Any given Order Item will at most be allocated the difference between its current ‘Allocated’ figure and its ‘Quantity’ figure - so you can make certain allocations manually if required before using the automated function.

b) The searches for Current Stock Items are always carried out using the Stock Type defined as the Plus in the first Movement Type with the ‘Use for Allocations’ check box turned on. The searches depend upon the Order’s Analysis, Currency and Layer if applicable.

c) The allocations from Current Stock are done simply on the basis of the first record first. This will usually be first in first out, but because 4D has a habit of filling in record ‘gaps’ where deletions were made, such a basis cannot be guaranteed. Checks will be made before calculating Serial Numbers that the user has access to the Serial Number Tracking companion, and that the Product involved has the ‘Requires Serial numbers’ check box switched on.

d) Where insufficient Current Stock is available, the function will simply allocate as much as is possible. The deficit should be made up by issuing Purchase Orders. The function only operates if positive Stock exists for the relevant Stock Type and Product.

e) The Cost Price of the Order Item will be changed to the average of all of the Current Stock Items that have been allocated to it, and the Serial Numbers put together as with the manual method. note that the ‘Delivery-Type Stock Movement’ function subsequently uses the actual allocated Current Stock Item’s Cost Price, rather than the Order Item’s Cost Price, so it will not create negative Stock (this is a risk if you attempt a delivery without first having allocated Stock).

f) The routine only affects Order Items whose related Product has its ‘Maintain Stock’ check box turned on, so the ‘All’ option avoids allocating to items such as delivery charges and labour.

Various warning messages may appear. You must have created a Movement Type with ‘Used for Allocations’ switched on, and the Stock Type it uses must have ‘Include in Order Items Allocated Total’ turned on.

Unallocate - auto

This function works in the same way as the ‘Allocate - Auto’ function described above, either affecting a single Order Item or all that have allocated Stock. note that the process will unallocate all Current Stock allocated to the Items, whether they were allocated manually or automatically, and irrespective of settings such as ‘Maintain Stock’ in the Products file. This Function is of course extremely useful for reversing an ill-judged total allocation, and can be run as a single process for all Items before deleting or cancelling a sales Order with allocations.

View stock levels

This function requires the Stock control volume to be present. If the cursor is placed within one of the Order Items, and there is stock available for allocation, this function will list all Stock Items of that Product Code available. If the cursor is not within the Order Items included layout, the function will list all Stock Items of all Product Codes available.

As a default, the list contains items of Stock Type P (this default being set up in the Preferences section of the Data Manager), although other Stock Types can be listed using the pop-up menu to the bottom left of the screen.

Delivery-type stock mvt

If you omitted to post a Stock Movement when printing a Delivery note or Invoice (remember, these can’t be batched for later posting), use this function to force such a posting. The function effectively runs the Auto-Allocation process on the items being delivered before carrying out the posting.

Note that Items that could not be fully allocated, but which are nevertheless delivered will be posted using the Order Item’s Cost Price. At this point, that Cost Price may well have been updated by a partial allocation of Stock (an average of all those allocated).

Trial assembly - display

This function is only available if the Assemblies companion volume is present. Please refer to the Assembles reference for full details of its operation.

Show top level items (command-f or control-f) This function is only available if the Assemblies companion volume is present. Please refer to the Assembles reference for full details of its operation.

Show next level items (command-g or control-g) This function is only available if the Assemblies companion volume is present. Please refer to the Assembles reference for full details of its operation.

Switch access (command-- or control--) Use this function to switch between the fast QuickAccess version of the sales Orders entry screen and the slower, more detailed version. The more detailed screen has been used to illustrate this chapter and can be contrasted with the QuickAccess version: The main differences between the two versions of the screen are: the QuickAccess screen contains only one page with the Comments field brought across from the second page; the Order Type and Source related names are not displayed; the text fields do not have scroll bars (the ‘Expand Text’ function or the cursor keys should be used if necessary); and finally doubleclicking an Order Item will bring up a QuickAccess Order Item screen, itself limited to one page and without the Supplier Name and Telephone Number, and the Stock Allocations list.

