IN-B  Enter Inventory

Purpose of Program

This program provides a means of entering information on new inventory items or changing information on existing items.

Audit Button

The Audit button (upper left in the Classic view Screen layout and next to the Notes button in the Evo view screen layout) will display a list of changes to the part, the login ID of the user making the change, date and time, and which program was used to make the change.  Columns listed on the standard audit grid include the item Class and Type but users can use SU-A Maintain Grid Lookups to add other columns to the ICAUDIT grid to see when other inventory fields may have been changed.

Field Explanations

Item number

The item's item number.  It is a 15 character alphanumeric field (upper case only).

Description

The description consists of two 30 character fields which allow both upper and lower case.  The second description field is not used on all reports, so locate the most important information in the first description field.

If extra description lines are needed on sales order and purchase order documents, you may enter up to 12 lines of specifications which will print as comment lines.  Specifications are entered in a pop-up window by clicking on the Specifications button.  Unlimited Notes can also be entered against an item by clicking the Notes button and different Note types can be defaulted to print on different documents and forms.

Class

The item class is an important field.  Not only does it allow you to organize your products into meaningful units for reporting purposes, but the general ledger account codes for inventory accounting are established by item class.  The item class is a four character, alphanumeric field, upper case only.  It is a required field.  Item classes must first be set up in SM-C  Enter Item classes. The item class description automatically displays to the right of the item class code.

Category

The Category field is a user defined field which allows you to assign products to categories for reporting purposes.  This is a four character alphanumeric field, upper case only.  Both the category and item class fields allow you to organize your products into groups without having to rely on the item number for meaning.  You can control whether the user must select the Category from a predefined list in SD-H Inventory Defaults.

Part Type

Ten part types are allowed, as described below.

N = Non Inventory: non-inventory items such as engineering charges, shop supplies, etc. The system will not maintain stock balances for N type items.  If an item is designated as type N, you will then be prompted whether this should be designated as a Service and Repair item and, if so, whether Make, Model and Serial Number can be entered or are required.  You will also be prompted whether a type N part is a placeholder part for multi-yield work order processing in WO-I  Enter Finished Production and whether the item is a Surcharge part which enables automatic updating to current base price in SO-E  Release Sales Orders so that commodity or fuel surcharges are automatically priced at the time of shipment.

R = Regular: purchased parts.

M = Make from: a "Make from" is an item that receives an outside  process such that it becomes a different item number than the  item without the process.  For example, a part could sit on the shelf non-plated.  Some of the parts could be sent out for plating.  When the parts come back they should have a different item number to differentiate between the plated and non-plated parts.  The "Make from" will have a bill of material consisting of the raw part(s) (in this example the non-plated part).  When a purchase order is placed for a "Make from", upon PO receiving the program will relieve inventory of the components and will update inventory for the "Make from."   The program calculates an actual cost consisting of the outside processing cost plus the cost of the manufactured part's bill of material components.  The use of "Make froms" eliminates the need for issuing work orders to handle the outside processing costing and inventory properly.

F = Finished Good: top level manufactured items that are generally not used in other assemblies.

A = Subassembly: manufactured items that go into higher level assemblies.  Subassemblies are manufactured with their own work orders and can be sold or issued to higher level assemblies.

B = Phantom Assembly: an assembly that is never manufactured or stocked.  A phantom is a item number that represents a kit of items.  A phantom may be included in a bill of material, effectively bringing in all its components by use of one number.  When a work order is created, the phantom's components are automatically included with the manufactured assembly's components.  Phantoms make it easy to include common sets of parts within bills without having to enter each component.  Work orders are not allowed for phantom assemblies.

L = Labor: Labor can be set up with  item numbers and can be included in bills of material.  Each category of labor (welding, setup, assembly, etc.) can be set up with its own item number, if you wish.  The program will maintain a standard cost on labor, but it will not keep on-hand balances.

T = Outside Processing: Item numbers can be set up for services such as plating, painting, and heat treating and can be included in bills of material and used in purchase orders.

