Sales order processing - subscriptions
Introduction
If you sell Products which need to be supplied repeatedly on a regular or irregular basis, the
Subscriptions companion is for you. It is designed to automate the despatch and invoicing of
such Products, and works in conjunction with the Word Processing volume to facilitate the
mailing of renewal reminders.
When using this companion, the first stage is to set up the Products which you sell on a subscriptions
basis. Such Products can be supplied over any open-ended or closed period and
using any regular or irregular interval. The next stage is to register Sales Orders for these
Products in the usual fashion. You should then use the 'Issue Deliveries', 'Subscriptions
Billing' and 'Renewal Mailing' functions to produce Delivery Notes, Invoices and renewal
notices respectively. This functions will apply only to those Sales Orders requiring attention
at the time they are run. If you have the Stock Control volume, stock levels will be amended
in the usual fashion when items are delivered or invoiced.
Setting up products
When setting up Subscription Products, use 'Enter Products' in the usual fashion. Before
saving the Product, however, use the 'Subscriptions Setup' function on the View menu to
bring up a dedicated screen where the Subscription details can be specified. This contains two
main elements: a series of fields (in the Products file) that define the periodicity of issues
delivery; and a more flexible scrolling list of user definable Dates. The former method will be
used for Subscriptions with regular, repeated issues over a specific period, whereas the latter
allows you to define any irregular sequence, open-ended if necessary. As well as optionally
defining Issues, the scrolling list can be used to set up default Billing sequences and to specify
when the Renewal mailing should take place.
Number of issues
Specify here the total number of Issues, or separate deliveries that need to be made. Note that
this field must contain a value greater than zero: if it is zero any Sales Orders containing this
Product will not be aware that the Product is one with Subscriptions details attached.
Minimum issues
This is used to specify the contract terms that your client takes out when undertaking the
Subscription. In the example, above, even if the Subscription is cancelled immediately, the
client should still receive 12 Issues.
Note that this field is actually the same as 'Minimum Stock Level' on the page 1 of the
Products screen, so that field will also display the information entered here.
1st issue date
This field should be set to the earliest date on which this Product could ever be subscribed to. Issued everyÉ
Use this field and pop-up to specify how often the Product should be supplied. Select from
the pop-up choices of Days, Weeks, Months or Years, and type in the number of those 'units'
that separate each issue. For example, select 'Weeks' from the pop-up and enter "2" in the
field to indicate a fortnightly publication, while a quarterly publication would read '3
Month(s)'.
When entering a Product with regular Issue Dates, it is likely that you will only use the
included list on this screen to specify when Invoices and Renewal reminders are to be sent. In
the case of Products with irregular Issue Dates, you will use the included list to specify Issue
Dates as well. In either case, when entering a Sales Order for the Product, Daybook will
always automatically create Issue delivery dates based on the information on this screen. If
the Issued EveryÉ field contains a value of zero, Daybook will know to base these calculations
solely on the contents of the included list. Therefore, in the case of Products with
regular Issue Dates, you must ensure that the Issued EveryÉ field contains a value, otherwise
the ensuing Sales Orders will not contain any Issue Dates.
The three radio buttons below the 1st Issue Date field define how subsequent Issue Dates will
be calculated when Sales Orders are entered. If the 'Issued Every' pop-up is set to Months,
the default radio button will be 'same day of month', meaning that, for example, if the 1st
Issue Date was 3/7/96, the next Issue Date would always be the third of the month. You may,
though, change the radio button to 'same day of the week', in which case Daybook seeks out,
in this example, the first Wednesday of the month. In September 1995, for example, the issue
date would be the 2nd.
If the 'Issued Every' pop-up is set to Weeks, the default will be set to 'same day of week'. In
this situation, this is the only useful option, so Issues will always be on the same day of the
week as the '1st Issue Date'.
The 'date as appropriate' radio button is only appropriate when the 'Issued Every' pop-up is
set to Days.
The two radio buttons to the right allow you to choose whether the Issue Dates are to be calculated
based on the 1st Issue Date or on the Order Date. If you choose the latter, you are
not limited to basing the calculation on the Order Date itself: you can back- or forward-date
the Issues by entering a negative or positive number respectively to the field next to the radio
button.
