Support Articles Archives - Page 9 of 11 - Palladium

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Support Articles Archives - Page 9 of 11 - Palladium

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SUP091 – Delivery Advices

The Delivery Advice feature allows you to create Deliveries without the need to process Invoices, while still affecting the inventory on hand. This feature works in the precise inverse way as GRV’s, wherein GRV’s act as an intermediate process between the receiving of inventory and the processing of the Vendor invoice. The delivery advice acts in the same way as an intermediate step between the delivery of Customer goods, and the invoicing thereof.

This feature is not to be confused with the delivery notes within the system that are available for printing during the Process Invoice function.

Use for the Feature

This feature would generally be used in a number of processes, and often where deliveries are made to customers where you would require a POD before processing the Invoice, normally due to Over or Under Deliveries.

Another use would be where deliveries for a specific order are made in intermittently throughout a period such as deliveries to a Project, where the client only requires one Invoice, so would be used more for an internal rather than external purposes.

Setup

Activating the Function
In order to activate the Delivery Advice feature you need to go to the Control Panel >> Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2. Then activate the feature by selecting the Create Delivery from Sales Order setting, with other settings to prompt or Warn on Open Delivery Advices at time of invoicing, much in the same way as we do with Pick Tickets on converting Sales Orders To Invoices. The other settings are to determine whether you would like to print the Price on the Delivery advice or to display the price on the Delivery Advice processing screen.

Control Account Setup
Because this Delivery Advice feature created a financial Transaction, ie Credit Inventory and Debit the Delivery Advice Control Account you would need to set the Delivery Advice Accrual Account in the Linked Account Setup Screen.

User Rights and Processing icon
Once you have activated the function you now need to set the respective user rights and on logging in, the Delivery Advice Icon will be available for the respective users.

Delivery Advice Processing

Creating Delivery Advices

To begin using this feature you will select the Delivery Advice Icon. In the example below I created a Sales Order for 2 x Bicycles and 2x Bicycle Helmets. Then on processing the Delivery Advice elected to only deliver 1 of each item. You will see that there is also a field for Total Delivery Quantity to add aid the Despatch and Drivers.

When processing the second delivery, the system defaults only the undelivered quantity of the order as seen below.

Processing Invoices
Once you would like to create an invoice simply select the invoicing processing function. If you first select the customer you will be prompted with the open delivery advices. Alternatively, you can click straight on the Delivery Advice Convert Icon as seen below,

And you will then be presented with a list of open deliveries that you can select to invoice as seen below.

What is notable about this feature is that you can convert from Multiple Deliveries to a Sales Invoice. Incidentally, this function works in conjunction with the ability to convert multiple Sales Orders to a single Sales Invoice.

On invoicing you will see that the items are grouped per item per delivery, for easy identification purposes.

Download this Support Article's PDF

SUP092 – Payment Terms and Tender Types

There are 2 very distinct functions within the product that we need to differentiate between, namely Tender Types and Payment Terms. In addition we will explain how to use the new HP Payment Term Functionality within the application.

Tender Types

The primary purpose behind Tender Types is to assist in in the Cash-up process with the ability to define as many Tender Types as required, each with their own clearing account. One of these Tender Types is “On Account” and when using “On Account” you will activate the Terms function.

Setting up Tender Types
The tender types at setup in the Control Panel >> Tender Types option as seen below.

Once you have done this you then need to set the default Tender Type on the Customer or Vendor Account under the Settings tab. (refer below under Define Default Customer and Vendor Terms)

Activating the Use of Tender Types During Sales or Purchase Document Processing
In most “Traditional” cases, businesses process Invoices and Capture the payments, or receipts as a separate function, but with Palladium we have the ability to capture the Receipt at time of processing. To activate this go to Control Panel >> Company Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2 tab.

Once activated, you will have the ability to change the Tender Type in the Sales Document Header and select the respective tender method with its respective Tender Method Clearing account, effectively like having PoS Functionality in the generic invoicing function.

Splitting Payments
We have also incorporated the ability to Split Payments, for multiple tender types, that we have in the PoS function, into the general Sales Invoice processing feature. In addition you can set this to Automatically Invoke on the invoicing screen for businesses that are more Cash-Sale oriented. To set this you go to Control Panel >> Company Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2.

Using Tender Types during Sales or Purchase Document Processing
Once the feature is active you will be able to select the different bank, or tender control account, on the processing documents. You also have the option to change the Clearing Bank Account at any time. You will also notice that there is a warning at the foot of the document that this is a Non-Account Payment option.

When we Record/Save the document, the Tender Type Options invoke per the setting above.

