Customer Orders

Updated on Feb 01, 2018

To access the Customer Order program:

Click on the Customer Order button in the Nav Bar

iMerchant Tip: When doing a search for existing Customer Orders, it's a good idea to define the search in part by Order State. If you don't select the Order State, the search will include all Order States (Open, Complete, and Quote)

If you have a Customer Order Label for a product on a particular Customer Order

Scan the barcode at the Find Customer Order screen
The Customer Order that product was a portion of will be called up.

If you know the customer bring up the customer using the Customer filter

this will bring up the Find Customer window
double click on the correct customer
You will brought back into the Customer Order screen and any applicable orders will be shown
double click on the order you are looking and you will be brought into the Customer Order Screen

iMerchant Tip: You can add a product to a Customer Order via right-click.

Select Add Customer Order, and the system will automatically take you to the Customer Find window.
Find the appropriate customer and then add the product to the Customer Order you just created.

If you need to create a new customer to fulfill the Customer Order, at the Customer Find screen.

Click on the New Customer Order Task Bar button at the top of that window.
This takes you to the Customer Properties screen
Here you can create the new customer and then proceed with the Customer Order

If the customer requires a Quote

Click on the New Quote button on the task bar

Work Screen

The Customer Order work screen has three tabs:

Header: info under Header deals with the Customer Order as a whole

Products: info under Products deals with the individual products you place on the order

Tenders: here you can assign a tender (or tenders) to the order that will automatically be called up at the POS when the Order is tendered

When you first access the work screen upon creating a new Customer Order, the system defaults to the Header tab.

If you want the Customer Order screen to default to the Products tab

Select View from the Menu Bar
There are two choices: Start on Header (the system default), and Start on Product.
Select Start on Product, and the check mark will move directly to the left of that selection.
The next time you enter the Customer Orders program, the screen will open up displaying the Products tab.

Header Tab

Lets take you through the Header tab:

UPPER LEFT CORNER

In the upper left corner of the screen, there is a Customer Order box, with Order ID, Date, and Customer fields (these three fields appear whether the Header tab or the Products tab is selected).

Order ID: defaults to the next Customer Order number. This is system generated field. You cannot alter it.
Date: defaults to the current date. You cannot change it.
Customer: defaults to the customer's name, as established in Customer Properties Customer Properties.
- This field is not changeable.
- Notice that Customer is underlined and a different color. It is a hyperlink.
- If you click on it, you will access the Customer Properties window for this customer.
- At that window, if you have security access, you can make any changes to the customer's information, if needed.

UPPER RIGHT

In the top right section of the Customer Order work screen, there is a small Order Summary box.

There is also a checkbox field beneath it Compute Invoice Amount.
- Unchecked: Order Summary will include a running total of just the number of items on the Customer Order and the total quantity. Unchecked, the speed of adding and maintaining the Customer Order is greatly increased.
- Checked: the Order Summary will also include running dollar amounts for the Order.
You can set the default view fpr Compute Invoice Amount by going to View > Compute Invoice on Start.

Header Tab Fields (moving left to right):

Order Store: automatically fills in with the name of the store you are in. You cannot change this field.
Shipping Code: click on the binoculars to bring shipping code options
- leave blank if there is no shipping to be done
- Check the Charge and Send box if that applies to this order
Pick Up Method: if there is no shipping, how will the customer pick it up, click on the dropdown to select an option
- Reserve: If you selected Add to Reserve Stock in the Pick Up Method field this field will open up.
- Click on the binoculars to select a Reserve stock option
Sales Person: automatically fills in with the PC User's name ([i] Merchant assumes this is the person taking the order. This field cannot be changed.
Tax Area: Click on the binoculars to select the Tax area
Preferred Notification Method: Click on the dropdown to select the customers preferred notification method for this order
Text Phone: Only applicable if you are using the Texting option within the system
Order Type: Select the Order Type for the order
Customer PO: If the customer has a PO they want to apply to the order enter it here
Origin: Enter the origin of the order (for example, the Web, catalog, etc.). Strictly an optional field.
Location: Select the Location Code for the order, if desired. The Location can be used to identify the shelf location of customer orders.
Needed By: Key in the date the customer needs the product(s) he or she is ordering. The date defaults to the current date.
- You can either manually enter a date or click on the arrow to the right of the field for a calendar.
- From this calendar, select the desired date. It will automatically appear in the Needed By field.
Order State: You can ignore this field, for all intents and purposes. It is informational. When a customer order is completed (picked up or shipped out), this field will automatically fill in with the "Complete" option.

