Best way to process orders

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I releized there are several ways to process orders. I'm trying the best and fastest solution to process orders and print mailing & shipping labels. 
I have Quickbooks 2011 (mfg & wholesale), ProductCart Standard, ProductCart Synchronizer for QuickBooks, Authorize.net gateway & stamps.com. I receive orders through the shopping cart as well as phone, fax and email orders.

I thought maybe putting all the orders from phone, fax & synchronizer into the "sales orders" of Quickbooks and process them from there?

What are some of your thoughts?

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MikeM Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14-September-2012 Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote MikeM Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Best way to process orders Posted: 01-February-2013 at 4:02pm
	I releized there are several ways to process orders. I'm trying the best and fastest solution to process orders and print mailing & shipping labels. I have Quickbooks 2011 (mfg & wholesale), ProductCart Standard, ProductCart Synchronizer for QuickBooks, Authorize.net gateway & stamps.com. I receive orders through the shopping cart as well as phone, fax and email orders. I thought maybe putting all the orders from phone, fax & synchronizer into the "sales orders" of Quickbooks and process them from there? What are some of your thoughts?

Brett Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 22-April-2008 Location: Phoenix, AZ Status: Offline Points: 89	Post Options Post Reply Quote Brett Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 03-February-2013 at 9:36pm
	I don't know if this is "the best" way to process orders, but I'll detail how we process ours: When I get to the shipping area, I click on Orders > View All Orders I hold down shift and click each order until I have like 30 tabs open, one for each order that day. On each order, I go to Product Details, and click Ship on the bottom under Shipping Status. This takes me to Shipping Center, but I usually go to Product Details first so I can see what I'm going to need to pack for the order. From the shipping center, we either use UPS or USPS depending on the order weight. For UPS, we use the integrated UPS OnLine Tools Shipping, which prints a label for us. We use a label printer to print them onto sticky paper, pack the box, and stick it on. I do the same thing with USPS, using the Endicia shipping solution. It works about the same as UPS, and prints labels onto the sticky paper which we stick onto the package. Then I wait for the UPS guy to come pick up the UPS shipments, and go by the post office and drop the USPS ones into their drop box. We use Authorize.net to automatically bill the customer when their order is placed, so we don't have to worry about processing the payments ourselves. Sorry if this is a bit jumbled. Feel free to ask if you'd like any specifics about our processing procedure. As I said, I don't know if it's the most efficient way to handle this stuff, but it's what works for us.

MikeM Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14-September-2012 Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote MikeM Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07-February-2013 at 10:21pm
	Do you use accounting system like Quickbooks? Here are the steps it takes us the to process an order. 1. Go to ProductCart orders/view all orders. 2. Use the batch feature and change the orders from pending to processed 3. In view all orders, check mark the new orders 4. Print the invoices 5. Go to Quickbooks type the order as a Sales Order 6. Print the picking ticket within Quickbooks 7. Package the items and weight the package 8. In Quickbooks convert the Sales Order to an Invoice 9. Log on to Authorize.net search the unsettle orders and mark it captured 10. In Quickbooks mark the invoice as paid 11. Print the Quickbooks invoice 12. Open UPS Worldship, enter the address and weight and other information 13. Print the 4x6 label on the Zebra label printer 14. Put invoice in the box, seal it and paste the label 15. Go to UPS Worldship cut and paste the tracking number on the Quickbooks invoice 16. Go to ProductCart change the payment status from Authorized to Paid 17. Go to the Shipping Center tab in ProductCart and paste the tracking number 18. Click finished 19. Done It takes almost 10 minutes to do an average order. I am trying to find a faster and more efficient way to process these orders. I like UPS Worldship and Quickbooks

Brett Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 22-April-2008 Location: Phoenix, AZ Status: Offline Points: 89	Post Options Post Reply Quote Brett Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 07-February-2013 at 10:26pm
	You might explore the Quickbooks Plugin: http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/quickbooks_synchronizer/quickbooks_synchronizer And instead of using world ship, you might use the integrated ups label printing function within productcart. We aren't using quickbooks so I can't really comment on that, but it takes me less than a minute to process an order, and maybe a couple more to package and ship it.

