ERP Internals/Modules/Order Entry

Customers place orders for products and/or services with the enterprise. Orders can be placed in person, via telephone, mail, fax, e-mail or electronically (see below). If there is a delay between the placing of the order and its fulfillment (for example, if the ordered items have to be picked from Inventory and shipped), Order Entry/Invoicing creates a sales order. Otherwise, the record of this is an invoice. Invoices can be given to the customer at the time of purchase, or mailed, faxed, e-mailed or sent electronically after the goods have been picked, packaged and shipped. Order Entry/Invoicing is usually high-volume and mission-critical in for-profit enterprises. Every ERP package has an Order Entry/Invoicing module. Often, this module has custom processing.

EDI/XML

Orders can be received electronically through EDI or XML. (I will get back to explaining this)

Web Store

Many companies allow customers to order directly from their website. This creates an invoice automatically.

Point of Sale (POS)

Most retail companies use POS in which a scanner reads a Universal Product Code (UPC) attached to the item to create a line on the order invoice.

Configuration

Some enterprises have products or services that are highly configurable or routinely customized to meet customer needs. Using user-defined rules, Configurator conducts a dialog with the user and generates literature, drawings, and bills of material. Order Entry/Invoicing and Quotation/Estimate use Configurator. Inventory items can be flagged as configurable. The details of the options selected are recorded in the invoice often for use by manufacturing.

Tables

Order Entry/Invoicing shares the Customer and Invoice groups of tables with Accounts Receivable. It alone controls the Sales Order tables.

Data Exchange

Order Entry/Invoicing sends transactions to Inventory, General Ledger and Accounts Receivable. It can use Quotation/Estimation data to create invoices.