How does sales order acceptance work and how can I set this up?

In RetailVista, starting from v16.7, it is possible to have sales orders approved by the exhibitor(s) and the consumer before they are delivered. This process is called 'Order approval'. The exhibitors are synonymous with the (preferred) suppliers of the products sold in the order. The process is aimed at companies that house various exhibitors. Since the exhibitor ultimately sells the product to the consumer, an additional approval step may be desired. 

The process has two additional steps that must be completed before an order can be delivered:

- Approval by all exhibitors selling goods in the order;

- Approval by the consumer on the entire order.

With the settings 'Supplier sales order approval required' and 'Customer sales order approval required' under 'Extra -> Settings -> Sales Orders -> Order Approval', it is indicated whether an order must be approved by the exhibitor or the consumer. When the order reaches the status 'Input complete', the approval rules are generated based on the settings, which can be viewed in the sales order maintenance screen. Only when all rules are approved, or no approval is required at all, can the order reach the 'Final' status.

An approval rule can be approved or rejected in various ways:

- From the maintenance screen, which can be accessed in Sales Order -> Tab Approval;

- From an automated email sent to all parties involved.

At the time of writing, only handling via automated emails is fully supported.

To use this functionality, a so-called 'Task Scheduler' of the type 'Send sales order approval to relationship' or 'Send sales order approval to relationship' must first be created.

This can be created from Extra -> 'Task Scheduler'. In a 'Task scheduler', the following information is specified:

- When and how often the email is sent;

- Which email template to use;

- Whether the scheduler is enabled.

In the maintenance screen of a scheduler, the history can also be viewed. For each task, the specific details and technical execution log are displayed. See QA431 for a more detailed description of the 'Task Scheduler'.

The emails contain two buttons to approve or reject the approval rule. An attachment is included with a report of the relevant sales order, or the rules applicable to the exhibitor. The buttons are a link to a separate entry in RetailVista where it is not necessary to log in. This so-called 'Handler' tries to apply the specified action to the corresponding acceptance rule. If one of the parties does not approve the order, the order is marked as expired. After all parties have approved the order, the order automatically receives the status 'Final'.