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I am wondering if anyone can give me any advice on how they handle special orders (sor) on the adp system. sor on adp seems like too much work to be worth doing at all. it seem as though they make it very complicated to be able to roll parts over to an invoice or ro. If a manual spec. order is created you must charge the part out, then go back and close out the sor#, if not they build up.
Basicly what im saying is, there seems to be way too many steps just to do a spec. order from begining(creating the spord) to the end(charging the spord out on an invoice.
I"d like to get some responses on other peoples "PROCESS" for spord, from beginning to end.
I worked with r&R system , and that was much more easier, and and practical.
thanx

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Hi Jimm,

I feel your pain! I 'turned on' ADP's SOR program 3 times in four years (only to shut it down each time) until I realized what I needed to do. It needs a lot of prep time and understanding.

It can also be as confusing as it is complicated. If you take the time to learn how to use the SOR program there are some wonderful benefits.

First off, there are three distinct versions of SOR.

1) The manual / manual method.
This is where you manually create the SOR through the function SOR. This sounds like what you are using. This is nothing more than an electronic way to do the special orders versus handwritting them and it takes 4 steps to totally complete the SOR transaction (as you mentioned)

2) There is the automated / manual method.
This allows you to create an SOR in both the invoicing (Function I) and repair order (PRO or ROA) programs. It is simple to create SOR's once this is turned on. This method "WILL NOT" allow you to automatically receipt parts to counter tickets and repair orders. This is the most common method and the best one to start out on.

3) The Automated / Automated method.
This does what what number two does and it will automatically receipt parts and 'fill' your invoices and repair orders automatically. This can cause some problems if your service department doesn't close repair orders on vehicles that have left the shop. For this reason, many opt not to use the full version of SOR.

I used option number three once I turned it on. I went through four months of discovery and brain damage. Yet, once I had all the 'debugging' worked out it was a wonderful and effective tool.

Unfortunately, you won't find much help from ADP on this matter. Why? Very few ADP users actually use either option 2 or 3 so it is hard to find any expert on this, especially at ADP. Let me know if you have any other questions? And, Good Luck?#@$%!

Chuck Hartle'

[This message has been edited by Chuck Hartle (edited 05-03-2000).]

Jimm:
WE USE THE ADP SPO SYSTEM HERE TO ITS FULLEST. WHEN YOU GET THE SYSTEM SET UP CORRECTLY IT WORKS LIKE A CHARM. YOU ONLY HAVE TO ENTER THE PART NUMBER ONCE AND THEN TELL IT WHICH TYPE OF ORDER. WHEN YOU PLACE YOUR ORDER YOU MUST SPECIFY THE ORDER TYPE OR TYPES YOU WISH TO ORDER. WE USE 1-DAY FOR EMERGENCY AND "INT" FOR INTERIUM AND "STK" FOR STOCK. IF YOU GET TO MANY TYPES IT GETS CONFUSING. WHEN YOU RECEIVE THE PARTS THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY ADDED TO THE INVOICE THEY WERE CREATED ON.
GOOD LUCK, BUT IT IS WORTH THE TIME IT TAKES TO SET IT UP. ONCE AGAIN, VERY LITTLE HELP FROM ADP SUPPORT, MOSTLY TRIAL AND ERROR.
GARY

Hello Jimm,

Chuck has basically covered the fundamentals regarding SOR's.

I have been toying and testing the ADP SOR system for approximately four years since attending a seminar.

I'll try to keep this as short as I can.

#1-Automatic SOR's should definitely be utilized, or you will have the extra work that you spoke of.

#2-Customer numbers should be used as often as possible, provided the customer has been added at some point.

At our store, all our parts for the service dept. are ordered from RO's, with some exceptions. If there is no open RO, a manual SOR is created using the CUSTOMER NO.

With Automatic SOR's turned on, when the customer returns, all the parts advisor has to do is, go into the RO that is currently open, with the SAME CUSTOMER NO., and on the screen it will show an existing SOR. When the CUST. NO. is used, the system will search for existing SOR's with the same CUST. NO., and automatically show that one exists. Key in F7, after punching in the RO number, and you will automatically be taken to the SOR where you can select the parts that are going to be used and automatically CHARGE OUT and CLOSE SOR lines at the same time. This eliminates most of the screen hopping you mentioned and saves A LOT OF TIME.

