After creating an order but before doing any expediting, you should enter any deposit requirements for the order (typically, as soon as you know the expected item amounts, freight quote and tax estimate/quote and what the vendor requires in advance).

Entering the deposit requirement for any order works best if you have also entered the tax estimate/quote and freight quote in those fields on the Order screen (entering these amounts as soon as you know them also makes vendor invoice reconciliation much easier when you use Processing> Enter/Reconcile Vendor Final Invoices).

Be sure to learn about the shortcuts that are available (covered below).

Typically, vendors issue a single invoice for deposits that only apply to a single purchase order and are entered directly on the Orders screen under Vendor Deposit Requirements in the lower right corner (that is, by using the Edit function).

In some cases, vendors may issue more than one deposit invoice for the same order. This is especially true for large standing orders to which new items are added as needed or where partial shipments must be paid in advance. This does not refer to final invoices that close out a delivered order, only to orders where 100% needs to be paid prior to shipping specific items. In these cases, use the Procedure for Multiple Deposit Invoices further below.

Procedure for Single Deposit Invoices

1. Locate the order. If needed, use the Find tool at the bottom of the list and enter the order number for which the deposit is required. Ctrl-F is the hot key for the Find tool. Make sure the Orders List is sorted by PO # (if not, click on the heading of that column to sort it).
2. Make sure the "Vendor Deposit Requirements" box is displayed, not that for client deposits to you. This is controlled by a display option at the bottom of the screen, but you can also right-click the section title to switch between client and vendor deposits on orders with billing type 2 or 3.
3. Click Edit or press Alt-E to edit the order (or, simply double-click on the "Vndr  Dep Inv #" box to trigger editing).

4. Enter the vendor's invoice number and date (or if it is a pro forma invoice, enter just "p" and FF&EZ will fill in the rest when you leave the field). Don't forget the date field shortcuts.

It is important to enter something meaningful in the "Vndr Dep Inv #" field—especially if the order requires a 100% deposit. Although you can use the "Proforma" option, any identifier that helps document the source of the charge will work (e.g., "EML 2021-02-28"). Having this entered for a pre-paid order will speed up reconciliation when using Processing> Enter/Reconcile Vendor Final Invoices later.

5. Enter the deposit requirements. If you know that the amounts are a standard percentage (e.g., 50%) of the order amounts, you can right-click in the "FF&E," "Tax" and "Freight" fields to automatically fill in the equivalent amount, or you can enter the amounts manually. For instance, to enter 50% of the merchandise deposit, right-click on that field and press 5.

Note: The separate entries for freight and tax are for convenience in calculating individual components of the deposit (since you can right-click on them for common percentages). The "Total required" is a lump sum that is eventually applied to order items on a "first processed, first applied" basis, without regard for the type of expense.

6. Once you choose a deposit percentage, you can re-use it by double-clicking in subsequent deposit entry fields. This includes deposit entries in other orders. FF&EZ will remember the percentage until you close the Orders List screen.
7. Save the entries by clicking Save, pressing Alt-S, or pressing Ctrl-Enter.

Procedure for Multiple Deposit Invoices

1. Locate the order. If needed, use the Find tool at the bottom of the list and enter the order number for which the deposit is required. Ctrl-F is the hot key for the Find tool. (Also, make sure the Orders List is sorted by PO #. If not, first click on the heading of that column to sort it).
2. Make sure the "Vendor Deposit Requirements" box is displayed, not that for client deposits to you.
3. Click Edit or press Alt-E to edit the order (or, simply double-click on the "Vndr  Dep Inv #" box to trigger editing). Below is the same example from above, representing a deposit for an order that has been paid. In this case, no check request was issued—the status was entered directly after the payment was made.
   
   
4. If the vendor sends another deposit invoice (e.g., for additional items added to the order or for a 100% pre-payment, click on the Multiple button at the top right. This will open the Vendor Invoices list and (if using this option for the first time) automatically create a first entry from the original single invoice information:
   
5. To enter an additional invoice, click on the Add button. This will create a new line below the existing one.
6. Enter the vendor's invoice number and date (or if it is a pro forma invoice, enter just "p" and FF&EZ will fill in the rest when you leave the field). Don't forget the date field shortcuts.

