Customer Order Subscriptions allow you to have [i] Merchant automatically create Customer Orders for selected products to specific customers through the PO process. This program makes the most sense for magazines or newspapers, products that are published on a repeated, continual basis--however, it can be applied to any products in your store. But generally, it is designed as a way to set aside, if you will, a copy of a magazine or a newspaper for a customer who always wants to purchase the latest issue of said magazine or newspaper.
For example, if a particular customer always buys the latest issue of the Sporting News from your store, then using the Customer Order Subscription program for that customer (for the Sporting News) would make sense.
To access the Customer Order Subscriptions program:
From the main menu, select Modules-Customer Orders-Customer Order Subscriptions. (Customer Order Subscriptions can also be accessed via Product Properties and through Customer Maintenance.) The Find Customer Order Subscriptions window appears. From here you can find an existing Customer Order Subscription or you can create a new one. Let's learn how to create a new one.
From the top of the Find window, click on the New toolbar icon. This opens the New Subscription window.
In this window, select the customer you want to create the subscription for, and select the product you want to assign to them, then click on the Apply button at the top of the window. (If you click on Cancel, you will back out of the window with nothing having been applied.) This opens the Customer Order Subscription Properties window.
At the top of the window, the customer name and product name, selected at the New Subscription window, will appear just FYI. In the lower half of the window, fill in the following fields with the appropriate information. . .
In the Store field, select the store you are creating the subscription for. Only POs taken in this particular store will apply to the subscription you are creating.
The Start Date will default to the current date, but you can change it to any date you choose. This date represents the date that this particular subscription has begun.
The Expire Date represents the date the subscription will terminate.
The Copies field dictates how many copies of the product to place on the Customer Order the system will automatically create when the product in question is placed on a PO.
The Min Reorder Days field is defaulted to 5, but you can change it if you desire. No Customer Order will be created for this subscription until the number of days in this field have been exceeded.
Fill in the Last Order Date with the date of the last Customer Order for this product as applied to this customer, if desired.
And check the box to the left of "Charge and Send Order" if this Customer Order will be a charge and send. Otherwise, leave it blank.
Once all of the fields have been filled in, Save the changes and Close out of the window. The subscription has been set up, and now the Customer Order can be automatically assigned when the product in question is placed on a PO.
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