Intro to Customer Fulfillment (Special Orders & Back Orders)

• Windward resumed virtual webinars for 2026 focused on customer fulfillment workflows in System Five.
• Charlene (Director of Professional Services) demonstrated two core workflows: special orders (for non-stock or customizable items) and back orders (for regularly stocked items).
• Special orders use a virtual warehouse/catalog and a single "miscellaneous" part to avoid bloating inventory; subtypes track status (e.g., ready for delivery) and automate allocation on receipt.
• Back orders are handled via the Required Orders and Backorders reports, letting staff decide allocation when stock arrives (manual or fill-all options).
• Receiving workflows include printing labels/shipping tags, using reports as worksheets, and notifying salespeople; an upcoming release adds a toast pop-up plus office mail/email notification for arriving special orders.
• Resources and next steps: a deeper workshop on March 5 (virtual, $79), one-to-one assistance, Windward Self-Help, knowledge base, and Windward Learning Academy.
• Practical tips: customize the top menu with Quick List and personalize grids to reduce clicks and improve efficiency.

 

00:05 - Host (Kyle): All right, welcome everybody.

00:07 - Host (Kyle): We've brought back webinars for 2026 and today we've got customer fulfillment.

00:13 - Host (Kyle): What we really are trying to get to at the bottom of today is understanding special orders and back orders.

00:20 - Host (Kyle): To get us started off, we've got Charlene, who's our Director of Professional Services here at Windward Software.

00:27 - Host (Kyle): I'm going to go ahead and take it away.

00:30 - Charlene: Yes, for sure.

00:31 - Charlene: So welcome everyone, and thank you so much for taking the 30 minutes out of your day to join us.

00:37 - Charlene: We're really excited about this new launch of virtual events in 2026.

00:42 - Charlene: I'm going to just take a minute and share with you where that's coming from.

00:47 - Charlene: We have gone through a bit of a journey of webinars and workshops in the past.

00:52 - Charlene: Post-COVID, we went back to live in-person events.

00:54 - Charlene: You can see an image there of one of our colleagues presenting at Dallas Market Center.

00:59 - Charlene: Those events have always resulted in a lot of positive feedback from our customers about the experience and the content.

01:03 - Charlene: We recently recognized that it's not always easy for people to get to a live event.

01:12 - Charlene: There are staffing challenges, travel costs, and other barriers.

01:22 - Charlene: We really see the value in the content we're presenting at workshops and want to make it accessible regardless of location or time constraints.

01:29 - Charlene: The topics we cover were high value to our customers and we wanted a low-time-commitment, low-cost format that still delivers value.

01:40 - Charlene: So that's where this is coming from.

01:46 - Charlene: We haven't done something like this in a couple of years and want to bring it back.

02:02 - Charlene: Today’s webinar introduces the topic of customer fulfillment, which is popular from our live events.

02:03 - Charlene: We see many "aha" moments where customers realize workflows they can use in System5.

02:08 - Charlene: We want to drive home the workflows that allow you to deliver a great customer experience.

02:10 - Charlene: After the webinar, we will discuss a deeper workshop planned in a couple of weeks.

02:17 - Charlene: In the next 30 minutes, we are focusing on fulfillment.

02:21 - Charlene: You can't always have the exact product in store cash-and-carry, so you need the ability to order items in for customers.

02:28 - Charlene: Today we focus on two powerful topics: special orders and back orders.

02:35 - Charlene: Who should attend? Anyone involved in the customer fulfillment journey.

02:41 - Charlene: Customers often ask, "When can I get it?" and we want to streamline the workflow in System5 to provide that information.

02:54 - Charlene: The benefit is an amazing customer experience in a competitive market.

02:57 - Charlene: Quick note on questions: use the question icon at the top right to submit questions; we'll address them at the end or follow up after the event.

03:03 - Charlene: On proven impact: I'll demonstrate a feature tied to the special order workflow called subtype staging.

03:08 - Charlene: A customer who used subtype staging saw a 30% reduction in delivery timelines within the first month of deployment.

03:17 - Charlene: We're aiming for efficiencies so you can provide a great customer experience.

03:23 - Charlene: We'll start with special orders.

03:24 - Charlene: Special orders are used to manage stock you don't normally carry.

03:26 - Charlene: Vendors often provide a catalog of items you might not stock.

03:30 - Charlene: Special orders are ideal for non-stock items you might bring in for a single customer.

03:43 - Charlene: Customizable items (e.g., furniture in a different fabric) are true special orders.

03:44 - Charlene: The risk with special orders is increased errors, so a tight workflow is important.

03:46 - Charlene: We'll demonstrate how to prevent misses or accidentally selling that product to someone else.

03:52 - Charlene: We'll walk through special ordering a miscellaneous part from a supplier catalog.

03:58 - Charlene: Instead of creating many one-off parts in your system, you can special order a miscellaneous part to avoid bloating inventory.

04:03 - Charlene: We'll also look at special order reporting, arrival notifications, and status tracking to move the product into the customer's hands quickly.

04:04 - Charlene: Now we'll switch into a live demo of System5.

