Sales
The sales overview and the lists of customers, requests, quotes, orders and returns, plus the price lists and rules every sale follows.
Sales is where you keep your customers and every sale that is priced before it happens: a request for a price, the quote you send back, the order the customer confirms and any return that follows. Bulk propane deliveries do not go through a sales order; each delivery ticket is written straight onto an invoice (see Deliveries). Use Sales for the sales you price and confirm ahead of time, such as a tank set, cylinders, appliances, parts or service work.
How to read the sales overview when you open Sales
The overview shows three totals across the top: Open RFQs (requests for a price not yet answered), Open Quotes and Open Sales Orders, each with a link to its list. Below them a chart shows sales revenue, the number of requests, quotes and orders, or the sales funnel from request to order, over the date range you pick. You can narrow the chart to one customer or all customers, and Export CSV from the chart's menu.
Recently Created lists the newest requests, quotes and orders with their status and customer. Assigned to Me lists the ones assigned to you.
How to find a sales document when you know roughly what it is
Use the left-hand menu under Manage:
| menu item | what it lists | guide |
|---|---|---|
| Customers | every customer record | Customers |
| RFQs | requests for a price from customers | Requests for quote |
| Quotes | priced offers you have sent or are preparing | Quotes |
| Orders | confirmed sales orders | Sales orders |
| Returns | return authorizations (the list is headed RMAs, for return merchandise authorizations) | Returns |
Each list can be searched, filtered by column and sorted, and a filter stays in the page address so you can share it.
How to set prices for a customer or a group of customers when prices differ from your list price
Open Price Lists under Configure. A price list entry fixes the price of one item, with optional quantity breaks, for one of three scopes: one customer, one customer type, or all customers. When several apply, the customer's own price wins over the customer type's, which wins over the all-customers price, which wins over the item's base price. For each entry you choose whether your pricing rules still apply on top (Apply pricing rules), and you can limit it to a date range with Valid From and Valid To.
To copy one customer's or one type's prices to another, use duplicate from the price list and choose what happens to items the target already prices (If items already exist: skip or overwrite).
How to add a discount or markup when it applies to many items or customers
Open Pricing Rules under Configure and create a rule:
- Choose Rule Type: a discount lowers the price, a markup raises it.
- Choose Amount Type: a percentage or a fixed amount, then the Amount.
- Limit the rule, if needed, to certain Customers or Customer Types, certain Items or an Item Group, a Min Qty and Max Qty, and a Valid From to Valid To window.
- Leave Active on. An inactive rule is kept for the record but never applied.
When more than one discount matches a line, only the one with the highest priority applies. Markups all apply, one after another in priority order. Every priced line records how its price was reached, so you can open the price trace on a line to see each step.
How to stop a sale that must not happen when an item or customer needs a check
Open Sales Rules under Configure. A sales rule checks each line put on a quote, a sales order or a sales invoice against a condition you write, for example that a restricted item is never sold to a customer of a certain type. Give the rule a Name, a Description, the condition under Rule, and choose whether a failure blocks the line or only warns and lets the person continue. Then assign the rule to the items it covers. Rules are checked again at every commitment point, when a quote is finalized, converted to an order, an order is confirmed, a shipment is posted and an invoice is posted, so a line that slipped in another way is still caught.
How to give a customer a page to watch their orders when they ask for status
Open Portals under Configure and create a portal for the customer. Each portal has its own private link, which you copy and send to the customer contact. The page needs no login and shows only that customer's sales orders: their reference number, status, buyer, order date, due date, item, quantity complete and quantity shipped. Anyone holding the link can open it, so send it only to the right person.
How to set up the lists sales documents choose from when you start using Sales
Under Configure:
- No Quote Reasons: why you declined to price a request or a line.
- Return Reasons: why goods came back, shared with supplier returns.
- Statuses: the customer statuses you track. A new company starts with Active, Inactive, Lead, On Hold and Cancelled.
- Types: customer types, used by price lists, pricing rules and sales rules to price or check a whole group at once. None are set up to begin with; add the groups you price differently, for example residential and commercial.
Where this fits
- A delivery of bulk propane becomes an invoice directly; see Deliveries.
- Invoices for sales orders and their payments are in Invoicing.
- Goods for a sales order leave on a shipment.
- What each customer owes is on Accounts.