Next is the Customer Address portion of the screen.

Three address boxes display: Bill To, Ship To, and Contact. These addresses come in automatically from the Customer's info in the Customers Properties page.

If you want to change the Ship To or Contact address
Click on the appropriate button beneath each address field (Change Ship To or Change Contact).
Select Customer Address window appears.
All of the different addresses for this customer, stored on the Customer Properties page, will appear in this window.
Use the scroll bar at the bottom of the window to view the different addresses.
Whichever address you click on within the Select Customer Address window will replace the address that had been under the Ship To or Contact address field.
If you decide not to replace an address, simply "x" out of the Select Customer Address window without highlighting any of the addresses.

If you need to create a brand-new address for this Customer Order

Click on the Customer Properties link in the Select Customer Address window for the selected customer.
This will take you directly to that customer's Customer Properties page,
- Here you can create the new address and then import it into the Customer Order.
POS will use the Customer Order's selected Ship To address when the Customer Order is pulled into a sale.

Below the billing address fields, there are two more fields:

Customer Type: imported from Customer Properties, and cannot be changed here at the Customer Orders screen. It displays here for your information only.
Discount Rule: If the customer has an automatic discount attached to his or her file, that discount will automatically appear in this field and will apply to all items on the Customer Order.
- However, if you want to change the Discount Code, you can do so.
- Also, if the customer does not have an automatic Discount Code attached to his or her file, you can select it here.

Products Tab

The lower portion of the screen is a display box/grid.

As you select products to put on the Customer Order, they will appear in this grid, line by line.

Above the grid, there is a Product field.

This is where you select the product(s) to put on the Customer Order.

You can do this in a variety of ways.

Scan the product's barcode.
Key in the ISBN in the Product field and press Enter
Key in the exact title in the Product field and press Enter
Key in a fragment of the title in the Product field and press Enter
- The Find Product window appears.
- Find the desired product, then Select it.
For a product not yet on your iMerchant system
- Key in the product number in the Product field. Then press ctrl N.
- This calls up the New Product message box
- Here you begin the process of adding the product to your system's database.
  - From there, you are taken to Product Properties, where you can fill out the pertinent fields for the product you are adding to your system. (Or you can ignore these fields for now and fill them in later, after completing the Customer Order.)
  - Once you are finished filling in the information in Product Properties, Save it
  - The system automatically takes you to the Order Product screen, where you can proceed as you normally would.

The Order Product screen has an assortment of fields in it.

They determine how many copies of the product you are ordering, if you are allocating any.

The top portion of the Order Product screen is a strictly informational display window.

This will be filled in with information concerning the selected product

Product name
Description
Author
Retail Price
On Hand
Condition
Allocated
Available to Sell

The fields that reside underneath the product information are where you make Ordering decisions:

