# Sales and Marketing Overview
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Data Entry Procedures | Reports and Inquiries | Update Processes
Purpose
The Marketing module provides the functions required to administer the
activities required for sales and marketing. These include order entry,
shipping, returns, prospect tracking and failure analysis. The module provides
several report and inquiry procedures to assist the user in the management of
the sales and marketing process.
Prerequisites
The Engineering and Inventory modules must be installed before using this
module if inventory items are to be referenced on sales orders, otherwise it
may be run as a stand alone module.
Data Files
There are seven primary data files, four cross reference files and four
reporting files which maintain the data directly associated with the module.
The Sales Order file (SO) maintains one record for each sales order in the system. The records are optionally keyed by a user assigned sales order number, or a sequential number will be automatically assigned if desired. The Sales Order file contains a header section which maintains information about the customer terms of payment, and a line item section which contains all of the line item data including part numbers, pricing, schedule shipment dates and quantities and shipment information.
The Shipments file (SHIP) maintains one record for each shipment transaction processed. The records are keyed by the sales order number followed by a dash (-) and a sequential number maintained in the sales order record. Each record contains information about all of the items shipped including date, part number, quantities, costs and inventory locations.
The Return Merchandise file (RMA) maintains one record for each RMA in the system. The records are optionally keyed by a user assigned RMA number, or a sequential number will be automatically assigned if desired. The RMA file contains a header section which maintains information about the customer and the conditions of the return autorization, and a line item section which contains information about the items to be returned.
The Customer file (CUST) maintains one record for each customer used in the sales process. The records are optionally keyed by a user defined number or automatically assigned a sequential number if desired. Along with the standard customer information such as address, phone, contact, etc., the customer file maintains data which can be defaulted into the sales order process such as terms code, discount percents and sales rep data.
The Prospect file (PROSPECT) maintains one record for each prospect. The The records are optionally keyed by a user defined number or automatically assigned a sequential number if desired. The file maintains information about the prospect such as name, address, phone number and contacts.
The Price file (PRICE) maintains records which allow the user to control default pricing during the sales order entry process. The file can be keyed by part number, which allow up to two (2) prices to be maintained per part, based upon effectivity dates. Optionally, the user can assign a key made up of a combination of the part number and a customer code. This allows the maintenance of customer specific pricing.
The Terms (TERMS) file contains the records which define the terms of payment which may be included on the sales order. These records are keyed by a user defined code and contain the parameters which define the terms.
The Sales Order to Parts cross-reference file (SOPART) is keyed by part number and contains the numbers of all of the sales orders which reference the part number. It is used by several of the reporting procedures to provide direct access to purchase orders by part number.
The Sales Order to Customer cross-reference file (SOCUST) is keyed by customer number and contains the numbers of all of the sales orders which reference the customer. It is used by several of the reporting procedures to provide direct access to sales orders by customer number.
The Customer Name cross-reference file (CUSTNAME) maintains an index to all customer records for each word of the customer name. Anywhere within the system where the customer number is prompted the user may elect to enter a word from the customer's name instead to obtain the customer number. Each word is processed by a soundex algorithm so that even misspelled words can be cross-referenced accurately.
The Sales Order to Purchase Order cross-reference file (SOPO) is keyed by the customer's purchase order number and contains the the numbers of all of the sales orders which reference the purchase order. It is used to provide direct access to a sales order based on the customer purchase order number.
The Sales History file (SALES) is keyed by a sequential number and maintains long term summarized sales information for reporting purposes. The records are created by the system when shipments are posted.
The Sales Order Booking file (SOBOOK) is keyed by a sequential number and maintains detailed booking information. The records are created each time a change which affects bookings is made in sales order entry.
The Commission file (COMMISSION) is keyed by a sequential number and maintains the calculated sales commission amounts based on shipments. The records are created by the system when shipments are posted.
The Failure Statistics file (FAIL) maintains data accumulated from the shipment and RMA processes to allow failure analysis and MTBF (mean time between failure) calculations. The file is keyed by a combination of model number, month and year.
