You may wish to include promotional/informational material with certain of your inventory items.  For example, if someone buys a book on starting a business, you may wish to insert your catalog on small business products.  You may even wish or need to tie the shipment of the main inventory item to the availability and inclusion of the insertion--and have the main item go on backorder if the insertion is out of stock. The Order Inserts feature allows you to accomplish all of this.  Inclusion of the order inserts, which are created as separate Advantage inventory items, is based on rules that you maintain. 

System Option

This feature is activated by a system option, INSRTSEL.  This PRO-level option specifies the default (active) insert select set currently in use.  If this is blank, it is assumed that no order insert handling is in use. Only one Insert Select Set can be used at a time.

You can also specify the insert select to use for certain individual processes that can send out Order Inserts, at process request time.  The processes below include run-time options for Order Inserts selects.  If the run-time option is blank, the select identified in the INSRTSEL system option is used; if that is also blank, the Order Insert feature is not activated.

Processes that allow entry of an Order Insert select at run-time:

MST390
MST391
BCL360

Insert Assignment Rules

Each order-line is evaluated against your Insert Assignment Rules that are set up at the PROSEL workspace, as shown below:

This workspace allows you to set up an assignment structure that can have up to four levels with selection criteria at each level.  This workspace allows you to set up sophisticated assignment rules in the same way as other Advantage selects (e.g., the A/R billing selection and CIR renewal selection).

You can create assignment rules so that the inserts ship, for example, whenever the customer orders any product from a particular product class.  Or, alternatively, you can look at the customer's buying history and base assignment of the insertion on that.

At the lowest level, you indicate the Insert Set to use, as shown below.

In this example the CATALOG insert set is going to be used.  The order with order-lines falling into this lowest level would not be held if the insert item(s) is out of stock.  Nor would the insert item(s) be duplicated if they had already been assigned to an earlier order-line.

If an insert assignment set is set up to hold order lines and one or more insert items is unavailable, the order line is put on backorder and all other inserts for that order line are also put on backorder. The PRO360 – Backorder Fill process tracks and fills these backorders (main item + insert) when the insert becomes available. If rush-ship is requested for an item whose insert is out-of-stock (and the lowest level logic indicates that the order-line is to be held), a message is displayed stating that rush-ship for the item is not available.

If an order qualifies for two different insert assignment sets, each of which contain the same insert item, and one set allows duplicate items but the other one does not, the results will depend on the order in which the sets are processed.  If the set that allows duplicates is processed first, then the item is added once to the order.  If the set that does not allow duplicates is processed first, then the insert item is added twice.

Order Evaluation and Inventory Update

As orders are added at MSTDAT/OLN and MSTDAT/FST, the view routines query the order insert select logic to determine if order-lines for inserts need to be added to the order.  If so, these order-lines are automatically added by the system.

Inserts are always added with a quantity of 1, regardless of the quantity ordered for the main item.

The following order types do qualify for order inserts:

Invoiceable
Gratis
Preview

 The following order types do not qualify for order inserts:

Warehouse transfer
Miscellaneous
Proforma
Credit (return)
 Invoiceable order with postship = Y

These insert records may be viewed by Customer Service at the SVCDAT/OLN view…as they are included as separate lines directly on the order.

Insert items are marked with price source of 'INS', which can be seen at the MSTDAT/PRO and SVCDAT/OLN views during an Inquire function. 

Although it’s a rare occurrence, sometimes when you place an order, there will be a quantity in stock that is no longer there when the order finally posts via PRO205. In these cases, the shipped quantity on the order is set, but since the warehouse does not have enough stock to fulfill it, the PRO205 will not post the order. The PRO205.REPORT will give the error message “Not enough quantity available to fill this order.” The steps below illustrate how to force these order lines into backorder.

Forcing an order line to backorder

1. Route to MSTDAT/PRO.
2. Search for the order.
3. Use the CS function to change the order status from I to P.
4. Highlight the line in error and use the CQ function to change the shipped qty to 0.
5. Answer the popup box “Do you want to backorder the remaining quantity?” as follows:
   • If you wish to backorder the line, click YES
   • If you wish to force the item into Lost Sales, click NO
6. Use the CS function to change the order status back to I.

