Order to Shipment
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Contents
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Introduction
This workflow manages the life-cycle of a sales process, from the moment a Business Partner requests a quotation or orders goods, to the moment the warehouse staff ships the merchandise.
Abstract Business Process
The abstract Order to Shipment is defined by the following business process diagram:
These are the main sub-processes:
- Selecting the Business Partner
- Requesting and managing quotations
- Generating Sales Order
- Managing pending orders and shipping
Roles Involved
The following roles are involved within this process:
Sales - the main role in this chapter
Material Management - needed to manage the shipments
Configuration
Some configuration needs to be done before performing this process. Please refer to the Configuration Manual.
Step-by-Step
Identify Business Partner
The Sales role should be used.
Finding a Business Partner
Go to Master Data Management || Business Partner window and use the column filters in the grid to find the business partner you are looking for:
Double click a business partner to open it in form view and see more details
Analyze Risk for the Business Partner
Please refer to the Collection chapter of the user manual to learn how to see the credit used and credit available for a specific business partner.
One of the ideas to analyze the risk of the Business Partner is to analyze its payments. For that purpose, more information has been added to the Business Partner Printable Card . It can be accesed in Master Data Management || Business Partner window by clicking on print button. This is an example of what can be seen:
The change shows information about payments in and payments out. This is placed in Open Items section. The user can see in the tables the invoice number, the due date, the payment method, the expected amount to pay, the paid amount and the outstanding amount of the Payment Plan of the Invoice. Above the columns Expected, Paid and Outstanding there is a sum of all of the rows of each column. Another change has been done so that the user can navigate to the payment plans of the invoices shown there by clicking on the links (the little green arrow in front of the row).
Prepare Quotation
To enter a quotation, use the Sales Management || Transactions || Sales Order window and create a new record inside [Header]:
Fields to note:
- Transaction Document - select Quotation which indicates a potential sales order and distinguishes it from the rest of the orders.
- Order Reference - An internal reference number used by the Business Partner can be entered in this field.
- Business Partner - choose a customer (business partner marked as a customer) for which the proposal is being made. Upon selecting one, note how most of the mandatory fields are filled in automatically according to the customer details we have entered inside the [Customer] tab of the Business Partner window (such as Partners address, Price list, Sales Representative, Payment method and Payment terms). However, these can now be changed if required.
- Invoice Address - address that will be used upon generating the invoice
- Delivery Location - address that will be used when generating a shipment
- Document Status - status of the document, possible options are:
- Draft - Saved but not completed. It has no consequence in the system.
- Completed - A document which will be marked as pending to be delivered and eventually invoiced.
- Closed - A closed document cant be re-opened and does not appear as pending in any part of the system
- Total Net Amount - Total amount without the taxes
- Total Gross Amount - Total amount with taxes included
- Invoice Terms - The Invoice Rule defines how a Business Partner is invoiced and the frequency of invoicing
- Payment Method - Payment methods describe how an invoice will be paid, for example, checks, cash or bank transfer. In the payment flow as many payment methods as required can be defined. Each payment method can be configured having different business logic for collections and payments
Save the record and switch to [Lines]:
Create a new line selecting the desired product. These are the fields to note
- Product - select the product to be quoted. Please, refer to the configuration section to see how products for sale are created. Notice how some other fields such as Unit Price, UOM, Currency, etc are automatically populated.
- Attribute Set Value - if required by the product definition, select a specific attribute of the product being quoted
- Ordered Quantity - the number of items (in unit of measure selected) being quoted
- Delivered quantity - a read-only field that will be filled once there is a shipment related to this line
- Invoiced quantity - a read-only field that will be filled once there is an invoice related to this line
- Net Unit price - Price offered by the quotation. This field will be automatically retrieved upon product selection from the standard price in the sales price list selected in the [Header] of this document. By default, the user has the freedom to change the price which will be reflected in the line amount and the discount field.
- Net List price - This field will be retrieved upon product selection depending on the list price in the sales price list selected in the [Header] of this document. This field is informative so that the discount can be calculated.
- Discount - This field displays the discount Unit Price offers compared to the List Price. The purpose of this field is to show the discount of the line.
- Tax - automatically selected according to the Tax Category configured for the product and the regions of the shipper and the receiver.
- Line Net Amount - multiplication between Ordered Quantity and the Unit Price
Create as many lines as required and then complete the quotation by clicking the orange Book button in the toolbar.
After completing the quotation, the Document Status changes from Draft to Under way. We can now print the quotation and send it to the customer by fax, mail, email, etc.
Because this is a sales order of type Quotation, the document can still be changed after it has been completed and put into Under-way status.
Manage Quotations
To view pending quotations go to Sales Management || Transactions || Sales Order window. Using the column filters, you can find the list of quotations you need to manage by typing "quote" in the Transaction Document column filter field.
Converting a quotation into a sales order or voiding it will be explained in the following sections.
Send Quotation
The Sales role should be used.
A quotation can be sent to the customer in several formats: by e-mail, fax, mail, etc.