Month name/issue number
These two check boxes, appearing next to the Product Name details towards the top right of the window can be used to specify that when Subscription Details are created from the Issues
defaults, text of the pattern '+ July' or '+ Issue No 3' or '+ July, Issue No 3' (according to the
combination of options selected) should be placed as a default into the 'Optional Name' field
in the Specific Issue DatesÉ included list. These text additions will then be printed on
Delivery Notes and Invoices.
Perpetual issues and billing
Switch this check box on if the Subscription is open ended - ie does not have an end date. For
such Subscriptions, you should complete the Issued EveryÉ and other fields in the fashion
described above but should leave the No of Issues at 1. Because of the open-ended nature of
the Subscription, this figure is unknown and will be ignored.
Specific issue dates, renewals and default billing
The illustrated example at the beginning of this section shows the first four items created in
the scrolling list. The second line determines that an initial invoice is to be sent for the full
amount, dated using the date of first issue, while the others define the first three issuing dates
for this period. For space reasons, only these four lines can be shown in the illustration. When
creating Sales Orders for this Product, items in this included list will be used as defaults when
creating issue dates.
In the case of Products with regular issue dates, it is likely that this included list will contain
very few lines. These will determine when Invoices and Renewal reminders are to be sent. The
issue dates themselves will be taken from the information in the top half of the screen, above
the included list. In the case of Products with irregular issue dates, this included list will
contain many more entries. In this latter case, the Issued EveryÉ field in the main section of
the screen should contain a value of zero.
In the case of Subscriptions with the Perpetual Issues & Billing check box switched on (ie
open-ended Subscriptions) you should set up just one line, such as a BIN (Bill Invoice but No
Payment) that is to be repeated on a regular basis, such as 1 * 31 (every month). It would not
be appropriate to give a Specific Date for this Item. The Amount on this line should be set to
the same as the Product price - and represents the price for each bill to be issued. The issuing
of Invoices may well coincide with each issue, but might not.
Note that this included list does not have an [Editable/Selectable mode] button and is therefore
permanently in Editable mode. To add items, click the included list to select it before
using the [+] button or / keyboard short cut.
Specific date, orÉ
The Date field is optional, and, if specified, means that the Product is defined to be Issued or
Billed on specific Dates, unrelated to the Order Date on which the Order is placed. This may
well apply to special, on-off Products, but clearly won't apply to most publications.
After, number of days
The alternative to giving a specific date is to use a calculation method whereby the two
numeric fields After and Number of Days are multiplied and then related to the Start Date to
produce an issue date. In the above example, 0*31 (Month) means that the first issue will be
on the Start Date and 1*31 (Month) means that the next issue will be one month after the
Start Date. Not shown due to space restrictions is that at 11*31 (Month) (ie one month
before the expiry of the subscription) a renewal letter will be sent. For clarity only, the
Specific Date and the After/Number of Days methods have both been shown in the illustration.
Note that if you need to bill someone before the 1st Issue Date, you should use the Specific
Date field in preference to this one.
Type
The Type field must be one of a fixed set of alternatives: ISS - Issue; BIP - Bill Invoice &
Payment, BIN - Bill Invoice but No Payment, BNP - Bill No Invoice but Payment, BNN - Bill
No Invoice & No Payment, or REN - Renewal Letter.
Amount dxcl tax
This field is only relevant to Billing item lines. These can be set up so that there are significant
upfront costs, a single final payment, or equal payments throughout the Subscription
period. As you enter the Amounts they are totalled below, and a difference figure (compared
to the Product's Sales Price) is calculated to show you the amount that still needs to be allocated.
Optional name (+ for additions)
The Optional Name field can be used to change the Product Name that will be used on
paperwork such as Delivery Notes or Invoices. If you prefix the Name with a '+' symbol, the
text will be added to the Product Name, which might, for example, be the Publication Name.
Functions menu
Create dates
This function is used to create multiple Subscription items without having to do so manually.
Specify a Start and End Date, and then choose from 'Months' or 'Quarters'.
