Retail Solutions

How Do I Generate a Purchase Order For a Special Order Item On a Sales Order In POS?

Chief Mechanic · August 26, 2010 ·

To generate the purchase order (PO) for a special order item on a sales order in POS, start with the list view of sales orders by clicking on the Sales Order button in the POS toolbar.

This article is part of a related series of articles covering adding a new sales order with a special order item, generating a purchase order for that item and emailing it to the vendor, receiving the special order item into inventory, and recording the sale or shipment.

From the list view, click Generate PO on the I Want To… menu. Note that the buttons visible on the toolbar are configurable, so you may need to modify your toolbar to see the Receive Items button.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Generate Purchase Order

In the Generate PO window, enter either Doc Qty (i. e., a portion of the quantity required for this sales order in the event you want to order a partial quantity of an item) or click Select All to order the full quantity of all items required to fill this sales order. Enter any Customer Order Instructions and click Continue.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Generate Purchase Order 2

You’ll be given the opportunity to see a list of the PO’s created, print them, or email them directly to vendors. In our example article, we opted not to enter the Order Cost when adding the special order item to a new sales order. This is a common occurrence in a retail setting, where the Order Cost may not be readily available when entering a customer’s order. It also may be more appropriate to review product costs after hours or without delaying the customer. If an accurate Order Cost wasn’t entered when the special order item was created, do not email the PO at this point – it doesn’t contain accurate cost information. Instead, deselect this option and revise the purchase order.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Generate Purchase Order 3

To edit the PO, double click on it in the list of outstanding PO’s. Enter an accurate Order Cost (also displayed simply as Cost) for this item, along with any other required changes, and click Close. With the correct costs, we’re now in a position to transmit this PO to the vendor. From the PO list, select the PO and click the E-mail button. POS will invoke your default email client with the PO attached in PDF format, and you’ll have a chance to add to the default message.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Generate Purchase Order 4

We’ve now placed our customer’s special order with the vendor. Once the special order item has been delivered to us or directly to the customer, we’ll need to receive it into inventory and record the sale to the customer upon delivery.

When processing PO’s from POS, you can generate multiple PO’s for a single customer order. POS reduces the Due quantity on the sales order by the quantity already delivered. The PO number that POS generates combine an order type prefix (such as SO for Sales Order), the order number, and a counter for that that order type and order number. In our example, the PO we generated was the first PO (the counter) for Sales Order (the order type) number 1 (the order number), so the PO # was SO11. While reviewing a customer’s sales order, you can view the PO’s for that sales order by clicking on View POs from the I Want To… menu.

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How Do I Add a Special Order Item To a Sales Order In POS?

Chief Mechanic · August 26, 2010 ·

To add a special order item to a sales order in POS, start with the sales order open.

For this example, we’ll open a new sales order by clicking on the Sales Order button in the POS toolbar, followed by the New SO button. The menu selection Point of Sale->New Sales Order also works. Note that the buttons visible on the toolbar are configurable, so you may need to modify your toolbar to see the Receive Items button.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order New Special Order Item

Next, click on the New Special Order Item on the I Want To… menu, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F9.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order New Special Order Item Information

At a minimum, select a Dept Name and an Item Name on the Item Info tab. Price & Cost fields such as Regular Price and Order Cost can be entered, but they’re not required. Since this is a special order item, we can assume we don’t have the item in stock, so we don’t want to enter any values for Average Unit Cost or On Hand Quantity. These fields will be updated when we ultimately receive the special order item into inventory. Add any required information on the Additional Info and Custom tabs.

Before saving this special order item, keep in mind that the data entered for Order Cost will influence how we process purchase orders for this item in related tasks. POS can automatically generate a purchase order for this item using this cost and email that purchase order to the vendor. However, many retailers opt not to enter an Order Cost at this point. Checking accurate Order Costs may delay completing the customer’s order, and it may be more appropriate to review cost information after hours. If you elect not to enter an Order Cost at this point, it’s important to change any purchase order generated before it’s transmitted to the vendor. For this example, we’ll opt to enter an Order Cost of $0 – something we know is inaccurate. We’ll change it in later steps.

To proceed to add this new special order item to the sales order, click Save and Select.

In our example, we assigned a Regular Price of $100 to this special order item, and our customer is ordering 1 of them. Choose the customer for this sales order in the Customer Info section in the lower left of the POS screen, and click Save & Print or Save Only to save the order.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order New Special Order Item Take Payment

With the sales order saved, POS will display a list view of current sales orders. Since this is a special order item, company policies may require taking a deposit from the customer. Select the sales order from the list and choose Take Deposit/Payment from the I Want To… menu to open the Take Deposit window.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order Take Deposit

In our example, we’ll take a deposit for the full amount of $100.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order Take Deposit 2

Clicking Ok will open the Receipt Payment window. Enter the Amount Tendered for the customer’s payment method, and click Accept Payment to activate the Save and Save & Print Receipt buttons.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Receipt Payment

After recording the deposit, which in this case was payment in full, POS displays the Balance Due for the Sales Order when it’s edited or viewed.

