Understanding Period Ending Procedures in Order Entry
You perform day-end, month-end, quarter-end, and year-end procedures for the Order Entry application. These procedures are essential to maintaining the speed, efficiency, and accuracy of your retail operation.
Day End Procedures
Day-end procedures are steps that must be performed at the close of each business day.
These procedures let you finish the day’s business, print the necessary reports, and flush completed invoices to the sales journals. The following text outlines the day-end procedures that should be performed.
Batch Capturing and Invoicing Prepay Orders: Instead of invoicing each prepay pick ticket individually, send your prepay orders as a batch, invoicing several pick tickets at one time using the [P] Credit Card Service Capture and Invoicing of Prepay Orders action code in the (TR) Order Entry Reports screen. To use this feature, after each order is placed, final-verify it using either the [B] Invoices function, or the [G] Flush Backorders function in the (TR) screen, or by final-verifying the order through the Order Entry window or (G) screen. At this time, the prepay pick ticket is moved to the P-CC file, which is a list of all prepay orders that have not been transmitted or invoiced. When backordered items arrive and you perform your daily batch invoicing or flushing procedures, you can use the [P] action code in the (TR) screen to send all your prepay pick tickets from the P-CC file to your verification service for final payment. As pick tickets are invoiced, they are purged from the P-CC file when the (MA) Execute Daily Backup Procedure is performed at day-end. When you use this feature, several procedures are performed at once. When pick tickets are sent to the verification service through your modem, the completed pick tickets are final-verified and moved to an invoice. Once pick tickets are invoiced, they are printed according to the limits and sort order you specify. This function gives you the option of printing the Credit Card Transmission Report which includes a list of all pick tickets that were not invoiced and a status message specifying possible reasons why.
Batch Printing Invoices: Pick tickets are used to determine the inventory you have on-hand and the items need to be backordered. You must batch print invoices before completed invoices are flushed to the sales journal. For more information about batch printing invoices, refer to printing classic order entry reports in the Reports Menu.
Reprinting Invoices: To reprint invoices, do so before invoices are flushed to the sales journal. For instructions, see Reprinting Customer Tickets.
Printing and Releasing Order Entry Batches: Each order entry posting is recorded in a batch. Batch reports provide a record of the day’s postings to verify the accuracy of the postings and retain the reports as a permanent audit trail. If your system is set up for auto-posting, when you release batches the information is moved to a general ledger batch. The Auto Post parameter is set in the (L2) G/L Master Numbers screen. For more information, refer to General Ledger. Order Entry batches are printed and released along with accounts receivable batches. These batches are printed and released in the (O) A/R Report Selector screen. For more information, see the Reports Menu.
Printing the Exception Report: The Exception Report provides a record of actions that may conflict with company policy, such as price overrides. Print this report after you have flushed invoices to the sales journal. For more information about this report, see the Reports Menu.
Printing the Daily Invoice Register: The Daily Invoice Register lists the day’s invoices and lists a total dollar amount for the day’s sales. This report must be printed before invoices are flushed to the sales journal. For more information about this report, see the Reports Menu.
Flushing Invoices to the Sales Journal (The (MA) Procedure): At the end of each day, you must flush invoiced (status B) items from the active order entry file (P-MASTER) to the sales journal (JOUR-S). This is commonly referred to as the (MA) procedure because it is performed using the [A] Execute Daily Backup Procedure action code in the (M) Operational Backup Procedures screen. Specials for invoiced line items are flushed from the file that contains order entry notes (P-SPECIAL) to the JO-SPECIAL file, if you specified Y in the Archive Specials field in the (LGØ) Order Entry Parameters screen. This is done automatically when you flush invoices to the sales journal. Flushing invoices to the sales journal serves these purposes: It reduces the size of the P-MASTER, SHORT-BUYS, and RECEIPTS files. It separates invoiced items from items on open orders. This lets you report on invoiced sales and open orders separately. It assigns a valid invoice date. When an invoice is flushed to the sales journal, it becomes the system date. It writes changes to each of the files depending on your response in the Update Manual "E" Screen Item # Change To Other Files During "MA" field in the (LE1) Inventory Parameters (Cont') screen. To flush invoices to the sales journal, you go to the (M) Operational Backup Procedures screen and select the [A] Execute Daily Backup Procedures action code. The invoices are flushed to the JOUR-S file, and the P-MASTER, P-SPECIAL, RECEIPTS, and SHORT-BUYS files are compressed.
