MeatBooks gives us the ability to create processing orders for any customer in your database. We can also create and store the cutting instruction, and invoice for each processing order under that customers order history. In this section we will look at the steps required to create a new processing order, enter the order details, add animal identification information to the order, print the cutting instruction, and print the invoice for the order.
Creating a new processing order
Track farmer information
Track order details
Track animal identification data
Print an Invoice for your customer
Print a Cutting Instruction for this order
1. Create a processing order
To start a new Processing Order (Cutting Instruction) simply click the tab labeled “Customers” on the main MeatBooks toolbar. (See example below)
This screen will appear:
Once you have selected a customer you may proceed by clicking on the ‘New Processing Order’ under the ‘Actions’ menu at the bottom left of your customer screen. The customer selected will be highlighted in RED.
The “New Processing Order” screen will appear (see below):
Note: The customers name is listed in RED at the top of the box. This order will be created for that customer.
1 - First select the Animal you wish to process from the drop down box named Animal (these are the animals that have been entered in at the time of setting up your animals and cuts into MeatBooks).
2 - Select the Head fee from the drop down box named Head.
3 - Select if you are using a blank cutting instruction, a customer’s cutting instruction, or a companies cutting instruction. We have decided to use a company default cutting instructions in this example.
4 - Click the Finish button to continue to the order details page.
This opens the processing order information. Here we have four tabs which are Order Details, Cutting Instructions, Retail-Item Add On, and Animal Identification.
Track order details
The Order Details Page:
Order Information.
1 - Enter the Order Date (today’s date is entered by default)
2 - Enter the Slaughter Date if the box labeled Add to calendar is checked MeatBooks will place an entry for this slaughter on the MeatBooks calendar.
3 - Enter the Processing Date if the box labeled Add to calendar is checked MeatBooks will place an entry for processing on the MeatBooks calendar. (if the processing date is not know you can come back and add that information at later date) As well the date shipped and date received can be added at later time if a record of these events is needed.
4 - The Order Ready By date is the date this order has to be completed (this too can be entered at a later date or not entered at all)
5 - The next two text boxes give a place to type the location of storage, and any additional comments you need to appear on the invoice or cutting instructions.
6 - The last line gives a place to indicate Ready for pickup (if this box is checked the order will be placed on the pickup list report). Not for sale, and Inspected (selecting either of these options will be indicated on the invoice and cutting instruction.)
Animal Information:
1 - If there is a farmer involved with this order and you would like to print an invoice that includes the price of the meat you can select the 
button to select the farmer from the drop down list. The farmers that are in the list are the customers that have a check box checked under the customer: 
2 - Listed below the Farmer box are the Animal, and Head selections for this order (we have already selected them, but they can be changed here if needed.)
3 - Next we can assign an Animal/Job ID if needed.
4 - If we are creating a Deer ticket we can save the Deer Tag information and check the Bone in box if applicable. (this information will appear on the cutting instruction and invoice)
5 - Enter Live Wt.
6 - Enter Dressed Wt. The processing fee will be calculated after the dressed wt. is entered and the order has been updated by clicking on the “UPDATE” button (if both live and dressed wts have been entered the Live Yield will be shown)
7 - Enter Net Wt. (if both dressed and net wts have been entered the Dressed Yield will be shown)
8 - 30 months or older (when checked creates a form on the cutting instruction that requires a date and signature that the processor was aware of this at the time of processing)
9 - Press the UPDATE THIS ORDER button. Once you have saved your data by selecting the ‘Update this Order’ button on the right side of your screen. You will also be able to come back into this cutting instruction and view this information at anytime.
Fees & Totals:
The bottom portion of the order details page contains the current Fees associated with this order. As you add a dressed weight, farmer, specialty item totals, etc … these fees will be updated and reflected on your invoice.
Print an Invoice for your customer:
To View or Print Invoices, and Cut Instructions click on the corresponding item in the list on the right hand side of the order page. (See Below)
The document will be opened in the Report Viewer you can then print the documents by clicking the print button in the top left. (See Below)
Grouping Customers Together
You have the ability to add more than one person to an order if you would like, and if you do then an invoices and cutting instructions can be generated for each customer following the steps above. To add more individuals to an order you select the tab labeled ‘Cutting Instructions’.
Select the link that says ‘Manage Groups’
In the dialog box that appears select a customer form the list of customers by selecting the “…” button next to the customer’s name:
Once you select the customer enter the weight received by that customer and what type of cutting instruction o use for this customer and the location you are storing this customers meat.
Select the ‘Add New’ link at the top of the menu.