It is important to enter something meaningful in the "Vndr Dep Inv #" field — especially if the order requires a 100% deposit or you have multiple invoices. Although you can use the "Proforma" option, any identifier that helps document the source of the charge will work (e.g., "EML 2021-02-28"). Having this entered for a pre-paid order will speed up reconciliation when using Processing>  Enter/Reconcile Vendor FinalInvoices later.

7. Enter the deposit requirements. Use the invoice as the source for these entries. Note: The separate entries for freight and tax are for convenience in calculating individual components of the deposit. The "Total required" will be added to the total for the order.

Unlike the right-click percentage options on the main Orders form, automatic calculation of an amount isn't available here, because only partial FF&E, freight and tax amounts are involved, not the total base amounts from the order.

8. Click on Update Order button to return to the Orders List screen. Important: You have updated the Order screen, but your entries have not been saved yet. If you use the Revert button, the entries will return to their status before you used the Multiple option.
9. Save the entries by clicking the order's main Save button, pressing Alt-S, or pressing Ctrl-Enter.

Don't confuse an additional deposit request (prior to shipping) with a "final invoice" in which the final shipped quantities are confirmed and a balance payment is requested. All orders must eventually be processed with Processing> Enter/Reconcile Vendor Final Invoices, even if 100% pre-paid, in order to verify final quantities and officially apply the deposits paid.

Canceling Multiple Invoice Entries

When you click on the Multiple button to enable more than one vendor invoice to be recorded, FF&EZ automatically creates the first entry based on what is currently shown on the Orders screen. Once an entry is created, the system only shows the summary totals on the main screen.

If you decide that you don't need to record more than one invoice, you can return to the default behavior by using the >Single button on the invoices sub-screen. This deletes the single invoice entry and transfers any information in it back to the main screen as editable fields.

You can also delete invoice entries as long as they have not been paid. You can delete an entry in the "Deposit paid" field as long as it does not reduce the total paid for the order to less than what has been applied to order items with the Enter/Reconcile Vendor Final Invoices reconciliation process.

Issuing Documents

After entering the required deposits, you have the option of printing a deposit check request, which updates the "Chk Request" field with a document number. This is not required, but is recommended since it is part of the "official" documentation process for the amounts owed to a vendor. See Issuing Deposit Check Requests.

The "Deposit Status," "Vendor Invoice List," "Vendor Payment List" and "Vendor Payment Recap" reports on the Orders List Print setup screen can be used to track the status of total deposit amounts. If you only need to report a simple list of what invoices have been received and what has been paid, the "Vendor Invoice List" is a good choice.

Additional deposit requests to a client are typically needed when a vendor wants the client to pre-pay the remainder of an original 50% request or make up a difference caused by a quantity or price change. If you have already generated a deposit request from the original deposit, the system will display the deposit numbers in red and will remind you if you change them.

You can send an updated "additional" deposit request to a client. First, be sure that all previous deposits received have been recorded on the affected order(s). Then locate the original deposit request on the Requests List screen (not the Orders screen), and use the Print command to print the "Additional Deposit Request" report as a revised version of the original request. Note: If you already have the desired order highlighted on the Orders screen, the Check Requests screen should automatically move to it.

If you wish to use a different title for the "Additional Deposit Request" report, simply enter it in the "Title" field on the report setup screen (and use Save Report Options to create a pre-configured report that you can use over and over).

Data Entry Shortcuts

Like many screens, there are shortcuts you can use to streamline data entry. The most important of these are the standard date shortcuts and the shortcuts for entering specific amounts based on your other entries. The latter make use of right-clicking the mouse to produce a context menu:

Once you have the order's quantities and costs settled, and (if applicable) have entered a tax rate or tax quote and a freight quote in the "Vendor / Supplier" section, you can right-click on the deposit amount entries to either enter a pre-calculated amount or enter the full deposit amount in the "Deposit Paid" field.

Note that the shortcuts for the required deposits do not work on the Vendor Invoice List subscreen where you manage multiple vendor invoices. However, you can still right-click the "Deposit Paid" field on that screen to insert the total deposit amount when recording a payment.