Show all items/show issues/show renewals/show billing
These functions allow you to view 'All' Subscription items in the list, or to reduce it to only
the 'Issues', 'Billing' or 'Renewals' items. Note that the [Sort] button in the Palette may be
used to sort the Subscription Items into any chosen order, for example by 'Subs Date' or
'Type'.
Entering sales orders for subscription products
Orders for Subscription Products are entered in the usual way using the 'Enter Sales Orders'
function or one of the entry functions in the EnquiryWriter companion. When you enter to an
Order Item a Product Code that has been defined as using Subscriptions (ie the Product's
Number of Issues field contains a value), the text 'SUBS*' is added to the Invoice No field,
the asterisk indicating that the Subscription Details have not yet been created or updated. If
you do not want to treat the Item as a Subscription Product for the purposes of this Order,
you can simply clear the Invoice Number field.
Issue Dates are created according to the Subscription details of the Product. This is done by
selecting 'Subscription Details' from the View menu. When this option is selected, the
Product's Subscription details are used to produce Subscription Items records with specific
Issue Dates. Information will always be taken from the included list on the Product's
Subscription Details screen (providing it has at least one line of information), and will also be
taken from the main section of that screen if the Issued EveryÉ field contains a value greater
than zero.
Note that to select 'Subscription Details' from the View menu, the File State of the Order
must be one which is capable of printing Delivery Notes.
Once the Issue Date calculations have been made, they are displayed in a window very
similar to that for the Product Subscription Setup. All of the regular periodicity fields are
there for reference only, non-modifiable because they have by this time been converted into
the Subscription Items list with specific dates. The illustration below shows the last four
Billing items only.
If you try to accept this screen when there is a value in the Difference field (which shows the
difference between the Order Item's Sales Amount and the aggregate total of the Billing lines),
you will be asked to confirm that you do want to [Continue]. This does not apply for Orders
for Products with the Perpetual Issues & Billings check box switched on.
Note that any default Billing Items set up for the Product are only directly copied if the Order
Item's Quantity is 1 and its Sales Price is the same as the Product's Sales Price. If the Order
Item Quantity is more than 1 or the Sales Price has been altered, in calculating the Billing
amount, Daybook will take the Product's Sales Price and apply a quantity multiplier or percentage
change. The percentage change will be equivalent to the alteration you have made in
the Order Item's Sales Price. This calculation may be subject to a rounding error.
In the case of a Product where the Perpetual Issues & Billing check box has been switched on,
when you view the Subscription Details for the first time, just two Items will have been
created: one for the first Issue, one for the first Bill. Both Items will by default be allocated
the same Specific Date: the Date for the first Issue is calculated from the details on the main
section of the Product's Subscription Details screen (above the included list), and the first Bill
is given this same date. If an entry such as 1*31 was made to the After, Number of Days field for the Product, this will be ignored as this represents the periodicity (for example, monthly)
only in this situation.
On returning to the main Order screen, the Invoice Number will have been altered to read
'SUBS' to indicate the fact of this creation and to prevent a normal Invoice from being
printed for the Order Item. Whenever you modify any of the Order Item fields that are relevant
to the Subscription Details, the Invoice Number will revert to 'SUBS*' When you next
view Subscriptions Details you'll be asked if you want to delete the former details and create
new ones. If you say [No], note that the former Details will remain, possibly with incorrect
financial totals (depending on which field you have altered).
If you try to accept an Order with Order Items whose Invoice Number contains asterisks (ie,
'SUBS*'), you will be warned 'There are x Items for which Subscription Details need to be
created (with SUBS* in the Invoice No field). Do you want to Create them, Continue anyway
or Try again?'. The default choice is [Create them].
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.
Issue deliveries (command-y or control-y)
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.
Daybook 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, Daybook
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 Daybook 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, Daybook 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 Daybook 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.
Subscription billing (command-u or control-u)
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.
Renewals mailing
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 Ç[ORDERS]Order DateÈ for a Ç[ORDER ITEMS]Product NameÈ. If you
wish to continue with your Subscription, please place an Order at the current price of
£Ç[PRODUCTS]Sales PriceÈ.'
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 ÇProductsDÈ variable
can be inserted, which will list the Product Names of the Subscriptions, together with
Quantities.
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. |
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