An Inbound Order is one job for one customer: everything you have agreed to take in from them, and everything that then happens to it. This guide explains how a job runs, from the first booking to the moment it is finished, and what the help panel at the top of the job and of each collection or drop-off is telling you to do next.
It is for anyone who books, receives or closes jobs under Inbound > Inbound Orders and Inbound > Collections & Drop-offs.
1. What a job is
- Most customers call an Inbound Order a Job, because from their side nothing about it is "inbound". The Job ID at the top of the screen is the reference to quote to them.
- One job holds one or more collections and drop-offs, each one appointment for goods coming in. A collection is you going out to the customer's site; a drop-off is the customer bringing the items to you. A customer clearing three sites over a fortnight is one job with three appointments, so the items, pricing, paperwork and reporting all stay together.
- To work one collection or drop-off per job instead, switch on Users & Settings > Settings > Inbound > Collections & Drop-offs > "Limit to one Collection / Drop-off per Inbound Order". Many businesses do. It is off unless someone turns it on, and turning it on later never deletes or hides anything: a job that already has three collections keeps all three.
- The tabs on the job run in the order the work happens: what you expect to receive ("Expected Items"), how it is packaged and where it is going, the services agreed, then the money that follows from them.
2. The help panel at the top of a job
The blue panel at the top of a job says what to do next. It changes with where the job is up to, and it is worked out from facts on the job: its collections and drop-offs, and the items received on it. It never goes by the name of the job's stage, because every business names its own stages. Exactly one of these shows:
- Next: book how the items will come in - nothing is booked yet, or everything booked was cancelled, and nothing has been received. List what you expect on the "Expected Items" tab if you know it (it is fine to leave it empty), then press Schedule Collection or Schedule Drop-off.
- Next: wait for the goods, then book them in - at least one collection or drop-off is open and nothing has been received yet. The panel gives the date the next one is due. When the goods arrive, press Book In Items to a Collection on the job, or open the collection and press Book In Items & Lots.
- Next: finish the collections and drop-offs still open - some items have been received and at least one collection or drop-off is still open. The panel says how many items are in and how many appointments are still open. Open each one from the "Collections / Drop-offs" tab, book in anything still to come, then press Receive All Into Stock, or cancel it if it is not going ahead.
- Next: move this job on - every collection and drop-off is finished. Choose the next stage on the stage bar at the top of the screen, so everyone can see where the job is up to.
- This job is finished - the job's stage is one your business counts as finished. Nothing more needs doing. To reopen it, click an earlier stage on the stage bar.
"Open" means not yet Processed or Cancelled. Send-back transfers are never counted. The items received are counted on the job itself, so the figure matches the Items & Lots button at the top of the job.
A job counts as finished when its stage has "Completed Stage" or "Cancelled Stage" ticked on it. Whatever the stage is called, those two ticks are what RecyclyERP reads.
Like every help panel, it can be folded away with its collapse button, and stays folded for you on every job until you open it again.
3. When the stage won't move on
Your stages can ask for things before a job can move into them. The message you get says which:
- a signed contract: tick "Documentation Signed" on the job's contract
- an approval: press the "Approve" button on the job
- the "Customer's PO Ref.", filled in on the job
4. A finished job with collections still open
- If a job's stage is Completed or Cancelled while some of its collections or drop-offs are still open, a yellow notice at the top of the job says how many and at which status.
- Open Collections / Drop-offs on that notice lists them. Cancel Empty Collections cancels the open ones with nothing booked in, after showing you exactly what it will cancel and what it will leave open. Any with items booked in are left alone, to be finished with "Receive All Into Stock" or cancelled by hand.
- On a finished job, Schedule Collection and Schedule Drop-off ask before going ahead, in case the job really is finished. To carry on working the job, click an earlier stage on the stage bar first.
- Each open collection or drop-off on a finished job also shows a yellow warning naming the job and its stage, so whoever opens it knows to finish or cancel it.
5. A collection or drop-off, status by status
Each collection or drop-off has its own help panel, which changes with its status:
- Draft - still being put together. Fill in the "Customer", then the "Site Address" for a collection, then "Scheduled Date" and "Estimated Duration (Hours)". Check "Items Summary" shows what you expect, then press Mark as Ready to Process.
- Waiting - confirmed and on the books. Labels can be printed before the goods arrive with Print New ID Labels. When the goods arrive, press Book In Items & Lots and scan them in as they come off the vehicle. Booking in leaves the collection at "Waiting".
- Ready to Process - someone has pressed "Mark as Ready to Process" to say it is good to go, and it is waiting for the goods to be booked in.
- Processed - when everything is booked in, Receive All Into Stock takes it all into stock and moves the collection to "Processed". It only works when the Destination Location is a stock location, for example WH01/Stock. The Items & Lots button on the collection then opens everything received on it.
- Cancelled - nothing more can be booked in or received on it. Set back to Draft brings it back, and refuses if anything on it was ever received.
Two small yellow warnings can show above that panel, never both at once:
- Overdue with nothing booked in - the collection is Waiting or Ready to Process, its "Scheduled Date" has passed and nothing has been booked in. If it is still going ahead, change the "Scheduled Date"; if not, press Cancel so it stops showing as open.
- Its job is already finished - see section 4.
6. Things that come up along the way
- Closed with nothing received? If a collection reads "Processed" but nothing was ever taken into stock, Reopen Closed Collection (or Reopen Closed Drop-off) puts it back to "Waiting" with its expected rows restored. It refuses if any item on it has already been received.
- Something turned up afterwards? On a Processed collection, Add Items to this Collection & Receive books it in and receives it straight away. The collection stays "Processed" and keeps its Date/Time Received. If waste tracking for that day has already been sent to Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), you are warned first. From the job, Book In Items to a Collection does the same.
- Two people on one collection? If someone else has a booking-in session open, a yellow notice at the top of the collection says who and when they last saved. Their scanned items are not on the collection until they confirm them, so "Receive All Into Stock" and "Cancel" ask before going ahead.
- Items going back to the customer? On a Processed collection, Send Items Back to Customer prepares a send-back transfer. See Sending a collection's items back to the customer (opens in a new tab).
- A customer sending items back to you is a return, not a collection. See Returns (RMAs): Setting up and raising a return (opens in a new tab).