Most DB Distributor operators are very familiar with the "Order Type" options that are set in the Order Header.  Orders can be manually set as a Release, a Billable Release, a Sales Order or a Bill as Shipped type order.  These settings can be used to trigger automatic requisition charges or freight handling rules that vary based upon the order type. Also, historically, distributors might choose to use the summary billing features within the software for certain types of orders but not others.  

With the advent of on-line ordering, where customers could include a mixture of line types, logic was added to set the order type based upon the characteristics of the lines on the order.  If all line items were releases of customer-owned goods, the order type would be set to a Release (R type).  If it consisted in whole or in part of distributor-owned items, it would be set to a Billable Release (W type), and if it had any line items where a Purchase Order would be created then it would be set to a Sales Order.

However, there are times when a distributor employs a third party  for warehousing and/or shipping. As a result they might receive vendor invoices for charges from this third party.  In order to properly cost those charges to the order via the Purchase Order Receiving program, they would need to add a Purchase Order Line.  If the order had been automatically created as an "R" or "W" type, they would not be able to add a purchase order line to the order and therefore would not be able to PO receive the vendor charges. 

A new EC Customer parameter provides the option, on a customer by customer basis, to bypass previous logic in assigning order types and to set all on-line orders for that customer to the Sales Order type.  This allows the operator to add a Purchase Order line if required.  

Before enabling this parameter, we recommend that you review your automatic requisition charges and freight markup tables that might be based upon the order type to make certain that you continue to achieve the desired results.  Also keep in mind that this new parameter may impact how you summary bill your customer.   Be sure to check the Summary Bill parameters in your Customer Default options.   

DemandBridge would like to thank White Paper for their participation in the development of this new option.