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Microsoft Dynamics Nav (Navision) EDI – Manage 3PL Third Party Logistic using EDI

Monday, April 16th, 2012

 

Improve your 3PL operations using EDI 940 and 945 documents

Increase efficiencies and accuracy

Whether you are a distributor, importer, manufacturer or contract manufacturer, you made the right decision to outsource your warehouse and shipping operations through a 3PL (Third Party Logistics) provider to reduce costs and increase your company’s bottom line. But how efficiently are you communicating with your 3PL?  Perhaps your staff is spending inefficient time faxing or e-mailing picking tickets? When your 3PL sends back bill of ladings or shipping confirmations, is your staff spending long hours updating and processing sales orders?

What if communicating with your 3PL could be fully automated?

With Microsoft Dynamics NAV EDI 940 (Warehouse Shipping Order) and 945 (Warehouse Shipping Advice) document processing, your staff can automatically send electronic picking tickets to your 3PL warehouse. No more faxing or e-mails. When the warehouse receives the 940 EDI document, pick tickets are automatically created in their system – virtually eliminating data errors while increasing your order fulfillment capabilities. This efficient data transition can help keep your current customers and attract new ones.

When your 3PL ships your customer’s order, the 3PL will send back the EDI 945 document to you:

  • Each NAV Sales Line ‘Quantity To Ship’ field is automatically updated.
  • For each Sales Order, shipment is automatically posted.
  • Data entry time is dramatically reduced.
  • Customers can be invoiced faster.

NAV EDI 3PL 940 and 945 document processing is fully integrated within NAV providing a full feature of benefits including:

  • Full lot number and serial tracking (item tracking): EDI 940 documents are sent with specific lot number tracking information letting the warehouse know which lot numbers to pick. When EDI 945 documents are sent back to you, each NAV sales line is updated with the exact lot number the warehouse actually shipped.
  • Sales Order Status Tracking: You will be able track the status of each sales order at every stage including: Sales Orders with EDI 940s not sent, Sales Orders with Pending EDI 945s, Sale Orders Shipped/Ready to Invoice.
  • Sending of EDI 940 Modify or EDI 945 Cancel orders: If you need to make a change in shipping instructions, or cancel the 940, users can easily send 940 modified or cancel documents to your 3PL.
  • Transfer Order compliant: For companies with multiple locations using multiple 3PLs, EDI 940/945 processing is available for NAV transfer orders and includes 943 (Outbound Warehouse Stock Transfer Advice) and 944 (Inbound Warehouse Receipt Advice) processing. This enables you to use EDI documents to communicate between two 3PL warehouses.
  • EDI Document Tracking: Within NAV, you will be able to track all in-bound and out-bound EDI documents and review historic data, if needed.

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Written: by Mark Stept

Payroll and HR Software for Sage MAS90, MAS200 and Sage ERP 100

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Your Payroll Related Options for MAS 90

Paying Employees

Paying employees is an essential part of being in business. Modern payroll solutions reduce the time needed and take the headache out of generating payroll. Here we take a brief look at the wide range of options available to Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200 (soon to become Sage 100 ERP) users.

Sage ERP MAS 90 Payroll

With the integrated Sage ERP MAS 90 Payroll module, you can securely process your payroll at a fraction of the cost and in less time than a manual system or service bureau. Employing an efficient graphical entry form, Payroll automatically applies earnings and deductions, calculates employee and employer payroll taxes, and prints checks. All federal and state tax tables are included, and you can easily set up special local taxes. Payroll reporting
capabilities provide high-level, insightful business data regarding employee costs for more informed business decisions.

Sage HRMS And Payroll

If you also need to manage other employee-related processes and tasks, the combination of Sage HRMS and Sage Payroll may be the perfect solution. Sage HRMS helps you stay compliant with government regulations relating to employees, as well as track benefits, training, and certifications. Powerful attendance tracking features include the ability to document and analyze employee attendance data. The system securely records time off, as well as FMLA leave.

