Direct Ship > Process Document > Transmit Tab
Point of sale documents can be transmitted email or fax or both. Both options have requirements beyond the software. The application is not responsible for actual transmission.
As the fax or email queue processes, separate files are created for each document. These files are passed to either your designated SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) or Fax server. Because all documents designated for email and/or fax transmission are placed in a queue, the actual transmit time varies. The transmission time will be based upon the number of items queued as well as the "send at" time assigned.
Direct Ship documents may be transmitted only as "immediate," there is no "end of day" option provided.
It's important to point out that transmission files for queued documents are not created until they are processed by the queue. These files will always represent the current state of that document at that time. For this reason, changes after processing but before transmission will affect the file transmitted.
For example, if after choosing to email or fax transmission during processing, you immediately modify the direct ship order to add or remove items, those changes could be reflected on the email or fax. This would only happen if the changes made occurred before the email/fax queue processed the original document.
The EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) tab is available for use with Direct Ship. This only refers to the transmission of the Direct Ship's associated Purchase Order. To use the EDI tab, the vendor must offer an EDI format matching one of the software's available EDI options. EDI must be configured prior to use and a setup fee applies.
An email address and/or fax telephone number may be associated with each of a customer's contacts. When a contact is selected, the form will automatically populate the appropriate fields with the contact's information. This information can be manually modified after contact selection, but will not be saved with the contact. Permanent changes to a contact's information must be made in Account Maintenance on the Contacts tab.
Email (Alt-M)
If email transmission is designated during processing, the application creates an email message with a PDF (Portable Document Format) attachment of the document. The email is then passed to the SMTP server which is responsible for actually transmitting the email to the recipient. A valid SMTP server must be configured under the Parameters database (Maintenance > Database > Parameters) by a system administrator before email transmission will be possible.
Tip: Typically, emails that are more than 10 MB (due to the length or to attachments) can either fail to send or fail to be received due to restrictions of the email provider. It makes sense to evaluate the size of your emails prior to sending them. This includes statements.
Use the Email, Fax & Print Queue (from the Office drop down menu) to check the submission and process status of both emails and faxes.
It is possible to assign multiple email addresses to a contact or manually within the "Email To" text area. To do this, separate each individual address with either a comma (,) or semicolon (;). Multiple addresses are split into separate "mail-to" recipients, and all "to" addresses will be visible to the recipient of the email.
Some fields are auto-filled based on user or branch defaults or customer contact selection. The subject and notes default text may be modified by the user prior to processing.
Fax (Alt-X)
As with email, fax processing is handled outside the application. The application is only creating a TIF formatted file that is passed to the Microsoft Fax Service for processing. We suggest that fax processing be done on the same server that hosts the application. Users may use the Email, Fax & Print Queue utility form to check the submission and process status of both emails and faxes. For assistance with Fax Setup, please click here for more information.
Some fields may be auto-filled based on user or branch defaults or customer contact selection. All information can be modified prior to transmission when necessary.
EDI (Alt-E)
Problems Transmitting
Successful emailing and faxing have requirements beyond the control of the application and Support. Problems related to networking, SMTP servers, internet connectivity (or ISP changes), phone lines, the size of the email (over 10 MB), and hardware failures or errors can all cause problems emailing or faxing. These issues are not covered by your company's support plan.