Synchronising Order and Invoice numbers

[GILESSMEATH]

We are using Line 50 v11.00.0018. Is it possible to Synchronise our order numbers with the invoice number generated so that they are automatically the same . For reconciliation purposes and when posting customer receipts it would be really helpful if the two numbers were the same and I cannot see why they shouldn't be.

Also is there any way of marking orders as printed as is the case with invoices. With multiple operators we are having problems with some orders being printed twice and others not at all!

Giles Smeath

[brucedenney]

there are several reasons why they are not the same.

You could have orders that get cancelled and so never become invoices
You could have invoices that are directly entered
and so on...

However.... what you can do is to use the Order number as the reference when updating invoice to the Customer ledger, this could make life easier for you when matching payments?

Settings>Invoice & Order Defaults

.

[GILESSMEATH]

This might help. Any thoughts on the point about marking the sales orders as printed as you do with invoices?

[brucedenney]

Why are you printing them?

To send back as confirmations, to use as picking lists, for file... ?

[GILESSMEATH]

We are experimenting with using them as a combination delivery note/sales order confirmation/invoice. A lot of our customers pay cash for their beer on delivery and have a habit of altering orders when we get there! We found we were issuing a large number of credit notes to put things right where we had issued an invoice to pay on delivery and our stock control was becoming a nightmare . Since our duty payments are dependent on accurate stock control we decided to try to get a system whereby we only issued the delivery note once we had the signed sales order back and the delivery had been made so that we could adjust the order if stock came back undelivered.
hence my question. I appreciate we should use the delivery note but found our weekly stock takes are always out ( sometimes up and sometimes down).
By only creating the delivery note once we have the signed order/invoice back this has improved.

[brucedenney]

Here are my thoughts.

Beer! ... I like beer... are you anything to do with DBC? I had a pint of Steam not so long ago... very nice...

back to work...

Have the person who organises the delivery rounds print them off and manage the deliveries, using Sage invoicing as the "master list" you could attach a round number to each customer, print off all outstanding quotes/proformas in "Round" / Postcode order

When the delivery notes come back, adjust to match the actual, and send / email the invoice to the customer.

Not sure why you are not doing this as invoices rather than SOP's perhaps you have back orders? the payments could be attached and posted together where you get COD

My experience with "wet" products is that stock has to be very carefully watched in a physical sense otherwise it goes AWOL and you will never et the books to match the physical.

[GILESSMEATH]

Thanks Bruce. I think if we were bigger with several Drayman rather than two this might be useful. I guess this sort of think is why there are specifically written programmes out there like Premier which are designed to manage this sort of stuff for smaller Breweries. I have written an modified a number of sage reports that do a lot of the stuff the bespoke programmes do but I was hoping to be able to get a mod that fixed the invoice number to the sales order number. It's too complicated to explain why this is desirable in an email but it has to do with reconciling payments received from Pubco's through our trade organization and the fact that they auto invoice with different numbers again from our sage internally issued ones.

Have you any thoughts on how this might be done? Is there any way the sales order once created could "reserve" the invoice number as being he same number so that when up dated it becomes the same number in fact. Cancelled orders would the merely leave a void ( I think sage picks up the lowest available number for a new order any way) and any invoices created direct without a sales order would go to the next unreserved number. These days simplicity is the name of the game and it's much easier if the two numbers are the same.

I don't mind having a go at a bit of programming if someone can give me clue where to start.

P.s We are DBC and do brew Weymouth Steam Beer.Not in bottle yet or I'd send you a sample. Have a look at www.dbcales.com though

Cheers

Giles