The Orders module is one of the most important screens. To access it, navigate from Main Menu > Order Management > Orders.

Using the menu bar commands, you can create new orders and also use the Actions menu to update multiple orders. aACE tracks extensive information about orders, so the detail view is organized across three tabs:

Sales/Production Order Tab — Displays general information about the order, including customer details and the items ordered.
Management Tab — Displays info about the order's progress, including sub-tabs for billing and invoicing, procurement and purchase orders, fulfillment and jobs, plus shipping and shipments.
Job Costs & Approvals Tab — Displays time and material costs, plus a list of jobs and current approval statuses.

For each tab, the footer fields remain visible. The three tabs are detailed in the following sections:

Sales / Production Order Tab

1. Bill To and Ship To Sections

Selecting a customer on a new order record will auto-populate many of these fields with defaults from that customer's Company record. Most of the fields can be manually updated.

A/R Balance — Calculated from products that have been shipped, but the invoice is still outstanding.
Delivery Type — Controls whether individual items on the order will be shipped as soon as they are ready or whether the shipment will be delayed until all order items are prepared.
FOB — Abbreviation for “free on board” (sometimes referred to as “freight on board”). This designation removes ambiguity by indicating when liability and ownership of goods are transferred from seller to buyer (i.e. whether seller or buyer is responsible for goods that are damaged during shipping). When a physical location is specified, the responsibility for the shipment passes from the seller to the buyer at that point.

2. Description and Additional Info Sections

These two text fields allow you to record extended notes about a Pending order. After the order is in Open status, you can use the Activities & Comments field to record ongoing updates.

3. Order Items Section

Lists the line item codes currently selected for the order. Items that are on backorder, are drop-shipped, or are specially ordered are all identified here. The prices listed here tie in to the Totals section as well.

In Edit mode, additional fields are visible:

Build Items from Template — Shows the template name that was used to populate the Order Items list (if any).
Type — Categories of LICs used to streamline order entry.
Invtry / Alts / Upgs — Shows the current quantity of available inventory for the LIC, as well as the number of alternate products and number of possible upgrades for it.

4. Sales Section

The Lead and Campaign fields are entered by the sales rep who generates the order. The remaining fields are auto-populated with information from the CRM & Sales module.

5. Fulfillment Section

Summarizes how work on the order will be scheduled. The Ffmt Priority field is a text field to communicate priorities to other team members.

6. Totals Section

The various totals are automatically calculated; however, other fields here can be manually updated:

Adjustment — A manual increase or discount, entered as a dollar amount or a percentage.
Shipping — To select a shipping option, you can either search by clicking the Magnifying Glass icon (), click the Shipping field to select from previously used options, or manually enter a dollar amount. You can lock-in the current cost by marking the flag to Prevent Shipping Override (PSO). Also, you can review the factors currently affecting the shipping cost by clicking the Question Mark icon ().
Tax — To select a tax option, you can either search by clicking the Magnifying Glass icon (), click the Tax field to select from previously used options, or manually enter a dollar amount. You can exclude the order from tax calculations by marking the Exempt flag.

Management Tab

Information about your order is organized across the following five tabs. (Note: Your system administrator can set preferences to automate or constrain various aspects of billing, procurement, fulfillment, and shipping.)

Overview — Provides a dashboard of the order, showing current and outstanding quantities for procurement, production, invoicing, and shipping. In the Totals section, you can click the Plus icon () to apply a payment or click the Question Mark icon () to review the factors affecting the current Payment Due.
Billing — Lists the invoices related to the order and highlights the Tracking Status. Also provides controls to generate new invoices and to set up progress billing.
Procurement — Lists the items that need to be purchased in order to complete the order, including back-ordered, drop-shipped, and special-ordered products. Also provides controls to generate new purchase orders.
Fulfillment — Lists the jobs and sub-tasks that need to be completed for the order. Also provides controls to generate new jobs and tasks, to open jobs and tasks, to close them, and to view them scheduled on the calendar.
Shipping — Lists both incoming and outgoing shipments related to the order, as well as POs for drop shipments (if any). Also provides controls to generate new shipments.

Job Costs & Approvals Tab

Typically used for production orders, this tab organizes the Time Costs and Material Costs. It provides goto links to each job needed to complete the order. Quantities and costs are updated as expenses are entered and timesheets are approved. In the Approvals section, you can identify each job as billable or non-billable and then approve them.

Configuring Orders

System preferences control which order type is used for new orders and whether you can select between order types. Your system administrator can configure your system to control order types, layouts, and many other options. Many settings are located at Main Menu > System Admin > Preferences > Order Entry. You can also configure orders from the User Groups module. User Groups preferences take precedence over other settings (see below for details).

1. Sales Orders Dropdown Lists

The options available here dictate what happens when new orders are generated.

Pending Order Label — Specifies how unopened orders are referred to in the Order footer fields. Common options are provided, but if your organization uses something different, you can edit the list.
Default Order Record Type — Specifies whether new orders should be Sales or Production. (Note: The Sales Orders Flag to 'Allow multiple order record types' allows users to select what type of order is created.)
Sales Order Layout — Specifies the template used to organize the sections and fields displayed for Sales orders. (See below for details.)
Production Order Layout — Specifies the template used to organize the sections and fields displayed for Production orders. (See below for details.)
Default Delivery Type — Specifies how items on new orders should be organized for shipment. The Delivery Type can be modified manually.
Delivery Length — Specifies the number of business days automatically added to the fulfillment Start Date and entered for the order's fulfillment End (Delivery) date. The End (Delivery) date can be modified manually.
Free Shipping Type — Specifies what criteria is used for offering free shipping on an order.
Free Shipping Amount — Specifies the quantity of the selected criteria that is required for free shipping.
Allocate Shipping Cost By — Specifies the criteria for dividing the total shipping cost across invoices when multiple orders are sent to a single customer at a single location.

Configuring Your Order Interface

The Order Entry preferences allow you to specify the columns of the Order Items section that are best suited for your organization. From Main Menu > System Admin > Preferences > Order Entry, the system administrator can specify these options:

Sales Order Layouts

Custom — The default layout, used as the basis for customization.
Price-based — Streamlined layout to focus on pricing.
Margin-based — The MU% (Mark Up Percentage) and Margin columns added to highlight profit margins.
Commodity — The List Price column highlights prices used on the previous sales order to the current customer. This is useful for items with costs that change frequently.
International — Displays currency conversions for Unit Price and Total. The conversion is calculated based on the Currency and Ex(change) Rate fields. Those fields draw info from your settings at Menu > Accounting > Preferences > Currency Conversion, but they can be edited manually on each order. For example, this screenshot shows a currency conversion rate of 1.41.

Production Order Layouts

Custom
Default
Service
International

2. Sales Orders Flags

Mark these flags to configure the described feature, customizing aACE functions to best suit your company policies.

3. Leads Flags