An order is entered by a customer and consists of three main parts. The customers details, the products they have ordered and shipping information. The order processing screens are aimed at this later information which deal with collecting the money for the order, making and selecting the products and getting it into the envelope and shipped. During this process an order goes through a number of stages. These stages are know as states and are described as follows:
Orders are moved from state to state by selecting them on the order list page and pressing the state button for where you want to send the order along the bottom of the page.
The best plan is to email then and let then know what is going on if there is any problem. Tell them I am away and you are shipping and you have a problem and when you get it sorted out or I return it will get shipped. Honesty is the best policy. They very rarely get upset if you keep them informed of what is happening. If they get the wrong thing or not what they expected then we will ship them the right thing. No big deal.
On the Process Order List page you select which state you want to look at using the Show Order drop down box on the top right to select the state and then click the show button to show the state. You select orders on the right by checking the check box. You can select any number of orders at once. You perform an action on the order by clicking a button at the bottom of the page.
| Order List Processing | Show Orders: |
| Sel | Name | Total | Payment | Method | Date | Status | Edit |
|
|
Steven Mogg | astronew@webcaddy.com.au | $80.00 | $80.00 | PayPal | Shipped | Edit |
This state just gives you a chance to see what is new and then move it on. This way you can keep track of what is happening and orders just don't appear from know where. So as soon as you see something in NEW you can move it on to something more useful. If nothing else move it to PENDING until you locate the payment.
Orders in pending have been seen by a human at least and are generally waiting for payment or some other confirmation. See Receiving Payment below for details on how to receive and process payments. From here an order can go to production if it has a payment but not all the items are in stock. If items are available and payment is processed then move the order to SHIPPING.
These orders have a payment processed and are waiting for an item to be produced. This is where somebody does the hard work of making all this stuff. When the item is produced the order can move on to SHIPPING.
The SHIPPING state is where the majority of processing occurs. More buttons are available on this page. Items in this state should have a payment processed (ie; Balance = Zero) against them already and items should be in stock. See Receiving Payment below for details on how to receive and process payments. Processing of the orders is set up for batch mailing purposes. So you can get it all ready and go down to the post office once or twice a week. So the processing often effects all orders in the stat at once. What processing do you need to do:
When you click the mail box icon you get a page of mail labels. Print this
page onto 14 label paper and hit the back button on the browser to return.
When you click the invoice button you get a page of invoices. Print the page
onto blank paper and then and hit the back button on the browser to return. It
always seems to print a blank page as the second and last page. It doesn't
miss any it just want to extra blank pages printed. Go figure.Once you have these printed you can get the orders packed for shipping. See packing the orders below for a descriptio of how to do this. Once you have the orders packed and taken down to the post office. Select the orders and move them on to the SHIPPED state. This is manual because sometimes something goes wrong with an order and not all of them get shipped. If the ones that got shipped get moved onto SHIPPED this will leave the problems behind and they can get picked up in the next shipping batch.
Only orders that have definitely been shipped should end up in this state. That is IMPORTANT. If anything goes wrong from here on it must be a postal problem. Wen an order is confirmed as being received, sometimes the customer emails to say they got it OK, then the order can be moved to DELIVERED. Most don't email so after 30 days, if you haven't heard, then move them to DELIVERED. This way if there is a problem in transit the order will most likely be in the shipping state. This will be a list of about 50 to 100 orders to search through. DELIVERED will be very much bigger.
This is the natural resting place of an order. All going well the customer has the part and is enjoying themselves, and is literally out of this world.
Receiving payment is a very important step in the process. No orders should be shipped without having the payment firmly in hand before doing so. Well that is the theory at least. At this stage payment can come via two methods:
PayPal - Most orders
are paid for via PayPal. PayPal is an electronic payment system. An email is
sent to from PayPal with the customers details, their name is all you need, and
the payment amount. Have a look at an
example email from PayPal which is from Robert Vellenoweth
and for USD$54. It also has his address on it. Normally the same as the shipping
address of the order but not always. We ship to the address on the order form.
If it seems like a problem then email the customer and ask where they want it
shipped too. If there is a problem, to much or to little payment, or something
doesn't match up just email them. Tell them what you have and ask if they can
help sort out the problem. Click the email address in the list to get an email
up and running.
OK now the fun part. You have the mailing labels printed and the invoices. You also need the Return Address Stamp, Airmail Stickers, Customs Labels, and the padded envelopes. You can do this in any order that works for you but here is a list of what needs doing:
I think that about covers it.