3. Selling to a customer

Module

Part of Sales & Pricing. If your plan does not include it, these screens are not in your menus.

The full chain, in order. Each section is one step.

Step 1 — Enter the sales order

Transactions → Sales → Enter Sales Orders.

1. In Customer, start typing the customer name. Matches appear as you type, each showing its currency and payment terms underneath. Click the one you want, or use the arrow keys and press Enter.
2. Fill in Memo if you want a note on the order. This is optional.
3. Under Classification, set Location to the warehouse the goods will go from. Department and Class are optional.
4. Under Add items, below the lines, type part of an item's SKU, name or barcode. Each match shows how many are on hand. Click an item to add it as a line; press Enter to add the first match. The list stays open, so keep clicking for further items — clicking the same item again adds one to its quantity rather than a second line.
5. Correct the Quantity on each line.
6. Leave Rate blank to use the customer's normal price. Only type a rate if you are overriding it. The Tax Code is filled in from the item and can be changed per line.
7. Check the Subtotal, Tax and Total under the lines — they update as you go.
8. Click Save.

Save stays greyed out until you have chosen a customer and entered at least one line with a quantity above zero. When it is greyed out, the reason is written next to it.

Note

The totals are worked out by the server with the same calculation that saves the order, line by line from each tax code, so the figure here is the figure the saved order will have.

To remove a line, click the small ✕ at the end of it. To abandon the whole order, click Cancel — nothing is saved.

Step 2 — Getting it approved

Every sales order and every purchase order goes to the approval queue. There is no value below which it clears itself. Until it is approved it cannot be fulfilled, invoiced or received.

See chapter 5 for the approver's side. As the person who raised it, all you need to know is that it will show as Pending Approval until somebody with the Administrator role acts on it.

Step 3 — Send the goods

Transactions → Sales → Fulfill Orders. This lists the approved orders with stock still to go out.

1. Click the order to open it.
2. Check the Items tab — the Processed column shows how much has already gone.
3. Click Actions and then Fulfill.

This creates the delivery document and takes the stock out of inventory. If the order is only part sent, it stays on the list until the rest goes.

The physical work — picking the goods off the racking, packing them into cartons and handing them to the driver — happens in the warehouse screens, and is covered in chapter 6. A busy warehouse works from there rather than from this list.

Step 4 — Raise the invoice

Transactions → Sales → Create Invoices. This lists the orders whose goods have gone out and which have not been billed.

1. Click the order to open it.
2. Click Actions and then Bill (Create Invoice).

The invoice is created and linked to the order. You will find it on the order's Related Records tab, and the order on the invoice's.

Note

You cannot invoice more than has actually gone out. If you try, the system refuses and says so in red at the top of the screen.

To send the invoice to the customer, open it and click Print.

Step 5 — Take the payment

Transactions → Sales → Accept Customer Payments. This lists the invoices with money still owed.

1. Click the invoice to open it.
2. Click Actions. The button reads Accept Payment with the outstanding amount printed on it, for example "Accept Payment (SGD 1,284.00)".
3. Click it.

Watch out

This records payment of the whole outstanding amount. There is no box on this screen for a part payment. If a customer has paid part of an invoice, ask your accounts team — it is recorded from the banking side.

A part-paid invoice stays on the Accept Customer Payments list until it is settled.

Step 6 — Chasing what is owed

• Reports → A/R Ageing — everything outstanding, grouped by how old it is, oldest first.
• Reports → Dunning — who to chase — the same debts sorted into stages, with a suggested action for each one. Start at the stage you want and work down.

Both are covered in chapter 14.

Customer returns and credit notes

A credit note is never typed from scratch. It is produced by approving a return, so that the money coming off and the stock coming back are dealt with in one action.

There are two places a return is raised:

• Warehouse → Returns — goods that have arrived back at the warehouse.
• Field → Returns & Approvals — goods a representative has collected on a visit.

Approving one produces the credit note and reports its number. Every credit note issued is listed under Transactions → Sales → Credit Memos.

Deciding what to do with returned goods is covered in chapter 6.