How do I deal with unit preparation/PDI?

Summary

The article explains the processes that are involved for each department when a unit sales order is created and subsequently invoiced.

More Information

Units: Unit is a general term used to cover all types of vehicle and machinery, including items such as motorcycles, scooters, cars, trucks, vans, caravans, motorhomes, boats, tractors, ATVs, agricultural equipment, wholegoods and construction equipment.

This area of the system can be very complex in the terms of the effect it has on each department, from a practical and system point of view. Because of this complexity, we believe that we have designed a system that controls the process for each department in the most efficient and effective way.

Please also see this article to ensure the internal accounts are set up correctly. This ensures you can charge items to the sales department at your preferred pricing method, usually cost.

Process Overview

• A Unit Sales Order is created, printed and accepted.
• This creates an internal Job detailing the customer, unit, extras, sales notes to the workshop and delivery due date for the unit that has been ordered. The Job status is 'SAL' (Unit Sales Order Job).
• Workshop schedule the 'SAL' jobs into the diary, taking note of any special instructions from the sales department.
• Any parts required are picked and/or back ordered onto the job.
• When the work is completed, all parts used will have been booked or retrieved and labour booked.
• The Job is invoiced to sales department and the total cost of the job is booked against the unit. Any items unavailable at this point will be split off to a separate job so that they stay in work in progress.
• Sales Department retrieve the unit sales order and check everything is correct before the final hand over.
• Sales department hand over the unit and produce the sales invoice to the customer for the unit, which also contains any extras they have had fitted.
• This completes the process.

Detailed Overview

Sales Department

When creating the unit sales order, there are three features that the sales person must understand and use correctly to ensure that the workshop job gets all the relevant information.

Line Type

Each line of extras has a Line Type. The Line Types are 'W' (Workshop); 'F' (Financial) and 'S' (Stock).

W - Workshop

This adds the item to the Estimate side of the job card that is created and adds it to the Detailed Job Description. This is the preferred method for booking out all extras sold with a unit, apart from financial items (see below).

F - Financial

This is intended for road fund licences, insurance, warranties or any other non-stock type item.

S - Stock

This creates a parts sales order which is intended for the clothing department. This order should be retrieved and invoiced to the sales department. You will then be asked to enter the stock number of the unit being sold. You must have this at hand because it only asks once.

Sales Notes

• In the "Print and summary" tab of the order, the sales department can add special instructions for the workshop that are printed onto the detailed notes of the job card. For example, 'Please Clean, Plate, PDI and fit heated grips'.

Delivery Due Date

• The Delivery Date you enter on the unit sales order updates the Job Due Date for the day before the delivery. This indicates to the workshop when the unit is due to be collected and helps them schedule the job appropriately.

It is far better to enter something here than to leave it blank, since there is then some indication of when the unit is required.

Workshop Department

• Everyday, the workshop should either run the report 'Sales Jobs To Be Booked' or search the diary, filtering on job status 'SAL'. Identify the jobs that are in progress and waiting to be scheduled into the diary and then schedule them appropriately, and check for any amendments to existing scheduled jobs.

Sales Jobs To Be Booked

This report is found in " Workshop Workshop Reports Sales Jobs To Be Booked".

Filter Job Status

Goto " Workshop Workshop Diary".

• Press <Ctrl+F1> to Search.
• Type "SAL" into "Status:".
• Press [Search].
• This lists all jobs with a status of 'SAL'. Each job needs scheduling into the diary and the job status changed to 'BI' - Booked In. This removes it from the list of SAL jobs to be scheduled.
• You should also check the Detailed Notes on the job to view parts required and any special instructions from the Sales Department.

Parts Department

Where extra and accessories are listed on the jobcard the parts/workshop department need to book them out of stock.

This includes items sold with the unit but which are not to be fitted. This is the process which reduces your stock levels so should be followed for every SAL job.

• Go into the job card and click the [Estimate] tab.
• Click [Availability].
• Items in the "Invoice Qty" column are available to book out of stock immediately.
  • These should be set aside for the Sales Department to handover to the customer or fixed to the unit where appropriate.
• Items in the "Backorder" column need to be ordered. Once booked in the [Availability] check process should be repeated.
• Click [Done] and <Accept> to order any parts that need ordering and book out of stock the parts that need to be fitted/handed over to the customer.
• Pick the items in stock from the shelf and put them in a bag or box with the job number easily visible.

Workshop Department - PDI Jobcard completion

Additional items to prepare the unit for sale, plus the labour time to fit accessories and prepare the unit , should be booked to the jobcard.

The jobcard should be invoiced to complete the process of allocating costs to the unit.

If you are waiting for items which have been backordered you may proceed with invoicing the job but choose [Split] when the system asks you about items still on order. A new job will be created with the unavailable items on, and this will stay in work in progress until it is completed.

Invoicing the job books the cost of the job to the unit stock number.

Sales Department Hand Over

• Sales department need to retrieve the sales order before the customer arrives for a final check of the deal.
• If everything is satisfactory, invoice the order which completes the process. This should be done as late as possible so that any last minute changes can be incorporated. If necessary, simply retrieve the sales order again, add any changes to it and give a copy to the customer before they leave. You can then do the invoice after the customer has left to ensure that everything is correct, and then post a copy to them.

See also

• How do I find a customer?
• How do I deal with retail, internal, warranty & sales workshop jobs?
• How do I create an internal account?
• Selling a unit

Feedback

Thank you for using our Knowledge Base, we value your feedback. Did you find this article useful? 'Yes' or 'No'

Keywords AND Misspellings

unit, vehicle, wholegood, caravan, agricultural machine, tractor, trailer, car, suv, motorcycle, motorbike, scooter, truck, van, lorry, motorhome, quad, atv, boat, tricycle, quadricycle, bicycle, bike, plant, preparation, pdis, jobs, internal, accessories, extras, workshop, parts, sal, vso, labour, fit accessories, fit extras, sold with unit, sales order, unit order, pdi