The following table defines the meaning of the main document types understood by the system. Those marked by * come from your customers and suppliers. The software produces all the rest.

Document

Meaning

Customer Enquiry *

A request for information on price and delivery for your products and services. The system does not distinguish between actual customers and potential customers.

Enquiry Acknowledgement Letter

A letter sent to a customer in response to a Customer Enquiry to acknowledge receipt of their enquiry and to confirm its details.

Request for Tender Letter

A request to a supplier asking them to provide prices and delivery dates for their goods and services. This is you asking for a quotation from your suppliers.

Tender Response *

A response to your Request for Tender from your suppliers.

Quotation Letter

A letter sent to a customer in response to a Customer Enquiry that specifies your price, delivery and terms for the products and services in the enquiry.

Customer Order *

An order for your products and services. From your point of view this is a Sales Order. From your customer’s point of view it’s their Purchase Order.

Sales Order Acknowledgement Letter

A letter sent to a customer in response to a Customer Order to just acknowledge receipt of their order and to confirm its details.

Sales Order Confirmation Letter

A letter sent to a customer in response to a Customer Order to confirm their order. This is your formal acceptance of the sales contract. It normally confirms your price and commits you to a delivery date.

Purchase Order

A request to a supplier to purchase some of their goods and services. The request normally includes quantities, prices and required delivery dates.

Sub-Contract Purchase Order

This is very similar to a Purchase Order. It is a request to a supplier to perform a specified process. The process is performed on material supplied by you as free issue to them.

Purchase Order Acknowledgement *

An acknowledgement from your supplier that they’ve received and accepted your Purchase Order.

Supplier Delivery Note *

A document accompanying goods delivered to you from a supplier that describes the goods delivered. At least one delivery note is normally expected for each Purchase Order and Sub-Contract Purchase Order you raise.

Supplier Invoice *

A request from a supplier for payment for goods and services supplied. These usually correspond to one or more Supplier Delivery Notes.

Supplier Credit Note *

A document from a supplier to cancel all or a portion of some previous Supplier Invoice.

Goods-In Label

These contain identification information about goods received from your suppliers, including their batch number, your batch number, etc.

Inspection Label

These identify the inspection status of your stock materials. There are two sorts: Pass Labels and Fail Labels.

Batch Label

These identify your stock materials and typically specify the stock code, description and batch number.

Works Order

A request you place on your production staff to do something. There are four variations: a Make Order, a Goods-In Order, a Dispatch Order and a Dis-Assembly Order.

A Make Order is an instruction to make something. This may be a complete product, just a sub-assembly, just a single component or just part of the processing to make a single component. There are often multiple Works Orders associated with a single Sales Order. It’s very important to appreciate that a works order always makes for stock. Sales are then satisfied from the stock made. In fact, during the life of the works order, the sales order it is allocated to may change to reflect changing priorities.

A Goods-In Order is an instruction to perform some action on receiving goods from a supplier to make them ready for use, for example un-packing or re-packing. These are optional.

A Dispatch Order is an instruction to perform some action to make some stock ready for dispatching against a Sales Order, for example cutting and packing. These are also optional.

A Dis-Assembly Order is an instruction to take something to pieces, typically used to extract useful parts from some bought assembly.

Device Label

These contain identification information for part completed work. They are typically used to identify work as it passes from one process to another on the shop floor.

Dispatch Note

A document to accompany goods sent to your customers to identify the goods being dispatched.

Certificate of Conformance

A document sent to your customers in support of a dispatch to certify the goods meet their specification.

Consignment Note

A document to accompany a dispatch that identifies where the goods are to be sent. This is information useful to the carrier.

Package Label

These identify goods and their destination for the purposes of fixing on the boxes being dispatched.

Sales Invoice

A request to a customer for payment for goods and services supplied. These usually correspond to one or more Dispatch Notes.

Customer Credit Note

A document you send to a customer to cancel all or a portion of some previous Sales Invoice.

Customer Return Note *

A document received from a customer in support of goods they received from you that they are returning.

Non Conformance Report (NCR)

A specification of a failure and the intended remedial action. There are three variants of the NCR: a Supplier Reject, an Internal Reject and a Customer Reject.

A Supplier Reject is a document that accompanies goods being sent back to a supplier. It identifies the goods being returned and why, and what the supplier is expected to do about them.

An Internal Reject is a document you can use to record and track your own production failures.

A Customer Reject is a document you send to your customers in response to a Customer Return Note. It acknowledges receipt of their return and specifies what you are going to do about it.