Order Processing / Invoicing

Customers' perceptions of your company are based on how well you serve them. Considering the high visibility of routine operations such as order processing and invoicing, it makes good sense to seek maximum control over these functions.  THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing improves efficiency, decreases processing time, lowers administrative costs, and helps reduce invoicing lag times, which lead to better cash flow.

Highly flexible order entry procedures handle virtually any ordering arrangements you'll encounter whether it's partial shipments, drop shipments, commission splitting, stock/non-stock items, and alternate items. We handle Style, Color and Size in our Flexible Pricing Matrix and it allows the user to easily make product choices on one screen. In addition, complete sales tax and shipment weight amount are automatically calculated.

The system prepares all important forms, including sales order, picking sheet, and packing list, and provides reprints on demand. Items picked are confirmed. Items picked commit available inventory and unavailable items may be automatically backordered. Shipping labels ensure your shipments reach your customers. Pending order reports help you eliminate bottlenecks by concentrating on delayed shipments.

Confirmed orders automatically create invoices and manual invoice entry is also featured. Invoices may be reprinted as often as necessary and registers are produced for verification both before and after invoice printing.

Sales activity reports disclose gross margins and percentages as well as current and previous period comparisons. The sales commission report produces period comparisons in addition to commissions earned, paid and due. A variety of additional reports provide comprehensive sales tax reporting.

Immediate availability of up-to-the-minute customer balances is an important tool to a credit manager making credit determinations. Our customer inquiry feature allows partial entry of a customer's name to display all details concerning pending orders and invoice status.

Business Partners and Products

THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module accesses the latest data about business partners and products. Sold-to, ship-to, bill-to, and pay-by information is defaulted on sales documents while customer product-level information can be accessed to assure a personalized, customer-driven order entry environment. Supporting information - such as product substitutes and supersessions, notes, previous orders and prices, and special customer packaging - can either be displayed automatically or by user request. THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module also supports sales kits with fixed components or as special configurations using variants and options. Shipping functions use customer-specific information to schedule deliveries on the right day and to enforce complete shipments of orders or line items as required.

Flexible Pricing Rules

THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module promotes innovative, flexible pricing that helps companies achieve an appropriate mix of customer value and profits. By combining key elements from customer and product master data, companies can exploit a wide variety of pricing methods like contracts, promotions, sales channel prices and variable kit pricing. Special features include the ability to price by groups of lines and to add free products or quantities if pre-defined thresholds are met.

Flexible Order Acceptance and Processing

THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module supports a variety of ways to facilitate building and optimizing long-term relationships with business partners. Quotes can easily be turned into orders, contracts can be defined, and releases scheduled for fixed and long-term planning horizons. User-defined order types assure that only data supporting the appropriate order mode is prompted, allowing companies to easily vary order acceptance to phone, order form, counter sales and electronic environments. Other productivity-enhancing features include the ability to easily duplicate previous orders and to revise existing orders by populating changes in order date, carrier or location across multiple line items.

Inventory Allocation and Delivery Scheduling

Inventory can be allocated to orders immediately or deferred to a separate process that allocates based on user-defined criteria. THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module also supports the ability to reserve inventory for key customers in advance of receiving their orders, and to allocate by lot number as required. Ship-to addresses, shipping sites, carriers and delivery dates can be set by order line, eliminating the need to create separate orders.  THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module calculates the shipping dates needed to meet each customer's delivery date and automatically backorders quantities that are not available at the needed time. Users have easy access to time phased, Available-To-Promise information, as well as online visibility into different warehouses to help determine the most appropriate shipping point for filling orders. Alternatively, orders can be sourced by shipping directly from suppliers, by transferring products from other sites and by creating production orders.  THE NEXT LEVEL Software Series Order Processing / Invoicing module provides the ability to automatically create PO 's to preferred suppliers for pre-specified products, such as non-stocks.

Features at a Glance

Order Entry User-defined order types for varying prompts, displays and event sequencing. Special orders for loans, transfers and consignments. New customers added online during order entry. Order products by customer product number and default customer-specific information on order line. Order substitutes and products that supersede obsolete products. Vary ship-tos, shipping sites, carriers and delivery dates by order line. Order kits with variants and options. Check minimum gross margin and low price thresholds, and block or accept further entry according to rules. Sales order revision control with ability to replicate one change across multiple line items. Automatically close unfilled orders and lines within predefined tolerance.   Contracts / Blanket Orders Schedule releases over user-defined firm and planning time horizons.   Automatically Generate   Purchase Orders Non-stock purchases. Automatically order predefined minimum quantities from preferred supplier.   Quotes Enter quotes for customers or prospects with full expiration date control. Produce hardcopy quotations for fax or e-mail. Easily convert quotes into sales orders.   Sales Documents Order acknowledgments. Sales quotes. Contracts / Blanket Orders.   Invoicing Produced automatically or by user request. Define invoicing rules according to customer preference – one per order, shipment, bill of lading or period. Consolidate invoices based on customer-preferred frequencies – daily, weekly, monthly, etc. Multiple-payment terms and methods including scheduled due dates per invoice and recurring invoicing. Automatically use alternate payment terms if amount is less than predefined minimum. Preformatted invoicing.   Supporting Inquiries Inquire during or outside of entry functions. Last prices and price reasons. Customer account information.   Unit Of Measure Order by sales or inventory unit of measure. Order by customer's preferred packing unit.

Pricing Automatic pricing by line item according to pricing rules with ability to edit. Maintains price on order line with option to view price reasons and last prices. Automatically factor discounts and charges into net price or break out separately. Adds free products or quantities if predefined thresholds are met. Recalculates prices for groups of related products if predefined threshold is met. Calculates differential between kit components selected during order entry. Inventory Allocations Allocate manually during order entry or separately using a batch process with options. Allocate by site, lot or consignment location. Reserve inventory for customers (pre-order). De-allocate inventory. Customer Delivery Scheduling Default shipping sites by ship-to delivery address. Maintain shipping lead times between sites and ship-to addresses. Calculate shipping date for meeting requested delivery date based on lead time. Maintain customer availability days and dates and round delivery date to next workday. Multiple fulfillment methods – from stock, vendor direct, buy-in, transfer order. Shipping Confirmation Produce picking tickets and packing slips. Record serial numbers for end-user tracking. Combine multiple orders on a single shipment. Automatic or manual shipping confirmation. Sales Commissions Multiple sales reps per order line. Commission calculations based on user-defined formulas. Customer Returns Link return to original shipment. Track return, expected return and expiration dates. Automatically or manually assign RMA numbers. Track return reasons by line item. Process returns for loans. Produce credit memos. Credit Checking Online credit checking with ability to hold customers that fail credit check. Bypass credit checking for specified customers. Customer credit inquiries. Reporting And Statistical Analysis Standard reports or user-defined reporting. User-defined formulas for calculating rankings for customers and products. Sales Tax Calculations Supports State , City and / or County taxing. Option to calculate prices with or without taxes.