CPSLSDSK Customer Order Processing Sales Desk
Sales Desk
Application Overview
Sales Desk is designed for companies who need versatile order entry functions and improved customer service. It is designed to be used by salespersons, order entry personnel and telemarketers. Sales Desk is extremely helpful when you have customers calling to inquire on stock availability and pricing before they purchase, as well as for shipping from multiple locations. Also, the captured data in Sales Desk provides management with useful information for sales and marketing analysis.
Benefits
· Creates an integrated environment for sales and order entry personnel to perform stock inquiries, price inquiries, sales quotes, and enter the order all from one screen. Greatly improves performance and speeds up the sales process.
· Provides sales and customer service personnel with additional commonly used functions such as: view invoice history by customer or item, check customer accounts for open item or historical data, credit information, change customer contact, address and phone number, etc. Improves customer service.
· Handle multiple locations with ease. Sales Desk will work well even for the large size organization.
· Certain areas can be customized by the user and tailored to their special needs without source code level changes.
Sales Desk Integration
Before using, Sales Desk requires setup procedures as detailed in the Global Setup – Sales Desk section of this manual.
Sales Desk is a powerful program that can greatly improve the speed and efficiency of processing orders, quotes, capturing new business, and building customer relationships. After setting up Sales Desk, you should set up a Procedures and Policy guideline for COP sales entry personnel and Sales Desk users. Many of these procedures and policies can be defined in Sales Desk setup.
Sales Desk does not currently support the following:
- Vertex Sales Tax Interface
- “I” and “C” type of Orders for Serial/Lot and Multi-Bins
- Feature/Option & Kit items.
Sales Desk Scenario
The following telephone scenario is an example of how you can use some of the Sales Desk features. The features used and their associated functions will be detailed in the Run Instructions that follow this scenario.
C = Customer
H = House, (salesperson or order entry person)
C: This is Mike Jones with the J. Q. Williams Company in Atlanta, GA. I need a price and availability for your item CLOCK.
H: Hello Mike, this is JEC. How many CLOCKS do you need?
C: I need 120.
H: Mike, I can ship them all out today. I only have 12 that I can ship from our Atlanta warehouse, but I will send you 48 from our Dallas warehouse and the balance from our LA warehouse. Your price is $13.175 each. Would you like to place the order?
C: They only cost me $12.50 last time. How come they’re more expensive this time?
H: Let me see. You purchased 2 at $15.50 EA on 03/23/00, Invoice # 3035. Your P.O. number was 100-10164. Mike, you actually get a much better price this time.
C: Well, maybe I was confused with another item. I only need 60 of them right away. The other 60 won’t be needed until 30 days later. Will you be able to ship me 60 clocks from Atlanta warehouse in 30 days?
H: Let’s see. Yes, I see there’s a PO where we are scheduled to receive 576 clocks 15 days from now. I can put your other 60 clocks to ship from our Atlanta warehouse 15 days from now. Also, most of the people buy CLOCK with CLOCK-ADJ together. Would you like to have CLOCK-ADJ go with your order?
C: For now I don’t need CLOCK-ADJ. But, I will place the order with you for the other 60 CLOCKS 15 days later. Also, could you check the availability for “Soldering Iron Number 2”.
H: We don’t have any “Soldering Iron Number 2” on stock right now. However, I do “Soldering Iron Number 1” in stock. Would you like to order them?
C: No, that’s OK. That will be all for today.
H: Okay, let me verify billing and shipping addresses. Our record shows that you are at
1500 State Ave.
Atlanta, GA 30329
Phone Number: 443-268-2552
Is that correct?
C: No, we recently moved our main office, the new address is:
3479 Peachtree Road NE, #200
Atlanta, GA 30329
The phone stayed unchanged. Actually, I need you to ship to our Store #100, not our office.
H: No problem, I have just changed your address in our customer master record. I have also change the order to ship to store #100. How would you like the order to ship? Ground, 2nd Day or Next Day?
C: I need the clocks right away. From your Atlanta warehouse ship UPS Ground and UPS Next Day from your Dallas warehouse.
H: OK. Your freight for Atlanta shipment will be $10.00 and for Dallas, it will be $27.89. Is there a PO number?
C: Yes, use PO number: 100-12234.
H: OK, your orders are all done now. The orders will ship COD and you will receive two different shipments. Please write down the following information for reference purpose:
Our system noticed you have an outstanding credit of $100 and I applied it your order from the Atlanta warehouse.
C: You know, your system is pretty smart. With most of the other companies I do business with, I have to specifically mention my outstanding credits before they will apply them to my COD. What kind of software do you use?
