External Transport Order

If your company outsources inventory deliveries, there's an easy way to create transport documentation and Purchase Orders for your transport company.

1. Create an item with a Key that starts with "|ETR" (pipe symbol followed by E-T-R). You can create as many "|ETR" items as needed (i.e. |ETR-LARGE |ETR01 |ETRA, etc.). Please note that the total charge for the transport order will be associated with the contract line item for the |ETR. The cost will be what the delivery company is charging you and will be carried over to the purchase order.
   
   
   
2. Set the item type as a Sales item and mark it as Bulk (it's a check box in the Options tab).
   
   
3. Write your contract as you normally would, but when prompted to select a Delivery Fee, choose one of your ETR delivery records.
   
   
4. Right-click the ETR item and choose the Transport Order option.
   
   
5. The Transport Order screen will open to this:

6. Complete all required fields. The transport order can be saved and modified until you are ready to create an order for your transport vendor.
   1. The addresses available to choose from are the customer's, the delivery/pickup address on the contract, and the store to which the contract is written.
   2. To select the items that need to go on the transport order, click on each of the items and then use the arrow to move them to the right box. If all of the items need to go, use the double arrow to move them all without selecting them.
   3. Cubic size and weight will be calculated from the item file, or if these are not filled out, they can be manually entered.
      
      
7. Save and exit the Transport Order. Then, save, exit, and then reenter the contract. You'll need to do this before you can finalize the Transport Order and create a corresponding Purchase Order. This measure prevents users from canceling a contract modification and creating a stranded Transport Order.
   1. The Create Transport Order option will not be available within the same contract modification number as when the ETR item was added to the contract. For more information on contract modification numbers, see the section "Reports menu" in the Transaction File.
      
      
8. Go back to the Transport Order and select Create Transport Order to create a new Purchase Order that can be printed or emailed to your vendor.

9. You'll be prompted to select an expense account. Once selected, you'll receive another window prompt that displays the Purchase Order number. 

10. The Transport Order will be created as an Open purchase order (as opposed to a pending status when ordering inventory).

10. The Transport Order resembles a standard purchase order, with a few exceptions:
    1. The "Ship to area" is replaced with a "Transport Order Detail" button in the top left corner. Clicking this button opens the Transport Order screen from the contract in a "read-only" mode.
    2. The cost of the transport can be modified either in the transport order screen refernced above or on the purchase order line item itself. Changes will not be saved until the purchase order modification is saved.
       
       1. Additional line items cannot be added to the Transport Order.
11. Press OK to save the Purchase Order.
    
    
12. Right-click on the PO from the dashboard and select Receive all items. From here, follow the usual process of assigning an invoice number, payment method, etc, in order to prepare it before posting to AP.
    Important! Once the purchase order is posted, no more changes can be made within the transport order screen unless the PO is unposted first.

13. Print the purchase order for the external transport. It will use a specific format that gives your transport company the information needed to complete the job.