Chapter 10 The Order Entry/Sales

(OE/S)Process

Accounting Information Systems 8eUlric J. Gelinas and Richard Dull

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Learning Objectives• Describe the relationship between the OE/S process and its

business environment.

• Illustrate the potential of the OE/S process to assist management decision making.

• Summarize how ERP add-ons, e-business, and other technologies can improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the OE/S process.

• Depict the typical logical and physical characteristics of the OE/S process.

• Prepare a control matrix for some typical OE/S processes, including explanations of how business process control plans can accomplish OE/S operations and information process control goals.

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Introduction• The order entry/sales (OE/S) process

includes the first four steps in the order-to-cash process1. pre-sales activities2. sales order processing3. picking and packing the goods4. shipping

• Billing and processing the customer payment, are described in Chapter 11, the billing/accounts receivable/cash receipts (B/AR/CR) process.

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Process Definition and Functions

• The primary function of the OE/S process is to create information flows that support the following:– Repetitive work routines of the sales order

department, the credit department, and the shipping department.

– Decision needs of those who manage various sales and marketing functions.

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Horizontal View OE/S

1. Customer places order.

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Horizontal View OE/S

2. Sales order department requests credit approval from credit department.

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Horizontal View OE/S

3. Credit department informs sales order department of disposition of credit request.

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Horizontal View OE/S4. Sales order

department acknowledges order to the customer (4a), and notifies the warehouse (4b), shipping (4c) and B/AR/CR process (4d) of the sales order.

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Horizontal View OE/S

5. Warehouse sends completed picking ticket to shipping.

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Horizontal View OE/S 6. Shipping

department informs carrier (6a), B/AR/CR process (6b), the general ledger process (6c), and the sales order department (6d) of the shipment.

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Vertical Perspective of the OE/S System

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Management Questions• Where is sales volume (quantity and dollars)

concentrated?

• Who are the specific major customers (by sales and by profitability), both present and potential?

• What opportunities exist to sell after-sales services; to cross sell and to up-sell?

• What kinds of advertising and promotions have the greatest influence on customers?

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Using Data Mining to Support Marketing

• Intended to allow the use of sophisticated statistical and other analytical software to help an organization’s members develop insights about customers, processes, and markets.

• Data warehousing and data mining have become common application to increase the effectiveness of pricing and promotions.

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Global e-business• E-business systems are divided into two categories:

– Buy Side• Systems use the Internet to automate and manage

corporate vendors and purchases. • The predominant technology in this area is electronic

data interchange (EDI).

– Sell Side• Systems are designed to allow a company to market,

sell, deliver, and service goods and services to customers throughout the world via the Internet.

• Applications can handle both B2B and B2C business transactions.

• One facet is known as customer relationship management (CRM) applications.

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CRM Systems• Designed to manage all data related to customers.

– Focus of ERP vendors who realize the need to tap into this market and to integrate CRM data with the other data already residing within the ERP system’s database.

• Software supports the organizing and retrieving of information on historical sales activities and promotions planning.– Facilitates matching sales promotions with customers’

buying trends.

– Buzzword is “segmentation” - the grouping of customers into categories based on key characteristics.

• Customer/Sales data is stored in terabyte-sized databases and analyzed.

The OE/S Process – Context Diagram

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OE/S Process

-Level 0

Diagram

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The OE/S

Process –

Diagram 1:

Validate Sales Order

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Diagram 1: Validate Sales Order• 1.1 - Verify inventory availability

– Triggered by a customer order.

– Inquiry of inventory master file to check inventory availability.

– “Available to promise (ATP)” can be complicated.

– Facilitated by an enterprise system that can look worldwide and up and down the supply chain to determine when goods can be delivered.

– If inventory is on hand, the order is forwarded for further processing, as depicted by the data flow “Inventory available order”.

– If goods are not in stock, process 1.1 runs a back order routine.

– Demographic and other info is recorded in the marketing data store.

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Diagram 1: Validate Sales Order

• 1.2 - Check credit

– Process 1.2 establishes the customer’s existence and then approves credit.

– With an enterprise system one record should exist for each customer, wherever located and from whatever parts of the organization he or she makes purchases.

• This allows an organization to readily determine the amount of credit available to a customer worldwide.

• Without a central database a customer could incur multiple receivable balances that in total exceed their credit limit.

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Diagram 1: Validate Sales Order• 1.3 Complete sales order

– Process 1.3 receives an accepted order from Process 1.2.

• Order is completed by adding price information.

• Could be a complicated calculation based on who and where the customer is and if the item is to be discounted.

– Next Process 1.3 performs the following activities simultaneously:

• Updates the inventory master data to allocate the quantity ordered to the sales order.

• Updates the sales order master data to indicate that a completed sales order has been created.

