First, be sure to understand one major point: There is nothing really "magic" about calling a project, or part of a project, a "sales order." All of the FF&E on a project's FF&E Worksheet is usually intended to be ordered at some point, and whether you call the approval document an approved "quote" or a "sales order" (perhaps because it's a smaller order) or a "materials purchasing list" or an "FF&E Contract" for a major design project, any of the techniques for entering data described in the documentation will work and can be used interchangeably as you see fit. However...

Beyond the labels used, the biggest difference between sales orders and design projects is that sales orders are often done quickly with the particular products needed already known. This means that the more elaborate process of building a set of objects that meet functional and budget guidelines, placing them in rooms and making presentations will be minimal, if it exists at all. So FF&EZ's powerful process of organizing large projects must be streamlined so that a quote can be created quickly in response to a client's request.

The technique to use for simple sales orders is called "Spec-Oriented Data Entry," because instead of starting on the FF&E Worksheet, you start on the Specification List screen, creating specifications then creating objects from them and placing those objects into a "room" on the FF&E Worksheet — without actually leaving the Spec screen. 

If you have the Design/Purchasing system, a related situation can occur in which, based on your relationship with a client, a client may simply "call in" an order for some replacement products.  In a situation like this, you can go directly to the Orders Screen and create a quick order for a project (or just the client) without going through the Design system at all.  When you create the new order, you will have an Import option on the Item Screen that can be used to import the original items from either the Design project or the orders that resulted from it.  That order can be printed and faxed or printed to a PDF for the client to sign, allowing you to issue it.  See the "How to..." section for the Purchasing system for details.

There is more about sales order project setup under "Setting up Clients and Projects" and the full spec-oriented data entry process is detailed in its own section. However, here is the basic process:

Procedure for a simple sales order

1. On the Project List screen, Add a sales order project (selecting that project type before you save the project). Enter the other information needed, such as the billing type, default markup or purchasing fee, tax rate, etc. 
2. When you save a sales order project the first time, you will be taken directly to the spec screen.

3. Add specs with as much detail as you want (you can always edit them again later). This includes importing them from a library or previous projects if appropriate. If this is a straight sales order and you need to add a fixed freight amount, see the section at the bottom of this one.

4. When you save each new spec, select the Save + Object command instead of just Save. This saves the spec, then calls the Object command from the Specifications screen menu. Note: In the current version, the system expects you to do this and will intervene if you don't. 

5. The Object command displays the pop-up "Create / Modify Object" window. Use it to automatically create and link to a matching new object. 
6. Before selecting Okay, use the "Room placement" option at the bottom to add the object to the room called "Items" that was created for you when you saved the project. Enter the total desired quantity* you are quoting as you do this, using the "Place..." field (not the "Using this quantity per..." field).
7. Using the Spec screens Add command, repeat steps 3 to 5 as needed until all the items on the sales order have been created as specs and objects and placed in "Items."

8. Go to the FF&E Worksheet and check your quantities. You can change quantities by entering them directly into the Worksheet list's "Qty" column. 
9. Select Print and choose one of the "Quote" report formats. Set any report options you desire to control how much detail prints, then preview or print your quote / sales order.

*When a sales quote is not separated into "real" rooms, you are simply entering the total quantity to quote. If you want to create a quote by room, follow the normal practice of entering just the amount to be placed in one room, then use the room count on the Room List screen to adjust for the total number of rooms you are quoting.

Advanced uses

Including Freight Quotes

On a small sales order, you may need to add a specific freight quote. FF&EZ was designed for large projects where a freight estimate was used, but you can use a simple work-around once your project contents are ready to quote. This will also depend on whether you have a single number or have quotes from several vendors. Both of the techniques below depend on the project's FF&E quantities being final.

Single Quote Amount

To add a single fixed freight amount at the end of the quote:

1. Preview the FF&E Quote report and record the final FF&E total.
2. Divide the freight quote by the FF&E total. For instance, if the freight quote is $25,000 and the FF&E total is $350,000, the freight percentage is: 

25,000/350,000 = 0.0714286 or 7.14286%

3. Enter the resulting percentage on the Project screen and when FF&E asks you how to use the new percentage, select "Apply new rate to ALL specification."
4. Run the FF&E Quote report again to check the resulting freight total. If there is a slight rounding difference (less likely if you enter all five decimals), try the report's "If showing freight total, round up..." option. Since it always rounds up, a higher number can be fixed by going to step 3 and lowering the percentage slightly. 

Multiple Quotes

The easiest solution here is to simply add all the quotes together and use the "Single Quote Amount" procedure above. If you want to enter individual quotes per product, you will need to enter them on the Specification screen:

1. Locate a specification to which you want to enter a specific freight quote.
2. Select the Edit command.
3. If you do not see the "Shipping" section in the bottom right portion of the screen, de-select the "Show Spec Status" option at the very bottom. 
4. Click on the [=] button next to the "Unit amt" field.
5. Enter the total freight quote for this product and, based on the calculated quantity shown, FF&EZ will calculate an equivalent freight percentage per item.
6. Accept the new freight percentage, then save the specification.

Objects with support specs

For a simple sales order, you may be quoting simple objects that only contain one product spec. However, you can just as easily create more complex objects (chair frames plus a separate fabric component). To do this: 

1. First, create the chair spec and chair object as described above. 
2. Then create the fabric spec, select Save + Object, but instead of using the "Create..." option, use the "Modify the existing object tagged as..." option. Select the chair object you created earlier from the drop-down to the right, select the "Add as a secondary component" option. 
3. Specify the quantity needed per object with the "Using this quantity per..." option.
4. Don't use the room placement option in this case, because you will have placed the chair object in the room when you created it before this.

Managing multiple quotes in one project

As discussed in "Setting up Clients and Projects," you do not have to create a new project for each quote to the same client, and can organize separate quotes under new "areas" that you Add on the Areas List screen as needed. You can also enter real rooms instead of the "Items" room if a client wants to see a quote organized by location. 

You can print the quote you want by using the FF&E Worksheet Print command's "Filter" option to print either the "current room" or the "current area" (quote):

The only thing to be careful about with multiple quotes is to be sure you place new specs/objects into the "room" you want for the current quote. If you have a sales order project that has accumulated old quotes, you can still use the "worksheet-oriented data entry" method to create a quote, and you can delete old quotes (rooms), clearing the worksheet without deleting the list of objects and specs that were created for the project.