Ongoing Tasks

This section discusses the purchase order reception tasks that need to be performed on a routine basis. Under normal circumstances, purchase orders received using AFS are processed automatically, ending up as orders in the Transactions database. These orders can be viewed using the Orders Manager module in Business Desk (the Orders Manager module is one of the three new Business Desk modules included in the AFS Solution Site).

The ongoing tasks associated with received purchase orders will vary from supplier to supplier, but there are two broad categories of activities in which all suppliers will participate. These are:

Fulfillment, or getting the ordered products to the customer.
Billing, or getting paid for the ordered products.

AFS does not dictate how these activities occur, but it does provide the fields Order Status and Fulfillment Status for each order in the Transaction database. The Order Status field is configurable – new order status codes can easily be added to account for specific business needs. The Fulfillment Status field includes the following fulfillment status values:

Auto. Indicates that the order should be processed automatically.
Auto24. Indicates that the order should be processed automatically within 24 hours of receipt.
Manual. Indicates that manual intervention is required before the order is processed.
Fulfilled. Indicates that the order has been fulfilled.
Rejected. Indicates that the order has been rejected.

When using the Orders Manager module in Business Desk, these fields can be used when searching for orders, allowing that module to be used more effectively by the supplier employees tasked with order fulfillment and billing.

AFS also includes supplementary documentation that describes how AFS can be integrated with existing backend systems such as Great Plains and SAP. Such integration could prove useful for the tasks associated with fulfillment and billing.

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