Sending Quotations by Email
To send a quotation by email, open the quotation inside the Sales Management || Transactions || Sales Order window and then click on the mail icon in the toolbar:
Type in the receiver's e-mail, and the e-mail subject and content. Attach another file (apart from the quotation pdf attached by default) if needed and send it:
Note: the emailing functionality needs to be configured properly, if it is malfunctioning please contact your administrator/consultant.
Sending Quotations by Fax
This process must be done outside Openbravo ERP as it does not support fax integration. Print out the quotation using the printer icon in the toolbar and then use a normal fax to send it.
Create Sales Order
The Sales role should be used.A sales order can be generated in two different ways:
- By converting an existing quotation into a sales order
- By creating it independently from scratch
1. Converting an Accepted Quotation into a Sales Order
When a quotation is accepted by the customer, the quotation needs to be converted into a sales order. Navigate to the Sales Management || Transactions || Sales Order window and select the correct Quotation document. Using the Transaction Document dropdown field, change it to the Standard Order type and save. Upon save, the description field will be updated with the quotation document number, to enable tracking of sales orders that were the result of a quotation:
Complete the document and note that the Document Status will change to Completed.
2. Generating an Independent Sales Order
To create sales order from scratch go to Sales Management || Transactions || Sales Order window and create a new record. See Quotation section of this document for description of the relevant fields in the document header with the difference of selecting Standard Order as the Transaction Document.
The header of the sales order would then look similarly to:
There are 3 ways of entering lines into the sales order:
- 1. Manually, line by line
- 2. Copying lines from a previous order using the Copy from Order button
- 3. Copying lines from a history of previous orders of the customer using the Copy Lines button
1. Manual
Please refer to the Quotation section of this document to see how to enter manual lines in a sales order. Enter product attributes (color, size..) for lines that need it.
2. Copying Lines from a Previous Order
Click the Copy from Order button in [Header]:
In this new window, open the search and select any sales order document (note that the quotations are also displayed) and click OK:
See that the lines that were in the selected order are now inserted in the [Lines] tab of the sales order. Change any information (quantity, amount, unit price), or enter product attributes (color, size..) for lines that need it.
3. Copying Lines from the History of Previous Orders
Using the Copy Lines button in the [Header] the following window appears showing products that have been ordered by the customer in the past:
Select the lines to be copied into the sales order, change the Price and Quantity if needed and then click OK. Change any information (quantity, amount, unit price), or enter product attributes (color, size..) for lines that require them.
Book Sales Order
Finally, complete the sales order by clicking the Book button. See that the Document Status changes from Draft to Completed.
When a sales order is completed, the products and their quantities automatically get booked (reserved) within the inventory.The process of physically booking the goods must be done outside Openbravo ERP.
Manage Pending Orders
The Material Management role should be used.
To see the orders pending to be shipped, use the Sales Management || Transactions || Create Shipments from Orders form and the filters available to narrow down the shown results:
Columns to note:
- Document No. - document number of the sales order. By clicking this link, you will be taken to the Sales Order window and the specific order you have clicked.
- Business partner - customer that submitted the sales order
- Order date - date of the order
- Lines Amt - Total lines amount without taxes
- Not delivery - The amount still pending to be delivered for the specific order
Prepare and Quality Assure Shipment
This process should be physically done outside Openbravo ERP. The Goods Shipment document and its Description fields can be used to enter any notes regarding the preparation of the shipment.
Shipment
The Material Management role should be used. There are 3 ways of Creating Shipments:
- 1.Creating Shipments by executing the Generate Shipments process
- 2.Creating Shipments from Pending Orders
- 3.Creating Shipments Manually
1. Creating Shipments by executing the Generate Shipments process
The fastest way to create shipments in bulk is to use the Generate Shipments process.
When you select the process, you can just select the organization for which you will create the shipments and click 'OK'.
This way all Sales Orders that are elegible to be shipped out will be picked up by the process and the shipments will be created.
2. Creating Shipments from Pending Orders
To see the orders pending to be shipped use the Sales Management || Transactions || Create Shipments from Orders form and the filters to narrow down the search for the desired orders. See the Manage Pending Orders section of this document.
Using the form above, select the order(s) you want to ship and click the Process button to generate the underlying Goods Shipment document(s). The message shown will display the shipment number(s) it just created. Navigate to the Sales Management || Transactions || Goods Shipment window to ensure the shipment document(s) have been created.
3. Creating Shipments Manually
Navigate to the Sales Management || Transaction || Goods Shipment window and create a new record inside [Header]:
Select a customer inside the Business Partner field and then click the Create Lines From button to show a new dialog where products from pending orders or existing invoices can be selected:
See the Order combo and select a pending order to be shipped to this customer. See how selecting an order in the combo will update the selectable lines shown in the form.
Select the lines that are going to be shipped and click OK. See that the lines have been inserted into the [Lines] tab. There, you can change any information like quantities, attributes (color, size..) for lines that require modifications.
Complete the Goods Shipment
Once finished, press the Complete button in the [Header]. See the Warehouse Management || Analysis Tools || Stock Report to see that the material is no longer in the warehouse.