read_ord.pro.. Order Entry readme file for SBT Pro Series

ENTERING ORDERS (Pro Series)


INSTALL:

If the SBT's Sales Orders module is installed and the active GoldMine
Contact is an SBT customer when selecting SBT from the file menu, The  
"Enter Orders" selection will appear on the menu.


ENTERING SALES ORDERS/BIDS:

The Orders Screen consists of three pages.

HEADER PAGE
The first page is Header information which consists of the basic
customer information. Verify that you are on the correct customer 
record and have the proper Ship To address. 

Ship To:
If the Ship To address is different from the Company address, you may
select the "Alternate" or "Customer" options. 

Choosing "Customer"
brings up the Customer file for you to select. The display starts 
with the customer number you are on! Thus, if you have customer 
numbers relating to your "Active" Customer number, it will be easy
to select these for shipping and maintaining through the Link.  To
select, simply click on the small box to the left of the Cust No.

Choosing "Alternate" 
will bring up the alternate Ship-To choices if they exist in SBT. 
If the Customer has a default alternate shipto address specified in 
SBT, it will already be shown in the shipto and the Option Group will
indicate "Alternate". To see the other selections, click on "Alternate"
again. To select a different address click on the small box to the 
left of your selection.  Clicking here will also close the selection 
grid. You are fee to edit an alternate address.  If you prefer to have 
the fields blank when "Alternate" is slected, you may enter the line:
  [user_var]  
  AltAddrBlank=yes

Request Date:
SBT does not have this entry on the header screen, only on the detail.
We have put it on the header, but you can change it for individual line
items.  The default Request Date is 7 days from order date.  This 
default can be changed in the <username>.ini file by putting in the 
variable "rqdate". Example for default date of 30 days from order date:
  [user_var]
  rqdate=30

Fill in any other fields as desired. Once you are finished with the
Header Screen, click on the Details Tab to select the items. You can 
always return to the Header screen if you wish.

DETAIL PAGE

The first step is to select an inventory item. The default presentation
is by Item No. In the Item Box (just below the top grid), begin typing
the item number. You will notice that the grid will present the first 
item that starts with the number or letter you have entered in the
middle row of the grid (outlined in orange). As you keep entering valid
letters, the item will always be displayed on the grid. If you enter an
incorrect letter that wont complete an Item No., the field will not let
you continue until you correct it or exit out.

Item/Description selection:
You may enter the item by Item No. or by the Description. Click on 
"Descrip" in Selector box and follow the similar procedure in the 
Description Box. In either methode (Item or Description), when you have
entered a unique sequence of characters you may press the enter key to 
complete it.  Once you have changed the sort, you must click back into 
the grid to see the change.

By default, all inventory items are displayed. If you would like to set
a filter to show only certain items, you may set the filter in the 
[user_var] area.  Be sure to use a valid dBase logical statement.  For
example there is a field in ICITEMnn.dbf called RESELL which holds .t. 
for resellable inventory items. To display only resellable items, the 
logical statement is resell=.t.  Whether or not this filter is set, 
this program will not allow you to select a non resellable item (a 
message would pop up to alert you).  We chose to let this be a user 
enabled filter because if you have an extremly large inventory file, it
would take a little time to activate the filter. Another reason for 
having this user defined, is you might want to limit some users to only
certain inventory type items.. in this case you would set the filter to
Code, Itmclss, Phantom, etc. Example of a filter on inventory item to 
display only items marked .t. in resell field
  [user_var]
  icItemFilter=(resell=.t.)
  
Select the item directly:
If you see the item on the grid you may click in the Item field to 
select it. If you are in the "Description" Mode, you still click in the
"Item" field.

Select with Arrow Keys:
Begin typing the item number and the grid will display the items 
alphabeticly following your input.  Once you've reached an area of items
your are looking for, you may use the UP or DOWN arrow keys to put the 
item into the Item box.  Press Enter or Tab to accept selected item.

Zooming in on Inventory Items:
The standard window for the inventory items displays just a few line
items. To increase the viewing area and to view all the fields, click
on the "Zoom" button. You may pick the item from "Item" or  
"Description" sort selection. To return to normal viewing, Click on 
same button which is now labeled "Un-Zoom" or click in the small area 
just left of the Item No.  When you Click in the "Accept" column, your
selected item will be in the in the Edit area ready for you to enter 
the quantity.

