Converting a quote to an order:

-Once you have created a new quote, (click here to learn more about creating quotes) you can convert the quote by going to the top right of the quote area and opening the drop down menu next to “What would you like to do?”

-Here find Convert to Order and hit Go

-You have just converted this quote to an order.

Remember that this eliminates the quote and makes that Quote number the new order number.

Converting an order to a quote:

allows you to convert and existing order back into a quote where you can then have your customer review and confirm before committing to an actual order.

- First, look up your previous order in your DistributorCentral account

-  Then click on the Reorder button on the right side of the page

- From here, you can indicate the order type; An exact reorder, A reorder with changes, or Rework of previous order (see description of these below), and then select the check box for Convert Reorder into Quote 

- Then click on the Create Reorder button (see example image below)

- From here, you can revise the quote if you like, and then click on the Finish button officially save the quote, where you can then send it to your customer…if you customer approves the quote, you can then convert that quote back into an order. (see above)

PayPal – Collect Info Only
PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing
Credit Card – PayPal Payflow Pro Merchant Account Processing

You should only select to use one of the PayPal payment methods for your website’s shopping cart.

PayPal – Collect Info Only
This option would allow your customers during the ordering process on your website, to indicate to pay you using PayPal. If your customer chooses this option, it’s setup so that you can invoice your customer using PayPal, or you can create an invoice within your DistributorCentral account and the customer can click on the “Pay online now” link in the invoice, where they can then pay you through PayPal.

Click here for specific instructions on how to integrate the PayPal – Collect Info Only method with your DistributorCentral account.

PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing
If you want to give the customer the ability to Pay through PayPal during the order process, then the PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing would prompt the customer to pay during the ordering process, so you’d receive the funds in your PayPal account once you get the order, as opposed to having to invoice the customer after you receive the order. You need to have the Billing contact email address in your DistributorCentral account set as the same email address you have setup for your PayPal account.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu and select Account Maintenance
- Click on the Contacts tab
- Next, if you don’t have a Billing contact setup, click on Add Similar or on the Add New Contact button and setup a Billing contact making sure to use the same email address that you have setup with your PayPal account.

The main difference here, is that PayPal – Collect Info Only, allows you to verify the order and make sure everything checks out on your end, where you can make modifications to the order prior to officially invoicing the customer and colleting payment. PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing, would collect the payment from the customer at the time that they place the order. If you needed to make adjustment to the order (such as artwork, shipping charge, tax, etc.), you’d have to make the adjustments and send your customer an invoice for the outstanding balance.

So the premise is if you want to verify the order before actually charging the customer, you’d want to do PayPal – Collect Info Only. if you have set products on a site that you feel would not need to be adjusted once you receive an order, then PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing might be a good fit.

Click here for more information on integrating the PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing payment method.

Credit Card – PayPal Payflow Pro Merchant Account Processing
This is considered a Payment Gateway that works as an extension to your merchant account, similar to Authorize.Net. If you choose this payment type, you’d be prompted to setup your Payflow credentials in your DistributorCentral account. The shopping cart on your website will default to automatically pre-authorize the customer’s credit card during the ordering process to make sure that the payment is available for the amount of the order. Then you will be able to verify the order and settle the payment from inside your DistributorCentral account, where the payment would also show a record of the settled payment within your Payflow account.

Click here to review other payment methods that you can use for the shopping cart on your DistributorCentral website.

This makes it more convenient for those that have standard directions or disclaimers regarding most of their orders. No need to retype for each order!

PO’s to Customers

Add in stock language to order confirmation to your customers:

1. Go to Account Menu> Preferences> Account Preferences
2. Here Click on “Orders” on the left
3. Scroll down to the preferences titled “Would you like to include stock language on order confirmations to your customers?”
4. Type in the text that you would like to appear on that order to your customer
5. Save your changes.

That text will appear on all new PO’s here:

PO’s to Suppliers

Add in stock language to order confirmation to Suppliers:

1. Go to Account Menu> Preferences> Account Preferences
2. Here Click on “Orders” on the left
3. Scroll down to the preferences titled “Would you like to include stock language on order confirmations to Suppliers?”
4. Type in the text that you would like to appear on that order to the Supplier
5. Save your changes.

