Set Up Order Fulfillment

In this process, you will be setting up Connected Business for order fulfillment.

You can set up a workflow for you sales order processing routine if you require paperwork or you want to eliminate them based on your system of fulfillment.

If using a system of fulfillment, you may create a sales order “workflow” and require printing of the necessary control documents e.g. picking tickets and packing notes.

For businesses that does not require these documents or are offering services instead of goods, you may choose to eliminate the unnecessary steps in the order process e.g. enter orders directly to an invoice.

At the end of this session, users will set up their order workflow, set up the payment gateways, and shipping carriers for real-time freight calculation.

 

Set Up Order Workflow

Turn on Credit Checking

To complete this task, do the following:

Enable / Disable Credit Checking

1. Go to Customer Module > Setup > Preferences > Preferences to bring up the Preferences form.
   
   
2. In the Sales Order Process section, check the option: Require Credit Approval.
   
   
3. Click Ok to apply the changes. If effect, sales orders will be subject for credit approval before it can be processed into an invoice.
   

Approve Credit

1. When credit checking is enabled, orders will be set aside in a For Credit Approval List every time a customer orders beyond his credit limit. To approve the sales orders, go to Customer Module > Order > Approve Credit. Here you will find orders that are for credit approval.
   
   
2. The person who will grant the approval will have to pick the order from this list and click Ok to move the sales order into the next stage in the order workflow (e.g. print picking note or convert to invoice).

Require Printing of Control Documents

To complete this task, do the following:

Require Printing of Picking Notes

1. Go to the Customer Module > Setup > Preferences > Preferences to bring up the Preferences form.
   
   
2. In the Sales Order Process section, check the option: Require picking note.
   
   
3. Click Ok to apply the changes. In effect, sales orders will be subject for printing of picking tickets and other control documents before processing into an invoice.

Print Picking Notes, Packing Lists and Sales Order Acknowledgements

1. When printing picking tickets is required, the person who will forward the picking note to the inventory personnel will have to print the picking ticket and to move the sales order to the next stage in the order workflow (e.g. convert to invoice).
   
   
2. All orders are set aside in a list of “For Picking Note Printing”. There are 3 ways to print picking ticket documents:
   1. Print directly from the sales order – from the Sales Order form, click on the Print option to display the Print Dialog window. Then, choose the report type from the list, in this case, the Picking Note. Then choose a printing destination (e.g. printer or file). Then, click Print.
      
      
   2. Print by selecting from a list of For Picking Ticket Printing – Go to Customer Module> Order > Print Picking Note. You will find sales order listed by allocated / unallocated and unprinted / printed picking notes. Select the sales order from the list to bring up the Print Dialog window.
      
      
   3. Filter orders to pick by delivery date, delivery route, fill rate, or customer ranking – Go to Customer Module > Order > Picking Ticket. The Picking Ticket window will display.
      
      
3. Once printed, the sales order will be moved to the next stage in the order process, “Ready to Invoice”. At this point, you can:
   1. Print packing lists (optional) – to print packing lists, go to the Customer Module > Order > Packing Lists. You will find sales orders listed by unprinted / printed packing lists. Select the sales order from the list to bring up the Print Dialog window. You can do this alternatively from the print options of Sales Order form.
      
      
   2. Send the order acknowledgement (optional) – to print or send sales order acknowledgement, go to the Customer Module > Order > Sales Order Acknowledgement. You will find sales orders listed by unprinted / printed sales order acknowledgements. Select the sales order from the list to bring up the Print Dialog window. You can do this alternatively from the print options of the Sales Order form.
      
      
   3. Convert the order to invoice – to convert the sales order to invoice, click on the Convert to Invoice option from the toolbar options of the Sales Order form.

Turn Off Printing of Control Documents

To complete this task, do the following:

Print Packing Notes

1. Go to the Customer Module > Setup > Preferences > Preferences to bring up the Preferences form.
   
   
2. In the Process Sales Order section, uncheck the option: Require picking notes
   
   
3. Click Ok to apply the changes. In effect, all sales orders will have a “Ready to Invoice” stage and are ready to be converted into an invoice.

Skip the Sales Order Process ad Go Straight to Creating Invoices

1. Go to the Customer Module > Invoice > New Invoice.
   
   
2. Select a customer from the Ship To Customers or Bill To Customers list to bring up a blank Invoice form.
   
   
3. From here, you can enter the customer orders directly without having to create a separate sales order document.

Set Up Credit Card Gateways

If accepting credit card payments, you will need to set up your payment gateways and assign them to your payment terms particularly credit cards and to your web store if selling and accepting payments online.

