Batch “Auto-Run” Documents

If the document you are using is defined as an auto-run document, then you must answer some preliminary questions, after which the process is automatic and requires no intervention from you.

Confirm Printer

First you are asked to confirm the printer to be used. The currently selected printer is displayed, and you can use the <F4–Select> key to change to another printer, or to select the print-to-disk facility.

Confirm Selection Criteria

You normally want an "auto-run” document to print only those orders which are suitable for batch processing.This is achieved by defining some selection criteria on the order headers, and possibly on the order details too.Whether or not you are offered the chance to modify the selection criteria at run time is an option set at the time the document definition is created. If you are given the option, then you can confirm both the header and detail criteria.

Confirm OK to process

You are now shown some statistics for the stock and sales transactions files which may be updated by this batch procedure. If the procedure is not designed to update one of these files then those databases will not be shown. Otherwise the file size, the space used and the space free is displayed. This is done so that you can make an eyeball check that there is sufficient room for the procedure to go right through without the risk of filling the files. Note that an acknowledgement is unlikely to write stock or sales transactions, but an invoice is almost certainly going to update the sales ledger, and possibly the stock files too.

If a document is produced which contains six order lines and both sales and stock files are to be updated, then six new records are written to the stock transaction file and seven new records to the sales ledger transaction file (one financial and six analysis records).

Please Confirm Date

The system date is offered and may be overtyped. All documents and transactions produced during the run will carry this date. The date will be validated according to the sales and stock periods as discussed above.

OK to Start Processing?

Answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ as appropriate. The procedure now runs through without further involvement from you. At the end you are returned to the SOP menu.