Once you've assigned an order number to a quote, it's an order, and several order-specific facilities
are made available. (Note quotes can be deducted, but it's for simulation purposes and values won't
'stick' and purchase orders created from quotes will not retain a link to the quote.) There are several date boxes, staff selection boxes and checkboxes that can help a plant manager manage and track orders through their 'life cycle' and share that status information with everyone else:
Price Locks
- as soon as an order number is assigned, all product and option prices on the quote become locked and
will show with small gray locks on the quote lines page
On Hold (checkbox) & Hold Note (text box)
- used to indicate that order processing is delayed, and why
- if your company is configured to require order approvals, the hold note will default to 'Approval'
- other usual reasons for an order to be on hold are that the paperwork is ambiguous or deficient
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Status Note (text box)
- if the on-hold checkbox is not ticked, the note is used as a status note, often to indicate there
is an aspect of the order that will lengthen lead times, like a customized product or special service required
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Required Date (date box) & Required Firm (checkbox)
- used to record a customer's insistence on delivery or installation
on a specific date, or a sales representative's rash promise.
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
- ticking the required firm box signifies that you will be on the phone apologizing (or worse) to the customer if the required date is not met
- entering a value here will affect any installation or delivery calendar entry for this order
Measurements Are Final (checkbox)
- used to 'release' an installed order to manufacturing/purchasing
- meant especially for companies that do re-measures when installed quotes become orders
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Measurer (staff selection) & Measure Time (date box) & Measure Done (checkbox)
- used to schedule a re-measure and record when it has been done
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
- entering a value here will affect the Measurement calendar entry for this order
Installer (staff selection) & Install Time (date box)
- used to schedule an installation
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
- entering a value here will affect the Installation calendar entry for this order
Deducted (status message)
- indicates an order has been taken through the 'deduction' steps, from the Deduct tab
- finalizes compound product layouts for manufacturing
- prepares product and component information for purchase or resale products and required components
- causes most product-related information to be locked from further user input.
Ready Date (date box)
- used to 'forecast' when a product will be ready for installation, delivery, or pickup
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
- entering a value here will affect the 'Ready' calendar entry for this order
Ready Firm (check box)
- meant to signify that all necessary components (like glass) and/or resale products are 'in-house' and ready date is therefore firm
- can be set on quote header tab Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Product Ready / Ready Now (check box)
- meant to signify that all products are ready for installation, pickup, or delivery
- ticking this box will generate usage transactions and relieve component inventory
- can be set on quote header tab under Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Installation/Delivery/Pickup Done or Date Done (date box)
- for installed orders, conveys date that all products are installed and collection should proceed
- for supply orders, conveys date that all products are either picked up or delivered and collection should proceed
- can be set on quote header tab Order Processing or the order status detail popup
Invoiced (date box)
- conveys when invoice was either previewed, printed, or mailed
- set automatically by Fenestratio
Deposit Posted (check box)
- accessible only from the Posting tab
- indicates that the order has been posted to company's accounting software
- best filter on quote list to perform and track posting is "Orders Ready not Posted" along with
using Deposit as Second Last or Last Column
Sale Posted (check box)
- accessible only from the Posting tab
- indicates that the order has been posted to company's accounting software
- best filter on quote list to perform and track posting is "Orders Ready not Posted"
Paid (check box)
- accessible only from the Posting tab
- indicates that the invoice has been paid
- best filter on quote list to perform and track receivables is "Orders Posted not Paid"
Cancel Reason (select box)
- if selected, conveys reason order was cancelled, and causes it to be excluded from other order management lists
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Price Products
Product prices in Fenestratio should be thought of as "Public List Prices". Second, on Fenestratio quotes, the three factors that can be applied to product prices
must be applied the same to all products and options, so all of your product list prices should use a similar markup because they will all be discounted the same
by default. Further, if you consider the maximum discount you might give for installed or supplied jobs, you should ensure the net price has an adequate margin built in for all product lines.
