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