Invoicing hundreds of orders at once

I have finally begun importing my orders from our web system into Order Entry. Aside from the back-order issue (I need to ensure EVERYTHING is in in stock when importing), it seems to work very well.

QUESTION: I now have a few hundred orders that require invoicing. Is there a way to invoice them as a batch?

No.

I have tried using Automation Anywhere, but it took about a minute per order, required everyone to be out of OrderEntry while running, and was just plain old finnicky.

It would have been better, had you asked earlier, to import your invoices into Adagio Invoices, which is also integrated with Receivables, Inventory and SalesAnalysis.

Steve

Unfortuneately, it won't help you now, but I made a suggestion for an "Auto Invoice" feature to be added to OE for just the type of scenario you are describing. At this point, I don't know if the suggestion is being seriously condidered but if enough people see the need, it just might.

Pete

Hi Pete,

But we already have that function - it's called Adagio Invoices.

As Andrew said one option would be to just use Adaiop invoice. The only reason for using Order Entry is to track back orders.

We have done extensive testing with Automation Anywhere and have not found the speed issue that Steve reports. The problem for Automation Anywhere is how to identify the orders to invoice?

Hi Doug

Hey, I mentioned Adagio Invoices first, not Andrew

The reason for the speed issue I experienced with Automation Anywhere is that it has to cater to the slowest machine on the system, which means building in pauses while screens refresh.

As for identifying orders to invoice, that one's easy, with the use of GridView to create a one column report which can be saved as a CSV file. Of course, you would need GridView.

Steve

Why would you be runing a macro to invoice imported orders on more than a single machine (hopefully your fastest one at that)?

Why would anyone create a macro that will fail on all machines but the fastest one? That's like asking for trouble, under the theory that anything that users can do to mess things up, they will.

Steve's right, you have to create the macro to work on the slowest machine because you never know where the end user might want to run the macro from. Having said that we would expect that clients are running our minimum hardware standard.

In all this chit chat, we forgot to ask:

Are these really orders, or have you already taken the money and shipped the goods? Could the items be back ordered?

Thanks for all the feedback.

Andrew, these are internet orders. I am importing the via a CSV into Order Entry. We have never used Adagio Invoices, I will have to look into that option.

Reviving this thread, we have a client who brings in several hundred orders each day via EDI and then wants to invoice them all at once as a batch. They are using Edisoft which integrates with Adagio Order Entry, not Adagio Invoices. They have to visit each order to invoice. Any thoughts?

Hi Brian,

Well, Adagio Invoices imports invoices, just like we mentioned previously. We have recorded the request to directly invoice a large number of orders simultaneously, but the request only comes up sporadically.

We'll see if this is a common problem at the AOC.

I'd vote for this except I think that someone (human) should review the orders before they are invoiced, therefore that human could hit he invoice button at the same time eliminating the need for this utility.

I know this is an old thread, but is this something being work on? Probably create a macro that works the same way as the previous accpac macro? F7 to create a macro and F8 to use it.

Hi Marlon

Dream on! We all loved our ACCPAC Plus macros and our F7 and F8 keys but Windows is not key-centric and that's the way it goes.

I would like to see the ability to import invoices as a separate function from importing orders, keyed off nothing more than the order number. To make it simple, it would always fully ship and invoice an active (not on-hold) order, and would only work if inventory was set to allow negatives. Those of use who have clients with OE linked to webstores or EDI need it.

Steve

Steve

I don't believe this is being worked on.

It will be a long time, if ever, before we see F7 and F8 in Adagio. My firm is creating macro for Adago users who really need them. Please feel free to contact me if you would like to explore this further.

We have been automating many functions over the years and Adagio does play well with most of the Windows macro programs. Is this what you are trying to automate?

Hi Andrew

One of the problems with using Windows macro programs in this case is that they are too slow (there are other problems too). They work well when you are automating something that cycles once, such as day-end processing, but not so well when you are automating a loop process like turning a list of orders into invoices.

Steve

We already have a way of importing invoices into Adagio - it's called Adagio Invoices. And Adagio Invoices and Adagio OrderEntry run quite happily with each other and will both feed Adagio SalesAnalysis.

Why would we do R&D to duplicate a function we already provide?

To make OrderEntry users happy and sell more software?

Right now, EDI add-ons, webstore add-ons, shipment tracking add-ons and other similar products that add value to Adagio do not include a link to Invoices (and these are the users most likely to want to mass invoice). I think it would be much easier for Softrak to add that function to OE than to get the 3rd Party Developers to change their software and then convince users of the value of making the change.

Steve

I agree with Steve's last post. And hope that softrak will not see this as a duplicate function. Because Order Entry Module and Invoice Module are two separate modules. Not everyone needs both modules.

The orders that I'm talking about are received via EDI and is posted to Adagio Order Entry. And these Orders are by stores which would be 100s of work orders that is being made. Now, someone needs to create an invoice in Order Entry for it to close the order and take out the Inventory. So, the macro will really help alot in this process. Type in the work order, pre-fill whats needed, user double checks then invoice.

We don't have the Adagio Invoice Module and not sure how Adagio Invoice will help with our current process but I'm trying to avoid to have the user import and export stuff. The lesser module they go to the better.

Invoicing one shipment with multiple order. What do I need to do to make this happen without using third party software? Do I need to talk to someone in Softrak? If so, can someone direct me?

Honestly, this is the only thing that holds me back from upgrading to current version of Adagio. I'm actually tempted to go with other option. But I'm still hopefull that this will be address.