04:05 - Charlene: We'll start with a special order of a miscellaneous part.

04:09 - Charlene: The virtual warehouse is a database for storing a digital catalog from your vendor.

04:10 - Charlene: If a vendor provides a digital catalog, we can load it into System5.

04:15 - Charlene: I'm pulling a sample report with made-up content from Lumenworks Lighting and Brimco Supplies to show the concept.

04:18 - Charlene: That content is not in your active inventory but is accessible in System5.

04:23 - Charlene: Special orders always start with a brand-new sale, recorded as a work order in progress.

04:25 - Charlene: I'll talk about subtypes—the subtype workflow helped reduce delivery time for that customer I mentioned.

04:32 - Charlene: Subtypes are customizable; I created subtypes to indicate whether a special order is for delivery or pickup.

04:34 - Charlene: Identifying subtypes lets the system move the work order to "ready for delivery" automatically upon receipt, enabling specific reporting and scheduling.

04:47 - Charlene: We'll set this order for delivery; our customer is requesting delivery.

05:04 - Charlene: Mr. Idle is the customer who will be ordering the product in this demo.

05:06 - Charlene: I'll call products from the catalog in the virtual warehouse.

05:10 - Charlene: Perhaps the customer saw the item online or in a paper catalog; we'll select an item from the virtual warehouse.

05:19 - Charlene: This item is in the virtual warehouse and not in active inventory; we have a virtual warehouse icon to indicate it.

05:21 - Charlene: The virtual warehouse listing is grayed out and has no quantities because it's never been used before.

05:25 - Charlene: The customer wants to purchase a table leg set; we'll select that and special order it.

05:32 - Charlene: A prompt appears automatically when ordering something from the virtual warehouse that you've never ordered before, indicating a special order will be created.

05:34 - Charlene: The configuration decides that we will order two of these and queue the special order.

05:38 - Charlene: Note the part number FUR-0013 is shown, but the inventory does not create a unique part.

05:49 - Charlene: System5 uses a single "miscellaneous" part for this workflow to avoid creating many one-off parts.

05:52 - Charlene: That part is identified as "special order" or SO and is reused for these orders.

05:57 - Charlene: Now that this is a special order, we'll go through placing the purchase order.

06:02 - Charlene: Purchasing for special orders may shift to a different person in the organization.

06:05 - Charlene: There are a few ways to handle special order purchasing; for this demo we'll create a single purchase order for this customer-specific item.

06:07 - Charlene: Another method is the Required Orders report, which aggregates everything you need to place on a PO.

06:17 - Charlene: For this workflow we'll create a new purchase order for the supplier Lumenworks Lighting.

06:22 - Charlene: The two-leg set appears and we add it to the special order on the purchase order.

06:30 - Charlene: The purchase order behaves like a regular PO and highlights special orders in green as a visual cue.

06:37 - Charlene: We'll send the purchase order; printing special order notes on the PO is optional depending on vendor needs.

06:42 - Charlene: Now we'll edit the purchase order to bring the items in; time has passed and the vendor has delivered.

06:48 - Charlene: We're receiving two items, and at receipt we can print shipping labels to prevent the product from being given to someone else.

06:54 - Charlene: At receiving you can print shipping labels and place them on the product; these can live in a will-call section of the warehouse.

07:03 - Charlene: The order is for Billy Idol and we have his address; next we'll cover notifications and next steps after receiving.

07:07 - Charlene: Receiving may be done by the warehouse, and another person may be responsible for contacting the customer and scheduling delivery.

07:10 - Charlene: Tools available include reports like the Special Order report.

07:25 - Charlene: The special order report is multi-purpose; it shows product that has arrived but has not yet been invoiced.

07:34 - Charlene: For example, Billy Idol's item appears on this report; it acts as a worksheet where you can drill into each order.

07:36 - Charlene: Double-clicking takes you into the invoice so you can schedule delivery or call the customer for pickup; the phone number is included.

07:41 - Charlene: This report supports team workflows to determine next steps.

07:59 - Charlene: Another useful report is the Invoice report, which calls on the subtypes created for work orders.

08:01 - Charlene: Use a date range for the invoice report depending on delivery lead times to see what's ready for delivery.

08:06 - Charlene: Customized reports can show what is ready for delivery each morning and provide the content to put on the truck.

08:12 - Charlene: In settings you can also list parts on each order so you know exactly what to load on the truck.

08:22 - Host (Kyle): Just a little time check here — we're 20 minutes in.

08:29 - Charlene: I know, I'm aware. Thank you.

08:36 - Charlene: That covers special orders; now let's talk about back orders.

08:48 - Charlene: Back orders serve a different purpose — they are for products you regularly order and stock.

08:51 - Charlene: Back orders are not special or unique; they help you avoid turning customers away when an item is out of stock.

08:57 - Charlene: The back order workflow is similar but has more flexibility at the end and lacks subtypes' automation.

08:59 - Charlene: We'll run through a quick back order demo.

09:07 - Charlene: I'm going quickly through this to highlight capabilities you may want to explore further.