H: We use Elliott Business Software. It’s great!
Scenario Highlights:
1. Sales Desk allows salespersons to enter the caller name for reference in the later conversation.
2. Sales Desk provides stock inquiry ability and immediate pricing information, to include historical drill downs to show the last purchasing information.
3. Sales Desk provides access to other locations inventory and places multiple location shipments on the same sales desk order.
4. Sales Desk allows checking for future quantity availability (Available To Promise feature) and cah help capture future potential business.
5. Sales Desk suggests accessory items that should go with a main item to maximize.
6. Sales Desk suggests substitute items when you don’t have sufficient quantity for an item.
7. Sales Desk allows salespersons to verify address and phone numbers with customers and update customer file.
8. Sales Desk can use multiple different ship via codes for multi-warehouse orders.
9. Sales Desk can calculate freight automatically to quote customer at time of order entry.
10. Sales Desk can apply customer’s open credits to the order, ideal for Pre-Paids and COD’s.
11. Sales Desk generates sales orders automatically after salespersons finish conversation with customers.
Note: All pricing, quantities available by warehouse, future quantity and other information given to Mike above were done from within Sales Desk and without having to leave the Sales Desk screen.
Run Instructions
The main Sales Desk screen consists of three areas:
Area 1: This is the customer information area where you would enter the caller, customer, salesman and confirm the discount percent.
Area 2: This is a user definable area (Global setup, COP-Enh, Sales Desk Screen Layout). It may contain either customer or item information. The default setting is for item’s information only. The customer information will be displayed immediately after customer is entered. The item information will be displayed immediately after item is entered in Area 3.
Area 3: This is line item scrollable area where it can display up to 6 line items at a time. All line item will be entered here.
1. Enter Caller Name: This field is not mandatory. However, it is helpful in remembering and saving the person’s name that you were talking to for reference purpose. If you leave this field blank and after you enter the Customer Number, it will default the Contact defined in the A/R Customer file.
Enter Customer number: This is a required field. If the customer is not on file, you can add them using the F5 function key, (Options – Add Customer). In this field you will have 5 function keys available to you in the bottom menu bar. They are:
F2 = Quotation By User. This will give you a window of a list of quotations sorted by descending sequence for the quote that you (salesperson) entered. This is a useful function if you wish to retrieve a quotation you did recently.
F3 = Enter Quotation No. At the end of your conversation with customer, even if you they did order anything from you, you still can give them a quotation number. If customer calls back and refers to a quotation number, then any salesperson can bring up that quote by quotation number.
F5 = Options, you can access various different functions through the option key. The type of functions that are available to you depend on the area you are in (whether customer number or item number has been entered). At this moment, you can add a customer, check for newly received inventory, print order or invoice edit list.
F7 = Search By Customer No.
F8 = Search By Customer Desc.
After you enter the customer number, the system fills in Area 1 with default information. Depending on your setup, the customer’s credit Info window may pop up if there is a credit problem.
Enter Salesman: Salesman field defaults to the salesman defined in the customer file (Unfortunately, it won’t default to ship-to file’s salesman like order entry at this moment because ship-to is not identified yet). However, you can override it. The system also gives you additional Functions Keys you can use, See figure below.
F1: Enter Caller, this gives you the opportunity to update the caller name. You may need to use this function if you leave the Caller field blank and the default contact from customer file is different from the caller. Make sure the caller name is correct so you won’t call your customer by the wrong name.
F2: Quote by Customer. You may use this function if customer calls back and wishes to confirm the earlier quote. F2 will bring up a list of quotes for this customer sorted by the descending sequence.
F3: Copy Quote. This is to copy a quote from a “Q” type order in order entry. The “Q” type order is saved as a template. For example, if you know a customer always orders from 20 different items. Before you call your customer to solicit his business, you can enter these 20 different items as a “Q” type order. In Sales Desk, once the customer number is entered, you may copy this template to Sales Desk, all line items copied over will have a status of “Q” (Quote). You will then talk to your customer on the phone and confirm with him which item he/she would like to order and make that line item status change to “C” (Confirmed). Once you finish confirming line items, the system automatically generates a sales order. Each customer may have multiple templates (Quote). To differentiate multiple templates, it is suggested that you put reference information in “Shipping Instructions” in the “Q” type order. When you press F3, all quotes for this customer will be brought up in a window and “Shipping Instruction” is displayed in the window and can be used as a key reference to differentiate one from the other.
F4: Invoice History. Displays customer invoice history and lists the last purchase entries for each item that this customer has purchased. This is a useful tool to suggest customer what they should buy this time. For example, you may suggest to customer that they may need item “CLOCK” since the record shows last time they purchased “CLOCK” was 90 days ago and you know they usually will run out of stock and re-purchase in 90 days.