Guests Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Guest	Post Options Post Reply Quote Guests Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-February-2013 at 4:07am
	Hi Mike, That sounds onerous. When I first hooked up with our QuickBooks adviser many years ago, she fell on the floor rolling around laughing -- in stitches it seems -- at how much work we were making for ourselves in the way we were using it. By analogy, I'm wondering if you aren't making more work for yourself then necessary. I've a few questions based on your description of your process, if you don't mind: You describe that when orders are placed, you don't mark them automatically as either processed or paid. I'm sure you have good reason for that, but if you wouldn't mind describing your reasons, we folks here might have some ideas for you on this. I'm wondering why you need to print the invoices (if you are including them in the order rather than a packing slip, ok, but if for your own records printing to PDF would be more efficient in many ways). I agree with Bret that the QB Synchronizer from EI might be a good bet for you. I'm curious why you print the order from PC as an "invoice" and then generate a Sales Receipt in QB, and then convert that sales receipt to an invoice in QB. If you have your chart of accounts set up in QB correctly, there's no need for any of that in QB (not that I'm a QB Adviser) -- that is, as Sales Receipt is basically a shortcut for having an Invoice marked paid; at the same time it seems you are generating two invoices for some purpose. Going back to #1, do you require more than 7 days to ship an order? If not, and you ship quickly, then why not "auth & capture" when the order is placed? If you need to do an "auth only" at order placement, they if you are using Authorize.Net, you can batch process those through PC's CP. I'm curious which of the two invoices you are putting in the box, and why not a PC generated packing slip? I suspect that there probably is some inefficiency in your process and we folks here can help you streamline this. Excellent topic to bring up. At first I though it too open ended as there just innumerable methods depending on one's business rules ... but having provided a detail of our process, now we have something to chew on.

MikeM Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14-September-2012 Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote MikeM Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09-February-2013 at 6:18pm
	Hi Sean, Question 1 & 6 Actually, I just found out that you can through PC’s CP batch process method the orders from "auth only" it will automatically capture and change the payment status to paid the order status to processed. I was always changing it individually on each order and then going to Authorize.net website to capture the funds. So by doing the batch feature saves some steps. The only problem is what do you do when you have a backorder item? In normal business practice you should not charge a customer for an item you’re not shipping. It could be a week or so before you ship the backorder item. This brings up another question. If the total order is $50.00 and the backorder item is $30.00. How to you charge the customer for $20 and then later when the backorder item comes in you charge is his card for $30? The only way I know is… 1. Change the order status from pending to processed. 2. Change the payment status from Authorized to Paid (keep in mind when the customer logs-in to view their order it will show the order is Paid, customer will think the entire order including the backorder is paid, when in fact it’s only the items being shipped is paid) 3. Log-in into your Authorize.net account and click capture on the unsettle amount and change the amount to be capture from $50 to $20, because you are only shipping the $20 item, later you will ship the $30 item. 4. When the backorder comes in. Log-in into your Authorize.net account and use the re-bill feature to charge the customer for the $30 backorder item that is being ship. 5. Then in your PC’s CP go to the shipping center, enter tracking number to notify the customer the backorder is being shipped. Question 2 We normally include an invoice or receipt in the box that shows the prices and total amount they paid. I’m not sure what folks out there do? Is a packing slip with no prices efficient enough? Question 3 I think the QB Synchronizer is a good idea also, so I purchased it. Question 4 Yes, I could just do Sales Receipt in QB, but then how are the backorders handled? Question 6 A PC generated packing slip shows the complete item list. I don’t believe it shows an item on backorder. One of the important things is really handling the backorders efficiently. This is the reason maybe for so many steps. Creating a Sales Order in Quickbooks is the only way I can think of to handle the backorders. If other folks have some ideas I would be interested in hearing them. Mike Mech

Brett Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 22-April-2008 Location: Phoenix, AZ Status: Offline Points: 89	Post Options Post Reply Quote Brett Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09-February-2013 at 8:50pm
	For backorders, can't you just notify customers that the product is on backorder and that their payment reserves the product for them? I think it's bad practice to take payment for a product you don't intend on shipping IF the customer thinks it is going to ship, if you inform them that the product is back ordered and tell them when it is expected to ship, and they still place the order, then the do so knowing that they will be pre-paying for the product. It seems to me that just informing your customers of the situation would be the best solution. As long as you are honest with them and keeping them in the loop, I can't see how they could be mad at you. Customers hate surprises, but I think most people understand backorders and as long as you make it clear on the product page that they will be charged immediately and that the product will ship as soon as stock is available, then they should be okay with that. It seems to me like you're making quite a bit of extra work for yourself. Instead of trying to stick with what you have, I think your best bet is to take a fresh look at your business and come up with a new method for processing orders. Both UPS and USPS have methods for printing shipping labels via the product cart administration panel. Coupled with authorize.net, and the automatically sending order status emails, all you should have to do is print the label and stick it on the package. For backorders, just inform the customer and do the same thing as usual.

Wonderfulnews Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 15-July-2012 Status: Offline Points: 8	Post Options Post Reply Quote Wonderfulnews Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 11-February-2013 at 8:07am
	We use the same method as Brett. In fact it is this process that sold us on PC. Before PC we used to do everything manually on different programs...one for endica, one for a.net, one for ups, one for accounting and so on. The order processing on PC is super efficient. We like it and it has enabled us to handle a massive increase in business without hiring more folks to do administrative tasks.

whizzinpc Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 17-January-2006 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 20	Post Options Post Reply Quote whizzinpc Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 20-February-2013 at 6:58pm
	We automatically mark orders as processed. If there is something backordered we just contact the customer... if they decide to wait we just leave it as is and ship it when it becomes available. If they decide to cancel or remove the item we just manually do it via authorizene. We've never had issues with charging upfront even if an item is back-ordered. Customers don't mind as long as they are notified.