Order Processing & Billing
Orders can be received from many sources. These may include telephone, mail, email, fax, EDI, the Internet, Portable Data Entry devices (PDEs), batch files, spreadsheets or order forms. The most appropriate method of data entry is used for each kind of order in order to maximize data entry requirements and minimize errors.
Order Processing and Billing is fully integrated with the rest of IBS Bookmaster. This means that a wide variety of transactions, customer and product-based inquiries are available from within Order Processing and Billing.
MULTIPLE SCREEN LAYOUTS
IBS Bookmaster incorporates multiple screen layouts to cater for different kinds of orders (e.g. cash with order, credit card, bonus item, etc.) These are all designed to make the information required for that kind of order easily available to improve keying time.
FLEXIBLE PRICING AND DISCOUNTS
IBS believes that pricing and discounts should be flexible enough to handle virtually any eventuality and that there should be no need to override prices for special conditions. The IBS Bookmaster pricing and discount routines have been designed to handle a wide variety of special conditions. If these are used effec-tively, manual price and discount overrides can be eliminated.
Each title may have an almost unlimited number of prices, each with its own price code. Each of these prices can have an un-limited number of date-effective prices. This means that future price rises may be entered well in advance and that special promotional prices may be entered with a beginning and end date. The system will automatically pick the appropriate price based upon the date. Within each price by date, by price code, a title may have up to five stepped quantity discounts.
The entire scenario is repeated for discounts, with multiple discounts by title, by date, quantity breaks, etc. Additionally, there is a special contract pricing facility, plus features for promotional packages and bonus items.
IBS Bookmaster Order Processing and Billing also contains special user-definable pricing business rules that tell the system in which order the various pricing routines should be checked. This includes a 'lowest price' option which ensures that, if required, a customer is always given the lowest price when multiple pricing options are available. For example, as a result of a special promotion. Alterna-tively, the system can be configured to give a particular customer or group of customers a fixed price irrespective of any special offers.
Each of these pricing/discount options may be set at the title level or at any level within the title hierarchy. This means the pricing can easily decrease to an individual price/discount by customer, by title, by date; but does not have to be set that way for all customers. Because all pricing is defined globally with exceptions, you can have one global price/discount definition for all customers with one exception of a particular price/discount for one customer, for one title. This provides the maximum flexibility with the greatest ease of maintenance.
Packs and systems
Order Processing and Billing incorporates a wide variety of packs and systems with sophisticated features to ensure that the costing, tax and sales analysis aspects of selling packs and systems are managed correctly.
These include:
- a physical pack, where more than one title is packed together and the pack is given its own title number
- a marketing pack where the titles are linked logically but stored individually in the warehouse
- an assortment for department stores that want a set number of a particular series or type of product but don't care about the specific number of individual titles
In most cases the price of the pack is different to the price of the sum of the components. IBS Bookmaster Order Processing and Billing ensures that the product cost is taken up correctly, that components of packs can be reserved in inventory if required, that the correct tax is charged if appropriate and that sales analysis is accurate at the pack and component level.
Promotional packages
This feature enables marketing personnel to develop sophisticated promotions to maximize sales (particularly of slow moving titles) by bundling sets of titles together. This means they can provide customers with special incentives on fast moving titles, conditional on them also purchasing other titles that are surplus to requirements.
These sales may be made as firm sale and flagged as such if required. In order to qualify for a promotion a customer has to meet certain conditions. These may include buying a minimum number of titles in total, a minimum quantity of one or more mandatory titles, a minimum order value or a combination of these.
Because the promotional packages are defined to the system in advance, customer service personnel do not need to worry about the details of the promotion or the special pricing. Once a customer quotes a promotion code, the system recognizes the special pricing; ensures that any mandatory conditions for the promotion are met; automatically enters any mandatory titles and then registers the customer as being eligible for the promotion for any future sales for the remainder of the promotion period.
Promotional packages provide marketing personnel with a very powerful tool to stimulate sales and move excess inventory while making it easy for customer service personnel to enter the orders without worrying about pricing, as it is automatically managed by the system.
Bonus items
Bonus items allow marketing personnel to set up promotions that involve providing a bonus item or items when certain criteria are met. A bonus item may be additional copies of the title that has been ordered, copies of other titles or non-book items (umbrellas, CDs, etc.) that are part of a promotion.
