Service Orders with a Single Appointment: Process Activity

The following activity will walk you through the process of creating and processing a service order with one appointment.

Attention:
This activity is based on the U100 dataset. If you are using another dataset, or if any system settings have been changed in U100, these changes can affect the workflow of the activity and the results of the processing. To avoid any issues, restore the U100 dataset to its initial state.

Story

Suppose that the SweetLife Service and Equipment Sales Center receives an order for the provision of the training service to a customer of the company, FourStar Coffee & Sweets Shop.

The service manager (Maia Davis) needs to enter the service order into the system, assign a staff member, and schedule an appointment to perform the service. The assigned staff member needs to perform the necessary service at the customer location and complete the appointment in the system. (At this point in learning about the service management process, this assignment will be made without regard to employees' qualifications, working hours, and service areas.) Then the accountant will verify the appointment, close the appointment, and generate an AR invoice to bill the customer. You will perform these actions, acting as the service manager, the staff member, and the accountant.

Configuration Overview

In the U100 dataset, the following tasks have been performed for the purposes of this activity:

  • The minimum system configuration, which is described in Company with Branches that Do Not Require Balancing: General Information, has been performed.
  • The SWEETLIFE company has been created on the Companies (CS101500) form. This company has multiple branches created on the Branches (CS102000) form, including SWEETEQUIP (Service and Equipment Sales Center).
  • On the Service Management Preferences (FS100100) form, the minimum settings have been specified, including specifying the numbering sequences and work calendar, for the service management functionality to be used.
  • On the Users (SM201010) form, the davis and frank user accounts have been created. The EP00000040 - Maia Davis employee has been associated with the davis user account; that is, Maia Davis has been selected in the Linked Entity box of the Summary area of the form. The EP00000042 - Chase Frank employee has been associated with the frank user account; that is, Chase Frank has been selected in the Linked Entity box on the form.
  • On the Branch Locations (FS202500) form, the WEST BRIGHTON branch location of the SWEETEQUIP (Service and Equipment Sales Center) branch has been created.
  • On the User Profile (SM203010) form, for the davis user, WEST BRIGHTON has been specified as the default branch location.
  • On the Service Order Types (FS202300) form, the TRN service order type has been defined. For the type, in the Billing Settings section of the General tab, AR Documents has been selected in the Generated Billing Documents box, and the Bill Only Closed Appointments check box has been selected.
  • On the Employees (EP203000) form, on the General tab (Employee Settings section), the Staff Member in Service Management check box has been selected for EP00000042 (Chase Frank), so that you can assign this employee to perform services.
  • On the Billing Cycles (FS206000) form, the following settings have been specified for the SO SO billing cycle:
    • Run Billing For: Service Orders
    • Group Billing Documents By: Service Orders
  • On the Customers (AR303000) form, the COFFEESHOP - FourStar Coffee & Sweets Shop) customer has been created, and the SO SO billing cycle has been selected in the Service Management section of the Billing tab.
  • On the Non-Stock Items (IN202000) form, the TRAINING service (that is, a non-stock item of the Service type) has been defined. For the TRAINING service, on the Price/Cost tab, the Time billing rule has been selected.

Process Overview

To process a service order with one appointment, acting as the service manager (Maia Davis), you will create a new service order on the Service Orders (FS300100) form, add a service to be performed for the order, and create the related appointment on the Appointments (FS300200) form. You will then assign a staff member to the appointment. Acting as this staff member, you will start and then complete the appointment.

Acting as an accountant, you will review and close appointment. Then on the Service Orders form, you will run billing for the service order.

System Preparation

Before you begin performing the steps of this activity, do the following:

  1. Launch the MYOB Acumatica website, and sign in to a company with the U100 dataset preloaded. You should sign in as a service manager by using the davis username and the 123 password.
  2. In the company to which you are signed in, ensure that the Service Management feature has been enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form.
  3. In the info area, in the upper-right corner of the top pane of the MYOB Acumatica screen, make sure that the business date in your system is set to 1/30/2025. If a different date is displayed, click the Business Date menu button, and select 1/30/2025 on the calendar. For simplicity, in this activity, you will create and process all documents in the system on this business date.

Step 1: Entering a Service Order

When you create a service order, you enter general information about the requested service, including the customer name, promised date, and required service. In this step, you will create a service order for a customer who has requested a training service. You will select the TRN order type and specify the TRAINING service.

To create a service order, do the following:

  1. On the Service Orders (FS300100) form, add a new record.
  2. In the Summary area, specify the following settings:
    • Service Order Type: TRN
    • Customer: COFFEESHOP - FourStar Coffee & Sweets Shop
    • Description: Training for Customer’s Employees
  3. On the table toolbar of the Details tab, click Add Row, and specify the following settings in the row:
    • Line Type: Service
    • Inventory ID: TRAINING
  4. Click Add Row again, and in the Line Type column, select Comment.
  5. Enter the following comment in the Description column: Training for 4 of the customer's employees is necessary now that the juicer has been installed.
  6. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 2: Scheduling an Appointment and Assigning a Staff Member

In this step, you will create an appointment to represent the staff member’s actual visit to the customer’s location. You will specify the scheduled start date and time for the appointment and assign a staff member to it.

To create an appointment, do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the service order on the Service Orders (FS300100) form, on the form toolbar, click Create Appointment.

    The system opens the Appointments (FS300200) form with the appropriate settings copied from the service order.

  2. On the Settings tab, in the Scheduled Start Date box, review that 1/30/2025 is selected and specify 11:00 AM.
  3. On the Staff tab, assign a staff member to perform the service as follows:
    1. On the table toolbar, click Add Row.
    2. In the Staff Member column, select EP00000042 (Chase Frank).
  4. On the form toolbar, click Save.

Step 3: Processing the Appointment

In this step, on behalf of the assigned staff member, you will start the appointment, record the actual start date and time, and complete the appointment.

To process the appointment from its start to its completion, do the following:

  1. On the form toolbar of the Appointments (FS300200) form, click Start.

    You start the appointment to indicate that the appointment is being attended.

  2. On the Settings tab, in the Actual Date and Time section, specify the following settings:
    • Actual Start Date: 1/30/2025 11:00 AM
    • Actual End Date: 1/30/2025 12:00 PM
    • Finished: Selected

      You select this check box to indicate that the work has been finished during the appointment and that no follow-up appointment is necessary.

  3. On the form toolbar, click Complete.

    You complete an appointment as a staff member to indicate that the work on the appointment has been done.

Step 4: Generating an AR Invoice

You can generate a billing document once an appointment is completed or closed, depending on the settings of the service order type. In this lesson, once the appointment is assigned the Closed status, you can bill the customer for the service delivered. You will generate an AR invoice because this type of the document has been specified for the TRN service order type.

To generate an AR invoice on behalf of an accountant, do the following:

  1. While you are still viewing the appointment on the Appointments (FS300200) form, on the form toolbar, click Close.

    You close the appointment to indicate that all information entered into the system about the appointment has been verified and is correct. The appointment is assigned the Closed status. Now you can generate the billing document for the related service order, as the customer’s billing cycle specifies that billing should be executed at the service order level.

  2. Open the service order by clicking the pencil icon next to the Service Order Nbr. box in the Summary area of the Appointments form. The Service Orders (FS300100) form opens in a separate window.
  3. On the form toolbar of the Service Orders form, click Run Billing.

    The system opens the Invoices and Memos (AR301000) form with the generated invoice, as the screenshot below shows.

  4. Verify the details of the invoice on the form and make sure that they are correct. (In a production environment, the invoice could now be processed in the system.)
Figure 1. The invoice generated for the service order