If speed of access to the sales Order entry screen is an important issue, it is recommended that the Preference ‘Default previous Source for Enq/Qtn/Ord’ is switched off. It is a slow process because it has to check on and fill in that Source’s default Product.

Expand text (command-; or control-;)

This function is used to increase a selected text field to full screen size for ease of typing. The cursor must be in a text field for the function to operate. The text fields on the sales Order screen are the Comments fields and the Enclosures and Ad hoc Delivery Address fields, which can be found on page 2.

This window has a Functions menu with ‘Find’ and ‘Replace’ facilities.

‘Find…’ (/) allows you to specify what to Find. It will remember what was last searched for, or will pick up any word or phrase currently highlighted in the text. The searching is done from the current cursor position onwards. The first found example is highlighted for manual editing.

‘Find Next’ (/) finds the next occurrence of the text string last specified in the ‘Find…’ or ‘Replace…’ dialogue box.

‘Replace…’ (/) shows a window with a field for the text string to be found and another for its replacement. The [Replace] button replaces the first instance found after the current cursor position (including the current highlight if that represents the text to be found), and places the cursor after the last character of the replacement made. The window features a [Replace All] (/) button, which changes all instances from the current cursor position onwards. ‘Replace Next’ (/) replaces the next occurrence of the text string to be found.

To revert to the normal screen, click [√] if you wish to save the changes you have made to the text, or [X] if you do not.

Duplicate order (command-d or control-d)

This function is only available on the sales Order listing screen reached through ‘View sales Orders’. As its name suggests, it is used to create a duplicate of an Order in the list. It can create several duplicates with appropriate dates, so would be useful, for example, for creating sales Orders for maintenance contracts being paid by monthly Standing Order.

Before choosing it you should highlight the Order that you wish to duplicate. If you highlight more than one, the topmost one will be used. Following an initial message, you are then shown a window containing an initially blank list of dates.

This is used to identify the dates for which the Order is to be duplicated - one Duplicate will be created for each date. You may add dates manually to this list using the [+] and [-] buttons in the palette, and/or can use the two assisting buttons to the right of the screen.

The [Weeks] button (/) allows you to add dates to the list in multiples of weeks (ie 7 days at a time). After clicking this button, you are first asked what ‘Units’ of weeks you want to use: assuming you want one week at a time, leave the default at one, and simply press [OK]. If you are, for example, producing a journal every two weeks, you should enter “2” here. After clicking [OK], you will be asked how many dates you want to create - in other words how many of these units. If someone is, for example, ordering an advertisement six weeks at a time, you should enter “5” here (remembering that the record you are duplicating will probably be the first one). Finally you are asked to specify the first of the dates that it is to create, with the system making its own initial estimate as to what that date will be.

The [Months] button (/) works in the same way as above, in multiples of months instead of weeks. This means that the dates created will be on the same ‘day number’ of each month (eg the 1st of the month), with the exception of end of the month dates due to their variable length.

When you accept this window and say yes, you are sure, the relevant number of Order records will be created. note that if you are duplicating an Order record which has no Order date (because it has never been upgraded from a Quotation), then all the date processing will be based on the Quotation date. Likewise, if the Quotation date is not filled in it will be based on the Enquiry date.

Clicking this button brings up the second page of the order screen:

Delivery add.

If the Company placing the Order requires delivery to another Company (possibly their Superior or Inferior) on the database, the Code of that Company can be entered here to bring up their address. The wildcard (@) can be used if necessary to bring up a selection list.

Delivery cont.

If the delivery Contact at the Customer company differs from the Contact that placed the Order, they can be entered here. Use of the wildcard will bring up a list of Contacts at the Company whose code has been entered to the Delivery Add. field above.

Delivery terms

This is a field with a List attached, so you can build up a table of useful codes.

Shipping agent

This field may be used in conjunction with the Delivery Method field on page 1 to record the agent used to deliver the Order to your customer.

Ad hoc delivery address

If delivery is to be made to an address not on the database, the address can be entered here in full.

