ET411 Sales Confirmation

Contents

0. Overview
1. Menu
2. Toolbar
3. Fields
4. Creating an S/C
5. Modifying an S/C
7. Printing an S/C
8. eMail Sales Confirmation
9. Calculating Total Amount

0. Overview

An alternative name to sales confirmation is pro forma invoice. Either can be used as the title of this document. 

After you have received an order from customer, you create sales confirmations to record the sales and use them to confirm acceptance of the order. Sales confirmation is the source of data for the whole export trade transactions. Purchase orders depend on it. Shipping documents depend on it. A great portion of statistical reports and control reports also depend on it. After a sales confirmation is prepared, documents such as purchase orders and shipping documents can be automatically or semi-automatically generated.

Three formats, which are standard (single shipping date), multiple shipping and categorized, are available. All formats can contain product images. The shipping marks can contain geometric drawings (e.g., triangles, diamonds, squares) as well as images (e.g., logos). (See the chapter on customer data entry for details about shipping marks.) All formats are available as Excel files, which can be sent via emails. 

Two text boxes are used for product description (in the Edit Item dialog box). The left-hand one is for normal description, which is intended for customer. The right-hand one is for local description, which is intended for supplier. The sales person is responsible for both descriptions so as to avoid the possibility of misinformation. If purchase orders are later prepared by a different person, she can still make necessary changes based on the correct descriptions passed down from the sales person. An extra text box is available for the entry of wide description, which can be conveniently used for the purpose of assortments of sizes, colors, patterns, etc. This box uses a fixed-pitch font, so that its text will be vertically aligned.

1. Menu

File

• Open...
  To retrieve and open an existing sales confirmation. Same as .
• Print...
  Prints sales confirmation in one of several formats, or other useful things. Same as .

Edit

• Clear (Ctrl + L)
  Clears all fields. Same as .

Setting

• Font...
  To choose a printing font. You can change font typeface and style, but not size.
• Customer Countersign
  If to print customer countersigning block.
• Signature
  If to print signature block, signature image, or authorized signature.
• Serialize Carton Nos.
  If to use consecutive cartons numbers between items.
• Calculate Total Amount.
  If to automatically calculate total amount for current S/C when exiting the Edit Item dialog box.
• Description
  Use Normal Description: Uses normal description in product or customer item number file.
  Append Local Description: Adds local description in product or customer item number to description above. If both menu items are unchecked, no description used.
  Show Bar Code: Appends a text line showing bar code to the description above.
  Show case UPC: Appends bar code for master pack to description.
  Use Shipping Window: Shipping window is the period between two dates, in a format like 8/13/99~8/16/99. Usually only the former date is used as the shipping date, but you can elect to use this window format.
  Show Wide Description: This assortment description is appended to the normal description.  
• Packing
  Use CBM for Packing: If to use CBM, instead of cubic feet, in the packing description line.
  Show Master Pack Unit: If to show the number of master cartons for each item.
• Append Customer No.
  If to show customer number right after customer name.
• Bold Shipping Mark
  If to use bold-faced type to printing shipping mark. Bold types are more legible when the document is faxed.
• Use Customer Remarks
  Customer remarks are pre-defined remarks specifically to be used for a particular customer. Use system code SC-xxxxx, where xxxxx is the customer number, to store the remarks for a customer. If the menu item is checked and such a system code has been defined, the pre-set remarks will be extracted after you enter the customer number. The original general remarks that suit all customers will be replaced.
• Label Sizes...
  To set sizes for sample labels.
• Lock Update/Delete
  Use "ET411W" to set password for this function.

Note: Most of the options above can be pre-set in system code SC-GENRE.

2. Toolbar

	To search and retrieve an existing S/C: Data can be ordered according to S/C No., S/C date or customer No. + S/C No.
	To print sales confirmation in one of the following formats: Standard: one shipping date for an item. Multi-Shipping: multiple shipping dates for an item. Categorized: standard but with items grouped by categories. Local Standard: standard but with all captions and labels in traditional Chinese. Photo Sheet: images for items on a sales confirmation. Item Labels: labels showing item numbers, descriptions, packing or prices, suitable for attaching to approval samples.
	Sends a sales confirmation through email to customer's email box. Customer sees the formatted content right in the viewing panel. No attachment needed. (This function is optional.)
	To select a shipping mark after customer number is entered and more than one shipping marks are available: This function works only during the first time you are creating a new S/C.
	Clear all fields (or return to default values).
	Looks up the records in L/C No. field inside payment group box.

