How to Make Macola Order Entry Sing A Guide to Improving and Automating your Exact Macola Order Entry Setup
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction...1 Exact Macola ES Order Entry Overview...2 Exact Macola ES Order Entry Process Flow...3 Exact Macola ES Order Entry Review Checklist...4 Business Automation Tools: Macola Order Import...6 Business Automation Tools: Create Customer from OE Screen...7 Business Automation Tools: Credit Card Processing...8 Business Automation Tools: Rental Equipment Tracking...9 Business Automation Tools: Catch Weight Utility... 10
INTRODUCTION Thank you for downloading How to make Macola Order Entry Sing - a Guide to Improving and Automating your Exact Macola Order Entry Setup. We hope that you will find it a useful tool to investigate improvements into the performance and functionality of your Exact Macola ERP system. It is important to realize that this guide is only a starting point and you may have to look into the setup of other areas within the system to fully identify and streamline the order entry process. Please be sure you are authorized to make any changes to the system prior to doing so and that you understand the effects any changes will have on other departments. It may be worth considering a system review by your authorized Exact reseller or directly through an Exact representative. If at any time you require assistance or have questions, please contact us, we are happy to help: Harvest Ventures Inc. www.harvestvi.com sales@harvestvi.com 403.202.0577 1
Exact Macola ES: ORDER ENTRY OVERVIEW Understanding the basic terms and concepts of Order Entry is important when reviewing the process. Even those who have experience with various Order Entry packages can benefit from a review and an overview of how Order Entry is handled within Exact Macola ES specifically. The four primary functions of Order Entry are: 1. Entering orders 2. Picking and shipping items 3. Billing customers 4. Reporting and analyzing the data Entering Orders The customer sends in a purchase order and that information is then entered into the system as a sales order. The sales order contains information about the customer, shipping destination, terms of sale, sales representative, product(s)/service(s) ordered, quantity ordered, price of product(s)/service(s) and when product must ship. The importance of this stage of the process is to capture all relevant information accurately to ensure the order can be fulfilled. Picking and Shipping Items The next stage of the process is extracting items from inventory and shipping them to the customer. Exact Macola ES documents this process with four forms: Picking ticket: tells shipping department what items to take from inventory Packing list: lists items from the order that will be shipped Shipping label: contains address information (where the order will be shipped to) Bill of lading: lists the contents of the shipment and is the contract for the shipping company to deliver the products Billing Customers: Once the order has shipped, an invoice is created outlining the products shipped, backordered, out of stock and the balance owing by the customer. Once the invoice is printed, it is posted which updates the accounts receivable files to reflect the new customer balance, sales commissions, etc. Reporting The data captured during the order entry process can provide reports such as sales analysis, lost sales, sales history, etc. During the order entry process, Exact Macola ES will adjust inventory quantities to account for the items that you have sent to your customers. Inventory will be updated at billing, picking, or shipping. SOURCE: Exact Macola ES Help Files 2
Exact Macola ES: ORDER ENTRY PROCESS FLOW SOURCE: Exact Macola ES Help Files 3
Exact Macola ES: ORDER ENTRY REVIEW CHECKLIST The following checklist will help to guide you through a list of areas to review in Exact Macola ES Order Entry (O/E) setup that can help you uncover inefficiencies within your order entry process. ORDER ENTRY O/E Set-up (System > Package settings > Distribution > Order Entry setup) Review incomplete fields Review default settings Sales History Period (System > Distribution > Order Entry > Sales History Periods) Stores the number of sales history periods your company uses, what the current year is, what the current sales history reporting period is and a description for each of the sales history periods. Price Codes (OE & RMA > Entries > Price Codes) Order Entry includes a powerful price code screen, based on a series of user-defined price break tables. A price break table determines the selling price for an item based on quantity ordered. You can set up price break tables for individual items, individual customers, product categories, customer types. Product Category/Location Account Maintenance (System > Distribution > Order Entry > Product Category) Assigns sales, cost of goods sold and inventory returns and allowances account numbers to product categories by location. Customer Item Maintenance (OE & RMA > Entries > Customer items) A customer item is an item in your inventory with another label on it that is the way the customer identifies that item within their system (alternate item number or code) Comment Code Maintenance (System > Distribution > Order Entry > Comment codes) Allows you to create predefined comments that can be used as shipping instructions on the Ship Instr field on the order Carrier Code Maintenance (System > Distribution > Order Entry > Carrier code/description) Defines the carrier codes that Exact Macola ES uses on the Bill of Lading screen SOURCE: Exact Macola ES Help Files 4
Exact Macola ES: ORDER ENTRY REVIEW CHECKLIST Shipping Lead Time Maintenance (System > Distribution > Order Entry > Shipping lead times) Define the lead time required to ship items to a specific customer address. Order Entry uses the shipping lead time to calculate the required ship date in Order Picking. INVENTORY MANAGEMENT Item Master Maintenance (BOM & IM > Items > Maintenance) This is where details of each inventory item is managed and is one of the most fundamental and necessary areas of the Macola ES system. Product Category Maintenance (System > Distribution > Inventory Management > Product Categories) Used to group similar inventory items together. The OE package uses this to identify by location, additional sales and cost of goods sold account numbers. You should enter all inventory item product categories used by your company as they can play a role in how Order Entry determines the price of items on a customer order. Inventory Location Maintenance (BOM & IM > Items > Item/Location) A location is a place where inventory is stored, such as a warehouse or stockroom. Use the Inventory Locations Maintenance screen to define and maintain your inventory locations. ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE Customer Maintenance (System > Financial > Accounts Receivable > Customer Types) This function groups customers into categories. Exact Macola ES uses customer types for transactions, reports, lists, distributions, etc. Customer setup may effect pricing codes settings, customer items settings as well as shipping lead time settings. Ship Via Code Maintenance (System > Financial > Accounts Receivable > Ship via codes) Defines the methods you use for shipping goods to customers. SOURCE: Exact Macola ES Help Files 5
