Order consolidation

Customers have the option to choose to receive consolidated invoice deferred to run on request (usually end of week or month) instead of immediately with goods. Customers requiring consolidated invoicing must have its consolidation flag set appropriately as required in the Customer masterfile. Control file TMSDS/CM-OCON defines how to merge picking slips, invoices and how to trigger invoice merge process, either automatically by system or manually released for invoice. Automatic refers to immediate invoice print where as manual is either End of Day process or whenever an invoicing run is created.

Customers that are setup for consolidated invoicing will receive a delivery docket on delivery. The delivery docket number will be warehouse picking slip number. The stock will be reserved at picking/delivery and the status of the order on delivery will be ‘A’ – (awaiting document merge / print) even after the stock has been physically delivered to the customers.

At invoicing time, a process will be run to invoice all orders with status ‘A’. This process will produce a consolidated invoice that will list all delivery dockets in a summary form. Accounts Receivable, stock and the sales information would be updated at invoicing.

The claim entry and returns process will be able to allocate returns to either a delivery docket or an invoice number. Claims Auto Allocation however only allocates to invoiced (completed orders).

TMSDS/CM-OCON Order consolidation flag setup 

This control file determines:

  1. How to merge orders for picking slip
  2. How to merge orders for invoice
  3. Whether to automate invoice or hold at A status (awaiting document merge / print)

The actual order consolidation flags and corresponding descriptions are user defined except for ‘N’ and ‘X’ which are system defined and work basically as previously done in base Bookmaster(‘N’ for no merge, ‘X’ for DC/Store ASN orders).

Codes  ‘N’ and ‘X’  MUST be defined  as follows:                                                       

Order                              Invoice Trigger    -+
Consolidation                 Invoice Merge– +  |
Flag                                Picking Merge+  |  |
A                                                           C DD
N                                                           1  11
X                                                           2  X1

The ‘Picking Merge’ code is system defined and will determine how the sales orders are to be merged for the picking slip. It has the following values:

  1. ‘1’ – separate picking slip by order
  2. ‘2’ – consolidate by customer and customer reference
  3. ‘3’ – consolidate by customer

The ‘Invoice Merge’ code is system defined and will determine how the sales orders are to be merged for the invoice. It has the following values:

  1. ‘X’ – merge orders by billing number and customer reference. This is used for ASN orders.
  2. ‘1’ – no merging
  3. ‘2’ – merge by picking slip number
  4. ‘3’ – merge by customer and customer reference.
  5. ‘4’ – merge by billing and customer reference. (similar to ‘X’ except can only be used with invoice trigger=’2’ , manual invoice generation)
  6. ‘5’ – merge by customer number.
  7. ‘6’ – merge by billing number.

The ‘Invoice Trigger’ code is system defined and will determine whether to automate invoice or hold at ‘A’ status.  It has the following values:

  1. ‘1’ – invoice will automatically be generated when the picking slip is picked and confirmed.
  2. ‘2’ – transaction is held at ‘A’ status until the invoice document is printed.

The ‘Invoice Merge’ and ‘Invoice Trigger’ codes are set-up as a pair.                                                                             

The only valid combinations of codes are:

Code                 Description                          

X1                   Cons. for ASN (BN/CREF)           :Automatic

11                   No consolidation                           :Automatic

12                   No consolidation                          :Manual   

21                   Cons. by picking slip                    :Automatic

22                   Cons. by picking slip                    :Manual   

32                   Cons. by customer/reference      :Manual   

42                   Cons. by billing/reference            :Manual   

52                   Cons. by customer                      :Manual   

62                   Cons. by billing                           :Manual   

The immediate document flag on the sales order header is now no longer applicable. This rule is now driven by the value of the invoice trigger flag. The old immediate document flags of ‘Y’ and ‘N’ are now replaced with ‘1’ and ‘2’ invoice trigger flag respectively.