Sales are arguably the lifeline of your business. Efficiently handling the sales order your customer issues is crucial. To do so, you’ll want to use solid order management software. Here’s how easy it should be to issue a sales order.
Step 1. In your Megaventory account, Got to Sales → New Order
Step 2. Fill in the ‘Client’ information. Simply typing the first couple of letters should be enough to bring the details and auto-complete half the form.
Step 3. The other half of the Sales Order can be completed by adding product details. Click on ‘ + Click to add row’ and start by filling in the product code (SKU). The rest of the product information will fill in automatically. If you don’t remember the SKU, you can use the magnifying glass tool to search for the product name. You can also use a barcode scanner and scan the item.
Stock information is also readily available in real-time so you know exactly how much stock you have left in the desired warehouse.
Remember to press the save icon next to the row.
Step 4. Once you’ve added all necessary products to the Sales Order, click on ‘Approve’ at the top right of the document.
A new window will pop up. Now you need to select the warehouse you are selling the items from. Once you’ve done this, click on ‘Ok’.
Step 5. The only thing left is to ship the order and decide whether the action will be recorded as just a change in the inventory or whether an invoice will be issued as well. The former is useful in the case of a Sale on Consignment (explained below in this post).
Click on ‘Ship’ at the top right of the document. A new window will pop up.
On the top left of the document, choose the type of document you want to make. To have your customer pay right away, pick ‘Sales Invoice’. Fill in any additional information for your own purposes and finish by clicking on ‘Create Document’ at the end of the page.
Step 6. After closing the document, you’ll be back in the original Sales Order. To finalize everything, click on ‘Close’ at the top of the document.
Closing the Sales Order will make the Sales Order and all the documents that were created against the Sales Order strictly non-editable.
This way -in a few minutes- you can start and complete a Sales Order for one of your clients! This is why inventory management software is so great.
Managing Sales with Order Management Software – Client Testimonial
A Megaventory client that uses the feature efficiently is infraredsauna.com.
Infrared Sauna is a US-based company in the business of innovative infrared light saunas (instead of the conventional steam ones). They have sales from all over the world and partners in 3 other countries (Australia, Belgium, Malaysia). With such a varied and wide network of business, it is crucial to handle orders efficiently – especially given that saunas are expensive and hard to transfer due to their size. Megaventory helps them stay on top of their business daily.
What are Sales on “Consignment”?
Another popular type of sale is by consignment. This is when your business has transferred your products to your client (e.g. a shop) while still owning them. It’s only when your client manages to move your product that you issue a Sales Invoice to the seller. This way of making sales can also be handled by the above Sales Order system – just by appropriately choosing the Document Type to issue upon shipping. Invoicing of the shipping documents can then be performed at a later time.
Sales on Consignment Benefits – Client Testimonial
For example, Lomography.co.il, an Israel-based online store about lomographic cameras and accessories. Apart from the e-shop, the business sells its product via a number of physical retail shops in the city of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. They also cooperate with labs that help customers develop their films.
This means there’s a need to track products across a network of quite a few locations and for a highly specialized product line. That’s something that could translate to a huge administration overhead but is made easy with inventory management software. Sales on Consignment is a crucial part of this sort of business.
How are Purchases and Sales Connected in Inventory Management?
Most of the time, however (and unless we’re talking about an established relationship with your customer) a sales quote must take place before the actual order happens. Sales quotes should ideally transition seamlessly into sales orders if accepted – you can see how this should flow in this post on pre-sales.
And of course, in order to make sales, you have to make a purchase first. This could mean purchasing either the product itself or the materials it’s made of. That’s why a proper order management package comes with a function called Purchase Order (or an equivalent). That’s essentially the opposite of a Sales Order. With a purchase order, your business purchases products or materials from a supplier. When used, your inventory levels increase accordingly.
Are you ready to boost your business with great inventory management?