Distribution Help and User Guide | SOP Management

1. Product Installation

Within Sage Admin, Distribution Scripts should always be enabled when adding the individual Features to the User Role.

2. Changes to Standard Sage Screens

In addition to the new menu options described later in this help and user guide, there are also changes to standard Sage screens, which are detailed in this section.

2.1. SC - Stock Item Details

The Distribution settings relating to the stock item can be found in the Sicon tab.

Complementary Products – Products associated with the stock item can be listed here.

A default quantity can be set and whether the item is default selected.

During SOP entry, if the main product is entered, the system will display a window listing the Complementary Products.  The items can then be selected and added to the Sales Order. The quantity (multiple of the line qty) and whether the line is ticked by default is controlled by the options set on the stock item.

Distribution – SOP Management

Discontinued – This allows the stock item to be set as discontinued so that no more stock is purchased, but existing stock can be used up. The pop up, which appears when setting the stock item to ‘discontinued’, details the actions that will be taken.

Superseded – Where an item has been superseded, the new product code can be entered here.

When processing a sales order or purchase order for this stock item, you will be prompted that the item has been superseded.  You can choose to keep the item originally selected or change it to the new stock code.

Customer Batch Attr – When enabled in settings, customer batch attributes can be configured against the stock item. See the settings section of the HUG for more details. This option is only displayed when the stock item product group is set to use batch or serial numbers.

2.2. SC - View Stock Item Balances

Fields have been added to the Sage stock item balances screen to show the quantity of this stock item on current SOP proforma’s and quotations. The forward order box shows how many are required for sales orders that have yet to be allocated.

Drill down is provided on the fields in blue in the screen:  Clicking on any of these areas drills down into a list of the orders that are contributing to these figures. If you double click on an order or click on show details, then the appropriate amend order screen will open.

In the warehouse balances section of the view item balances screen, additional drill down has been provided for the quantity on purchase orders and allocations.

Clicking on the quantity on order opens a list of open purchase orders.

Clicking on the quantity allocated drill down opens the allocation details screen.

Clicking on the line or the show details button, opens the amend sales order screen.

By clicking the Distribution button at the bottom of the view stock item balances screen, you can access the view previous sales orders or view stock history screens.

Clicking on the view previous sales orders opens the following screen.

If you double click on an order line, then it will open the view sales order screen for that order.

Clicking on the view stock history opens the following screen.

Clicking on the view monthly trading figures, opens the following screen.

The Sage view monthly trading figures screen has been enhanced to include a usage analysis and graph for the usage, lost orders and the sales figures.  The usage analysis tab includes sales plus any BOM, Sicon works orders or internal issues in the stock module. The values can be filtered by warehouse.

The lost order analysis tab reflects any order lines for this stock code that have been tagged as lost orders.

The distribution button on the view monthly trading figures provides quick access to linked screens.

2.3. SOP - Enter New/Amend Order/Quotation

Amount remaining – With the Distribution setting on and a minimum order value (MOV) set against the customer, the amount remaining will show based on the MOV less the value of the Sales Order.

In the example above, the customer has a minimum order value of £1000, as set in the customer details, leaving a balance required on the order of £769.15

The sales order save button remains greyed out until the minimum order value has been achieved. The order cannot be saved until the minimum has been reached.

Payment Terms – When enabled in distribution settings, the customer payment terms are displayed.

Details – Clicking on the details button opens the extra customer details form.  If the user has permission within Sage, the analysis codes can be amended here. Customer notes can be seen and delivery address selected or added.

Show Weight – Clicking on the show weight button, details the weight of the lines based on the weight set in the stock item analysis tab, when the ‘Show Weight Radio Button’ is enabled in the distribution settings.

The following buttons are added to the sales order and quote header screen on the order details tab, when enabled within the distribution settings:

Add historical lines – Enables a user to search for stock items ordered previously by the customer, using a range of months set in the distribution settings.  When adding historical items, information on the last selling price, last quantity and date of last sale are all shown.

Entering a quantity into the new quantity field will update the selling price from the price book, if this is configured for the customer. Clicking the add to sales order button, creates these as new lines on the current order.

