Batch Processing

Use the Batch Processing command to post the transactions automatically as part of a batch process. You can omit any one or more of the document stages. For example, you can progress 'foundation' documents straight to invoices, or proforma invoices or quotations straight to deliveries (omitting the sales order stage), and so on.

Transaction type	Notes
Sales orders	These are only produced for those customers where the Acknowledgement Required box is ticked on the customer's Delivery Details form. If you ticked the Use Picking Process box on the Set Options form, sales orders are not available for batch deliveries until the picking procedure has been completed, which in turn requires the orders to be allocated. If you have the Stock module, progressing documents, quotations or proforma invoices to sales orders results in the allocation of stock according to the options on the Set Options form unless it is an order with a priority of 0 (zero), in which case stock will be allocated automatically.
Delivery notes	If you have ticked the Consolidate Deliveries box on the Set Options form, multiple source documents can be consolidated into one document per customer if the header information is identical; for example, they all have the same delivery address. Where consolidation is not used or does not apply, the application creates one progression document for every source document selected. If you have the Stock module, progressing sales orders to deliveries results in the issuing of stock at the delivery stage if the Update Stock At box on the Set Options form is set to Delivery.
Invoices	If you have ticked the Consolidate Invoices box on the Set Options form, multiple source documents can be consolidated into one document per customer if the header information is identical; for example, they all have the same delivery address. Where consolidation is not used or does not apply, the application creates one progression document for every source document selected. If the Allow Advance Postings option is selected on the Set Options form in the Sales Ledger, you are asked to choose between posting the transactions to the current period or to the next period. If you have the Stock module, progressing sales orders or deliveries to invoices results in the issuing of stock at the invoice stage if the Update Stock At box on the Set Options form is set to Invoice.

Sending Documents by Email

It is possible to send quotes, proforma invoices, order acknowledgements, delivery notes, invoices and credit notes to your customers by email rather than posting printed documents.

Steps to Set Up Email

Complete these steps to set up Opera for emailing documents:

	Task	Form	Form
1.	Enter the relevant email addresses for your order and account contacts in the E-Mail Address boxes. If you use Ledger and Invoice accounts you must also set up these accounts with email addresses.	Sales Ledger - Processing	Show ...
2.	Select the documents you want to email under E-Mail. If you use Ledger and Invoice accounts you must also select documents that can be emailed for these accounts.	Sales Ledger - Processing - Terms	Show ...
3.	Define your email profiles that will be used when the emails are sent.	System Manager - Maintenance - E-Mail Profiles	Show ...

Account Contact & Order Contact Email Addresses

Unless you use the facility in Opera to link your customer accounts to other accounts (Ledger accounts and Invoice accounts), the email addresses used are always the following:

Document	Email Address
Sales orders, delivery notes and quotes	Order contact
Invoices and proforma invoices, and credit notes	Account contact

Using Ledger & Invoice Accounts?

	Posting Account	Ledger Account	Invoice Account
Account Contact	Order Contact	Account Contact	Order Contact	Account Contact	Order Contact
Orders & Quotes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	The order contact's email address on the posting account is always used, regardless of whether it is linked to other accounts.
Proforma Invoices	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	The account contact's email address on the posting account is always used, regardless of whether it is linked to other accounts.
Delivery notes	No	Yes 2	No	No	No	Yes 1	If the posting account is linked to an Invoice Account, that account's order contact email address is used. If the posting account is not linked to an Invoice Account, the order contact's email address on the posting account is used. If the posting account is linked to an Invoice Account but that account has not been set up with an email address for the order contact then the address on the posting account is used.
Invoices & credit notes	Yes c	No	Yes a	No	Yesb	No	The account contact's email address on the Ledger account is used if available. If the Ledger account does not have an email address, the Invoice account's account contact email address is used. If the Invoice account does not have an email address, the posting account's account email address is used.

Email Only Postings

The E-Mail Only box on the criteria form allows you to send your documents by email without changing the message for each document that is posted. The application displays the Publisher form only once before any documents are posted. Apart from personal details like name or salutation, the content of each email message is the same for all your customers using the profile set up for the type of document in the E-Mail Profiles command.

Important: If you tick the E-Mail Only box you can only post transactions for customers that have either an order email address or an account email address and the E-Mail box for the type of document is ticked on the Sales - Processing - Terms form. Transactions for any other customers are marked as exceptions so you will not be able to post them.

Attended Email

If you want to send your documents by emails but need to change the email message for each document that is posted, do not tick the E-Mail Only box on the criteria form. The application then display the Publisher form for each document that is posted so you can change each email message before it is sent to the customer, or select to print the document.

If you leave the E-Mail Only box unticked, you can post transactions for customers that are set to be sent by email plus those that will be printed.

Batch Processing Options

Option	Description
Sequence	An option that determines the default order in which detail lines are presented for batch processing. You can select Selection (that is, by document reference), Account, Route, or Warehouse from a list. You can change this selection again once the selected documents are listed for processing. If you select documents on the basis of a range of warehouse codes, the application includes documents even if only one or some of the items on those documents have a warehouse code that matches the range specified. These documents are ‘part ticked’ and a comment is generated to indicate that not all stock items in the document fall within the warehouse range.
Ranges	The start and end references that determines the range of documents selected for allocation. This depends on you selection in the Sequence list.
Document Range	The document types that determine the range of source documents selected for progression. You can select from a list.
Due Date	The start and end dates that determine the range of documents selected for batch processing. The default for the To box is the Opera system date. Important: Each document recorded in Opera has a 'header' record and one or more 'detail' records. A due date is recorded on the header record that is used as a 'default' due date on each detail record when a document is posted (that may have amended when posting). The date used on this form is the due date on the header record, not the due date on the detail record/s. If the dates are different then some documents may not be selected. Use the Orders Listing, Suggested Deliveries or Suggested Invoices report to check the due dates before processing your documents.
Foreign Currency	An option that determines the currency of documents to be selected for batch processing. A blank entry indicates the home currency.
Priority	The start and end priority codes that determines the range of documents selected for batch processing.
Tax Point	If you select Invoice in the To box under Document Range, this is the tax point date applicable to the invoices to be generated by the batch process.
NL Posting Date	The Nominal Ledger posting date. If you use the Open Period Accounting feature, this is the date used to determine the period in the Nominal Ledger that the transaction is posted to. For more information, see the SOP/Invoicing and Open Period Accounting Help topic.
Include Traceable Items	An option that determines whether the documents selected include those with serial or batch numbered items in the detail lines. If you need to process stock records that are traceable by serial or batch numbers, refer to the Traceability section for information.
E-Mail Only	An option that determines whether the documents selected are only those for customers that are set to receive documents by email. If this box is ticked, only documents for these customers will be included in the process. Documents for all other customers will be marked as exceptions so they cannot be progressed. For more information, see the Sending Documents by Email section.

Batch Processing in a Multiuser Environment

If you are using a multiuser environment, the application restricts access for other users to certain commands while batch processing is in progress. If you have selected the Exclusive Batch Processing option on the Set Options form, no access is permitted to data files associated with the Sales, Stock, Purchase Orders, and Invoicing/SOP modules during batch processing. If this option is not selected, restrictions are applied as follows:

Once the batch process is complete, you are informed of how many documents, if any, failed the process due to locking problems. You can review them by clicking the Review button or end the process by clicking the Terminate button. If you choose to end the process, no further action is required. If you choose to review the documents, a list of failed document headers is displayed and you can rerun the process.