There are several "knobs and dials" that can be fine-tuned on a quote to get the price you want:
- Locking:
- Product and installation and option prices can be overridden with the little blue lock icons. Once a price is locked, Fenestratio will not change it, so any adjustments to the price that become necessary to reflect a change to the product or option are now the responsibility of the user.
- Multiplier:
- On the quote is a Multiplier setting, usually set to 1, which is applied to the public list prices before calculating the product, installation and option prices for those items not locked. Think of this as a hidden discount (ie. where multiplier is less than 1) or upcharge (where multiplier is > 1). The initial inspiration for the Multiplier was to charge more or less for jobs in regions of varying economic power. Because multiplier was originally conceived as a regional setting, you can set a default multiplier on branch records at maintenance→branches. Because it makes sense to limit hidden discounts or upcharges, you can set a valid range for the multiplier on the branch record. Since each customer belongs to a branch, any new customer record will get a multiplier defaulted from its branch. The customer's multiplier gets copied as a default onto the quote record, which is the bottom level at which it can be tweaked. Last, since you may want to allow some users different latitude with respect to multipliers, you can also set a minimum and maximum multiplier on each security role into which users are placed.
- Factors:
- Also coming from the Branch onto the Customer and passed onto the quote record are discount/upcharge factors. On the branch and the customer you have one factor with a reason box for supplied jobs, and another factor-reason pair for installed jobs. On the quote there are two factor-reason pairs. These values by default show as bottom-line discounts (if factor is < 0) or upcharges (if factor is >0). If the factors are shown at the bottom of the quote, they are applied to all products and options on the quote - even the locked ones. You can roll the factors into the product prices by ticking the box on the quote header labelled "Apply factors at item level . In the case of item-applied factors-the locked prices do not get changed. Last, since you may want to allow some users different latitude with respect to factors, you can also set a maximum discount on each security role into which users are placed. Bear in mind a 100% discount is not uncommon, as it's often used for 'correction' or 'service' orders.
- Service Discounts:
- On the quote header page is a checkbox labelled "Apply factors to services", which ticked by default. If it is unticked, then factors will not be applied to installation charges or options that are marked as being part of installation.
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Enter a Quote
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Email a Quote
- Go to the quote header and click on the EMail button
,
or the Mail tab if your preferences show you're using quote section tabs.
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Create an Order
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Set up a Dealer
- Steps Summarized:
- verify standard customer settings for use by dealer
- assign internal person as dealer's representative
- set dealer quoting settings
- create first Self-serve user
- sign in as that user and try it
- create other Self-serve user(s)
- use Fenestratio [Test Drive] and [Test as Dealer] buttons for training
- inform dealer users of passwords
- the representative is the person in your company to whom the dealer users can submit questions,
and to whom requests for order submission will be addressed
- all dealer-created quotes will be supply only, and have the Default Factor 1 Supply Only value
from the customer record as discount
- when testing the first self-serve user, open a window in a different browser to test the dealer
account, ie. if you use Firefox, open a window in Chrome or Internet Explorer, then you can use
both sessions to look at the same quotes at once and fine-tune your settings quickly
- Self-serve users can be restricted to seeing their own quotes - we recommend you have at least
one self-server user account not restricted so they can cover colleagues' absences
- Costing:
- in this context, cost is what the dealer pays you
- the factors in the quote header shown internally get applied at the item level for
dealer-created quotes
- dealer users can run a "Cost Quote" that shows what they will pay for the products
- Pricing:
- in this context, price is what the dealer charges their customer
- Markup Percent is applied to product costs to determine what is shown as the list price
of products and options
- Markup Handling is a management setting for dealers to control what dealer users can
see and do with respect to the Markup Percent
- Hidden - dealer users do not see Markup Percent and may not know about it
- Locked - dealer users can see the Markup Percent but cannot override it on quotes
- Unlocked - dealer users can see and override Markup Percent on quotes
- Discount will default onto dealer-created quotes - allows dealer to 'show' their
prospects/customers a bottom-line discount
- Value-Added Options - dealers can charge for their goods and services by adding
miscellaneous options to quote lines. These options do not show for internal users.
