Hi, I would appreciate any help on this to get me started. I have been trying it in my test environment and getting frustrated. When a line is added to an order, I would like to have the Sales Order Category default to a value (“PARTS”). I am getting confused as the combo box on the form is for the Sales Order Category ID, and then looks up and displays the Sales Category Description.
I have tried entering different rules thru Customization but I can’t seem to get the code right. Is it possible to do it thru the Customization module with the rule wizards or would I need to approach this a different way with a BPM?
Angie - we had the same issue with regards to setting up new quote lines. As we added new lines to a quote, there was no way to leverage the standard configuration parameters to have the Sales Category be auto-populated with a default value for the Sales Category field.
Our solution was to build a very simple Method Directives BPM that would run at the time that the quote line was being created. In our case, the Erp.Quote.ChangePartNum field was the applicable method and we inserted a pre-processing directive that looked like this:
[Start] > [Condition 0] > [Set Field 0]
It first followed a condition statemtn that looked to see if the QuoteDtl.SalesCatID field was blank. Here is the full expression:
The ttQuoteDtl.SalesCatID field of the changed row is equal to the " " expression
Then, if the condition is true, our Set Field action was setup as:
Set the ttQuoteDtl.SalesCatID field of the changed row to the “EXSL” expression
You would need to replace the EXSL text with the Sales Category ID that you want to default to - likely “PARTS”. This results in the Sales Category field being automatically set to a default value at the time of quote line creation. The logic also ensures that if someone decides to change it to a different value, the new value won’t be overwritten, because it only applies with the SalesCatID field is blank.
Although the above is specific to the QuoteDtl table - the same logic should work for the OrderDtl table.
Note that Brad’s idea should also work. It involves first setting up a Customer Group and picking the default Sales Category ID for the group. You would then need to assign all Customers to the new group - if you wanted everyone to default to a same Sales Category ID value. After that setup is complete, all new quote lines or sales order lines should default to the Customer Group > Sales Category ID value.
Hi Brad
Thank you for pointing that out about the customer groups. I had forgotten the original reason we didn’t set a default during our implementation. At the time, the Sales department didn’t think any of our sales categories were a logical default for our customer groups. Now they are saying they fit almost 80% of the time,
i am assuming this would also work for quotes too? Our Sales department also wants the same type of default in this screen.
Hi Jeremy,
Thank you! Actually our Sales department wants the Sales category to default in both quote and order entry programs. You and Brad have really helped me out. Now I have some options to go back and discuss with them.
As you said, our categories don’t really apply by customer group but we could default to one if they choose that route. Otherwise, the BPM will do the trick for them. I really appreciate the excellent example!