Journal Entries
With the Cash Tender options you will see that there are no entries processed to the Accounts Receivable account and the Receipt Transaction is processed with the Sale.

Terms

Overview
Terms are the period, or the amount in days, that you have to pay a specific document, and is defined by the document Due Date. The terms function within Palladium is very powerful with the ability to set default terms per Customer or Vendor, with the ability to amend these per Document (a function that is governed by user-rights)

Setting up Terms
To setup Terms, go to Control Panel >> Terms.

Step 1 – Select Term Type
Standard Term (Days term) – i.e. that the invoice is due X days from Date of Invoice or from Date of Statement.

Calendar term (monthly term) – this is where the invoice is due at the end of a Month, i.e. Current Month, Next Month, etc.

Instalment Sale Term (HP) – this is where clients can pay off an amount over a specific period.

Step 2 – Define the Early Settlement Discount
The early settlement discounts are the discounts that will be applied during the Receipting/Payment process should the payments be made within the specified period. These discounts are automatically calculated at time of Payment or Receipt Processing. Note that this early settlement Discount feature does not apply to the Instalment Sale (HP) payment method as reflected in the screen above.

Step 3 – Set the “Calculation of Statement Date”
This setting only applies to the Standard Terms where we have elected to use x Days from Statement Date as well as with the Hire Purchase terms. This allows you to set the statement, or due, date to any day in the month and could be the 25th as is particularly common in a number of Specific Industries.

Setup Instalment Sale (HP) Tender Methods

Group Parameter Settings
Once you have setup the required tender types, you then need to activate the various HP Contract settings per Customer Group.  To do this we have set the different contract parameters for Deposit %, Finance Charge Rate, Penalty Charges and Insurance Rate all at the Customer Category Setting. To activate this, you just need to set this as a Hire Purchase Customer Category and the relevant settings will be available.

Link Terms to Customers
You now need to assign both the HP Parameters as well as the default Terms to the Customer. On editing or creating the customer you first need to select the relevant Customer Category and default Terms. Once you have selected an HP Customer Category, only HP Payment terms will be available for this Customer.

Remember that the terms can be adjusted on a per Transaction (or Invoice) level, provided the user has the requisite user-access to adjust these.

Processing HP Transactions
Once you have processed an invoice with the HP Terms, you will be presented with the Contract Summary Screen below. Thereafter you have the ability to adjust the Insurance Cost, Deposit as well as the Monthly Instalment field. Should you wish to adjust the Monthly instalment for rounding purposes, the balance will be allocated to the “Last Instalment”.

When you have all the required details, you can then print the Contract Agreement, with the system merging all the relevant information into the Document.


Interest on Overdue Accounts
The Interest Billing function has been enhanced to incorporate the penalty interest on the overdue contracts.

Early Account Settlement
Clients wishing to settle Hire Purchase Accounts Early can do so with the system automatically calculating the interest recoupment and posting this as a Settlement Discount at time of receipting.

Download the Support Article PDF

SUP083 – Document Attachments

You can attach documents in Palladium in 2 different ways each with their own purpose. These include:
  1. Attaching at Masterfile Level such as Projects, Customers, Vendors and Inventory Masterfile, the latter offering the ability to mail the attachment on the fly with related sales documents
  2. At transactional level

Masterfile Level

Customer, Vendor, Projects and General Ledger Accounts
This feature is mainly used to attach documents which are relevant to a particular Customer or Vendor at Masterfile level. These documents may include SLA’s (Service Level Agreements), Contracts, Spreadsheets, or any other documents that you may wish to refer to in the future. To use this function you simply need to select the files tab in the specific Masterfile then click add to browse to where the document is saved. Attaching this document will add it to the Palladium Database so it is recommended keeping the file sizes to a minimum.

Inventory Masterfile Level
We have detailed this feature separately because in addition to attaching documents for reference purposes, (such as warranties, installation instructions or general information), Palladium gives you the ability to attach these files on-the-fly with any emailed Sales Documents (such as Quotes, Sales Orders or Invoices) that contain this item.
To set this up you would need to add the document to the Files tab in the inventory masterfile section, and define with which Sales document you would like the document to be sent.
Then when e-mailing the sales document the attached document will populate with the e-mail as illustrated below.
 
Attaching at Transactional level
This feature allows you to attach related documents at document transactional level (or on all processing documents). You would generally attach a document here for any documents that relate to the transaction itself. This could be a proof of payment for a receipt, or a customer order or delivery note attached to an invoice.
You also have the ability to e-mail document attachments directly from the related processing screen by highlighting the attachments and then clicking on the Email button.

SUP106 – Understanding Customer Credit Control

The Palladium Credit Control is managed in 2 separate stages in the form of Sales Order Level and Sales Invoice level. There is no credit management for Sales Quotes of Freehand Quotes.

Sales Invoices

There are 2 ways in which we control and set up the Credit Management for invoices in the form of Over Credit Limit, and Overdue Invoices.

Over Credit Limit
To use Credit Limit Control you first need to activate the function “Default Credit Control for New Customers” above and insert a default Credit Limit for New Customer creation. The Credit limits are set at customer level as seen below – and governs / limits the total amount of goods or services invoiced to clients. In the screen below you will see that we will activate the Credit Control function at Customer Level. Once the credit limit has been reached, the user will be unable to invoice the client further.

In addition to this you can set the system to Allow / Block or Warn on Customers over their Credit Limits for added flexibility.

Temporary Credit Limits
Should users wish to exceed customer credit limits but still exercise control and discretion by using the Temporary Credit Limit function as seen above. The temporary credit limit is supported by an expiration date for greater control.

Overdue Invoices
The credit block on Overdue Invoices manages the ability to process invoices on Customer accounts with overdue invoices. An overdue account is classified as an account with invoices over their due credit terms. Ie if an invoice was due to be paid at the end of January, the system will disallow invoices processed in February until these overdue invoices are paid. Note that there is an option for the discretionary management for credit control on overdue invoices with the option settings to Allow / Block or Warn on generating sales on accounts with overdue invoices.

User Overrides
We have the option to allow for user / managerial overrides on Credit Block on accounts with overdue invoices at time of processing the Invoice.

Sales Orders

Credit Block On Overdue Invoices
This function allows you to Control the processing of sales orders where clients have overdue invoices. You also have the ability to set the function to Allow / Block or Warn on processing orders for clients with Overdue Invoices, as well as the ability to convert these to Sales Quotes on the fly.

Credit Block On Over Credit Limit
This function allows you to Control the processing of sales orders where clients are over their credit limits. You also have the ability to set the function to Allow / Block or Warn on processing orders as required, as well as the ability to convert these to Sales Quotes on the fly.

Include Open Sales Orders in Available Credit
This function sets the available credit display on all Sales Document Processing screens to factor in the value of open Sales Orders for clients who want to view the credit limit as the total exposure to the client. In the screen below you will see we have created a Customer with a credit limit of R2,000 and a Temporary credit limit of R2,500 where we have included the open Sales Order in the available Credit value.

User Overrides
We have the option to allow for user / managerial overrides on Credit Block on accounts with overdue invoices at time of processing the order.

Download the Support Document PDF

SUP112 – Salesperson Processing

This article will explain the use of Salespersons in Palladium from both a Setup as well as a document Processing Point of view. This feature facilitates the ability to have multiple salespersons within a single sales document and also caters for a 3-tier salesperson hierarchy from Account Manager, Regional Manager down to the salesperson on the document. We can also report on the actual user who entered the transaction should this also be required.

System Setup

There are 3 system settings relating to salespersons as displayed below:

Default Salesperson Selection Method
We have the ability to define whether we will use the Default Salesperson set at a “User” or at a “Customer” level as the default salesperson on the processing document. Using the default by “User” means that the salesperson assigned during the Users Setup will be used when processing sales documents where the latter will use the setup by Customer or Customer delivery address (explained in more detail below).

Blank Salesperson
This function allows you to Block / Allow or Warn on blank Salespersons on sales processing documents where there are no Salespersons setup for that Account. This is more relevant to Freehand Quotes where there are no default Salespersons setup on the “Freehand Account”.

Salesperson Processing by Document or Line
This new feature in Palladium Enterprise V10 allows you to define whether you would like to record the Salesperson for the Document or have the ability to record this by Line item. We would generally allow the recording by line where more than one person is directly involved in the sale.

Item Product Manager Reporting
Should we require the ability to report on Sales or Sales margins by item group or category – we could create a user-defined field for Product Manager and link this person to the Inventory Masterfile and report accordingly through our BI module.

Customer Masterfile
The default Salesperson can be set on the Customer Settings tab as seen below, with an Overriding Salesperson being set at Customer delivery address. What this does is to allow you to now set a default Salesperson per region, that is set once and filtered through to the processing document for ease of use.

Reporting
All these Salesperson field are available to you in our Palladium BI and can be added to any excel sales report allowing you to report on the Salesperson (manager) on the Main Account, Salesperson set at the Delivery Address, or simply the Salesperson who processed the transaction.

These are all supported by User-defined fields at Customer Account Level, Document Header level and even at Document line level for a pretty muck unrestricted reporting experience.

