In circumstances where a businesses supply of inventory exceeds demand, due to any number of factors, it may be necessary to reschedule orders and manually manage the allocation of existing stock.
This Order Reschedule facility in SapphireOne is mainly for wholesalers who have to order up to six months or more in advance. With Covid-19 this functionality may become even more important in SapphireOne as orders are becoming even more delayed.
This feature can be accessed by navigating to Inventory > Sales > Reschedule.
For the automated functions in this Order Reschedule function to work correctly all Inventory items where Order Rescheduling is to be performed, must have at least one Vendor entered on the More Details page of the Inventory item. This will allow SapphireOne to automatically create OVI’s when raised from OCI’s.
However, any one may take advantage of this function as it will help them create an Indent Order for your suppliers where the Back Ordered quantities by default are linked to an unconfirmed quantity. In addition, a large number of orders are now in matrix format and the functionality created here caters specifically to the matrix type of format when organising your ordering.
It includes an Order_Re scheduler function that will match the quantities on Order against current stock and future stock, (OVIs) that would update the B/O qty as being either Confirmed or Unconfirmed. This Order_Re-schedule functionality, allows users to manually update Vendor Orders if it looks like Back Orders from your customers will be greater than OVI’s currently in SapphireOne so all of your Orders will not be filled.
When a user creates a Client Order any stock on hand will be displayed in the Confirmed column while anything placed on Back Order will be displayed in the unconfirmed column. When a user creates an Indent Order the B/O quantities are automatically displayed in the Unconfirmed Qty field.
If the user then uses the Sapphire Tool, Generate a Vendor Order, and creates OVIs from the OCIs it will update the OCI lines so that the quantities will be moved from the unconfirmed data field to the confirmed data field. This Order Re-schedule function will enable users to examine orders and check that the MOQ, or Minimum Order Quantity is met. If the MOQ it is not met this Order Re-Schedule function will allow the user to make alterations to orders that are to be placed with your suppliers.
Dictation and Speech to Text Overview
SapphireOne’s implementation of both Dictation (MacOS) and Speech to Text (Windows) is a game changer for data entry. Any data entry field you can type into using a keyboard can use this feature.
You can also use this functionality on all inquiry screens within SapphireOne. For example, the user is in a Contact within a Client. They may have made a phone call to that particular client using the Softphone technology. Consequently, this will automatically date and time stamp both the contact and the phone number you called.
As soon as the call is completed, the user has the ability to use Speech to Text (Windows) or Dictation (MacOS). They can dictate into the memo field of the CRM contact, adding as much description as they require.
Dictation and Speech to Text Procedure
This functionality applies across every single Data Entry screen. For example, the SapphireOne user is entering a Vendor Invoice (VI). Additionally, you may want to add a memo within the Vendor Invoice (VI). The user can utilise the tool and simply dictate the memo.
Another example is if the user wants to add additional lines to the General Ledger account, within each General Ledger account. When the user is completing data entry using a General Ledger, there’s always a unique memo field for each GL account line.
The user can then utilise this feature to quickly add the information they need to add. Alternatively, you may have an interview with an employee. After the interview process is completed, the user can then make notes about the employee.
Speech to Text or Dictation is an extremely powerful tool. It is something that we at SapphireOne, as well as our clients, utilise daily. It is a massive time saver.
The Order Re-schedule Screen
The transactions or current OCI’s are listed in the area at the top of the screen. As each transaction is highlighted the inventory items that are in the selected transaction, will be displayed in the lower area either in line a line by line format, or in a Matrix style format if the Matrix tab has been selected
This screen by default on first opening is set up to display the inventory items in each transaction on a line by line basis as seen below. The user is able to switch to a matrix style display and back again by selecting the appropriate tab. From this transaction list display the transactions in the list may be moved up or down as required with the use of the buttons.
There is the option to select a matrix display by selecting the matrix tab 
. SapphireOne will then display the inventory items in matrix style format as seen below.
Once SapphireOne is displaying the items in matrix format there is a drop-down menus and a button in the top right-hand corner of the screen that operate as follows.
- Display Column by – Each option will alter the way that the details in the matrix are displayed. The user will be looking at orders overall so the various selections made here from this drop-down menu will assist the user to get an overall picture of current orders in SapphireOne.
- Colour- Select this option will display the columns by colour.
- Master – Selecting this option will display the columns by master.
- Client – Selecting this option will display the columns by Client.
- Period – Selecting this option will display the columns by period.
- Use Button – The button immediately to the right, simply switches the matrix to displaying quantities, Use Qty, or dollar values Use $. It is simply a switch that inverts each time it is selected.
There are also a number of buttons across the bottom of the screen and these are documented below.
- Find – When this button is selected SapphireOne will display the Advanced find pop up allowing the user to search for selected transactions.
- Show Subset – When this button is selected SapphireOne will remove all transactions that are not currently selected/highlighted on screen.
- Show All – When tise button is selected SapphireOne will display all transactions on screen again.
- Replace Item – When this button is selected SapphireOne will display a pop up allowing the user to replace items in the original Order with another item.
- Remove Item – When this button is selected SapphireOne will remove the currently highlighted items.
- Reprioritise – When this button is selected SapphireOne will check for any new orders, OVI’s in SapphireOne. This could be done by raising the OVI’s manually but if the Sapphire Tool, Generate a Vendor Order, is used in conjunction with the OCI, SapphireOne will automatically enter in the required quantities without user intervention into the new OVI. When it finds these transactions it will move the quantities across to the Confirmed column.
- Purchase – When this button is selected SapphireOne will open a new pop up window as seen below.
As may be seen in the screenshot above there are a number of buttons or options from this pop-up window as follows
- Apply % – When this button is selected an additional pop-up is displayed which allows the user to reduce or increase the order quantities by entering a number above or below 100%. They may also with the use of the 4 drop-down menus apply the percentage change to any of the options from these menus.
- Export – When this button is selected SapphireOne will create a CSV file and then start the default spreadsheet program for the computer and display the exported results.
- Save & Load – If you are interrupted during this process the user may select the Save button and SapphireOne will perform a blind save of your scheduling process. When you return just select the Load button to recover your work from the save button. (Only stores a single save so SapphireOne saves it and then retrieves it as it was last saved).
- Unconfirm All – When this button is selected SapphireOne will alter all of the Back Orders to unconfirmed.
- Create Orders – Finally when all is correct go down to the bottom of the screen and select the Create Orders button. OVI’s will created for any stock that is insufficient for filling customer orders and move the quantities from the unconfirmed column to the confirmed column as the stock should now have been ordered.
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