If the user has permission, via the sales price user permissions screen, within the Distribution>SOP Management menu, and also has Sage SOP permission to override prices then a prompt will appear after amending the selling price as to whether you wish to create a new price band, or amend an existing one, with this selling price change.

Where the Sicon kitting module is also installed, the user can also build kits as part of adding a kit item.

Copy lines – This screen enables a user to search for lines on previous sales orders, in order to copy them onto the current sales order.  The lines can be filtered by sales order or stock code, lines that are required can be selected and then to copied onto the current order using the add lines button. This process differs to add historical lines in that the line details cannot be amended, the quantity, selling price and any discount applied will be as per the previous order line.

This screen will look back over a range of months as specified in the distribution settings.

Telesales – This screen provides a rapid alternative method for adding lines to a sales order, in a way that is suitable for telephone orders.  On entering details into the item code field, the stock item search feature will search the stock code, name, description and manufacturer part number fields for these details.  On tabbing to the next field, the item code field will either be populated with the stock code or, if there is more than one, a drop down list will show a list of stock codes containing the information entered in the item code field.

Free stock figures are shown against each item in the search results to enable users to see what free stock is available.  Tabbing through each field allows the user to quickly add each sales line. The lines can then be added to the order, using the add lines to sales order button.

It is possible to customise the columns displayed on the screen by right clicking in the screen and selecting customise.

Columns can be added/removed and the order re-arranged.

Templates – You can select from any templates that have been created via the SOP templates menu options within the SOP management menu in Distribution. You can use the templates to add lines to existing orders in addition to using them on empty sales orders.

Copy & Paste – Stock code and quantity can be copied to clipboard from excel and then entered onto the sales by clicking on the copy and paste button.

First add the sales order header details

Then copy the stock code and quantities to a clipboard from an excel document (this could be a customer order form).

Then click on the copy and paste button on the sales order.

The lines in the clipboard are then added to the sales order, with a progress window showing the items added.

Any problems with the copied lines such as erroneous stock codes or missing/zero quantities, are displayed in the progress window.  The format of the copied data needs to be stock code followed by quantity from excel.

Delete Item – When an item is deleted the lost order screen will show the details of the order line.  You can select a reason from the drop down list and record some additional information for reporting later. There is a default reason of ‘Lost Order’. More reasons can be created in the lost order reason maintenance screen, where they can also be marked as to be included in the minimum stock calculation feature available in the future sales module in Distribution.

Lines marked as Lost can be reviewed via the lost orders enquiry screen in the sales order processing menu within Distribution.

This screen will also appear when an order is cancelled via the amend order status screen.

Where an order line has been entered, but then does not want to be processed and saved (e.g. no stock availability), there is a lost button on the order item line screen, which will also access the lost order screen.  If the line is saved in error, the user can delete the line from the order header screen but only one lost order record will be created.

The lost orders screen prompt feature is optional and can be enabled/disabled in the distribution settings.

Please Note – The Lost Order function is only enabled if the Sage SOP setting of ‘Record details of cancelled orders for future analysis’ is NOT set.

Analysis Codes tab – The Distribution module moves the analysis codes from their previous location at the bottom of the delivery & invoicing tab, and instead moves them into their own tab.

Shipping tab – If enabled in Distribution settings, this tab gives you the facility to record shipping details for the order.

After selecting the shipping type, the carrier, service, vehicle type, total weight and dates can be entered. Individual weights and dimensions can be included in the main section of the screen.

A box at the bottom of the screen allows you to record any special instructions for the shipment.

The field values available in this screen are maintained via the shipping maintenance screen in the SOP management maintenance menu.

Order Line Dates – Requires the distribution setting to maintain order line dates on header to be set. The system then displays a single screen where you can quickly review and edit the requested and promised delivery dates for lines on the sales order. The allocated quantity is also displayed for review.

With the Distribution SOP module installed the user will see a pop up window when the order promised date is changed on the main Enter New/Amend Order/Quotation screen, without the above setting enabled.  The ‘ Change Line dates?’ message appears and the user is asked if they would like to update all order lines to be the same as the main promised date. This will change all order lines to the new promised date entered on the main order screen.

