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In addition to a standard sale, DEAR Inventory offers a type of sale with advanced features. Advanced sales are designed to handle sale orders where multiple invoices and/or fulfillments are to be considered part of the same sale. Any sale order that is to be made and delivered in multiple fulfillments should be made as an Advanced Sale. 


Advanced Sales also allow multiple credit notes to be issued for a single sale order. For returns workflows, see Returns (RMAs and Return Orders).


Any order that requires multiple fulfillments should be made as an advanced sale. A normal sale can be converted into an advanced sale, but the conversion cannot be reversed. If you are using a standard sale to fulfill an order with fewer items than what is stated in the sale order or invoice, you will be given the option to convert the standard sale to an advanced sale. Standard sales can be converted to advanced sales at any point in the sales process.


This article assumes that the reader is familiar with the standard DEAR Inventory sale process. See Processing a Sale for more information.


NOTE: All Sales Orders created via the Sales module, which is accessible from Sale → Search → Sales, will be Advanced Sales if the Default Load Advanced Sales Order setting in Settings → General Settings is enabled. This includes all sales from integrated channels, e.g. Amazon and eBay. See General Settings for more information.


Prerequisites


Table of Contents


Generate an Advanced Sale

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An Advanced Sale can either be created new or converted from an existing sale. Customer details and sale quote/sale order lines are displayed and filled in in the same way as in the standard sale process, but the fulfillment, invoice and credit note functions are now displayed in a sidebar on the left. In an Advanced Sale, multiple fulfillments, invoices and credit notes can be created for the sale order. 


Transactions, History, Attachments and Manual Journals can be viewed and edited in the same way as in the standard sale process, but are also now located in the sidebar on the left.


Create a new Advanced Sale

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To create a new advanced sale, navigate to Sale → New → Advanced Sale. Leave the Skip Quote box unchecked to start with a Sale Quote, or check to start with a Sale Order.


Alternatively, if the Default Load Advanced Sale Order setting in Settings → General Settings is enabled, you can directly create a new Advanced Sale under the Sale module, which is accessible from Sale → Search → Sales.

 

When the Sales module loads, click the button to load the New Advanced Sale page.


See General Settings for more information.


Convert an existing Sale

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You may not realise a sale order is to be shipped in multiple fulfillments or with multiple invoices until after the sale quote or sale order has been authorised. In this case, you can easily convert a simple sale quote/order to an advanced sale quote/order.


Convert an existing Sale:

  1. Navigate to Sale → Sales.
  2. Choose a sale to convert.
  3. Click Convert.
  4. The change from standard sale to advanced sale is irreversible. Click Yes to confirm the conversion.

Fill in the document header 

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Select a customer in the top left-hand corner to pre-fill customer fields. If you are converting a simple sale to an advanced sale, the document header information from the simple sale will be brought across to the new document. 


See Processing a Sale - Fill in the document header for more detailed information about the document header fields. 


Add items to the Sale Quote/Order

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Adding items to the sale quote or sale order is done in the same way as for a simple sale. Products can be added individually, imported from a CSV file, added to the order using a barcode scanner, or multiple product variants can be added by clicking +Family. See Processing a Sale - Add items to the sale quote for more information on any of these steps. The process is the same for adding items to a sale quote or a sale order.


Additional charges (non-inventory items or services such as shipping, insurance, gift-wrapping, etc.) are added in the lower section of the sale order. Authorise the order when you are ready to continue. 


If the sale has a sale quote, click Show Sale Order in the top-right box. The sale order will be automatically pre-filled with the sale quote lines. Authorise again to continue. Sales where the quote is skipped can ignore this step.


By default, any picker can be assigned to the order. You may also select a specific picker from the list to take care of the order during fulfillment.


NOTE: When authorising a sale order, you will be given the option to allocate stock. Allocating stock will reserve the sale order items for this sale once the sale is authorised. If stock is not allocated, the sale order items will be allocated during picking. 


Customer Credits

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Once a sale quote has been saved or authorised, you can add customer credit (e.g. to reflect a prepayment or deposit) to use against the sale invoice. See Customer Credits for more information. This field is NOT for regular payments – regular payments are added when processing a sale invoice


NOTE: If using Xero as your accounting system, ensure Xero payment settings are set to Synced both ways or Pushed to Xero. QuickBooks Online payments are set by default to sync both ways. Some users prefer to manage their payments entirely through their accounting system. If this is the case, you can leave this section blank, the payment details will be imported from your accounting system and applied to the order once payment is made.



