If you are interested in optimizing your Order Entry settings in Spire, we can show you how! Spire offers 49 different User Settings for Sales Orders, with most related to accessing functions or editing fields, although some settings and order options can be taken advantage of to optimize and apply lean principles to your order entry process. Lean principles are centered on highlighting what adds value and reducing everything else. If your business’ existing processes allow for available options to be skipped or omitted, a user can save significant time in the long run by reducing touchpoints.
Note: Please check with your Spire Business Partner before changing any User Settings and consider the ramifications.
1. View Compact Button: By clicking the View Compact button on the Sales Order Header, multiple header fields are hidden to give more room for the item grid. Now the user can focus on the items.
View Compact sales order screen
2. Turning off columns in the item grid: As a default, numerous columns are enabled in the item grid that may not be needed. Right-clicking on the column header row and clicking on ‘Select All’ then ‘Select None’ will allow you to select only the specific columns that are essential to you (this change only affects you). The advantage to simplifying the grid is having more space to view important details.
3. User Settings to turn off to reduce clicks in Sales Order: By turning off the settings Edit Description, Show Backorder Warning and disallowing Non-Inventory Items in user settings under sales orders, the order entry process can become more streamlined.
a. With turning off the Edit Description setting, the default inventory description can no longer be edited. Once a part number is entered, the description is filled in automatically then jumps to the next field to edit. Along with one less field to touch, this will force the user to make any corrections to a part description directly on the inventory record, rather than adjusting on the sales order. Any additional description text can be added to the comment field.
b. Disallowing non-inventory items can prevent unintended non-inventory items being added to a Sales Order. When adding a part number onto a Sales Order, if a part is misspelled, the text is automatically wiped out rather than Spire accepting the mistake as a non-inventory item and moving forward. An alternative to disallowing this setting, selecting the prompt option will result in the user receiving a message to confirm adding a non-inventory item to the order.
c. Turning off the backorder message will result in the user not receiving a pop-up warning that the item was back ordered, with Spire entering an amount in the back ordered column immediately. For many businesses that sell inventory, it may be common to be in a backorder position when entering a sales order. Having a warning pop up each time an item is back ordered, requiring the user to click OK, can slow down the order entry process over time.
4. User Setting to set default payment as On Account: Another setting to take advantage of, if it corresponds with a business’ process, is setting the default payment type to be On Account. When turned on, users will no longer be prompted for the payment method after invoicing a sales order. The invoice total is directly moved to accounts receivable and the sales order is immediately closed. If the customer does not have available credit or is over terms, then Spire will prompt for the payment method. If sales orders are always settled to a customer’s account, this setting can save multiple clicks.
We hope these tips will help you Optimize Order Entry in Spire!
Spire Version at Time of Writing: 3.6
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