Special Orders

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ricmorin
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Special Orders

Post by ricmorin »

As many of you know, I'm a big Special Order guy. We usually have dozens of them on the WIP at any one time. One of the programmatic issues when creating a Special Order from scratch is it bypasses the Estimate stage, which we know when converted to a Repair Order sets the estimated total. Making an SO from scratch leaves NO estimated total, and there is no way to know what the original price was. There is a way around this. Instead of directly adding all your parts and labor directly on the newly created Special Order, transfer them from a revision. This will set the estimated price in the program for easy future reference.
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1
Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203
www.motorcaralternatives.com

I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
ShopManTim
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Re: Special Orders

Post by ShopManTim »

You have me curious how you use special orders. Sorry to have to reveal my ignorance (I have not ever used special orders) but I am wondering if you could provide an illustration of how you make a special order work.
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ricmorin
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Re: Special Orders

Post by ricmorin »

I thought you'd never ask. LOL

Special Orders are a whole different order type that allows a user to take advantage of all the ordering privilege's of Repair Orders without actually being a Repair Order. It works well with the intended workflow of the program, but I've seen users take advantage of the special order type in some unusual ways.

The intent is to have a unique order type for vehicles that are not currently in the shop but need parts preordered. The workflow is to have Estimates for future work, Repair Orders for current work and Invoices for finished work. Ordering parts from the Estimate stage can be done, but connections don't always work. SO's solve this.

You can create an SO in one of two ways. The first is a scenario where you have a bunch of work already sold on an existing RO but parts need to be ordered and the vehicle will come back for that work another day. You highlight the lines that are going to be done later and then go to View> Special Order. This will move the selected lines to the SO. Easy peasy.

The second is creating one from scratch. While on the WIP, go to View>Special Order. This will open a blank SO and you can select the customer, vehicle and what you want to do. You have full ordering privileges with these. You can filter them out or in the WIP as needed. For those who like to be extra organized, Special Orders are really cool.
Ric Morin - Volunteer Forum Moderator, Shop Owner, ASE Master L1
Motorcar Alternatives, LLC
603-622-6434 x203
www.motorcaralternatives.com

I find my life is a lot easier when I use Special Orders
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