QuickBooks Point of Sale 8 Sales Order Take Deposit 3

We’ve now completed the customer portion of taking a sales order for a special order item, but there are other steps to complete this sale. We need to order the special item from our vendor, receive it into inventory, and finally record the sale to the customer upon delivery.

Some POS users prefer to edit the description of an existing item instead of adding a new special order item as demonstrated in this article. Edits to an item don’t affect the item itself; they’re only reflected on the particular receipt on which they’re entered. The principal advantage of this approach is that it avoids adding new items. Nevertheless, we don’t like this approach. On Hand Quantities and Average Unit Costs stay with the original item itself. Since by definition this is a special item, cost may be different from the existing item, and we may mistakenly think that the order can be filled from stock on hand. If the item is an item with a lot of transaction activity, the details of this special order will quickly disappear. Finally, a headquarters store can convert special order items into regular items if there’s a good business reason to do so. Quickly identifying a special order item that is growing in popularity is much harder if the receipt began as an edited existing item. Given the simplicity of adding special order items to a receipt, we recommend you use the approach outlined here.

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How Do I Record the Sale of a Special Order Item On a Sales Order In POS?

Chief Mechanic · August 26, 2010 ·

To record a sale of a special order item on a sales order in POS, start with the list view of sales orders.

To display the list of open sales orders, click Customer Order List button on the POS Navigator and choose Sales Order List from the menu. You can also access open sales orders by clicking on the Sales Order button on the toolbar. Note that the buttons visible on the toolbar are configurable, so you may need to modify your toolbar to see the Sales Order button.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Make Sale Navigator

From the list view of sales orders, choose Sell Item(s) from the I Want To… menu or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F7.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Sell Item 1

On the Select Items to Sell window, you can record the sale of the entire order by clicking Select All or just a portion of it. Partial shipments are accomplished by entering a Doc.Qty less than the Due quantity for some or all of the items. The order shown below has only 1 line item. Enter either the Doc.Qty for each line or click the Select All button, followed by Continue. For sales orders with many lines where a sale is being recorded for complete delivery of most but not all line items, it’s easier to select all the items first and then change the Doc.Qty only on those lines receiving partial shipments. If shipment quantities aren’t correct on this window, you’ll have an opportunity to change them before completing the sale.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Sell Item Select Item

In the New Sales Receipt window, you can add additional items to this sale, edit or remove the existing items, and record shipping information. On the Shipping window, you can choose from multiple shipping addresses already on file or add a new one. Address changes can optionally update the customer’s information or be used on this order only.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Sell Item Shipping

Once a shipping address is selected, enter the Shipping Details and click Ok.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Sell Item Shipping 2

When we return to the sales receipt, shipping information and the sales receipt total are updated. In this example, we opted not to add shipping charges, because the customer has previously placed a deposit to pay for the sales order in full. The Total reflected on this screen does not reflect the amount unpaid after taking into account deposits, even deposits already applied to this sales order. It’s the total of the sale before deposits are deducted. If we did added additional shipping charges to this receipt, we’ll have an opportunity to collect payment for them as well as apply the customer’s deposit at this point. Click the Take Payment button.

In the Receipt Payment window, the $100 deposit received with the original sales order is shown. That deposit pays for the order in full. If we had caused the sales order to exceed the original deposit by adding additional items, changing order quantities or prices, or adding shipping charges, we could collect and enter payment. If there were no changes to the original sales order and the application of the deposit is correct, click Save or Save & Print Receipt.

QuickBooks POS 8 Sales Order Sell Item Receipt Payment

That completes the process of recording the sale of a special order item in QuickBooks POS.

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What’s the Best Way To Track Affiliate Sales in POS?

Chief Mechanic · August 26, 2010 ·

Sales by affiliates are an increasingly common phenomenon, especially in online sales. Typically, these sales need to be tracked much like sales by a commissioned salesperson, both to monitor the commission to be paid to the affiliate and to track the effectiveness of that marketing channel.

We recommend using 1 of 2 methods to track affiliate sales in POS:

Define the affiliate as an employee
Enter a Promo Code for the affiliate on receipts and sales orders

Our recommended approach is to define the affiliate as an employee and enter that employee code in the Associate field on each receipt and sales order. This is analogous to recording a sales rep on a transaction. Although POS doesn’t use the Sales Rep from QuickBooks financial, software, using an employee code in this fashion serves a similar purpose.

Both of these approaches allow you to track affiliate sales by using the built-in reporting features of POS.