Save, Allocate and Despatch – This function chains together the saving of the sales order with stock allocation and finally bringing the user to the standard Sage 200 confirm goods despatched screen for final confirmation or adjustment.

If automatic printing of SOP Acknowledgements and picking lists are enabled in Sage, these reports will also be generated as part of the process.

All sales order lines will be fully allocated if stock is available. If there is insufficient stock to fully allocate a line, then the line will not be allocated and a warning message will be displayed.

2.4. SOP / Quote Line

When adding or amending sales order line, three new buttons are added.

The lost button can be used to record, why a sales order line has been cancelled.

The distribution button can be used to access information about the stock item or previous sales orders.

Selecting to view item balances- opens the stock item balances screen.

Selecting view previous sales orders opens a list of previous sales orders for the customer.

Selecting view stock item history open the stock history screen.

Clicking on item order history opens the sales order history of the stock item for the customer.

2.5. View Sales Order

When in view sales order, a button has been added enabling the printing of the order acknowledgment from this screen, if the Sage setting to use this has been enabled. The order lines dates button is also available.

2.6. SL - Customer Transaction Enquiry

View Invoice Items – In the customer transaction enquiry screen there is a view invoice items button.

When a row in the list which has a source of SOP is selected, you can open a screen view of all the order lines associated with that transaction.

In this view you can then drill down to the actual sales order it relates to by double clicking the row or clicking the view order button.

3. SOP Management Menu

3.1. Manage SOP Back Orders

This screen allows the user to allocate and un-allocate multiple Sales Order lines.

The numerous filtering options in the screen can be used to filter down the list of sales orders to allocate or un-allocate. Once a filter selection has been made, clicking on the display button applies the filter. The filter can be cleared using the clear filters button.

Sales order that are pre-allocated can be included and orders, or customers, on hold can be excluded from the list. The warehouses button can be used to filter the displayed order lines by warehouse.

When enabled in settings, SOP analysis codes can also be used to filter down the items to allocate/unallocate.

Items shown on the allocate stock tab can be selected and allocation quantities amended if required. When the allocate selected items button is clicked, stock will be allocated to the selected sales order line items, provided free stock is available.

The lines can be sorted on the column headings on the screen.

When using the select all button, only lines that can be fully allocated will be selected.  The allocate selected items button will allocate the sales order lines. If partial allocations are required it’s recommended that, after using the allocate selected items button, the Free Stock column is sorted to show available stock at the top.  This stock can then be manually entered to create a partial allocation to the sales order line.

Existing sales order allocations can be removed via the unallocate stock tab. The details button opens the amend order screen that the selected line is linked to.

If an allocation is for a traceable stock item, the amend serial/batch no. button can be used to review the traceable allocation and amend if required, assuming the stock setting to ‘select serials at allocation’ is set.

The distribution button gives a quick shortcut to the view item balances, view previous sales orders and view stock history.

NB – The manage SOP back orders screen can only be used in ‘Edit Mode’ by one user. If another user needs to access the screen, a warning will be displayed and the screen will open in ‘View Mode’.

3.2. SOP Templates

Create New Sales Order Template – This allows the creation of a pre-configured list of stock items to add to a sales order, using the templates button on the sales order screen.

After entering a unique template name the required stock item codes, line default quantities and default warehouses can be added. The narrative field is stored on the template, so is displayed when the template is amended or selected for an order, but does not transfer to the created sales order lines.

Amend SO Template – In this screen lines can be added, removed and re-ordered. Templates can also be deleted using the delete template button.

Sales Order Template Import – Templates can also be imported from a .csv file, using the sales order template import screen.

3.3. Lost Orders Enquiry

This screen displays all sales orders and sales order lines that have been marked as ‘Lost’ during the deletion of orders or order lines.

After reviewing these, the ‘Authorised’ checkbox can be ticked which results in only unauthorised lines being displayed, when the ‘Show unauthorised only’ tickbox at the top of the screen is enabled.

