Staged Processing - Setup


Overview

The [ Sales Invoice Manager | Detail | Staged Processing ] tab is where sales orders are moved through a series of stages until they are despatched and the relevant documentation is generated. These stages are configurable to match individual business processes.

This section describes how to:

  • Create and maintain sales invoice management rules.
  • Maintain sales invoice management settings.
  • Manage the assignment of stock to back orders.

Edit Process Path

The Edit Process Path dialog allows the user to configure the Process Path so it matches their business processes. It is accessed from [ Sales Invoice | Other Actions Menu | 4: Edit Process Path ]. More information on how to configure the Process Path can be found here How To: Edit Process Path.

Invoice Priorities

Invoice Priorities are a method of highlighting sales orders in the [ Sales Invoice Manager | Detail | Staged Processing ] grid. When an Invoice Priority is applied to a sales order Khaos Control will flag that order's current invoice with the priority's user-defined character/symbol in the Invoice Manager, for example 'Express Deliveries' can be given an invoice priority of E. The user is able to quickly see the E orders in the Invoice Manager which can then be fast-tracked through the stages.

Invoice Priorities are setup in [ System Data | Order Processing | Invoice Priorities ] screen, see How To: Setup Invoice Priorities and can be affected by:

Invoice Priority Maintenance

Invoice priorities are set-up and maintained in Khaos Control's System Data screen. The following fields are available:

  • Description: the priority's description.
  • Mark: user-defined character / symbol that will be displayed against a sales invoice with this priority in the Invoice Manager.
  • Highlight checkbox: when ticked the mark for the priority will highlighted in emboldened red text.
  • Order Note: priority specific notes to be entered automatically against the sales order when the priority is applied.
  • Inv Note checkbox:
    • Unticked: the Order Note value will be entered in the sales order's Delivery Note/Picking List Note field.
    • Ticked: the Order Note value will be entered in the sales order's Invoice Notes field.
  • DelDate Adj (default=0): the number of days to be added or removed from the delivery date when the priority is applied to a sales order.
  • Use DelDate Adj checkbox (default=ticked):
  • Disabled: if ticked, then Invoice Priority will be marked as no longer active so it does not display when creating sales orders.

Invoice Rules

Invoice Rules determine how the system will move invoices between the various Sales Invoice manager stages and are of two types:

System Rules

The system sets up a number of default or system invoice rules automatically; for example, one rule moves invoices which do not have a full stock allocation into the Awaiting Stock stage, and another rule moves invoices which have received a complete allocation out of Awaiting Stock and into the Released stage so they can be processed. You cannot remove or change these default rules; however you can create your own user-defined rules to supplement them.

User-Defined Rules

These control how Khaos Control follows your businesses' rules and are configured in the 'Edit Invoice Rules' dialog, which is accessed from [ Sales Invoice | Other Actions Menu | 5: Edit Invoice Rules ].
Note: user-defined invoice rules will only be applied to stages that have the 'Process Rules' checkbox ticked against them in the Edit Process Path dialog.

A user-defined rule can interrogate the following invoice details when deciding whether to move it:

