2. The main menu

The main menu #

Having successfully logged in, the home page and main menu will be displayed.

 

 

 

There are seven main menu buttons. Details of each of the different menu items are the subject of a different chapter in this manual. Let us look at the basics of the Main Menu.

 

 

Home	Displays a number of different dashboards e.g. for activities, shows a list of current activities.
Sales	Sales order, sales offers, projects, direct sales, sales forecasts, PRM
Purchase	Purchase orders, supplier quotations.
Warehouse	Shipping orders, receiving orders, customer returns, material transfer, material traceability.
Production	Work orders, work hours, work cells, routing, scheduling.
Invoicing	Sales invoicing, sales invoice payment, purchase invoicing, purchase invoice payment, advance payments, periodic invoicing, bookkeeping connection.
Admin	System setup parameters, user management, report log.
Logout	Closes the user session.
Help	Opens help text in a new window.

 

 

In addition to the above menu items there are two features that are available throughout the system and available as pop-up windows: items and partners. These pop-up windows are opened by clicking the number of an item or partner, wherever they appear in the system. It is also possible to list items and partners from several of the different main menus.

 

 

Item card	This shows data related to items. There are five types of generic items: materials, work time, machine time, subcontract or cost.
Partner card	This shows data related to a third party such as a supplier or customer. It is also used to register a stock location or an address.

 

Using the menus #

There are two levels of menu available in the system. The top level is along the top of the screen and the second level can be accessed by an expandable dashboard element at the left of the screen.

 

Upon clicking a main menu, the “Home” section of that menu will appear, plus a list of collapsed side menus on the left. The home section displays a number of lists and action buttons that are the most commonly used and relevant in that menu area.

 

 

 

 

Clicking one of the side menus will expand the dashboard for that menu. It will display a list of the relevant documents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For instance, clicking the sales orders side menu in the sales main menu will open the sales order dashboard which displays the number of sales orders with their status. In the main section of the screen there is a list of sales orders. This list can be filtered by entering data to the criteria boxes at the top of the screen and pressing “Retrieve”. The number of records in the list can be restricted by clicking one of the status values in the left panel dashboard.

 

An existing order can be selected by clicking an arrow in the list or by entering a known order number to the box on the dashboard. A new order can be created by clicking the “New” button.

 

There is the option to either show all orders for the Company or only show orders created by the current user by choosing “Show own” or “Show all”. To show all orders, the so-called “Management” role is needed for the current user. (See chapter entitled ‘User Information’ for more info on setting up user roles.)

 

Reports related to sales orders are available in the dropdown list in the dashboard. Upon selecting a report, a popup opens which displays the selection criteria for the report and allows the report to be either opened in a new window or ordered as an email attachment.

 

Opening a form #

Selecting a sales order with the arrow button will open the sales order.

 

 

 

To return to the main menu, click one of the main menu buttons.

 

The menu related to the sales order is on the blue bar below the main menu. The buttons available on the order’s menu will vary depending on the status of the order.

 

Selecting a customer via the customer name will open a new window (popup) showing the relevant partner card. To return to the main menu close the window from the window’s top right [X] button after saving any changes made.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entering data to a form #

There are a number of different screen elements used when entering data to a form.

 

Use of tabs	Typically tabs are used to separate logical areas of a form. You can navigate freely between tabs. In some cases there is a save button on the tab itself. This will save data only on the tab, as opposed to the save button on the menu bar – which saves the data for the whole form.
Simple data entry	Enter data to text boxes. In the case of numbers or dates, the formatting of the date may be fixed by the system automatically when the data is saved. E.g. commas changed to stops for decimals.
Drop down lists	Drop down lists are mainly based on the values specified in the company settings. On the form itself it is not possible to change the values listed. In some cases it is possible to select an empty value from the list, while it is not possible in some other cases, depending on the logic of the data. If a certain value from a dropdown list is saved on a form, and that value is later removed from the list of possible choices (company settings) then the removed value will appear on the drop down list as a greyed out entry. Where it appears greyed out, it is still possible to use it.
Dates	Date fields have an associated calendar. It is possible to click in the date field and the calendar will open automatically. In some forms where there is no in-line calendar, a popup calendar can be opened by double clicking in the field.
Line item entry	Some forms have certain tabs that are optimised for line item entry. In this case a new line is entered by entering data on the top line. Pressing the tab button on your keyboard will cause the cursor to change from field to field, pressing Enter causes the line to be saved and moved to the bottom of the list, the cursor will then be in the first field of another new line. This has been designed to help users enter line data without using the mouse. Clicking the green check mark will also save the line. Clicking the blue “undo” icon will cause the changes to be cancelled.

 

 

 

For existing lines

For existing lines it is possible to click in the line to allow it to be edited. Press enter or click the check mark to save any changes.

 

 

Pop-up selectors

The […] button next to a field indicates that there is a a list of values (such as sales items or customers) from which something needs to be selected. Press the button to open the popup selector. It is possible to enter criteria to the popup form and press Retrieve to narrow the search for the correct item. Selecting the item will close the pop-up and return the data to the main form.

 

 

 

 

Back/Forward buttons

The [>] buttons will browse backwards and forwards through orders or lines in the data. A button will be greyed out if there is no previous or next data.

 

 

 

Taking a report from a form #

Reports can be taken from a form by selecting the report from the dropdown list. This will open the PDF report in a new window.

 

 

 

 

In case you want to email a report, mark the “envelope” check box next to the report list before selecting the report. This will cause a pop-up dialogue to open where it is possible to select the report destination and language. Pressing the OK button will cause the report to be submitted for processing and sending to the recipient. The status of report processing can be checked from the report log (found in the side menu of the Admin page). .

 

 

Note that like all emails, there is no guarantee that the email will reach its destination.

 

Concepts behind order status #

Orders can have a number of different statuses, the most common being “Under construction” and “Active”.

 

When a new order is created its status is “Under Construction”. At this stage data can be entered to the order without much regard to the sequence of entering, or the logical integrity of the data. The data can be saved in the server but the system in general will not take any further action on an order that has the status of “Under construction”.

 

At some point the user needs to “activate” the order. This process will in general do the following:

 

1. Check the order for data integrity and completion. For instance, it will check if the minimum address and item information has been entered.

2. Allocate the next system number to the order, if it does not already have one.

3. Enter the order line data to the system’s material planning system.

4. Change the order status to “Active”.

5. Limit the ability of the user to change data in the order without creating a new version.

 

Depending on the type of order, the order can have other statuses such as “Complete” or “Part delivered”. These are specific to the type of order and explained in the relevant chapter in this manual.

 

The menu button bar on the order will vary depending on the status of the order.

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