Important
All fields described in this documentation are optional if not specifically marked as mandatory. However, we do recommend filling all relevant fields as best as possible as they might be reused in the context of other features. This will subsequently make your work a lot easier.
You can create sales orders within Xentral in the following ways:
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by CSV import or by import from your online shops (you can find more information on the sales order import options here). The fields in the sales order form are automatically filled with the imported information.
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from a customer master data record (Master data > Contacts > open customer master data) by clicking Sales order in the Create new section. This will open the sales order form with the customer information pre-filled in the relevant fields.
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by creating it manually via Sales > Sales order > +NEW.
When you create a sales order in Xentral instead of importing it, the sales order is always created in draft mode. This means you can easily adjust or delete it. In order to be able to carry out the sales order you have to release the sales order. By releasing it, the sales order will get a sales order number assigned from the central number range and you can no longer delete the sales order, only cancel it.
Note
The Status field in the General section is filled automatically based on the process stage of the sales order. You cannot manually edit it.
To add or maintain the general sales order information:
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If the Customer field is not pre-filled, select the required customer and click apply (mandatory). Clicking apply will fill the Master data section of this form with the customers master data.
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Select the To suppliers check box if the sales order is for a supplier. In this case the Customer field will change to Supplier.
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Select the relevant project in the Project field. You can find more information on projects in the Projects article.
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If applicable, enter a numerical promotion code in the Aktionscode (promotion code) field. This code is used as a tag for evaluation purposes, e.g. to analyze in which orders the promotional code was used or how often the code was applied.
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If the sales order was imported from an online shop, the internet field will contain the order id from your online shop. Alternatively enter the order id from your online shop manually.
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If the sales order is a continuation of an offer, the offer number is inserted automatically. If not and you want to link the sales order to an offer, enter the offer number manually
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If a deviating customer number exists, enter it in the Dev. Customer number field. This field is especially relevant if you are using the Collective debtors app.
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If your customer has created their own purchase order for this sales order, enter their purchase order in the Your order number/commission field, if known.
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If required, add your own short internal identifier in the Internal designation field. The text you enter here is displayed in the sales order overview in the Customer column under the customer name.
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The Order date field is automatically filled with the creation date of the sales order. To manually change the order date click on the date and select the desired date from the calendar. From the per drop-down select the channel through which you received the sales order, e.g. internet, email, phone, etc.
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If the customer wants the sales order delivered on a certain date, select the date in the Desired delivery date field. Select the KW (calendar week) check box if you want the calendar week to be displayed instead of a specific date.
Note
You can also use the variable {LIEFERDATUMKW} to display the calendar week in your documents.
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Select the date on which the sales order should be transferred to the warehouse in the Delivery warehouse field, if required. This way you can account for lead times for the processing of sales orders in the warehouse and shipping.
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If you want to reserve the product for the customer within your warehouse, select the date on which you want it reserved in the Reservation date field.
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Only relevant if you are using the Commission/Consignment warehouse app: The Kommissions-/Konsignationslager (commission warehouse) field is filled automatically with the relevant warehouse if such a warehouse has been entered in the customer master data. Alternatively you can search for it using the magnifying glass.
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The Write protection check box is selected automatically once the invoice for the sales order is created or archived. You can manually select this check box if you want to activate the write protection for any reason.
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Select the Proformarechnung (pro forma invoice) check box, the sales order is renamed to pro forma invoice. After clicking Save, the form header will no longer say Sales order but Proformarechnung (pro forma invoice) and the order confirmation will replace the subject from order confirmation to pro forma invoice.
Note
This option is not representing a pro forma invoice in the legal sense. You create those invoices via Accounting > Pro forma invoices.
Tip
You can rename this check box to anything you like in the Basic settings in the Labeling different from order field.
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Enter any text you want to add to the sales order confirmation in the Free text editor. The more common use case though is that you define the texts you want on your documents under Administration > System > Basic settings > Settings tab > Text templates subtab.
If the sales order is to be sent to an alternative shipping address, select the Differing Shipping Address check box In the Differing Shipping Address section. You can then select between the following options:
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Enter an alternative shipping address manually.
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Click Delivery address. Scroll down to the table with alternative shipping addresses. These come from the Delivery addresses tab in the customer master data. Select the relevant address by clicking
in the Menu column.
Alternatively enter a new shipping address and click save shipping address. Scroll down to the table and select the address by clicking
Note
Any alternative shipping address you create in this form is saved in the customer master data record in the Delivery addresses tab.
