Generating Shipping Documents

Shipping documents are used to send important information regarding the shipment to the receiving customer, the company shipping the product, interested internal parties, etc. Documents in DEACOM can be a wide range of items including, but not limited to, Certificates of Analysis, Safety Data Sheets, Bills of Lading, Packing Lists, Sales/Lot/Item Master Labels, etc. These items may be required by the receiving customer to confidently accept delivery of goods or they may be generated as a standard practice of the company. DEACOM allows for easy documentation management directly in the system and can be setup to automatically print the necessary documents once shipment takes place, via Document Categories and Document Groups. Furthermore, Document Category Security, configured in System > Maintenance > Document Category Security, can be used to restrict user's access to certain Categories.

Configuration

The following items should be setup prior to generating shipping documents:

  • Report Layouts - maintained in Print Outs > Maintenance > Report Layouts, are used to create the actual document(s) that will be generated and sent.
  • Part Forms - maintained in Print Outs > Maintenance > Part Forms, can be Certificates of Analysis, Bills of Lading, Packing Lists, Safety Data Sheets, etc.
  • Document Groups - maintained in Print Outs > Maintenance > Document Groups, provide the ability to print multiple documents at one time.
  • Document Categories - maintained in System > Maintenance > Document Categories. Can also be setup and assigned to Documents when they are added to a Group. Companies may want to create a "Shipping Document" Category and restrict access using the Security feature.
  • Email Settings - set up under Contacts, ensure that the documents are sent to the correct person/destination. For more information, refer to Configuring Email Settings.
  • Contact Records, Bill-to Companies, Ship-to Companies - all necessary to create a Sales Order. For more information regarding setup, refer to Managing Contact Records and Managing Customers.
  • Sales Orders - must be created and should be shipped before all documents can be sent. Refer to Entering Sales Orders for more information.
  • On Hand Inventory - must exist before it can be shipped against a Sales Order. Can either be adjusted in, purchased, or produced.

Process

Printing Packing Lists for a Sales Order

  1. Navigate to Print Outs > Packing Lists. A list of all un-shipped Sales Orders will be displayed.
  2. If desired, change the Document Date and select a Facility from the pick list to refine the results.
  3. To view more information about a Sales Order, select it from the list and click "View Detail".
  4. Click "Print One" to print the Packing List for only the highlighted Order or click "Print All" to print the Packing Lists for all orders displayed.
  5. Click "Yes" on the prompt to mark the order as printed or "No" if the order should remain on the Not Printed list.
  6. On the Copies to Print form, specify the number of Copies needed and the Print to destination then click "Print".

Adding Document Categories

A "Sales Order" or "Shipping" Document Category can be added to indicate that the documents contained all pertain to Sales Orders. Navigate to System > Maintenance > Document Categories and click "Add New" to create a new Category. Ensure the "Active" check box is marked so that the Category may be used and if this should be the default, check off the "Default" box as well.

Using Document Groups

Document Groups are an easy and efficient way to print or send multiple Sales Documents in one transaction. Any required Documents can be configured then added to a Sales Document Group, which can then be set to generate and print automatically upon shipment of the Sales Order. For more information, refer to the Maintaining Document Groups page.

Reporting on Documents

To report on Documents, user Tools > Document Reporting. Select the Table from the pick list that the Document pertains to. Select a Document Category, if desired, then click "View". The resulting report will display a list of all Documents generated along with the Date and Time of generation. Click "Modify" to edit the record or "View" to see what was generated.

FAQ & Diagnostic Tips

Why can I not see my documents after updating to 14.9 ?

This newly added feature to 14.9 has added security to document groups. By default, when you update, the permissions are set to No. This will cause the system to show you Docs are available in the "View Docs" section within DEACOM, though when selected, nothing is visible. To correct this, grant the permissions through this tool to restore the ability to see documents.

I receive an error such as: "Cannot open file: C:\Users\xxxxxx\APPDATA\LOCAL\TEMP\...... The file may not exist, be in use, or you may not have access to it." when trying to view a document. What can I do to fix this?

Clearing the temp folder will generally fix this issue. To do so:

  1. Close DEACOM on the PC the issue is happening on.
  2. Open the users Temp directory (C:\Users\(User you’re logged in as)\AppData\Local\Temp).
  3. Clear out all files in the temp folder; if some are in use and cannot be removed, skip them.
  4. Try opening and using DEACOM again and let Technical Support know if the issue persists.

I can't see the correct printer to select on WMS?

The WMS app will not show UNC path displayed printers in a concise manner if the device is under the same user session that is hosting the Automation Service. To fix this issue, navigate to System > Options > Documents tab and change the "Printer Display Name" combobox to "Printer Name". This will display the Printer Name/Shared name on the WMS device.

TIP: Version 17.00.004 introduces the "Cultures" field to the Edit Language form. The field defines the culture used with the specified language. The culture selected will enable the system to use the date/time/number formatting generally defined for that culture when printing a sales report or part form. When printing, the date/time/number formatting will follow that of the Culture set for the Language on the Bill-To or Ship-To, depending on which is assigned to the Language field for the report/part form.

TIP: Beginning in version 17.04.004, users have the ability to control what documents in the Document Group print and when they print for the Receive, Ship, or Reserve transactions. Detailed information is available in the "Print When" field description on the Document Groups page.