Create Orders

Copyright 1997-2007 Mekashron.

Create Orders

 

    The Order Management functionality available in Mekashron is both powerful and simple to use. In this section you will learn all about how to create an order with Mekashron. The topics we will cover in this section are:


    1. The Sales Tab
    2. Adding Products
    3. Applying a Discount or Changing the VAT Rate
    4. Sending a Price Quote
    5. Additional Order Settings
    6. Generating an Invoice
    7. Receiving a Payment
    8. Previous Orders
    9. New Orders
    10. The Communication Tab
    11. Summary

    In this chapter we assume that you have successfully installed Mekashron, that you have set up your entities, and that you have performed your sales set up, including adding your products to the Mekashron inventory.

     



    1 - The Sales Tab


    All Orders are linked with an Entity. Normally this entity will be a Client. When you want to create an order for a client, the first thing you need to do is to select the Sales tab from within the main Entity form.

     

    The figure below shows the Sales tab for a client:


    Figure 1.1 - The Sales tab

     

    This screen is quite complex so we will first take a high-level look at each of the areas that you can see in the screen shot above, before examining the various functions in more detail.

     

    The screen areas and subtabs on the Orders screen (see labels on the screenshot above):

    • New Order / Previous Orders tab options - The New Order tab is for entering a fresh order; you can switch to the Previous Orders tab to see past orders placed by this client.
    • Products / Payments tab options - The Products tab is for managing the products relating to a sale, while the Payments tab, which we will look at later in this chapter, allows you to manage payments made by a client when he pays his bill in full or in part.
    • The product grid - Here you can view, edit or delete products for this order. The fields shown in this grid are:
      • Product Name - Name of the product ordered.
      • Qty - The quantity ordered.
      • Curr - The currency associated with this product.
      • Price - The price associated with this product.
      • Price + VAT - Mekashron automatically adds the VAT or sales tax onto the product price for you.
      • Total - The price associated with this product, multiplied by the quantity ordered.
      • Total + VAT - The total price for this line of the order, i.e. product price multiplied by quantity with VAT or sales tax added.
    • Totals line - Below the product grid is a row that shows you the totals of the following fields:Quantity, Price, Price + VAT, Total and Total + VAT
    • At the bottom left of the Sales tab is an order summary box which we'll examine in detail in a moment.
    • At the bottom right of the Sales tab you will see the Documents tab, where you can manage the Quotes, Invoices and other documents relating to this order:


      Figure 1.2 - The Documents tab

      Please note that there are an additional two tabs that may be accessed from this one:


      Figure 1.3 - The Documents, Order Details and Recurring tab options

      • Order Details - Details including Agent, User, Due Date and Order Date
      • Recurring - Options relating to repeating orders.

     

     



    2 - Adding Products


    In this section we will see how to add products to an order. At this point we assume that you have set up Mekashron with your Entities and your Inventory, and that you are in the Sales tab of one of your entities and are ready to add some products to an order.

     

    Adding Products from Your Inventory to an Order: To add a product, click on the Product Name field in the grid. Mekashron will show you a drop down with the names of all the products in your inventory:


    Figure 2.1 - The Add a Product Dropdown

     

    The fields shown in the Add a Product dropdown are:

    • Product Name - The name of the product as listed in your inventory.
    • Barcode - The product's barcode.
    • Price - The per-item price of the product as listed in your inventory.
    • Quantity Left - The quantity of this item that you have in stock.

     

    To add a product to the order, simply double-click on the product you wish to add to the order. Alternatively, you can select the product with the checkbox at the left and then hit enter on your keyboard. Mekashron will then populate the Price and Currency fields in the product grid for you automatically, and set the Qty field to 1.

     

    If you wish to select multiple products to add to the order you can save time by simply ticking multiple items in the dropdown using the check box on the left, as shown in the example below:


    Figure 2.2 - Adding Multiple Products from the dropdown

     

    ... and then hit enter on your keyboard - Mekashron adds all the items to your order, with a default quantity of 1:


    Figure 2.3 - Multiple Products on the Order

     

    Note that there is a scroll bar in the product dropdown - if you have many products in your inventory then you may need to scroll down to find the correct product. To make it easier for you to locate the product you wish to add, there is a search function included in the product field.