If a repair order remained open, this same method can be used when the part is receipted, or your can go in to the part line itself and fill it, AUTOMATICALLY CLOSING the SOR line. The second approach is more effectively used when the part has yet to be receipted, as long as you have the negative O.H. feature turned on, so that when it gets sold it goes to -1, and is later receipted to go to 0.

If you are ordering parts for wholesale or retail customers, CUSTOMER NO., should be used as often as possible. Prepaid invoicing is also a must. When the parts come in, the SOR# is the INVOICE#. When the customer returns, go to the INV. screen, punch in the INV# (Same as SOR), and you are given the option to Fill OR Clear the invoice. Filling it relieves the inventory and closes the SOR in a couple of keystrokes. On to the next customer. (NOTE: Wait a moment or two before filling INV, because if the part is wrong and you filled the line, you will have to open a CREDIT INV. to correct the error. If it is wrong or broken, you can CLEAR the INV. and create the CREDIT all at once.) Hence the word AUTOMATIC!

Rolling SOR's to invoices is a little less complicated for established customers,but the use of PREPAID invoicing for retail customers makes it a little easier for one time sales to roll onto invoices. Even if the part(s) haven't been paid for, creating the SOR through Invoicing using the ORDER option at the SELL,ORDER or PREPAY option,gives you the ability to automatically invoice the part and close the line when the part is in.

You have to understand Automatic Setup Options for backorder invoices before you set your system up.

I have encountered a few bugs lately regarding split orders (order 6, 3 come in , 3 backordered) lately and have been on the phone with ADP to try to correct, but I seem to have found another critter they are unable to explain at the current time. I wont elaborate at this time, as it seems this has been quite lengthy already.

Any Questions?

You'll have to get on board and test it 'til you understand it.

Hope I've helped a little.

jdpetey

[This message has been edited by jdpetey (edited 05-04-2000).]

[This message has been edited by jdpetey (edited 05-04-2000).]

I now have 2 additional questions.
1) If I create a special order manually in sor, and use a Customer No. because the ro is closed, will I be able to roll that over to an RO when the customer comes in at next service?
2)When creating a retail sor through(I) invoiceing, do i save the invoice? If I save the invoice, am i going to run into problems with my accounting dept. because i have created an inv. # that is open, and they don't have a copy of it?
3) If i sell 1 part and sor another part (not prepaid) on the same invoice, how will the invoice work? I'm going to need 1 invoice now for accounting dept. for the part i sold, and another for when the sor part comes in and is sold or filled.
4)how do i "turn on" Automatic invoicing? I Beleive it's already on because i can sor in "pro" and in "I".
thanx again

jimm,

maybe this will be of some help:

1.) I use the ADP sor and if my service dept. closes an ro (which they often do) I make them open a new ro to order the part on. If you order the part on a customer order under function sor than the service dept. will not know that the part is in when they look at SPI.

2.) I never open an invoice for a customer over the counter. My accounting dept. would have my head. I simply go into SOR and fill out a order form for the customer as they are standing there. When it prints out I send it to the cashier who writes the deposit on it.

I don't know if youare doing it, but every time a sor is done we print it out. We have the printer set to print two copies that are then stapled together. Then when the part comes in one paper is taped to the part and goes on our sor bin and the second paper goes into a filing cabinet. Makes it alot easier to keep track of what's here and where it is.

Hi jimm,

Call ADP and get yourself a set of ADEPT tapes for service, parts, and accounting (ADEPT creates training logons). Once you install them you can experiment with the SOR system (or any other function) without screwing up your normal logon. I played with the SOR system on an ADEPT logon for a few weeks before I turned the function on in our working logon. We also used ADEPT to train everyone BEFORE we turned it on. This resulted in a very smooth transition from hand written to automated SORs. It was, in fact, painless.

Once you understand this program you wont want to be without it. It can truly do some much for you and your staff. This is a very powerful program that is worth the effort required to get it up and running. In addition to the time this function will save yourself, your parts advisors, and your service advisors it will give you some very valuable tools to help control forced stock.