09:12 - Charlene: We'll select a product — hockey targets — and trigger a backorder pop-up.

09:16 - Charlene: Once backordered, use the Required Orders report to bring those items into purchase orders.

09:18 - Charlene: The Required Orders report aggregates back orders, replenishment needs, min/max items, and can create POs from that list.

09:27 - Charlene: This is an efficiency tool for combining replenishment and back order needs into purchase orders.

09:29 - Charlene: It allows creating the purchase order directly from the report.

09:43 - Charlene: I'm not showing the full purchase and receiving process again, but when back orders are received, your indicator is the Backorders report.

09:44 - Charlene: Backorders provide flexibility to identify how you want to allocate stock when it arrives.

09:51 - Charlene: Special orders allocate based on the work order; backorders let you decide allocation by fillability.

09:54 - Charlene: The backorders report scans orders and matches incoming stock to outstanding work orders, so it can be slower to run.

09:57 - Charlene: I triggered high priority on the report to speed it up for the demo, but that can impact other users.

10:11 - Charlene: The backorders report shows available stock ready to ship and acts as a worksheet for filling orders individually or using "fill all."

10:24 - Charlene: Backorders are less automated than special orders; you must perform the fills and can prioritize by date, customer loyalty, or other criteria.

10:25 - Charlene: If inventory is insufficient, you can choose allocation logic for the received items.

10:32 - Charlene: A few final points before we end the half hour: special orders and back orders have two methods to identify stock in reports.

10:33 - Charlene: Spoiler for our next general release: we'll add instant notifications for special orders when they arrive.

10:44 - Charlene: The system will still allocate stock back to the work order, but will also show a toast pop-up in the bottom right of the screen notifying the salesperson.

10:54 - Charlene: The pop-up sends an office mail message and an email to the salesperson with details like invoice number, part number, and purchase order number.

10:58 - Charlene: This upcoming feature is highly requested and will proactively notify salespeople when a special order for their customer arrives.

11:05 - Charlene: Two more quick usage tips and then we'll open for questions.

11:11 - Charlene: Tip one: customize the top menu bar using a Quick List for commonly used actions to save clicks.

11:11 - Charlene: I customized my top menu for this webinar to speed navigation.

11:15 - Charlene: Quick List is customizable per individual and lets you add functions like new sale, edit sale, and customer lookup.

11:26 - Charlene: Use the customize button by the search bar to open Quick List and add or remove items.

11:29 - Charlene: Once saved, you have quick access to your chosen items.

11:33 - Charlene: Tip two: customize grids (rows and columns) throughout System5 to surface meaningful columns and hide others, which reduces clicks.

11:39 - Charlene: Right-click any grid, choose customize, and add or remove columns relevant to your workflow.

11:53 - Charlene: Grid customization is per user and helps display fields like size, category, or other important attributes.

11:55 - Charlene: Those are a couple of tricks to reduce clicks and improve efficiency in System5.

12:13 - Charlene: Now a few resources: Windward Self-Help, the evolving knowledge base from Customer Care, and the Windward Learning Academy for searchable training content.

12:28 - Charlene: Next steps: if you want a deeper dive into customer fulfillment workflows, join our workshop on March 5th at 9 a.m. Pacific.

12:34 - Charlene: The workshop will demonstrate configuration, subtypes, reporting, and how to match System5 to your specific workflow.

12:38 - Charlene: We also offer one-to-one sessions for personalized guidance after the workshop.

12:47 - Charlene: The workshop is intended to be low time commitment (one to two hours), low cost, and practical.

12:49 - Charlene: Virtual event registration is $79 to keep it accessible.

12:53 - Charlene: After the workshop, one-on-one training is available if you want guided implementation.

12:55 - Charlene: I think we're a little past 30 minutes; are there any questions in the chat, Kyle?

13:02 - Host (Kyle): There were a couple: one was that the special order window didn't pop up for a person; I told them configuration would be covered in the workshop.

13:04 - Host (Kyle): The other was about back orders: is there a way to print only the items being supplied on back order and not the whole work order?

13:10 - Charlene: I'm not sure; are we talking about printing labels or the work order?

13:17 - Host (Kyle): They don't want the entire work order, just the backordered items.

13:20 - Charlene: To print on the work order specifically, I'm not sure of the exact fast way to show that now.

13:30 - Host (Kyle): We need more information, but we can answer that offline and get clarity on the request.

13:34 - Charlene: Okay.

13:41 - Host (Kyle): All right, thanks everybody for coming; we're excited to bring this back for the year and hope some of you will come to the workshop.

13:46 - Host (Kyle): You can go to windwardsoftware.com/training for workshop and webinar listings for the year.

13:58 - Host (Kyle): We're considering a possible live event in the Okanagan Valley in September, but no date is set yet.

14:07 - Host (Kyle): We're looking forward to seeing attendees on March 5th.

14:17 - Charlene: Thank you for joining this test run of our first webinar; I hope it was valuable and appreciate your time and attendance.

14:19 - Host (Kyle): Thanks, everybody.