K = Selling Kit: a item number which represents a kit of parts.  Selling kits are used within sales orders to order and invoice a set of parts via one item number.  Selling kits are never manufactured or stocked.

O = Feature: O type items refer to "Features" used by the Features & Options module.  A feature is never purchased or manufactured.  A feature represents a group of options (such as colors, fabrics, finishes, etc.) that is automatically presented in a pop-up window during sales order entry for selection.  The Features & Options capability allows custom bills of material to be created within order entry.  The options selected are automatically passed over to the work order system via the Convert Sales Orders to Work Orders function.

Active?

This field is used as a selection criterion in certain reports and programs.  It allows you to include or exclude inactive items and prevents activity for obsolete items.  Allowable values are Y (Active), N (Inactive), O (Obsolete), D (Discontinued), and E (Engineering).  All activity and transaction types are allowed for Active and Inactive status but Inactive can be excluded from some reports.  Obsolete items are for historical reference only.  Once an item status is changed to Obsolete, it can not be bought, sold, made, or have any on-hand quantity without changing the status back to Active or Inactive.  Discontinued status is for items that can be consumed to deplete existing stock but should not be replenished.  Shipments and Issues to Work Order are allowed but purchases and creation of Work Orders to make more are not.  Engineering status is intended for items under Engineering development and not yet approved or released for general sale.  Orders and transactions are allowed for Engineering items but a warning will be presented indicating that the item is an Engineering item and still under review.

If you want to limit access to make changes to items released for Production, then you can assign users Security Code E (Engineer) in PS-A  System Users/Passwords which limits those users to only creating and editing items with Active Status E.

When changing an item status to O, the program will check to be sure there are no items on Sales Order, Work Order, Purchase Order, or quantity on hand before allowing the change.  When saving the item, if the change to Obsolete can not be made, a list of reasons preventing the change will be presented.

Taxable?

If this item is never subject to sales tax, enter an N in this field.  If so, tax will never be charged on the item within sales orders and purchase orders.  If you set this field to Y and you enter a sales order or purchase order where the customer or vendor is coded as taxable, then the default setting for this item will be taxable; however, you can override the default if necessary.

If you have items that you buy and re-sell, you may buy them non-taxable and sell them as taxable.  If so, set this field to Y for sales order purposes and suppress sales tax processing within purchase orders by setting up the vendor as non-taxable.

Stock UM

The unit of measure the item is stocked in, such as EA, LBS, FT, etc. This is a three character alphanumeric field, upper case only, and is user defined.

Price UM

The unit of measure the item is sold in, as used by the Sales Orders module.  This is a user defined field, except for values of M (per 1000) or C or H (per 100), which allow you to establish your selling price on a per 1000 or per 100 basis.  You may also use LOT and MIN for a Lot or Minimum charge in which case the Sales Order will not calculate an extended price based on line item quantity.  Otherwise, you may use any value, such as EA, FT, LBS, etc. but it is for reference only and does not perform any type of conversion.  This is a three character, alphanumeric field, upper case only.

Purch UM

The unit of measure the item is purchased in.  This is user defined, with the exception of the following values, which are listed on the screen if you click Help or press F1.   If you use a value other than one listed here, and the Stock UM is different, you must define the conversion factor to be used by PO processing (See PO Conv Factor below).   This is a three character, alphanumeric field, upper case only.

M = per thousand.  (PO quantity)/1000 x (PO price)

H or C = per 100.  (PO quantity)/100 x (PO price)

LOT = lot charge.  Prices the item on a lot charge (flat fee), regardless of quantity.

