Scheduled Shipments
Overview
Scheduled Shipments is a method for setting up lists of stock items to be shipped sequentially at specified intervals. The list of items is set up in sequential order, with specified prices, along with a start date and a shipment interval. This is called a subscription. Customers are then joined to the subscription, at which point the system generates a shipment schedule specific to the customer, with a shipment date for each item. As the shipment date arrives, a sales order is generated for the item, and this is processed in the normal way.
Subscriptions
Subscriptions are lists of stock items which are to be shipped sequentially at defined intervals from a specific start date. The intervals can be:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Quarterly
- Six-monthly
- Annual
- Bi-weekly
- Bi-monthly
- Bi-annual
- Custom.
Subscription Types
There are 3 subscription types:
Fixed
- New customers join at a specified item on the list and the shipment dates are recalculated to start at the current date.
- Shipments would normally start at item 1, but, if a later shipment is selected as a start point, the shipments would still start at the current date. A warning pops up stating 'item 1 is not selected as the start'.
- This could be a fixed list of items where each customer would want them all, such as a set of coins, and they want shipping to start normally from the current date.
Continuity
- New customers join at a specified item on the list and the shipment dates remain as originally generated.
- If a future shipment is selected as a start point, the shipments would start on the date originally specified in the subscription.
- This could be for a set of items where issues are specific to dates, such as monthly magazines or wines of the month. As shipment dates are not recalculated, this could be used either to specify older items to catch up on back issues, or to specify future items and start shipments at the future date.
Scheduled Shipments
- This is automatically selected as the subscription type when they are created manually or from a sales order.
- If selected as the subscription type, it behaves as a 'Fixed' type.
Shipments
Shipments, or shipment schedules, are normally generated from subscriptions or sales orders, but they can also be created manually. They are customer specific lists of items to be shipped on specific dates along with any other items to be shipped at the same time (attachments). Once a shipment date arrives for an item, it is manually (or automatically) added to the shipment queue. The items in the shipment queue are then manually (or automatically) processed, at which time a sales order is generated for the item(s). These sales orders can then be edited and are processed in the normal way.
Scheduled Shipments consists of two main screens:
- The Scheduled Shipments screen
- The Scheduled Shipments Queue screen
Scheduled Shipments Screen
To open the Scheduled Shipments screen click Scheduled Shipments on the Command Window. The Scheduled Shipments screen consists of the top filters, the grid and the radio buttons at the bottom. On opening, the List screen is populated with all the current Subscriptions on the system.
The Scheduled Shipments section is comprised of the following tabs:
Scheduled Shipments Queue Screen
To open the Scheduled Shipments Queue screen type "qu" into the Command Window. The Scheduled Shipments Queue screen consists of the top filters, the grid and the radio buttons at the bottom. On opening, the List screen is populated with all the current Subscriptions on the system.
The Scheduled Shipments Queue section is comprised of the following tabs: