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Most clients who use Vision Commerce also use the automated Vision Commerce Warehouse Service which is configured to accept files sent from the Warehouse and imports them into Vision Commerce.

Overview:

• Sales Orders, Purchase Orders and Product Code files are sent from Vision Commerce to your Warehouse.

  • Your Warehouse receives these files and automatically creates Sales and Purchase Orders and Product codes.

  • The automation saves time and improves accuracy by removing spelling and typing errors.
    

• Order Picking Confirmation, Goods Received Confirmations and Stock Snapshots are received back from the Warehouse on an Hourly, Daily, Monthly or Annual basis.

  • These files are picked up and processed automatically by the Vision Commerce Warehouse Service which then updates your Sales and Purchase Orders.
    

• Stock Snapshots are used to compare your Warehouses stock records with your Vision Commerce records reporting any differences between the two.
  

The Automated Process:

• Incoming files (from your Warehouse)
  

  • Files are sent via email from your Warehouse to a standard POP3 mailbox set up specifically for this use.

    • The frequency that these files are sent over (real-time, hourly, daily, monthly, annually or manually) depends you your Warehouse.

      • You will need to discuss this directly with your Warehouse.
        

  • Commerce checks the mailbox on a periodic basis (normally 15mins) and drops any attachments it finds on the emails in to the Vision Warehouse Service Inwards folder.
    

  • At a period set in the Configuration tab on the Document Management screen, the Inwards folder will be scanned and any files present will be picked up to be imported.

    • All incoming files must be the correct format and must be .XML files.

      • Any non.xml files will be rejected immediately without any further checks.

      • Any .xml files that do not pass the validation checks will fail and be moved to one of the failed folders.

      • You can check the Audit Log tab for details of process files, whether they passed or not and if not, why they were failed.
        

  • If you are missing all or some files you will need to check the following:

    • Did your Warehouse send the files?

      • Check with them.

    • If there were no Goods Received or no Sales Orders processed at your Warehouse then you will not receive these file types.

      • Stock Snapshots are sent each time they are scheduled regardless of any stock transactions.

        • If you have these turned on you should receive them as per the schedule set by your Warehouse (normally daily).

    • Once you have checked the above reasons, check the Audit Log for any errors.

      • If you find errors and do not understand them or find no errors but still haven't received the files please contact the Vision Support Team.
        

• Outgoing files (to your Warehouse)
  

  • As soon as a Sales Order is ready to be submitted to your Warehouse (normally after goods are allocated) or Purchase Order saved successfully, you can submit them to the Warehouse.

    • See the Warehouse - Submissions page for more details
      

  • The files can contain single Sales Orders or Purchase Orders or many on each.
    

  • The Warehouse will receive these files and import them into their system.

    • This process is extremely quick and accurate and avoids typos and mistakes that are often made by human operators on complicated orders.

Checks after the Process has been run:

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How this works

An overnight, once a day, stock listing is obtained from the warehouse, this is then loaded into the Commerce system and a comparison is made line by line to compare the stock held in Commerce and the stocks held at the warehouse.

What does it require

It is important that stock receipts and orders despatched are completed prior to running of the stock reconciliation, where you have not receipted stock there can be an impact to orders leaving.

What does this produce

A report is provided at the end of the process, this is generally set to only show the exceptions, this is where the warehouse have a quantity which varies to the quantity you have on Vision Commerce.

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How does this work

You can fully automate the processes from your warehouse in which case the automated process is the route to follow, but where this is not supported OR you need to perform a manual operation then the manual process is followed.

These are just outlines of the process which is explained in more details throughout the wiki

The Automated Process

An API is used to obtain information from your warehouse, this takes information at frequent intervals and processes what we call

• Goods Received

• Orders Processed

Where items are matched they can be processed and where they can not you follow the manual process to push them through.

These automations from the warehouse adjust the stock up and down, and example of the warehouse group form is shown below

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During the early hours of the morning a stock snapshot is taken from the warehouse system, this snapshot shows what the warehouse believe is in stock at that time, if they have despatched anything you would have received it in the orders processed information.

The Manual Process

Would be to use the direct screens for the process

Goods Received uses the Purchase Order → Receipting tab

Orders Processed will all be found in the Deliver Orders form.

• There may be times where you need to manually receipt a Purchase Order or manually deliver a Sales Order.

  • If you do need to do so, make sure you accurately include the following information:

    • Rotation numbers used by the Warehouse (if you haven't got the file to check you will need to get the details from the Warehouse).

    • Quantities are correct.

• If you are in any doubt about whether you should be processing these manually or are not sure about the details, please contact the Vision Support Team first, by raising a ticket in the Ontech Customer Support Portal. (https://visionsoftware.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/1/user/login?)