Invoicing

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Invoices can be processed before or after fulfillments. You can change the default order for the sales process in Settings → General Settings → Sale process customisation


With a multiple fulfillment order, invoices can be generated for the entire sale, a single fulfillment, or more than one fulfillment. 


To invoice a multiple fulfillment sale: 

  1. In the sidebar on the left, go to the Invoice section.
  2. Click the automatically generated invoice or +Invoice.
  3. Enter the Invoice Date.
  4. In the Fulfillment # field, choose the fulfillment you want to invoice. If you have not processed any fulfillments yet, this field will be greyed out. You can choose more than one fulfillment per invoice. Items can be manually added to the invoice by clicking Add more items. Click Invoice Remaining to invoice all remaining uninvoiced items.
  5. Add any Additional Charges if required. Only Service type items can be added to Additional Charges. 
  6. Authorise the invoice. Repeat Steps 2-6 until all items have been invoiced.


Payments

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Once an invoice has been authorised, you can apply payments to the invoice at the bottom of the invoice screen. If an unused customer credit is associated with this customer, you will be able to use it as a payment towards the invoice balance. 


NOTE: If using Xero as your accounting system, ensure Xero payment settings are set to Synced both ways or Pushed to Xero. QuickBooks Online payments are set by default to sync both ways. Some users prefer to manage their payments entirely through their accounting system. If this is the case, you can leave this section blank, the payment details will be imported from your accounting system and applied to the order once payment is made.



Fulfillment (Pick, Pack, Ship)

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Fulfillment of the order in DEAR is controlled by the Pick, Pack and Ship steps. Orders can be shipped in full or in parts depending on product availability or at your discretion.



To fulfil a sale:

  1. In the sidebar on the left, go to the Fulfillments section.
  2. Click +Fulfillment to begin.
  3. Pick the stock and Save or Authorise the Pick.
    • By default, any picker can be assigned to the order. However, if you assigned a specific picker during the order stage, this picker will be assigned to the task. You may still select another picker from the list to take care of the pick.
    • To pick the stock that has already been invoiced, choose one or more invoices from the For Invoice(s) menu.
    • To scan an item, click Scan.
    • Manually add items to the list by clicking Add More Items.
    • Click Pick Remaining to pick all sale order items that have not yet been picked.
    • Click Pick Available to pick all sale order items that have not yet been picked and are in stock.

NOTE: Orders that have yet to be picked, or those with Status = Picking, can also be scheduled for picking and/or assigned to designated pickers from the Fulfillment View on the Sales page. For more information, see Sales Views.


  1. Pack the stock, specify the quantity and box numbers, then Save or Authorise the Pack.
    • Click Scan to include the stock in the Pack. If there are multiple boxes, enter the Box # to which the added stock items will be added.
    • Click Copy from Pick to add items to Pack automatically. Click Add More Items to add items manually. If the items are covered by product warranties, the Warranty name and Registration # are displayed in their own columns at this time.
  2. Ship stock when orders are ready to be dispatched. Enter a shipping note for the relevant fulfillment before authorising the Ship processOnce everything is in order, Save or Authorise the Ship.
    • Click AutoFill to populate the Ship tab with default information automatically.
    • If the current shipment is being sent via multiple carriers, you can click New Shipment to create a new line and add the details of the Ship Date, Carrier, Tracking number and Boxes being shipped.


To add one or more additional fulfillments, repeat Steps 2-5 until the entire sale order has been fulfilled.


NOTE: When an exchange is processed in DEAR POS, a new fulfillment will be triggered and processed in the advanced sale module, completing the Pick, Pack and Ship process automatically. See Handling an exchange in POS for more information. 



Generating credit notes and returns

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One or more credit notes can be generated for each sale. See Customer Credit Notes and Refunds for more information. 


The DEAR RMA and return order features allow you to set up returns policies and automatically generate credit notes, restocks, transfer orders, write-off tasks, etc. with the correct cost allocations and accounting transactions. See Returns (RMAs and Return Orders) for detailed information.


