Packing Slip/Picking Ticket auto-print 1

[swstant]

Is it possible to configure Macola to prompt our order-entry people to print picking tickets/packing slips much like it does invoicing after an order has been billed?

We've been having some problems with orders being input & not printed then getting overlooked until the customer calls us in a rage.

 

[dgillz]

Not right out of the box. However this could be done with flexibility. Software Sales, Training and Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[swstant]

You'll have to excuse my ignorance. We have no IT department to speak of & rely 100% on the Macloa reseller in this area for support. Their reply to this very question was simply, "No".

So, what exactly is flexibility?

 

[dgillz]

Flexibility is the VBA tool that you can get with Macola. It is very powerful. If your reseller still says this is not possible, please contact me. I can make it happen Software Sales, Training and Support for Macola, Crystal Reports and Goldmine
dgilsdorf@mchsi.com

 

[dlreeves]

There may be another avenue for your problem. When is it that you want the Order Entry folks to be notified? Flexibility is an excellent suggestion, but will require someone to write this piece of code to get this accomplished.

 

[Rob7]

If you are using the Workflow Explorer, you might be able get the results you want in a task screen.

Rob7

 

[chadt]

'//Flexibility is the VBA tool that you can get with Macola. It is very powerful. If your reseller still says this is not possible, please contact me. I can make it happen//

Powerful?? This all depends upon who you ask and what you want to do.....for example you can't call another macola module in the Flex VBA....becuase of all the legacy COBOL code....this makes it not very powerful....also Macola Flex has its issues....my suggestion is keep it simple if you dont want problem.

my2cents

 

[vbajock]

swstant -There is an old Texas saying that if you put lipstick on a pig, it may look prettier, but it's still a pig. Flex is lipstick. Macola, on the hand.....

Flex is right for you if you have someone available who has a working knowledge of both Macola and Visual Basic. In addition to the limitations chadt pointed out, I find Flex's biggest limitation is the really, really poor implementation of the event model. VB code is designed to react to some type of event that occurs, such as your user pushing some type button, or saving the file or initiating a Macola program. Unfortunately, Macola seems to skip the implementation of certain event entry points, so sometimes your screwed when you want your program to do certain things, and it always seems to be that one thing you really, really need. If the event model allows what you want to do to be done, it will be worth it to pursue the expense of a Flex app. Otherwise you can get into some real ratholes. So step carefully.

 

[MacolaHelp]

Peak Data Best of OE enhancement (source code, unfortunately) will allow immediate pick ticket printing & many other cool features. Macola ES (formerly known as version 8 & still in beta) will not make source code available to developers. So Best OE has a shelf life equivalent to the life of 7.6, 7.7, etc. Perhaps Peak will start doing some standard enhancements for ES using Flex, the only tool Exact appears to want to allow integration with in the future. Peak has done some great work & they have well thought out solutions to commonly asked features in the Macola world.

 

[wwwedward]

You could build into your procedures each day to print all pick tickets for orders up to a given ship date. This would give you every line item that has not been printed as of the user provided ship cut off date. This is the logic behind the picking date field carried on the oe line file. It is completed for every order printed on the date a pick ticket is generated. of course, flexiablity is a great component.

 

[MacolaHelp]

You could also set up a deferred report process to print all pick tickets through a given date one or more times per day. You must leave a workstation open in the deferred processing menu in order for this job to run. I've always wondered why clients insist on printing pick tickets before they are due to ship. I believe you should just print them the day they are due to ship or the day before. This eliminates keeping a paper file or losing the paperwork for something that ships 3 weeks from today. Knowledge (now known as Macola Event Manager) can also fire off jobs automatically & is not terribly expensive. It does not require a programmer, but does require some good knowledge of the macola db & how the processes & reports work in the system.

 

[vbajock]

Macolahelp, I can answer your question on why they print the tickets in advance: clients print the pick tickets weeks before the stuff ships so their people can stage the product on pallets for the shippers, precheck inventory levels or plan quick response production. They all suffer from the problems you mentioned, lost, misplaced tickets, etc. To solve this problem I wrote an app that prints a Master Pick Ticket. The user has an interface that allows the Order Processing people to group customers together into a particular master type, i.e. "Consumer" aggregates all small orders into a master, "Walmart" does just Walmart stuff, etc. The warehouse and production people can use the master to
aggregate and stage product for the shippers, and then the shippers handle the individual tickets only when they need them. I am wondering, does ES have any of this functionality?