Three Contact fields exist when entering an order in OrderEntry - one on the Header tab and the other two on the Bill to/Ship to tab. Let's call them the Header contact, the "Bill to" contact and the "Ship to" contact.

The Header contact pulls initially from the customer master, either from the contact field in the Invoice tab if it's filled in, otherwise from the contact field in the Customer tab. The "Bill to" and "Ship to" contacts also follow this rule, unless a Ship-to code is entered, in which case they pull from the Contacts/Shipto tab.

Is there a way to always have the "Ship to" contact field come up blank, instead of pulling from the customer master?

What I want to avoid is creating a fake Ship-to code for each customer, which I have a feeling might work, but causes other problems.

Thanks

Steve

Hi Steve,

No, you can't have the "Ship-to Contact" value be blank and the "Bill-to Contact" value be non-blank, without using a ship-to address code. The way this process works in Adagio is that leaving a default value blank will want to refer back to a different place (ie the customer 'Header Contact' in this case) in order to read information. So that a different person other than the 'Main' contact for the customer could be set up for receiving invoices. Exactly as you outlined in your second paragraph.

Without a ship-to code, the Bill-to and Ship-to information will be identical on a new order. Though values can be edited.
With a ship-to code, you can default a blank Contact for just the ship-to section, which may also be undesirable for your client.

The choice is yours.

The following suggestion assumes no Ship-to code is used on an order....

I would like to suggest that for the two fields appearing on both the customer master Customer tab and the Invoicing tab - ie contact and email - there be an option to force the pair to default onto the Bill to/Ship tab on new orders from the Invoicing tab, even if they are blank there.

I am fine with the "Bill to" and "Ship to" contact and email fields being identical, I just want the option to pull the fields from the Invoicing tab if they are blank. I am fine with the Order Header contact always defaulting from the Customer tab contact of the customer master.

Do you understand the suggestion? The terminology is confusing.

Steve

Hi All,
For further confusion, when you integrate Order Entry with any shipping software solution, the Bill to (from an industry perspective) is the person or entity who is paying for the Freight Charges if Freight Charges are third party.

If freight is prepaid, it is not an issue.

While it may appear or you might assume that the "Bill to" is who is paying the invoice (as in billing), everyone who is shipping product understands or should understand that the Bill to is not necessarily who you are invoicing.

You have actually got a "Bill to", a "Consignee", and a "Ship to". A lot of people assume the Bill to and Consignee are one and the same (in Adagio). Not necessarily so.

Brian

Hi Brian and Steve,

Brian - are you suggesting adding a third address block to every order for "Consignee"? Plus (presumably) Add/Modify/Delete/View/Print/Import/Export functionality for a consignee address table. Or is the multiple contact/ship-to address construct in Receivables sufficient?

Steve - You need a fall back strategy to avoid having to create (and maintain) entries in every single field.

Ideally, you want the software to correctly fill out these fields without operator interaction for each shipping case. That can be hard to do without a connection to "The Cosmic Consciousness"!

Hi Andrew

My fall back strategy is to ask Softrak to implement my suggestion, assuming you understand it. The client is prepared to spend money to make it happen.

But I want to make sure we are on the same page.

Steve

Steve:

I'm having a hard time following your logic. It starts out okay but then gets lost in "I am fine with the "Bill to" and "Ship to" contact and email fields being identical" as that didn't seem to be what you started out with.

In terms of my experience the Ship-to contact phone and email are rarely the same as the Bill-to so what I would like to see is:

Without a Ship-to code (default or otherwise)

Without Invoice Contact then Bill-to Address and Contact comes from the Customer Master details (I believe that you referred to it has the customer header) and the Ship-to is the same address but the contact fields are empty.

With Invoice Contact then Bill-to Address comes from the Customer Master details, Bill-to Contact comes from the Invoice Contact, and the Ship-to is the same address but the contact fields are empty.

With a ship-to code

The bill-to works the same way but all ship-to fields are determined by the ship-to code.

Brian:

"the Bill to (from an industry perspective) is the person" I'm assuming you mean the shipping industry but then they are not the users of Order Entry and 'Bill-to' needs to work based upon who the user is billing, their customer. not who the common carrier is billing for their services.

Consignee is the Ship-to

If the shipping bill is to be sent to a third party, wouldn't this be better managed in the shippers software?

I did not hear back from Softrak on whether you understand the suggestion I made above. Here it is again (for when a ship-to code is not used).

I would like to suggest that for the two fields appearing on both the customer master Customer tab and the Invoicing tab - ie contact and email - there be an option to force the pair to default onto the Bill to/Ship tab on new orders from the Invoicing tab, even if they are blank there.

If you don't understand it, I'll try again with different words.

Steve

Hi Steve,

Suggestion noted. Between you and Doug, you want to (optionally) see blank ship-to contact and email values unless a ship-to code is used.