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Create a New Product
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Add a Product Line
- use Maintenance→Vendors to ensure the supplier is loaded, and the "Used for Products" checkbox is ticked
- use Maintenance→Families to create the family, selecting the appropriate
vendor. Consider the "Deductions" value on the family detail:
- "Deduct Modular" will be used for most fully manufactured product lines
- "Deduct Structural" can be used for lines using transoms to mull compound units
- "Do Not Deduct" will show only an image on order cut sheets
- "Do Not Show" will not show on order cut sheets at all
- for resale window families, you may want to choose "Layout Only", so the layout can be passed on to purchase orders
- if the product is one for which you buy glass separately, select "Order Glass Only"
- for each set of products that will share quoting rules and/or pricing methods, create
a type using Maintenance→Types
- for each different type of single panel, follow steps for Add a Product above. eg. for a window family:
- create a single casement product
- create a single fixed product
- create a single awning product
- for each aspect of the products in the family that has multiple mutually-exclusive choices,
like jamb extension or brickmold type, add a feature using Maintenance→Features
- use Maintenance→Options to describe and price all product add-ons, placing
them within features as necessary
- for manufactured product lines:
- use Maintenance→Vendor Items to add items that could serve as components of products in the family
- from Maintenance→Families:
- use the
panels button to create a panel definition for each different single panel product
- on each panel detail, select the corresponding product image as default view
- use the
button to the left of each panel name
to specify how each component is used in the panel
- use the
glass button to set default glass descriptions for glass purchases
- use the
default options button to set default options to show on quote line items for products in the family
- for each compound combination of operating and fixed panels of a given type in a given shape that can share a price calculation, follow steps for Add a Product above
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Do a Price Update
Quoting/Ordering/Pricing
Validate Addresses
- on the company page you can indicate that customer and/or ship to addresses must be validated for order submissions
- we decided not to apply validations at quote time in line with our design goal of keeping quoting as fast and simple as possible.
- addresses are either unvalidated, validated, or overridden
- validated addresses show

- overridden address show an Omacron Ō
- overridden addresses may be necessary for construction sites Google doesn't know about yet
- if you're shipping to the customer's address - you don't need a separate ship-to entry
- you can validate the customer's address from the quote header page by clicking on the modify button under the customer label
- when you click the ship-to-address-search button, Fenestratio pops up a window to look in previously loaded addresses
- when you hit [Validate] on either the address detail or customer detail popup, Fenestratio will ask google to validate the address and show you a map
- if you know an address is correct but it's not recognized by Google yet, you can override validation and Fenestratio will record the fact you overrode it
Purchasing
Fix a PO Line linked to a Sales Order Line
When you generate a purchase order from sales order information, the sales order data and the purchase order are linked for reference
purposes, but they're not linked to cascade updates. That is, once you generate a purchase order from sales order data, changing the
sales order data will not automatically change the purchase order data. We couldn't do that - what if you've faxed a PO to your
supplier - without being hooked into your system how could ~they~ know you've changed things. Thus you need a procedure like this.