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Click Contact Person. Scroll down to the table with contact persons. These come from the Contact person tab in the customer master data. Select the relevant address by clicking
Alternatively enter a new contact and click Save contact person. Scroll down to the table and select the address by clicking
Note
Any alternative contact you create in this form is saved in the customer master data record in the Contact person tab.
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Click From master data. Schroll down to the table with all customers created in Xentral. Select the relevant address by clicking on
Alternatively enter a new contact and click Save contact person. Scroll down to the table and select the address by clicking
The Master data section of the sales order is automatically filled with the data from the customer master data. You can add missing information manually or edit the pre-filled information from the customer master data.
Note
Information you added to or changed in the sales order fields will only apply to this specific sales order. The information is not added or changed in the customer master data.
You can add an existing contact at the customer or create a new contact for the customer by clicking Contact Person. The Insert contact person form is displayed. This form is directly linked with the Contact person tab in the customer master data, so any contact you create here is added to the Contact person tab and if you edit or delete a contact record, the changes are applied in the tab as well.
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To add an existing contact to the sales order, scroll down in the Insert contact person form until you reach the table with existing contacts. Select the required contact by clicking
. The selected contact is displayed in the Contact Person field in the sales order.
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To create a new contact for the customer, enter the relevant information in the fields and click Save contact person. Scroll down the form and you will find the new contact added to the table. Now you can add the contact to the sales order as described above. The contact you create this way is also added to the customer master data in the Contact person tab.
The Info for quotation and order entry field next to the Master Data section is automatically filled with the information from the Info for order entry field in the customer master data record.
Adding and maintaining the shipping and payment information when creating a sales order will make it easier for the warehouse to know the shipping conditions and will help during invoicing to create a correct invoice. You can still adjust these information later in the sales order process but we do recommend to maintain this information right from the beginning as the sales order is the basis for shipping and invoicing.
To add or maintain payment information:
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In the sales order scroll down to the Sales order section.
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The Payment method is automatically pre-selected based on the selected payment method in the Payment method drop-down in the customer master data. If you want to use a different payment method for this sales order, select the relevant payment method from the drop-down. If the payment method represents an advance payment, select the manually approve payment check box to automatically switch the relevant icon in the order status indicator to green showing the process step to be completed. This is especially important for auto-shipping.
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The Shipping method is automatically pre-selected based on the selected shipping method in the Shipping method field in the customer master data, if the sales order is created manually. If you want to use another shipping method for this sales order, select the relevant shipping method from the drowp-down.
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You can select the delivery terms from the Delivery term field. Delivery terms are defined in App Center > Fulfillment > Delivery terms.
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The Distribution and Editor fields are automatically pre-filled by the system. If an employee is selected in the Distribution field in the customer master data, then the field Distribution in the sales order will contain the same employee. If no employee is linked in the customer master data, the Distribution field will contain the person that created the sales order. The Editor field automatically contains the person that created the sales order. If you want to change the Distribution or Editor, click
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Select the Switch off postage verification check box to switch the postage icon in the order status indicator to green, if the postage check is activated in the relevant project.
Note
The postage icon is also switched to green when a postage product is added to the sales order.
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Select the Hide item texts check box if you want the product texts to be hidden on documents.
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Select the No stationary and logo check box if you do not want to use the PDF background document you uploaded in the basic settings.
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If relevant, enter the global location number of your customer in the GLN field in the Miscellaneous section on the right.
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The Invoice section contains the payment terms for this sales orders. The payment terms are pre-filled by the payment terms defined in the customer master data record. You can change the terms for the sales order manually. If you want to change the due date for the payment, change the relevant amount of days in the Payment term (in days) field. If you're giving a discount for early payments, define the number of days that qualify the customer for a discount in the Payment term discount (in days) field.
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Define the discount for early payment in the Discount field in the Discount section.
To add or maintain shipping information:
The check boxes in the Shipping center options section in the sales order are selected or cleared based on the project settings of the selected project. You can change the selected settings in the section manually:
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Select the Approve for auto-shipping check box to automatically set the order status indicator for auto-shipping to green. Clear the check box if you want to block the sales order from auto-shipping, e.g. for sales orders requiring prepayment or when the VAT ID needs to be checked first.
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Select the Fast lane check box to mark this sales order als fast lane, that is as prioritized. You can use the relevant filter in the Overview tab, the Delivery handover tab, and the Open positions tab under Sales > Sales order as well as in the shipping center under Fulfillment > Shipping Center to search for sales orders marked as fast lane. This way you can easily recognize which sales orders need to be handled first.
