MOD2 has developed a new tool/feature called Task Reminder which is a helpful tool that will absolutely make work easier for our dear clients with their daily work. This feature can be opened and used almost ANYWHERE, ANYTIME in MOD2. You can access this tool by clicking the TASK button on the bottomright part of the screen. You can also press F12 on your keyboard for an instant shortcut to it.

The Task Reminder is like an alarm clock where you can schedule a reminder for yourself or others of certain appointments, deadlines, or tasks that need to be accomplished by a particular date and/or time.

Q1: I need to know what customer orders (sales orders) are pending by delivery date or customer required by date. How much in dollar amount do I have scheduled to ship this month? How about next month and going forward? What is the sum of all the orders that are still open and not shipped? Do I have any orders from the previous months that I am late as far as shipping? How can I get that information related to my sales orders quickly from MOD2?

A1: Consider the sales order "back log". The back log is a breakdown of all of your sales orders grouped by delivery date. You can access the back log by going to the sales order menu (F5), open and pending (F6) and scrolling down to the bottom section of the list. 

The back log has a monthly breakdown for five months forward and five months backward. For example, if you display the backlog and today's date is in March (as in the screenshot above), then here is how MOD2 breaks down your sales orders: All orders for the current month of March will be under the 0 "zero" section. Sales orders that have the customer required by date for the following month ofApril will be totaled under the +1 section. Sales orders scheduled for delivery for May will have their totals under the +2 section. June will be +3, July deliveries will be +4, and August will be +5. If you had missed some sales orders from the previous months, such as when an is delayed and its delivery slips to the next month, those will be shown under the negative month headings. From our example, February orders would be -1, January would be -2, etc. 

Making a reminder to yourself or to others is very easy. But first, make sure that you have your email address setup in MOD2 because it will use your email account to send the message. After this, you can start making the reminder. First, you have to enter a subject or the message itself in the Subject text box. It will be a lot simpler and easier if you could be specific with your subject/message. After that, choose the recipients of the message. On the right part of the window, there is a drop down menu where you can select a client group (i.e. MOD2 user, Salesperson, etc.) and the email addresses from that client group will display on the box below it. You can do a searching of names or email addresses and you can also type in an exact email address that you wish to send a reminder to. You may then set the time when the reminder should be sent. A check box labeled Send Immediately, when checked, will disregard the time that you set and will send your message right away. There is also a check box labeled Private Reminder which if checked will make the message visible only to the sender and recipients in the Task Reminder History. This option is not yet implemented but will be available for use later this year. Finally, you may add details or comments to your reminder in the text box found at the bottom part of the window. After doing this, click the Save button and then you're done. 

The back log feature can show you in a glance what you owe to your customers going forward and backward, up to five months either way. We recommend that the owners and the production managers use and display the back log on a daily basis to monitor this critical information. 

Tip: You can use the "z" feature on the open and pending screen to further customize the backlog to your taste. For example, you can generate the backlog for a specific customer or for a specific salesperson. 

Q2: I have an inventory style with varying colors. How can I load or scan one picture for this entire style instead of loading individual scans for each color? I understand that the system will show the same image for all the colors.

A2: Your system administrator needs to first setup a key string in MOD2 to identify what is a "key" or "magic" color. In the Options menu, select Installation and then click Inventory Parameters. Click the Group 3 tab and then enter a value for the Inventory ALL group string (we recommend using a key like "PICTURE" or "ALL" or "GROUP". Our default is 001-ALL which will conveniently sort the"magic" item to the top of the inventory list). Make sure to save the settings and then restart MOD2 

After that, you need to define a color for a particular style using the "magic" color setup by your system administrator. For example, style # ITEM on the left needs to have a new color called "PICTURE". If you attach an image for this "magic" item, it will also appear for all the other colors of the same style ITEM. 

Q3: What is an invoice model? Give me some examples of where I can use it for my company. How many invoice models can I define for my organization? What attributes can I set for an invoice model?


A3: An invoice model is a way to separate and manage invoices into groups. Often times you want to be able to breakdown your sales figures into meaningful groups. This is where invoice models come in
handy.

Here are a couple of examples of where you could use them. You can setup an invoice model for each factor and an invoice model for your non-factored sales. You can setup an invoice model to hold all sample invoices. You can setup an invoice model to take into account all non inventory related invoices. You can setup an invoice model for invoices that are for export purposes. MOD2 allows you to have up to 26 distinct invoice models. Out of the 26, 23 of the invoice models are user selectable and definable. Invoice models 24 thru 26 are special and reserved for MOD2's internal use. Here is how MOD2 uses the power of invoice models to simply and fit several transactions under the category of invoices.


Invoice model 1..23 User definable
Invoice model 24 Chargeback invoice Non-factored
Invoice model 25 Chargeback invoice Factored
Invoice model 26 RTV {Return to Vendor, or a debit memo}

Should you care to know, when you enter an Advance Deposit, MOD2 considers it exactly as it would astandard invoice. An Advance Deposit is really an invoice flagged with a special model in MOD2 with a negative amount. When you use a Charge Back in MOD2 for a factored invoice, MOD2 uses one of its built-in reserved invoice models. A Return to Vendor is also an invoice but classified as a special model. 