Printing the Open Pick Report: The Open Pick Report shows each customer pick ticket stored in the file P-MASTER. This report should be printed after completing the (MA) procedure so that only open orders show on the report. This helps you determine the status of your open orders. For example, pick tickets with status 1 items were unable to print and should be printed. For instructions on printing the Open Pick Report, see the Reports Menu.
Printing the Lost Sales Report: This report shows sales that were lost due to an order for out-of-stock merchandise from a customer who does not accept backorders. A lost sale is included on this report if the following is true: The order is for a customer with an X in the B/O box in the Customer Order Entry tab. Or, the order writer types Y at the message for zeroing backordered quantities. The Lost Sales Report must be printed after completing the (MA) procedure. For information on printing this report, see the Reports Menu.
Month End Procedures
The following procedures must be performed at the close of each month. The month-end procedures let you rename the sales journal, JOUR-S, so it only contains sales information for the current month. You must also rename JO-TENDER, which contains journalized tender information for all point-of-sale instructions.
Renaming JOUR-S: You rename the JOUR-S file in the (Z) System Utilities screen using the [F7] Rename a file function. Make sure that the name indicates the month and the year. For example, the journal for April 2000 could be renamed 04-00.
Renaming JO-SUMMARY: If you use summary invoice billing, you must rename JO-SUMMARY. The first two characters that you rename this file must be identical to the first two characters of the renamed JOUR-S file. For example, if the renamed sales journal is 04-00, you could rename JO-SUMMARY to 04-SUM.
Renaming JO-GLOBAL: If you use summary invoice billing, you must rename JO-GLOBAL. The first two characters that you rename this file must be identical to the first two characters of the renamed JOUR-S file. For example, if the renamed sales journal is 04-00, you could rename JO-GLOBAL to 04-GLOBAL.
Renaming JO-LINE: Rename the file JO-LINE using the instructions described under the heading Renaming JOUR-S. For example, if you renamed the sales journal 04-00, rename JO-LINE to 04-LINE.
Renaming JO-SPECIAL: If you archive specials, rename the file JO-SPECIAL. Make sure the first two characters of the renamed JO-SPECIAL file match the first two characters of the renamed sales journal. For example, if you renamed the sales journal 04-00, rename JO-SPECIAL to 04-SPECIAL.
Renaming JO-INDEX: If you choose to build an index for the sales journal and save that index at month-end, rename the index using the first two characters of the renamed sales journal. For example, if you renamed the sales journal 04-00, rename JO-INDEX to 04-INDEX.
Renaming JO-TENDER: Rename the file JO-TENDER. Make sure that the first two characters of the renamed JO-TENDER file match the first two characters of the renamed sales journal. For example, if you renamed the sales journal 04-00, rename JO-TENDER to 04-TENDER.
Renaming JO-CRINDEX: The file JO-CRINDEX contains all of the orders in your system in customer name and item number order. Make sure that the first two characters of the renamed JO-CRINDEX file match the first two characters of the renamed journal. For example, if you renamed the sales journal 04-00, rename JO-CRINDEX to 04-CRINDEX.
Renaming JO-POINDEX: If you set the Create Customer P/O Index File field in the (LGA) Sales Journals screen to Y, rename the JO-POINDEX file. For example, if you renamed the sale journal 04-00, rename the file JO-POINDEX to 04-POINDEX.
Printing Month-End Sales Reports: Print the Sales Analysis by Salesperson, Sales Tax, and Customer Monthly Usage reports at month-end. For details, see the Reports Menu.
Quarter-End Procedures
At the close of each quarter, print the Quarterly Customer Usage Report. For instructions, see the Reports Menu.
Year-End Procedures
At the close of each year, print the Stock Catalog Report and sort it by hits. You can limit the report between 1 and 9999 hits. This report shows which items are ordered most frequently. This helps you decide which items to stock.
For instructions on printing this report, refer to the Stock Catalog Report in the Reports Menu.