     

    You can type one or more characters in the Product Name field, and Mekashron will immediately filter the drop down list of products to display only those products from your inventory which match your search criteria.

     

    For example, if you start to type the word "purple" in the Product Name field, the dropdown will be filtered to only show the relevant products:


    Figure 2.4 - The Search Function in the Product Dropdown - Example 1

     

    Or, you could simply type the number 2 in the Product Field to filter the list by any products that include the number 2 in their name:


    Figure 2.5 - The Search Function in the Product Dropdown - Example 2

     

    Adding Products to an Order and to Your Inventory: If you are creating an order for a product which is not yet included in your product inventory, you can do this easily from the order screen. Simply type the name of the new product into the Product Name field and then click on the Add to Inventory button:


    Figure 2.6 - The Button for Adding a Product to the Inventory from the Order Screen

     

    This will bring up the main Inventory Management screen where you can add the product details to your inventory as desired (see Adding Products in the Inventory Management section of this chapter).

     

    Once you have added the new product to your inventory then you will be returned to your order to continue adding products.

     

    Adding a Product to the Order but not to the Inventory: If this is a new product and you do NOT want to add it to your inventory (perhaps a one-off sale of a product you would not normally supply) then you can simply ignore the Product Dropdown, type a name in the Product Name field and then hit the Enter key.

     

    Updating Fields on Your Order: After adding a product to your order, you can at any time modify the line for that product in the order by clicking on and amending the Quantity, Currency or Price. This means that even if you have selected a product from the inventory and the price field in the order has been auto-populated for you, you can over-ride this price and enter a different price for the product, just for this particular order, if required.

     

    As you update product quantities and/or prices, the Price+VAT, Total and Total+VAT fields in the grid are automatically re-calculated and updated for you, as are the totals for all the products at the bottom of the grid in the totals line.

     

    Use of the Keyboard for Adding Products: For speed of data entry, especially if you have telesales staff who are taking orders over the phone, it is important to be able to add products using the keyboard rather than with mouse clicks. Here is a quick guide to doing so:



    1. When you navigate to the Sales Tab, you are immediately taken to the Product Name field in the grid. Start typing the name of the product you wish to add to the order:


      Figure 2.7 - Start Typing in a Product name

      As you can see, Mekashron starts to filter the product list for you.


    2. You can either type the Product Name into the field in full, or if you prefer you can use the Arrow keys to move down the list until the product you want is highlighted. Then hit the Enter key to add this product to the list.


    3. You are automatically moved to the Quantity field where you can type in the number of the product you wish to add to the order.


      Figure 2.8 - Enter a Quantity for the Product

    4. Hit the Enter key again once you have keyed the Quantity, and you are taken to the Price field in case you wish to update the price. If you want to change the price type in a new figure:


      Figure 2.9 - Change the Price if Needed

      ... otherwise hit Enter again...


    5. ... And Mekashron creates a new Product line in the grid ready for you to repeat the process.

     

    Removing Products from your Order: If you need to remove a product line from your Order, simply right-click on the line and select Delete as shown below.


    Figure 2.10 - Removing a Product from your Order

    The calculated totals for the order will then be automatically updated for you.

     

    Splitting Quantities on your Order: An additional useful option that is available from the contextual menu when you right click on one of the products in your order is the Split Quantity function.


    Figure 2.11 - The Split Quantity option

     

    In the example above we have a line item for Red Widget No 1, with a quantity of 40.

     

    Suppose we only have 20 of these widgets in stock. So we want to split this line item so that we can create a shipping label for 20 widgets and leave the other 20 widgets open for despatch later.

     

    We will right click on the product line and select Split Quantity. This gives us the following dialog:


    Figure 2.12 - The New Quantity dialog

     

    We enter ‘20’ as the New Quantity and click OK.


