Background:

 

Any system that provides tracking of deliverables has some common functionality and capabilities, as follows:

 

a. The ability to enter a record for the deliverable

b.  The ability to identify the recipient of the deliverable

c.  The ability to assign the deliverable to operational groups or individuals

d.  The ability to track status and progress as the deliverable progresses

e.  The ability to change assignments

f.  The ability to get summaries of pending deliverables by assignment

g. The ability to close the deliverable once the job is done

h. The ability to maintain a history of all “done” deliverables

           

Several companies have introduced software systems that provide this basic functionality in a single module.  It then becomes a business and a technology problem to interface all this data into a billing and financial system.  We believe that we have all the major functionality in the Order Processing module to perform job tracking and since it is already has billing information, the integration of data is a non-issue.

 

To compare the list above, with how we would use order processing to accomplish the same, you would:

• Create an order

•  Identify the customer on the order

• Set the department and/or salesperson on the order

• Use internally created “labor”items to track status

• Change the department and/or salesperson as necessary

• Print an open order status report by department/salesperson

• Invoice the order

• Order and item histories

 

The other advantage of following a procedure like this is to reduce the likelihood of having open, un-invoiced orders in the system.  As you know, any order that is not invoiced, adversely affects the bottom-line. 

 

The following procedure is one way of accomplishing this.  The process can then be fine-tune to make it applicable to your environment.  It is only when order volume strains the following process, that we believe the Job Tracking module should be used.

 

Procedure:

 

1.  Create operational departments:

 

In Order Entry, add departments that represent the major operational areas, such as areas you want to track.

 

For example:

 

    a.       Digital Imaging 

    b.      Digital Printing 

    c.       Mounting/Laminating    

    d.      Delivery                                    

 

 

Note: as a suggestion, it might be a good idea, when creating the departments, to sequence the department numbers to represent the same order that you will sequence jobs through the system.  For example, using the above example:

 

    a.       Digital Imaging  11

    b.      Digital Printing  12

    c.       Mounting/Laminating 13

    d.      Delivery 14

 

 

To add new department numbers, go to:

• Order Processing (Module 6)
  • System Management Functions (Task 32)
    • Modify Application Tables (Subtask 17)
      • Available Departments (Option 14)

 

Also see:

                ·        Available Warehouse/Dept. Combinations (Option 15)

And

                ·        Default Terminal Warehouse/Dept’s (Option 7)

 

2. Create Tracking Labor Items:

 

In the Inventory Master, create labor items that represent time tracking of the jobs.  Use an item prefix that represents internal tracking such as "INT".

For example:  "INT_TIME TRACKING"

with a description of: "LABOR _ Internal TIME TRACKING"

 

Ensure that the cost and price of this item is $0.00.  The item should be billed in units of time.

 

 

3. Maintain an accurate Salesperson/Technician File:

 

If you intend to manage the workflow of jobs by Salesperson, you need to maintain an accurate salesperson/technician file using:

• Order Processing (Module 6)

o       Salesperson/Technician File (Task 20)

 

 

4. Enter the Order:

 

Enter orders as usual in Order Entry.  However, now, make sure that the department number in the front screen is the department that is supposed to work on the order.

 

At this point, you can also enter the responsible Technician's number on the Salesperson field (# 5).   This step is not necessary if you want to manage the workflow by department as opposed to individual.

 

When the order is opened, a "Promise Date" can be entered on the Shipping Screen of the order.

           

 

5. Time Tracking:

 

Use the item number created above to enter and record the time spent on the order.  Since this is a "zero" cost and price item, it does not affect the overall revenue collected on the item.  However, individuals can use this to track progress of the job and record actual time usage for costing purposes.

 

Use memos to describe actual efforts in accomplishing the tasks on a job.

 

 

6. Departmental/Individual Workflow:

 

Once a particular department is done performing its tasks on a job, the chief technician/supervisor of the department changes the department on the front screen to the next department in the flow of the job in the system, thus assigning it to that department.

 

Note:  If work is being tracked by the individual, then the order should be assigned to another technician by changing the "Salesperson" number on the order.

 

When a job is complete, the order is invoiced.

 

 

7. Management Reporting:

 

Once jobs are in the system, it is imperative that an operations manager be able to get a snapshot of the state-of-operations.  For this function, we recommend using:

• Order Processing (Module 6)
  • Open Order Status Reports (Task 9)
    • Open order Status Report by Sales Person/Department

(Sub-task 3 – ORDSTS)

 

 

This report was recently enhanced to list open orders by department.  This report asks for a lot of parameters.  The key parameters to look for are:

• Department Range

If you create contiguous department numbers, as explained in Step #1, you can give a range of department numbers for this report.

 

• Salesperson Number
• Promise Date
• Item Details/memos

 

 

Recent Enhancements to Order Processing

The following enhancements to Order Processing have been made to make the above flow usable:

 

1. The Open Order Status by Salesperson/Department  (ORDSTS) report can now display open orders by department.

 

2.  Suppress printing internal tracking numbers on invoices by using a pre-defined range of item number prefixes.  This way the "INT_TIME TRACKING" item, used in the example, will not print on the customers invoice.  However, the item will still go into the Item History File.  Look in Module 6, Task 32, Sub-task 22, Option 1 for the following parameter:

BEG'PREFIX1=INT                  

END'PREFIX1=INT   

 

3. Display of item memo notes from the History files. 

• Order Processing (Module 6)
  • History Inquiry (Task 26)

Administrative Notes:

 

If this scheme disrupts payment of commissions due to reassignment of the orders to other individuals, it is important to have the correct salesperson's assigned to the order at the time of invoicing.

 

If departmental codes are used for financial reporting, the same is true for departments, i.e. ensure that the department code at time of invoicing is the correct one.  For this purpose, you could structure department codes in a hierarchical manner as shown in the following examples:

 

Digital Dept. 10

 

            Digital Imaging 11

            Digital Printing 12

            Mounting Lamination    13

            Delivery 14

 

Service Dept. 20

 

            Diagnosis    21

            Configuration 22

            Installation   23

 

At the time of invoicing, you have to make sure that the order has the "parent" department code. 

 

Additionally, as mentioned above, you can set certain defaults by terminal so that the order entry process is expedited.

 

Please note that the enhancement related to the suppression of printing of certain items from the order is available at no cost if you are using the standard or plain paper order form.  If you are currently using a custom order form, a custom programming charge may apply to avail of this functionality.