Quotes

A "quote" is a list of items that a customer has requested pricing or information regarding, but has not necessarily committed to purchasing. Quotes are available from the Quotes transaction unless purged (voided/deleted). Quotes typically remain available until the close date indicated has past (a daily process marks quote documents as "closed" if they have passed the date). Up to that time, a quote may be resumed (modified) or used to create another transaction type such as a sale or an order. Quote documents are not actually removed even after being closed and may be accessed in other ways. Expiration is considered the end of the period that the quote pricing is promised for. Archived quotes, if data archiving is enabled, would not be available except for inquiry using the Documents form.

As is true with sales or order activities, a quote begins with account (and sometimes job) selection. Next, a quote document ID is generated or entered that is used for identifying the quote in the future.

For information regarding folders in the Point of Sale areas, click here.

Selecting an Account

In the Point of Sale Name list, you can either enter the Sort Name (from the Account Maintenance form) or the account ID. Most Point of Sale transactions involve selecting an account and job (when applicable) first. For Sales, you can scan or enter the items into the data grid first, but for other transaction types (Orders, Quotes, Tickets, etc.), you choose an initial account first. If you know the customer participating in the transaction, there is usually no need to choose an alternate menu, just type either the sort name or the account number/ID.

When a customer has their own charge account, we recommend that you enter their name in the Name list. You can change it to a different account, if needed, before processing.

There are some additional search options you can use, based on other information you know at the time of your search. You can review these option here

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When the enhanced look up feature is enabled, you have more selection options, but the account's Sort Name field entry is still the primary match field. The application only shows you account number matches if no sort name matches are found. If matches for both the sort name and account number exist, only the entries with the name display.

Using the Enhanced Account Look Up Feature for Account Searches

When enabled, the Enhanced Look Up feature searches using the account number, sort name, address (line 1), and company name automatically. For each row, the cell matching the look up text contains a gray background color. Even when more than one column for the same row (account) has a match, the application only highlights the column with the first look up match. Typically, the more text you enter, the shorter and more useful the list of matching results will be. With enhanced look up, there is a maximum number of matches (up to 70). There is no <<More>> option, which means that if more than 70 matches exist, you may have to either enter additional text to narrow the search or enter new search information instead.
Note: You cannot use the % character as a wild card when using the Enhanced Look Up feature.

The Enhanced Look Up feature can be enabled by Support upon request. The team sets up parameters and uses a Support Utility to populate tables with the data you have already entered into the application. If you decide you do not want to use this feature after it is enabled, Support needs to reset these tables and the application returns tothe original methods for search. You can request to re-enable this feature in the future if you choose. Key look up data is removed when account or items are modified if you disable the enhanced look-up feature.

After you select an account from the list, the account type displays beside the list. There are three types of accounts:

  • A Cash account is a customer-specific account that does not allow receivables charges.

  • A Charge account is also a customer-specific account that allow receivables charges to accumulate.

  • A System account is a general-use account that is not customer-specific. A System account does not have a credit limit or allow charges.
    All companies must have a system account named CASH. Except in the case of Tickets* (Advice Notes) and Charge Returns, the default account, "CASH," is the default when no specific account is indicated.

    To select the System account, press TAB . In addition, this type of account requires the entry of a delivery name when used with non-sale type transactions (orders, quotes, etc.). more...

Selecting a Job

Accounts may be linked to one or more jobs; every account has at least one job, known as the master job (0). You can add additional jobs to any account to track account activity separately from the account. You are only prompted to select a job if the account has multiple jobs (more than the required job "zero"); otherwise, all activity is assumed to be for the master job. In Point of Sale, disabled and closed jobs are not included in selection list. You may be able to add new jobs during the transaction processing (on the Delivery tab of the Process (F12) form).*

Job_Selection

*Your security settings may prevent you from adding jobs during processing.