3. Fields

Terms Window

S/C No.	Enter your S/C No. or click the neighboring button to get a automatic serial number.
Revision	This code has to be entered manually. It will be appended to the original S/C No. For example, if an S/C No. were SC950001 and the revision code R1, the printed S/C No. would be SC950001R1.
Date	S/C date.
Sales	Staff No. for salesperson. (Refer to Personnel File in System Maintenance for staff numbers.)
Customer No.	Customer number. Click in toolbar to get or select shipping marks after the customer number has been entered. Fields like payment will also be filled with values from customer data.
Ship to	Ship-to party. Optionally.
Order No.	Customer order number, if this number applies to all items. Otherwise, leave the field blank or use a representative number. You can assign different order numbers for individual items.
Ship. date	Estimated shipping date or shipping window, if such apply to all items. Otherwise, use a representative date. Different dates or windows can be assigned to individual items.
Company	The company that issues the S/C. Control or statistical reports use this selection to screen among companies.
Sales terms	If CIF or CIFC were selected, a pre-defined clause would be displayed in the insurance field. (Refer to system code TERMxx for details.)
Port	Port name of a sales terms, such as Taiwan in FOB Taiwan or New York in CIF New York.
Destination	Final destination of shipment.
Payment	Payment method. The value can be imported from customer data (along with shipping marks).
Shipment	Shipment method. The text was converted from shipping date entered previously. Modify it as you see fit.
Insurance	Insurance clause. A pre-defined clause was supplied when sales terms was selected.
Packing	Packing method. The text can be pre-defined in system code SC-PACK.
Remarks	Remarks. Apply <Enter> at the end of each paragraph.
Shipping marks	Click   in toolbar to get pre-defined data in customer file. While editing, press <Enter> to begin a new line. Shipping marks can contain geometric figures or images. See shipping marks in customer data for explanations of how to use them.
Additional charges	Additional charges other than item amounts. Use negative values in case of deductions. The length of description is not limited.
Total amount	Total amount of this sales confirmation expressed in the selected currency. If multiple currencies are involved, be sure to select an overall currency. Item amounts in different currencies will be converted based on their respective exchange rates. Click CALC button to calculate total amount.
Document title	Use Sales Confirmation or Pro Forma Invoice for document title.
Case closed	Check to indicate that this sales confirmation is closed. No real usage except to gray some buttons.
Payment group box	Down amount: Down payment amount. Can be partial or full amount. Days before shipment: Number of days before shipment when down payment should be received. or date due: Date when down payment should be received. Method: Methods of payment, defined in system codes PAY01-PAY10. PAY01 must be "Not specified" and PAY02 must be "L/C". The rest can be freely designated. L/C No.: Upon receipt of an L/C, enter its number here. The information may be retrieved directly from Letters of Credit data in the future. Presently, payment status list (through button) depends on this manually-entered data.
Shipping information	Values of Transport, Freight rate, Insurance and Commission fields were transferred from customer data when the customer number was selected. These data are use in calculating various costs in Gross Profit Report and S/C Work Sheet on Excel.
Separate commission	2nd commission rate and Commission amount relate to under-table commissions and are used for record keeping as well as query. The left CALC button calculates commission amount through total S/C amount and commission rate (a simple multiplication). The right CALC button obtains commission amount by adding up item commissions of all items. These two actions may result in different amounts.

Buttons

Insert	You click Insert to save S/C terms data. Insertion will enable other buttons.
Update...	Refer to explanation about Modifying an S/C below.
Delete...	If there are items in the S/C, you will be warned. Otherwise, the S/C terms will be immediately deleted.
Close	Freezes the window, returning to the state when you just entered the starting screen. That is, most buttons are disabled.
Copy...	Copies items from another S/C to this newly created (and saved) S/C. Enter or look up an S/C No. and click Search Items button, to get an item list. Remove undesired items by clicking on items and pressing Delete Item button. Double-clicking will do the same trick.
Edit Items...	To add, modify, and delete S/C items. Details below.
Assign C/Nos.	Assigns carton numbers automatically. This can only be done after all items have been entered. While editing items, you can leave carton number fields blank. By default, items are ordered by our item numbers. Ordering by customer item numbers is an option. You can specify a starting number.

