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mInventory Help – Sales & Invoicing

Managing Customers 

Customers are organizations or individuals to which you sell your products/inventory items.  You should setup customers before you do any of the sales/invoicing functions.

     

Payment Type and Term

Before getting into creating sales, you should review the settings for Payment Type and Payment Term in the preferences screen.  This is on the “Company” tab.

The payment type is the default type of payment that you accept. Payments can be Cash/Check, Credit Card, Paypal or Invoice. You should pick that one that you typically use. This can be changed for a specific sale.

The payment term is only used for the “Invoice” payment type.  This is the number of days of terms that you give for your customers to pay.  This will be the number of days after the shipping date that the invoice is due.  Payment terms can be “Due on Receipt” or a number of days between 10 and 90.  This is typically 15 or 30 days.  Set the default you would like to use.  Like Payment Type, this can also be changed on a sale.

Creating a Sale

When a customer places an order from your company, you create a sales order to track the sales process. The sales order identifies all of the inventory items that the customer is purchasing.  When a sales order is created, it has a status of “draft”. It stays in this status until you acknowledge that you have shipped the items. Inventory levels for items included on sales orders are recorded as “on hold”. Once you acknowledge a sales order as shipped, the inventory levels on the items on the sales order are moved from “on hold” to “sold”.

Detail Tab – lists basic sales information along with the inventory items that are being sold

Shipping & Payment Tab – allows you to specify specifics about the payment type and terms along with invoicing related fields.

Comments Tab – allows for free form comments on this sale.

Using Sales Tax

Before adding inventory items, you should pick a sales tax rate to be applied to the sales order.  If you have previously setup your tax rates, you can just pick the tax rate from the Tax Rate drop down.  If you need to setup a rate or establish a new one, choose the sales tax setup icon to the right of the Tax Rate drop down.  You will see the screen below.

mInvoices can support an unlimited number of tax rates.  You can create these on the Tax Rates table. Two types of tax rules are supported.

SIMPLE – this is a single tax rate that is applied to all products and services.

COMBINED – this is a combination to two tax rates. These tax rates can be applied separately or you can compound them in which the second rate is applied after the first rate. In effect, the second rate taxes the tax calculated on the first rate.

To add a new rate, click the new button and select the type. Then enter the name and rate and, for combined rate, specify if compounding is used.

NOTE – You can not delete or change tax rates that are assigned to sales orders. If you find that you need to change a tax rate, you should setup a new rate and enter the new values.

Adding Inventory Items

You add inventory items just as you would on a purchase order.  You can press the add button below the list or simply drag inventory items from the inventory list.  Do which ever is more convenient for you.  Once you have added an item, you can edit the quantity, the unit price, select the UOM and pick whether you want the tax to apply or the item to be “Exempt”.

Order Discounts & Adjustments

mInventory supports several types of order level adjustments.  The adjustments can be accessed by clicking the icon located just to the right of the Adjustments Field on the Sales Order screen.  These adjustments can be:

• Percentage Discount
• Fixed Discount
• Shipping & Handling Charge
• Service Fee Charge
• Other Charge

To add a new adjustment, open the order adjustments screen and press the “New…” button.  Pick the type of adjustment and then press save.  Next edit the description and amount.  You should also specify if the adjustment is taxable if you pick one of the non-discount adjustment types.  You can always edit the description and amount later if you need to change these.  Adjustments are deleted with the delete button.  Press save when you are done and the adjustments will be applied to the sale.

Shipping and Payments

When creating sales orders, you specify how you expect to ship the products to the customer and the payment method that the customer is going to use. If your customer pays with credit card, check or cash, the sales order is automatically marked as “Paid”. If you allow your customer to charge the purchase you should pick the Invoice Payment Type. This triggers the Invoice workflow that is described in the next section. In this case, the sales order is marked as “In Process/UnPaid”.

Acknowledge Shipment

When you have finished picking, packing and have shipped the goods to your customer, you need to tell mInventory that you have shipped the goods.  The first thing you should do is to edit the sale and update the shipping details including the type of shipping and tracking number.  This information can then be printed on the sales order and/or invoice.

Once the order has been updated, you can use the “Acknowledge Shipment” button on the Action Panel.  Here you simply enter the ship date and press save.  The order will be marked shipped and inventory levels for the items on the sale will be moved from “On Hold” to “Sold”.

Managing Invoices

For sales orders that you marked as having an “Invoice” payment term, there are a few more steps that you need to take.  The invoice function icon allows you to see just these sales orders that are part of your invoice workflow.

Print Customer Invoice

For invoices, you can right click on the invoice line and pick “Customer Invoice” or click on the reports menu and run the Customer Invoice report.  This report can then be printed, emailed or handed to your customer.

You manage outstanding customer payments by keeping an eye on the list of invoices on the invoice list.  You’ll see column that show invoices that are outstanding and the number of days that they are late.  You can also print the “Invoice Outstanding” report to get this on paper.  If you find that you have a customer that has not paid and is beyond the due date, you can print a “Payment Reminder” report and re-attach the invoice as a way to get the customer to remit payment.

Enter Payment

When a customer pays you, you should enter payment by clicking on the corresponding button on the Action Panel. mInventory Supports multiple payments and you can use this to recognize deposits or other advanced payments.  Payments made are shown on invoices and other reports.