    Figure 2.13 - Example Order after Quantity has been split

     

    As you can see, Mekashron has split the product line into two separate lines, each for 20 Red Widgets, and has automatically updated all the necessary financial information.

     



    3 - Applying a Discount or Changing the VAT Rate


    Once you have added all the products to your new order, you may wish to apply an overall discount to the order or to change the VAT or Sales Tax rate for the order. This is easy to do, and at all times Mekashron will automatically keep track of the financial details of the order for you and update them as you work.

     

    Discounts: With Mekashron you have all the flexibility you need when creating an order. You can dynamically apply a discount to the order even while you have the client on the telephone and are editing it. Here's how:

     

    In the example product shown below, we have added a number of products to our order and the total order value, shown in red at the bottom left of the screen, is £912.80:


    Figure 3.1 - Example Order Showing Discount Field

     

    In the screenshot above, we have highlighted the Discount field. The Discount field and the discount % field to its right are both defaulted to zero.

     

    To apply a discount to the order, simply type the value of the discount you wish to offer the customer into the Discount field. Mekashron automatically calculates the percentage that this discount represents and shows you this in the adjoining field.


    Figure 3.2 - Order with Discount Applied

     

    Notice that Mekashron has automatically updated all the relevant financial details in the Order Summary box, and our Total Order and Remaining figures now stand at $821.52.

     

    Changing the VAT Rate: In a similar way to applying a discount to an order dynamically, you can change the VAT rate if you need to.


    Figure 3.3 - Order with Default VAT Rate

     

    In the example above, Mekashron has applied our default tax rate to the order. This is the percentage VAT or Sales Tax rate that we set up when we defined our general Business Settings - in this example, 12%.

     

    Let us suppose that while we are on the phone with our customer, taking the order, we realize that his company resides in a state which has a VAT rate of 15%. We simply highlight the % field next to the VAT field and overtype it with 15.


    Figure 3.4 - Order with New VAT Rate Applied

     

    As you can see in the example above, Mekashron has automatically updated the VAT, Total Order and Remaining fields to account for the increased VAT rate.

     



    4 - Sending a Price Quote


    Once you have created your order, you may wish to send a Price Quote to your client. This is very easy to do in Mekashron.

     

    You will see in the Documents part of the screen that one of the standard documents available to you is the Price Quote document.

     

    Click on this document to see the available options:


    Figure 4.1 - The Options for Creating a Price Quote Document

     

    As you can see there are three ways to create and send a Price Quote to your customer:

    • Print - Use this option to print off a Price Quote if you wish to post it to your customer.
    • Fax - To fax the document, use this option.
    • Email - This option enables you to email the Price Quote to your client directly from inside the Mekashron application.

     

    Regardless of which option you choose for creating your Price Quote, Mekashron will automatically personalize it with all the details of the client and the order, including any special options you have added to the order such as discounts.

     

    As an example, let us preview a Price Quote for the order that we created in the previous section.

     

    First of all, we'll ensure that we have the Preview document checkbox selected:


    Figure 4.2 - Choosing to Preview the Price Quote Document

     

    Next we will click on the Price Quote icon and select Print - this brings up the Print dialog box:


    Figure 4.3 - The Print Dialog Box

     

    Click OK to see the Price Quote in Preview mode:


    Figure 4.4 - The Price Quote Document in Preview Mode

     

    The document that is previewed in the example above is simply a default Mekashron Price Quote. You can customize this document, for example by adding your company's logo or additional fields. For instructions on how to do this, please refer to Customizing Documents in the Documents Management chapter of this manual.

     

    Note that if you de-select the Preview document checkbox, then Mekashron will simply send the document straight to your selected printer.

     

    In a similar way you can preview and send the Price Quote document via fax or email.

     



    5 - Additional Order Settings


    In this section we will briefly look at some additional settings that are available to you when you create an order, including recurrence options.

     

    Order Details: The Details for an Order are accessed via a tab next to the Documents Tab.


    Figure 5.1 - The Order Details tab

     

    Here you have a number of useful fields.

