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Quantum VS Help: Sales Desk |
Back-To-Back Sales and Purchase Ordering is a system useful when you cannot, or do not wish to, use free stock to fulfil an order. On Completion of the Sales Order the lines can be allocated - manually or automatically - to a Purchase Order to 'back order' the goods from the Supplier.
Back-To-Back ordering has advantages over 'back ordering'. Traditional back ordering applies only when the Sales Order contains lines for which there is insufficient stock available to fulfil the order and hence must be Purchase Ordered from the Supplier before the Sales Order can be fulfilled.
Although Back-To-Back ordering may be used when insufficient stock is available, it can also be used when free stock is available but you do not wish to use this to fulfil the order. For example, in a retail situation you may wish to keep a certain number of items 'on the shelf', or you may wish to reserve stock for a favoured Customer.
Therefore, Back-To-Back ordering potentially enables you - the merchant - to hold relatively small stock inventories, operating a 'just-in-time' stock management system. When a Back-To-Back Sales Order is Completed, instead of fulfilling the order from goods held in stock, a Purchase Order can automatically be generated from the order, enabling the 'sold' goods to be back ordered from the Supplier.
The Back-To-Back ordering procedure may be configured on your system to be fully automated or to allow the User a degree of manual control. For example:
At Sales Order Completion lines can be automatically allocated to a 'Parked' Purchase Order addressed to the relevant Supplier. The buying team can then edit - and allocate lines to - Purchase Orders before they are Completed and issued.
Alternatively you may configure a User's settings so that Back-To-Back Purchase Orders generated on Sales Order Completion will also be automatically Completed and issued, without any manual input.
At the other extreme, instead of Back-To-Back Purchase Orders being generated - with lines allocated - on Sales Order Completion, the lines can be placed in the Back Order Manager for manual allocation to a Purchase Order.
Note: A Back-To-Back Order is distinct from a Direct Order. With a Direct Sales Order, the Supplier issues the goods to the end Customer. With a Back-To-Back Sales Order, you - the merchant - will receive the goods into stock before issuing them to the end Customer.
To enable Back-To-Back Sales and Purchase ordering in Quantum VS, certain Optional Enhancements must be switched off. You may use User Permissions and Roles to enable or disable Back-To-Back-related features for each User. See Enabling Back-To-Back Sales And Purchase Ordering In Quantum VS.
Note: Back-To-Back ordering is not currently available for Timber and Sheet products.
Depending on your business and Users' requirements you may set up Back-To-Back ordering so that it is fully automated, or you may give Users the permission to override certain features and manage certain tasks manually. For example:
In a typical 'automated' scenario, a User's Permissions/Role will be configured so that Sales Order lines are allocated automatically to Purchase Orders on Completion of a Back-To-Back Sales Order. One Purchase Order is created for each Supplier; so if a Sales Order has five 'Back-To-Back' ordered Product lines, which have three specified Suppliers, three Purchase Orders are generated from the Back-To-Back Sales Order. For each product on the order the 'Main' Supplier - as set on the Product record - is selected by default, although there is the option to enable the User to select an alternative Supplier.
Another common scenario is where you require each Back-To-Back order line to be reviewed by a purchasing team and allocated to a Purchase Order manually based on factors such as the Supplier's lead times, customer demand for the product, and current Branch stock holdings.
One way of achieving this is to set User Permissions so that all Back-To-Back Purchase Orders (generated from a Back-To-Back Sales Order) are Parked instead of Completed. This enables a user to locate Parked (Back-To-Back) Purchase Orders in the Finder, review them and edit them as necessary before Completing them.
Rather than the system automatically allocating Back-To-Back Sales Order lines to Purchase Orders, it can be configured so that users can review Back Order lines in the Back Order Manager, and allocate them to Purchase Orders as required, either immediately after Sales Order Completion or at a later time/date.
If Back-To-Back Purchase Orders are not created automatically, a Purchase Order can be created from scratch in the standard manner. Back Order lines (and Back-To-Back Order lines) can then be located in the Back Order Finder and manually added to the open Purchase Order.
This set-up enables the sales team to concentrate on creating and Completing Sales Orders, while the buying team constructs and allocates lines to Purchase Orders, which are then Completed and issued to Suppliers when deemed necessary.
Back-To-Back Ordering may be used in a system of Works Ordering. When a product requiring processing or assembly is Sales or Purchase Ordered and no free stock of that product is available, the system creates (in addition to a 'Works Order' Sales Order which generates the documentation required to pick and despatch any raw materials or components for processing/assembly) a Back-To-Back Purchase Order to order the 'finished' (i.e. processed or assembled) goods. See Works Order Processing.
The Back Order Manager is used in Back-To-Back order processing to view and find/filter Back-To-Back Sales Order lines which require allocation to a Purchase Order.
The Back Order Manager enables the User (if their permissions/settings are configured for manual Purchase Order line allocation) to manually allocate Back-To-Back Sales Order lines to an existing or new Purchase Order. See Back Order Manager: Allocating Lines Later.
Note: You may also view Back-To-Back Sales Order lines by selecting Back Orders in the Finder and selecting the Back to Back Order filter under Advanced. See Finding Back Orders.
This section covers:
Enabling Back-To-Back Sales And Purchase Ordering In Quantum VS
Editing Supplier Details (Back To Back Supplier Selection Window)
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