NOTE: Forcing a backorder is only to be done if the physical warehouse does not have stock on hand (in order for PRO205 to change the status to B and allow PRO360 to fill it when inventory is received in the warehouse). If the order did indeed ship from the physical warehouse and your quantities at INVDAT/WHS were just incorrect, you would need to do an Inventory Adjustment to correct the quantities to match what was in the physical warehouse and allow the order to post.

There may be times when you have an item that cannot be purchased separately, but must be included with another item, for instance personalization services, shrink-wrapping, or logos.  Advantage uses the related items feature to handle cases like this, and prohibits the entry of a related item.  It must be added with another item.

Set-up of related item

Related items are set up at INVDAT like any other item.  However, the related item check box must be checked.  You must also set up a warehouse record for the item.  Depending on the nature of the related item, it can either be stocked in inventory or set up as a non-stocked item.

Adding Related Item to Order

After adding the primary item to the order, you can right-click in the line section at MSTFST to add the related item.

Selecting Add Related Order Line… will bring up a dialog box to enter the related item and optionally override the descriptions.  Using the drop-down on the Related Item Number field will show only items at INVDAT that have the related item box checked.

The related item will be related to the order line that was entered before it.  If you later delete that line from the order, it will automatically delete the related order line.

With the 2008R1 release (and later), you can set up an item to be valid for only those promotions under which it has been specifically defined as a promotion item at CPNPMO/ITM.

When this setting is used, the item cannot be added under a different promotion, even when the promotion is set up to allow additional items.  This would allow you, for example, to protect an item from being sold under the wrong promotion---one intended for another owning organization, for example.

Defining the item at INVDAT

Order Entry
The order entry edit that prohibits addition of promotion-exclusive items to "non-participating" promotions is in place at the following places:

• Order entry views (e.g., MSTDAT/FST, /CIR)
• Uploads (e.g., CIR125, PRO301)
• Web orders

If you try to add a “promotion exclusive” item to an order under a promotion that it is not defined on, you will receive a message alerting you that the item is exclusive to specific promotion codes, and cannot be ordered under that promotion.

In Advantage, a non-pay cancel transaction causes the customer to lose any premium set they would have received on a paid order.  As of 2009R1, however, there is an option to restore a premium set if the customer later reinstates.

If the subscription is later reinstated, you have the option of allowing the customer to receive the premium set--you simply set the CIR option PRMSTREI ("Restore Premium Set on REI?") to Y to enable this handling; the default setting is N.

When the option is set to Y, and a subscription with a pending premium set is non-pay cancelled, MST391 places the premium set into a special status ("H" – Held).  These sets are retained in the MSTPRM-M table, in case the non-pay cancelled sub is later reinstated.

If you have set the PRMSTREI option to Y, and the sub is reinstated, Advantage will remove the hold on the premium set and process it normally through the system (this occurs automatically and silently---there is no message at the time of the REI).  From a premium set point of view, it is as if the subscription had never been cancelled.

Please note these points about the feature:

• If the composition of the premium set has been changed between the time of cancellation and the time of reinstatement---for example, if items were added to or deleted from a sequence, or if whole sequences were added or deleted---the restored set does not reflect these changes.  The customer receives the same premium items as he/she would have had the sub not been cancelled.
• Use of this feature could inflate the number of records in your MSTPRM-M table.  You can use the MST840 process to selectively purge these records.

Smart Searches allow users to restrict the display of table entries to those of most interest to the user. Using the “Search For” field, you can enter a search string that would limit the display to only those entries that satisfy the string. 

Using the “Search For” field

There are different ways you can enter your search string, which will then result in different entries appearing:

• Entry of a string returns matches on the exact string (e.g., ZA will return all matches on that string).
• Entry of strings separated by spaces returns matches that satisfy all strings (e.g., Z(space) A will return all matches that contain both a Z and an A).
• Use of double quotes will perform an exact (literal) search on the string (e.g., "Z(space)A" will return all matches that contain that exact string---a Z and an A separated by a space).