    • Agent - This is an optional field and allows you to select from a dropdown the user that you would like to associate with this order. The user might be your salesperson or an associate or reseller.
    • Created by - This field shows which user created this order and is a read-only field.
    • Due Date - Here you can assign a due date to the order if you need to track a deadline or target date for dealing with this order. By default, the due date for the order is the same as the order creation date.
    • Order Date - This is a read-only field showing you the date that the order was created on your Mekashron system.

     

    Recurring Orders:When you create a new order, by default it is a one-off order and there is no recurrence associated with it.

     

    However, if this order is going to recur on a regular basis you can set up Mekashron to auto-generate the recurrences of this order for the future.

     

    At this point, we assume that you have already created the order for the entity in question, and have added the products to the order as we've seen earlier in this chapter.

     

    To set up recurrence on your order, click on the tab labelled Recurring, next to the Order Details tab:


    Figure - 5.2 The Recurring tab

     

    To set the order to recur on a regular basis, first select the Recurrence tick box to enable the relevant fields:


    Figure 5.3 - Enabling Recurrence for an order

     

    As you can see in the screenshot above, the default options when you set up recurrence are for monthly billing to continue for a year, and Mekashron automatically calculates the Next billing date and the billing Cycle.

     

    You can change the billing to exactly what you need, including how often you wish to bill your client:


    Figure 5.4 - Setting "Bills Every" options

     

    … and for how long you would like the recurring billing to continue:


    Figure 5.5 - Setting "Continue Billing for" options

     

    If desired, you can also manually change the Next billing date field.

     



    6 - Generating an Invoice


    Once your client is ready to be invoiced for the order you have created, again this is straightforward with Mekashron.

     

    In the Documents area, click on the Invoice document and choose to generate it, as you did for the Price Quote document, by Print, Fax or Email.


    Figure 6.1 - Options for Generating an Invoice

     

    Here is our example Invoice in Preview mode:


    Figure 6.2 - An Invoice in Preview Mode

     

    The document that is previewed in the example above is simply a default Mekashron Invoice. You can customize this document, for example by adding your company's logo or additional fields. For instructions on how to do this, please refer to Customizing Documents in the Documents Management chapter of this manual.

     

    When you have created an Invoice for your order, notice that the icon for the entity will change.


    Figure 6.3 - The Order Details Before and After You Generate an Invoice

     

    As you can see in the example above, prior to creating the invoice, each product had an icon like an open box at the left. Once we have created an invoice for this order, the icon changes to a picture of this document. You also have an additional option in the contextual menu, View Invoice - this is an easy way to you to access the invoice for this order in the future should you need to refer to it.

     

    If you refer again to Figure 6.3, looking at the view before an invoice is generated, you will see that all of the products in the grid are selected with a green checkbox at the left. This is the default state of the product grid, with all of the products selected. However, you might want to invoice your client for only some of the products. Perhaps certain products are currently out of stock and you wish to send an invoice for only those that are available immediately.

     

    To create an invoice for selected products only, simply deselect the products that you do not wish to include on the invoice:


    Figure 6.4 - Selecting Specific Products to Invoice

     

    In the Figure above we only have Red Widget 3 and Red Widget 4 in stock, so we have selected only those products. Now when we click the Invoice document icon and create an invoice, it includes only those two items:


    Figure 6.5 - Our Invoice for Selected Products Only

     

    As you can see in the preview example above, this time Mekashron has only included the products we specified on the invoice. These two product lines will now be marked as invoiced, while the remaining products are still waiting to be invoiced, which can be done at a later date.


    Figure 6.6 - The Product List after Invoicing Part of the Order

     



    7 - Receiving a Payment


    Now that you have created your order and invoiced your client, the next step you are likely to want to take will be to record a payment against this order. To submit a payment, first navigate to the Payments tab. Here we assume that you have created an order and now wish to take a payment towards that order (in whole or in part).