Product: fills in with the product number for the product you just selected to put on the Customer Order.
- This is an informational field and cannot be changed.
- Product is underlined and is a hyperlink.
  - If you click on it, you will be taken directly to the Product Properties page for the selected product.
Ordered: This will fill in with the default quantity, as established in Tools > Options
- Most likely, the default quantity will be 1.
Allocated: will have a zero in it. If you have the item the customer is ordering onhand and can allocate it to this order, fill in the Allocated field with the appropriate quantity.
Shipped: Generally, you will not need to fill this in. It will have a zero in it when you are taking the order.
- Once the item is sold through the POS, this field will update automatically.
- It is, essentially, informational. But if you need to change the value in it, you can do so.
Needed: displays the sum of Ordered - (Allocated + Shipped).
- If you order a quantity of 3, but leave the Allocated and Shipped fields set to zero, this fourth field will show a value of 3. But if you allocate 3, this field will display a zero. If you allocate 2, this field will display a 1.
Discount: key in the percentage discount you want to apply for this product.
- This is optional. If there was a Discount Rule selected at the Header screen for this Customer Order, its corresponding discount percentage will display automatically in this field.
- You can override it by keying in a new value for this particular product in this Discount field, if desired.
Promised Price: key in the promised price, if different from the retail price.
- e.g. if a business calls and orders 100 copies of a product, you may promise a certain price on the books.
- If the retail price for the item is $10.00 per item, maybe you lower it to $8.00 per item.
- If there is a discount attached to the product, and if you have established a promised price, the discount will be taken off of the promised price, not the retail price.
Price Type: is optional, and you would only use it if you incorporate a promised price. Even then, the Price Type is optional.
- Price Type is a parameter you can establish where you define promised prices
  - e.g. if a particular business generally receives a certain special price for selected items, you might want to define a Price Type.
  - In short, Price Type can be used to describe or codify different types of promised prices.
Completed: will automatically insert a checkmark once the product is picked up or shipped to the customer.
- The Customer Order will be completed at the POS.
- You can check the Complete box manually for a partially filled ordered amount
  - e.g. customer ordered quantity of 5 for a product, but purchased only 3, and does not want the remaining 2).
- Generally, you will not need to worry about this box.
- When the ordered quantity of the product is sold at the POS, it will fill in automatically.
Add to TBO: will either be checked or unchecked when starting a new Customer Order.
- To determine the default, access the Tools > Options program and establish it there.
- Of course, here in Customer Orders, you can undo the default as needed, by either checking the Add to TBO box or unchecking it.
- Generally, if you have enough of an onhand quantity for an item that is included in a Customer Order, you would want the Add to TBO box to be unchecked, because you would not need to order the item.
With TBO Type of: only appears if the Add to TBO box is checked.
- This is an optional field. The TBO Type will fill in automatically with the default in Tools > Options.
- But if you want to change it for the product you are adding
- Select a different TBO Type in this field.
- Once the Customer Order is saved, you cannot change (or access) the With TBO Type field for the product again
- You can only change it while adding a new product to the Customer Order.

Order Product Task Bar Buttons

Notes: If you want to view or add/alter Customer Order Notes while at the Order Product window

Click on the Notes button.
Click on the arrow at the right of the Link button (at the top of the Order Product window)
A drop down menu appears
Click on any one of the choices, and you will be taken to the applicable program.

Link: clicking on the pull down allows you to access other programs with the product you have pulled up

Notice Inquiry: will show you history of notifications sent to the customer

Label: allows you to print a label

Next and Prior: These are convenient navigational tools that enable you to scroll through the products on a Customer Order without having to back out of the Order Product window.

If you click on Next, the information for the next product in the grid at the bottom of the Customer Order screen automatically displays.
If you click on Prior, the information for the previous product in the grid at the bottom of the Customer Order screen automatically displays.

Clicking on the Apply button, you will be taken back to the Customer Order screen, and under the Product tab, the grid at the bottom of the screen will show the product you just Applied.

Apply is an important concept. Technically, a product is not included in a Customer Order until you click on the Apply button at the top of the Order Product window.

If you decide not to Apply the product to the Customer Order
- Click on the Cancel button.
Either way you will be taken back to the Customer Order screen, and the product will not be on the Order.

After Applying a product to a Customer Order, if the customer wants to put another product onto this Customer Order

Go back to the Product field on the Customer Order screen (under the Products tab) and repeat the procedure explained above.

Continue until all desired products appear in the grid at the bottom of the screen.

If you need to go back to the Order Product window for a particular product (for example, if you need to change a piece of information)

Either scan the product's barcode

Highlight the product in the grid at the bottom of the Customer Order screen
Click on the Update button, which is to the right of the Add Product button.

Either method takes you to the Order Product window for the highlighted product. There, you can change whatever information is necessary.

Every time you Apply an item to the Customer Order, the Running Totals box at the upper right of the screen (broken down into "Order Summary" and "Balance of Order") will automatically update.

This is informational only and cannot be altered. It does just what the name suggests:

The Order Summary portion displays the running total for the Customer Order, and the Balance of Order portion displays the totals for items on the Customer Order that have not yet been shipped to or picked up by the customer.

FYI: If you close out of a Customer Order before adding any products to it, iMerchant will automatically ask you if you want to delete the Customer Order from the system. If you do, simply click on the Yes button, and the system will inform you that the order has been deleted. If, for some reason, you want to save this order even though it has no products attached to it, click on the No button. The order will be saved.