Two methods:
- 1. All Manual
- best if changing an existing Purchase Order that has not been submitted or that the supplier knows you're going to be revising
- go into Purchases, Lines,[Edit], for the image, choose [Load Mirror Image] or [Replace from Item] as required
- edit the values and notes as required
- re-submit the purchase order
- 2. Regenerate
- best if you need to order a replacement
- go into Purchases, Lines,[Edit], choose [Unlink Sale Line]
- go to home page to ensure the quote gets cleared from your session memory
- create a new purchase order for the same vendor
- go to lines for the new purchase
- choose [Add Product/Option/Item]
- choose [Product] on the Add to Purchase popup
- the sale line you just unlinked should be available to pull onto the new purchase order
- beware you may need to flip the image for the vendor if they expect inside view and you quote outside or vice versa
- edit the values as required
Purchasing
Use an alternate glass vendor
- from the deduction results page, you can click on the name of the glass vendor to create a purchase for that default vendor
- to order the glass from a different vendor:
- ensure the vendor in question is marked in Maintenance→Vendors as "Supplies Glass"
- go to Home→Purchases, create a purchase order for the vendor
- from Purchase→Lines, click [Add Glass], Fenestratio will list the glass units on open orders remaining
to be ordered, you can then'pull' glass units onto this purchase order
Purchasing
Use Manual Purchasing
- since many Fenestratio user companies buy products from suppliers with ordering extranets, we provide
manual purchasing as a 'lighter' way to keep your on-purchase-order values up to date, as well as providing
a simplified method to record receipts as they arrive
- manual purchasing can be activated for a given vendor item from the vendor item transaction page
- the vendor item transaction page can be accessed from the Inventory page or the vendor item detail page
- once on the vendor item transaction page, a button to activate manual purchasing will appear if it is
not already active
- once manual purchasing is activated for a vendor item, the vendor item transaction page will present a
button to add a new manual purchase
- existing manual purchases will be shown in a collapsing section beside the item's on purchase order value
- receipts can be recorded by clicking on the manual purchase for which material is being received
Manufacturing
Prepare Cut Sheets
- From the Quote Header page, click the deductions button
in the button bar at the top center of the page,
or the Deductions tab if your preferences show you're using quote section tabs,
and the deduction wizard will walk you through specifying the information necessary to deduct
the order.
Manufacturing
Change Cut Sheet Calculations
- Cut sheets are generated from DynaBOMs, which are editted from Maintenance→Panels, by choosing the
button to the left of the panel name.
Manufacturing
Delete a Panel
Manufacturing
Schedule Production
Manufacturing
Reprint Barcode Unit Labels
- there are several ways to get to the unit label page for an order:
- use the Label column at far right to ensure that only the unit for which you
want labels is ticked
- click one of the Print buttons to suit your needs
Inventory
Activation
Running inventory requires significant organizational discipline, but the concepts behind doing it do not change
much from factory to factory. The main wrinkle with windows and doors is variable dimensionality, such that the
bill of materials must be adapted to the size of the product - hence the DynaBOM.
You must inform Fenestratio support if you want to activate inventory as there are some processes that run
overnight to perform certain necessary procedures.
Inventory
Preparation
- you must understand fully everything on Maintenance→Vendor Items
- you must understand fully unit of measure conversions and their role in
inventory and how they're used on the vendor item detail
- Maintenance→Panels→DynaBom: "Usage Formula" describes how inventory is relieved
for those components that are part of a panel in a product, assuming the
Conditional Formula evaluates to true for a given quote line item
- Maintenance→Families→Family BOM: "Usage Formula" describes how inventory is relieved
for those components that don't fit neatly into a panel concept, like outer door frames or
weatherstripping, assuming the Conditional Formula evaluates to true for a given quote
line item
- Maintenance→Options: "Usage Formula" describes how inventory is relieved
for those components that result from feature choices on a product
- it is possible to set up your inventory without fully understanding every formula
on the pages above because Fenestratio support is available to help you, but you
must at least understand every piece of data's purpose in the process
Inventory
Labelling
Some inventory procedures are easiest with barcode labels and reading devices.