 

 

Quote Selection & Document ID

Like most documents, new quotes may be assigned a sequential number automatically; however, users are able to specify their own ID as well. All document types, including quotes, can be assigned to one of 3 specific numeric ranges. These ranges are used when automatically assigning an ID. When assigning a custom quote ID, the user must do this before any other number/ID is automatically assigned.

The sequence portion of the document identifier can be a maximum number of 6-characters (numbers or letters) in length. When using a custom ID, it's best to use all the characters available (especially if you do document scanning or bar code labels). The standard YYMM date prefix will be added to all quote IDs.

To have the application assign a new quote number instead, press the TAB, Enter (or return) key, or choose "<<<NEW>>>" from the drop down.

This field is also used for selecting an existing quote for modification. If the quote is recent, clicking the drop down lists the most recent quote documents first. If you know the ID, you can type it in. Otherwise, a number of selection options are available from the Quote # drop down's alternate menu (usually a right mouse click).

Delivery Name, Customer PO#, and Delivery Address all seek matches based upon what you have typed in the Quote # field. The "Select" option offers a form with additional Quote selection options (Note: this same form is used with customer orders)...

Removing an Existing Quote

The menu marker Menu_Marker_Icon to the right of the quote # field can be used to void an existing quote. "Voided" quotes are removed permanently.

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Quote Locking

If you use quotes as templates for other transactions (via import), there is an option available for "locking" individual quotes. This option will not appear unless it has been enabled by support. This is only done upon request (there is no charge for enabling this option).

When "locking" has been enabled, a "lock quote" option appears on the menu marker after a document ID has been assigned (not before).

A "check" appears next to the "lock quote" option after locking has been selected.

Locking prevents other users from making any changes to the "locked" quote. The user who locked the quote will be the only one allowed to make changes (including "unlocking" the quote if desired). Once locked, a quote may still be invoiced or ordered by other users. Locking only prevents permanent modifications to the quote by other users. It does not affect whether users change pricing or quantities after the quote is copied into another transaction.

To use a quote repeatedly as a template, the quote should be copied into Sales (Quotes, Orders, etc.) using the Import (F2), Wizard function so that the quote isn't updated as sold, etc.

How this is used may vary based upon whether or not you want the template quote's pricing to change or not. The Import Wizard can be used to select a quote and either keep the original prices or use the customer's current pricing (in this second case, just don't map the price columns). The Import, Document option always reprices the quote to match the selected customer.

ItemSets

An "ItemSet" is a classification tool used for Sales, Orders, and Quotes. This allows the user to assign items to groups, or "sets," which you can may be sort, invoice, or deliver separately. For example, a customer may place a large order, but want specific goods delivered at different times. ItemSets are an excellent way of keeping track of the customer's delivery needs while maintaining a single order at the same time.

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Totals Panel

The upper right-hand area of the form includes a display-only panel showing the transaction's current sub-total, sales tax, and total. The tax location and rate (percentage) are displayed to the left of the panel when enough room is available (the tax location and rate can be viewed in the Process (F12) form otherwise). These figures will automatically update as changes are made. Figures also update to reflect any adjustments (adders/discounts, etc.) applied on the Process (F12) form.

Point_of_Sale_Totals_Panel

The menu marker (to the right of the totals panel) offers additional options allowing the user to switch to a different transaction type (sale, quote, ticket) or display the current GM% (gross margin percentage) for the entire transaction.

Canada_Flag Canadian Settings

Users in Canada can double click on the tax amount to display the split provincial (PST) and GST tax dollar amounts. For Canadian provinces with both PST and GST taxes, both locations (and rates) are displayed to the left of the totals panel. HST (Harmonized Sales Tax) locations (used for the Maritime provinces) combine the GST and any local amounts together into one tax rate, so no split is provided in those cases.

Various Point of Sale Areas

Tax Details (Canada Only)

Grid & Item Entry

The grid is used for item entry. Inventory being sold may be entered or scanned at any time. A "discountable" column (Disc) has been added with release 8.1.0 (January 2013). This can be used to view the discountable status of the item or to specify a line-item discount (if the item is discountable).