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The Create receipts in auto-shipping select field defines which documents are created during auto-shipping. Select among the following:
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Create invoice and delivery note
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Only create delivery note
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Just create an invoice.
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Select the Delivery despite delivery block check box if this sales order should be delivered even if there is a delivery block on the customer. This could for example be the case for guaranteed deliveries. If this check box is not selected and there is a delivery block in the customer, the sales order cannot get through.
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Select the No cancellation mail check box if the customer should not receive an email when this sales order is cancelled. If this check box is not selected, he will receive an email.
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Select the No tracking mail check box if the customer should not receive a tracking email, meaning an email confirming the shipment including the tracking number from the shipping provider. If this check box is not selected, the customer will receive tracking information for his shipment.
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Select the No incoming payment email check box when the customer should not be informed by email when his payment came through. If this check box is not selected, he will receive an email when the payment has been registered.
The VAT information and currency and language settings are pre-filled with the information in the customer master data record. You can change them manually in the VAT check section of your sales order.
To maintain the VAT information:
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If your customer is a B2B customer, the VAT ID field section should contain the VAT ID of your customer. If no VAT ID is available in the customer master data, you can add it here.
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The Taxation field contains the tax rate applied to the sales order. If you want to change the pre-set tax rate select the relevant tax rate from the drop-down:
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Domestic
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EU delivery/delivery threshold
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Export
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Tax-free domestic
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Select the Without notice for EU or export check box to hide the standard text for EU or export delivery notes defined under Administration > System > Basic settings > Settings tab > Text templates subtab > EU delivery note/Export delivery note text editors. If required, you can add an adjusted text using the Free text and Header text editors in the sales order.
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Select the VAT ID checked check box to set the VAT ID check icon in the order status indicator to green. This check box is automatically selected when Domestic has been selected as taxation.
Note
This check box can also be activated automatically for sales orders imported from an online shop.
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In the Display tax select field in the Setting section you can select whether the VAT is displayed or not. You have the following options:
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automatically (first reference point is the master data settings, second the project settings and lastly the basic settings).
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net
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gross
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You can maintain your language and currency settings in the Setting section:
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Select the currency for this sales order from the Currency drop-down.
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Select the language for documents to this sales order from the Language drop down. Currently the language selection is restricted to a few languages.
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If you select a foreign currency, you can enter the current exchange rate in the Exchange rate field.
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If you want to link this sales order to a specific cost center, select the relevant cost center in the Cost center field.
To add products to your sales order:
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Open the Positions tab in your sales order.
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You have two options to enter a product to the sales order:
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Enter the product or product number you want to add to the sales order in the Artikel (product) field. The fields Nummer (number), Menge (quantity), Preis (price) and Währung (currency) are automatically filled by the system. If more than one product has been ordered, you can manually adjust the quantity. Similarly you can change the price from the price saved in the system, or
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Click Search/create product manually from the buttons below the product table. A form is displayed in which you can search for product details or enter a new product.
Note
If a product is not in stock, the item in the selection list is displayed red.
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When all details are correct, click Insert in the product table row.
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Repeat the steps for all products you want to add to the sales order.
The selected product(s) are added to the sales order.
You can sort the order in which the products are displayed on the sales order confirmation by clicking and
in the Menu column. Alternatively you can use the drag and drop functionality (
).
You can edit the products by clicking in the Menu column. Alternatively you can click directly on the value you want to change, e.g. the price of a product, the currency, the delivery date, and enter the new value.
Once the sales order is completed, that means all the relevant customer, shipping, and payment information are entered and products added, you can process your sales order. All the options available for processing a sales order are described in the Processing sales orders article.
If you have product combinations that are often sold together, you can create a template and add the products and settings (special fields) in one step avoiding to have to select and add them all individually again and again.
To add or create a receipt template click Receipt templates under the product table in the Positions subtab. The Receipt templates form is displayed.
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Add an existing receipt template to your sales order by clicking
in the Menu column for the receipt template you want to add to your sales order. The products and special fields contained in the template are added to your sales order in the same sorting order as they are stored in the template.
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Create a new template for the use in future sales orders based on the product list in your current sales order by selecting the option create a template and entering a name for your template in the relevant field. Click Save to save the new template.
More information on receipts templates can be found here.