Tender

After adding the desired products, you can assign a tender (or tenders) to this Order. This is optional.

If you assign a tender, when the Order is pulled up later at POS, the assigned tender will automatically be chosen at the POS, and the clerk can proceed from there.

If the POS clerk needs to override this tender, they can do this. This feature is a convenience tool, and it can be changed as needed.

At the lower portion of the screen, there is a Tenders work screen. When entering information for the first time, there will not be any tenders listed.

Add a tender to this Order:

Click on the Add To List button.
A new row will appear.
Notice that above the row, there are five columns: Tender, $ Limit, Account Number, Expiration Date, and CVV2 #.
At first, the new row will only extend up to the second column ($ Limit).
The last three columns will only apply to tenders such as credit cards, and will become available only if you select an appropriate tender under the Tender column.

Under the Tender column:

Click on the binoculars icon at the right of the empty field
Select the tender the customer wishes to use to for this Order
- If you select a tender that comes with an account number, expiration date, and CVV2 number (such as a credit card) the row will extend underneath those columns.
- iMerchant will automatically encrypt and mask credit card numbers for security reasons.
$ Limit is optional. If the customer only wants to spend a certain amount using this tender, and not go beyond that amount, you can enter the value here.
- Otherwise, leave it blank, and no limit will exist.
You can add a second row for another tender, if that's what the customer wants to do.
- e.g. the customer chose Check in Row One, and wanted to set a $ limit of $20.00, only the first $20.00 of the Order would be applied to the Check
- POS will default to $20.00 for the check tender
- The clerk can override this, if desired
- In the second row, maybe the customer chooses Cash. The remainder of the Order will be paid for with cash.
- The tender rows are in order.
- That is, if Check is chosen in Row One, at the POS, the Check tender will be automatically chosen by iMerchant when this particular Order is called up.
- If Cash is in Row Two, Cash will be selected automatically after Check at POS, and so on.
- You can create as many tender rows here as you (or the customer) wish.
- Once a Customer Order is marked as Complete the tenders listed here are automatically removed from the Order, for security reasons.

Print Labels

You can print labels in the Customer Order program, too.

Under the Products tab, highlight the product you want to print a label for.
With the product highlighted
Select Reports > Customer Order Label from the Menu Bar.
The Labels window opens.

Important: Make sure you have chosen a Customer Orders default label type in Store Maintenance. If you have not, you won't be able to print Customer Order labels.

The Labels window is where you print the barcode label for the selected product.
- You can create your store's Customer Order barcode label templates using our Label Designer.

When the Labels window displays, if you want to print the label immediately without batching it

Check the Print Now box
Click on Start
- This opens the Printer Selections window.
- Review the information (such as which printer to print to, and how many copies of each label to print) to see if it is correct.
- Make any necessary changes.
- You can preview what the barcode label will look like by selecting the Preview button.
- When you are ready to print the label, click on the Print button.

Batch Labels

You can also batch labels, and then print the batch.

Batching labels means that you send the labels to a batch queue to be printed later.

This is convenient if your label printer is not nearby and you want to print labels for a variety of products.

In this case, batch the labels, then print them later.

To batch labels:

Check Batch Labels
Click on Start

When you are ready to print the batch,

Check the Print the Batch field
Click on Start
This will open the Printer Selections window, which looks the same as when you print labels without batching them, except there is no Preview button and there is a Label Stock field (within this field, a number will appear, showing you how many individual labels exist within the batch).
Click on the Print button when you are ready to print the batch.

After printing a batch of labels, the system will ask if you want the batch deleted.

Unless there was a problem printing the batch, have the system delete it.

Cancel Customer Order

Cancel Entire Order

Select Edit > Delete Order

Delete Product from Order

Highlight the product you want deleted

Select Edit > Delete Order Product.

Printing Customer Order

For information on how to print the Customer Order (perhaps to give a copy to the customer), please click here.

Create a .CSV

You can create a .csv file that captures the results of the information in the grid for a particular Customer Order

Select File > Create .csv File from the Menu BAr

Then, name the file and choose a directory on your PC to place the file.

