Generating and printing Transactions (Invoices or receipts)

Invoices can be started at the POS or vis the Mail Order interface. The following discussion refers to the Mail Order interface, ie the non-POS interface. This is typically used to process sales generated as a result of emails, phone calls etc.

New invoices can be generated by

• using the Start button on the Stock or Contact form or

• by including the current Stock item, using the include button (Alt U) on the Stock form or Catalogues form. If the current contact (the contact displayed on the Contact form) does not have an Active invoice already, a new one is generated for them automatically.

• “New Invoice” on the Transactions Details form.

• At the Point of sale interface. Typically used for walk in sales but can also be used to process mail order type sales.

Starting and Modifying Invoices from the Transactions Details form (Mail order interface)

The Transactions Details screen is effecively the heart of Mail Order interface, just as the Point Of Sale Details screen is the heart of the counter sales interface.

Fom the Transactions Details you can create new invoices, add more items to any existing Active invoices, remove existing items from Active invoices, add postage charges, display any invoice by Transid, print with preview or print direct any invoice and optionally print a parcel label and other useful summary information. This interface is the center of all non-POS sales operations.

No matter how an invoice is raised it can be manipulated and examined using this interface. In Mail Order mode you would typically drill down from a customers main record to a specific invoice using the Summary button,. This will display all transactions linked to this customer. To view the details of any transaction just click on the transid field on the appropriate line item in the Summary screen. This will display the transaction in detail. To go back to the summary screen click the Summary button. In this way you can toggle back and forth between the summary and details records for any customer or and group of transactions, such as all invoices that are currently Active (waiting for items to be added to them.

Start a sale from a Contact’s main record or from the Stock form

When invoked, the Start command will prompt you to select either the current contact or another contact to raise an invoice against. You will then be prompted to add Stock items to the invoice in as loop. When the last item is added the invoice is displayed on the Transactions Details form. Fom here you can enter postage, specify item or invoice wide discounts, add more items, remove existing items, and print an invoice and optionally a parcel label and other useful summary information.

Include an item in an invoice from the Stock form

The Include command on the Stock form always adds the Current Stock item to the active invoice for the Current Contact.

The Include command can be used to add items on an ad hoc basis to any invoice over an extended period of time. This is useful when you wish to confirm the availability of one or more items before adding them to an existing invoice. The invoice can be completed at any time. Typically you would start invoices using the Start command and then use the include command to finish off any that could not be completed at the time.

To use the Include command to create a new invoice:

• Call up the required contact on the contact form (see Making a contact the current contact)
• Add items from inventory to the ACTIVE transaction for this contact.
• If taxation is active on your system, you will be prompted to select tax options for the new invoice. Typically you set up global defaults for Taxation that will apply to most invoices. This is setup via the Taxation setup form (accessible from the User Options button on the Main Switchboard)
• When all items have been added as specified above display the ACTIVE transaction (Use the ACTIVE button or ALT^T). You will now be viewing the Draft Invoice.
• Type in a unique message, if appropriate, for this Invoice in the entry box provided.
• Enter any discount. Note the standard discount applying to this contact will have been copied automatically from their contact record an applied to every item in the invoice. This value can be overwritten to allow for one-off or anomalous discounts. The contact’s standard discount will remain as before. To modify the standard discount for this contact change the entry in their record on the contact form.
• Invoice Discount vs Item Discount. The Default Invoice discount applies to ALL items currently included in the invoice and to all items subsequently added to the invoice. If different discounts are required for individual items use the corresponding Item discount field to enter them. Discounts only apply to goods in the invoice, not to postage and packaging.
• Textbook Subsidy. In Australia new textbooks attract a special Textbook subsidy (8% at the time of writing). This can be applied on an item by item basis if the option has been activated (setup via the Taxation setup form, accessible from the User Options button on the Main Switchboard). While invoicing, ticking the Apply Subsidy button alongside the corresponding item will apply or remove the subsidy for that item. The subsidy is computed on the discounted price of the item. If GST applies the GST is collected on the pre subsidy price, not the subsidised price. This can cause the GST collected to be greater than expected from the total. The bookseller pays the GST on the subsidy and collects the full subsidy amount from the government, ie the amount collected is deemed to have been taxed already.

• Select the method of freight from the list provided. To add a new freight method to the list, type in the new method and follow the on-screen instructions.
• Enter the cost of shipping and packing into the field provided.
• When you are satisfied that all details are complete you can print a hard copy invoice/receipt to send to the contact, if required.

• At any time you can Preview the Invoice to see how it will appear on the printed page.