Main Menu > Point of Sale > Quotes

Item Entry in Quotes

Primary entry fields include all columns except description, extended amount, and additional information.

ClosedFor more information about item entry and selection, click here.

One of the most important features of a retail software solution is Item Entry. When the item is physically present, scanning the item's barcode is the easiest and fastest way to enter it into the application. If you don't have a scanner or the item has no barcode, you can always enter a full or partial item number if it's available. When entering text that partially matches existing item codes, the application displays a list of items that match. Items in selection lists are color coded to help distinguish between item numbers and alternate SKUs (in purple). On-hand quantities in a selection list are also color coded when an item has a negative on-hand (red).

There are cases when you may not be working with any physical item, such as when you are building an order or quote, so scanning or manual item entry isn't always a realistic option. For these situations, you can enter the information you want to search for and right-click the Item list icon to display a list of search options.

Multi-Line Item Selection Tricks

If you want to add more than one item in the list to the data grid, you can hold down the CTRL (Control) or SHIFT key and click the items you want to add as follows:

  • Use the CTRL key to select random rows in the list (you can click any number of rows and locations) and

  • Use the SHIFT key to select a range of row entries above or below your first selection.

After you select the items you want, press the Enter key. Then, use the Next (F1) key to add the items you selected to the data grid one-at-a-time.
Selected items are not automatically copied into a grid. This feature works this way because not all selections made using these keys end up in a data grid.

Selecting Items using Group Section

Selecting Items using a Keyword

Selecting Items using a Barcode

Selecting the Item using the Description

Selecting Items using a Vendor SKU

Selecting Items using the Primary Vendor

Selecting the Item using the Product ID

You can use the Product ID as a classification tool to either create custom product IDs (groups) for your related items or, if you are a Do it Best® member, you can use them to mirror the Do it Best product departments, categories, sub-categories, and product groups. You can use a combination of both custom and Do it Best product IDs; however, only one ID may be assigned per product. The same product ID may be associated with as many items as you like.

Selecting the Item using the Manufacturer SKU

When you search for a particular item and you know the item’s manufacturer's SKU, you can use that SKU to find the item. We call this enhanced search. The enhanced search feature must be set up before you use this feature. We have added the Manufacturer’s SKU to the default enhanced search options as well.

To search by the Manufacturer SKU, enter the SKU in the Item field, select the down arrow beside the item field, and choose the Manufacturer SKU option. The application displays the list of items that match the SKU you entered.

Selecting the Item using Inventory Look up

Inventory Lookup : Group-Section

Inventory Lookup : Department - Class - Fineline

Selecting Items using the Image List Selection

Selecting Items using SO Lookup

Selecting Items using Lost Sales

Can't Find the Items I am Looking For, Any Other Ideas?

There are two additional search features you can use to find items quickly in Point of Sale or Inventory. Both of these features must be enabled by Implementation or Support team members. These features are discussed below.

Using the Enhanced Item Look Up Feature

When Enhanced Item look up is enabled, item selection automatically involves the following fields: item number, description, and keyword(s). The column cells matching the look up text are indicated by a gray background color. With Enhanced Item look up enabled, there is no "more" option provided and the maximum number of matches shown is 70. This means that if more than 70 matches exist, not all will be shown, and you may have to either enter additional text to narrow the selection or use other (alternate) selection options instead. Item number matches are given a preference over description and keyword matches (since alternate methods do exist for selection by description and keyword if necessary); however, the listing is finally re-ordered by Item SKU so the item matches may not necessarily appear first.

Exact matches on an item SKU do not provide a selection list.

Selection with no entry in the text area as well as selection involving the alternate menu do not use the enhanced look up feature. In these cases, item selection does provide the "more" option, and works as expected.

Typically, the more text entered, the shorter the listing of matching results will be.