LB = per pound.  (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Weight field) x (PO price)

CWT = per 100 weight.  (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Weight field)/100 x (PO price)

SF = per square foot.  (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field) x (PO price)

MSF = per 1000 square feet.  (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field)/1000 x (PO price)

BF = per board foot. (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field) x (PO price)

MBF = per 1000 board foot.  (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field)/1000 x (PO price)

LF = per linear foot. (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field) x (PO price)

CLF = per 100 linear feet. (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field)/100 x (PO price)

MLF = per 1000 linear feet. (PO quantity) x (value in the inventory Foot Factor field)/1000 x (PO price)

For example, rivets purchased by the thousand (M) and stocked by each (EA) could have a Purchase Order for 10,000 UM=M, PO Price $10 and the PO extension will be $100 (10 thousands @ $10 per M). PO Receiving will place 10,000 rivets into stock @ $0.001 each.

Steel bar purchased by LB and stocked by FT would have the PO entered for 100 FT @ $1.00/LB. The inventory weight field needs to be the Pounds per Foot and will be used as a conversion factor but it is invisible to the user making for a potentially confusing PO because the extended amount is not the product of price times quantity due to the internal conversion factor.

Another approach is to use the PO Conv Factor (see below) in which case the PO is entered fully in the purchase UM and the conversion occurs at PO-C. In this example, the PO would be placed for 100 LB of steel bar @ $1.00/pound, extension $100. PO Conv Factor is a multiplier. A factor of 3 means that each LB of steel will yield 3 feet so when PO is received, 300 Feet will go into stock @ $0.3333 per foot.

Duty Code

If Landed Cost is turned on in IM-A  International Configuration then parts that will have customs and duty charges applied are assigned a 3 character Duty Code.  Vendors are also assigned a different 3 character code and the combined 6 character string for a given item & vendor combination determines the Duty fees.

RTM Group

If you have specific label formats for certain items (perhaps containing Lot or Serial Numbers or different size labels), you can create an RTM print group setting which is a single character. For example, if you have items assigned to RTM Print Group "A" then you would edit the RTM for the form (such as T6ING1.RTM for the Label) and add the changes for this group and save the RTM as T6ING1A.RTM where the name is the same as the standard RTM plus the character of the RTM group. The print programs know to use the special form if it exists.

User Defined Sort Field

As its name suggests, this is whatever you want it to be.  It is an index field and can be used as a filter on a number of reports.  You can control whether the user must select the User Defined from a predefined list in SD-H Inventory Defaults.

Base Price

The Selling price of the item for customers with no special discounted pricing.  Access to this can be disabled in SD-H Inventory Defaults in which case Base Price would be entered using SO-Q-A  Enter Base Prices

Primary Vendor

If this is a purchased part, you may enter your primary vendor's 10 character vendor code in this field.  The vendor description will automatically display to the right of the vendor code.  The primary vendor is referenced on the Reorder Report and is the default vendor used by the MR-J  Generate Purchase Orders program.  When you designate a primary vendor, a record for that vendor is automatically made (if one does not already exist)  in the approved vendor file used by PO-L  Assign Vendors to Items.

Customer

If this item is made for one customer only, you may enter the customer code.  This field is for reporting purposes only.  The code must be a valid entry in the customer file.  The customer name will automatically display to the right of the customer code.

Reorder Level

The reorder level for the item.  Items that have dipped below reorder level due to any combination of sales, purchasing, and manufacturing activities can be highlighted for attention via the Reorder Report.  The Material Requirements module uses the reorder level as the minimum amount to keep on hand.

Reorder Amt

The recommended amount to order when purchase orders or work orders are to be generated.  The Material Requirements module uses the reorder amount as a minimum quantity for suggested purchase orders and work orders.

PO Conv Mult.

If the purchase unit of measure is different than your stocking unit of measure, the conversion multiplier automatically converts the item from the purchase unit of measure to the stocking unit of measure during purchase order receiving.  For example, if you buy an item by the yard, but stock it by the foot, your purchase unit of measure would be YD, your stocking unit of measure would be FT, and the conversion multiplier would be 3.00000.

NOTE: Only enter a conversion multiplier if the Stock UM and Purch UM are different and if the Purch UM is not one of the pre-defined values listed under Purch UM above.