Method 1 – Define the Affiliate as an Employee

To track affiliate sales by defining the affiliate as an employee, keep in mind that employee data is not shared between QuickBooks financial software and POS. Also, an employee (or Associate on the New Sales Receipt window) is not the same as a Cashier. To define a new employee, click Employees->Employee List, followed by the New Employee button. Enter an employee for each affiliate whose sales you want to track.

One important consideration in using an employee code to track affiliate sales is to accurately record the Commission %. If a single affiliate gets a different Commission % for different sales, you’ll need to enter multiple employee codes for that affiliate. When you record receipts or sales orders, you’ll need to enter only those items on that receipt or order that receive that commission rate, since you can only enter one employee code (or Associate) on a receipt or sales order. Moreover, the Commission % only applies to receipts and sales orders recorded after the Commission % is recorded. If you record a Commission % of 0.00 (which is the default), POS won’t calculate any commissions on receipts or sales orders until you change it, and then it will only apply to new transactions, not those already entered. If there’s a change in the commission for your affiliate, it’s important to update the affiliate’s employee record immediately on the effective date of the change, before new transactions are entered so that your commission reports are accurate.

The commissions that POS calculates aren’t shared with QuickBooks financial software, so you’ll have to use POS reports as an aid to record commission expense in QuickBooks financial software on your own.

QuickBooks Point of Sale Employees New 2

During transaction entry, enter the employee code for the affiliate responsible for this transaction in the Associate field. Because the employee code is selected from a pre-defined pull-down menu, there’s less chance for data entry error. However, POS can’t require entry of an employee in the Associate field, so there’s some risk that all affiliate sales data won’t be captured.

QuickBooks Point of Sale Make Sale Employee

There are a variety of built-in reports showing sales by employee found on the Reports->Employees menu, and these readily lend themselves to reporting on affiliate sales. In addition to reports, POS offers a basic pie chart showing the sales contribution of employees.

QuickBooks Point of Sale Employee Sales Report

Method 2 – Enter a Promo Code for the Affiliate on Receipts and Sales Orders

To track affiliate sales by entering a Promo Code on each receipt and sales order, just enter the code for each affiliate in the Promo Code box.

QuickBooks Point of Sale Make Sale Promo Code

Optionally, to insure affiliate sales data are properly captured, consider requiring a Promo Code on receipts and sales orders by checking the Sales preference Require a Promotional Code on receipts and customer orders on the Edit->Preferences->Company menu.

QuickBooks POS 8 Company Preferences Promo Code

Using a Promo Code can be an effective way to capture and report on affiliate sales because of the availability of an off-the-shelf report on sales by Promo Code. To generate the report, click on the Reports->Sales->General Sales – Promo Code Summary menu.

QuickBooks POS 8 Reports Menu Promo Code Summary

Here’s that report:

QuickBooks POS 8 Promo Code Summary Report

The drawbacks to using a Promo Code to track affiliate sales are twofold. First, Promo Codes are not defined and selected from a list, so extra care needs to be taken to consistently use the same code and avoid data entry errors. Secondly, if a Promo Code isn’t required, there’s a chance it will be omitted from a receipt or sales order inadvertently. On the other hand, if a Promo Code is required and affiliate sales aren’t a large portion of transactions, there’s an extra step in transaction entry that otherwise wouldn’t be required on the majority of transactions.

We recommend defining each affiliate as an employee to capture affiliate sales. It’s more reliable, and there are better reporting tools. However, for firms that don’t want to include affiliates on employee lists, using a Promo Code is a workable alternative.

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What Data Is Exchanged Between POS and QuickBooks Financial Software?

Chief Mechanic · August 25, 2010 ·

When you enable the company preference Use with QuickBooks Financial Software on the Edit->Preferences->Company->Financial menu, certain information is exchanged between POS and QuickBooks financial software.

POS 8 Company Preferences Use QuickBooks

Exchanges take place by initiating the exchange from POS by clicking on the menu Financial->Update QuickBooks.

The results of a successful exchange are shown below.

The Financial Exchange window summarizes what has been exchanged.

Some information is exchanged in both directions:

customer information excluding account balances
active vendor information

Once POS is installed and running, inventory transactions are managed in POS. Therefore, most information exchanges occur from POS to QuickBooks. These exchanges are:

customer payments
cash register payouts
sales and order deposits
receiving vouchers
financial impact of inventory adjustments
freight charges on inventory transfers between stores (POS Pro Multi-store)
time clock records (POS Pro)

To provide the ability for management to record some transactions that affect account balances and change customer credit limits, QuickBooks financial software exchanges this information to POS:

customer account balances
customer credit limits

Certain information is not exchanged in either direction:

inventory items and quantities after the initial import from QuickBooks financial software to POS
employees
employee commissions and tips
purchase orders

This information is summarized in this Intuit knowledge base article.

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