RE: Sales Orders with Multiple Prepayments
Hello Rebekah.
I think the best way is to modify the prepayment functionality, so that you generate a prepayment invoice for 50% of the amount before the order will be released and a second prepayment invoice before the shipment posting. For that you have to change the functionality, so that the sales order can be released while the second prepayment is not payed.
Another solution could be to add new lines with the type "Charge (Item)" and a negative amount and then create new separate sales invoices. If you do not only use items in your orders, you cannot use the type "Charge (Item)", but types like "G/L Account" or a special resource which may be created for this purpose.
If you do not want to have additional lines you could use dicounts, but that may have some negative affects on your reportings.
All this could be done programmatically with a new activity buttons for the first 50% and during the sales order release for the 40%. The problem is, that you do not have control over the payments of these invoices. You must have disciplined users or you must add some extra code that checks the payment status of the first invoice during the order release and the payment status of the second invoice during shipment posting.
If you must have the possibility to credit the prepayment invoices because the customers cancel or modify their orders, you also must modify your new functionality, so that the invoices can be adjusted by credit memos and replaced by new prepayment invoices.
But here we are at my first solution again to modify the existing prepayment functionality.
Martin