Once you have entered all the customers for this order click the “Done” button.
Let’s continue entering our cutting instructions for our customer. Once we have our information entered into the ‘Order Details’ we can then start adding our cutting instructions. Note: you will probably not have the actual dressed weight at the time you enter the cuts, therefore you will always be able to go back and update that information. The invoice will calculate all of you fees for the customer once that has been entered into the order.
Our list of cuts showing in our order is already there because this was our default cutting instruction. To see how to set these up refer to the ‘Setting up your Animals and Cuts’ of this manual.
Here you have the actual cuts that are needed to fill this order. You can scan in cuts from a list of your cuts or you may add them manually by selecting the 
button. We will do this manually for our example. Once you select this button you will see all of the cuts that you have previously entered when you were setting up your cuts. (See example below)
You can select the section that the cut are in, and then you can select the cut. Once you select the cut, it will automatically be entered into the cutting instructions. You can edit the cut information by selecting inside the field of the item you wish to update.
You can change the final pounds, the thickness, and packages, items per package, the comments, and the location of that item. If you notice there is a 
field and if you click on it you will see a dialog box that looks like this:
This was created for sausages. When you set up your cuts you have the option of setting up how much trim you add and how much other ingredients you add to your sausage when you take an order. (See example above)
When you enter the goal weight into the field: 
The Customers meat and the ingredients are automatically calculated based on what percentage of trim to meat you add. You do not have to use this when doing cutting instructions; it was only placed in there as an extra tool if needed.
Once you have all your cuts in the instruction you can click in which ever field you like and add additional information. The groups are automatically entered based on the customers selected for this order (you can not edit that field):
There are two places to print cutting instructions for this order; directly above the list of cutting instructions and the right of the cutting instructions in the ‘Invoice’ section. The link on top is if you would like them to be printed in small font size, and the link in the ‘Invoice’ section is in larger font.
Completing an Order
When you have processed your cuts and you wish to record that they are done you can check the box in the cutting instructions to show they are complete.
When you select either ‘Complete’ or ‘Picked up’ you will be able to print a report that shows what items are needed to be completed and which items are processed.
Now let’s go back to the Order Details and enter your weights. We will enter our live weight of 999 Lbs and 712 Lbs for our dressed weight. Notice that our yield is automatically calculated and our Order Total is also calculated.
2. Track the farmer information
When you select a farmer from the “Farmer Select Box” MeatBooks will automatically create a Master List for that farmer and if more than one person is on the order, MeatBooks will break down and show each of the individuals order.
hen you add a farmer to the order, MeatBooks will keep track of all the Farmer’s customers for you and you will be able to print a report if you would like. (This will be available in the Farmers Control Panel) in the ‘Actions’ section under the ‘Customers’ form: (Below is an example of the section in the left corner of the form when you are viewing the Customer form)
When you select this you will see the following:
3. Track the order details
By entering cutting orders into MeatBooks, the system will keep track of all the information that is needed to run your plant. There are many reports that can be viewed all based on what data you enter. Here are some of the reports.
If you need to see all of the non-completed orders, you can select the ‘Not Completed’ link under the Processing Production Status of the reports.
When you select this selection you will be able to select by Customer, Product, by Dates, and by Animals in the search criteria at the bottom of the Reports form:
If you were to select the ‘Processing Order Sales (By Animal & Dates)’ then you will be able to see all of the processing orders and the details during the Dates selected.
The “Outstanding Invoice” report shows all of the orders that have not been paid for. There is also an order ready for pick up report, a report that shows all of the Animals processed, and a report that shows the total Raw Weight and Finished weight needed. (See example below)
4. Track animal identification data
MeatBooks give you the ability to track information about each animal that you are slaughtering and then search for them at a later time. Just go to the Animal Identification tab of the actual cutting instruction form: (See Example Below)
If at any time you need to search for a specific animal you can do so by selecting the ‘Reports’ menu on the main toolbar:
Then select Animal Identification Report:
Now you can select which criteria you want to use and enter that in. We will enter our Premise ID which is 12345. Below you will see the results:
5. Print an Invoice for your customer
Select the ‘Invoice for Whole Order’ in the invoice Section of the Cutting instruction. When you select a farmer you will have the ability to print an invoice for each customer on the order. Here we just have one customer and we can select the Invoice for Whole Order: (See Example Below)
Here is the result:
6. Print a Cutting Instruction for this order
Select the ‘Cutting Instructions’ in the invoice Section of the Cutting instruction. Here we just have one customer and we can select the Cutting Instruction for our customer: (See Example Below)
Here is the result:
