Jewelry Order Management System

4 minutes · WJewel jewelry software

The video version of our jewelry order management guide: the order types a jewelry business has to handle, what every order should record, a worked example of deposits and balances, and where orders go wrong without a system. The last part shows special orders in WJewel, from the order on the sale to the job bag, the ready-for-pickup text and the open-orders list.

What the video covers

Special orders, custom design, wholesale POs, online orders, memo conversions and repairs
Customer, deposits, commitments, who does the work, dates by stage, history and final margin
A worked example of deposits and the balance at pickup
Vendor delays, missed promise dates and short shipments, and the open-orders list that fixes them
Special orders in WJewel: details, job bags, customer texts, payments, pickup and vendor POs

Chapters

0:00 Every order is a promise
0:17 Order types a jewelry OMS must handle
0:54 What every order should record
1:27 Deposits and balances: a worked example
1:52 Where orders go wrong without a system
2:13 Special orders in WJewel
3:04 Contact us

Transcript

Read the full transcript

Every order is a promise

Orders in a jewelry business arrive from every direction, and each one is a promise with money attached. A special order at the counter, a six-week custom job, a wholesale purchase order, a late-night online checkout.

Order types a jewelry OMS must handle

An order management system holds every one of those promises in one place. Special orders: the ring in the case, but in size 7 and white gold. The variations belong in fields on the order, not in a note. Custom design has stages, from design and CAD to casting and setting, with money at more than one of them. Wholesale purchase orders have many lines and partial shipments, so the open lines have to stay visible. And online orders, memo conversions and repairs need the same discipline.

What every order should record

Whatever the type, every order needs the same backbone: the customer and where updates go, plus the price, the deposits taken and the balance due, what's committed, a stock piece, a vendor order or a production job, and who's doing the work, the promised and actual date for each stage, and a status history of who changed what, and the final cost and margin: the only way to know which custom jobs to say yes to next time.

Deposits and balances: a worked example

Deposits are where loose tracking turns into real money. A $4,000 custom ring takes a $2,000 deposit. Then a $600 hidden halo is added, and the customer pays $500 in cash at the wax approval. With every payment posted against the order, the balance at pickup is simply $2,100.

Where orders go wrong without a system

Without a system, the same failures repeat: a special order sits in a vendor's queue for weeks, a custom job passes its promised date, and a short shipment's missing lines are forgotten. Each one is a visibility problem. One list of open orders, read every morning, fixes it.

Special orders in WJewel

In WJewel, a special order starts right on the sale. Click Special Order, and enter the details of the piece: the vendor's style number, metal type, finger size, center stone size, and the promised date. Once the sale is saved, a job bag tracks which jeweler is working on it, the materials used, and any labor charges. When the job is ready, the customer can be texted or emailed automatically. In the Sales menu, Special Orders has every order in progress. See every open order and what stage it's at, record more payments, and mark orders as picked up. And placing purchase orders with your vendors is fast and accurate.

Contact us

You'll find the full guide on the WJewel blog. WJewel is fully web-based, and runs on PCs, Macs, tablets and phones. To learn more, visit www.wjewel.com, or call us at (646) 578-8300.