Lead Time [days]

The number of days it takes to receive a purchase item or manufacture a product from order date or start date through receiving date or finish date.  This is used as a reference by the MRP module to determine start dates for purchase orders and work orders.  This is calendar days for purchased parts and shop days (per the shop calendar as entered in SM-H  Enter Shop Calendar) for manufactured parts.  For manufactured parts, it only reflects the number of days to make a typical production run quantity of this level of the Bill of Materials, assuming all components are available.

Receive to QC

Enter a Y if you want to force this item to be received into QC in PO-C Receive Purchase Orders regardless of the choice made by receiving when processing the receipt.

Weight

The weight of the item.  This is used to calculate the total packing slip weight.  If the Purch UM is LB or CWT and the Stock UM is something different, this value is used within purchase order entry to calculate the purchase price (see Purch UM above for these price formulas).

Foot Factor

This can be used to record cubic or linear feet of the item.  In a future version this will be used to calculate the total cubic feet for an order on the packing list (not currently available).  This information can be helpful in calculating container loads for shipping.  If the Purch UM is SF, MSF, BF, MBF, LF, CLF, or MLF and the Stock UM is something different, this value is used within purchase order entry to calculate the purchase price (see Purch UM above for these price formulas.

Std Pack

The number of items per carton, sack, etc.  This can be used as a Purchase Increment by MR-J  Generate Purchase Orders if this capability is turned on in SD-D Material Requirements Defaults.  It should be entered in increments of the Purchase UM so if you have an item you stock by EA and purchase in boxes of 100, the Stock UM would be EA, Purch UM would be BOX, PO Conv would be 100 and Std Pack would be 1 meaning increments of 1 box.  Then if MRP determined that you need 452 pieces, the PO generated in MR-J would round up to 5 BOX quantity.

Freight Percent

If you wish to get a freight factor into the average cost of an item, you can enter a freight percentage in this field.  Whenever the item gets received through purchase order receiving, its cost will be increased by the amount of the percentage entered here.  For example, if you feel an item has a 20% freight cost, enter 20.00 in this field.  Freight costs accounted for in this manner are absorbed into your inventory instead of being expensed.  You would most likely enter a freight percentage only on selected inventory items where freight is a significant portion of the cost.

Bin Location

The physical location of the item.  This will print on the packing list, Physical Inventory count sheet, and on the work order pick list.  This is a 10 character, alphanumeric field, upper case only.  If Warehouse Control is turned on, then multiple bin locations per item are allowed and this field is only a reference and should designate the primary default Bin Location

Cycle Code

The cycle code is a user defined code that is used as a selection criterion when running IN-J  Print Physical Check and PI-A  Capture Frozen Inventory for inventory counting. As an example, you may decide to count the ?¡¦s" monthly, the "2¡¦s" quarterly, and the "3¡¦s" annually.

Commissions

Enter N if you want this item to be exempt from Sales Commissions processed through Sales Orders.   If you do not use Commissions at all, this setting does not matter.   It is intended for companies that do use Sales Commission processing to exclude exception items (such as Tooling or a Restocking Charge) from commission calculations.

Drawing #

The drawing number of the item.  This will print on the shop traveler.  It is also included as an invisible field in the Purchase Order and can be made visible to print on the PO.  If ECO Tracking is turned on in the SD-H Inventory Defaults then a Lookup icon will be available to see prior revision history of an item and enter a new ECO and Revision.  The current Drawing and Revision level will display on the screen but the history is available for review.

Revision Level

The current engineering revision level of the item.  This will print on the shop traveler.   It is also included as an invisible field in the Purchase Order and can be made visible to print on the PO.

Warehouse Control?

If Multiple Bin Warehouse Control has been turned on globally in SD-S Warehouse Control Defaults then it can be further controlled here by item or in WC-B Assign Warehouse Control by both Item and Warehouse Location.  Y means that Multiple Bin Locations are available but quantity by Bin will not be tracked.  Q means that quantity by bin will also be maintained.

