Auto DistributionIn a distribution environment, if the user is acting as a pure distributor and is not stocking material, it is possible to create a paperless distribution environment. In this case any sales order item will automatically generate a drop ship purchase order to a vendor.

The vendors can access the purchase orders via the vendor workbench with their own login and password. They can then notify the user that the item has been shipped so that it can be invoiced and A/P will pay the vendor.

Sales KitsSales kits are a collection of, typically, loose parts that are sold under a kit part number but are held in the inventory and are transacted as individual part numbers. Sales kits must be predefined but will then be available for entry into sales orders and for shipment through the normal sales order transactions system. The transaction of a sales kit will consist of automatic individual transactions for each of the sales kit components.

Lease Order ControlLeases are handled in a similar manner to consignment or loan sales orders with two major differences. The charges for a lease would normally be handled through the recurring invoice system which can specify a period based charge, interest charges, and an ending balloon payment if required. The second difference, is that leased items (i.e. part numbers) must be under serial number control. As in the consignment / load routines, the final resolution of the lease would be handled in a special transaction routine which will either return the leased unit to inventory or transfer ownership to the customer through a shipping transaction.

Consigned / Loaned MaterialAs consigned or loaned inventory remains the property of the user, a consignment or loan type of sales order appears as a normal sales order but the delivery data has an additional quantity that defines the number of units that are in the consigned or loaned state. The actual shipment of the units, and financial ownership is not consummated until the material leaves the consigned or loaned state and becomes the property of the customer.

Mandatory / Suggested / Substitute Sales Item AssociationsDefinitions of sales item associations will permit the order entry programs to either suggest or require the ordering of additional items that the user has indicated are associated with one or more of a sales order’s items. Or the sales order association data can be used to suggest and authorize substitute items during sales order shipping transactions.

Customer Rebate Definitions and ControlCustomer rebates can be defined by specifying the rebate parameters and the customer or customers for whom the rebate will apply. A customer rebate analysis routine can then be used, on a regular basis, to examine the order entry or cash receipts activity to determine which of the user’s customers are eligible for rebates. The rebates will be made in the forms of a credit memo in the customer’s accounts receivable account.

Web Based Order EntryA sales order entry routine that is prefaced by a customer definition based on the customer’s email address is available. The user data will be converted into a ship-to customer record that includes the user’s (encrypted) credit card and password information.The sales order entry is based on a search of the user’s catalog of products and a shopping cart concept.The actual presentation of the sales order data entry and catalog displays are available for customization.

Product Catalog DefinitionsThe system provides a backbone for a catalog structure by presenting a potential E-commerce buyer with a descriptive list of product classes, or codes, and a search engine to locate various system database elements pertinent to saleable inventory items. The search routine will be able to locate inventory items based on the following data:
· Marketing product code and / or the marketing product description
· Item aliases and / or their descriptions
· Item attributes and / or their descriptions
· Item authorized vendors and / or the vendor's name
· Item's vendor part number and / or the vendor's part number description
· Item's manufacturer and / or the manufacturer's name
· Item's manufacturer part number and / or the manufacturer's part number description
Following a successful search, any documents that have been assigned to the item, including pictures, videos, audio, text and/or web pages can be presented to the customer.

Multiple Automatic Sales Order Item Scheduling AlgorithmsEvery saleable part number has an option of five automatic scheduling algorithms that will run during the various sales order entry routines:
· Based on Available to Promise date (ATP) or lead time (whichever is earliest)
· Based on Capable to Promise date (CTP) or lead time
· Based on Available to Promise (ATP) or time fence
· Based on Capable to Promise (CTP) or time fence
· Single level finite plan (manufactured items only)
The calculated schedule date will also include the number of user defined order processing days
. Although the sales order entry programs will suggest a ship date, the user will still have the option of overriding the automatically generated date.

Full DRP Planning SystemThe DRP planning process will plan the anticipated replenishment of inventory items based on a master schedule (potentially, at least partially, loaded from existing sales orders), and, in a multi warehouse environment, the rebalancing of inventories will also be planned. Warehouse balancing will be defined in terms of inventory requisitions between warehouses.

Multiple Distributor DRP PlanningIf sales distributors have been defined and they are under inventory control and they are defined as ‘nettable’ inventories, they will be included in subsequent DRP plans.

Multiple Time Phased Pricing TablesThe INFO.NET contains two types of pricing algorithms. The first type includes pricing algorithms based on the following:
· Customer/Part Number
· Part number
· Customer class
· Product class
· Bill to Customer
These pricing types can be defined as an amount off or a discount percentage off of a product list price or the pricing type can directly specify the item price. Associated with the pricing algorithm is an optional volume pricing definition.

Order Entry Option / Feature ConfiguratorSpecial sales order configurations can be created either prior to an actual sales order creation or as part of a sales order creation. The configuration consists of predefined part number options defined under predefined features. As an example, a feature of ‘Motors’ with one or more types of motors defined as ‘options’. Each unique configuration assigned to sales orders will be maintained as history.

Promotion Pricing / AnalysisAny number of date effective promotions can be defined that will provide either a discount percentage or a discount amount for a specific inventory item, a product class, a ship-to customer or a customer class.If the sales entry routines find that a promotion is effective and applies to the item being entered on the sales order, the promotion discount will be applied to the calculated price. There is no limit on the number of promotions that could be applied to a specific sales order item.A promotion analysis is available that will examine the margin and gross sales generated by orders that contain a user specified promotion.

Customer Web Site AccessIf a web site has been defined in either ship or billing customer records, the web site can be queried directly from the customer edit and / or query routines.