The add button can be used to manually create a lost order line record, and existing entries can be edited or deleted.

3.4. Sales Price User Permissions

This screen enables you to select Sage users who either have the option of creating a new price book from within the add historical lines screen on a sales order line, or updating an existing one.

When adding lines via the add historical lines screen, if the user changes the selling price in this screen, they will be prompted as to whether they want to create or update a price band, as applicable.

3.5. Mark Up Pricing

Once enabled in settings – This screen allows users to enable mark up pricing at a product group level per customer. When the option to select the ‘Use Mark up’ checkbox for a Customer/Product Group combination is set, the ‘Mark up %’ column should be edited to indicate the mark up amount.

The ‘Include Landed Costs’ column can be checked if any landed costs need to be factored into the stock item cost before the mark up is applied.

This functionality differs from the mark up pricing screen in the standard Sage200 price book module in that you can specify different mark up rates per customer.

3.6. Sales Order Line List

The SOP order line list differs from the standard sales order list in that all lines for the sales order are displayed.

3.7. Maintenance

These options allow you to maintain information used in the functionality of the Distribution module.

Lost Order Reason Maintenance – This screen enables you to maintain a list of the reasons used by the lost orders enquiry functionality within sales orders.

If the ‘Inc. In Min Stock’ box is ticked, these values will be included when using the calculate minimum stock levels function in the Distribution, Future Sales module.

Shipping Maintenance – This screen allows you to set up and maintain the relevant information available within the shipping tab of a sales order. You can enter multiple shipping types, and then against each one enter a selection of values for dimensions, weights, services, carriers and vehicle types.

Maintain Historical Sales Orders

This can be used to highlight lines with particular colours and notes so that when using the add historical lines screen, users are given additional information.

Import Complementary Products

Allows complementary products to be imported and linked to existing stock codes.

Import Enhanced Stock Attributes

Allows customer stock attributes to be imported from an excel import.

4. Reports

Consignment Transfer – Only available with Warehouse Replenishment

Purchase Orders and Returns Linked to Sales Orders – Only available with POP Management

Purchase Orders Outstanding Tracking Dates – Only available with Container Manager.

Purchase Orders Awaiting Confirmation Detail – Only available with POP Management

Purchase Orders Awaiting Confirmation Summary – Only available with POP Management

Discontinued Stock Items – Reports on all stock items that have been set as discontinued within the stock item settings

5. Utilities Menu

5.1. Settings

The Distribution settings screen provides a separate settings screen for each module enabled. Where more than one module is enabled, a list of each settings screen is displayed on the left of the main screen.

Each setting has an information button which, when clicked on, will give a summary of the settings’ details.

Enable customer details pop up – When entering a sales order, the customer account notes, SOP delivery addresses and customer analysis codes are displayed in a single window. You can choose the delivery address for this order from this screen by highlighting the correct address and clicking the Select button. If the user has permission within Sage, the analysis codes can also be amended here.

Enable undespatched SOP Orders Warnings – When creating a new sales order, a list of undespatched orders is displayed. The purpose of this warning is to allow the order taker to add additional lines to an existing order that has not yet been shipped, rather than creating a new sales order. Clicking on the amend button will take the user to the ‘Amend Order’ screen, and discard the ‘Enter New Order’ screen.

Authorise Lost Orders – This setting enables the authorised column within the lost orders enquiry screen, accessible via the sales order processing menu within Distribution.

Prompt for lost orders when a line is deleted or an order cancelled – With this button enabled, a lost order reason will have to be entered each time a sales order or sales order line is deleted.

Maintain order line dates on header – With this setting enabled, the order line dates button is available on sales orders to enable rapid editing of the requested and promised dates on the lines on that sales order.

Skip to quantity field after selecting item – With this setting enabled, after you select the stock code on a sales order line, the cursor moves directly to the quantity field.

Use mark up pricing – With this setting enabled, the mark up pricing available via the sales order processing menu in Distribution will override the standard Sage mark up pricing.

Enable shipping – With this enabled, the shipping tab is displayed on a sales order.