Hello Marlon,

Since you want someone to check the order, can't they click "Ship all" and OK? Don't you want the orders/invoices to be reviewed before they are invoiced? You can change an order, but you cannot change an invoice.

We have never been able to combine orders onto a single invoice, and our data structure would make that difficult. How would you handle the situation with different sales people on each order? Different Ship to codes? Different tax rules.

We do offer customizations to Adagio to address specific users processing requirements. While I am out of the office at the moment, you can address specific requests to me.

Hi Marlon

If the reason you want to combine multiple orders into one invoice is for the convenience of your customer (i.e. they get one document instead of many), I have done this for another Adagio client. Internally they still create multiple invoices, but using Crystal Reports for Adagio they print out and send a "consolidated invoice", which is actually a report but it looks just like an invoice. Their customer is happy, and it is very little extra work on their part.

If you want more information on this, email me at steve@sschwartzcpa.com

Steve

Hello Steve,

No, I don't need consolidated invoice. I just need a function that will expedite the invoicing of each work order.

A function that will work something like this:
-User starts with OE open.
-Launches the function.
-The user will be asked to enter the two or more parameters;
EX. Ship Via, Comment 2, Shipment Date and etc.
-Function will launch the shipping routine
-Start invoice routine
-Open order finder and allow the user to enter the order number.
-Populate Ship Via, Comment 2, Shipment Date and etc.
-Select ‘Ship All’
-Have an option to go back to details to change quantity if partially shipped.
-User Select Ok to Invoice order.
-Loop back to ‘Start invoice routine’.
-When finished press the Esc key to stop the macro. This will also clear the variables making the macro ready for the next use.

These orders needs to be close somehow, right?

-Marlon

Marlon:

The only way to deliver the functionality that you have set out to have someone create this process for you as it is specific to your needs.

Hello Marlon,

You know, if you just let users edit their entry template in OrderEntry, you can pretty much accomplish what you're trying to do.

Have you tried that? (Entry templates are stored by Group in Adagio OrderEntry.)

Otherwise I would suggest you download one of the many Windows macro languages and experiment with that, or engage Doug Dickie, who has experience in this type of automation, to program a macro for you.

Your requirements are so specific that this would never become part of Adagio OrderEntry.

Sorry.

The original request for this thread is to add the capability to multi-select a range of orders and automatically invoice each of them without operator intervention or confirmation.

Reviving this thread (again)

A prospect who is otherwise ready to buy Adagio needs to be able to mass invoice orders that were imported from his webstore. I had to suggest workarounds, including using Invoices. I really believe the lack of this function in OE is an impediment to providing the best solution and making sales. Since the web orders are all paid in advance, he also wants to import payment information with the orders, but those fields are not available when importing orders (or am I missing something?). They need to be there!

The original poster of this thread is using a product called Shipworks to import his web orders into Adagio, and he is very happy with it. Does anyone have any experience with it, especially the part where it integrates with Adagio? I have emailed him directly, but I figured I would ask the channel.

Steve

If we provided this functionality as an add-on for OrderEntry for $1250 instead of suggesting Invoices, would you prefer that approach?

If those were the only two options, yes.

I would expect something fairly flexible, with the ability to tag orders from a screen, select from a range, or import from a list. Plus the options to auto-generate a payment and to flag the invoice as printed.

Another feature that would give such an add-on extra value would be the option to select all items on orders with quantities shipped but not invoiced, and invoice them using the same options as above.

OK, now I am going to dream on. In the old DOS program, there was an add-on that allowed a user to "allocate" (ie change to shipped from backordered) items on orders, based on options. The options were to allocate all matching lines or only only up to available on-hand quantities, based on a range of items, orders, and/or customers, order date and/or expected ship date, with an option to give priority to orders that will be completed. Obviously you can see where I am going with this in conjunction to the feature listed above.

I have one client who owns and uses Adagio but still uses the DOS program for this single feature. It would be wonderful to offer them an Adagio replacement.

Steve

Personally, I'd like to see this feature in OrderEntry, but that's not the only way to get this done. It could exist as a separate utility or something within the Toolkit for Adagio. However it gets done, it's more complicated than just, 'ship all'. There are a variety of strategies and options to consider. There will be no shortage of suggestions.

Why not see how many users want this feature. I have one user who would love such a feature. Would they pay $1250 for it? I don't know. It seems like a small add-on to a module for which they already paid $1250, so in terms of perceived value, it will be a hard sell. It is possible that when an end user looks at what he got for his first $1250 - a full Order Entry module, and what he gets for his second $1250 - a new button (albeit with great utility,) there might be some resistance in terms of perceived value.

My client uses Edisoft that integrates with OE but not with Invoices. The client needs to keep track of backorders. I believe that the absence of bulk invoicing limits Adagio's use with EDI and many web store applicaions.

In this thread you have been pushing people in the Invoices direction. Those who either cannot or do not want to go in that direction might react badly if they perceive this to be punitive pricing. $1250 is what we have come to expect as a module price. The only important concept of a module's value is the value that exists only in the minds of the purchasers. At $2400, an EDI-enabled Adagio OE might seem expensive.

Hi Brian,

Do you mean $2500 for OE and an add-on?

Of course, it's REALLY valuable for those that need it, and useless for those that don't. It'll save a TON of time, and therefore should be seen as a valuable addition.

As I've said before, expense is a relative term, and of course, your expense is my income!