53 lines
2.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
53 lines
2.3 KiB
ReStructuredText
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Entry
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=====
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Entering a new Customer Order into the system is very likely the most
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complicated part. Consider:
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The "Customer" (or in some cases a "Person") must be identified, whose
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order this will be. What if they're a new Customer/Person, not yet in
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the system? Can they be added directly to Rattail and other systems
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will be updated accordingly? Or must they be first added to the other
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system and then imported back to Rattail? (For sake of the order, can
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a "Pending Customer" record be created and then sort the rest out
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later?)
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One or more "Products" will be added to the Order. Can they order
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*any* (e.g. unit) amount or is there a "cases only" policy etc.?
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Perhaps also some other restrictions based on Department, e.g. no more
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than X cases of frozen product due to space limitations.
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Where does all that Customer and Product data come from anyway? Is it
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accurate enough to be used for creating "reliable" Order data? Is the
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Customer to be charged according to whatever price is calculated in
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the Order, or are they charged "whatever the POS rings up" etc.? Are
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discounts ever quoted in the order, vs. handled only by POS?
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Speaking of payments, does the customer need to pay up-front when
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first placing the order? Or do they pay later when they pick it up?
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Wait, what if they want to order a Product which is not yet in the
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system? Is this allowed, and if so what are the policies surrounding
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that?
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So, the Rattail feature tries to accommodate all of the above
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regardless of how you answer.
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First of all the Customer/Person and Product data should already be
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*imported* to Rattail from your POS or other system(s), before
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tackling Customer Orders. This feature assumes the underlying data is
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already squared away and accurate (within reason).
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Second, it's worth noting that the New Customer Order tool is
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implemented as a batch (see also :doc:`/data/batch/native/custorder`).
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This is important because it makes it possible to use the New Customer
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Order tool as the entry workflow for a Customer Order *even if* you do
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not track those primarily in Rattail. In other words when the batch
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is executed, it can "push" the Order data to whatever system is
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needed.
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But of course the Rattail DB has its own schema for tracking these
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Customer Orders, so the default "new batch" execution will create the
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Order directly in Rattail.
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