     

    The Payments tab looks like this:


    Figure 7.1 - The Payments Tab

     

    The purpose of this tab is to allow you to record payments against an order. As you can see, the payments are displayed in a grid. The fields you can see in this grid are:

    • Payment Name - The type of payment e.g. Cash, Credit Card or Cheque.
    • Currency - The currency of the payment.
    • Amount - The amount of the payment.
    • Payment Date - The date of the payment.
    • Total - The total amount of the payment.
    • Cheque/Card# - This field displays the bank or card name followed by the cheque number or the credit card number. Nothing is displayed in this field for cash payments.
    • Account/Voucher# - This field displays the account number.

     

    Notice that in the Documents part of the Payments screen, there are different options than the documents that you saw in the Products tab; the products available on the Payments are:

    • Receipt
    • Receipt Cancel

     

    To record a payment, select the dropdown in the Payment Name field. (Note: For instructions on how to set up the payment types that you wish to be available in this dropdown, please see Payments Information in the Basic Sales Setup section of this chapter.)


    Figure 7.2 - The Payments Tab showing the payment types in the dropdown

     

    Credit Card Payment Type: When you select to record a Credit Card payment, you are taken to the form for recording Credit Card details, as shown below:


    Figure 7.3 - The Fields to Record for a Credit Card Payment

     

    This form has credit card specific fields for you to fill in:

    • Name on Card - The name field can be filled in with any value you require or else populated with one of the existing available options, i.e. the client’s contact name or company name.


      Figure 7.4 - Selecting a Name for the Credit Card Payment


    • Card Number - The Credit Card Number, i.e. the long number across the middle of the card, is a required field.
    • Card Name - The name of the credit card, which is a dropdown which you can populate with custom values.
    • Expire Date - Two dropdowns, for the month and year that the card expires.
    • CVV - Card Verification Value code - this is a 3-digit number found on the reverse of the card, that you can request from the credit card holder as extra security.

     

    As you record payments against different credit cards you can add various values to the Card Name dropdown by clicking on the red + button below the Card Name field:


    Figure 7.5 - Adding a Card Name to the system

     

    … these will then appear in the Card Name dropdown and be remembered by the system and available to you whenever you add a payment for any client.

     

    The Credit Card Number is clearly the most important field and can be typed into the box. Mekashron will then remember the credit card numbers that you have entered in the past and make them available in the Credit Card Number dropdown - but only for this particular Client. This removes the risk of accidentally charging the wrong credit card when you are entering payments for a completely different client.

     

    After adding the details of the credit card you will then complete the Amount to be charged when you return to the main Payments screen.

     

    To enter the amount, click on the Amount field. Mekashron will give you the option of selecting the full invoice amount as shown below:


    Figure 7.6 - Entering the Amount to Charge for a Credit Card Payment

     

    … or alternatively you can manually enter any other amount here.

     

    Once you have added a credit card payment, you can then right-click on this entry in the payments table and select the Charge Credit Card function, as shown below:


    Figure 7.7 - Charging a Credit Card Payment

     

    … ... this will bring up your credit card component, assuming that you have installed one and linked to it in the Payments setup.

     

    Cheque Payment Type: When you select Cheque as the payment type, Mekashron automatically pops up this screen for you to fill in:


    Figure 7.8 - The Fields to Record for a Cheque Payment

     

    The Name on Cheque field can be filled in with any free text you required, or alternatively you can select either the client contact’s name or company name from the pre-populated dropdown.


    Figure 7.9 - Selecting a Value for the Name on the Cheque

     

    The Date, which is pre-filled for you to the current date, but which you can change if you wish, and the Name are the only mandatory fields when you record a cheque payment. However it is advisable to record as much information as you can when you receive a cheque, so the other fields that are available for you include:

     

    • Cheque Number
    • Account Number
    • Bank Number
    • Branch
    • Bank

     

    The Bank field is a dropdown, and it is easy to add bank names to this field as and when you need them by clicking on the red + button and typing in the value you require, for example:


    Figure 7.10 - Adding a Bank Name

     

    When you complete future payments, you will conveniently have the values previously entered available to you in the Bank dropdown.