Enter Quantity and other aspects of the line item:
Once you have selected the item it is brought into the editing position
and the cursor is advanced to the Quantity Box. Enter the quantity or 
keep the default of one.  You are free to change the price, discount
and if taxable. You may even change the description if you wish.  Click
on the OK button to put it into the Line Item Grid. You are now ready
to select another item from the Item list box.

Discount:
The Header Screen holds the default sales discount percent.  Each line
item can have its own discount.  If the item is a "SHIP" type item, 
then the discount area is greyed out and no discount is taken.

Cost:
Cost is taken from the AvgCost field of the Inventory File. If the item 
is a "SHIP" type item and the AvgCost is 0, the price is used as the 
cost. To keep "SHIP" types that have an AvgCost of 0 at 0 (or any other
fixed value), enter the switch:
ShipTypeCost=0

To display the Standard Cost instead of the Average Cost, enter:
StdCost=yes

To blank out the cost entirely (this also blanks out costs on viewing
Invoices and Sales Orders) put in the line:
ShowCost=no

Usage/Allocated:
If the item is found in the warehouse, we display the number of units
allocated, otherwise we change the lable and display the period to date
usage.

Note on Taxrate:
The rate on the Header Screen is of course the rate that will be used
on taxable items. This rate comes from the tax table if applicable.
We mention this because looking at the Customer's tax rate from the 
Customer/View menu selection, does not reflect tax table updates.

Correcting/Deleting a line item:
Once a line item has been brought into the bottom grid area, only 
certain fields can be edited (the Descirption, and the Memo Fields). If
a correction is needed, you may delete the line item by checking the 
box in the first column.  A prompt will come up with the item number 
in the heading and prompt for you to delete.  Naturally, you are fee to
enter a new item to replace it.

Default Link Codes:
The Tran Cat field is the combination of the GLsale (Income Liability 
Link Code) and the GLasst (Asset Cost Link Code).  They come from the
Customer File and the IC Location file, respectively.  If either of
these fields are blank, you would want to have a Default Link Code.  
You may enter the default codes in the [user_var] area.  If you do not
enter in the [user_var] the default will be DEFDEF.
Example:
  [user_var]
  TranCat=DOMSFT

If you wish to make sure that the user does not edit the Tran or Cat 
fields at order entry time, you may set a switch:
  TranCatEdit=no

Inventory Location:
Multiple Locations are supported. If you wish to force the Location to
come from SBT's Item file rather than the normal Location file, you may
enter in the ini file:
  DefaultLoc=no 
Otherwise, the "Def Loc" field on the Header screen gets its value from
the first record in the Location file or by an entry in the ini file:
  LoctID=WH2
This default can be changed manually on the Header screen.  If the 
selected item does not have the default Location in SBT, the 
background of the Location text box will turn red to alert you to 
click the Location check box and select a valid location.

GoldMine History Record:
The Link automaticaly adds a History Record when an order or bid  is 
placed. The History record is created with the Activity: "Sale", 
Result: "SO" or "Bid" and Reference is the Order number, the number 
of line items, and the total dollar amount of the order. The Note 
field of this History record holds the line item number, description,
price, and line item notes.
Note: this feature may not work on some early versions of GoldMine.
You may turn this feature off by entering:
  [user_var], AddHistory=no

Using a System Comment:
The header page has a pull down field for comment identifier.  These
Comments are from the AR Comment file and can be entered or edited 
from ACCPAC's Accounts Receivable module.

Entering Line Item Comment Line:
You may enter a Line Item Comment by checking the "Comment Line" 
checkbox. This is also true with the non-printing "Internal Memo" 
checkbox.  Clicking in either checkbox will bring up an editing screen
where you may type as long of a comment as you feel necessary.  When 
finished, Type "Ctrl W".  If you change your mind and wish to remove 
the comment, turn off the check box before clicking the "OK" button. 
You may review or edit these comments after they are saved as line 
items.  The last fields are the Comment fields. If the field shows 
"memo" (without a capital "m") there is no memo here, but if it is 
"Memo" (with a capital "M") you may double click to see or edit the 
comment.

Salesmn Field:
The default is to use the GoldMine login as the salesmn.  If the ini 
file has a "SBTuser=" switch, the SBTuser value is used.  If you wish 
to use the default code from SBT's ARCUST record, enter
"Salesmn=default" into the ini file. Please note the spelling of 
"Salesmn" (SBT's way of not affending anyone).

