In Accolent ERP, transactions with customers from generating a quote, taking an order to sell goods to a customer, fulfilling the order and finally to invoicing the customer are all managed through the Settings > Sales menus. There are separate secondary menus for Quotes, Orders, Fulfillment and Invoice. There are several types of orders that are accessed under the Orders menus.
Quotes
- Unlike an order, a quote is simply an offer to sell a customer one or more products at a certain price
- Inventory is not committed on a quote until such time as the quote is accepted and converted to an order.
- Accolent ERP maintains a record of inventory currently “on quote” but these products can be sold to other customers.
- Quotes can be changed to orders or immediate invoices once accepted so as to sell the goods to the customer.
- Go to Sales > Quotes > List Quotes > select a quote or choose New to create a quote.
Orders
- An order is a type of sales transaction involving a customer and one or more products.
- Accolent ERP has two basic kinds of order models: two-step orders and immediate invoices (or counter sales). Two-step orders are accessed under orders while immediate invoices are accessed from Invoices (see below).
- A two-step order is the typical process flow that first takes the customer’s order and then secondly sends the order to the warehouse for fulfillment.
- An order is entered and a pick list is printed.
- When the pick list is filled, the warehouse picks, packs and ships the goods and automatically creates the back order record (if needed) for goods ordered but unavailable to be shipped.
- Once shipped, the order can be invoiced.
- Any item on an order can be designated as a special order that requires purchase from a vendor before delivering to a customer.
- Products with Product Class “Special Order” and other products set to “Special Order” both cause the line to be treated as a special order.
- Special orders can be treated as “drop ship” orders shipped directly from the vendor to the customer.
- Lines marked as special orders will prompt as to whether a PO should be generated automatically and for which vendor.
- Special order items become back orders until the PO is received.
- Go to Sales > Orders > List Orders > select an order or choose New to create an order.
Repairs
- Repairs are orders that involve using products from inventory and//or labor to repair a product that was previously sold to the customer.
- Please refer to the Accolent Help article on using repairs.
Recurring Orders
- A recurring order is a special type of order accessed from a separate menu under orders.
- Recurring orders work like two-step orders because goods can be shipped on a pick list for a recurring invoice.
- The difference is you can specify a contract amount due on a monthly basis corresponding to the recurring order.
- Go to Sales > Orders > List Recurring, to select a recurring order or choose New to create a recurring order.
Fulfillment
- When a two-step order is released to the warehouse, the order is managed through the Orders in Fulfillment screen.
- Orders can be fulfilled individually or in batches, packed, shipping arranged with the shipping carrier, and finally shipped from the warehouse.
- Go to Sales > Fulfillment > List Fulfillments > select n order in fulfillment.
Invoices
- When a two-step order is shipped from the warehouse the order can be invoiced to the customer.
- The process of invoicing bills the customer creates an Accounts Receivable entry and records the sale in the General Ledger
- Immediate Invoices are used for over-the-counter, or point of sale orders that do not require second-step fulfillment.
- This one-step order/invoice process allows a customer waiting at a sales counter to purchase goods and receive an invoice immediately.
- The invoice, accounts receivable item, and back order record (if needed) are all created when the order process is completed.
- Payments may be taken and entered at the time of sale at the sales counter.
- Go to Sales > Invoices > List Invoices to select an invoice to view or Create Immediate Invoice.
Credit Memos
- Credit Memos are the process through which customers can return defective or incorrectly delivered goods and receive credit.
- To allow for the return of items already billed to a customer on an invoice, import the invoice as a credit memo and then edit it to reflect the items being returned.
- The Return Merchandise Authorization form can be printed and sent to the customer to be returned with the returned merchandise.
- When the goods are received by the warehouse the Credit Memo is marked as fulfilled to generate the credit for the customer.
- Credit memos can be processed using the one-step or two-step order process.
- Credit memos are essentially orders entered with a negative quantity for products returned; the negative quantity will result in a credit for the customer
- Go to Sales > Credit Memos > List Credit Memos to select a credit memo or Create Immediate Credit Memo or Create a Two-Step Credit Memo.
Rentals
- Rentals, like orders represent transactions with customers.
- In the case of rentals, the customer takes the product for a defined time period and is invoiced for the period of the rental when the product is returned.
- A rental order is always a two-step order in which, a rental ticket is created to release the rental products to the customer. When the products are returned the rental order is fulfilled to make the item available for re-rental and to create the invoice.
- Only rental items can be on a rental order.
- Rental items are non-inventory items and are always serialized.
- Rental products are treated as Fixed Assets and depreciated instead of recording costs of rentals.
- Go to Sales > Rentals > List Rentals to select a rental or Create a Rental Order.