Identify lost sales

Vision offers you the ability to track sales opportunities that were missed for the following reasons:

The Product screen on the Customer Service tab is where you identify a lost sales opportunity.

Note: Your company may want to allow the tracking of lost sales during order entry for some warehouses, but not for others. Therefore, the ability or inability to track lost sales is controlled at the warehouse level. The Track Lost Sales check box on the Purchasing screen of Warehouse maintenance must be selected if the warehouse should track lost sales. For more information, refer to Specify whether a warehouse should track lost sales.

You can use the Lost Sales Report and Update option, available in Vision Back Office, to generate reports that list sales opportunities that were missed during order entry using the Vision graphical user interface (GUI). For more information, refer to Lost Sales Report and Update.

The year-to-date lost sales for a specific product is displayed on the Product Management tab to help the purchasing department with inventory replenishment planning. For more information, refer to the description of the YTD Lost Sales field on the Main screen of the Product Management tab.

To identify lost sales

  1. On the Customer Service tab, click the Product button. The Product screen appears.

  2. In the Product field, type one of the following:

— or —

To refine your search and see more targeted search results, you can conduct an advanced search by following a few other steps:

  1. Click the Search button or press Enter.

If only one product meets your search criteria, the corresponding product information is provided on the Product screen. If more than one product meets your search criteria, the corresponding products are identified in the Product listing at the bottom of the Product screen. If no products meet your search criteria, the Product Search Error pop-up window is displayed. (Click Product Search Error pop-up window to see a sample.)

  1. If the appropriate product is listed in the Product listing at the bottom of the Product screen, select it. The Whse Stock tab shows the available quantity in each warehouse.

To indicate that a lost sale occurred because there is not enough quantity available in the active warehouse, right-click the appropriate row in the Product listing and select Update Lost Sales on the shortcut menu. The Lost Sales dialog box appears. (Click Lost Sales dialog box to see a sample.)

  1. If the Product Search Error pop-up window is displayed, then the product record does not exist in the warehouse selected in the Search Options area. Conduct a search to see if the product record exists elsewhere in your system:

  1. If the Search Options area is not already visible on the Products screen, click the Options button.

  2. In the Warehouse drop-down list, select the <All Warehouses> option.

  3. Click the Search button.

  4. If the Product Search Error pop-up window is displayed again, click OK to close it.

  5. If the product record does not exist anywhere in your system (in other words, if your company does not sell this product), the Lost Sales dialog box is displayed automatically if the active warehouse is set to track lost sales. (Click Lost Sales dialog box to see a sample.)

  1. In the Customer field, type the customer number if appropriate. If the current order already has an active customer (in other words, if you had already selected a customer on the Customer Service tab), that customer number is listed in this field by default.

  2. In the Manufacturer drop-down list, select the appropriate manufacturer.

If this is a product that is currently not in the product database, the Manufacturer field is a required field. If this is an out-of-stock product, the Manufacturer field is not a required field.

  1. In the Quantity field, type the quantity that is considered a lost sale.

For example, let's say that a customer requests 4 widgets but the warehouse has only 1 in stock. Since the customer cannot buy the entire quantity from this warehouse, he decides to shop elsewhere. In this case, you would type 4 in the Quantity field.

  1. In the Notes field, type any comments that you would like to include for the lost sale.

If this is a product that is currently not in product database, the Notes field is a required field. If this is an out-of-stock product, the Notes field is not a required field.

  1. Click the OK button.

Related Topics

Add a product to the current order

Resolve product search errors

Add a product to the active warehouse

Source a line item

Change the quantity of a product for the current order

Remove a product from the current order

Specify whether a warehouse should track lost sales

Lost Sales Report and Update (in Vision Back Office)