Create New Credit Card Type

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Define accepted payment cards (e.g. Visa, Mastercard). Go to Banking Module > Setup > Credit Card Type to bring up the Credit Card Type form.
   
   
2. Add the new credit card type. Save and Close when done.

Configure Payment Gateways

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Configure payment gateways (e.g. Interprise Gateway, Paypal). Go to Banking Module > Setup > Credit Card Gateway.
   
   
2. Select from list of supported gateways to configure (e.g. Paypal).
   
   
3. Key in your account information obtained from when you registered for a merchant account with one of Connected Business’ supported payment gateways. Below lists all the supported gateways and the values that you need to fill in.
   
   Gateway: Authorize.net
   
   

   Fields	Values
   API Login	e.g. 3se3RTq5x
   Allow Sale	Yes / No
   Test Mode	Yes / No
   Test URL	Live / Test
   Transaction Key	e.g. 7K4283mEff58DxGe
   Secret Hash	-
   Click here to sign up for an Authorize.net account.

   
   
   
4. If linking your credit card reader port to accept onsite card payments, you will need to get an Interprise Gateway v2 merchant account. If using the Interprise Suite Gateway and linking your credit card reader port, key in the account login and password and enter the card reader’s port number.
   
   

   Only Interprise Gateway supports linking to card readers that will allow you to accept credit card payments onsite.

   To sign up for an Interprise Gateway v2 account, please call or send an email to:

   PERRY C. TATOOLES, Director of External Sales / Corporate Training
   TRANSNATIONAL BANKCARD, LLC
   Phone: 1-847-655-1329
   Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

5. If you want to process card payments without calling a live gateway or through another back-end payment processing solutions, use the Manual gateway.
   
   Gateway: Manual
   
   

   Fields	Values
   Allow Sale	Yes / No
   This is a special gateway that you can use to process payments from your website but do not charge the customer or call to any live gateway. Use this gateway if you want to – test your site end to end before going live, process customer payments offline, or charge the customer through a back-end processing solution.

Define Payment Types and Assign Payment Gateways

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go to the Banking Module > Setup > Payment > Payment Type to bring up the Payment Type form.
   
   
2. You will find a list of default payment types. You can modify or add to these payment types as you may need.
   
   
3. Gateways are used mainly for credit card payments and so we will assign the gateways to any of the card payment types (e.g. Credit Card, External System Card Payment and Google/Paypal/Other).
   
   
4. In this example, we will modify the “Credit Card” payment type and assign a payment gateway.
   
   
5. In the Detail tab, select the merchant account you set up previously from the Merchant Login field. The Credit Card Gateway fielddisplays the gateway type of the selected merchant account.
   

   If you use multiple payment gateways, you can create a payment type for each merchant account you use and append the gateway type (e.g. Authorize.net) to the payment type name [e.g. Credit Card (Credit Card – Authorize.net)] to easily recognize the gateway assigned to the payment type.

6. Save and close when done.

Assign Payment Types to Payment Terms

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go to the Banking Module > Setup > Payment > Payment Term to bring up the Payment Term form.
   
   
2. You will find a list of default payment terms. You can modify or add to these payment terms as you may need.
   
   
3. We will now assign the payment type we modified earlier to the payment term. In this example, we will assign the “Credit Card” payment type to the “Credit Card” payment term. In the Detail tab, select the payment type you set up previously from the Payment Type field.
   
   

   If you use multiple payment types with different payment gateways assigned to each, you can create new payment terms and append the gateway type (e.g. Authorize.net) to the payment term name [e.g. Credit Card (Credit Card – Authorize.net)] to easily recognize the gateway assigned to the payment term.

4. Save and close when done.

Assign Payment Terms to Customers

To complete this task, do the following:

Change the Payment Terms Assigned to Existing Customers

1. Go to Customer Module > Customer > Find Customers to bring up a list of existing customers.
   
   
2. Switch to the Ship To Customers tab to see the list of customer shipping addresses. Select a customer shipping address to bring up the Ship To Detail form.
   
   
3. Select the payment term you modified in the Payment Term field.
   
   
4. Save and close when done.

Change the Default Payment Terms Assigned to New Customers

1. Go to the Customer Module > Setup > Ship To Class Template to bring up the Ship To Class Template form.
   
   
2. Select the ship to class template to modify (e.g. Default Ship To Class Template for Storefront Customers).
   
   
3. Select the payment term you modified in the Payment Term field.
   
   
4. Save and close when done.

Set Up Shipping Carriers and Shipping Labels

If using shipping carriers for real‐time freight calculation, you can set up your shipping carrier merchant account in Connected Business to fetch real-time shipping rates and print package labels. Connected Business supports all the carrier services of the following carriers – UPS, Fedex, and USPS. Connected Business also includes a special carrier – Manual, that can be used to test the shipping process free of charge, process shipping offline or through other back-end systems.