Import a Customer Order

You can also import a Customer Order from an outside source, such as from a Web order on the Internet.

iMerchant allows you the ability to generate a Customer Order in an outside program and then import the Order into the system.

e.g. taking the Order via the Internet

The Order will be assigned a Customer Order number, and all of the products in the Order will be carried over.

However, you will still need to access the Order once it is imported and go through the titles on the Order, assigning how many copies of each title to order, or allocate, etc.

All Customer Order import files must be .xml files. And only one Order at a time can be imported.

Some information in the .xml field is mandatory, much is optional.

The data is divided into header information and product information.

Header information represents columns that correspond to global information within the Order.

Product information represents the individual products that are placed onto the Order.

Optional fields that are missing will be set to the Default values for the applicable field.

Please refer to the Notes column in the tables below to see what the Default values are for each field.

Optional fields that contain invalid data also will automatically be assigned the applicable Default value.

Following is a list of the header fields allowed, both the required as well as the optional. Please look through the list

Header Information Chart

XML TAG	DATA TYPE	REQUIRED (Y/N)	NOTES
customer-id	string(50)	YES	Must match an iMerchant Customer Short Name field
store-code	string(50)	YES	Enter the code for the store that is taking the order
order-type-code	string(50)	optional	imerchant customer order type code. Describes the order (rush, seasonal, special handling, etc.) Defaults to empty
origin	string(50)	optional	iMerchant origin code. Defines where the order came from (web, phone, etc.) Defaults to empty
customer-po	string(50)	optional	PO Number given by the customer. Defaults to empty
charge-send	boolean	optional	True = Ship order to Customer False = Pick up in store Default = False
needed-by	string	optional	when customer wants the Order. This field is informational only to iMerchant. Default = current date
header-note	string(5000)	optional	free-form text about this order Default = Empty
total	integer	required	A control total indicating the number of product elements sent. If this does not agree with the number received the order is not added

Product Information Chart

No single product field is required, but you must have at least one product field filled in prior to the import.

XML TAG	DATA TYPE	REQUIRED (Y/N)	NOTES
Number	String(20)	Optional	ISBN or EAN for the product. If missing, a product number will be generate by iMerchant.
Item	String(50)	Optional	Blank/NULL will indicate the normal item. When filled in, iMerchant will match or create a line item with this code as ProductDetailCode1 field. This should be filled in to indicate whether a bound version of the title is to be used or created. The same code should be sent for bound editions. Otherwise iMerchant will create a third line item
Description	String(50)- Short (250) Formal	Optional	Title of Book. Default = Product Number
Author First-Name	String(100)	Optional	First Name of the Author Default = Empty
Author Last-Name	String(100)	Optional	Last Name of the Author Default = Empty
Price	Decimal	Optional	Retail Price for one item. Used as the promise price to the customer. If zero or missing the standard retail price on file will be used. When adding a title, this will become the Retail Price. Default = Zero
Qty-ordered	Integer	Optional	Indicates the number of copies wanted Default = 1
Industry	Integer	Optional	0 = Book 1 = General Merchandise 2 = Magazine 3 = Magazine w/ Issue 4 = Music 5 = Clothing
Product-note	String(5000)	Optional	Free-form text about this Order Default = Empty

Finalizing your Customer Order

Once you have all of the products and their quantities determined, and once everything is filled out properly in the Header, Product, and Tender tabs

Finalize your customer order by clicking on the Close button in the Task Bar of the Customer Order screen

You will be prompted to Save

Click Yes

If you selected Add to TBO the title and quantity will be ordered through the Buying Manager process.

If you didn't select Add to TBO, the next time the title is received the quantity of the Customer Order will be applied.

Your order is now ready to be received against.

Completing Customer Orders

Products ordered via Customer Orders will be received in.

Then the Customer Order itself will be completed at the POS.

Cashiers can call up the desired Customer Order.

Once called up, the products on the order display, one by one, on the POS monitor.

From that point, the cashier proceeds just as they would with any sale.

Once all of the individual items on a Customer Order have been sold, the Order State field, under the Header tab in the Customer Order program, automatically fills in with Complete.

Conversely, if the order was only partially shipped or picked up (not every product in the Customer Order was sold), the Order State field will not update.

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