- quote line units can be labelled from Quote→Print→Labels→Barcode
- storage locations for components and finished goods can be labelled from Maintenance→Locations
Inventory
Setup
- choose which vendor items represent components that need to be, and can successfully be and are worth being
tracked by inventory (ie. prioritize and avoid paper-chasing and ocean boiling)
- designate storage locations for components and register them on each item to be tracked- no item can show on hand
quantity without specifying where the quantity is stored
- Reports→Inventory Count can be useful for initial count to get started, and later for cycle counts
- Vendor Item detail and Manufacturing→Inventory→Transactions allow adjustments to the current on-hand at a
location by clicking on the on-hand quantity
Inventory
Running
- you must mark products 'ready' as soon as they're made so your inventory will
be relieved - best place to do this is Manufacturing→Barcode Ready
- you must receive goods from purchase orders accurately and punctually
- you can activate manual purchasing if you use
your vendor's extranet or some other method of ordering stock, but the key point
remains to receive stock accurately and punctually
- if you don't enter all your purchase orders in sufficient detail, you won't be
able to know about availability or shortages
- the requirements report gets more and more useful as your data gets better
- if you want finished goods control, use Manufacturing→Barcode Store and/or
Shipping→Barcode Move/Load/Deliver
- these capabilities are also built into the Fenestratio mobile apps
Accounting
Quote Posting Page
The quote posting page was set up to pull the events in an order's life cycle
that may result in an accounting journal entry being made. The account codes
and descriptions displayed come from values maintainable at Administration→Accounts. The placement of accounts in the journal entries is determined by
selections on the product family, customer branch and company records.
Also from the quote posting page, you can place a journal entry onto a posting
batch, which you may export at a later date for importing to your accounting
software.
Of special note with respect to invoices, Fenestratio provides two kinds of
invoices with different posting implications. A 'Sale Invoice' includes all
products and fees from the sales order and uses the same number as the sales
order. A 'Partial Invoice' uses a separate number series and can include
all or only some of the products or fees from the sales order.
Accounting
Posting Batches
Posting batches can be maintained at Administration→Posting Batches. A
posting batch is a grouping of journal entries generated from events in the
life of a sales order. Posting batches can be exported to files of various
formats for importing to accounting software.
Accounting
QuickBooks Online
Fenestratio shares information with QuickBooks as below:
- if you've never connected your Fenestratio to your QuickBooks, you will
see a link to connect on the Company, Account, User, Vendor, Customer Detail,
Service Detail, Purchase Detail, Quote Posting and Invoices page
- when you click Connect you will be taken to the QuickBooks online login where
you will enter your user id and password
- we do not see your user id or password and we have no need to know it
- QuickBooks sends us an opaque token to signify you've granted Fenestratio
the authority to update your QuickBooks on your behalf for a limited time
- if you log into QuickBooks successfully, you will be returned to the Fenestratio
page from whence you came and Fenestratio will now be connected to QuickBooks
- all interaction between Fenestratio and QuickBooks will be under the user account
you logged into QuickBooks with
- if your Fenestratio is connected to QuickBooks and you want to change the connection
to another QuickBooks user, you can do so on the Finance tab of the Company page
- if you want to disconnect Fenestratio from QuickBooks without re-connecting,
you can do so on the Finance tab of the Company page
- QuickBooks connections last 1 hour but can be refreshed for some time longer
- If a connection expires the user will be shown a link to refresh
- First Steps:
- review account settings on the Branch and Company detail pages to select as many accounts as you can
- connect all your tax groups to QuickBooks tax codes
- connect all your tax codes to a QuickBooks tax rate
- connect all your tax codes to a purchase account if you want to post purchase invoices to QuickBooks
- connect all your accounts to QuickBooks accounts
- customer and vendor and user records can be linked or added to QuickBooks as needed
- customer and vendor records can be imported from QuickBooks on their list pages
- NOTE: all transactions Fenestratio sends to QuickBooks can be previewed, ie. the json payload to be
sent to QuickBooks online can be displayed whether there is a connection to QuickBooks currently active or not.
