An unusual option offered by Daybook is the ability to search, view and report the individual Product Items ordered independently of the Orders they belong to. One could, for example look up all Order Items for a single Product that have not yet been shipped.
On selecting the menu item you are presented with a box asking for the ‘Order Code, Company or Product to find’.
If you are simply looking for a particular Product, type in its Code or part of it followed by an @ sign, and press [Find]. Alternatively, to bring up more comprehensive searching options, click [More Choices].
If you do the latter above, you are shown a window requesting the full Selection Criteria by which you wish to find Order Items. This is a standard Comprehensive Search dialogue box with some of the very powerful and unique options available. For example, you could use the Find Invoices function to find all Order Items whose invoices have not been paid, or Find Purchase Orders to find all Items whose Purchase Orders have not been confirmed. If you have the Subscriptions companion, selecting ‘Subscription Details’ from the Find menu enables to you list Order Items with attached Subscription Details. You can search by Type, Amounts or of course, dates. You might, for example, want to find all Order Items which are linked to Subscription Details with a Type of ‘ISS’ and a date of this week. You could then print a list or distribution labels using SuperReport.
Once the selection has been made, one of two things will happen:
- If a single Order Item was found, and the View Always shows Lists check box in Preferences is switched off, that Order Item’s details will be displayed in full. See the illustration below for details of this screen. Pressing [√] will confirm any modifications you make.
- If more than one Order Item was found by the Criteria entered, or a single Order Item was found and the View Always shows Lists check box in Preferences is switched on, those found will be displayed as a list. You may scroll forwards or backwards through this list using the vertical scroll bar, and to the left and right using the horizontal scroll bar. Double-click on a line to see further details or to modify that record.
The single Order Item screen appears. This screen will also appear when you double-click on an Order Item at the main sales Order screen. The ‘Stock Allocation’ and ‘Stock Levels’ items on the Functions menu carry out the same functions as the equivalent items on the Functions menu of the main sales Order screen. Please refer to that section for more details.
Note that the Order Item screen includes a Required date field. This will default to the Required date of the Order when the Order Item is created. However, if the Required date of the Order is subsequently altered, that of the Order Item will not be changed. This is so that possible information regarding the required split delivery of an Order is not lost. The [Global Change] button or a Macro can be used if necessary to facilitate this.
The Sales Order Items listing screen contains Print and Functions menus. The functions on these menus are duplicates of those available on the same menus on the sales Orders entry screen and are fully described earlier in this chapter. At the listing screen, highlight the sales Order Item(s) to which you would like to apply the function, and then select the function from the menu. Daybook will apply the function to all sales Order Items highlighted. Some functions require that only sales Order Items of a single Customer be highlighted, and a warning message will appear if necessary.
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.
List orders
This report lists all or selected sales Orders, printed in Landscape format, showing the Customer, dates, and the Total Amount, Cost and Margin.
As with all Daybook List functions, this functions first offers the Quick Search dialogue box with the [More Choices] option. This is as described under ‘View sales Orders’ above. The selected sales Orders are displayed in a list for you to check. From this list, you can select a subset or even search again. When you are ready to print, click [√] to accept the list.
List order items
This report lists selected Order Items in landscape format. As with all Daybook List functions, this functions first offers the Quick Search dialogue box with the [More Choices] option. This is as described under ‘View Order Items’ above. The selected sales Orders Items are displayed in a list for you to check. From this list, you can select a subset or even search again. When you are ready to print, click [√] to accept the list.
Gross margin report
This report displays orders with their respective gross margins. It does not bring up the Quick Search dialogue, but goes straight to the Full Section Criteria dialogue box which is usually brought up by the [More Choices] button.
As shown in the illustration, it is recommended that you click on the ‘New Order’ and ‘Confirmed’ options in the States area, as it is more likely that the margins of orders of these types are going to be of interest. As you click on the options, blobs will appear beside them, signifying that they have been selected. The exact text of these options will depend on how you have set up your File States in the Data Manager. The Order date fields default to a period representing the current month.
Once the selection has been made, the sales Orders found are listed. The list can be manipulated using the Buttons Palette in the normal fashion. When you are happy with the selection, click [√] to move onto the printing stage. The following dialogue box appears, from which you can control the format of the report.
Order forecasts
This report displays orders with their respective forecasts (the percentage probability that an Enquiry or Quotation will become a New or Confirmed Order). It does not bring up the Quick Search dialogue, but goes straight to the Full Section Criteria dialogue box which is usually brought up by the [More Choices] button.
As shown in the illustration, it is recommended that you click on the ‘Enquiry’ and ‘Quotation’ options in the States area, as it is more likely that the forecasts of orders of these types are going to be of interest. As you click on the options, blobs will appear beside them, signifying that they have been selected. The exact text of these options will depend on how you have set up your File States in the Data Manager. The Forecast date fields default to a period representing the current month.
Once the selection has been made, the sales Orders found are listed. The list can be manipulated using the Buttons Palette in the normal fashion. When you are happy with the selection, click [√] to move onto the printing stage. The report is sorted by Order Type, then salesperson.
Outstanding order items
This report lists Order Items that have not yet been shipped for checking and supplier chasing purposes. You are first asked to select the Order Items required, as for ‘View Order Items’ above, except that you are taken straight to the full Selection Criteria screen where the system assumes that you would like to find items not Delivered. It is recommended that you click on the ‘Confirmed’ option in the States area, as it is more likely that Items attached to Orders of this types are going to be of interest. As you click on the option, a bullet (•) will appear beside it, signifying that it has been selected. The exact text of the options will depend on how you have set up your File States in the Data Manager.
You might possibly add your own criteria such as dates to these. From this list, you can select a subset or even search again before printing. When you are happy with the list, click [√] to go on to the printing stage.
Batch purchase orders
This function requires the Purchase Order Processing volume to be present.
Prior to using this function, you should have established a working method of creating Purchase Orders, whereby you either enter the letter “N” as a Purchase Order Number for every sales Order Item you are going to Order, or you enter a manually generated Purchase Order Number for these Items. Unless you are going to generate a Purchase Order directly from the sales Order screen, you should not leave this field blank.
On selecting this function, you are first asked for a range of Purchase Order Numbers. Either enter the range of manually generated numbers for which you wish to produce Purchase Orders or, if using the other method, enter the letter “N” to both dialogue boxes.
Daybook finds the appropriate Order Items and sorts them according by Supplier. Therefore, if you have two sales Orders for the same item, or for items from the same Supplier, these will be placed on the same Purchase Order, possibly gaining you some quantity discount. If you have entered a range of Purchase Order Numbers, some of which represent Purchase Orders already created, these will be ignored. This prevents duplication.
Daybook then works out how many Purchase Orders it is about to create and asks you to confirm that it should create them. You are then given the opportunity to view the Purchase Orders before printing. If you take this opportunity, you can, of course, modify the Purchase Order(s) before finally printing them. Please refer to the next chapter for a full description of this screen.
After printing, if you have the Stock control volume, you will be asked if you would like to post Stock Movements for the Purchase Order(s) just created. Currently, it is desirable for you to do so as there is no function to Batch Post Stock Movements.