Bypass the Menu:
For those that only want to place orders and don't want to be bothered
with picking this item from the menu, call the program with the "O" 
parameter. Example for calling up the Order Entry without the menu:
  [FileMenu]
  Opt2=SBT &Orders,,C:\Goldmine\gmsbtp.exe O

Note: this example assumes that there is an Opt1 already (for the Menu
Selection) FileMenu options must be in numerical order starting from 1.

Generate Unique Sales Order Number:
For applications where sales orders will be entered in the field and 
live SBT files are not available, you may generate a unique 10 character
sales order number based on date, user id and time.  Example of a 
generated sales order number is 2367DW1631. By adding 2450000 to the 
first part (2367) you have the Julian date. In this case 2452367 can be
converted to April 2, 2002. "DW" is the first 2 characters of the 
userid and the time is 16:31. If the user places more than 1 order per
minute, the next minute number is used so that the order number is 
always unique. Put the following command into the ini file:
[user_var] SBTsono=no

Print Bid:
After entering and saving the bid, you will be prompted to print the 
bid. The name of the form we are printing is soodbw.frx which is the
default detail form.  If you have modified your form or wish to use a
different form, put the name of the form into the ini file.
[user_var] SOfrmFile=SOmod

If you don't want this option, you may enter the command in the ini 
file:
[user_var] PrintOrd=no

If the bid is printed, you have an option to print "This is a 
Bid/Estimate". To turn off this option (and always have this 
statement printed), put in:
[user_var] BidPrompt=no

Decimal Places for Price and Extended Price:
The defaul "picture" for decimal places is "99999.99".  If you need
more decimal places or if you would like to see a coma in this display,
or more digits (99999999.99 max) you may put the required picture in 
the ini file:
[user_var] PricePicture=99,999.999

Decimal Places for Quantity:
The defaul "picture" for decimal places is "999999".  If you need
decimal places for quantity, you may put the required picture in 
the ini file:
[user_var] QtyPicture=999.999

Check Single Unit Price:
The "Price" field represents the non-discounted price but if there is a
Quantity discount, you may check the single unit pricing by clicking on
the "Price" label. This will also display the Price Code you are using.
Click again to restore the label.

Turn off Order Entry option:
To turn off the order entry option, enter the switch:
[user_var] OrderEntry=no 

Sales Order Limitations:
The majority of companies can enter Sales Orders from the Link. But 
there are limitations:  If you use serial numbers, they can only be
entered at Ship Time (not Order Time).  Use of Lots is also not 
supported with the Link.  If these restrictions apply to your company,
you may enter Bids through the link, and convert the Bid to a Sales 
Order in SBT.  To turn off Sales Orders but keep Bids, put in your 
ini file: Bid2So=no.

Forcasting a sale:
GoldMine has a feature for forcasting a sale.  To get a prompt for 
a forcast sale when entering a bid, you may enter the switch:
[user_var] ForcastSale=yes

Credit Hold:
A Credit Hold is a negative number in the Credit Limit field.  If your
customer has been placed on Credit Hold, the "Enter A Bid" selection 
is not available from the Link menu Item.  Instead, the words:
"On Credit Hold" is shown in red.

Credit Limit:
The credit limit is checked on each entry of a line item and again 
when the order is saved.  If the order amount has exceeded the credit
limit, a message appears stating the excess amount. 

Note: This message does not appear if the terms are Credit Card terms.
The default Credit Card terms starts with the word "Visa", but can be
changed in the ini file Example: CCTerms=Credit Card

Show Cost:
When entering a Sales Order, the cost of the item is displayed, if you
wish to keep this from your order entry person, enter the following:
[user_var] ShowCost=No

Number of Lines/Number of Items:
On Totals Area of the order form, you are given the Total of line items
selected. If you need to see the Total "Items", click on the word 
"Lines" and it changes to "Items". If another line item is entered, 
this field becomes "Lines" again.

Expand Selected Items Grid:
If your Sales Order has many items, and you wish to get a better view 
of the items, Right Click on the "Zoom" button. To restore the screen, 
do another Right Click on this button.

Tabing out of the Inventory Number field:
You may set a switch so that when typing the inventory number, as soon
as a valid item is entered, the cursor jumps to the description field
without pressing the "Tab" or "Enter" keys. The reason this is not the 
standard mode, is because it is awkward if you have some item numbers 
that are small, i.e., a subset of larger item numbers. Set the switch 
"InvTab=no" for auto exit out of Item field on recognition of an valid
Inventory Item.

