Introduction: Order Processing (02-08)
Overview
The Order Processing application is used to ship merchandise to a customer. An order begins in Point of Sale Entry (02-02) as a Delayed Delivery (DD) or Special Order (SO) and then moves to Order Processing upon completion of transaction entry. At this point, if the ‘Immediate Build’ preference in Trans Entry Pre-Prompt (02-18-01) is set to Y, the order is automatically built by the system. If this preference is set to N, you will need to manually build the order through Order Build (02-08-01).
Table of Contents
Order Statuses
Each order must go through a specific shipping process. At each stage of the process, the order is assigned a status:
An order with this status is known as an ‘Open Order.’ This status is assigned to orders that have just been built or unconfirmed.
An order has this status after the Picking/Packing Sheet Print selection (02-08-10) is run.
An order is assigned this status after the Order Check-Out selection is run (02-08-11) is run.
If the ‘Invoice Print Mandatory’ preference in Order Preferences (02-08-90-01) is set to Y, an order has this status after the Invoice Print selection is run. If the preference is set to N, an order has this status after the Order Check-Out Selection is run.
An order with this status is ready to be updated with the Order Update (02-08-16) selection.
Quick Ship and the Standard Method
In Tyler there are two methods for shipping an order: the Quick Ship Method and the Standard Method of Shipping (also known as the Long Method).
The Quick Ship Method is recommended if your company handles a large number of customer pickups. It takes place entirely in the Quick Ship selection (02-08-03), where lines are shipped and money is collected. Normally, an order has a status of ‘0’ at the start of the Quick Ship process and a status of ‘5’ at the end of the process. Additionally, if the ‘Automatic Update of Shipped Orders’ preference is set to Y in Order Preferences (02-08-90-01), the order is updated (to a status ‘X’) when the Quick Ship process is complete.
The Standard/Long Method of Shipping consists of the following process:
Print Picking / Packing Sheets and Physically Pick Merchandise
- At the end of this step the status of the order is “1 – Picking/Packing Sheet Printed.”
- Printing the Picking and/or Packing Sheets is an optional step that is defined in Routing Preferences (02-08-90-02).
The merchandise for the orders is then physically collected from the warehouse and any items that are not available are noted on the picking sheet. The warehouse employee returns the picking sheets to the person responsible for confirming, in the system, the items that were picked and the items that were unavailable.
Order Check-Out
- At this point the Inventory Committed and Inventory Onhand numbers are reduced by the quantity shipped.
- If the ‘Invoice Print Mandatory?’ preference is set to Y in Order Preferences, the status of the order at the end of this step is “2 – Checked Out.” If the preference is set to N, the status at the end of this step is “4 – Invoice Printed.”
Printing the Routing / Delivery Manifest
Invoice Print
It is delivered with the merchandise and contains the amount charged for each line, any backordered lines, and the terms of the sale. The driver leaves a copy with the customer and returns an initialed copy to the employee responsible for verifying delivery through Order Check-In.
- This is an optional step based on the Order Processing preferences.
Order Check-In
- This is an optional step based on the Order Processing preferences.
Order Update
- If the order has been shipped in full, this selection changes the status to X (history only).
- If the order was partially shipped (some items were backordered), this selection moves the shipped items into history, increments the generation number on the open order and resets the status to “0” (Open Order).
Additionally, this selection creates the DZ or SZ version of the sales transaction, which will appear on the daily Sales Transaction Audit.
Order Register
- This is an optional step.
For more information on the Standard Method of shipping, click HERE.
Backorders/Partial Shipments
When an order contains backordered items (only part of the order is being shipped, resulting in multiple shipments), the Generation Number of the order is incremented when Order Update is run. Any order that has multiple shipments also has multiple records in History(one for each shipment). This allows inquiries to be performed on specific shipments.
Occasionally, the calculated sales tax for an order with multiple shipments is off by a penny. The table below demonstrates how this can occur:
As you can see, when the tax is calculated using the order total, it amounts to $20.89. When it is calculated for each shipment and then added together, the tax amount is $20.88.
If the ‘Purge Temp Accounts When Balance Is (00.00) Or Less’ is set to a dollar amount in A/R Preferences (12-90), the A/R Month End process will correct the account and adjust the G/L.
To correct this occasional situation manually, issue an offsetting transaction through A/R Adjustments Entry (12-03). After this adjustment is made, the Temporary Account balances to zero and will be purged.
A/R and Financed Amounts
All activity on Open Orders is reflected in a temporary Accounts Receivable account until the complete order has been shipped. For DD or SO transactions, the ‘Ship Full Fin.$ in OP’ preference in A/R Master (12-20) determines when the finance amount on an order is interfaced to A/R:
- If the prefernce set to Y, any financed amount on the order is interfaced to the Finance Account on the first shipment. For example, if all of a $1000.00 order was financed and the amount of the first shipment was only $300.00, the full $1000.00 would interface to the Finance Account (in A/R) when the first shipment is updated.
- If the preference is set to N, the amount interfaced to the Finance Account is equal to the shipment amount. For example, if all of a $1000.00 order was financed and the amount of the first shipment was $300.00, only $300.00 would interface to the Finance Account when the first shipment is updated.
Remember that amounts are not reflected in A/R until the order is updated in Order Processing and Sales Transactions.
