Auto Send Sales Orders or Invoices

Sales orders or invoices can be automatically sent as a batch to the customer at the end of the day or sent individually from the sales invoice window.  

Complete the following steps to configure the Auto Send mode before attempting either of these options.

Creating or Changing an Auto Send Mode

Complete the following steps to setup a send mail mode. Refer to step 6 to view or change existing Auto Send Sales Invoices mode settings.

  1.  Select File > Auto Send Options > Auto Send Modes from the main EBMS menu to open the following list:

  2. Click the New button to create a new Auto Send Mode and open the following dialog or select an Accounts Receivable Auto Send Mode and click the Properties button. Continue with step 6 if the mode has already been created:

  3. Each Auto Send Mode requires a unique Key Id. This Key ID should be a simple descriptive code that does not include spaces or symbols.  

  4. Select the Accounts Receivable Send Mode option as shown above.  

  5. Enter a short Description of the auto send mode type. This description should clearly describe the mode process. Note that this text is used as the EBMS menu label. Click OK to continue.

  6. Configure the Send Mode Properties as shown below:

  7. Enable the Show on Menu option to display the Accounts Receivable Auto Send mode on the EBMS > Sales menu.  This option is needed to run the batch mode from the EBMS menu.  Disable this option if Auto Send is launched using the Task Scheduler App.

  8. Click on the Edit Query button to select the group of sales orders or invoices to be sent as shown below:

    The query example shown above will send all sales invoices with a Status of 'O' (outstanding invoices) that have not been previously sent. Review the Standard Features > Advanced Query Options section of the Main documentation for more details on creating query expressions. The Query setting can be kept blank if all sales orders are sent to the customer. Click the OK button to save.

  9. Click the View Queried List to view all sales invoices that will be sent based on the current query setting as shown below:

    1. The Current Queried List lists all sales orders or invoices that match the query that have not been previously sent. The Send Date within the sales invoice must be blank and the Status must be set to O to be included in the query.

    2. Click the Purge button to populate the Send Date for all invoices listed, removing them from the query. Use the Purge button to remove past invoices from the query. A purge is often required when a new query is created. Click the Close button.

  10. Enable the Send Future-dated documents option to send all documents when they are created even if they are dated in the future.    Otherwise Auto Send will wait to send till the document date arrives.

  11. Enable the Document will be printed if customer has no Auto E-mail/Fax entry option to print documents for customers without the settings required to email a sales order or invoice.  Review the following Customer Configuration setting for instructions on setting these options within a customer record.   

  12. Select one of the following Mark as sent after Send Now or Printing options:

    1. Select Always to mark a document as sent after the Send Now Tool is used to auto send a document.

    2. Select Ask To to prompt the user after the Send Now Tool is used to send a document.

    3. Select Never to resend the document after Send Now Tool is used.  This option is useful if the user is sending a sales document using Auto Send but the document needs to be resent to the designated email in the auto send batch.

  13. Maintain the default values within the Fields to Assign settings since they are advanced settings.

  14. Enter the desired sales order or invoice report into Report Settings. This report should be a sales order or invoice form.

  15. The Minimum Report File Size setting: This feature allows you to stop any sends on export files that are below a certain file size. This value should be set at about 10K less than the average exported pdf file size to prohibit blank reports to be sent as an attachment. Please contact EBMS support for suggested values on this advanced setting.

  16. Enable the Attach a copy of the document when auto sending E-mails option to include a easy to print PDF copy of the purchase order.  Disabling this option will only communicate with the customer without a copy of the document.  

  17. Disable the Export generated PDF's to the temp directory  option to record a copy of the document to the shared Export Folder identified in the Auto Send Settings > General tab.  Enable this option only if the documents should be copied to the computer's temporary directory.

  18. The URL can be used to schedule the sending of the documents daily without requiring the user to launch the utility.  Review [Main] Technical > Automate using Task Scheduler App for instructions to use the URL address.

  19. Click on Advanced for additional settings:

    1. Configure the Mark as unsent options to change the status after a document has already been sent.  For example, the When processing an invoice is set to Ask the system will prompt the user only when the invoice is being reprocessed.  

    2. Enable the For multiple sends to one contact, send one E-mail with multiple attachments option to group attachments (sales orders or invoices) for an individual customer into one E-mail. A separate E-mail will be generated for each document if this option is disabled.