RMAs can be raised for any sale processed through DEAR, including sales through integrated eCommerce channels such as Shopify or WooCommerce provided they were captured and processed by DEAR.


NOTE: Items in the credit note with a Bill of Materials showing their component parts will be auto-disassembled during restock. For more information, see Disassembly.


To issue one or more credit notes to a customer:

  1. In the sidebar on the left, go to the Credit Note section.
  2. Click New Credit Note.
  3. Enter the Credit Note Date.
  4. In the Credit Note for field, choose the invoice the Credit Note relates to. This automatically copies the items from that invoice to the credit note.
  5. Create the credit note. See Customer Credit Notes and Refunds for more information about how to generate the right credit note for your transaction.
  6. The Restock function will be automatically filled in from the credit note item details. Change the quantity to reflect the actual number of items restocked (removing damaged items, etc.) if necessary. NOTE: If Restock quantity is 0, delete the restock line.
       
  7. Authorise the credit note. To associate more credit notes with the same sale, click +Credit Note in the sidebar, then repeat Steps 3-7.


Refunds

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Refunds are applied to credit notes in the same way that payments are applied to invoices. Credit notes must be authorised before a refund can be issued.


NOTE: If using Xero as your accounting system, ensure Xero payment settings are set to Synced both ways or Pushed to Xero. QuickBooks Online payments are set by default to sync both ways. Some users prefer to manage their payments/refunds entirely through their accounting system. If this is the case, you can leave this section blank, the refund details will be imported from your accounting system and applied to the order once a refund is made.


Credit notes can be issued as a refund payment or as a customer credit to be used against future invoices.


To issue a credit note refund to the customer:

  1. Return some or all of the value of the credit note to a customer credit by clicking +Customer Credit.
  2. A pop-up window will open, fill in the fields and click Create to continue.
  3. The customer credit value will be added to the Refund section.



To issue a credit note refund as payment:

  1. Return some or all of the value of the credit note to the customer's payment accounts by clicking +Refund.
  2. Enter the account details and date paid, then click Save to finish.


Attributes, attachments and logs

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Attachments, attributes and logs are accessed from the left of the screen. 


Attachments can be manually attached by the user. Any documents created from DEAR in relation to the sale order (invoice, shipping labels, etc.) are saved to this tab for easy reference.


Additional attributes fields are also found in this section. Using additional attributes, you can add up to 10 custom fields to customers. If you have no additional attributes applied to a customer, this section will not be visible. 


Click History to show all activity relating to this sale order. All user activities from the creation of the new Sale Order onwards are logged. Workflow History logs notifications and emails sent related to the sale order. 




Click Transactions to see all accounts transactions generated from the sale process. 



View related orders

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Authorising a sale order can initiate other orders to meet the sale order demand. Open Related Orders in the Other menu to the left to shows the following tasks with a convenient link:

  • Dropship purchase orders
  • Backordered tasks: Purchase Orders, Production Orders
  • Assembly tasks (auto-assembly triggered by sale authorisation).


Sale order actions

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Most sale order actions are accessed by clicking the SO number in the top right-hand corner of the screen. 


Save - Saves the sale order. 


Undo - Returns the purchase order to Draft status. Order lines, invoice lines, payment information etc. will remain in the document if it has previously been entered and authorised. 


Void - Drops all current changes and deletes the inventory, invoice and payment records. The order status is changed to Voided, and the order can no longer be edited.


Clone - Makes a copy of the current sale order. The new sale order will not be authorised. 


Mark as Fulfilled - Can be used in the case when you have ordered more products than you have fulfilled and you don’t plan to fulfill the rest, this will remove the stock allocation done by sale order as you no longer expect to ship the rest. 


Mark as Closed - gives the indication that you don't plan to invoice the remaining ordered products. This includes Mark as Fulfilled.


The other purchase actions are Print and Email. These buttons are shown on the sale quote, sale order, invoice, fulfillment and credit note screens. 


Print- Allows printing the chosen document. The document is generated in PDF format for printing or saving to your device. 


Email - Allows emailing the chosen document to the customer. Documents are attached to the email as PDFs. You will be prompted to enter a subject line. You may wish to set Email templates to use for the email body. 


 



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