[ main menu ] Once the final "PLACE ORDER" button is pressed, the temporary file holding the shoppers current order session is moved into the pending orders database file. If you have chosen to enter an e-mail address in the basic configurations, an e-mail copy of the order will also be mailed. The orders databases can be accessed via the Web by clicking the "Pending / Processed Orders" link in the administration area. The pending orders are orders that have not been moved to the processed (or cleared) orders database yet. All orders that arrive are first placed in the pending orders database. You must clear the orders to move them to the processed orders database. Here they can remain where they are used to generate the sales reports. Current Order - Order Summary Screen The first screen in this area will be the Current Order
(Order Summary) screen. This will list a summary of each order in your
pending orders folder including the order number, order date, customer id, and
order total. The order number for each order summarized will be linked to the
full order details. There are three sub menus on this page: Full Order Details - This link will display the full details of ALL the pending OR processed orders (depending on which database you have chosen to access). Full Credit Card Details - For all orders that have credit card information associated with it, they have separate file located in the username/secure directory on the secure server that holds the credit card information. This will show all the available information for all the orders. Cleared Orders - By clicking this link all of the above links will be for the cleared (or processed) orders database. Once in this database, this link will change to "Pending Orders". Retrieving Order Details / Printing Orders
Payment Method - If the payment method is via credit card, the name of the payment method will either be linked to the the credit card information file located in the username/secure directory on the secure server or to your secure logon screen if using AuthorizeNet or Card Services International (Virtual LinkPoint). This information will be accessed via "https://" thus encrypting the data. NOTE: Due to the way the Hostahoy Shopping Cart writes data to different databases, if a credit card order is not completed in the last step, the order will still be written to the pending orders database and the vendor will be notified. However when checking the order you will know if valid credit card data has been entered or not. If this happens often for your store, you may want to select to not notify vendor via email in the basic configurations. Vendor Notes - You can annotate the orders by using the "vendor notes" textarea. Any notes you make will remain with the order until the order is trashed. If you choose to "share with customer", then these notes will be visible to the customer when they enter their order in the "Order Number" input box anywhere in your store. This is very useful for customers checking the status of their order. If you do not choose to share vendor notes with the customer, the customer will still be able to check the status of the order. IF the order is in the pending orders database, they will see the message "This is a current order in our system and is still pending." If the order is in the processed orders database, they will see the message "This is a completed order in our system." These messages are vague and that is why it is recommended that you share the notes with the customers and add more detail as to when the order will be shipped, why delayed, etc. Send Customer E-mail - Very often vendors want to keep their customers updated on the status of an order. For example, if you ship and order you would want to let the customer know the order had been shipped. You can do this inside the order screen by selecting any number of default messages that you create. To create a default message, just enter your information like you are sending a message for the first time. But before you click the "Send Message" button, make sure you have the "Save Message" box checked. The message will be saved as the subject so make sure the subject is descriptive. Suggestion: if you want to create messages to build a message database and do not want to send them to the customer, replace your own address as the "TO:" address. To delete a default message first select in the pull down menu, hit the "Select" button, check the "Delete Message" checkbox, then hit the "Send Message" button. No message will be sent if the "Delete Message" checkbox is selected. Order Status - Once the order has been printed or fulfilled, you can move it to the "Processed Orders" database by selecting the "Clear Order Number Above" checkbox and hitting the "Cleared Selected" button that appears at the bottom of the screen. If the order is an error or is bogus, you can trash the order by selecting the "Trash" checkbox and hitting the "Cleared Selected" button that appears at the bottom of the screen. Credit Card Details If you are using the Hostahoy Shopping Cart script to collect and store credit card information, then credit card details are kept in a separate file than the orders databases since they should be on a secure server. In the payment/tax configurations database, you have the option for each payment method to add a secure URL to post to. By adding a secure URL, this will take the shopper to the secure area for entering credit card information. These credit card details should be cleared on a regular basis. Once cleared, they are immediately deleted from the server. |