F5: Options. There are various different functions that you can access with F5. Some are to display Customer Information, Credit Information, Customer Account Inquiry, Customer Account Summary or Change Customer Data.
F7: Search for a Salesman to change the salesman of record for the order.
Once you leave the above window by pressing enter or finish searching for a salesman, the system will prompt you for discount percent.
Enter Discount Percent: Discount percent default from customer file and you can override it. This the discount you will give to this customer in addition to the regular price setup in the system. Once you finish entering this field, the system takes you to the line item entry field, (screen section 3), and gives you a new set of functions keys to work with. See Figure next below page.
NOTE: Sales Desk integrates with the Credit Check & Release features. Any credit problems will appear in the COP sales orders where the Credit Manager or order entry personnel, depending upon company policy, can review them. Sales Desk is best used for customer service functions such as doing stock status and price inquires for customers, as well as informal quotes, and then entering (creating) them as orders.
F2: This is a toggle switch for “Show Confirm Only” or “Show All”. As you enter line items, the system will ask if you want to confirm this item to be generated on the sales order. In the process of entering line items, you may have a combination of confirmed and quoted items (quotes and inquiries). If you only want to see the confirmed items, press the F2 Key. After you are in the “Show Confirm Only” mode, the F2 Key prompt will be “Show All”. If you press the F2 Key now, the system will show all line items entered and the F2 Key prompt will be “Show Confirm Only.”
F4: Use this key when you want to delete the line item that is highlighted.
F5: Gives you the following options:
Newly Received Item: Shows newly posted receiving with current Qty on hand and Qty available so that salesmen can pinpoint “Hot Items” just received.
Customer Information: Shows basic customer information including address, phone, contact, salesman, terms, ship-via, discount and sales tax information.
Credit Information: Shows various customer credit information.
Customer Account Inquiry: Customers A/R Open Item inquiry
Customer History Item inquiry
Customer Acct. Summary: Summarized version of the above. This and previous functions allow the salesperson take a look of customer payment pattern to see if this is a credit-worthy customer.
Change Customer Data: Allows you to change certain customer fields (user definable). For example, you may wish salesperson to verify customer’s phone and address as they are taking the orders, and making necessary changes to those fields if changed. However, you may not want salesman to change other field like terms code, customer type, discount percent…etc. To setup fields that salesperson can change, go to Elliott Main Menu à Util-setup à Global setup à cop-Ctrl àcHg cust screen layout.
Print Order Edit List: If you know the order number, you can print out the order edit list right here.
Print Invoice Edit List: If you know the invoice number, you can print out the invoice edit list right here.
F7: Use this key to lookup an item by the item number
F8: Use this key to lookup an item by the item description
Esc: Exit/Confirm.
After entering a line item, (area 3), the system displays the items information in area 2. System displays the item description and places the cursor in the “WH” (warehouse) field. Either customer’s location or item default location will be placed here depend on the setting (refer to setup for more details). At this moment, a couple of things may happen depending on your setup:
Item Notes: Item Notes may automatically popup if the setup for notes indicates so. This is a useful function to remind salesperson about certain things that should be mentioned to the customer. This may include, but not limited to, accessories that you could sell to this customer.
Enter Warehouse: Once in the “WH” field, you can either accept the default warehouse (either customer’s default location, or item’s default location depending on your setup), or choose a different location if the default location does not have sufficient quantity on stock. We even allow you to choose a different location at the line item level in Sales Desk. Once the actual sales order is generated from Sales Desk, the system will break it down into multiple sales orders by location (since O/E sales order can only handle one location per order). The system gives you the following 3 functions keys to work with in this field:
F3: Substitute Item, (allows you to recommend a list of substitute items if you do not have sufficient quantity on hand). You are allowed to have multiple substitute items defined in a substitute class. Please refer to “Substitute Item” feature for more information.
F5: Options
Newly Received Item
Customer Information
Credit Information
Customer Account Inquiry
Customer Account Summary
Available To Promise: This is the function to view all outstanding sales orders (requirement) and purchase orders (replenishment) to project your future quantity on hand balance by date. With this function, a salesperson can tell the customer the next delivery date due-in when there is insufficient stock on hand for the item they need.
Component Availability: If you are a manufacture, if may wish to know if you have sufficient components on hand to full fill customer’s order. Component Availability search will explore the parent item and determine the maximum quantity you can produce based on the component availability.
Price Break: This option will open the price break window for detail quantity break and price. It will also show cost, discount, last selling price, on sales info, etc.
