Invoice Writing

Updated April 2012 by Paul McMorran
Counter Sales – Invoice writing (account sales) Operational Procedures

1 Introduction
The cash register area at Bulleen Art & Garden is a lot more complex than normal cashier work. You are there to welcome customers to Bulleen Art & Garden, to direct and help customers, assist in answering phones and help coordinate customer enquires.

It is very important that you are completely familiar with the invoice writing, cash register and BAAG phone system Operational Procedures. Once you have been trained in basic cash register operation and the BAAG phone system, you will be trained in Invoice writing and account sales.

2 Writing invoices and R4 payments

2.1 Start Up

1. Click on the MYOB icon
2. Enter the user ID and password – for general invoice writing it is “sales” and “sales”.
3. In MYOB Sales menu, click on Sales.
4. Click on the “Enter quote, order or invoice”

2.2 Enter Customer Details.

1. Click the blue arrow to the right of Customer.
2. You have 3 options – either select one of our account customers, cash sale trade (for non-account trade customers) or cash sale retail (for all other customers).
4. Next go to the “Ship to” box you will need to enter the customer’s name and delivery address. For our account customers leave their name but change the address from their home address to the delivery address.
5. Under the delivery address details enter the customer’s phone number, melways reference and nearest crossroad.
6. An invoice number will automatically appear; however make sure it is the correct number. The invoice number can be manually changed if it is wrong (Steph uses a different set of invoice numbers when entering the accounts, the invoice number will automatically default to the last entered number. So be careful and make sure the invoice number is a 10000ish number).
7. Date should be automatic.
8. Enter a “Customer Purchase Order number” if applicable.

2.3 Enter Delivery Details:

1. Click the blue arrow to the right of “Salesperson” and select your name.
2. Click the blue arrow to the right of “Comment” and select the preferred delivery time. 2-hour time frames are at the top, scroll down for less specific delivery times. You must use one of these selections – do not make up your own.
3. Click the blue arrow to the right of “Ship Via” and select the truck that the delivery will be going out on. If the customer has specified the smaller truck, don’t forget to charge extra delivery fees where applicable.
4. In “Promised Date” enter the date the delivery is for.
5. The “Journal Memo” field is where you enter any specific delivery instructions, eg. “Tip on nature strip” or “See owner before tipping”
6. Click the blue arrow to the right of “Referral Source” and select the time that you took the order.
7. In the “Freight” box, enter the delivery charge.

2.4 Enter Product Details:

1. In the “Ship” column, enter the quantity of each product. Eg, 2½ metres of Mushroom Compost you would enter 2.5. Use the ‘Tab’ key to move across.
· If the order quantity is less than one metre, still enter 1 in the “Quantity column” then select the actual amount in the “Item number/Description column” eg ¼ or ½ a metre of the specified product (otherwise the order quantity will cancel out the amount in the product description and half the cost/price) – please experiment!!
2. Don’t enter anything in the “Backorder” Column, tab past it to the “Item Number column”.
3. Hit ‘Tab’ again/twice when in the “Item Number” column and a product list will appear.
4. The numbers next to each category can be used to jump to the items in that category. Eg. If you are entering a Yard Other product, typing ‘4’ will take you to the start of the Yard Other product list.
5. Select the item you are selling.
6. The price and total will be automatically filled in.
7. If the item being sold is not on the computer list, use the category code at the top of the product list (eg yard bulk, nursery). Then you will have to click on the price column and enter the price.
8. The only other thing you need to do is enter the discount amount in the “Disc% column”, (eg. 10%). This will adjust the total accordingly and automatically.
Please take note of the invoice number you are using.

2.5 Printing the Invoice:
1. Click on the “Already Printed or Sent” box (under referral source)
2. Click on the “Print Box” (in between the “Help F1” and “Send to” boxes)
3. A box will pop up saying “The sale you have just entered will be recorded before it is printed – cancel or ok”
4. Click OK
5. Print one copy if the delivery is COD, or print two copies if the customer is paying now. Print the customer copy to the office or where customer is being served and print the BAAG delivery copy to the yard shed (eg. Samsung ML-1450 Series on Shed (from OFFICE2) in session 1)
6. After printing the invoice. Check that it is received in the yard shed.

There are several things, which must be filled in manually after the invoice is printed, check that you enter them all, as they are all very, very important.

1. Handwrite any comments on the invoice after printing (mixed/separate, and any extra delivery instructions…)
2. The customer’s phone number, Map Reference and Nearest Cross Road need to be entered manually if this hasn’t been included with the delivery address details.
3. If the customer pays for the order, you will need to cross out ‘COD’ and stamp with PAID stamp and note date, method of payment and initial. Payments go through R4 and into the R4 book as per normal. One copy of the invoice is for the customer if they pay before delivery, this acts as their receipt. If the delivery is COD they will get the driver’s copy when the delivery arrives.
4. Make sure the yard copy is placed on the delivery board or sent to the yard shed printer, and the yard staff are informed that the invoice is there.
5. Any mistakes or cancelled invoices please write down the invoice number and put it in a tray on Heather’s desk.
6. Logging Off
When you are finished an invoicing session :
1. Exit from MYOB by clicking on the cross at the top left corner of the MYOB page (not the one in the centre top of the page.
2. Log off the MYOB session. Go to the start button at the bottom left corner and select log off.
3. Click yes to log off
Do NOT click on the cross at the top centre of the page – this will disconnect you but leave you logged on.

Quick reference for item numbers:
1 – Seedlings
2 – Nursery
3 – Yard Bulk
31 – Yard Bags
4 – Yard Other
5 – Sundries / hardware
51 – Trade store
6 – Sprinklers / Irrigation
7 – Pots
71 – Gallery/gifts
8 – Paving
9 – Turf

3 Payment for invoiced goods.

(a) Every payment that is made for goods for which an invoice has been written must be rung up on R4 and entered into the R4 book, ie. Invoice payment record book. If somebody comes to you and hands you a payment with no details do not just assume it is to be rung through R2 or R3. It is most likely to be a payment for an invoice or perhaps an account payment. You should firstly ask the customer for more detail and then ask the duty manager for assistance.

(b) For large deliveries to first time trade customers, (more than $500), get payment by cash or credit card, we do not accept cheques. \

3.1 Turf / Paving
Instant turf, paving and special orders are not ordered without payment in advance. Collect money by credit card over the phone when necessary.

3.2 Account customers

If you do not know the customer always check on the list or with the manager before writing up invoices on account. Do not ask a customer if the sale is on account, let them tell you.

Generally we allow all government departments with legitimate order forms to put products on account.

Be aware that some tradies will try to get their customers to pay for tools or equipment by asking for them to be put through as a bulk product on the invoice. Under no situation should anything be added to the invoice as a substitution for another product. No matter who the customer is.

4 Delivery allocation

It is rare for the front desk to take deliveries, in the case that you do it is best to direct the customer to the yard if they are after bulk products. If it is a plant or similar, check with the yard when it may be convenient for a delivery.

5 Conclusion
This operational procedure and the cash register operational procedure contain a lot of detail. Only 10% may make sense initially. It is important to keep both job descriptions and read them again after a week and again after a month. Your training program as a new counter sales staff person will entail spasmodic training over several weeks by the office staff. You will receive training in invoice writing, cash register allocation and basic selling training in lawn care, irrigation and paving.

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