• See the Receipting Purchase Orderspage for more details on the manual Receipting process.
  

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What Checks should you make

This process of checking has been made redundant with the advent of the exceptions report, if the system is unable to receipt stocks OR despatch stocks you will receive an exception report.

If you get an exception report you will find that your stock reconciliation will also have this same issue.

Where you do get an exception

Goods Received Exceptions

• The report will indicate any orders that could not be processed automatically by Vision Commerce. Normally for the following reasons:

  • Differences

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• • within the file from your original Purchase Order.

    • This could be changes made to your Purchase Order in Commerce after the file was submitted.

    • The Warehouse made changes that were not made on your Purchase Order in Commerce.

  • The

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• • Purchase Order has already been receipted manually

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• • within Vision Commerce.

    • This sometimes happens when a Purchase Order needs to be receipted urgently so that a Sales Order can be raised.

    • Providing the Purchase Order was receipted correctly (matches with the Warehouse file) then there is nothing further to do.

Goods have been returned from a Delivery or goods have been Re-landed goods (and do not have a matching Purchase Order in Commerce)

• Returns: To correct this (depending on the circumstances) you would raise a credit against original goods, then raise a new

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• Purchase Order or Ajust the stocks.

  • If goods have been re-landed you may need to use Rotation Maintenance (see the Rotation Maintenance page for more details).

  • If the Purchase Order Number in the file does not exactly match a Purchase Order Number in Vision Commerce the Purchase Order will not be updated.

Orders Processed

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• The report will indicate orders which cannot be automatically confirmed delivered by Vision Commerce. Normally for the following reasons:

  • Difference on the file from your original Sales Order.

    • This could be changes made to your Sales Order after the file was submitted.

    • The Warehouse made changes that are not made on your Sales Order in Commerce.

  • The Sales Order was already marked as delivered manually in Commerce.

    • This sometimes happens when a Sales Order needs to be marked as delivered urgently so a Sales Invoice can be raised.

    • Providing the Sales was marked delivered correctly (matches with the Warehouse file) then there is nothing further to do.

  • The rotations entered on the original Sales Order do not match those used by the Warehouse (and therefore appear on the file).

    • To correct this issue you may need to

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• • • adjust the details of the stocks within the Rotation Maintenance screen (see the Rotation Maintenance page for more details).

• If the Sales Order

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• number in the file does not exactly match a Sales Order

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• number in Vision Commerce the Sales Order will not be updated

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Receipting Purchase Orders and Delivering Sales Orders manually:

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There may be times where you need to manually receipt a Purchase Order or manually deliver a Sales Order.

• If you do need to do so, make sure you accurately include the following information:

  • Rotation numbers used by the Warehouse (if you haven't got the file to check you will need to get the details from the Warehouse.)

  • Quantities are correct.

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If you are in any doubt about whether you should be processing these manually or are not sure about the details, please contact the Vision Support Team first.

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The Stock Snapshot:

A Stock Snapshot file is generated by your Warehouse of the stocks they have in their system (product codes, rotations numbers and stock levels).

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The file is normally produced overnight and sent out early in the morning.

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As you process Sales Orders and Purchase Orders in Commerce during the day your system will differ from the last snapshot.

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• .

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Stock Reconciliation - Common

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Issues

The following is a list of common issues you might encounter and what may have caused it:

Stock Level Discrepancy

You and the warehouse have different stock levels, depending on whether you have more or you have less than the warehouse will depend on how you investigate this.

• If you have more stock then an order has not been confirmed delivered.

• The warehouse have made an adjustment to stock, such as a stock loss.

• Have you made an adjustment?

  • Was it correct?

  • Timing issues sometimes cause this to be a problem.

• Finally compare stock movements with the warehouse.

• If you have less stock.

  • You have confirmed a delivery when the warehouse have not

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• • dispatched it.

    • This is quite dangerous as the warehouse could use different rotations and then you would have to perform adjustments.

    • You have made an adjustment which the warehouse have not.

    • Check the original receipt quantity if it agrees then check the stock movements with the warehouse.

Rotation

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Not Found at Warehouse

You have a rotation on VC which the warehouse do not have.

• You landed stock before the warehouse receipted it on their system.

  • Check the receipt date of the stock.

  • The stock has exhausted and you have not confirmed all deliveries or there was a stock loss.

  • Check and compare the stock movements.

Unknown Product Code

The warehouse have a product code that you do not have.

• Check the product at the warehouse.

  • Investigate why the stock managed to arrive and you had no product code setup as no code means no purchase order.

Unknown Rotation Number

The warehouse have a rotation number that you do not have.

• Usually means stock has landed and not received on system.

  • Very common for re-landing and Returns to be missed on receipting.

  • It is Very Important as this stock is Duty Paid and it will be used on the first available orders.