Order Entry is the process of recording an order into the company’s entry system. This is done to maintain a repository for accounting and finance reasons and also view the information and make changes if required.
In the order entry, one of the main fields present and to be filled is Ship to Location. STL signifies the location where the product has been shipped to or which place shall it be shipped. The reason why STL plays a very important part in Order Entry Creation is because according to the Ship to Location, the price list in the Order Entry along with the territory, sales split and the respective state tax and other pricing additions according to the legislation. This is used widely in the Transport, Distribution and logistics Industry.
Any ERP System will have the customer information stored in the database but the Ship to Location might be different from the Customer’s Address. Hence, if the admin or the user misses to fill up the STL, the default address will be of the Customer’s taken from the records which will not be appreciated by the customer if he has specifically mentioned that the goods have to be sent to other location. This can also lead to delay in delivery of the goods if the STL has not been mentioned and the default address is picked up by the system.
Customer loyalty and Repeat business for the company will also be at stake. Hence, it is always a good practice to make the ‘Ship to Location’ field mandatory. This can be achieved by having the admin enter the STL at the header level itself to reduce the extra work of entering the location every time. Being on the top also makes it difficult for the admin to miss on the field to be filled up by the user.
In Sage 300, a scalable and advanced ERP Software for SMEs and Startups has a customizable feature for the Order Entry screen which puts the ‘Ship to Location’ field in the header screen itself and prompts the user to fill it and not leave it empty.
This will help the user to accurately calculate the tax and other pricing based on the state that the goods are being transferred to. This can also help the user to prepare permits and other required documents as per the place that the goods will be shipped to.
This same feature is customizable for Shipment Entry too. Now, let’s say that you forget to insert the Ship to location then the customized screen will give you an error message box that the “Please fill ship to location”. You cannot post the order until you insert the ship to location.
