Creating a sale
There are two ways to create a sale in the Pearl back-office admin:
Method 1
- Search for the customer using the quick search box.
- Click the orange more actions icon to open the contact menu, then click “new order” (or new quote) – an empty sale will be created.
Method 2
- Click "Sales" from the main menu to get into the Sales zone
- Click "New sale"
- Search for the customer
- Click the customer name
The sale will be created using the customer’s currency and price list. The price list on the sale will define the products that you can add to the sale; for example you can only add items for which a trade price exists to a sale which is set to trade price.
Sale, Quote or Order?
If you are using Standard stock control or above, then you will be using the full order processing screen. Otherwise, you will use the simple, quicker sale processing screen.
The order processing screen has extra columns such as SKU, weight, stock allocated etc.
Adding items (products) to a sales order
There are two ways to add items to a sale:
Method 1 - quick-add
- Click "add items" when in the open sale
- Choose your category, or search by SKU / Name
- Tick the required items and add to order
Method 2 - advanced, available if you are using Standard or Premium
- To add items to the quote, click the “add items” link.
- Choose a category or search for the items to add and a list will appear on the left of the screen.
- On the left hand side, click the items you wish to add to the order, and amend the name/price on the right for each line.
- Click “add to order” at the bottom right of the screen.
To turn on the advanced order-add mode, visit Setup : Sales
Adding miscellaneous rows to a sales order
In the products tab within the order, type a number into the "add rows" box and click "add rows". This will give you empty boxes to type in whatever you need.
Removing rows from a sales order
Simply set the quantity to zero then save!
The “Address” tab
The three addresses here are used for customer details, billing address and delivery address respectively. If a billing email address exists, then the customer will automatically be emailed an invoice when it is raised (when the order is posted to accounts).
If an email address exists in the shipping email address box, then the customer will receive email updates as their order progresses through various statuses, as defined by the tickboxes in the status history tab.
The “Products/Prices” tab
If the products are set to “yes” manage stock, then Pearl will check the quantity in stock and set the product row colour appropriately. Red rows indicate there is insufficient stock to fulfil the order. If required you can split the order into two, by clicking the “split to back order” link. This will move either all deficit rows, or all deficit items to a new order. Green rows indicate that there is enough stock to fulfil the order, and blue rows indicate that the item is a bundle (stock is not checked). White rows indicate that the item has been set to “no” manage stock.
You can change the products’ prices, quantity and names on this screen. As you make the changes you can see the order total changing at the same time. Click “save” when you have made changes.
To remove items from an order, set the quantity to zero then click “save”. Any of the save buttons on the page will save the order.
Setting a discount on the product info tab will apply that discount to the list price when the page is saved, regardless of the net price you enter. The list price is the price that is pulled from the product information when using the Add to order screen, and can be changed before clicking “add to order”.
The “Attachments” tab
If required you can attach files to the order for internal staff reference only. Perhaps the customer has sent you a fax purchase order, this is where you should attached the scanned file for future reference.
Click the “attach files” button, upload a file and click the “attach” icon, or just click the “attach” icon for a file already existing in your Pearl system. Once you have attached a file, it will only show in the list the next time you load the page.
The “Status history” tab
As changes are made to the sale, it is a good idea to put comments in here so that both you and other staff members can see exactly what is going on. If you tick the “notify customer” box then an email will be sent to the delivery email address. The format of this email (along with every other system generated email) can be edited in the Setup area of Pearl.
If you choose a shipping method Pearl will automatically insert any predefined text has been set for that shipping method; useful for comments including tracking details.
Order edit - Order totals
As you add and change items on the sale, you’ll see the order totals changing. If on the other hand you would like to fix the total value and let the individual lines settle to match it, you can do so. You will need to work out the correct tax amount, and enter both the total and the tax in on the right hand side. Pearl will then work out the difference in total order value [since the last page save] and spread this difference across all the lines on the order.
Tax codes
You can set a different tax code for each line on the sale. If you're not VAT registered, then ensure that you set up your main company information as T9 tax code.
Sales nominal codes
By default all sales are made with the 4000 account code. If required, you can add a column to the Product Info tab which will allow you to set a different account code per sale row. This is on the Setup - Sales screen.
Payment methods
If you have a card processing method setup such as SECPay, setting the payment method to SECPay and saving will show you further options for processing the card within Pearl. To allocate the sale to a customer’s account for later payment, then select “account” as the payment method.
Sending quotes by email
At any point until the order has been posted to accounts, you can automatically email or print a quote. Simply click “Email” when in the order. You can use the standard Pearl Quote template, or create any number of your own templates.
As soon the order has been posted to accounts then this link will allow you to email or print the invoice.
