top of page

Acumatica Distribution: Sales Order Management Module/Workspace

When to use the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace

​

The Sales Order Management Module/Workspace is used in the following business scenarios:

  • Receipt of Request for a Bid from customers

  • Creating and sending a Sales Quote to the customer

  • Creating and sending a Sales Order to the customer

  • Issuing or shipping goods to customers, and returns of goods to suppliers

  • Receiving a payment from the customer, and creating a payment record in your system

Relationship between this Sales Order Management Module and other Suites and Modules of Acumatica ERP Foundation

​

  • Selling goods (stock items) to your customer goes normally through the following steps:

    1. The customer may send you a Request for Bid

    2. You respond to the customer with a Sales Quote

    3. The customer approves the Sales Quote, and places a Purchase Order, which becomes a Sales Order (SO) for you

    4. You ship the goods, and create a shipment (inventory issue) record in your system

    5. You create an invoice in your system, and send the invoice to the customer

    6. The customer pays, and you create a payment record in your system

​

When you sell through a B2C or B2B E-Commerce store or a customer portal, this sequence of steps will be different. This business scenario is discussed and illustrated in the webpage titled "ERP Offer for Wholesale Distribution".

​

In simple words the first three steps (receiving a Request, creating a Sales Quote, and later a Sales Order) are enabled in the SO module of the Distribution Suite. The fourth step (shipment of goods to the customer) is enabled in the Inventory Management module of the distribution suite. The last two steps ( creating a customer invoice, and receiving payment from the customer) are enabled in the Accounts Receivable module of the Finance suite. Don't worry, you will not have to jump from one module to another. All these steps are linked in logical order so that you go through those steps very easily.

​

The following diagram illustrates this relationship.

Sales order process flow in Acumatica.jp
Images_SO_Connection_Overview.png

Important features of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace

​

Important features of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace  in the case that customer asks for a sales quote, your company responds with a sales order, are as follows:

  1. Creating a sales quote from an opportunity

  2. Once customer approves sales quote, convert sales quote to a sales order

  3. Pricing the products for the customer

  4. Pick, pack and ship

  5. Ship the product

  6. Invoice the customer for that sales order or a group of sales orders

  7. Accept payment from the customer

  • Creating a sales quote from an opportunity

    • If the customer buys quite a complex product that will need some configuration and installation service, the customer will call and describe the product and service he/she wants. The description is still vague, the specific products will have to be explored. Therefore creating an opportunity with the customer's needs makes sense. Once the specific products are identified, then a sales quote can be developed.

    • ​This feature enables you to take the following steps:​

      • Create an opportunity

      • Create a sales quote from the opportunity

      • Convert sales quote to a sales order

    • You can bypass the creation of an opportunity , and create directly a sales quote in the Sales Order Management module/work space. ​You will do this when the customer knows the specific products and services they want. For instance buying a laundry machine. 

      • Video ( 3.5 mins, 2018) below illustrates this

  • Pricing the products for the customers, and giving discounts

    • ​Feature 1 enables you to take the following steps:​

      • Create a pricing worksheet

      • Create a  pricing per item class/group

      • Create a price for each item

      • Video (  mins)

Group level pricing

​

  • The webinar (30 mins, 2018) discusses in detail pricing of a group of items to be sold to customers

Sales Price priority.jpg

  • Integration with main carriers: UPS, FEDEX and USPS

    • ​When you create a sales order, you can select the carrier and the shipping rate since Acumatica is out of the box integrated with those main carriers. 

​Video (  2.5mins, 2015) illustrates this. 

​Video (  2.5mins, 2015) illustrates the 2018 shipping enhancements

  • Pick, pack and ship

    • ​Once the sales order has been released, the warehouse keeper will print the pick list from the sales order, pick the items, pack them and put a shipping label on the package.  

    • Video (  2.5mins, 2015) illustrates this. 

  • Create a Shipment record/transaction

    • ​Once the package is complete, and loaded unto the truck, the warehouse keeper will create a shipment record/transaction in Acumatica ERP.  

    • Video (  2.5mins, 2015) illustrates this. 

  • Create an invoice

    • ​Once the package is shipped, you can create an invoice and email it to the customer. Or the invoice will appear in the customer portal.

    • Video (  2.5mins, 2015) illustrates this. 

Advanced features of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace

​

Advanced features of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace are as follows:

  • From Sales Order to Purchase Order

    • When a sales order is booked, and there is no stock available, a purchase order or purchase orders are booked with suppliers. This purchase order is tied to this sales order so that, when items arrive from the suppliers, those items are reserved for that sales order.

  • Quick release of a Sales Order

    • The quick release of a Sales Order enables you to quickly choose the best shipper, print a shipping label, automatically create a shipment for the Sales Order, automatically update the inventory, and automatically emails an invoice to the customer.

  • ..

  • More

Return of products by the customer, and issuing a customer refund

​

When a customer returns a product, the inventory account has to be updated if the returned product can still be resold.

Also a refund needs to be issued to the customer. The video (5mins, 2019) below shows how a customer refund is handled by Acumatica.

Benefits of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace

​

The benefits of the Sales Order Management Module/Workspace to you are as follows:

  • Reduce order times

    • Eliminate delays through automated sales order processing and shipping order generation. Set rules to manage multiple warehouses, returns, credit limits, drop shipments, and more.

  • Integrated Workflow

    • Automate order processing and eliminate unnecessary steps with Acumatica integrated workflow. Configure order status, status changes, actions, notifications, and alerts to automatically trigger during order processing, even allowing users to process an order in one click.

  • Flexible Discounts and Promotion

    • Manage complex pricing and customer and vendor discount policies. Set up quantity and volume discounts as a percent or an amount. Specify multiple discount rules and sequences or allow the system to automatically apply the best discount combination for individual items, groups of items, and documents. Maintain discounts in single and multiple currencies. Establish rules and policies for price overrides: Specify price by warehouse, assign prices based on quantity sold, or set prices using various units of measure (single item, case, pallet, etc.). Import discount information, and apply discounts to opportunities, quotes, sales orders, purchase orders, invoices, etc.

The Sales Order Management Module/Workspace Datasheet

​

bottom of page