When established businesses procure, they frequently do it using orders. This dialogue can be used to create such orders, as well as setting up an automatic ordering system.
Location: Supply Chain Manager, Orders
Overview
There are two sections to using this form. Business Administrator will first want to know the details of the order: who you are sending it to, etc, then it will want to know what you want to put on it.
Order details
The first section is about setting up the order itself.
When ordering items, you can sometimes order them on sale or return basis. The question ‘Order basis’ is asking whether you are buying items on a normal discount basis or sale and return basis. It can be important, because, if the items don’t sell, or are useless, then Business Administrator can use an extra option when choosing how those items should be liquidised.
Adding substance
When you have defined the order, you must then add the items you want to order. Note that if you want to add products, you must have already defined them by Adding a Product.
At the outset, you will have to state the broad category that the items fall into. You restate this point for each item you add: it’s not a global point. There are several of these broad categories, and the objective is to drill down to the detail.
In asking questions, Business Administrator wants to understand what is going to happen to the ordered items. Take care in the answers as some of them are proposed, and may not be what you want. When the questions have been answered, the detail you asked for will be provided.
Note that you can tell Business Administrator if the item you are about to place is to be sent straight from the supplier to the customer. If you state that this is so, Business Administrator will track the products through the order process. Having ordered an item, Business Administrator will expect delivery; so telling Business Administrator that it is going direct to the customer will effectively ask Business Administrator to use that process instead.
Broad categories
Retail Stock: Select Retail stock if you intend to sell the products you are ordering. These will be automatically added to the stock list when they arrive.
Asset Purchase: Asset purchases have special meanings in the tax world. You will be asked to provide more details on these when they are delivered.
Services: If you are ordering a service from another company, where their effort or time is to be paid for, please use this category. Services can be for you own business, or resold.
Office consumables: Consumable are items for your business that don’t become assets and tend to have short life spans, such as printer cartridges.
Asset accessories: Asset accessories are items that are used to support an asset, but cannot become assets themselves. They generally have life spans as long as the asset themselves. A sheet feeder for a scanner might be an accessory, but a grass cutter for a tractor would not. There is a huge grey area in deciding whether something is an asset or asset accessory, and you would probably be wise to seek advice when in doubt. In addition, something that might clearly be an asset accessory may turn out to be a fully fledged asset.
Sundries: Sundries isn’t normally something you can order in standalone mode, which this form proposes. It is given here so that you can easily add the costs to the order. You ought to develop a culture of choosing a consistent item, or choosing accurate details: whatever you do, it ought to be consistent for accurate cost reporting.
If you want to order a delivery service to a customer for some stock you are selling, used the relevant sales form to achieve that, e.g., Cash Register, Sales Assistant, etc.: they all have the option to order delivery services.
Adding in the detail
Retail Stock, Asset Purchase, Office Consumables and Asset Accessories
The last item on the Q&A for these sales types should be ‘Select category’. When you define products, it is normal to add them into a category so that they are grouped together appropriately. Categories can be members, or daughters, of other categories, and the objective is to select along the chain until you get to the category you want. It is you who decides what the categories are, and what parents they belong to. Categories for products are built when using Add Product. As you select categories, all the products for that category and any daughter categories will be displayed. Selecting [All] will display all appropriate products on the system.
When asked to choose a customer, and the customer is known, then select that customer from the drop down box. If the customer is not known, as in a normal cash sale business, then choose [Ourselves].
When all of the Q&A have been answered and a category chosen, you will be offered a list of appropriate products that have entered onto the system. Select one of these.
Products can have characteristics. For example, a round glass table might have yellow, blue or green tint on the glass: these could be characteristics of the product, but it’s still essentially the same product, and might have the same product number, product code or bar code number. A square wooden table would not have any characteristics in common with the glass table. Both tables should go under the category of Tables.
When you select the product on the left hand side, you could be offered a range of characteristics in the middle table, if they have been defined. If appropriate, and if they are there, use the drop down boxes to select the required characteristics.
The table on the right offers you a board to enter details of the pricing. For all cases, Quantity and Buy Price are there, as is Consumer Tax. For Retail Stock, you would also be able to enter details about the sell price, the margin mark up, as well as being able to confirm the minimum and maximum stock values.
Minimum and maximum stock values are usually defined when you define stock, from the Define Stock dialogue. They are provided here to allow you an easy way of adjusting it if necessary.
Services: The description of services is more arbitrary than products, and is likely to be different every time you make an order. Enter as much detail as you can in that text box: all of it will go on the Order.
The pricing box on the right will also appear, where you are offered a place to enter details of quantity, buy price and consumer tax.
If you chose a customer in the Q&A, then you will also be able to enter details about the sale too.
Sundries: Sundries is easier to use, and addresses a number of issues that might apply in making the order. Business Administrator will expect these to appear on the invoice that you get. For each that apply, enter the price and the consumer tax. Note that Business Administrator will accept only one of each sundry item for the order, and that it applies to the whole order.
Ordered items: As you add items to the list, Business Administrator will show you the list at the bottom of the dialogue. If you want to edit any of these, you can simply double-click it, or choose Edit Item from the Function Bar, to reload the form and provide you with routes to editing that item.
To delete an item, select it, and press the Delete key, or choose Delete Item from the Function Bar.
Saving your order
Note that nothing is saved until you click Update and Close from the Function Bar. So, when you’ve finished, click that command.
Posting orders
A posting order is one that is still being compiled and has not been submitted to the supplier. The idea is that you accumulate a lot of items before sending an order, offering you the chance, perhaps, to gain further discounts for a bulk order. You can add to a posting order at any time.
If you ask Business Administrator to Create a New Order (from the Command Bar in Supply Chain Manager), and there is already a posting order for the supplier, then Business Administrator will use that posting order. The items that were added to it, which you would have seen at the bottom of the dialogue, will appear again. That’s how Business Administrator allows you to build bulk orders.
To complete an order, submit it to the supplier, choose Post Order from the Command Bar in Supply Chain Manager.