     

    After adding the details of the cheque:


    Figure 7.11 - The Completed Cheque Details Screen

     

    ...you then click OK to return to the main Payments screen and complete the Amount field. As we saw for the Credit Card payment type, Mekashron allows you to select the full amount by clicking on the prompt:


    Figure 7.12 - Completing the Amount Field for a Cheque

     

    ... or alternatively you can enter a partial amount by typing it into the Amount field.

     

    If a client wishes to pay the bill with multiple cheques, simply enter them one after the other with the same procedure. Mekashron will make this as quick as possible for you by pre-filling the cheque details fields. Our first cheque had a serial number of 111111; as you can see in the example below, Mekashron has auto-incremented the cheque serial number for the second cheque we are entering, to 111112:


    Figure 7.13 - Mekashron Auto-Increments the Cheque Number Field

     

    This time when we click OK and go to complete our Amount field, Mekashron offers us the option of selecting the remaining balance due on this order - we entered $10 as a partial payment on the first cheque, and now we can select the remaining amount or enter yet another partial amount and repeat the procedure.


    Figure 7.14 - Taking Multiple Cheques as Payment is easy in Mekashron

     

    Cash Payment Type: If you select Cash as the payment type then simply fill in the amount (and change the currency if required) – no other fields need to be completed.

     

    Regardless of which type of payment you record, when you return to the Payments screen after submitting a payment you will see that Mekashron has updated the Remaining field to zero, if you took full payment, or to the remaining amount that is outstanding on the order if you only took partial payment.

     

    At this point you are likely to want to print a receipt to send to your client - or to directly send the receipt to a fax or email address if your client prefers.

     

    To generate a receipt, click on the Receipt icon in the Documents tab:


    Figure 7.15 - Generating a Receipt

     

    ... and choose to either Print, Fax or Email the receipt.

     

    Here is our example receipt in Preview Mode:


    Figure 7.16 - Example Receipt in Preview Mode

     

    When you choose to create a receipt, Mekashron asks you if you would like to close the order:


    Figure 7.17 - Closing an Order

     

    If you choose OK at this prompt, then Mekashron marks the order as processed and returns you to the New Order tab with a new blank product grid ready for recording the next order for this client. To see the completed order, you will use the Previous Orders tab, as we'll see in the next section.

     



    8 - Previous Orders


    Viewing past orders for a client is done via Previous Orders, which is accessed thus:

    1. Open the Entity Form.
    2. Select the Sales tab.
    3. Select Previous Orders at the top left.



    Figure 8.1 - The Previous Orders option

     

    Here is the Previous Orders screen:


    Figure 8.2 - The Previous Orders Screen

     

    The fields displayed in the Orders grid are:

    • Order # - The unique Order number assigned by Mekashron when you or your users create an order.
    • Username - The user who created the order in Mekashron.
    • Date - The date on which the order was created.
    • Total Order - The total value of the order, after any discount and including VAT or Sales Tax.
    • Total Paid - The total of any payments which have already been applied to this order.
    • Remaining - The outstanding balance owed by the client with relation to this order.
    • Due Date - The Due Date you have assigned to the order.

     

    In the Previous Orders screen, you can filter the visible orders by a date range if required:


    Figure 8.3 - The Date filtering controls for Previous Orders

     

    If you wish to search for orders with a specific product or other field, or if you wish to search for a particular order number, then you can use the search field at the bottom of the screen:


    Figure 8.4 - The Orders Search field

     

    When you have located an order that you wish to view or edit, you can do so by double-clicking it or by selecting it in the list and then clicking on the View/Edit button:


    Figure 8.5 - The View/Edit Button

     

    This opens up the order for you to view or change, or to view documents associated with the order:


    Figure 8.6 - Viewing a Previously Created Order

     

    Returning for a moment to the Previous Orders screen, there is an additional option whereby you can combine two orders into a single order. To use this function, right-click on the order you wish to merge into a different order:


    Figure 8.7 - The Link Order With Function

     

    ... click on Link Order With.... This gives you the following prompt:


    Figure 8.8 - The Link Order With Prompt

     

    From the drop-down list, select the order you wish to merge this order into. In our example we will select order number 39 to merge order 40 into:


    Figure 8.9 - Selecting an Order to Merge Into

     

    When we click OK, Mekashron opens up the new, merged order, which retains the order number that we selected from the dropdown box. This order now contains the products from both the orders that we have merged:


    Figure 8.10 - Our Two Orders have been Merged

     

    Upon returning to the Previous Orders screen, our order number 40 is no longer present. Instead we see order 39 showing the value of both orders combined.