The Payroll module is very flexible, supporting a range of tax management capabilities; variable pay plans, including sales commission and piece-rate plans; and a variety of pay frequencies. The combination of Sage HRMS and Payroll facilitates faster, more effective HR management and decision-making, while maintaining a high level of security for sensitive data.

CompuPay Payroll Service

If outsourcing payroll is your preference, consider using the Sage-endorsed CompuPay Service. CompuPay is a Web-based solution that provides real-time payroll outsourcing and tax compliance services. Input, review, and approve employee time via a secure, online network. Then let CompuPay calculate and process your payroll, including direct deposits. Integration between CompuPay Payroll Services and Sage ERP MAS 90 ensures an automatic exchange of general ledger and bank code data. And as long as the information you provide is on time, complete, and accurate and your account is properly funded, Sage guarantees accurate, timely deposits and filings or they pay the resulting payroll tax penalties for you.

eFiling And Reporting

The Federal and State eFiling and Reporting software service is compatible with both Sage ERP MAS 90 and Sage HRMS Payrolls. It includes approximately 250 federal and state forms such as Unemployment, Withholding, New Hire reports, W2s, and W3s to facilitate filing payroll tax information. Automatically eFile W2s and 1099s, print and mail forms to your employees, or go completely green with the fee-based eFiling service.

Direct Deposit

Sage ERP MAS 90 and Sage HRMS Payrolls both offer Direct Deposit. Improve your employees’ satisfaction with immediate access to their pay, while saving time, money, and valuable resources.

Call us to discuss the best solution for you.

Top 10 reasons to upgrade to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

Friday, April 6th, 2012

Reasons to Upgrade to the latest version of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 (Formally Axapta)

By Aaron Murch

Major changes to Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012

The August 2011 release of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012 introduces some significant new functionality. After evaluating the over 1,000 improvements to the product we put together a Top 10 list of new features we feel offer the biggest benefits to our clients looking to upgrade to this latest release.

The top 10 list

1. Modern “RoleTailored” user interface – standardized look and feel with the introduction of the ribbon and fast tabs to increase user efficiency while working within the application.

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2. Support for mixed-mode manufacturers – Access to standard Dynamics AX functionality for Discrete, Process, and Lean manufacturers without the need for ISV solutions or additional software costs.  Within discrete, support for make to order, configure to order and engineer to order workflows

(more…)

Optimizing Epicor 9 Performance – Binary Data Dump

Friday, April 6th, 2012

Epicor Tips & Tricks, Database Optimization

 

This question came in and we thought the answer might be helpful to other Epicor end users.

Question

Hello all,

Epicor support has suggested we do a binary database dump to improve our scatter factor and to speed up our Epicor database & program. We are using Epicor 9.05.606 with a Progress 32 bit database and we are wondering if anyone else has performed a binary database dump and if there is anything we should watch out for (any gotchas) as we proceed through the binary dump.

Any information / suggestions / help would be very much appreciated.

Answer


Essentially a Binary Data Dump means exporting all your data to a file and reloading it in straight.  Conceptually very similar to Defragmenting your hard disk, but in this case you are defragmenting your database file.

Make sure you have a good backup or two.

I would first restore the Test or Pilot database and run the binary dump and reload to get a time estimate that you database will take. The bigger the database the longer this process will take. You do not want to start a a 24 hour process and only have 10 hours to do it in.

Test the pilot or test database after the dump and load. Primary data entry screen, BAQ’s some big Crystal reports. If everything looks good then run on your production database.

I personally have never heard of a problem doing a progress dump and a load, but better safe than sorry.