Item Invoice History: This option will drill down to invoice history by item to show the recent sales information for this item and give salesperson a comparison base for pricing.
Cust. Invoice History: This option will drill down to invoice history by customer/item to show the recent sales information for this customer. For example, you can easily find out the last selling price for this customer on this item, and the date, invoice number, quantity, etc.
Change Customer Data
Print Order Edit List
Print Invoice Edit List
F7: Multi-Location information as show in the Figure below. This function allows users to check for inventory in other locations if the default location does not have sufficient stock.
Enter Quantity: Advancing from “WH” to the “Qty” field, the system gives us the following Function Keys to work with:
F2: Change Item Description. Just in case you want to modify the default description for this line item, you may use this option.
F5: Options, same as when in “Item No.” and “WH” fields.
Enter Price: Advancing from “Qty” to “Your Price” field, the system gives us the F5=Options prompt to work with again. These are the same options as in “Item No.”, “WH”, and “Qty” fields. The price system showing in this field is equivalent to the “Unit Price” field on order line item screen, which is after applying the price code and sales price. This may also be a price after applying the discount percent as enter in the area 1, depending on the setup (Global setup, COP-Func, Order Line Item Screen). Also, at this moment, if there’s not enough quantity availability to fulfill the order, system will popup with a small window on the top right hand corner to show “Quantity Exceed Available”.
Confirm Status: From the “Your Price” field, the system advances us to the “ST” field. The status for a line is “Q=Quote” or “C=Confirm”. In this “ST” field, we once again have access to the F5 Function Options.
Depending on whether you turn on “Quotation Comment” in the setup of Sales Desk function, if you flag this line item as a “Q” status, the system will prompt us for a Reason and Comment Code as to why you did not win the quote.
Depending on whether you turn on “Enter Line Item Additional Data” in the setup of Sales Desk, if you flag this line item as a “C” status, the system will ask you for some additional order line item information, (Cost, Discount Percent, Vendor, Product Category, User Defined Code, Request and Promise dates).
Note: The line item entry screen provides 6 line items per screen. By using the Page Up or Page Down keys, you can scroll the line item area to enter or change more line items.
Once you complete all line items and exit, (Esc/Confirm), the system will ask if you want to create a sales order, see Figure below.
Order Header
If you selected “Y” to create the sales order the system opens up a screen similar to sales order header with a few fields that you need to complete, see Figure below.
You should start by confirming address with customer. If the address is correct, proceed to finish the header information. If the address is incorrect, you should hit ESC key at this moment to go back to previous Sales Desk screen, and press F5 to change customer’s address. After that, you can hit ESC key, confirm to create sales order and come back to the header screen again.
You will enter this screen just as if you are entering the order header. Fields 17 – 18, will repeat for the number of locations you have for the line items. You can have up to 6 locations per sales desk order.
Ship Via Code
You can specify a different ship-via code for different location. For example customer needs merchandise from both LA and NY warehouses next day; if customer is in Los Angeles, we may ship from LA warehouse through UPS ground, and UPS red from NY warehouse.
Freight
Sales Desk has ability to calculate freight automatically. The system assumes everything will be in one box and use item weight to calculate the freight charge automatically. However users also have to option to manually enter the weight, value, and number of boxes for the system to calculate freight. For more detail, please refer to Freight Calculation feature. You can also leave freight charge blank and let shipping manifest or the billing process determine the appropriate freight charges.
Misc. Charge
System can also automatically calculate miscellaneous charge based on terms code setup. This would normally be used for (1) A fixed COD charge like $5.00 regardless number of boxes. (2) Credit card charge. For example you may charge you customer 3% of the selling price if they pay you by credit card.
Multiple Locations Order
For multiple locations sales desk order, each location will be created as an individual sales order and picked and invoiced separately.
Open Credits
If the deposit feature is turned on (Global setup, COP-Func, Order Billing), the system can optionally detect if there’s an open credit (or payment) for this customer to be used for this order. This is especially important for COD customers. If a COD customer has outstanding credit with you, and you still COD them with the full invoice amount, your customer is pleased.
Credit Checking and Releasing
If you enable credit check feature, system will check if the order should be put on hold and send for credit manager for approval. The reason why the order is put on hold will be saved in a note record that’s attached to the order header record.
Sales Desk Reporting
Rather than creating standard reports that may be meaningful to one company, but superfluous to another, we opted to create a Sales Desk database that you can access with Crystal Report Writer. This will allow you to design and customize exact reports for just information that you want to see.
Database files are: CPSLSQUO Sales Quotation File
CPQUOITM Sales quotation Item File
CPQUOCMT Sales quotation Comment File