The Sales Department brings together the company and contact information from the CRM department, and the Product information from the Product Catalog.

Overview
Creating a new quote is easy; click 'New', then simply select the customer from the drop-down list, then click "Choose Product" to choose the Product from the list of Product lines and models. When you click "OK", all of the standard options from the Product Catalog are copied as standard options to the quote.

You can customize the quote to fit the customer's request by replacing standard options with additional ones, or by adding options. Since the Product Catalog manages all product information, users cannot select options that do not belong on the selected product; only those setup in the Product Catalog are available.

To customize the order, double-click on a feature and choose the upgrade. The pricing is adjusted accordingly and all that's left to do is add freight, surcharges, or any other charges or credits and the quote is done!

The Order form has these special features:

1. Click this button to open this Company's record on the CRM/Company page.

2. The Quotes button filters the Navigator to display only Quotes for this Company; the Orders button filters the Navigator to show only Orders; and the All button shows all records in Orders for this Company.

3. The Choose Product button is enabled when the record is in Add or Edit mode.  This opens a dialog (right) where you select the Product Line and Product Name, then all Standard Options for that product are copied into the Order as Line Items in the 'Order Details' DataGrid below the form.

4. Manufacturing Status is a User Value that you can use to track the progress of the product during manufacturing.

5. The Order Status is set to 'Quote' when a new record is created.  Other status values are set on the 'Order Status' tab.

6. Changing the Price Book will adjust all of the prices in the Order Items (Details).  This allows you to quickly adjust pricing without editing all of the Product Catalog items.

7. The Quote Date is set when a new record is created, defaulting to the current date.

8. Product Lead Time is copied into this field from the Product Catalog/Product Lead Time for this Product Line.

9. These are copied from the Company record when the Company is selected from the drop-down list, as are the Lead Generator and Sales Territory field values (see below for more information about Sales Territory security).

10. The Order Date is set when the 'Quote to Order' button is clicked; the Actual Ship Date is set when the 'Order Shipped' button is clicked; the Invoice Date is set when the 'Order Invoiced' button is clicked; the Invoice Paid Date is set when the 'Invoice Paid' button is clicked... all on the Order Status tab.

11. These are copied from the Company record when the Company is selected from the drop-down list.

12. Enter the Product Serial number here after the product is manufactured.

Color Codes
You can color-code the items in the Navigator based on the "Order Status" value by clicking the Color Wheel button next to Order Status, and choosing the color to use with each status value.  Each user can choose their own color scheme.

Changing Order Status

The Order Status tab has ten buttons that move the order through the manufacturing, stock, consignment, order, shipped order, invoiced and paid order statuses.  When a button is clicked, the Order Status field is automatically updated and any other relevant fields are changed.  For example, when the Quote is created the Quote Date is populated with the current date; when the Quote to Order button is clicked, the Order Date is populated with the current date.

When the Move To Stock button is clicked the user is prompted to change the Company ID to the "Our Company" name (if the order is in another company name), as Stock inventory would still belong to YOUR company.

When Stock To Order is clicked, you'll be prompted to change from "Our Company" as you wouldn't sell a product to yourself.

Other Fields

Shipping Instructions, Design Notes and Other Instructions are all memo fields that can be printed on the Order.  Double-click on any of these fields to open a larger edit window.

The Additional Discount Description, Other Charge Description and Surcharge Description fields provide a place to enter that information for the matching values on the Charges tab (Additional Discount, Other Charge and Surcharge).

Sales Territory Security

The Sales Territory is copied from the Company record when the Company is selected from the drop-down list on the Order.   IF SECURITY HAS BEEN APPLIED TO THIS TERRITORY, this field will NOT be editable.  Sales Territory Security restricts Company and Order information to only the users who are chosen in on the Territory Setup page to use that information.  This is how you can have multiple sales staff or agents working on the same database, but restrict what data they see.

See Administration/Security for an overview of standard Security in the system.

The Charges Tab

The Charges tab displays all of the financial information about the Quote. Most of the fields are calculated based on the Order Items (Details) and the Discount and Sales Tax rates, and Freight Distance field values are copied from the Company record.

To lookup the current Sales Tax rate (if the field is empty or you want to make sure you have the correct rate), click the 'Lookup STax' button, which uses the Sales Tax Rates setup in Administration/Tax Rates to lookup the rate for the State for this company.

To get the Freight rate from the Freight chart page, click the button on the left side of the freight field.

You'll be switched to the Freight Chart page which will be filtered to show only records with the same Product Line as on the Quote, and the record where the Freight Distance fits between the Start and End Distances will be selected. Click the green plus (+) button next to the rate you want to use, which will then return you to the Order and will copy the rate into the Freight Charge field.

Click here for more information on setting up the Freight Chart.

Custom Fields

The Custom tab displays eight custom fields, which you can use as you wish for additional data not already included on the Company form.

The first two are drop-down lists; you can add values by clicking the green (+) button on the right side of the list, just as you do for all user values fields.

The middle five are simple text fields, and the last one is a memo field.

Only a System Administration can customize these fields; however all customizations are stored in the database and all users will see the same interface when the customizations are made.

Click here to learn more about setting up and using Custom Fields.

Printing Quotes & Orders

Click "Print" and your quote is presented in a professional format customized with your logo and company information that can be printed or emailed in .PDF format immediately to the prospect.

The Quotes & Orders tab has a number of filtering and navigation features that provide the information you need fast. To view this customer's Company and Contact data in the CRM, simply click the View button above the Company drop-down list, which opens the CRM and displays the Company record.

To filter the Navigator to display only the Quotes and Orders for this customer, click the "All" button. To view only Quotes for this customer, click the "Quotes" button, and to display only Orders, click the "Orders" button. As always, to show all records in the Navigator, simply click the "Show All" button on the Navigator toolbar.

All report designs are created and edited in the Report Designer.  Click here for more information.
 

Editing Order Items

When the user clicks the 'Choose Product' button on the Sales Order, all Standard Options (from Product Catalog) are copied into the order in the Order Details DataGrid.  To edit one of the Standard Options, or exchange it for an additional option, double-click on the item in the grid or click to select it and click the 'Edit' button on the DataGrid Toolbar. 

Choose the correct options, then click Save & Close to save your changes, or Cancel to keep the existing record.