Order Entry Overview

The functionality provided by the order entry applications in (Undefined variable: Primary.Product1) covers several warehouse activities, such as

• entering of Customer Orders (Receiving and Shipping),
• printing of Shipping Documents,
• automatic Addressing,
• verification of Order information,
• automatic Stock Control, including control of Reserves (i.e., Stock committed for outstanding Orders),
• control of outstanding Documents in the Warehouse,
• direct recall of any and all information entered (regardless of its stage of processing), for inquiry or modification,
• one-step confirmation for entry of Shipped Orders without creating a Shipping Document (i.e.,manually created),
• accumulation of Sales report information,
• logging of Rate changes, for audit trails,
• optional sorting of Bills of Lading,
• daily audit of Warehouse activity,
• accumulate Accessorial Charges for month-end Invoicing.

For a list of the core applications associated with order entry processing in VL, see OE - Order Entry.

Recurring Stock Charges

The computer keeps two sets of balances on every Lot. The first is the actual current balance, the second is the balance prior to the Recurring Date (useful for calendar month billing). Recurring Charges can be produced for any or all Customers at any time. The computer examines the Inventory and produces Recurring Invoice information which will result in Recurring Invoices being printed by the Invoice Printing program. This is run once per day and produces

• Receiving Invoices,
• Recurring Invoices, and
• Ancillary Charge Invoices.

For more information, see IP - Invoice Processing documentation.

Ancillary Charge Invoicing

Ancillary Charges incurred and known at receiving time will appear on the Warehouse Receipt Invoices but any other Ancillary Charges accumulate in a Collector file and are assembled onto Invoices periodically (as desired by the Customer).

These Invoices will print, along with all others, once per day.

The Daily Order Cycle

Shipping Orders are entered continuously and without interruption throughout the day. They are printed as often as required to keep the Warehouse busy (usually four times daily). The printing of Orders does not interrupt the entry of new Orders. It is also possible to have the Orders print immediately after entry, on remote Warehouse printers.

Warehouse Receipts and Ancillary Charges are entered as the information becomes available. Ancillary Charges can be entered through ...

IP.12 [Access’l Chg/Credit-Accumulate]
OE.01 [Enter Orders (Shipping)]
RE.21 [Receipts]
RE.31 [Receipt Invoices]
IP.13 [Access’l Chg/Credit -Immediate]

... which results in immediate Invoices but usually in

OE.06 [Pick Confirmation]
OE.20 [Confirm or Modify Shipments]
OE.21 [Enter Shipped Orders].

Ancillary Charges entered in IP.12, OE.01, OE.06, OE.20, and OE.21 accumulate in a Collector file for periodic Invoicing.

On any given day during the month, certain Customers may require their Recurring Invoices and/or Ancillary Charge Invoices to be produced (usually to coincide with their own accounting cycle). The Order Control Desk designates which Customers, and the computer automatically assembles their accumulated Charges and Recurring information onto Invoices.

Invoices generated during the day in programs ...

IP.31 [Recurring Storage - Generate]
IP.32 [Accessorial Charges - Generate]
IP.33 [Shipment Register - Generate]

... need not be printed immediately, since this might cut the printer off from more important functions. They are held in a central file until they are "scheduled". Scheduling means the computer does a pass of the internally held Invoices and creates General Ledger information, Sales Analysis information, an Audit Register, and a Print file (i.e., the end-of-day Job Stream).

After scheduling, the Invoices print in sequence by the Type of Invoice and Invoice Number.

Types of Invoices include the Warehouse Receipt Invoice, Recurring Invoice, and Ancillary Charge Invoice. After the Invoices are printed, the Invoice Register (Sales Journal) is produced in three sections:

1. List of Invoices:
   
   Warehouse Receipts (Invoice recorded in the Accounts Receivable file)
   Recurring Charges (Invoice recorded in the Accounts Receivable file)
   Ancillary Charges (Invoice recorded in the Accounts Receivable file)
   Shipped Orders (an Audit Trail only - no Invoice produced)
2. A summary of the General Ledger posting entries which were sent to the General Ledger Collector file.
3. A listing of all Orders by Client, with a summary for each Warehouse.