     

    In addition to using the Previous Orders screen to locate orders for an entity, you can also use the Entity Search if you need to find a specific order or a list of orders. Instructions on doing this can be found in Finding Orders in the next part of this chapter. Also, for full instructions on how to use the powerful Entity Search functions, please refer to Search Entities in the Entities chapter of this manual.

     



    9 - New Orders


    Creating a New Order: When you access the Sales tab, Mekashron opens up the most recent order for you. If there are not yet any orders for this client then Mekashron automatically creates a new blank order for you and links it to this client. Towards the bottom of the screen on the left you will see that Mekashron has allocated the next available order number in the database, in the example below, Order 7:


    Figure 9.1 - An Order in Mekashron

     

    The order number is at the top left of this part of the screen, and at the top right you can see a drop down button titled New Order:


    Figure 9.2 - The New Order drop down button

     

    The options available from this drop down button are:

    • New Order - Once you have created an order you can select this option to start afresh with another order. As we are currently in a new order screen, this option is greyed out.
    • Close Order - The option is only enabled for orders which have been paid.
    • Cancel Order - You can cancel an order at any time regardless of whether it has been paid for or not. Note that cancelling an order does not completely delete it from the system. Although you will no longer see the cancelled order on the Sales tab for the entity, you will still be able to see the order in the the main Orders screen.

     

    Below the order number you can see the financial information from this order, and this will update as you add products and payments to this particular order. These fields are:

    • Discount - This is an editable, optional field that an operator can update at any time if a discount is agreed with the client. To the right of the Discount field is a display-only field which shows the percentage that this discount represents on the total of the product value.
    • VAT - This read-only field is calculated as a percentage of the Total - Discount, based on the VAT percentage that you set up in your Business Settings. If you need to change the VAT rate for the order, you can do this in the percentage field to the right of the VAT display field, and Mekashron will auto-update the cost of the VAT applied to this order only.
    • Total Order - The total value of the order when any discount has been deducted and VAT has been added.
    • Currency drop down - to the right of the Total Order field is a drop down where you can change the currency of this particular order. The available currencies will be the ones that you set up when you customized your Business Settings
    • Total Paid - The Total Paid will be zero when the order is created, and then the total of any payments towards this order will be shown.
    • Remaining - The outstanding balance that is due on this order.

     



    10 - The Communication Tab


    Each entity has a Communication Tab which lists all past communication that has taken place with this entity. We will see more on the Communication Tab when we look at the Management Information section in the Telemarketing chapter. However, for the purposes of Sales, the Communications Tab is great for getting easy access to all of the Invoices, Receipts and other documents that you have created for a client.

     

    Here is an example of the Communication Tab for the client for whom we have just generated an invoice and a receipt:


    Figure 10.1 - The Communication Tab

     

    Each of the two documents that we created previously is listed in this screen. Here you can see the status of each document, and the small printer icon at the left shows that the document was printed. Alternatively you will see a fax or an email icon here if you chose to send the documents by one of those methods.

     

    Double-clicking on a document in the list will open that document in Preview mode for you to examine.

     

    Should you need to resend or reprint the document, simply right-click on the line in the documents grid:


    Figure 10.2 - Resending or Reprinting a Document

     

    ... and select Reset - this will requeue the document to the printer or the fax or email queue depending on how you first generated it.

     



    11 - Summary


    In this section we have covered in detail how to create orders in the Mekashron system. Your users can now record all your information about sales - quickly and easily.