Business Automation Tools: MACOLA ORDER IMPORT The Order Import tool for Exact Macola enables you to automate order entry reducing the need to enter orders manually - an expensive and time consuming practice prone to errors. Some of the features of the Macola Order Import utility include: Import from Excel file (text or spreadsheet) Multiple user defined mappings from Excel to Exact Macola Direct import from worksheet name Create new customers and items on the fly Create PO s and production orders Handles O/E cash entries Handles binned and serial/lot items Orders come into your business from different sources in various formats. Harvest Ventures order import utility offers the flexibility to import regardless of the source by using a universal tool - Excel, to format the data. This also makes the tool user friendly and reduces the burden on I.T. To learn more about this Business Automation Tool, contact Harvest Ventures: 403.202.0577, sales@harvestvi.com. 6
Business Automation Tools: CREATE CUSTOMER FROM ORDER ENTRY SCREEN Save time in Macola Order Entry by not having to navigate to a separate screen to set up a new customer. With this Business Automation Tool by Harvest Ventures, users can set up a new customer while entering their first order! When in the Macola Order Entry screen, the user can select New in the customer field which will launch a pop-up screen allowing the user to create a new customer. Once complete, simply clicking create will close the window and allow the user to continue entering their order. Save time and streamline processes by not having to switch from order entry to customer set-up screens and setting up default in fields as appropriate. Fields are flexible and can be defined to suit your company s requirements For Exact Synergy users, a Prospect in Exact Synergy can be converted to Customer status in Exact Macola quickly and easily. To learn more about this Business Automation Tool, contact Harvest Ventures: 403.202.0577, sales@harvestvi.com. 7
Business Automation Tools: CREDIT CARD PROCESSING The credit card processing module for Exact Macola is designed to save time and money by reducing data entry and streamlining the authorization process. This tool offers flexibility in terms of when a credit card is authorized and/or pre-authorized and allows the information to be stored in encrypted format until the merchandise has been shipped so that re-keying is not required. All major credit cards are accepted and users will no longer require a separate POS terminal and phone line. Labour costs are reduced with less data entry and faster order processing: Multiple payment types can be accepted on each order Credit card verification is done within the Order Entry screen and cash receipts are automatically issued Charges can be authorized and processed in batches Data can be imported from any third party website With credit card authorization and processing integrated with your Order Entry process, reporting and reconciliation is more efficent. To learn more about this Business Automation Tool, contact Harvest Ventures: 403.202.0577, sales@harvestvi.com. 8
Business Automation Tools: RENTAL EQUIPMENT TRACKING The Rental Equipment Tracking utility by Harvest Ventures offers several features to simplify the rental tracking process while adding visibility and flexibility to your system. Users can create a sales order and select the required rental service from within the order, view existing rentals while evaluating new ones, bill the rental order and view history. The Rental Equipment Tracking utility makes it easy to set up a rental item with rates and create an item number for the rental service. To learn more about this Business Automation Tool, contact Harvest Ventures: 403.202.0577, sales@harvestvi.com. 9
Business Automation Tools: CATCH WEIGHT UTILITY The Catch Weight utility for Exact Macola allows a business to store two or more units of measure parallel but independent from each other throughout each business transaction which is based on actual data. This is especially effective in industries where products can vary slightly by weight or size (or both) such as the food industry. Catch weight products use two units of measure - an inventory unit and a catch weight unit. The inventory unit is the unit of measure in which the product is weight and invoiced. The catch weight unit is the unit in which the inventory transactions are performed. This tool provides added structure and organization to your shipping information. Details regarding shipping items that are being stored in a warehouse, such as quantity on hand, quantity allocated, and quantity back ordered, are presented in a manner that is easy to view and easy to edit. The user has the ability to capture weights for various box sizes and view information in detail or summary format This catch weight utility interfaces with warehouse capture systems to populate quantity shipped on the sales order line. To learn more about this Business Automation Tool, contact Harvest Ventures: 403.202.0577, sales@harvestvi.com. 10
Harvest Ventures Inc. is the Canadian Authorized Reseller of Exact Macola ERP software and Exact Synergy BPM (Business Process Management) software. We have been implementing and supporting Exact products since our inception in 1999 and specialize in building custom Business Automation Tools to further enhance the Exact product line. With staff located in Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario, Harvest s team of professionals offer a complete solution to clients centred around the Exact Macola software installation and education process. Additional services Harvest Ventures can assist with include: Custom enhancement programming Custom report writing Hardware infrastructure decisions and installations Network connectivity and performance issues Management and accounting consulting Classroom training and seminars We at Harvest Ventures work hard to solve our clients business challenges and ensure the software delivers solid operational information to effectively run your organization. Please contact us to learn more about how Harvest Ventures can help your company. Harvest Ventures Inc. www.harvestvi.com sales@harvestvi.com 403.202.0577 FOLLOW US! Blog Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Google+