If you want to split the delivery of your sales order, for example because some products are not in stock but other products must be shipped immediately, you have two options available to do so:
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Select the products you want to ship directly by selecting the relevant check boxes in the Pos. column. Then select the option continue as a delivery note from the drop down on the left below the table. This will create a delivery note for the products selected and the shipment is in effect split.
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Click on Shipping splitting. In the form that is displayed enter the relevant information and click Change the shipping item amount.
You can add a discount percentage to be applied to all products in the sales order, for example if you give an extra discount during sale.
To add a discount to all products click Discount in % on all items, enter the discount percentage you want to apply in the displayed dialog and click OK. The discount is displayed in the Rabatt (Discount) column.
You can set off existing vouchers against the sales order. Vouchers can be defined in the Vouchers app.
To set off a voucher against the sales order:
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Click Voucher. The Voucher form is displayed.
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Select the voucher you want to offset by clicking
The voucher is applied to the sales order and displayed as position with a negative value in the product list. If the voucher value exceeds the sales order amount, the total sales order amount is offset. If the voucher covers the sales order amount partially, the remaining amount will be invoiced later on.
The basic design of your sales order confirmation, that is the text displayed in the sales order confirmation above the list of products offered, is defined in Administration > System > Basic settings > Settings tab > Text templates subtab > Order text above the product table field. This is the standard text used on all your sales order confirmations. However, in Xentral you have the option to add additional text or using special fields to adjust the product list included on the sales order confirmation.
To add additional text to the standard text defined in the basic settings:
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Enter any text you want to add right before the product list in the sales order confirmation in the Header text editor. This text is then displayed after the text taken from the basic settings but before the product list.
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Enter any text you want to add right after the product list in the sales order confirmation in the Free text editor.
Apart from adding text you can also adjust the layout of the product list included in the sales order confirmation using the Insert special field button in the Positions subtab of the sales order. The options are the same as when creating offers. You can find more info on how to stucture your product list in the sales order confirmation here.
After you've added all relevant information and all products for the sales order, you can display a preview of the order confirmation. This way you can check the final sales order before releasing it.
There are two ways to open a sales order preview:
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Go to Sales > Sales order > Open sales order > Details tab > Preview subtab. The sales order confirmation is displayed within Xentral .
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Go to Sales > Sales order > Open sales order and select the Open PDF option from the Action drop-down. The sales order confirmation is downloaded in PDF format and opened in a new window.
Go to Sales > Sales order > Open sales order draft > Details tab > Protocol subtab to check the log file for your sales order.
The log file contains all relevant information concerning the sales order and sales order process at a glance. You can find an overview of the documents produced for the sales order and open them as pdf, you can find information on payments, products returns and a protocol of the progression of the sales orders.
Go to Sales > Sales order > Open sales order > Files tab to add files to your sales order.
To add a new file:
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Click Create a new file in the sub tabs.
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Use drag & drop to drag your file into the Insert files here section or click Datei auswählen (select file) and select the relevant file from your computer.
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Enter a unique designation for your file in the Title field.
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Enter a description for your file in the Description field.
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Select a keyword for your file in the keyword field. Available options are:
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Other file
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Cover page
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Attachment
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Click Save.
The following settings must be made beforehand:
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Activate (checkmark) cancellation mail in the logistics process (in the project)
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Check cancellation business letter template (must exist, but created as a template with general text in the standard system)
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A standard e-mail address for sending the documents must be available (basic functionality in Basic Settings → E-mail)
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(In the order or in the customer address the cancellation notification can be blocked additionally, check the checkmarks here)
The following options are available for the delivery date (in the order):
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Desired delivery date → Enter the desired delivery date for the customer in this field in the order. This can also be printed as a variable on the stationery
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Warehouse delivery → In this field you enter the day on which the goods must be shipped from your warehouse, so that your customer receives the goods on time for his desired delivery date
Tip
Enter the day in the "Requested delivery date" field in the order and click "Save". Then the delivery date will be set automatically in the field "Delivery warehouse". The setting that was entered in the logistics settings in the project is taken into account: "Number of difference days delivery" and "Number between request and from stock".
The COD charge is created as a "postage item". As soon as you insert two postage items in the order, the traffic light switches. So you have to insert the normal shipping item, e.g. "shipping fee", and a COD item, e.g. "COD fee". In addition, you must mark both items in the article as "Postage item".
If you don't need the postage check or the cash on delivery check, you can also deactivate it for a project. The order status indicator will then remain permanently green, even if you have not inserted a postage item.