That text will appear on all new PO’s here:

Invoices to Customers

Add in stock language or directions on invoices to your customers:

1. Go to Account Menu> Preferences> Account Preferences
2. Here Click on “Invoices” on the left
3. Scroll down to the preferences titled “Would you like to include stock language on all invoices sent to your customers?”
4. Type in the text that you would like to appear on that invoice to your customer
5. Save your changes.

That text will appear on all new invoices here:

Other Resources:

DC Order Management and QuickBooks

Paypal and DC Order Management

Invoices with Promotional Information

Adding your Logo to Invoices

General DC Order Management Info

You can set this up by following these simple steps:

1.  Log in to your DC account
2. Go to Account Menu> Payment> Payment Setup
3.  Here Select “Paypal -Real-Time Merchant Processing” by moving it to the right box as a selected payment
4.  Once you Save your changes, you will be reverted to a page where you will enter in your Paypal associated email

Once this is done, the customer will be taken directly to PayPal upon clicking the “finish” button on the final order page. From there they can pay via PayPal or by standard credit card (if the recipient/Distributor has a “business” PayPal account).

Once the payment is completed, the Customer is reverted back to the Distributor’s website.

Distributors will get the order notification email and receive the order in their DC account whether the Customer completes the payment at PayPal or not.

If a payment is successfully posted at Paypal, that payment record will have the transaction id listed with it in the payment list for the order.

Click here to view other payment methods available for your shopping cart.

Click here for a pdf guide describing each available payment method.

Click here for a supplemental blog entry regarding PayPal and DistributorCentral.

An exact reorder – This indicates that there are no changes needed to the artwork/printing of the original order. Even if the quantity, shipping information, etc. will vary on the new order, it’s still considered an exact reorder if the artwork/printing remains the same.

A reorder with changes – This indicates that you will need revisions made to the artwork/printing of the original order. For example, if there needs to be a change in the imprint color(s), a change in the imprint, etc.

Rework of previous order – This indicates that there was a discrepancy or mistake with the original either on the Supplier end or on the Distributor end. For example, if the Supplier printed the wrong artwork, the Distributor indicated the wrong shipping address, etc. Oftentimes, the Supplier and Distributor parties involved will agree to a reduced price for Rework orders.

Click here to learn how to place a Reorder.

To access this feature:

- First, look up your previous order in your DistributorCentral account

-  Then click on the Reorder button on the right side of the page

- From here, you can indicate the order type; An exact reorder, A reorder with changes, or Rework of previous order (see description of these below), and then select the check box for Convert Reorder into Quote 

- Then click on the Create Reorder button (see example image below)

- From here, you can revise the quote if you like, and then click on the Finish button officially save the quote, where you can then send it to your customer…if you customer approves the quote, you can then convert that quote back into an order.

Reorder Types

Reorders can be created for any orders in your DistributorCentral account. However, it is only considered a Reorder if the order is for the same Customer. If the order is for a different customer, then you should always enter the order as New Order as opposed to a Reorder.

An exact reorder – This indicates that there are no changes needed to the artwork/printing of the original order. Even if the quantity, shipping information, etc. will vary on the new order, it’s still considered an exact reorder if the artwork/printing remains the same.

A reorder with changes – This indicates that you will need revisions made to the artwork/printing of the original order. For example, if there needs to be a change in the imprint color(s), a change in the imprint, etc.

Rework of previous order – This indicates that there was a discrepancy or mistake with the original either on the Supplier end or on the Distributor end. For example, if the Supplier printed the wrong artwork, the Distributor indicated the wrong shipping address, etc. Oftentimes, the Supplier and Distributor parties involved will agree to a reduced price for Rework orders.

The website that you have created in DistributorCentral account, or the link that you use for the product catalog on your outside website; both have a built-in shopping cart that allows your website visitors to place orders to you. You also have the ability to create your own Customer Orders and Supplier Purchase Orders from within your account as well. Below is one recommendation on how to use DistributorCentral and your PayPal account together to invoice your Customers, and even pay Suppliers.

First, for the shopping cart on your DistributorCentral website, you can indicate the payment method(s) that you would like to have available for your customers.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Select Payment and then Payment Setup
- Next, you can select PayPal – Collect info only and any other payment types that you would like to have available and then click on Save (see example below)

This is what your customer will see on the payment page on your website when placing an order (see example below).