Save superseded item to analysis code – With this setting enabled, you can specify which of the analysis codes available on a sales order you would like to store the original item code if it has changed due to being a superseded item.

Use superseded item unit price – If when entering a sales order you select a stock item that has been superseded, should the sales order pull through the relevant selling price for the original item, rather than the new one? If you enable this setting, the selling price will remain as for the original item.

Show weight radio button – With this enabled, the show weight radio button shows above the sales order line.

Display customer payment terms – This controls whether the customer payment terms field is displayed on the sales order header screen.

Enable Kitting features – This setting adds functionality for the Sicon kitting module into the add historical lines screen within a sales order. It adds a build kit column against each line, and an auto complete kit build check box that will automatically build required kits (including issuing the components), or report if it’s not able to do so.

Enable customer minimum order values – Allows the minimum order values to be used in SOP. A field within the customer details screen will be available to populate with the customers MOV. A field on the sales order header will also be displayed, showing the MOV value.

Enhanced traceable selection based on attributes – Requires the Sage stock setting to select traceable items at allocation to be set and for Sage SOP setting to allocate on order entry to be turned off.

Allows attributes that have been set up against product groups and then stock items, to be used to dictate which batches a customer can have on a sales order.

The attributes are set up on a product group.

A stock item it then linked to the product group. Customer batch attributes can then be set up on the stock item.

When allocating stock on a sales order for the customer using the amend allocation screen, only batches that meet the criteria are shown for selection.

In the example below, only batches 1 and 5 show for allocation for the sales order for Better Kitchens as these batches meet the customer requirements.

Auto allocate sales order lines when using enhanced attributes – with this option selected, the system will auto allocate the batches that meet the customer requirements. Where there are multiple batches that meet the requirement, the system will allocate the batches based on the oldest first.

A tick box on the sales order line has been added to prevent auto-allocation.

Sales Order Buttons – Enabling any of the following will display the relevant button on the sales order header, allowing the user to access the feature.

Manage SOP Back Orders

• Analysis Codes – This controls what analysis fields are available for filtering on, in the manage SOP back orders screen.
• Select bin at allocation – When allocating sales order lines, the SOP allocations screen will display, enabling the user to allocate stock from an alternative bin.

Historical Sales

Copy line description from Distribution sales order entry screens to – This enables the stock item description text to be edited during the order entry process, then either copied to the sales order line description as an amendment, or written to the picking list comments e.g. ‘Pick 24 bananas’, that would then be weighed and charged by the Kg on the sales order.

• Past SOP order line range in months (Historical) – Determines how many months the sales history will be analysed to return the recent items purchased.
• Past SOP order line range in months (Copy Lines) – Determines how many months the sales history will be analysed to return the lines that can be copied.
• Number of results returned in Copy Lines – The maximum number of rows to display in the Copy Order Lines screen.
• Hide discount columns on Add Historical Screen – Tick to hide the discount column on the add historical screen within a sales order.

Warehouse Exclusions

Warehouses selected here will not be included in the Usage Analysis calculation in the View Monthly Trading Figures screen.

5.2. Import Stock Item Settings

The Distribution settings, required within the stock item details screen, can be imported via a .csv file. Clicking on the example import file button provides the user with the Excel sheet to populate, and subsequently save as a .csv file.

The check file button will check the data for any errors. Lines with errors will be highlighted in red. Hovering the mouse over the stock item will display the reason for the error. Please note, the stock item data must be in the exact format as the data in Sage, i.e. capitals/lowercase.

Once all the data is correct, the import button will no longer be greyed out and the data can be imported.

5.3. Enable Module

An enable string, provided by the Sicon customer services team, can be entered via the screen below. Alternatively, if online enable string is activated this should be done automatically.

6. Release Notes

The release notes page shows which release of the system includes new features or issues resolved.

At the release of Sicon v21 we announced that going forward, we will only be supporting Sage 200c and as such we are able to drop the year from our version numbers. We moved from 201.201.0.0 to 210.0.0.

New features detailed in the Release Notes relating to Pre-Release versions will not be detailed in the current Help and User Guide until the end of development phase.

7. New Features & Important Information