Microsoft Dynamic GP 2010 : Sales Order Processing (part 2)

User-Defined Fields

During sales transaction entry, users have a window of user-defined fields available to them for entering additional data to be tracked for transactions. Additionally, prospects and customer items have some user-defined fields available. The labels for all of these fields can be changed on the Sales User-Defined Fields Setup window, accessed by clicking the User-Defined button at the bottom of the Sales Order Processing Setup window.

There are three sections of fields you can set up labels for:

• User-Defined Field Entry: These fields are accessed from the Sales Transaction Entry or Sales Transaction Inquiry windows. There are three lists that can hold predefined values (up to 20 characters), two date fields, and five text fields that can hold up to 20 characters each.

• Prospect Maintenance: These fields are available when entering or changing a prospect. Two text fields of 20 characters each are available.

• Customer/Item Maintenance: If you will be using customer items, five text fields holding 20 characters each will be available on the Customer Item Maintenance window.

You can change these labels at any time and the corresponding field names on the windows showing them will change.

SOP Document Numbers

Clicking the Numbers button at the bottom of the Sales Order Processing Setup window opens the Sales Document Numbers Setup window where you can change the Code, Next Number, and Format for each sales transaction type, as well as Packing Slips and Picking Tickets.

It is not recommended to change the default Codes, as that will make it more difficult for support and training. The Next Number selections in this window will only be used if no numbering scheme is set up for a Document Type ID. Some companies like to have letters at the beginning of transaction numbers, so that by looking at a transaction list they can quickly identify the transaction types, while other companies prefer to use only numbers. In either case, make sure to leave enough digits for growth, as the number of characters will not auto increment. After reaching 999, the next number will be 000, not 1000. However, after reaching 00999, the next number will be 01000.

Packing slips and picking tickets can either have their own numbering schemes, or use the number of the transaction they are being printed for. The following screenshot shows a typical Sales Document Numbers Setup window where the invoice numbers will start with 0005500 to continue from a previous system, but all the other transaction types will have a new numbering scheme starting with a different digit for somewhat easier identification:

Note that you can also default a Format for each sales transaction type on this window. If the Next Number for a transaction is taken from this window, the Format selected here will be defaulted, otherwise the Next Number and Format will be taken from the document type setup.

Sales Order Processing Setup Options

The Sales Order Processing Setup Options window can be opened by clicking the Options button at the bottom of the Sales Order Processing Setup window. This window holds additional setup selections for the SOP module such as tax defaults and defaults for how POs are created from SOP transactions. The following is a list of the fields on this window:

• Tax Calculations: If Single Schedule is chosen, you can specify one tax schedule to be used on SOP transactions. Typically, if a company is selling taxable products and services, the Advanced setting is recommended so that you can control taxes with more granularity.

• Tax Options: When Advanced Tax Calculations is selected, this section is enabled and you can set up Tax Options for Non-Inventory Items, Freight, and Miscellaneous amounts. Typically non-inventory and miscellaneous amounts are taxed based on the customer's tax setup, and whether freight is taxed depends on each state. If you have a tax schedule called FREIGHT containing all the tax details where freight is taxed, the setup would look like the following:

• Defaults for Picking Ticket: These options will work only for Advanced Picking and when using multiple bins.

• Defaults for Purchase Order: These settings control the behavior of purchase orders that are created directly from sales order transactions:

  • Site Preference: If you use different Site IDs for line items on the same sales invoice (which is not very typical), you can choose between:

    • Combine Items with Different Sites on Same PO: If a sales order has items shipping from more than one site, all the items will be placed on the same purchase order, with different sites for each line. This is not typical for most companies.

    • Don't Combine Items with Different Sites on Same PO: If a sales order has items shipping from more than one site, separate purchase orders will be created for each site. This selection is the most common.

    • Use a Single Site for All POs: This will enable a Site ID field where you can choose what site to use. This is useful for companies that always receive items to one location.

• Required Date: Purchase orders can store and print required dates. Choose between Requested Ship Date from the order or Days Prior to Requested Ship Date, which will enable you to enter the number of Days.

• U of M: Select whether to use the Sales Line Item's U of M or the Item's Default Purchasing U of M.

• Combine Similar Items Into a Single PO Line: If the same item exists on multiple lines, they will be combined into one PO line with this option selected. Often there is a reason why the same item is on separate lines on an order, so this is typically unchecked to preserve the separate line items on the PO.

The following is a sample Defaults for Purchase Order setup, where POs are always received at the NJ site and the PO Required Date is set to 3 Days before the required ship date for the sales order:

• Options: This section has a list of actions that you can allow or disallow during sales transaction entry. You can also enter a Password for each of these so that only a user who knows the password will be allowed to complete the action.

E-mail Settings

If you are planning on e-mailing sales documents to customers from Dynamics GP, you will need to make sure that e-mailing for Sales Order Processing transactions is enabled and set up. To do this, navigate to Microsoft Dynamics GP | Tools | Setup | Sales | E-mail Settings. You may have already completed this setup as part of the Receivables module setup.

Customer Items

The Customer Items functionality in Dynamics GP allows you to set up customer-specific numbers for your inventory items. This may be needed for larger customers who want to order using their own part numbers and want to see these numbers on their invoices. When entering sales transactions, if a customer item number is typed in, the system will automatically substitute it with your inventory item number.

As the name suggests, customer items allows you to set up a one-to-one relationship between each customer and item you have set up in Dynamics GP. To start this setup, navigate to Cards | Sales | Customer Items. The fields on the Customer Item Maintenance window are:

• Customer ID and Name: When you select a Customer ID, their Name will automatically be displayed.

• Item Number and Description: Select the Item Number you want to set up a customer item for and the Description will be displayed.

• Customer Item: Enter the customer part number for the item.

• Customer Item Description: This will default to your Item Description, but if you would like the customer to see a different description, enter it here.

• Customer Item Short Name and Customer Item Generic: These will be blank by default, if there is any other information you want to save about the customer item, you can store it in these fields.

• Text Fields 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5: These are user-defined fields and can store any other information you need about the customer item. The labels for these fields can be changed on the Sales User-Defined Fields Setup window, accessed by clicking the User-Defined button at the bottom of the Sales Order Processing Setup window.

• Substitute Item Number, Description, and Effective Date Range: Optionally, you can set up an item to be offered as a substitute if the item being ordered is out of stock. This is a customer-specific substitute, as opposed to generic substitutes that can be set up for each item in the Inventory module.

Once the setup of the Sales Order Processing module is complete, you can start entering SOP transactions in Dynamics GP.