Now that you’ve indicated how you would like to receive payment from your customers, next you can setup the invoice feature in your account so that payments will link with your PayPal account.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Select Preferences and then Account Preferences
- Click on the Invoices menu on the left side of the page
- From here, select Yes – PayPal Payment Page for the Display Pay Online link on invoices preference and then click on Save (see example below)

Now you need to make sure that your Billing contact email address in your DistributorCentral account is the same as the email address you have setup for your PayPal account.
To do this:
- Go to the Account menu
- Then select Account Maintenance
- Click on the Contacts tab
- Next, if you don’t have a Billing contact setup, click on Add Similar or on the Add New Contact button and setup a Billing contact making sure the use the same email address that you have setup with your PayPal account.

Testing your payment process
Once you have this setup up, you can try placing a test order to yourself from your website, or enter in a test order for a fake customer from within your DistributorCentral account. Note: When placing test orders, make sure you are on your “live” website (not in preview mode) while signed out of your DistributorCentral account.

After an order is placed from your website, you should receive an email confirmation, and the order should be saved in your DistributorCentral account. From this point, locate the order, and access the Summary page, where you can then review the order. You can make any changes to the Customer Order at this point, such as adding/removing charges, adding tax and freight, etc. Once you are ready, you can click on the Create Customer Invoice button (A) to create an invoice for your Customer. Then you can send the invoice to your Customer, by clicking on the Send button. This will allow you to email the invoice to your customer, where they can click on the Pay online now link (B) in the email, which will then prompt them to either login to their PayPal account or pay as a guest if you have a Business PayPal account (C), where they can pay the amount that is due on the invoice (see examples below). Once paid, the funds will be transferred to your PayPal account.

If you really want to streamline this process, you can get a PayPal MasterCard, and use that to pay your Suppliers. Then in your PayPal account, you can just move some of the funds that you received from your customer, and use it to pay the balance on your MasterCard all from within your PayPal account.

•  Once an order is submitted from your website, you’ll receive an email noting that there has been an order placed. Go to the Account Maintenance area in the Account menu to verify your email address. A notice will also display on the Home page in your DistributorCentral account (see figure below).  

•  Once you have located the order within your DistributorCentral account, you will be able to see who your customer is on the Order Summary page. You’ll also see  when they placed the order and any payment information they have provided (see figure below). 

DistributorCentral does not process any payments for you. Also, payments between you and your customer, and you and the supplier are separate. The payment information that your customer provides would need to be processed by you. You would then need to also provide your payment information separately to the supplier.
To access the payment setup area in your DistributorCentral account, Go to the Account Menu >> Payment >> Payment Setup.

•  On the Order Summary page, you’ll also be able to see who the supplier is for that product as well. Orders are never automatically sent to the supplier, and you will have control over when/if you would like the order to be sent to the supplier. (see figure below). 

•  Once you verify the order, you have the ability to create and send the PO to the supplier through the DistributorCentral system. If you prefer, you can also print out the order and fax it to the supplier, or you can save the order as a PDF and email it to the supplier with your standard email client (see figure below).  If it the first time placing an order with a supplier, you will need to contact them to setup an account and business relationship.

Watch the short video learn how handle orders from your DistributorCentral website. 

Click on the links below to access brief guides that can help you get your account setup and ready for business.

Checklist
Order Management Guide

To do this:
- Go to the Orders Menu
- Select Orders
- Then either Orders From Customers or Orders To Suppliers
- Enter in the search criteria for your order and select the Yes radio button in the Search Child Accounts area (see image below).

The shopping cart allows for the seller to enter all the payment options that they would like to offer to their customers.

The available payment methods are:

1. PayPal – Real-Time Merchant Processing
2. PayPal – Collect Info Only – (Invoice Later) -  Click here to learn more about Paypal options.
3. Credit Card – Collect Info Only – No Processing
4. Credit Card – Authorize.net Merchant Account
5. Credit Card – Paypal Payflow Pro Merchant Account
6. Check / Money Order
7. Bill To Account
8. Purchase Order
9. “We will call you for payment information”
10. “I will call you with my payment”
11. Pay Later
12. Proof Request Only
13. No Charge
14. Commission Deduct
15. Bill to Department Number

Click here to view a guide that lists all of the available options along with an explanation of those available and where you can make those changes.