Making a Sale

Requirements

• You must have created an inventory item so that you can look up the item when creating the order.

Types of Orders

Orders in CloudBridal come in three different types:

1. Special Order: This is an order for an item that you do not have in stock and must order from a vendor. This order type allows you to track the status of the order from the time the customer places it to the time they pick it up.
2. Off-the-Shelf Order: This is an order for an item that you have in stock and can sell to the customer immediately. Additionally, you can create layaway orders by selecting this order type.
3. Rental: This is an order for an item that you rent out to customers. This order type allows you to track the status of the rental from the time the customer places it to the time they return it.

To begin creating an order, you can either do so directly from the orders page or from a customer's profile page by clicking the New Order button and selecting the type of order you would like to place.

Special Order

Begin by selecting the type of special order you would like to place. Then simply fill out the order details. Based on the item type, you may see different fields.

Main Fields

• Order Status: This begins as New so you generally don't need to change it when ringing up the initial order.
• Ordered by Customer Date: The date the customer placed the order, defaults to today.
• Vendor: The vendor you are ordering the item from. This is a dropdown list of vendors you have added to CloudBridal.
• Item Name/Description: The name of the item. This is a dropdown list of items for the selected vendor. Alternatively, you can key in the item name if you know it.
• Color: The color that the customer wants to order.
• Size: The size to order for the customer, which is generally based on their measurements. Quick Tip: You can enter size charts for each vendor to make it easier to look up the size from their measurements.
• Comments: These are internal comments for the order that are not visible to the customer. It can be a good idea to note anything special about the order here.
• Measurements Section: These are the customer's measurements.
• Price Section: CloudBridal will look up the item's sale price based on your inventory, but you can make any adjustments as needed.

Adding Additional items

Special orders allow you to add additional items to the order. This can be done by clicking the Add to Order button on the top-left of the order. Each order you add will have its own set of fields, and will contribute to the total price of the entire order.

Quick Tip: Did you know that you can add more than just physical items to an order? Since your inventory can be anything (services, customizations, etc.), you can use the Add to Order button to add these extras.

Off-the-Shelf Order

Off-the-shelf orders are very quick and easy to fill out. Simply follow these steps:

1. Search for the item's name in the Item Name field. This will bring up a list of items that match your search.
2. The system will prompt you to select the item's variety from your inventory. If you have just 1 variety, it will automatically select it.
3. If you are doing a layaway, uncheck the Paid in Full At Time of Sale checkbox. This will allow you to enter a deposit amount for the layaway. By default, the order will be marked as paid in full.

When you create the order, it will automatically decrease the quantity of the item in your inventory.

Rental Order

Rentals follow the same process as off-the-shelf orders, but with a few additional fields:

• Rental Status: Defaults to Rented for new orders, but you can change it to Returned when the customer returns the item or Uncollectible if you are unable to collect the item.
• Due Date: The date the customer must return the item by.

If you have enabled rental tracking for the item's type, you will see additional fields:

• Item Reserved From: The date the item was reserved from.
• Item Reserved To: The date the item was reserved to.

These fields track the availability of the item to prevent you from overbooking it.

Payments & Initial Deposit

In most cases, CloudBridal does not actually process payments for you. Instead, you must record any payments that the customer makes which is required for the purposes of generating a receipt and sales agreement. To record a payment, simply do the following:

1. Click the View All Payments button and then click New Payment.
2. Fill out the payment details as needed. For example, if you are recording a 50% deposit, simply click the Pay Half button and select their payment method. You can also enter custom amounts.

It's important to note that just because you've entered a payment in CloudBridal, it doesn't mean that the payment has been processed. You must still process the payment through your payment processor (e.g. Square, Stripe, Clover etc.).

Note that you will generally want to go over the terms and conditions of the sale with the customer before you actually process any payments for them.

Receipt & Sales agreement

Printing a receipt is quite easy. After creating the customer's order, simply do the following:

1. Navigate to the Receipts & Documents tab in the customer's profile.
2. Click the New Receipt button. Depending on how you've configured CloudBridal, you may have different receipt templates to choose from.
3. You can then click Preview Receipt to see how the receipt will look before you print it. Note that for most setups, your sales agreement will be included in the receipt, but this depends on how your site is configured.

Physical Signature

To print the receipt on paper, click the Print button on the top left of the receipt.

Digital Signature

You can also have the customer sign the receipt digitally. To do so, click the Send for E-Sign button. This will open up a screen with 2 options:

1. Send Email: This will send the customer an email with a link to sign the receipt.
2. Direct Link: This will give you a link that you can click in-store to have the customer sign the receipt. This is useful if you have a tablet or computer in-store that you can use to have the customer sign the receipt.

Digitally signed receipts are also stored in the customer's profile for future reference, along with their signature and the date and time they signed it.

Processing the Payment

After the customer has reviewed the receipt and sales agreement, you can then process their payment through your payment processor to finish off the sale.