 

For each invoice model, you can setup several properties. You can define the name for your invoice model; you can decide if the invoice model is for factored or non-factored sales; you can define
whether the creation of such an invoice requires a packing list or whether the system can create such an invoice without a packing list. An invoice created without a packing list is typically used in scenarios where no physical inventory is sold. You can also set whether an invoice model is used solely for internal accounting purposes.

Q4: How do I get into the editor for defining or managing the invoice models? Can I get rid of an invoice model that is defined for my company?

A4: WE recommend for someone in your organization who is familiar with your accounting to define and manage your invoice models. Feel free to contact us at MOD2 to consult how you should setup your invoice models. You can access the Invoice Models Editor by selecting Auxiliary Utility #35 ( Main Menu, Options, Auxiliary Utility, #35). You can also combine two invoice models or merge them together. This is under Auxiliary Utility #21. In this process you will select a source model and a destination model. You can select a date range if desired. Source invoices will all move to the destination model. To get rid of an invoice model, or to organize and put in sequence your invoice models, you may shuffle your invoice models using the auxiliary utility described above. At the end you can reduce your total active number of invoice models. If you plan on moving or shuffling your invoice models, please make a complete backup before you proceed.

Q5: What is a factor? What is a factored invoice? Why is my company using a factor? What is a
chargeback? What is an assignment? What is a factor sticker? Which factors does mod2 recognize?

A5: A factor is a financial institution that guarantees payments for a seller when goods are sold to
a buyer. Think of it like a credit card company but on a business to business level. A factored invoice is a special type of invoice where your company has designated the financial institution or factor to handle the collection of money once an invoice is shipped. The picture on the right is an example of how a factor sticker looks in MOD2.

An assignment is done when your company takes several invoices, tallies them and assigns them to the factor. Assignments can be done in MOD2 if you have the Factor Manager module. With some factors, MOD2 can transmit the assignment to the factor electronically. Factors come in handy because they guarantee payment for what you are selling. Depending on your company's relationship with the factor, your organization might be able to borrow money against invoices that are assigned to the factor. Your company probably uses a factor to shield itself from the risk of selling the goods to your buyer and worrying about if and when they would pay. Your company might be using the factor to borrow or finance the receivables. Factors charge you a fee proportional to the dollar amount of the invoice. A chargeback is issued by the factor when there is a claim by the customer for a factored invoice. A chargeback notifies you that all or part of an invoice that you assigned is being disputed by the customer. Typical reasons for a chargeback are returns or price adjustments or disputes. Users of MOD2 who have licensed the Factor Manager can track and enter their chargeback's in the system.

MOD2 is familiar with the following factors:
CIT, Hana Financial, GMAC, Finova, Capital Factors, HSBC, Rosenthal, Finance One, GE Capital, Suntrust, Prime, BofA, IDB, Continental, Sterling, DCD, Commodore, FTC, Commercial Capital, Goodman, Sigma, First Capital, Wells Fargo, and General Business Credit **


** Note some of the above factors might not necessarily be in business. Some of them have been consolidated into others over the years.


Q6: What is a credit approval number? Why do I have to approve a sales order in mod2? Can you explain to me the behind-the-scene logic in MOD2 with regards to credit approval?

A6: MOD2 has a flexible mechanism for managing the credit approval of a sales order. If all customers would prepay for goods prior to shipment, life would have been much easier. No credit approval would be needed and no collection, no factors, and no headaches. Lets get back to the real world case. When you ship goods, you are taking a risk. Your customer could end up not paying you. In MOD2, you may bypass the built-in security and automatically credit approve all sales orders. We do not recommend doing so. When you get an order from your customer, most likely it needs to be credit approved. Here is how you can credit approve a sales order.

1) Your own company accepts the risk and approves the sales order for credit. We call this scenario"house credit" approval. Your own company should issue an approval # or use the name of the
person (typically the owner or the credit manager) as your credit approval number.


2) A factor approves your customer order. You are provided with a number and expiration date when a factor approves the credit. This information should be entered into a Credit Approval Request for the Sales Order. Simply display the order and select "Credit Approval" from the list of choices at the bottom of the sales order display screen. MOD2 allows you to ship up to 10% more of what was ordered using a credit approval. For example, if your customer's order was for $10,000.00, MOD2 will allow you to ship up to $11,000.00 of goods on your order without stopping you.

Q7: We frequently ship a lot of sample orders. How can I bypass MOD2's security related sales order approval process? My typical sample orders are not big dollar amounts and we don't want
our accounting department to be bothered with credit approval on small orders.

A7: We have a solution for you. If your company has licensed the Security Manager from MOD2, you can setup a global sales order approval limit. This would allow the person who is entering the order to credit approve a sample order provided that the total amount of the order is less than a certain dollar amount. We recommend setting the amount to no more than $500.00. This means, without taking valuable time from your credit manager, your staff can enter sample orders in the system and credit approve them provided that the order amount is less than the set threshold.