System Interface
This module contains interfaces to the Engineering, General Ledger, Inventory
and Accounts Receivable modules. It validates part numbers with the Parts
Master file in the Engineering module, and validates account numbers in the
General Ledger chart of accounts. The shipment processing creates inventory
transactions and the Invoicing process will create Accounts Receivable
invoices. When the Accounts Receivable module is enabled, the Sales Order
Entry procedure will perform a credit check based upon open order dollars and
the open accounts receivable amount.
User Interface
The user interface to the module consists of data entry procedures to enter
sales orders and shipments, reports and inquiries, and batch update
procedures. Access to these procedures is controlled by the user's security
profile. For example, some users may be allowed to enter new sales orders
while others may only be allowed to make changes to existing records. Some
users may only be allowed to look at the data without the ability to change
it, and some may not even be able to access the procedure. Access to batch
procedures is usually restricted to use by only the system administrator since
these are usually run overnight.
Setup Procedures
The following are required setup procedures which must be performed prior to
the normal flow of activities:
TERMS.E Definition of the payment terms for customers
CUST.E Identification of customers
MRK.CONTROL Definition of control information used in the module
Optionally, the following setup procedures can be performed to make complete use of all available marketing functions:
REP.E Identification of sales representatives
PRICE.E Entry of product prices
FAIL.CONTROL Definition of valid failure codes for RMA processing
MTBF.CONTROL Definition of MTBF calculation parameters
STAX.E Sales tax
Flow of Activities
The flow of processing for the marketing module begins with the entry of the sales order in the SO.E procedure. All items which are sold should be entered in the sales order file, including items which do not have a specific part number assigned, such as non-inventory items. The procedure allows the deletion of the sales order record, provided there have been no shipments made against it.
After the sales order is on file, shipments may be made against that order, either using the batch shipment creation procedure ( SO.P1 ), or creating a single shipment record in the SHIP.E procedure. Once created, the shipper is considered "requested" and a shipment picklist can be printed. Generally, the picklist is manually filled in with the actual shipment information such as ship quantity, and that information is then entered into the SHIP.E2 procedure which will move inventory.
Once the SHIP.E2 procedure has been executed against a shipment, the SHIP.P1 procedure will post the shipping information, updating the sales history file (SALES), the commission file (COMM) and, when active will update the accounts receivable module with the amounts due. If an error is discovered in the shipment after posting then a shipment reversal may be done with the SHIP.E3 procedure.
Prior to posting, changes may be made to the shipper via SHIP.E2 . Once it has been posted, the shipper can be reversed via SHIP.E3 . When the record is saved the inventory transactions will be reversed and when the record is posted reversing sales, commission and accounts receivable records will be created.
Authorizations for returned merchandise may be entered with RMA.E . The rma record may be created from a shipment, sales order or field service order. Receipts may be made against an rma for the full or partial amount via RMAREC.E and RMAREC.E2 . The intent of of RMAREC.E is to allow personnel on the receiving dock to identify what has been received. However, inventory will not be moved against this receipt until it has been confirmed via RMAREC.E2 .
In addtion to confirming the receipt, RMAREC.E2 allows entry of additional information such as failure codes, miscellaneous charges, etc. Once the receipt has been confirmed, it can be posted via RMAREC.P1 . The posting process updates the sales history file (SALES), the commissions file (COMM) and the accounts receivable file (AR). An accounts receivable credit memo will only be created if the rma record has been flagged to create one.
Prior to posting, changes may be made to the rma receipt via RMAREC.E2 . Once the receipt has been posted, it can be reversed via RMAREC.E3 . When the record is saved the inventory transactions will be reversed and when the record is posted reversing sales, commission and accounts receivable (if applicable) records will be created.
The maintenance of the Customer file ( CUST.E ) and the Terms file ( TERMS.E ) should be done as new items are required or changes need to be made.
At some point in time it may be appropriate purge some of the older sales order, shipment and supporting file records from the system. This is done with the purge procedure provided in the batch processes menu.
While all of the cross-reference files in the marketing module are maintained automatically, it may be necessary to rebuild these files with the batch procedures provided. This would normally be done after a file purge, but may also be done on a regular basis by setting up the rebuild procedures in a batch queue.
Version 8.10.57