Document Processing

Invoice and credit notes follow a pattern which is defined by the associated document definitions.The user instructions which follow below describe all the questions which you could be asked. However, it is more than likely that only subsets of these questions are prompted for any particular document design.

The questions fall into the following steps:

Document information — First you are asked for the date, the customer code, and to confirm the document (i.e. invoice or credit note) number

Customer information — Next you must confirm information about the customer which is to be printed on the document. For example, you may be asked to confirm the customer name and address and the credit terms.

Reference information — optionally you may be asked for some further information to print on the invoice. For example, you may be asked for the customer’s order number, your salesperson’s code, your internal order number, and so on. Whether or not you are asked for this information is defined as part of the document design described later under Configuring the Invoicer.

Line entry information — now you can enter the details of the invoice. You may be asked to choose from a stock or product file, or may have the option to enter information in a free-form manner.You may need to enter lines a screen at a time, or may be offered the "fast entry” method of line-by-line entry down the screen too. This latter method restricts the amount of information you can enter about each invoice line, and may not always be appropriate.

Closing information — once you’ve entered all the detail information you may be given the option to enter some closing information. For example, a delivery charge might be requested; you may be able to enter some free-form comments, or enter a separate delivery address.

Print invoice — you can now print the invoice. You can print a copy more than once, and have the option to go back over and modify some of the data until you are satisfied that the invoice is correct.

Update files — finally, once you are satisfied that the document is exactly how you want it, you have the chance to update the files, both the ledger files and (depending on the document parameters) the stock files too.

Once you’ve printed a document and updated the files, you can start on the next document type. If you have more than one document design, you may need to return to choose another design. For example, you may follow a different process when you print a customer invoice — for which you may need more information for later analysis, and so use the screen by screen method of detail entry — than when you create an invoice for a walk-in cash customer, where the fast entry method may work.