• Disseminates the sales order.

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Diagram 1-Dissemination Data Flows: Validate Sales Order

• A picking ticket authorizes the warehouse to “pick” the goods from the shelf and send them to shipping.

– Identifies the goods to be picked and usually indicates the warehouse location.

• A customer acknowledgment notifies the customer of the order’s acceptance and the expected shipment date.

• A sales order notification is sent to the billing department to notify them of a pending shipment.

– Could take many forms including a message received on a computer screen or a report of pending shipments.

SAP Sales Order Inquiry Screen

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The OE/S Process—Diagram 2: Complete Picking Ticket

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The OE/S Process—Diagram 3: Execute Shipping Notice

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The OE/S Process—Diagram 3 Dissemination of Data Flows:

Execute Shipping Notice• Shipping’s billing notification - notifies billing to begin the billing

process.

• Bill of lading - contract between the shipper and the carrier in which the carrier agrees to transport the goods to the shipper’s customer.

– The carrier’s signature on the bill of lading, and/or the customer’s signature on some other form of receipt, substantiates the shipment.

• Packing slip - attached to the outside of a package; identifies the customer and package contents.

• General ledger inventory sales update - notifies the general ledger process that inventory has been sold and that cost of goods sold has increased.

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OE/S Data Stores

• Marketing data

• Customer master data

• Sales order master data

• AR master data

• Inventory master data

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Entity-Relationship (E-R) Diagram for the OE/S

Process

OE/S Process Relational Tables

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Automated Data Entry• Bar code readers are devices that use light

reflection to read differences in bar code patterns in order to identify a labeled item.

• Optical character recognition (OCR) is similar to bar code readers work, but recognize a pattern of handwritten or printed characters.

• Scanners are input devices that capture printed images or documents and convert them into electronic digital signals that can be stored on computer media.

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Digital Image Processing• Computer-based systems for capture, storage, retrieval, and

presentation of images of real or simulated objects.

• Major steps in a typical digital image processing system:

– Scanners are generally used to capture images or documents.

– Retrieve the image of a source document which may be printed.

– After input, additional processing may take place.

• Additional data related to the document might be added, or someone might act on data contained in the document.

• Retrieval and processing capabilities may be incorporated into existing applications.

• Linking these images in an enterprise system makes accessibility easier. Information can readily be distributed throughout the organization to where it is needed.

The OE/S Process Flowchart

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The OE/S Process Flowchart• Starts with customer calls received in the

customer service center.

• Customer service representatives (CSR) may perform a number of services for a customer including:

– Checking the availability of inventory

– Determining the status of open orders

– Initiating orders

– Confirming orders

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The OE/S Process Flowchart• CSR enters a sales order and sees a screen like the SAP screen in Figure 10.6 (Slide

20).

• System prompts the CSR to enter the customer number.

• If the customer number is not found, system rejects the order and the event recording is terminated.

• If the customer number is valid, system retrieves standing data from the customer master data such as customer name, address and credit terms.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart• CSR enters the other data in the sales order (i.e.

items and quantities ordered), guided by the cursor, moving to each new position in the preformatted screen.– System automatically displays the description and price

for each item ordered.

• If the total amount of the current order, any open orders, and the outstanding receivable balance exceeds the customer’s credit limit, the CSR is warned, the order is suspended, and credit rejection procedures are initiated.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart• If the total amount is within the customer’s credit

range, the processing continues.

• If the balance shown on the inventory data is less than the quantity ordered, back order procedures are initiated.

• The computer updates the sales order and inventory master data and gives the CSR a sales order number that is relayed to the customer.

• Simultaneously, a picking ticket, containing a bar code of the sales order number, is printed in the warehouse.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart

• As each item is picked, warehouse personnel insert the picked quantities on the picking ticket.

• When all the goods have been picked, they compare the goods to the picking ticket, initial the ticket, and move the goods and completed picking ticket to the shipping department.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart

• Shipping personnel scan the bar code on the picking ticket to bring the sales order up on their computer screen.

• After confirmation that the order and quantities are correct, the option to record the shipment is selected.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart• Computer updates the sales order, inventory,

and general ledger master data to reflect the shipment and to print a packing slip and bill of lading.

• Goods are packed, with the packing slip inside, the shipping label (bill of lading) is attached to the box, and the box is given to the carrier for delivery.

• The completed picking ticket is discarded.

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The OE/S Process Flowchart

• Error routines would be initiated if:

– customer record did not exist

– customer’s credit limit was not sufficient

– goods were not available in the correct quantity

– goods to be shipped did not match the picking ticket and the sales order

Sample SAP Sales Analysis Report

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Control Matrix for OE/S

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Control Matrix for OE/S (Cont’d).

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