Download the Support Article PDF

IND051 – Palladium for Hardware and Buildware

Collections and Deliveries

Palladium has the ability to manage Collections and Deliveries after the goods have been invoiced using its Dispatch function. This is a separate function that allows you to create a Delivery or Collection from the sales Invoice and perform a full or partial, or even multiple Releases whether in the form of Deliveries or Collections until the fulfilment is complete. Below is an example of a Dispatch Advice where the Original Invoice was for 19 Boxes (Orig Qty), Dispatched to Date (Remain Qty) is 9 and the Current Dispatch Qty is 3 boxes (Ship Qty) .

Pick Tickets

The Pick Ticket function within Palladium allows you to define Pick Routes within the warehouse to control Picked vs Unpicked Orders. In addition, we have the ability to Split Picking across Locations or Warehouses or Yards and to collate them at time of Invoicing. We also have the ability to create workflow steps of the Releasing and/or Printing and assigning of Pick Tickets. In the screen below you will have the ability to view all un-issued Pick Tickets, Issued but not Picked, and Picked not Invoiced, each status with filters per Location, Departments and even Delivery Methods for ease of control.

Serial Number and Lot / Batch Number Tracking

Serial Number Tracking
You can use Serial Number Tracking to monitor and control Big-Ticket items, particularly when it comes to controlling things such as warranties etc. You also have the ability to assign Serial numbers at the time of receiving or at the time of Sale only for greater flexibility, alleviating the need to account for the different Serial Numbers on Hand.
Lot / Batch Numbering
This feature may not be as prevalent as Serial Number Tracking but can certainly assist when receiving or manufacturing batches of Glues or Chemicals that may need to be tracked for recall purposes or that may just expire. Like we have with the Serial Numbers, you also have the ability to create different Lot Number or Batch “Profiles”, each with different characteristics that allow them to be controlled and managed in different ways. In the setup screen below you will see that the Batch Profile is set to display the Batch Number on the Various Documents and we have also enabled the Embedded Barcode Capability to select the Batch Number and Item code at the time of processing. This feature can also be used for assigning Lot Numbers to rolls of Material or Metal so as to better manage on-hand quantities due to offcuts.

Enter Item Dimensions or Box Sizes
Palladium has the ability to automatically calculate a quantity by entering one or more Values or Dimensions with the ability to round on the resultant values. This can be used for calculating Square Meterage’s for boxes of tiles or for cutting panes of glass. You set up the dimensions in a similar way as we do the Serial and batch Number profiles, then assign each of these profiles to the item. In the example below, you will notice that we have set the second Box Size Factor as Read-only with the formula set to round up to 0 decimals.
All you now do is simply assign the Dimension Profile to the Item itself.
Once set to Auto-Invoke at time of sale the Input Option Below activates as soon as the item is selected.
Item Images
You can not only view Images of Items at Point of Sale, but you also have the ability to insert these images in selected Sales Documents. The same function applies to Purchase Documents. An example could be to insert these for Sales Quotes as seen below.
Item Buyouts
You can use Buyouts to purchase non-standard items to be able to complete a client’s order. This function allows you to effectively select the Cost of an item at time of sale with the contra being assigned to the Buyout Control Account. When we invoice or process an order for a Buyout Item the system will prompt for an Item Unit Cost and manage the Gross Profits Accordingly.
Related or Upsell Items
You can set Related, or Upsell Items and set them to optionally invoke at time or sale. This feature can be used in one of two ways. It can be used for item Supersession or Replacement, or it can truly be used to Upsell Items. For example, a client purchasing Tiles would require Tile Cement, Grouting and Tile Spacers. To Setup Upsell Items, go to the Primary Inventory item and select the Related Item Tab as seen below.

 

There is nothing worse than finding out that you need batteries for something you bought once you get home!!

Temporary Credit Limits
Tight Credit control processes may be required to be adopted when dealing with the Trade. Palladium handles this well by being able to manage Credit Control using Credit Limits, Overdue Accounts as well as the ability to control the Credit at time of Sales Order and/or at Sales Invoice Level. This facility is complemented by Temporary Credit Limits with Expiry Dates as seen below.
Manufacture or Un-Manufacture / Decanting
We have the ability to create Assemblies or Dis-assemblies allowing us to decant liquids such as Paint or Spirits from bulk storage into multiple smaller packages.
Freehand Quotes
Create Freehand Quotes for Prospective Customers, as well as Prospective Inventory Items or Buyouts, alleviating the need to create a new Customer account or Inventory Item for Quotations. On acceptance, you can simply convert these Freehand Quotes to Sales Quotes or Sales Orders, whilst creating the Customer Account and Items on the fly.
Projects
You can use the Project function to assign costs and revenues to customer projects undertaken. This would be where specific work is conducted at a customer or contractors premises where sundry costs and revenues need to be managed.
On processing, you can simply process or assign the related costs or revenue across one or more projects.

