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Creating Orders
To create an order, the easiest way is to open the Orders module from the main menu and click on the yellow + New order button in the top right corner.
You’ll then be taken to the New order screen. If the customer has multiple tags with associated default tasks, you will be asked to choose which tasks you want to assign for this order.
From here, you'll be taken to the order screen, with a summary of any selected tasks.
You can also create new orders directly from a customer’s information page.
Customer Info
The first step is to confirm which customer the order relates to. If you created a new order from a customer’s information page, then this section will already be filled in with their name and details. Otherwise, you can either search for an existing customer or create a new one with the yellow + New button.
If you’re part of a pharmacy you'll have the option to add payment exemption details or modifying any existing payment exemption.
The next section covers the order details.
The status will be selected automatically, based on whether this is a new order or an existing order already in progress.
You then have to choose who will be managing this order. You can only select entities the customer is a member of.
Next, you have to confirm how many packages will make up the order.
You then have the option of adding any notes or tags that would be helpful to complete the order, along with any external references you want to be associated with the order.
If you’re part of a pharmacy and a payment exemption has been applied, details will be shown here and you will have the option of removing the exemption from the order.
Once the customer details have been confirmed, the next window lets you confirm the order details across three different sections:
- Items - What items will be delivered as part of the order.
- Task List - What actions are required to complete the order.
- Schedule - Set up a repeating order.
Items
As standard, the Items section allows you to type in a description of the items to be sent as part of the order.
PDM Pharmacy Version
For pharmacy companies, the Items section will look a little different and have some additional features.
You can add details of the ordered items in this section:
The top section shows any items already in the order, while the Add item section allows you to add items (along with their description) to the order.
You can also include an expiry date, specify the quantity, and also assign it to a package (or leave it unpackaged). If you have access to the C+D database, you can type to search the database, or scan the item barcode.
The Expiry date box can also be automatically filled in if you scan the FMD barcode on the product into the C+D before scanning the product barcode.
You can then add the item to the order, with all the details from the database automatically included.
When ready, click Add to include the item in your order.
Task List
You also have the option to assign tasks relating to this order to other users using the Task List tab.
This will show any tasks associated with the customer's tags that you've selected. For example, if the 'Delivery service' tag was applied and you selected the 'Deliver to Customer' task, this would be added to the task list and automatically assigned to the 'Couriers' user group (see the Modifying Tasks tutorial for details on changing the default task).
You can add additional tasks using the yellow Add Task button, or you can assign a sequence of different tasks with the yellow Add Sequence button.
Alternatively, you can delete the default task by clicking on the bin icon and build your task list from scratch.
Default tasks are:
- Order reminder
- Package order
- Customer to collect from Branch
- Customer to collect from Hub
- Collect from Branch
- Deliver to Customer
- Collect from Hub
- Deliver to Branch
- Deliver to Hub
- Collect from Customer
Default task sequences are:
- Package, collect from Branch, deliver to Customer
- Package, customer to collect
- Package, transfer from Hub to Branch
- Collect from Branch, deliver to Customer
You can also create a new task if required.
Once you’ve added one or more tasks, your task list will look something like this:
The current task will be highlighted in orange. You'll also be alerted where additional information is required to carry out the order. Hover over the alert to see what's needed.
You can change the target dates, either for all tasks or on any individual task, by using the arrows at the top of the queue or next to the relevant date to adjust the target date by 1 day/1 week. If you have 'Sticky task lead times' enabled, changes to the target dates will be remembered for the duration of the session for that particular task/sequence.
You can also click and drag anywhere on an entry to move it about and reorder the task list.
Added tasks will be minimised and only show top-level information. Clicking on the + icon expands the task and allows you to fill in the necessary details:
You can assign any task to a specific user and location (as long as they’re in the same entities as the customer). If you have 'Sticky task assignees' enabled, PDM Web will remember who you've assigned to specific tasks and assign the same person to future tasks assigned in the same session.
If you’re not on the current task, you can also link the task so it is automatically assigned to the person completing the previous task.
You can also change the target date and optionally set a target time.
Default instructions for the task will be automatically included, but you can add additional instructions for this specific order if required.
To the right of the task, you have the option to add any relevant tags that’ll help your staff complete the task.
You can also set your requirements for completing the task:
- Does a contact need to be present (and if so does it need to be the customer)?
- Do you need a signature or an ID check?
- Does a PDM user need to be present and if so do they need to sign to confirm the step is complete?
Schedule
If you want the order to repeat regularly, you can set this up under the Schedule tab. When you first open the tab, you’ll see a tick box to confirm whether or not this is a Repeat order.
If you tick the box, you’ll open up the repeat order options:
You can select from the following options:
- Start date (required): When the first order will take place.
- End by date: When the last order will take place. If you want this order to carry on continuously, leave this blank.
- Recurrence pattern: Choose how often you want the order to be repeated.
First, you need to decide on how you want to schedule the Recurrence. You can choose between:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Yearly
You can then set the exact pattern. For example, if you’ve chosen a daily recurrence, you can then choose a pattern of:
- Every X Days (where X is a user-defined number of days)
- Every Weekday (For orders to be repeated Monday to Friday)
- Every Weekend Day (For orders to be repeated Saturday and Sunday)
Each recurrence has its own pattern options, so you can schedule your orders in the exact way that suits you and your customers.
You then have the option of seeing a preview of the repeating order, which will show you a summary of the orders that’ll be generated.
Finally, confirm whether or not the schedule is active.
Completing the order
Finally, once you’ve finished adding all the necessary information, it’s time to save the order.
If you want to save any of the order details (including order details, order items, and task configuration) as defaults for future orders for this customer, tap the pin icon next to the specific details you want to be remembered.
When you're happy with the order and saved any default information, you can use the button at the bottom of the screen to Save the order. This will add the order to the system.
Alternatively, you can Cancel the order.
Once you've saved an order, you'll notice three new options: Cancel order, PDM Portal, and Print labels.
For details on cancelling an order, see the Modifying Orders tutorial.
Clicking on 'PDM Portal' will open up the PDM Portal web page for this order in a new window.
Here you can see the current status of the order and tracking information.
If you want to use PDM to create labels based on the order information, click Print labels.... This will bring up the Label configuration menu, where you can set the label properties, including the information you want to be included on the label.
Click Print to confirm the printer and settings, then go ahead and print your labels.
Note: there is currently no facility to print labels that are related to a specific task in an order, there are only labels for the order itself. This is because target dates are related to tasks and not orders. However, adding task-related label printing as an enhancement is pending future development.