Dale Schuerman
Senior Epicor Consultant

 

—-

Some additional Input thanks to Justin Muller of VDG.:

If a dump and load has never been done before, and you have gone through several upgrades, then you can probably expect pretty big gains in performance. One of the the things that happens with the upgrades is that new fields are added to existing records. Since that naturally makes a given record bigger, if there is not adequate space within a given database block, the record must be split across blocks. This is the worst type of scatter (far worse than records being scattered across blocks). Progress loads database blocks into memory cache (the number of blocks that can reside in memory is determined by the -B parameter). If you pull up a record split across blocks, you may end having to read off the disk 2 database blocks for a single record (if they are not already in cache) – and of course when that happens Progress has to dump 2 blocks out of memory (so someone else may have to reload ‘their’ blocks again – even if all they do is hit the refresh button. Depending on the number of upgrades and the records that were affected, it could even be worse in that a record could be split over even more than two blocks.

As a side note: depending on your hardware and database size doing a bulk load may be fast enough, and is certainly simpler than doing a binary dump/load.

 

Calculating Available Quantities and Costs – Tips & Tricks For MAS90 & MAS200

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012

How is costing and Quantity Availability calculated in Sage ERP 100 (MAS 90 & MAS 200)?

imageCustomers often ask us how the Sage ERP MAS 90 Inventory Management module
calculates costs and quantities available. Here we provide the explanation.

Calculating Quantity Available

Here we describe the calculation used for printing the quantity available on Inventory Management and Bill of Materials module reports. The calculation depends on the selections in the Include in Quantity Available in the Inventory Management Options window.

  • Due to the differences in vendor lead times from business to business, the quantity on purchase orders can be used when calculating the quantity available. To include quantity on purchase orders in the quantity available calculation, select Purchase Orders.
  • Due to the differences in manufacturing lead times, quantity on work order can be used in the quantity available calculation. To include quantity on work orders and quantity required for work orders in the quantity available calculation, select Work Orders.
  • To include both quantity on purchase orders, work orders, and quantity required for work orders in the quantity available calculation, select POs and WOs.
  • If you prefer that the quantity available calculation not to be considered in either purchase orders or work orders, select No POs and WOs.

The quantity available is calculated using:

[Quantity on Hand + Quantity on Purchase Order + Quantity on Work Order] – [Quantity on Sales Order + Quantity on Back Order + Quantity Required for Work Order].

Inventory Item Cost Hierarchy

The valuation method of an item affects the order in which each type of cost is used in the Sales Order, Purchase Order, and Inventory modules. Below we describe the hierarchy used for each valuation or costing method.

Standard Valuation Cost Hierarchy

The standard cost from the Inventory Masterfile is the first value used for unit cost. If the standard cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the last cost. If the last cost is zero,
the unit cost defaults to the warehouse average cost. If the warehouse average cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the item average cost.

Average Valuation Cost Hierarchy

The warehouse average cost from the Inventory Masterfile is the first value checked for unit cost. If the warehouse average cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the item average cost. If the item average cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the last cost. If the last cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the standard cost.

FIFO/LIFO/Lot/Serial Valuation Cost
Hierarchy

For purchases, the vendor last cost is the first value checked for unit cost. If there is no vendor last cost, the last cost from the item costing file is used. If the last cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the standard cost. If the standard cost is zero, the unit cost defaults to the warehouse average cost. If the warehouse average cost is zero, the unit cost defaults
to the item average cost. Once goods are received, the cost is recorded in the FIFO/LIFO/LOT/Serial cost tier, and the specific cost tier value is used in all transactions.

Other Considerations

In the Sales Order module, the determination of what cost to apply is calculated during the Sales Journal update. When using a pricing method that is a Markup Percentage or a Markup Amount and the standard cost is zero, the cost hierarchy is followed to determine the unit price.

In the Inventory module, the hierarchy determines the cost used in Inventory Transaction Entry for all transaction types.

In the Purchase Order module, the Auto Generate Orders Selection Window uses the following hierarchy when selecting Update Unit Cost With:

1. Standard Default or Last Unit Cost: the Primary Vendor’s last cost is used.

2. Standard Unit Cost: the item’s standard cost is used.

3. Average Unit Cost: the item’s average cost is used.

4. If any of the costs are zero for the above selections, the unit cost used follows the cost hierarchy based on the valuation methods listed.

Please call us with your questions.