As with promotional packages, IBS Bookmaster Order Processing and Billing automatically includes the bonus items once the conditions are met and accounts for them without the need for intervention from customer service personnel.
Substitute items
Any title can have a substitute item linked to it, with business rules that define the circumstances in which a substitute item should be supplied.
Orders
Copy orders – Any order can be copied and modified. This minimizes re-keying and errors.
Order maintenance – Any order can be modified or added to at header or line item level until a document (picking slip or invoice) is printed.
Quotations/pro-formas – Any order can be sent as a quotation or pro forma. In this case the quotation is held on the system and when the quotation is accepted it is changed to an order, eliminating the need to re-key. The quotation may be amended to create a modified order if needed.
Batch and EDI order entry – Order Processing and Billing includes a batch order entry facility. This is used by the EDI system and can also be used to accept batches of orders from any other source.
Fast order entry – The system can be configured so each line extension is shown as the line item is completed when orders are entered. If an order is being keyed from a paper document this can be turned off so order entry is faster, with the line extensions being done at the end of the order. This is one of many facilities designed to speed up order entry.
Order forms – Order Processing and Billing allows you to easily enter orders from order forms. Rather than choosing the product from the entire product list on the order form, you can simply specify which product (defined by line number) the customer wants to purchase and the quantity they wish to purchase. This makes keying in orders faster, less complicated and much more accurate, especially when order forms are large.
Telephone order entry – A special price and availability inquiry can be used for quick and efficient placement of telephone orders. When a customer calls to inquire on price and availability, the customer service representative can enter the customer's details. The cus-tomer can then be given their own price and discount.
Should the customer wish to order a title about which they have inquired, the customer service representative can input the quantity on the price and availability screen, building up an order as the customer inquires about different titles. This saves re-keying and minimizes transposition errors as well as saving time.
'Grid' order entry – Large multi-store customers sometimes send 'EDI' type orders in hard copy.
These consist of a 'spreadsheet' format, with many titles on the 'y' axis and many stores on the 'x' axis. These can be extremely labor-intensive to split into orders by store and input.
IBS Bookmaster includes a special facility to enter these orders in 'spreadsheet' format, with titles at the top of the screen and stores on the left hand side. This enables orders to be added in the same format in which they are received. This can reduce the time taken to enter such an order from hours to minutes.
Standing orders and scale-outs – IBS Bookmaster provides standing orders, where a consistent ISBN or list of ISBNs is ordered for a customer or set of custom-ers each month (or other period). Scale outs, where a list of customers automati-cally receive a list of a title or list of titles whenever books of a particular type are released, are also available.
Forward orders – This feature allows the entry of orders for future delivery at a designated time. There is an option to reserve stock for a forward order if desired.
Back order release cut backs – When back orders are released, all back orders are automatically filled if there is suf-ficient stock. If there is insufficient stock the cut back facility provides several options. These are proportional, FIFO or rotational (where everyone with a back order gets one copy in turn until the copies are exhausted). Each of these options can be tested and amended manually if required.
Lost orders – If an order is lost because a customer does not accept back orders or the order cannot be supplied, it can be flagged as a lost order and retained on the system.
This provides lost order analysis, and also allows demand to be measured for use within DRP. If a customer replaces a lost order it can be copied and amended to eliminate the need to re-key it.
Orders in the warehouse
Reservations – Stock can be reserved in the warehouse for future use by customers who may not have sufficient storage area in their showroom/shop etc. Reservations are not scheduled for release on a particular day. Rather, stock is available for the customer's use, when required.
It is also possible to place a reservation against a particular title that will have entitlements in the future, ensuring there is sufficient stock to supply the entitlements.
Order merge – While orders are held in the 'order pool' they are available for merge (if the cus-tomer accepts merged orders). This means many orders can be merged into one invoice, saving picking time in the ware-house as well as shipping and other costs.
Picking slip/invoice print – Orders can be set up to print immediately or to be held in an 'order pool' until released in batches to the warehouse. They can be printed to picking slips and/or invoices. The defaults can be overridden for each individual invoice. For example, if most orders are sent in batches and are printed as picking slips this can be over-ridden for immediate print to an invoice if needed.