Using Multiple Criteria in a Smart Search 

Some Smart Searches allow you to filter on multiple types of criteria. For example, the Smart Search at MSTDAT/CTG allows you to search on Control Group Date, Control Group ID, Description, and Owner. However, what if you wanted to search by Control Group Date and Control Group ID? Instead of using the Green filter button, you can enter both “search for’s” in the field.

In the screenshot above, in order to bring up the 3/23/09 ZUPL00 control group and not the 3/23/09 MMATH control group, you could type 3/23/09 ZUPL00 in the Search for field and it would limit the search where 3/23/09 is in any of the fields and ZUPL00 is in any of the fields. Keep in mind that what you enter in the field can be in any of the available columns.

Select Detail Searches

The Select Set Maintenance dialog at Advantage select views includes search capabilities to allow you to quickly access a particular level within the select; this may be of use if you are performing maintenance on a very large select, and you know the exact level you need to access.

You can enter the level number(s) you are searching for, separated by spaces (that is, you need not supply the periods between numbers).  A search on "10 20" and "10.20" would yield the same results.

The search returns all levels that include the criteria, regardless of their order within the select levels.  A search on "10 30" would return all levels that include those numbers---both those where 10 occurs first (e.g., 001.10.30) and those where 30 occurs first (e.g., 001.30.10).

Although Advantage assigns leading zeroes where necessary in level numbers, these need not be entered as part of the search criteria.  To find level 010, you need only enter "10".

As of revision 2008R2, Advantage calls a process notification procedure at the end of every process request and can be set up to send a variety of notifications, as you choose. Process_Notification.cap should be put in your advantage\local\custom_cli folder and then modified based on the types of notification desired.

When modifying the capsule, place the notification command before the RETURN TRUE line in the boolean Notify procedure. Remember, any capsules must be declared before using them.

// Called when a process ends
DEFINE BOOLEAN NOTIFY( // Status. FALSE on failure
CHARACTER 8 REQ_NAME, // Request name
DATE START_DATE, // date when the process started
CHARACTER 8 START_TIME, // time when the process started
CHARACTER 1 TYPE, // Type of the process (P or J)
CHARACTER 1 STATUS, // Status (D, E, etc.)
CHARACTER 8 JSM_NAME, // Report name
INTEGER USE_TIME) // Number of minutes that the request was active
// Place custom notification here.
RETURN TRUE
END-DEFINE

Possible Notifications:

•  Did the process end in error or warning? If so, send an email to the sysadmin:
  CAPSULE EMAIL EMAIL
  IF STATUS = 'E' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' has errored', REQ_NAME & ' has errored out - Please investigate.')
  ELSE-IF STATUS ='W' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' has ended in warning', REQ_NAME & ' has had an abnormal ending.')
  END-IF
•  Did the process run longer than normal? If so, send an email to the sysadmin:
  CAPSULE EMAIL EMAIL
  IF USE_TIME > 300 THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', REQ_NAME & ' - Long runtime', REQ_NAME & ' ran for ' & USE_TIME & ' minutes.')
  END-IF
• When the process completes, run a custom .BAT file:
  IF REQ_NAME = 'ARP310' THEN
  MOVE "%CLIUTLLOC%/INVOICES.BAT " & REQ_NAME to SYSTEM_COMMAND SYSTEM SYSTEM_COMMAND '' LOG 104
  END-IF
• When the process completes, run a SQL statement.
  IF REQ_NAME = 'PRO310' THEN
  MOVE "%CLIUTLLOC%/PICK_TICKET.BAT " & REQ_NAME to SYSTEM_COMMAND SYSTEM SYSTEM_COMMAND '' LOG 104
  END-IF
• Send an email to the CIRC manager when the CIR410 finishes.
  IF REQ_NAME = 'CIR410' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('cirmgr@yourcompany.com', 'Circ Mgr', 'CIR410', 'CIR410 has completed.')
  END-IF
• Send an email when a specific job stream finishes (where CDSEND is last process in job stream).
  IF JSM_NAME = 'ARPNITE' AND REQ_NAME = 'CDSEND' THEN
  EXEC EMAIL.SEND('admin@yourcompany.com', 'Admin', JSM_NAME & ' completed', JSM_NAME & ' has completed.')
  END-IF