Items Window

	See description about Creating an S/C below.
Cancel Order	Canceling an item is different from deleting an item. When customer wants to cancel an item after a firm order, it is advisable to keep both records for acceptance and cancellation (two transactions). Delete would remove the current item from the database and you would lose track of the item having been ordered before. With Cancel, you would keep the order record and an additional record showing the cancellation transaction. You cannot cancel more than the pending quantity, but you can cancel a partial quantity. If you wanted to cancel all items with pending quantities, check Cancel all pending S/C items check box before you click OK. The latest accumulated cancelled quantity will be shown in Q'ty cancelled field.
Search...	To look up the items of the currently selected S/C.
< Previous	Finds the previous item (after you have successfully searched an item, via Search, Previous, or Next).
Next >	Finds the next item (after you have successfully searched an item, via Search, Previous, or Next).
Image...	Shows the product image.
Latest...	Shows the latest sales records with this customer. The dates are ordered in reverse order. To show latest sales records with all customers, blank Customer No. field and click Search button. If you wanted to use previously-used item contents instead of those from current product or customer item data, select an existing item and click Apply button. This would let you use previous data such as description, packing, price, quantity, etc.
	An S/C item can be copied from a quotation item, so that you can use data (description, price, packing, etc.) that are already on the quotation. Enter Quotation No. and click Next, to display items of the quotation. Select an item and click OK to import the quotation data. The limit of 100 items can be used when your quotation has hundreds or thousands of items and you do not want to waste time fetching all items.
	You can copy from another S/C item. Enter S/C No. and click Search Items to show items that can be copies from.
View Cube...	Shows individual and total cubes, weights and packages. This table is useful if you are concerned about packing sizes of orders.
Commission...	Shows individual and total commissions. Clicking Update S/C Commission button would update the Commission field in terms window by the total value shown here.
2nd Prices...	Allows you to populate the 2nd prices for all items. The new prices have a percentage variance and an amount variance from the original prices. For items that already had 2nd prices, they are retained. Checking Overwrite existing prices would cause all prices to be re-calculated.
more...	While there is no limit on the length of standard description, it is printed inside of the description column. If you need wider space for describing an item (see example above), click the more button to use the so-called wide description. The font is fixed-pitched and text is vertically aligned.

4. Creating an S/C

Creating an S/C is divided into two parts: the terms window and the items window. The terms window appears first. Refer to 3. Fields above for descriptions on inserting S/C terms.

Click to get into items window.  You can get data of a quotation item from product or customer item (using ), from a quotation (using for a previously quoted item), or from another S/C (using , mostly for re-orders).

For :

If you already knew Item No., enter it and click OK. To use customer item number, check Use customer item number before you click OK. To look up available item numbers or customer item numbers, use the Next or Previous buttons. In case of looking up customer item numbers, you have the option to choose using sold-to party or ship-to party as the customer in filtering data. Additionally, you can option to use customer item description. While this is so, you can select to use the price and/or the master pack dimensions in a customer item number record. Checking Use product price will fetch the price in product record. If nothing is specified, you will need to manually enter the price.

After an item has been retrieved, enter quantity and price, make sure all fields are proper, and click the button to save data. One item completed.

As for usage of and , refer to description of buttons in items window above.

If an item has more than one shipping date, enter once for each shipping date. The contents may differ, but when printed in multi-shipping-date format, only the description of the first shipping date will be shown.

5. Modifying an S/C

To modify the terms of a sale, use (open) button to retrieve the S/C. Make all necessary changes and click Update button to finish it. When the Update button is clicked, you will see the following dialog box:

This dialog box offers you an opportunity to update related data in the S/C items at the same time. If you had changed customer number just now, you should check Customer No. here. The same reasoning applies to other check boxes. If Customer Item No. were checked, a new lookup would be performed for all items and all blank fields would be filled with newly gotten values. To overwrite even the non-blank fields, check Overwrite existing one.

To change S/C items, use to retrieve the S/C first and then click Edit Items button. Once in the Edit Items window, do the following:

To modify an existing item, use the Search button to locate the item. Make necessary changes and click Update button. Do not change values in Q'ty shipped, Q'ty cancelled and Original shipping date fields.

To add an item to an existing S/C, the procedures are the same as when you create a new S/C. To remove an item from an existing S/C, follow the steps used for modifying an item, but only to click the Delete button as the final step. Refer to buttons in items window above for more details.

7. Printing an S/C

Refer to description in ET412 S/C Viewing & Printing. We will eventually obsolete the printing functions in this program. All printing and viewing work will be done in ET412.

8. eMail Sales Confirmation

The most direct way to transmit a document to customers is to show the document right on the customer's e-mail program. Excel or Word documents require that customers have those programs installed previously. Sometimes compatibility issues would arise. Viewing attachments can be annoying or difficult, and surely is time-consuming. 

eMail S/C presents a formatted document in customer's e-mail program, without the need of other software.

eMail S/C is sent right from the program. A few system codes regarding e-mails are necessary before you can send mails. If you had used Correspondence to send mails, only the setting in the first row is needed. Otherwise, add all four system codes.

Next, create a new folder under \torus\et61 and call it html (and we will have \torus\et61\html). This is for storing .htm files that will be generated during the sending process. These .htm files can be sent using Outlook Express in a later time.

The following dialog box starts the whole process:

9. Calculate Total Amount

If you checked Setting->Calculate Total Amount menu item, total amount for this S/C would be automatically calculated and displayed in the right field when you have completed the entries in Edit Items window. The state of the menu item can be pre-defined by the 34th character of system code SC-GENRE.

When total amount was calculated and filled in the field, the value is not saved. To save the value, click the Update button. An alert will pop up when the amount is calculated.

Last modified: October 2002