Inventory Item memo field:
You can place the memo from the ICitem directly onto the line item memo
field by using the switch "ItemNote=yes" in your ini file.  To edit or
view this memo during order entry, you may click on the Comment Line 
checkbox befor selecting "OK" or double click on Comment field (all the 
way to the right of the selected item grid) after selecting "OK".  
Note: normally selecting the Comment Line checkbox AFTER text has been 
entered, will wipe out existing text, but rule does not apply in this case.

Temp Directory:
The default directory to hold the temp files is in the root directory. 
If a user does not have proper permissions, an "open dialog box" error 
will be displayed.  You may specify an EXISTING directory where permissions 
are granted. Example:
TempFolder=c:\temp

Custom display of Fields in Zoom mode.
  On the order entry screen, The fields that are displayed in the 
  "Zoom" mode can be specified. The fields come from the icitemNN 
  and can be listed in any order.  The sort will be on the first 
  field on the list.  The widths may also be displayed with the 
  numeric value of the width separated by commas. Use a width of 
  roughly the numer of characters you wish to display.
    Zoom=item,price,price2,level2
    ZoomWidth=100,60,60,40

Display of Shipto records.
  You may adjust the field width of the ShipTo display when choosing
  an alternate or Customer screen to shipto. Use similar technique 
  as the Zoom.
    ShiptoWidth=100,60,60,40

Calculate Shipping costs.
  When entering a ship item, the usual "Price" field becomes a red
  "Calculate" button. Clicking on this button, brings up a form 
  displaying the total weight computed from the weight field in the
  inventory file.  You may enter a value from a chart, add a flat
  amount or add a percentage.

  Computing UPS rates automaticaly is an optional feature and is 
  available for review/testing when Linked to Company 99.

Salesman field.
  On the header screen the salesman code appears.  There are some 
  instances where you don't want the user to change this value. You
  may disable editing of this field for Order Entry (OE). Enter:
    SalesmanOE=no

Detail page is brought up first.
  For those users that check price and availability more that actual 
  order entry, they can bring up the order form with the 2nd page 
  open and thus save a keystroke.  
    OEpage2=yes


Appendix:
Option Items for [User_var]

         Example:            Default:     Note:
  rqdate=30                  7            number of days between order date & required date
  icItemFilter=(resell=.t.)  none         Filter for Item selection
  Loctid=Plant1              none         Default Inventory Location
  DefaultLoc=no              yes          Use default Item Location if Not set                 
  TranCat=DOMSFT             DEFDEF       Default Link Codes
  AddHistory=No              yes          Add History record after order is placed
  InitQty=1.00               1            Alows for 2 decimal places and set initial qty
  Salesmn=Default            GM Login     Or SBTuser if set in the ini file
  AltAddrBlank=yes           no           Blanks out Alt Address lines for new entry
  PrintOrd=No                yes          Print bid prompt after saving bid  BidPrompt=No               yes                Prompt to print "This is a Bid/Estimate"  
  PricePicture=99,999.999    99999.99     Decimal places and comma picture for price
  QtyPicture=999.999         999999       Decimal places for quantity
  SBTsono=No                 yes          Generate unique sales order number
  SOfrmFile=SOmod            SOODBW       Choose SO form to print when saving Bid.
  OrderEntry=no              yes          Turn off Order Entry option
  Bid2So=no                  yes          No Sales Order entry, only Bids
  ForcastSale=yes            no           Turn on prompt for Forcasting Sale 
  ShowCost=no                yes          Turn off display of item's cost
  StdCost=yes                AvgCost      Displays Standard Cost in order screen
  InvTab=no                  yes          Force a Tab out of Inventory No field
  ItemNote=yes               no           Places IC Item Note into line item memo field
  TempFolder=C:\temp         n/a          Specify a directory to hold temp files
  TranCatEdit=no             yes          TranCat fields are read only for order entry
  Zoom=                                   Specify inventory fields in the "Zoom" mode
  ZoomWidth=                              Specify field width of above custom fields
  ShiptoWidth=                            Specify field width of ShipTo display
  SalesmanOE=no              yes          Disable editing of the Salesman field
  OEpage2=yes                             Bring up Detail page of order entry first                  
    
 CREDIT CARD PAGE (Optional Feature)
Please see the read_cc.me file for further information on this option

Credit Card:
Credit Card Processing is an optional feature.  To activate the Credit 
Card page, the "Terms" on the header page must begin with the word 
"Visa". If the Details/Profile tab in GoldMine has a "Credit Card" 
profile, the credit card number will be used as the default on the
Credit Card Page. The Expiration Date needs to be on the same Profile
line in the format: "##/##" to be displayed on the Page.
 