Basic Preferences

You can use basic preferences to customize the way sales orders are processed. Use the basic preference to meet specific business requirements. A basic preference, or preference profile, is information that you define for a customer, an item or any combination of customer information (sold to, ship to, or parent addresses), customer group, item, and item group. The system uses preference profiles to override normal customer and item setup information when you enter orders.

All preferences share standard preference information that applies to all of the preference types in a category. When setting up basic preferences, you enter this information for each preference in the header portion of the Work With Preference Master form. You enter information unique to each preference in the detail area. All preferences share common fields, called key fields, where you enter basic preference information. You must enter this information for each preference in the header portion of the Preference Profiles Revisions form.

You enter custom preference information in the detail portion of the applicable preference profile form. Each preference has one or more definition fields unique to its requirements. For example, the definition fields for Carrier preferences are different from those for Mode of Transport preferences.

When entering basic preference information, you can also specify a sequence number that the system uses to search for preference records. For example, to set up a preference for a customer and item combination and vary the preference by an additional key field, you must sequence the preference records. If you set the sequence for a preference with Branch/Plant A at 1, the sequence for Branch/Plant B at 2, and all other branches at 999, you can ensure that the system searches for the preferences for Branch/Plants A and B before using the preference that applies to all other branch/plants.

Consequently, you must use care when sequencing preference records. If the preference that applies to all branch/plants has a sequence number of 1, the system does not find the more specific preferences for Branch/Plants A and B, because the system first finds the preference that applies to all branch/plants. If you set up sequence numbers in increments, you can insert new preferences at a later date.