  • Net Value (Ex Del): the invoice values (excluding delivery) between which the invoice rule will apply. Only one value needs to be specified for the rule to apply. For example, entering a low value of '50.00' and leaving the high value as '0.00' will result in the rule being applied to all invoices of £50 or above. Alternatively, leaving the low value as '0.00' and entering a high value of 1000.00 will result in the rule being applied to all invoices up to a value of £1000.
    • Low: the lowest net value of the sales invoice which will trigger the rule, treated as equal to or greater than.
    • High: the highest net value of the sales invoice to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or less than.
  • Fulfilment %: the percentage of stock items that need to be assigned to the sales invoice for the rule to take effect. Both values must be specified for the fulfilment percentage to be calculated within the rule. For example, entering a low value of 80 and a high value of 100 will result in the rule being applied to sales invoices which have 80% or more of the stock items assigned.
    Note: fulfilment percentage is calculated on a per item, rather than per line basis.
    • Low: the lowest percentage of stock assigned to the sales invoice which will trigger the rule, treated as equal to or greater than.
    • High: the highest percentage of stock assigned to the sales invoice to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or less than.
  • Invoice Waiting/Due Despatch: the functionality of this area is dependent on whether the Inv/Desp checkbox is ticked or unticked (see below). Only one value needs to be specified for the rule to apply.
    • Low: the lowest number of days to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or greater than.
    • High: the highest number of days to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or less than.
    • Inv/Desp checkbox: determines whether the low and high figures relate to a number of days before or after the sales invoice's delivery date;
      • Unticked: the low and high figures represent the number of days a sales invoice has been waiting beyond it's delivery date. For example, entering a low value of 5 and a high value of 10 will result in the rule applying to all sales invoices that have been waiting for 5 days or more, but no more than 10 days.
      • : Ticked: the low and high values represent a number of days prior to the delivery date. For example, a rule could be created to release sales invoices from the Awaiting Date stage if it is due for despatch in between 2 and 7 days.
    • NWD Inc checkbox: indicates whether the rule will include Non-Working Days (as configured in System Data) or not.
      • Unticked: the rule will count all days when looking forwards or backwards, regardless of any Non-Working Days which have configured. This assumes that the working week is 7 days.
      • Ticked: the rule will ignore weekends when looking backwards of forwards. Non-Working Days which have been configured will also be excluded within the calculation. This assumes that the working week is 5 days long.
        Notes:
        1. There is an additional option within the System Values setting which Allows Saturday Delivery Dates. This will set the working week to be 6 days.
        2. If a Saturday has been set as a Non-Working Day then it will be excluded from the calculation in the same way as any other Non-Working Day.
  • Prev Inv Count: the number of previous invoices that have been produced for a singular sales order. Only one value needs to be specified for the rule to apply. For example, entering a Low value and leaving the high value as '0.00' will result in the rule applying to sales orders that have had 2 or more invoices.
    • Low: the lowest number of previous invoices to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or greater than.
    • High: the highest number of previous invoices to be considered within the rule, treated as equal to or less than.
  • Comp Class F4: if set, the rule will only apply to the chosen Company Class.
  • Sales Source F4: if set, the rule will only apply to the chosen Sales Source.
  • Invoice Priority F4: if set, the rule will only apply to the chosen Invoice Priority.
  • Courier F4: if set, the rule will only apply to the chosen Courier.
  • Drop-Ship checkbox: if ticked then the rule will only apply to sales orders that contain drop-ship stock items.
  • Invoice Rule For:
    • First Order F4:
      • Not Applicable (default): this option will be ignored by the rule.
      • Yes: if selected the rule will only be applied to the first sales order placed by a customer.
      • No: if selected the rule will not be applied to the first order placed by the customer, but it will be applied to each subsequent order placed by that customer.
    • Imported Orders / Process Path checkboxes: determine the sales orders that the rule will apply to, based on their origin
      Note: the Import and Process Path checkboxes can only be edited by Khaos Control. For assistance, please email Support.
      • Both ticked: the rule will apply to all sales orders.
      • Both unticked: the rule will not apply to any sales orders, for example if a rule needs to be deactivated temporarily.
      • Imported Orders ticked / Process Path unticked: the rule will only be applied to sales orders that are imported into the system, for example via an online sales channel. The rule is not applied to any sales orders that have already been imported.
      • Imported Orders unticked / Process Path ticked: the rule will only be applied to sales orders that are manually created within Khaos Control. The rule can also be applied to sales orders that have already been imported from an online sales channel, for example when orders are assessed at the start of a new day.
  • Result: determines what should happen to a sales order if it falls within the criteria of the rule.
    • Action F4:
      • Awaiting Date: will move an affected sales order to the Awaiting Date stage.
      • Awaiting Stock: will move an affected sales order to the Awaiting Stock stage.
      • Manual Hold: will move an affected sales order to the Manual Hold stage.
        Note: when moving to Manual Hold the rule can also be set to specify the Manual Hold Substage that the sales order should be moved to (see below).
      • No Action: any sales order that would be affected by the rule will not be moved within the Process Path, for example when creating a rule which prevents another rule from affecting a subset of sales orders.
      • Release: any sales order that is currently within a 'Future' stage, for example Awaiting Date, Awaiting Stock or Manual Hold, will be moved to the Released stage.
    • Manual Hold Substage F4: if Manual Hold has been selected from the Action F4 lookup (detailed above) then this option allows the user to specif the Manual Hold Substage that the affected sales orders should be moved to.

The text at the bottom of the screen provides a textual description of what the rule does, allowing you to verify that the rule will work as you intended it to.

The arrows on the side of the screen allow the user to change the priority of rules by moving them up and down. As only one rule can ever be applied to an invoice, the arrows allow users to define the order in which Khaos Control should apply the rules and, therefore, their priority.

Invoice Management

It is possible to set up invoice and delivery date options for the automatic movement of sales invoices. These are setup in the System Values.

Amendments made within System Values will impact upon every sales invoice that is created in Khaos Control (providing the options are not superseded by an invoice rule). The following options are available:

  • [ System Values | Sales | Invoice Management ] for more information on:
    • Invoice Date based on when invoice was printed
  • [ System Values | Sales | Delivery ]:
    • Delivery date (release early) (default=2)
    • Part ship period (default=999)
    • Delivery date (put in Awaiting Date) (default=7)
    • Delivery date (add to default) (default=0)
    • Delivery date (cheque clearance) (default=7)
    • Order cutoff time (default=00:00)
    • Allow Saturday delivery dates (default=off)
    • Default New Couriers to Re-assess Invoices (default=off)

See Also


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