Every entrepreneur is delighted when sales orders come in. However, when an order arrives, many processes are set in motion. A lot can go wrong when processing sales orders, and these errors directly impact the company’s reputation. Customers are the ones who notice these mistakes because they receive too few, too many, or incorrect products. There is a high chance that these customers will leave a negative review, something you must avoid! That’s why organizing your sales order flow effectively is crucial. Webship can help you with that. Webship has developed a complete inventory management system that assists you in processing sales orders.
Sales Orders and E-Commerce Platforms
Do you sell your products via an online store? Then it is extremely useful if you can link your store to an inventory management system. If this is not possible, the risk of errors is greater since you have to manually enter all orders from the webshop into the inventory management system—a task where mistakes can easily happen. If the inventory management system automatically imports orders from the webshop, the risk of errors is almost zero. Webship Online provides integrations with many e-commerce platforms such as WooCommerce, Magento, and Lightspeed.
Entering Sales Orders
Not everyone sells products via an online store, and even if you do, you may still need to create a sales order manually. In Webship Online, you can easily create a sales order. You enter the customer details and select the order items. Does the customer or product not exist yet? Then you can create a new customer or product directly within the same screen. Convenient, right? No more endlessly opening and closing new tabs, reducing the chance of errors. Additionally, you can set shipping methods and add special attributes. The system can automatically select a shipping method. You configure the shipping methods once, and the system handles the rest! This saves you a lot of time—time that you can invest in growing your business.
Sales Order Statuses
Entering a sales order is one thing; processing it is another. It is essential to create a logical step-by-step plan for handling sales orders. Webship Online uses automated statuses for this purpose. A sales order can have different statuses:
- Draft
- Awaiting Payment
- Ready for Picking
- Picking
- Ready for Packing
- Ready for Shipping
- Completed
- On Hold
- Canceled
The status names speak for themselves. As soon as the payment is received, the status automatically changes to “Ready for Picking.” When all items are picked (digitally), the status changes to “Ready for Packing.” After packing, the status automatically changes to “Ready for Shipping.” In short, a structured workflow has been created that is very easy to follow and highly automated. Depending on the status of a sales order, certain functions or modifications are no longer possible. For example, once a sales order is “Ready for Picking,” you cannot modify the product items in that order. You must first place the order “On Hold” before making changes. Orders with a status beyond “Picking” can only be modified to a limited extent to prevent errors during the picking process.
Handy Features
The Webship Online inventory management system also provides some convenient features. Here are three examples:
- You can process multiple orders at the same time. Simply select the orders to be processed and print the picking list. The system will automatically map out the most efficient route through the warehouse, making picking more efficient.
- You enter a sales order that needs to be shipped at a later date. This could disrupt your overview. Webship Online ensures that an order with a later shipping date is assigned the status “On Hold.” When the shipping date arrives, it automatically changes to “Ready for Picking.” No more constantly checking shipping dates!
- As a business owner, you might have multiple e-commerce channels connected to Webship Online. Of course, you want to trace the origin of a sales order. Through the order history, you can see how an order entered Webship Online. Did you create it manually, or did it come from a linked e-commerce platform such as WooCommerce or Lightspeed? Imagine having to track this manually!
Handling Backorders
It may happen that one or more products in an order are temporarily out of stock. For many businesses and inventory management systems, this is a challenge, but for Webship Online, it’s a breeze. As soon as one or more items in an order are out of stock, the sales order is automatically placed “On Hold.” When all goods are back in stock, the order automatically switches to “Ready for Picking.” This way, you don’t have to worry about these situations—they are automatically processed as soon as possible.
If you want to ship available items immediately, you can easily split an order. If an order contains both in-stock and out-of-stock items, you have the option to divide it into a backorder. The out-of-stock items are placed in a backorder, which can be further split when specific items return to stock. Once all items from a backorder are back in stock, it will automatically change to “Ready for Picking” and can be shipped to the customer. From the original order, you can always track how many backorders have been created, ensuring a complete overview.
Interested in Webship Online?
We conclude that sales orders are not only crucial for revenue but also play a major role in the logistics flow. An inventory management system ensures that you can manage everything efficiently. Are you looking for a system that organizes your sales orders into a structured flow but aren’t yet familiar with Webship Online? Request your free 30-day trial! During this period, you can explore all the application’s features. You’ll quickly notice how the system simplifies your daily stock management. Moreover, Webship Online offers many other benefits. Curious? Check our website! Do you have any other questions about Webship Online or our fulfillment services? Contact us at hallo@webship.online.
