Sales Forms (Invoicing) and Receivables encompasses two "financially opposite" business processes. They are selling products and services to your customers (Sales Forms (Invoicing)) and collecting payment for these products and services (Receivables). When selling something, the business is giving a Customer assets (goods and services) worth money and collecting payment is getting the money back at a profit (revenue).
When selling something AND EXTENDING CREDIT, it is the same as loaning money to the Customer and therefore COLLECTING PAYMENT IS VERY IMPORTANT.
Sales Form Since the form can be of several different types depending on where in the progression of the sales process the form happens to be at any particular time in the selling process, we use the "generic" term of Sales Form which means "any incarnation of the Sales Form during the sales process".
The different incarnations, or Sales Form types, are pretty much standard practice. All of the various incarnations have the same basic printed format with structured differences.
They are:
| • | Estimate A Customer needs to know how APPROXIMATELY much something is going to cost in advance without being obligated to purchase. |
| • | Quote A Customer needs to know howEXACTLY much something is going to cost in advance without being obligated to purchase UNLESS THE QUOTE IS ACCEPTED AND SIGNED BY THE CUSTOMER. |
| • | Pick List A Customer's order is being "picked" out of "stocked inventory" in preperation for being shipped or delivered to a Customer. This form can also "double" as a PACKING LIST. |
| • | Work Order A ESTIMATE OR QUOTE for a Customer has been accepted (signed or verbally ok'd) and the work is to be performed according to the conditions of the ESTIMATE or QUOTE and the Customer has been obligated to purchase. This method is usually used for service businesses such as automotive or small engine, computer sales and service, marine sales and service, etc... |
| • | Order A Customer has been given an ESTIMATE OR A QUOTE and has now ordered something but what's on the order may or may not have been delivered to the Customer yet. NOTE: If the integrated accounting functions in the system are not used then Sales Forms can be left "unposted as Orders" but can still be tracked as "receivables". Statements on all "open" (with a balance owing) Sales Orders will be included in an Open Sales Order Report by Customer. |
| • | Invoice A Customer is being (has been) "Invoiced" for something that has been Estimated or Quoted, Ordered and delivered. Payment may or may not have been received depending on the businesses practices. |
NOTE: There are some Sales Form text boxes that print in various areas of the Sales Forms which contain the "company policies" the user MUST FILL IN. If these text boxes are not filled in, then nothing gets printed in that area of the Sales Form.
The text boxes to be filled in are located in the Company setup area from the Main Menu. There are various tabs in the form for all of the items since there are more items than will fit on one screen.
General System Control Information:
General (cont) System Control Defaults, Accounts, and Rates Information:
User Field Labels (Screen Prompts):
Service Format Sales Form Messages:
Parts Format Sales Form Messages:
Parts Format Sales Form (Running Balance) Messages:
Service Format Sales Form (Running Balance) Messages:
Examples of Sales Forms showing the text boxes are below:
Pickup and Delivery
Service format:
Parts format:
Invoice (Posted to G/L)
