Franchisee Orders Goods from Franchiser

This is the process for Franchisee to order goods from a Franchiser:

  1. The Franchisee creates a Retail Purchase Order.
  2. A Retail Purchase Order is sent to the Franchiser.
  3. The Outbound message is transferred from the Franchisee to the Franchiser.
  4. An Inbound message is processed by the Franchiser.
  5. The Sales Order is created and posted at the Franchiser's.
  6. The Franchisee’s Purchase Order is updated.

To create a Retail Purchase Order

This process in the Franchisee setup:

The Franchisee starts by creating a Retail Purchase Order on the Retail Purchase Order page.

Make sure that:

  • The Vendor No. in the Buy-from Vendor No. field is a valid Franchiser in the setup at the Franchisee's. Franchisers are set up in the Franchise Partner Setup List.
  • The items used are items that are valid to be distributed by the Franchise processes at the Franchiser's site. This must be set up for the item in the Retail Item Card, the Distribution FastTab.
  • The Franchisee is set up in the Franchise Partner Setup Card, and that the job FRANCHDD is set up for the Franchisee who is going to order the goods.

When the Purchase Order has been created and is ready, it must be released. You do this by clicking the Functions and Release actions. This changes the status of the Purchase Order to Sent.

To send a Retail Purchase Order to the Franchiser

  1. Open the Retail Purchase Order that is ready and needs to be sent to the Franchiser. The Purchase Order must have status Released.
  2. Click Actions, then Functions - Warehouse - Send.
  3. Click Send to Franchiser.
  4. A new message to the Outbound Buffer is created.
    Tip: If a message has not been created, that indicates that something is missing in the setup, perhaps for the item or the vendor.

The function Send to Franchiser created an Outbound Buffer message.

To view the new Outbound Buffer message:

  • Click the icon, enter Franchise Outbound Buffer Header List, and select the relevant link.
  • To find your message, look for your Purchase Order number in the Document No. field, or look in the Creation Date and Creation Time fields.
  • For each line in the Retail Purchase Order there is usually one line in the message. An exception is if the item in the Retail Purchase Order Line has variants. In that case the message has one line per Variant Code.
  • If the Item in the Retail Purchase Order Line has a Serial No. or Lot No., the Inbound Message from the Franchiser will have linked lines to the set of Serial No. or Lot No.

Outbound message sent to the Franchiser

The Data Director replicates the Outbound message to the Inbound messages in the Franchiser database. To get this done, the job FRANCHDD must be executed at the Franchisee side.

The Franchiser can see the Inbound message by opening the Franchise Inbound Buffer Header List.

Note: If Scheduler is running the Process Inbound Messages process, the Inbound message may already have been processed and could therefore be in the Archived Inbound Messages.

Inbound message processed by the Franchiser

The Scheduler job Process Inbound Messages, FRANINB, in the Franchiser database will process the Inbound message and create a Retail Sales Order. The Inbound message is moved to the Archived messages.

The job FRANCHINB created a sales order for the Franchise from the Franchisee Purchase Order:

To view the Sales Order, go to the Retail Sales Order List, and find your order, for example by the External Document No., which is the Franchisee Purchase Order.

Franchiser posts the Sales Order

When the Sale Order has been shipped and/or invoiced, the job FRANCHOUTB creates an Outbound message with information about the shipped and invoiced quantity.

To view the Outbound message:

  1. Click the icon, enter Franchise Outbound Buffer Header List, and select the relevant link.
  2. Select the message, and click the Open action.

The External Document No. is the Retail Purchase Order No. from the Franchisee and the Invoice No. is the Sales Invoice No. from the Franchiser.

Franchisee Purchase Order updated

The Outbound message from the Franchiser is replicated to the Inbound messages in the Franchisee database and when that message is processed, the correct quantities and prices are updated in the original Purchase Order.

Also, the Vendor Shipment No. or the Vendor Invoice No. fields are updated.

When the goods have arrived, the Franchisee must post the Purchase Order.