Creating a BSS Order
Check the steps below for details on how to create a new Order in the BSS portal.
You can begin creating an order in BSS by navigating to BSS > Sales > Orders and clicking on the Add button.
Fill in the order details, by also selecting the Product(s) that the customer has requested.
Specifically, some of the “order details” fields are compulsory while others are not. In any case, it is better to provide as many details as possible when placing an order.
Let’s examine the Order Details fields:Name: This type-in field is where the name of the order must be provided. If no name is provided for the order, the system will utilize the Account name along with an automatically generated order code to automatically fill in a name for the order. Please provide as many details as possible to distinguish this order from similar ones.
Account* & Billing To*: To create an order, it is mandatory to first select a BSS account. This field is very important as every order must be assigned to a BSS account. This field addresses directly the account that will receive the products and services of the order. You can use the magnifying glass icon to assist you in selecting the account. This icon will show you a list of all the available BSS accounts, from which you can select the respective account. Once you have selected the account, several important fields of the "order details" will be automatically filled in by the system, based on the selected account information, such as the Billing To field, because they are interrelated. Moreover, for an order to be created, it is also mandatory to select the proper “Billing To” account, if it is not already pre-populated (once the Account field is selected). This field is where you select which BSS account will be billed for this order. This field is very important as it is mostly used by resellers who wish to place an order for themselves or one of their end customers. Therefore, this field is what differentiates the BSS account that receives the services of the order from the BSS account that is billed for the order. Let’s look at a quick example of how these two mandatory fields are interrelated.
Direct Customers: Both fields (Account and Billing To) will have the same account selected on both fields.
Resellers for Own Use: Both fields (Account and Billing To) will have the account of the reseller.
Resellers for an End Customer: The Account field will contain the account name of the end customer while the Billing To field will contain the account name of the reseller.
Organizations with Affiliate Accounts: The Account field will contain the account name of the affiliate account while the Billing To field will contain the account name of the reseller. This order format is utilized by big organizations (as Resellers) with their organization departments being their end-customers (Affiliate Accounts).
Type: This drop-down field is where the type of the order can be chosen. If you have set in your organization setup different types of orders then this is the field where you can choose them.
Status*: This drop-down menu mandatory field is where you can select the order status. It is a very important field since it directly affects how the order will be handled by the system, in terms of being Submitted, Canceled, or Scheduled. Specifically, a Submitted order means that the order is in a state before its execution, while the Canceled means that the order was canceled before its submission or execution (this status type is mostly utilized for historical purposes when a customer for example requests from you to cancel an order instead of executing it). Lastly, the Scheduled order means that an order is scheduled via the Storefront for execution at a different date than today.
Sales Rep.: This field is where the name of the Sales Representative (if applicable) can be provided. However, it is not mandatory.
Contact: This field is where the name of the Primary Contact of the Billing To account must be provided. This field is also very important concerning the order. It is usually filled in automatically by the system when the “Account” field is selected or changed and/or when the “Billing To” field is selected or changed.
Payment Method: This drop-down menu field is where the method of payment, for this order, must be selected. It is usually filled in automatically by the system when the “Account” field is selected or changed and/or when the “Billing To” field is selected or changed. It is a mandatory field and the options of this field derive from the different payment methods has been set in the Billing To organization’s setup, such as “Cash“, “Deposit”, “Credit Card”, “Paypal Express” and more.
Shipping Method: In our industry, the drop-down menu field is hardly used, if ever. However, if an organization deals with physical products and offers them to customers, this option can be utilized once it has been set up in their system.
Price List/Contract: This field is very important since it is where you can choose a price list or a contract (containing special prices) for the receiving end of this order.
Requested Delivery Date: This date field is where you can choose the date that the customer requested the delivery/execution of the order.
Campaign: This field is where you can choose the (sales) campaign (if applicable) where this order has originated from.
Order Date*: This date field is where you can choose the creation date of the order, but since it is an informative date it is up to the BSS user to select whatever they want.
Let’s now examine the “Product(s)” fields:
Under the Products section, you can click on the magnifying glass icon to select the product(s) you wish to order as well as define its Quantity, and its Unit (whenever applicable). With the + (plus) icon at the end of the row, you effectively add the selected product inside the order along with the Quantity and Unit characteristics that you have previously chosen. To add another product to the order, you can search (via the magnifying glass icon) for another product, once the first product has been added to the order (via the + icon).
At this stage, you can manually apply a Discount either in the form of a percentage (%) or in the form of the actual currency amount, and click on the update button for the changes to take effect inside the Final Price calculation of the order, for the sum of the products.
Once you have completed filling in the order information along with the product(s) you can submit the order by clicking on the Save button, located on the top main menu of the page.
Alternative Method of Creating a BSS Order
Another method where you can create a new order in the BSS portal is via the BSS account of the customer that the order is placed for.
By navigating to the BSS Account and clicking on the Shortcuts' menu the option Orders > New Order you can also initiate the creation of a new order that is specifically created for the selected account and the basic fields of the order are automatically populated with the account’s information.
You can check the following pages for more information on viewing, adding order items, managing, and executing the newly created order.