16Working with Sales Orders
Working with Sales Orders
This chapter describes how end users work with existing orders. It includes the following topics:
About Orders
An order is a commitment on the part of the customer to purchase products and services at a specific price. Orders can be generated from quotes or created directly by sales people, call center agents and sales administrators. Orders can be created and placed all at once, or developed in stages as the customer clarifies the configuration of the items, requests availability, payment information, shipping information, and other details. When the order is complete, the end user submits it.
After the order is placed, a call center agent can monitor the order, proactively informing the customer of order status and delivery information. In the case of a customer inquiry, an agent can use the Get Status business service to obtain the latest information and determine the status of the order, if the order is being processed by the back office. In the event that post-order service is required, service requests and returns can be created against the order.
Orders are identified as either sales orders or service orders. Sales orders are generally for new products, while service orders are used to support service parts processing, including part locator, repair depot, and so on.
End users work with sales orders and service orders in very similar ways, however some features are specific to each type. This chapter focuses primarily on sales orders. For details about working with service orders, see Siebel Field Service Guide.
For information about creating a new order, see Creating a Quote or Sales Order.
Accessing an Existing Order
An end user can access an existing order from most of the same places where the end user can create an order.
In addition to accessing the order from the Sales Order screen, the end user can access it from other screens, as described in the following procedure.
To access an existing order
Navigate to one of the following screens:
Accounts screen, and then the Accounts List view
Service Requests screen, and then the Service Request List view
Contacts screen, and then the Contacts List view
Agreements screen, and then the Agreements List view
Drill down on the account, service request, contact or agreement that is associated with the order.
Click the Orders view tab.
In the Orders list, drill down on the order number of the desired order.
The order is displayed in the Sales Order of Service Order screen, where the end user can continue to work with it.
Submitting an Order
After the end user has completed the information for an order, the user submits it. Submitting the order sends the order to the manufacturing application or warehouse application for fulfillment.
Submitting the order typically sets the status to Booked.
Before end users submit an order, they may want to check to make sure it has an Active status, current dates, a valid price list, and that any customizable products have been configured appropriately.
To submit an order
Navigate to the order that you want to submit.
In the Sales Order form, click Submit.
If your company has configured an approval process, then the order is evaluated by assignment manager rules, and is routed to a manager for approval, if appropriate. If the order meets any approval rules, then the order is validated and submitted to your back office application for fulfillment.
Associating an Activity Plan or Activity with an Order
Individual activities or activity plans (collections of activities) can be associated with line items in your order.
Activities are tasks that must be performed after the order has been finalized and submitted. For example, when a customer purchases an item that needs to be installed, an activity template might list all of the activities that need to occur to support that installation. When that template is added to the line item, the activities from it are assigned to the appropriate people, and will appear in their activity lists.
Typically the administrator sets up activity templates in advance so that end users can add them to items in an order. End users can also add individual activities. For information on setting up activity templates, see Creating Activity Plan Templates.
To associate an activity plan with an order
Navigate to the Sales Orders screen, Line Items, and then the Activity Plans view.
Select the order and line item that requires activities.
In the Activity Plans list, add a new record.
Today’s date is assigned as the planned start date for the activities. You can change it, if required.
Select the appropriate activity plan template from the Templates list.
You see the activities associated with the template in the Activities list.
Click the Activity view tab.
In the Activity list, make any appropriate adjustments to the activities.
If an employee’s name is indicated in the activity, then the activity will display for that person when the person goes to the My Activities view.
To associate an activity with an order
Navigate to the order with which you want to associate an activity.
Select the line item that requires activities.
Click the Activity view tab.
Click New to add a new record.
The activity type defaults to Appointment.
Complete the fields to define the activity.
Approving an Order
Some orders will require approval. If your company has configured an approval process as part of its order management process, then an order may be automatically flagged for approval depending on price. A typical approval process would cause the status to be changed to Awaiting Approval and the approver’s name to be inserted in the Approved by field when the sales representative clicks Submit.
For example, if an end user has authority to place orders for $1,000, and a customer wants to order merchandise totalling $1,200, then the order needs to be approved before it can be submitted.
The steps in the following procedure show how an end user might take to approve an order when that user is the approver. The exact steps may vary, depending on your company’s configuration of this process.
To approve an order
Navigate to the Sales Orders screen, and then the Orders List view.
Sort the list of orders by status and, if necessary, bring orders with the status Awaiting Approval into view.
Drill down on the order number of an order you want to approve.
Review the details of the order to make sure it meets your approval.