To obtain a larger version of this field, ensure your cursor is within it and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu.

If either of these delivery address fields are used (Delivery Add. or Ad hoc Delivery Address), the appropriate address will be printed on the Delivery note. The Invoice will be made out to the Customer Company, with a note that the goods were actually delivered elsewhere.

There is a Preference in the sales Orders & Ledger section of Preferences ‘Print Delivery Address on Order forms’. If switched on, this means that the Quotation, Order Authorisation and Acknowledgement forms (as well as the Delivery note) will be printed with the Delivery Address (if specified) instead of the Order’s main address appearing on page 1.

Comments… Any length of comments can be made about the Order. This box could be used by the sales person to pass details about the context of the Order to the Order Processing person who will thereafter be responsible for it. The Comments 1 field can be printed on documentation (see the next item, ‘Print on Invoice’), while Comments 2 should be used purely for internal purposes.

To obtain a larger version of these fields, ensure your cursor is within either one and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu.

Print on invoice

When an Invoice is created from the sales Order, the Comments 1 field will be transferred to the Comments field of the Invoice. Switching this check box on will cause the Print Comments check box on the Invoice screen also to be switched on, thus ensuring the Comments will be printed on the invoice. They will appear as the first item on the invoice.

This check box will be switched on by default if the Preference ‘Print Orders’ and Invs’ Comments’ is switched on.

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 Order, appropriate Enclosures are listed here and can also be listed on WP documents associated with the Order.

To obtain a larger version of this field, ensure your cursor is within it and use the ‘Expand Text’ item on the Functions menu.

Event

On entering an Event Code (using a wildcard if necessary) Daybook checks that you haven’t already entered an Order record for that same combination of Company, Contact and Event - for only one is permitted. If a previous Order is found, you are alerted and asked if you want to delete the current record and go to the correct one, or to try again.

When an Event Code is specified for an Order the Order Type of that Order automatically changes to ‘EVENT’ unless you have already specified a different Type.

Order area

This field shows the area of the country in which the delivery address is located. The wildcard (@) can be used to bring up a list. When used in the US, and if the Areas have been set up correctly on the Core menu in the Data Manager, an appropriate Tax Rate will be brought in to the field below.

Initially, a default will be placed in this field based on the Area of the client Company.

Tax rate

When used in the US, Daybook will bring in the sales Tax associated with the Area in which the Client is located.

Initially, a default will be placed in this field based on the Area of the client Company.

Enquiry date, qtn date

If the Order is one whose progress from Enquiry status to Confirmed Order has been tracked using this screen (by changing the status in the header on the first page), the dates of entry as an Enquiry and of upgrading to Quotation are recorded here.

Order date

This field repeats the Order date entered on page one of this screen.

Order period

The Order Period is automatically calculated when an Order date is defaulted to, entered, or modified. It can, though, then be modified to put a sales Order into a different Period to its Order date. This can be useful for reporting purposes - for example, margins are often allocated by Period. note that the Period is not checked as to whether it’s Open or Closed in the same way as in the Ledgers - the Period is in the Order simply for information purposes, not for accounting purposes. Likewise, there is no necessary correlation between an Order’s Period and that of an Invoice that was generated from the Order.

Credit card no

This field features an elementary validity check to ascertain whether the number entered appears to be correct.

†If the test is passed, a comparison is made with the Card Prefix information held in the Data Manager. The Card Type and Issuing Bank will be displayed for comparison with the information given. If there is no match, a warning to that effect will be given.

The test can be carried out at any time (for example, when viewing an existing Order) by pressing the [Check Issuer] button.

Expiry date

This field issues a warning if the expiry date has passed. This check is year 2000 compliant.

Billing address if different

Use these fields if the Order on screen is being paid by Credit or Debit Card. You can enter Expiry dates in various formats, such as ‘195’, ‘0195’,‘1.95’ or ‘1;95’ and they will be converted to the correct format of ‘01/95’. If you enter an Expiry date that is prior to the current month a message warns you. The Billing Address field can be filled in if the address of the cardholder is not the same as that referred to by the address on page one of the customer’s Company record.