NOTE: Levels 6 and 7 include a special Standing Order Module (accessed through the MAIN TASKS menu.  While the new Standing Order Module is much easier to use, the following is workable solution for Level 4 or 5 users.

A Standing Order is used when you have one or more customers which agree in advance to buy a series of products.  For example, let's say you have published a book on gardening and you will be publishing five installments of the book covering different aspects of gardening.  You plan to make each new installment available every six months.  If the customer would like to receive all five installments when they become available, you can set up a standing order with the customer.

How to Prepare the Invoices

To start, assign each of your standing orders a three to five letter code.  For example, the gardening series might be represented by GARD.  A series on back yard landscaping might be represented by LAND.

If you haven't already, active the User Defined Fields.  Designate one of the fields that will hold 40 characters for the standing order code.  Give the field a label:  Standing Order.

Next, create invoices for each of the customers that have standing orders.  On the first invoice that you issue to the customer, type in the standing order code in the "Standing Order" field.  The code should only appear on the first invoice (the first of the standing orders) that you issue to the customer.  The name of the standing order product should the first on the list in the Item Area.  Leave the code off on any subsequent standing order invoices.  You may indicate a quantity.  The same quantity will be used for subsequent invoices.

How to prepare the Export Profile

The first batch of standing order invoices are created as described above.  When you are ready to create the second batch of standing orders, you'll need to use export and import profiles.  The following explains how to prepare the export profile.  For more information on exporting, see Advanced Export.

1. Select FILE >> ADVANCED EXPORT.

2. Click on "Create New Profile"

3. For "Name of Profile," type in: Create Standing Orders.

4. Select:  "Text - Tab Delimited"

5. Select "Billing Name" in Box #1 and click the plus sign (+).  You'll see Billing Name appear in Box #2.

6. Select "Billing Address1" in Box #1 and click the plus sign (+).  You'll see Billing Address1 appear in Box #2.

7. Continue doing this for all billing address fields and all shipping address fields.  Also, be sure to include the bill number, customer number, ship via, notes and all other fields that you would like to move from the first invoice to the subsequent standing order invoices.  When it comes to products, select only "Product Quan (1st)."  Do not include the Standing Order code.

8. Save the profile by clicking on "Save Profile."

9. Click on "Other Options"

10. Type in the following in the Filter blank:  "XXXX" $ UserDef2->UserDef1    In the place of XXXX substitute the standing order code.  For example, you might have "GARD"  $ UserDef2->UserDef1.  Note: if you used the first User Defined field for Standing Order codes, the last part of the formula (UserDef1) is fine, but if you use the second user defined field, then it should be UserDef2.  If it's the third text field, it should be UserDef3.

11. Click on "Save"

12. Click on "Save Profile" and "Close"

13. Now you are back at the first Export dialog box.  For the "File Name," type in: Standing.txt. 14. For the directory, select C:\AnyOrder\My_Files

15. Place a checkmark in #5: "First Record: List Field Names"

16. Also, place a checkmark beside "If exporting to a dBase or Tab delimited file, immediately start up Spreadsheet program."

17. Click on "Start Export Process"

The export process will run and your spreadsheet program will be activated.  Take a look at the spreadsheet.  You may want to sort by the billing name to make sure you don't have any duplicates.  If the list looks good to you, move to the next step.

How to Prepare the Import Profile

After you have created the export profile, you can move on to the Import Profile.  (For more information on importing, see Import).  Follow these steps:

1. Select FILE >> IMPORT.

2. In the "File Name" field, type in: Standing.txt

3. In the "Directory" field, select:  C:\AnyOrder\My_Files

4. Click on "Create New Profile"

5. For the "Name of Profile," type in: Import Standing Orders

6. Select: Text - Tab Delimited

7. Click on "Show Import File Fields"

8. Highlight "Bill Name" in Box #1.  Then highlight "Billing Name" in Box #2.  Then click on the plus sign (+).

9. Continue matching fields in the first box with the appropriate field in the second box.

10. In the "Constant" field, type in the catalog number of the book you will be shipping.

11. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Cat #"

12. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

13. In the "Constant" field, type in the book's name

14. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Item"

15. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

16. In the "Constant" field, type in the book's price. Note: when you type in the book's price, do not include the monetary symbol.  If the price is $49.95, type in: 49.95, NOT: $49.95.

17. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Price"

18. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

19. In the "Constant" field, type in "S" (That's a capital S with no quotes)

20. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product S-code"

21. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

22. Click on "Save Profile"  Then "Close"

23. You are now back at the first dialog box.  Select "Import all records except first record"

24. Click on "Start Import Process"

Take a look at the newly created invoices.  If you make a mistake, you can remove the new invoices.  To do so, select FILE >> REMOVE IMPORTED INVOICES.  You want to use this feature before adding any new invoices or exiting the program.

The Process for Subsequent Orders

Once you get things set-up, here's the procedure you'll use for all subsequent orders:

A. FIRST: THE EXPORT PROCESS

1. Start AnyOrder

2. Select FILE >> ADVANCED EXPORT

3. Select "Create Standing Orders"

4. Click on "View or Update Existing Profile" 5. Click on "Other Options"

6. Type in the following in the Filter blank:  "XXXX" $ UserDef2->UserDef1    In the place of XXXX substitute the standing order code.  For example, you might have "GARD"  $ UserDef2->UserDef1.  Note: if you used the first User Defined field for Standing Order codes, the last part of the formula (UserDef1) is fine, but if you use the second user defined field, then it should be UserDef2.  If it's the third text field, it should be UserDef3.

7. Click on "Save"

8. Click on "Save Profile" and "Close"

9. Click on "Start Export Process"

10. The export file will be created and Excel will be started.

11. Check the Excel Spreadsheet.  You might want to sort by the Bill_name column (DATA >> SORT >> Sort by: Bill_name).  That way you can catch any duplicates that you might have.  If everything looks good, you're ready to create the invoices

B.  NOW CREATE THE INVOICES USING THE IMPORT PROCESS

1. Go back to the Main Invoice Screen.

2. Select FILE >> IMPORT

3. Select "Standing Orders Group Import"

4. Click on "View or Update Existing Profile"

5. Click on "Show Import File Fields"

6. Go to Box #3 ("Import Profile")

7. Using the "Remove Line" button, delete the last 4 lines (each line is proceeded with a [C])

8. In the "Constant" field, type in the catalog number of the book you will be shipping

9. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Cat #"

10. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

(You'll repeat this process for the Item Name, Price, and S-code.  This information will be saved.  When you do another standing order, just follow this same procedure and insert the catalog number, item name, and price for the new book.  The S-Code is always "S.")

11. In the "Constant" field, type in the book's name

12. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Item"

13. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

14. In the "Constant" field, type in the book's price. Note: when you type in the book's price, do not include the monetary symbol.  If the price is $49.95, type in: 49.95, NOT: $49.95.

15. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product Price"

16. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

17. In the "Constant" field, type in "S" (That's a capital S with no quotes)

18. Then in the Box #2 ("Placement Location"), scroll down and select "1st Product S-code"

19. Click on the big plus (+) sign.  You'll see the information appear in the 3rd box.

20. Click on "Save Profile"  Then "Close"

21. You are now back at the first dialog box.  Click on "Start Import Process"

22. Return to the Main Invoice Screen.  A series of invoices will be created: one for each customer that appeared on the Excel Sheet.  It's quite a time saver.

Look through the invoices.  You'll see that the new item, catalog number and price will be pasted to the Item Area of every invoice created.

The program copies the quantity from the original invoice.  If a customer decides to go with more copies, just change the quantity on the original invoice.

If you create the invoices and realize that you've done something wrong, you can remove them.  To do so, select FILE >> REMOVE IMPORTED INVOICES.  If you need to use this feature, be sure to utilize it before adding any new invoices or exiting the program.  However, if you happen to exit the program, you can also use FILE >> FILE MAINTENANCE FUNCTIONS >> DELETE INVOICES should it be necessary to remove the newly imported invoices.