The quote will be stored as a PDF file which can later be viewed in the attachments tab.
If you're using Pearl express, then you can only send HTML quotes. PDF quotes and invoices are available from Pearl Starter and higher.
Sales reports
You can view sales reports in a number of ways. To view a chart of gross revenue including VAT, click “Sales - Sales charts” from the main menu. This chart can then be limited in a number of ways. To display sales to a particular customer, see below.
To display sales revenue for a particular product, find the product and then click the sales chart icon.
If you are using the Pearl accounting module, then you can also view reports using the Accounts - Search & Browse screen or the Accounts - Reports - Nominal activity chart (which will show net values, ex tax)
Refunds & credit notes
To create a refund in EPOS, please see the “Retail” information pack.
To create a refund in the administration area, create a sale exactly as normal, but enter a negative quantity in the Qty column. Just as entering a positive number of products to the order will decrease your stock levels, entering a negative number will increase your stock.
If the customer is not returning stock for the refund, then add a “Misc Item” to the order. The stock of Misc items is not checked, so this item can be used to adjust sale values up or down, or simply to add comment rows with zero value.
If required you can create your own equivalent of the “Misc item” – perhaps “Refund” – which you can then trace later to report on the value of refunds you are giving. Ensure that when you create the product to set “manage stock” to “no”.
When this order is posted to accounts, a credit note will be raised as per invoices for sales above. Credit note references generated by Pearl are in the form “SC-123448”.
You can enter both positive and negative product quantities into an order, so for example if a customer is returning an item for the exchange of another at the same price, you must perform a sale to amend your stock and update your accounts appropriately:
| 1 x | Tee shirt (large) |
£20.00 |
| -1 x | Tee shirt (small) |
£20.00 |
| £0.00 | ||
In this example the customer is returning a small tee shirt for a large, and paying no price. 1 Small tee shirt will be returned to stock, and 1 large tee shirt will be removed from stock. If you then choose to destroy/write off the returned item you must create a sale to do so.
Deposits
If a customer makes a deposit you can enter this in a number of ways:
Create a sale for the product, and enter the deposit amount in the “Paid” box under the order totals. Set the order to “Stock allocated” if the stock has not left your company, or “Closed:Other” if it has. When the order is posted to accounts then the remaining balance to pay will show on the customers account (Accounts - Customers - Customer debt), and the amount paid to date will show in your accounting reports.
Payment methods
When an order is posted to accounts, an invoice is raised, and emailed automatically if a billing email address exists. The invoice total will be added to the “Customer debt” in your accounting. Depending on which payment method is chosen and the amount in the “paid” box, Pearl will clear this invoice from the appropriate account.
If, for example you have set up your payment method “cash” to allocate payments into your “Current Bank Account”, then the invoice will be raised and immediately cleared with a cash payment amount as set in the "paid" box, into your bank account record in Pearl. To set up your payment methods click Setup - Payment from the main menu.
Writing off stock
To reduce your stock levels due to items lost, damaged or stolen, you need to create a sale to record the loss correctly. It is a good idea to create “customers” specifically for this purpose so that you can later track the products lost/stolen/damaged etc.
For example to mark an item as stolen, create an order for your “Items stolen” customer, add the items and set the price to zero (no revenue received, but stock is being reduced). Post the order to accounts; as the order total is zero, no invoice will be raised but the stock will be updated appropriately. You can then display a report for sales to this customer.
Prizes and gifts
To reduce your stock levels because you are giving away prizes or gifts, create a sale as per writing off stock above. It is important that you do this, even though the sale value is zero, for a number of reasons:
- Your stock levels will be amended automatically
- You will be able to trace the date and staff member that arranged the gift/prize
- Your “cost of goods sold” account will be updated to affect your profit reports
- You will be able to display a report on the cost of marketing through prizes and gifts
Delivery notes
Pearl creates a delivery note number for each order that leaves your building, this is the numerical order number, and is not related to the invoice reference (e.g. SI-132434). Each price group has a different delivery note template (see Setup - Other - Templates & Layout - System Templates), allowing you to choose whether prices are displayed or not. For example you may sell directly to the end user through your website, and wish to show the price they have paid on the delivery note, since the invoice (raised at the end of the day, perhaps) may not be raised until after the product has left.
Invoice and Quote layout
You can modify the design and layout of your templates, including images, via the Setup - Other - Templates & Layout - System Templates screen. If you wish you can create a number of additional templates in the Setup - Other - Templates & Layout - Email/Print Templates screen, and choose which one to use at the point of sending or printing the quote/invoice. Automatic invoices are always sent using the default invoice on the system templates screen.
The columns shown on your invoices and quotes are set in the Setup - Sales screen, from a pre-defined list.