    3. Enable the Use Summary (after multiple sends, a summary E-mail is sent) option to send a summary to the specified Summary Recipient after a group of E-mails have been sent to a single customer. Review the E-mail Settings details within the General Setup Instructions section for more information about the Summary Recipient setting.

    4. Disable the Always Send Summary (summary is sent even to single E-mails) option if a summary is not required if the customer only received one e-mail. This setting has no effect if the previous Use Summary option is disabled.  Click OK to save.

  20. Complete one of the following methods to launch the process to auto send a batch of sales orders or invoice:

    1. By selecting Sales > Auto Send Sales Invoices from the main EBMS menu if the Show on menu is enabled

    2. Automatically sent using the Task Scheduler App:  Use the URL text located at the bottom of this dialog to configure the Task Scheduler App.  Review [Main] Technical > Automate using Task Scheduler App for instructions to send invoices on a daily basis.

  21. Click on the Contract Priorities tab as shown below:

  22. Enter the Contact Type and Information for each recipient option.  Review Contact Priorities for configuration details on these important recipient settings.

  23. Enable the For ’E-mail’ type, give priority to the E-mail address on the Sales Order/Invoice switch to give priority to the E-mail address that is stored on the Sales Order or Invoice. Go to View > Advanced Options to view or set the E-mail setting within the sales order. When this option is disabled, Auto Send will only use the Sales Document E-mail address when there is no valid Auto Send contact information on the Customer record. In all situations, Auto Send will use the Sales Order E-mail address if there is no other contact information available. Note: this option is only valid if an E-mail or Auto E-mail is included within the Contact Priorities list.

  24. Click on the E-mail Settings tab as shown below:

    The E-mail Settings determine the details of the e-mail document that will be automatically sent.

    1. The From Address should contain a valid e-mail address. This address can be a noreply address if no response is desired from the Auto Send e-mails.

    2. Enter an appropriate Subject line for the e-mail broadcast.

    3. Enter the appropriate Body Text using HTML or plain text syntax. The keywords list located at the bottom of the dialog can be used within the e-mail body.  Note that line break tags (<br>) may cause extra lines in the E-mail.

    4. The Test E-mail settings is a simple feature that can send a single test e-mail to a specified e-mail address as shown below.

      Review the Test Mode section for details on testing the e-mail creating and reviewing the e-mail result.

Customer Configuration

Contact information must be set up for all the customers before documents are sent. Go to Sales > Customers from the main EBMS menu and open a customer record. Click on the Contacts tab to view the contact list as show below. Enter a contact Title that matches the setting within the Contact Priorities dialog. Additional contacts can be added to this tab that are not related to any Auto Send modes.

 

The Auto Send module will only use e-mail and fax contact information.

Review the Test Mode section for a way to put the system in test mode to determine if your setting options are setup properly.  

Auto Send a Batch of Sales Orders or Invoices

Launch the Auto Send feature by selecting Sales > Auto Send Sales Orders from the main EBMS menu. This option is listed on the menu if the Show on Menu option is enabled.  When the process is launched, it will cycle through the orders that are to be sent  based the settings described in the previous section. A progress bar showing the status of the send process will appear and can run unattended, as no user input should be necessary.

As the system handles each order, it will export a report in PDF format to the Export Folder. This PDF file will then be attached to an e-mail or fax and sent to the customer. The PDF attachment can be disabled (not recommended) if the content of the sales order is inserted directly into the main e-mail body. Go to the E-mail Settings tab of the Auto Send Mode dialog to review these options. Go to File > Auto Send Options > Document Settings > Accounts Receivable to confirm that the Attach a copy of the document when auto sending E-mails option is enabled as shown below:

 

If the customer record does not contain any Contact Types which match the entries in the Contact Priorities list, the system will either ignore the order or print it, depending on your setup in General Settings.

Auto Send Status

Select View > Advanced Options from the sales order or invoice menu and click on the Auto Send Status tab to view the status of the Auto Send:

The system will mark the item with the date, time, and a message with the results after the Auto Send process is completed. This useful information gives the user details about the handling of a document by the Auto Send system. Simply eliminate the Send Date value from the document to send it again.