The Difference between Products & Services and Parts

The Products & Services (AKA Inventory) tab/module tracks all sorts of physical/electronic devices, labor, deposits, prepay hours, quantities, when to refill stock, etc. This is the normal equipment you work with everyday, and expect to have in your store or warehouse. You use Purchase Orders to resupply low levels of Inventory. Purchase Orders are directly connected with your Products & Services and Vendors.

The Parts tab/module is intended for a different purpose. It was created for special orders that you don't normally do, or don't usually keep in stock. Example: Special phone screen for a phone that you don't normally work on, or a special motherboard for a laptop.

Setup

To activate the Parts tab in the top navigation bar,

1. Navigate to Admin > Tabs Customization.
2. Check the Parts checkbox.
3. If desired, use the "hamburger" icon to drag the Parts tab to a new desired location.
4. Click Save.

Create a Part Order

Click the Parts tab and you will see all of your current Part Orders.

There are a couple of ways to create a parts order. One is to click the + New Item button.

The other is, when working on a ticket, click New > Part Order.

A new screen will load where you can enter the order details. If you did this from the Parts screen, you will see a Ticket dropdown where you can optionally select a ticket to attach the parts order to. This is hidden when created from a ticket since it is already attached to that ticket.

Note: If you have enabled Percentage Markup in Parts Preferences, you only need to enter Our Cost and it will automatically calculate the retail price.

Once you have filled in all the data, click Create Item.

When you attach a part order to a ticket, it will automatically put a link to the Part Order in the Ticket Info section and add a private note with the part order details.

Receiving a Part Order

1. Once the part has arrived, edit the Part Order one of two ways.
   • Go to the Parts tab and click the Part Order.
   • or, on the ticket in the TICKET INFO section, click the Part Order.
2. Scroll to the bottom and in the Received field, enter the date received.  
   
3. Click Update Item.
4. Once the Received date is set, the Part Order will be marked as resolved.
5. If the order is attached to a ticket, it will automatically add a private note with the date received.

Billing a Part Order

When you create a Parts Order you have two options for billing the customer.

1. You can associate the Part Order to a Ticket and the Part Order charge will be automatically added to the Add/View Charges on the attached ticket when you save the Part Order. You must have a quantity entered and a retail cost for the customer before the part will be added as a Ticket Charge.

Note: If you create a Part Order from a Ticket, this field will already be selected even though it's hidden.

Here's what the Add/View Charges looks like with a Part Order.

2. You can generate an Invoice directly from the Part Order if there is no associated Ticket. After creating the Part Order, click the Part Order to edit it, click the New Invoice button, search for your customer, click Create Invoice, and the invoice will be generated.

Here is what the Part Order looks like on the invoice.

Once the invoice has been created, it will be linked on the part order.