Good luck,


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Ed Weirick

Ed brings up a great point. I used ADEPT for several months to get the ball rolling on automating the SOR program.

I brought in our parts employees on a Saturday in 3 waves to train on the ADPET training module.

First, I had the parts advisors come in and train on the system. They created a whole bunch of orders as I had the ADEPT account set up as close as possible to our normal store.

Second, I had the people who would be rolling and ordering the parts come in and trained them.

Finally, I had the shipping and receiving clerks come in and receipt the orders and how to handle them. This really worked out well for the initial launch.

If you get the ADEPT tape, make sure to have ADP set the flag to "SAVE" your ADEPT account or it will delete if you ever run a system restore or resize. You want to make sure that as you alter your data file in the ADEPT tape that it is saving these also. I learned the hard way. After doing a bunch of setups for a month, I ran a re-size and lost all of it!

To answer both of your questions:

Using a manual SOR, unless things have changed in the last year, you cannot "roll" it into an RO or a Repair Order. Even using the customer number it will not allow you to do this.

Go to function "SOS" for your ADP SOR setup questions. The second prompt "INVOICING" options will answer this for you. When you generate a backorder invoice will have two options after you answer this prompt.

a) It will use either the next invoice to create a backorder invoice or you can have it create an invoice with "X1" and the original invoice.

Here is an example of using the original invoice and the "X1" number.

You order 10 parts on CT 12345

You had 3 in stock that you shipped. The system automatically creates CT 12345X1 for the other 7 parts.

Four more parts come in the next day from you facing depot and your customer wants them right away. You run CT 12345X1 and it creates another invoice CT 12345X2 and so on until you complete the total transaction.

This is great for tracking the original SOR number as you just have to drop the X1 and check it in the SPI program. Before opting for this, you need to talk with your GM or Controller, because it could create an document tracking nightmare if they don't know how many "X" invoices are created. We wrote a custom report that pulled all "X" tickets for our office to do document control.

Jpdedy and Ed are correct.... If you take your time and put the effort into it you will wonder why you didn't do it before!

Chuck Hartle'

Jimm,

In regards to creating an SOR through invoicing, if at the time you are prompted to print the invoice, you key in F3, your invoice will be held open until the part arrives. This is not a completely bad thing, because quantities can be adjusted at a later time if the need arises such as the part is ordered and an answerback comes back telling you that the part has been discontinued or multiple quantities must be purchased. But, if at the print prompt you key 1 and print the invoice, it will become a closed invoice. If you didn't have it prepaid, it won't be a problem, because the sale amount on the INV will be "zero". When the customer returns, you can go into the Invoicing screen and put an "S" in front of the SOR# at the INV# prompt and the system will automatically create a new invoice with the sale amount. There are also other little nuances. Also, this method can be very effective for PARTS customers such as wholesale accounts with large orders. There are many applications.

In regards to parts shipped and parts ordered on the same invoice, the total sale in the original INV will only total the shipped parts and the SOR'd parts will show BO quantities. Acccounting can treat this as a closed INV and when the parts arrive, a new INV will be created with a new total. Shouldn't be a problem for ACCT. Dept., hasn't been here. And when you print the Invoices, the customer is given their copy of the SOR that they can bring back in when they come in to pick up their part(s).

It has been desingned to be as automated as possible, but there are a few bugs I have uncovered regarding BO and Transfer lines for parts ordered quantities greater than "1" that had to be shipped from different parts plants.

Chuck, I only reply to this forum from home, therefore I can't test my Cust. No. methods on RO's from here. I will test tomorrow to see results.

Good luck Jimm!
jdpetey

[This message has been edited by jdpetey (edited 05-04-2000).]

[This message has been edited by jdpetey (edited 05-04-2000).]

What do you guys do in this situation:

You store your s/o parts separate from normal stock. You have an order for 10 parts. 3 are in stock. The customer wants it shipped complete. You begin with "I" function. The only parts listed on the SOR notice are the ones you didn't have in stock.

Did you move the stocked parts when you placed the order? How do you find them?

Rex

[This message has been edited by Rex (edited 05-05-2000).]