SUP102 – Item Images

Use for the Feature

The ability to use Item images within Palladium not only enables the sales consultant to offer a more professional service to their customer, but also gives the business a more professional approach to its printed sales and purchase documents.

Setup

Adding Images
You can add one or more image to your Inventory Items through the Inventory Maintenance function below.

Using Images on Printed Documents
To insert the images on the printed Documents go to the Control Panel >> Company Options >> Inventory and Services, and select the documents on which you would like for the Images to be printed.

Processing

Processing Documents
To view the images on the Processing Documents, simply select the item and then the View Images button below, with the ability to scroll through all item images.

Printed Documents
All you do now is to print or email the selected document and the image will appear in the required space accordingly as seen below.

Download Support Article PDF

SUP105 – Segmented General Ledger

The General Ledger Segmentation function was designed to allow business to have extended General Ledger reporting capabilities in organisations with Multiple Branches and/ or departments, with the ability to filter and report on one or more of the segments. This facility has also been designed to complement the account set by warehouse function, allowing us to have a segment integration by item or item category by warehouse, allowing profitability to even be reported on a product line basis. Another market for this is in the issuance and control of Grants or Fund Management whereby we can report on the individual projects managed within the specific fund(s).

Another limitation that has been overcome is that of departments with departmental allocations previously being done at a document level basis. With the segmented General Ledger you can now process integrations document line item.

Setting Up General Ledger Segmentations

The first thing you need to do is to create the segments. It is important to note that creating segments is merely creating parameters and does not create the accounts themselves. Creating segments will be explained in 2 separate sections, ie clients converting an existing (non-segmented) company, and clients creating a new company. Note that the ability to add segments is available to both scenarios at can be done at any time. You can also Manage segments either by accessing the General Ledger / Maintenance / Accounts function and selecting the Add New Account Segment as seen below.

You can also access the account segment maintenance by accessing the Control Panel / Company Options / Company tab as seen below:

Upgrading an Existing Company

Existing Segments

When you upgrade from a pre-General Ledger Segmentation company, on conversion the current Sub-Accounts will automatically become the second segment, and will allow you to report by the values in this segment.  You can see from the screen that we had 2 sub-account settings in the Original Company Data namely 0000 and 0500. All we need do now is to name the segments and report accordingly.

Adding Segments

You can then redefine the General Ledger Segments as required with the ability to add new segments as seen below.

Remapping Accounts

The Manual Setup option as seen here, allows you to define your own segment lengths while the other options below will install the 4-4 account segment structure with the sample data, but allow you to adjust at a later stage. The first segment is reserved for the account number and can have a minimum quantity of 3 digits, that are numerical only, while the other segments are limited to 10 segments 50 characters in total, and can be set as Alpha, Numeric or, Alphanumeric as defined above.

Creating a New Company

When creating a new company there are a number of options afforded to you.

The Manual Setup option as seen here, allows you to define your own segment lengths while the other options below will install the 4-4 account segment structure with the sample data, but allow you to adjust at a later stage. The first segment is reserved for the account number and can have a minimum quantity of 3 digits, that are numerical only, while the other segments are limited to 10 segments 50 characters in total, and can be set as Alpha, Numeric or, Alphanumeric as defined above.

Building or Creating Accounts

Once you have created your segments (or building blocks) you then need to create your accounts. You do this by selecting the primary account segment then select the second segment. In doing this you ensure that only the accounts relevant to that segment (branch or department for example) are created.

Using the Account Builder

The account builder function allows you to build your required accounts with the Segment definitions being added as they are selected as seem here.

Account Import

We also provide the ability to import your General Ledger accounts. You can find this in the Control Panel / Import & Export / Ledger Accounts.

General Ledger Reporting

The general ledger reporting function caters for up to 3 combinations of segment filters in most of the ledger Reports. In addition, you can select one of more of the segments to give you unsurpassed multi-dimensional financial view of your business.

SUP204 – Adding Custom Reports

Setting Up Custom Reports

Palladium has the facility for you to add any additional reports that you may require for the day to day running of your business. Once you identify any reports that you may require that are not there on the system, let us know and we can develop the reports for you and set them up on your system under the respective modules.

Below is an illustration of the use of the Custom Reports function to add externally developed reports on Palladium. Fill in the name and the description of the report and specify which module the report falls under and browse through to the location where your report is saved.

Once the report has been added, it will now be available on the reports list for the selected module under the Custom Reports section.

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