- Sales:
- will be passed to QuickBooks as an
Invoice after the customer has been linked to a QuickBooks
customer
- the invoice will have one SalesItemLine per account and tax code combination, with the account determined either by the
branch, the company or the product family
- the invoice will have one TaxLine per tax code used under the quote's product and service tax groups
- a 'Sale Invoice' for the entire sales order will have a QB document number FenSalennn
where nnn is the sales order number
- a 'Partial Invoice' for some or all of the sales order will have a QB document number
of FenInvxxx where xxx is the invoice number
- Deposit:
- will be passed to QuickBooks as a
Sales Receipt after the customer has been linked to a QuickBooks
customer
- Commission:
- will be passed to QuickBooks as a
Bill, after the sales representative has been linked to a QuickBooks
vendor
- Installation:
- will be passed to QuickBooks as a
Bill, after the installer has been linked to a QuickBooks
vendor
- Service Invoices:
- will be passed to QuickBooks as an
Invoice after the customer has been linked to a QuickBooks
customer
- a service invoice will have a QB document number of FenSvcyyy where yyy is the service ID
Integration
Fenestratio API
Fenestratio is determined to be an effective, cooperative cog in your enterprise,
as it is today, and as it will evolve over time. Our willingness to build
interfaces is part of that, and our API is another. The API is described
in a separate document.
Integration
Other System Codes
On records that are most likely to correspond to records in your other software,
we provide a special column we call "Other System Code". This is our 'pointer' to
that record on the other system, and will be included in all payloads we send
to your other software. You may need to enter other system codes on some of your
Fenestratio records to enable certain integration capabilities. At time of writing there are "Other System Codes" on Customers, Contacts, Families, Vendors,
Users (as a vendor - for commissions and installation sub-contractors). Some
values not thusly labelled are expected to have the codes from other sources,
like vendor item code and account code.
Integration
Exports
Exports can play a useful role in integration, as well as off-system-analysis. Fenestratio's export-to-Excel facilities are almost all offered at Administration→Export Data. Some exports are offered 'in-place', like purchase order line
details or service records.
Language
Language
While most of the terms used in Fenestratio are universal in the window and door industry, there may be some that we are using in a
manner that may not be intuitive for the user:
- Family - a set of products from a particular manufacturer or vendor that share a common set of options and may be mulled
together in a frame, such as windows, steel doors, and sliding doors. The family is the level at which you can describe features
and options
and defaults applicable to the product types in the family, and whether the products included are manufactured or resold by you.
Families can be worked with from the Maintenance menu.
- Type - a set of products belonging to a family that share an operating mechanism, such as awning, casement, single hung, etc.
The type is the level at which you specify pricing and installation
charge formulae for standard products like rectangular windows. Types can be worked with from the Maintenance menu or the Product
Types button
on the Families page.
- Product - a simple or compound window or door or sunroom wall. At the product level you specify the attributes that
determine pricing, like number of panels and operators and frame shape, whether width and height are
both required at quoting time, and can override the pricing and installation formulae and default options specified at the type
level if necessary. Also at the product level you can specify standard sizes if applicable. Products can be worked with from the
Maintenance menu or the Products button
on the Families page or the Products button
on the Types page.
- View - a layout of a product. At the view level you specify how the frame of the product is configured using x-y coordinates
and either provide or generate an image of the layout. Views can be worked with from the Maintenance menu or the Views button
on the Types page or the Views button
on the Products page.
An example view:

{type:CasementLeft,x:0,y:0,w:28,h:60}
{type:FixedStandard,x:28,y:0,w:28,h:60}
{type:CasementRight,x:56,y:0,w:28,h:60}
- Panel - a simple window frame that is used in a view. At the panel level you specify whether the unit is an operator,
what its minimum and maximum allowed sizes are if applicable, what components make up the panel, and which energy star ratings apply.
Panels can be worked with from the panels link on the home page and the Maintenance menu, as well as the Panels button
on the Families page. Some panels:
- Option - an add-on to a product, such as tinted glass or grills. At the option level you specify pricing information
as well as formulae for width and height and usage rules. Options can be worked with from the Maintenance menu or the Options button
on the Families page.
- Feature - an aspect of a product for which only one of a set of options can be chosen, such as brickmold or casing.
At the feature level you specify which options are included, whether the feature is for installation or supply only, is
mandatory, whether the first option should be defaulted, and where in relation to other features the feature should be presented.
Features can be worked with from the Maintenance menu or the Features button
on the Families page.
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