When you are ready to approve the order, in the More Info view tab, select the Approved check box.
Checking the Status of Order Shipments
After an order has been submitted, an end user can monitor it by checking the status of order shipments. The end user makes sure the order is being handled appropriately and to provide customers with information about order status and delivery.
You must have a back office application that tracks shipping of your products, and you must integrate that application with the Siebel Business Application, to allow the end user to see the shipping status of products.
To check the status of order shipments
Navigate to the order you want to check.
Click the Shipments view tab.
The Shipment list and the forms under it provide current details about the shipment of the order.
The read-only Back Office Error Text field may contain notices from the back-office about order errors, such as out-of-stock products or discontinued products.
The Back Office Error Text field is also available at the Order Header level and in the Order Entry Form applets.
Viewing Shipping Details for Orders and Order Lines
If you have enabled the Order-to-Cash PIP, you can access back-office information about order and line item shipping in Siebel CRM. This information is read-only, and it is entered and modified only by back-office personnel. For more information see Integrating Order Management with Back-Office Applications.
To view shipping details for an order and order line
Navigate to the Sales Order screen, then the List view.
In the Sales Order list, find the order for which you want to view shipping details.
Drill down on the link in the Order # field.
Click the Shipping view tab.
The Shipping form displays shipping information for the order sent from the back-office system. The information fields include Pack Instructions and Ship Instructions.
Click the Line Items subview tab.
The Shipping list, which precedes the Line Items form, displays additional shipping information for the order sent from the back-office system. The information fields include Change Reason, Package, Pack Instructions, Ship Date, Ship Instructions, Shipping, and Requested Date.
Click the Ship Detail subview tab.
In the Shipping list, which precedes the Ship Detail list, select the order line item for which you want to view shipping details.
The Ship Detail list displays shipping information for the selected order line item sent from the back-office system. The information fields include Tracking Number, Product, Source Inventory Location, Quantity, Ship Date, and Ship Carrier.
Placing an Order on Hold
Users can stop orders temporarily by putting them on hold and selecting a reason for the hold from a configurable list.
For more information about configuring lists of values, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.
To place an order on hold
Navigate to the order that you want to put on hold.
In the order header select the Hold box.
From the Hold Reason list, select a reason for placing the order on hold.
Note: The Hold Reason list can be configured in the Administration - Data screen.In the Order header summary, click Submit.
Canceling an Order
If an order header status is Booked or Awaiting Shipping, then a customer service representative or sales agent can cancel the order. Orders cannot be canceled when the order header status is Shipped, Fulfilled, or Closed.
To cancel an order
Navigate to the order that you want to cancel.
Revise the order, which creates a new version of the order.
Choose a cancellation reason from the Cancel Reason list.
Click Submit to submit the order for cancellation.
The order is set to Cancel Pending. When the order is canceled successfully in the back office system, the order status is set to Canceled in the Sales Order form.
Revising an Order
An end user can edit or revise a customer's original order, which creates a new version of the same order. Revising helps an end user keep track of changes as the order evolves. This feature is useful when adding or deleting products, and can also be used if an order has expired.
When an end user revises an order, the status field is automatically set to Pending.
The Revise feature allows an end user to revise the original order by creating a new order record with the same order number. The versions are distinguished by a revision number. All revisions of an order appear in the order list.
Making changes to a order does not automatically create a new version of the order. If the end user wants to keep the original order and have a revision, then the user must complete the steps in the following procedure to create a revised order.
To revise an order
Navigate to the order you want to revise.
In the Sales Order form, click Revise.
A new version of the order is created, with the same order number.
Make the required changes to the order—add or remove line items, change attributes, or make additional changes.
In the Order header summary, click Submit.
Viewing Change History for Sales Order Line Items
End users can view change history for line items in sales orders. They can view previous and current values for the following line item fields:
Billing Account
Service Account
Service Point
Asset Status
Service ID
You can add fields to the order items change history by the same method you would use for adding fields to the quote items change history. For more information about adding fields to the line items change history display, see Adding Line Item Fields to the Change History.
To view the change history for a line item in a sales order, complete the following procedure.
To view change history for a sales order line item
Navigate to the Sales Order screen, and then the List view.
Click the number for the sales order.
Click the Line Items tab.
Select a line item and click the Changes link.
If the Changes link does not appear, then navigate to the Sales Orders screen, Line Items, and then Changes view.
The Modify History Line Items form appears showing previous and current values for line item fields. After the form, the Line Item Attributes list displays previous and current values for line item attributes.