Picking slip/invoice information – Invoices can be configured to provide additional information such as when a back ordered item is due. If all items on an order go to back order, a back order advice can be provided in the same format as an invoice. A variety of comments are available for use within the warehouse, printed on picking slips only, or for printing on invoices under specified conditions. Individual customers can have different invoice layouts and have different informa-tion printed on invoices if required.
Carrier charge tables – Carrier charge tables can be imported and stored and can then be used to select a carrier based on the cheapest price. The most ideal carrier can be chosen based on the postcode and weight of the order, and can be over-ridden by customer service at the point of order entry.
Payment of orders
Charge forward – A charge forward feature allows extend-ed terms to be provided, with the system knowing the due date and automatically informing accounts receivable personnel when the debt becomes due.
This is used particularly for campus book shops when ordering titles for a new semester.
Cash orders – If an order is accompanied by cash (i.e. check) a special order screen allows both to be entered at once. If an order can only be partially supplied but the entire amount of the check is banked the system automatically reconciles the remaining balance when the remainder of the order is supplied.
Credit card orders – Order Processing and Billing allows your business to accept credit card payments with real-time validation and proper details encryption. This enables credit card details to be entered into IBS Bookmaster and validated in real time, ensuring that the payment is made directly into your account at the time the customer places the order.
Multiple billing accounts
Multiple billing accounts can be assigned to a single sales account. This means a customer can place an order and choose which billing account they want to allocate the order to. This feature is particularly useful for those customers that belong to a buying group, as there is the option to either charge the customer direct or charge their head office. For accurate reporting purposes the sale is still recorded against the customer's account regardless of which billing account is used.
Suspend order
A suspend facility allows order entry personnel to suspend an order to begin a new task (e.g. answer the phone), or go to lunch in the middle of a large order. Multiple orders can be suspended and retrieved at a later stage.
The orders are saved on the system so if problems occur while the order entry personnel are away the information is not lost. A reminder facility exists so suspended orders are not kept open too long.
transaction auditing
All transactions within IBS Bookmaster are date, time and user stamped, providing a full audit trail. Invoices hold comprehensive information at header and line item level, including RRP, customer's standard price and actual price charged, enabling detailed analyses to be performed and providing customer and product profit-ability.
WORKFLOW MANAGEMENT (PENDING) SYSTEM
IBS Bookmaster contains a sophisticated workflow management, or 'pending' system in many areas, including Order Processing and Billing. This system is designed to ensure that errors are caught before, not after they are propagated, but without impacting on work within the customer service or other relevant departments.
During setup, each organization defines its policies and procedures to the system. The workflow management system checks each order for adherence to company policies and automatically, elec-tronically sends orders that violate these policies to the appropriate manager for approval, amendment or rejection. This enables order entry personnel to continue their work without interruptions.
These policies can include rights and restrictions, credit limits and overdue accounts, minimum/maximum order quantities, minimum profit margins, controls on complimentary copies and samples, which warehouse is used and a number of user-definable policies. Many of these policies have tolerances and all have multiple/parallel approval levels.
The workflow system can also automatically send any orders with price, discount, terms or other overrides for approval. This is made possible because the flexible pricing within IBS Bookmaster means that there should be no need to override these if the system has been set up correctly.
The overall effect of the workflow system is to dramatically minimize errors and maximize throughput and efficiency in processing orders.
SUMMARY
The Order Processing and Billing module ensures efficiency and accuracy of the entire order processing process. It gives you more control over orders and credit limits, through the workflow (pending) system by identifying violations of company policy and not allowing these orders to proceed until approved.
IBS Bookmaster Order Processing and Billing aids sales and marketing personnel with promotions by automatically tracking the terms of promotions. Flexibility in pricing and discount definitions results in increased efficiency and reduction in errors as each customer is charged the correct price.
Order Processing and Billing allows you to more efficiently manage order processing by automating most of the process.
IBS is a world-leading provider of supply chain management solutions for publishing, distribution, financials and business intelligence. IBS delivers measurable value through software solutions, services, hardware, outsourcing and financing. IBS offers industry solutions for the publishing and book distribution business, with Gyldendal/NBC, Harper Collins Publishers, Harvard University Press, LexisNexis, McGraw-Hill, Pearson Education and Penguin Books among its 5,000 customers in 40 countries.
Contact IBS for more information. »
|