Selection_Item_Enhanced

The Enhanced Item Look Up feature requires setup by ECI Support personnel. Support enables a parameter and populates a special look up table using a support utility. This is only done upon request. After the Enhanced Look Up feature is enabled, ALL users and ALL locations can use it for item searches in all data grids that include items.

You can disable this feature at any time by contacting Support. If for some reason, an "enhanced" search is disabled, the tables will need to be repopulated again if it is re-enabled in the future.

Wild card searches (using the % character) are not supported when using the Enhanced Look Up features.

We have updated the ecommerce API to support the transmission of three additional fields of information: • Discount Date This specifies the last date that the discount applies. (This allows the API to compare the discount date to the date the payment is being made to ensure the discount can be applied.) • Discount Amount The calculated amount of the discount. (This provides the amount of the discount, which the API can subtract from the ROA payment balance.) • Outstanding Amount Discount The original amount that can be discounted, minus the discount amount, and minus the customer’s account payment, minus any additional discounts not included above. Additional details are available in the API Guide.

Using the Enhanced Item Description Look Up Feature

When you are looking for an inventory item and cannot remember the exact name or Item ID, you can use a tool for searching the item descriptions to find the right materials quickly. The Enhanced Item Description Search features to give you those tools. Traditionally, you were restricted to searching for 32 characters when you used a Description search, we have expanded this to 300 characters, when needed. Additionally, we have added additional description search tools, such as using quotes (“Drill Bit”) and using wild cards (Drill B*) to help search for items using their extended item description. The search results show the closest matches at the top and any additional results that match the criteria below.

You can use this feature wherever there is an Item list (Point of Sale, Inquiry, Item Maintenance, etc.)and is restricted to ECI Hosted customers only. Adding this feature requires a lot of additional database overhead, which we can manage better in our hosted environment. To enable this feature, reach out to the Implementation or Support teams; as it is disabled by default. Once enabled, there are no special permissions required to use this feature; it is accessible to all users.

See the Enhanced Item Description topic for more information.

Unit of Measure Changes

Quantities and pricing reflect the unit of measure displayed. Changing the unit of measure (U/M) to a measure with some other value (other than 1:1) can optionally modify the related quantity or price. If the "convert" box is checked clip0189, the existing quantity or price will be converted to a value equal to the current value (displayed in the drop down). The "convert" option will not change existing extended amounts. If the "convert" option is not checked, the existing quantity or price will not change, and will be used to re-calculate extended amounts.

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Pricing Changes

There are a number of ways to affect pricing. Users can modify the price by typing another in, select a reprice option (F6), type a discount, or select an alternate price from the input drop-down. Typed keyboard shortcuts are also available. For example, type L2 in the unit price field to use the level 2 price, or D20 to do a 20% discount.

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Discount

The "Disc" or "discount" column has two (2) purposes. If an item allows discounts, the column can be used to specify a line item discount by entering a percentage. For items which are not discountable, the column will display the letter "N" (net) and won't allow changes. To mark all items on the transaction as "net," you can use the "Mark as Net" option available from the menu marker Menu_Marker_Icon found on the right-hand side of the grid (user security can limit your ability to view or utilize menu marker functions).

Main Menu > Point of Sale > Orders

Mark As Net

Using "Switch to" to Change Transactions*

It's possible to begin a Point of Sale transaction as one type and change to another while retaining much of the information from the original. All items (and item comments), pricing, customer-job selection, customer PO#, and address information are moved the new selection. Other information is not maintained unless it is permanently associated with the customer or job. This includes a number of fields located on the Process (F12) form such as print and transmit options, adjustments, and any manually entered information such as a tax exempt number or purchase agent.

To "switch" transactions, use the menu marker Menu_Marker_Icon1 next to the totals panel in the upper right-hand corner of the application window:

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*Security settings can block a user from viewing, and therefore accessing, any menu marker options.