Configure Shipping Carrier Plugins

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Carrier Plugin.
   
2. Key in your shipper account information that you obtained from the shipping carrier.

Configure Carrier-Specific and Shipping Defaults and Settings

To complete this task, do the following:

Configure Carrier-Specific Settings

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Shipping Configuration to bring up the Shipping Configuration form.
   • Carrier-specific Defaults – to filter configurations specific to a carrier e.g. default packaging type by entering the carrier name e.g. "Fedex" or "UPS" in the search field.
     
     
   • General Shipping Defaults – to filter the general configurations (e.g. enable barcode by searching for the group, "shippingdefaults").
     
     
   • Return Settings – to filter the return configurations (e.g. impose charge on returns to the recipient by searching for the group, "returns").
     
     
   • General Shipping Settings – to filter the general settings (e.g. show confirmation by searching for the group, "settings").

Enable Various Shipping Options

To complete this task, do the following:

Enable / Disable Carrier Options

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Carrier Plugins to bring up the Carrier Plugin form.
   
   
   1. To enable Fedex Smartpost:
      • Select “Fedex” from the list of carrier plugins. From the Carrier Account Info tab, check the option, Use Fedex Smartpost.
        
        
   2. To enable USPS Endicia:
      • Select “USPS” from the list of carrier plugins. From the Carrier Account Info tab, change the Provider option to “Endicia”.

Select A Label Format and Configure Default Printing Size

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Carrier Plugins.
   
   
2. Select the carrier plugin to modify e.g. UPS. From the Carrier Account Info tab, click on the Label Options. The options are:
   1. Select the report template to use for printing labels for this carrier [e.g. Shipment Label (Label Only)]
      
      
   2. Select a page orientation (in degrees) when printing the labels for this carrier (e.g. 0º or portrait).
      
      
   3. Configure the label size (e.g. Width = 8.5 and Height = 11)

Configure Item Unit Measures

1. Go to the Inventory Module > Item > Item Unit Measure to bring up the list of items. This option allows you configure the unit measures for a specific item. From the list of items, select a unit measure to modify to bring up the Unit Measure form.
   
   
2. Configure item unit measures and indicate the height, width and length dimensions and volume information used in packaging.
   
   
3. Indicate if an item is pre-packed or is oversized.
   1. If marked as “Pre-packed”, it indicates that the item in the particular unit measure is already packaged.
      
      
   2. If marked as “Oversized”, it indicates that the item cannot fit in the default packaging assigned to the shipping method.
      
      
4. Click Ok to accept the changes.

Define Custom Packaging

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Packaging to bring up the Packaging form.
   
   
2. Define new custom packaging (e.g. Custom Box)
   
   
3. Indicate the package dimensions (in inches).
   
   
4. Save and close when done.

Configure Shipping Methods

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Setup > Shipping > Shipping Method to bring up the Shipping Method form.
   
   
2. Select the shipping method to modify or create a new shipping method based on the carrier service (e.g. UPS 2nd Day Air)
   
   
3. Select carrier (e.g. UPS) and the carrier service (e.g. UPS 2nd Day Air).
   
   
4. Select the carrier type (e.g. UPS Medium Express Box).
   
   
5. Select the billing type to apply. The options are:
   • Sender
     
     
   • Recipient
     
     
   • 3rd Party
     
     
6. Select the freight calculation method to use. The options are:
   • Real-time – where freight rates are determined by the carrier based on the selected carrier service and packaging type. You can add miscellaneous charges to the freight amount or implement a rate adjustment (e.g. free shipping for orders $100 and up).
     
     
   • General – where the freight rates are user-defined based on weight, order amount /percent or flat rate
     
     
   • Both – where real-time freight rates are compounded a general (user-defined) freight charges
     
     
7. Save and close when done.

Complete the Label Certification Process

To complete this task, do the following:

1. Go to the Shipping Module > Certification to bring up the Label Certification Wizard.
   
   
2. From the first page of the wizard, select the shipping carrier to get the certification from.
   
   
3. In the next page of the wizard, you will be asked to provide your test account information.
   

   You can only use your live account and print labels once approved.

   
   
4. Select from the domestic and international shipping services that you plan to include in your shipping account and be allowed to print labels for.
   
   
5. As you move to the last page of the wizard, the location of the generated shipping labels will display in your default browser. Take note of this location.
   
   
6. Email the generated shipping labels to the email address indicated in the last page of the Label Certification Wizard. Once approved, you should be able to print shipping labels using your live shipper account.