Prorating Deposits
When a deposit is placed on an order and the preference ‘Prorate Deposit In Shipping?’ is set to Y in Order Preferences (02-08-90), the amount of the deposit is proportionally distributed to each of the items on the order.
The Balance Due for the partial shipment (if the customer has not already paid in full) is calculated using the following formula:
If you are prorating the deposit and the preference ‘Allow Shipping with Balance Due?’ is set to N, the balance must be paid in full. The collected money is first applied to the shipped lines amount; any remaining amount goes toward the unshipped lines.
The Delivery Date
The Delivery Date is the anticipated date for merchandise delivery. It is first entered during POS Entry and can be changed in Order Maintenance, if necessary. If you are using Centralized Delivery, the Scheduler attempts to match the entered delivery date with the closest open route/time.
If the Delivery Date field is left blank in POS Entry (and the ‘Require Delivery Date’ preference is set to N in Trans Entry Pre-Prompt (02-18-01)) the system automatically uses the Sales Transaction Date. If you do not know the delivery date, you can enter a valid date or “999999” in the field to commit the inventory. If you don’t know the delivery date and you do not want to commit the inventory, enter ‘?’ in the Delivery Date field.
In POS Entry and in Order Processing, you are allowed to enter different delivery dates for each item line. However, the preference ‘Allow Multiple Delivery Dates Per Order’ must be set to ‘Y’ in Order Preferences (02-08-90-01).
TW Line on an Order
In POS Entry, it is possible to sell a Take With (TW) line on a DD/SO order (by checking the Ship box). Any deposit that is placed on the order is applied to the TW line(s) first.
Making Additional Payments/Deposits
A customer can make additional payments (deposits) to an order before it is shipped. These payments are entered in POS Entry, using an ML transaction type.
Cost of Goods Sold
In Tyler, the Vendor Price (used to determine Cost of Goods) is “picked up” when the order is shipped in Order Processing. Since companies often receive merchandise after a customer’s order is entered, this method ensures that the price coincides with the recognition of the sale. For example, if the Vendor Price was instead obtained during POS entry and then merchandise was received at a later time, the Vendor Price could have changed, resulting in an incorrect calculation of the Cost of Goods.
The Unit Cost is used by the sales staff to determine their Gross Margins and commissions. If this cost was to change after the order is entered, there would be considerable confusion on the sales staff’s part as to their Gross Margins and commissions. For this reason, the system picks up the Unit Cost during POS Entry and only modifies it if the ‘On Update, Use Inventory Unit Cost?’ preference is set to Y in Order Preferences (02-08-90-01). In this case, the Unit Cost is modified at the time of Order Update (02-08-16).
Bulk Picking (Picking by Area)
Bulk Picking (Picking by Area) is an efficient method of picking merchandise. Instead of picking items by order (where each item could be located in a different part of the warehouse), Bulk Picking sorts the Picking Sheets by area, allowing you to pick, at the same time, items from multiple orders that are located in the same area of the warehouse.
With this feature, Picking Sheets for all specified orders are printed by area –using either the area assigned to the item in Inventory Locator (03-38-10) or the area assigned to the item using Field 9 of Inventory Master File Inq/Maint (03-01).
To activate this feature, the ‘Area (Bulk)’ option must be selected on the Picking Sheets tab of Routing Preferences (02-08-90-02). To reprint, view, or unconfirm orders printed by area, use the Pick/Pack by Batch selections (02-18-19).
The DX Transaction Type
DX transactions are used to track changes that are made to Delayed Deliveries (DD) and Special Orders (SO) through Order Maintenance (02-08-02).
The first time a change is made to an order on a given day, a DX transaction is created for that day. Subsequent changes for that day are then added to that DX transaction. The original ticket number assigned in POS Entry (02-02) is used for all DX transactions.
You can view DX transactions on the Sales Audit (02-03), in Order Processing Order Inquiry (02-08-21), and in Sales Transaction Inquiry (02-16).
DX Day Closed
This message displays in Order Maintenance (02-08-02) when the current Start of Day date has been closed/updated in Sales Transactions. The ‘Lock’ button on the order is inaccessible and changes cannot be made to the order until Start of Day date is changed to a day that has not been updated.
DX Day in Future
This message displays in Order Maintenance (02-08-02) when the Start of Day date is more than one calendar month ahead of the Sales Transactions month (e.g. The Sales Transactions month is in October and the Start of Day date is in December). The ‘Lock’ button on the order is inaccessible and changes cannot be made to the order until the Start of Day date is in the current sales month or the next sales month.
If changing the Start of Day date does not solve the problem, check Preference 32, ‘Use Today’s Date for T/E Date’ in Trans Entry Pre-Prompt (02-18-01). If this preference is set to ‘Y’, the system ignores the Start of Day date and automatically uses today’s actual date, which could cause a problem if your system is not current.
DX Transaction Examples
Printing the Sales Audit (02-03)
Order Inquiry (02-08-21)
Sales Transaction Inquiry (02-16)
Additional Notes
- In POS and Order Processing, merchandise can be Drop Shipped (shipped directly from a vendor to the customer). Drop shipped merchandise has special carrier fees, which are set up in the Carrier Fee Calc/Maint selection (02-08-90-03).
- When an item is added to an order, the spiff information is pulled from Inventory Master (03-01). Conversely, when an item is deleted from an order, the spiff information is removed from the Order Processing files.