Lot Control?

If this item number is subject to lot control, enter a Y in this field.

Serial Control?

If this item number is subject to serial control, enter a Y in this field.

Approved Vendors in PO?

If this is a purchased part that is subject to approved vendors, you can specify the level of control in this field.  If you enter 0 or leave the field blank, you can freely purchase the item from any vendor without controls  If you enter a 1, you will receive a warning during PO entry if you try to purchase the item from a non-approved vendor.  If you enter a 2, you will not be allowed to purchase the item from a non-approved vendor.

Vendors for this item can be specified by clicking on the Vendors button or via PO-L  Assign Vendors to Items. A default for this field can be set in SD-C  Purchase Orders Defaults.  When the item number record gets created, it will assign the default value unless you override it in this field.

For more information on the use of approved vendors, see How to Use Approved Vendors and Manufacturers.

RoHS Compliant?

Indicate whether or not this item is compliant with RoHS requirements.  Valid entries are Y (Yes), N (No), P (Pending) or E (Exempt)

Additional Entry Screens

Links Button

Enter a path and file name to an image file that can be linked to this item, such as a PDF or JPG drawing, Word document, or any other file.  If many files are stored in the same folder, a global path can be saved and then each link in that folder need only enter the file name.  A link can be associated with a particular Routing sequence.

Any file type can be listed as the Image Link and it will be opened by Internet Explorer or the application specified when the on screen camera icon is clicked.  Applications are identified by a code such as WORD or AUTOCAD which is then connected to the path and executable file for the application.

Link Printing Settings

Each linked file can be designated to print either as an embedded thumbnail or as a linked document and whether to be included when the item is a Parent, Component, or Both on various RTM based documents such as Shop Traveler, Estimate, Purchase Order, RFQ, Quote, Acknowledgement, Invoice, Packing Slip, and labels.  Thumbnail formats include standard graphic formats BMP, JPG, GIF, and also Tiff Images (*.tif, *.tiff), GFI Fax Images (*.fax), SGI Images (*.bw,*.rgb,*.rgba,*.sgi), Autodesk Image Files (*.cel,*.pic), Truevision Images (*.tga, *.vst, *.icb, *.vda, *.win), ZSoft Paintbrush Images (*.pcx,*.pcc), Word 5.x Screen Capture Files (*.scr), Kodak Photo-CD images (*.pcd), Portable pixel/gray map images (*.ppm,*.pgm,*.pbm), Dr. Halo images (*.cut, *.pal), SGI Wavefront images (*.rla, *.rpf), Photoshop images (*.psd, *.pdd), Paintshop Pro images (*.psp), Windows MetaFile images (*.WMF).

File formats that can print as linked documents include any format that Windows can print directly.   When RTM forms are emailed, linked document files (up to 10 per item per RTM) are included as additional attachments to the email.

Specs Button  (Specifications)

This is a free format notepad for maintaining extra description or specifications on the item.  These specifications will optionally print on acknowledgments, packing lists, invoices, and purchase orders, and automatically print on shop travelers.  To enter specifications click the Specs button.

Std Cost Button (Standard Costs)

As a convenience, standard costs for the item can be entered by clicking the Std Costs button.  You will be presented with a screen identical to that found in IN-L-A  Enter Standard Costs  Refer to that program for details.  For more information on using standard costs, see How to Use Standard Costs.

MRP Button (MRP Parameters)

As a convenience, MRP parameters for the item can be entered by clicking the MRP button.  You will be presented a screen identical to that of MR-D  Enter MRP Parameters.  Refer to that program for details.

Vendors Button (Vendors and Vendor Item numbers)

As a convenience, vendors and vendor item numbers for the item can be entered by clicking the Vendors button.  You will be presented with a screen identical to that of PO-L  Assign Vendors to Items.  Refer to that program for details.  For more information on using approved vendors, see How to Use Approved Vendors and Manufacturers.

Manufacturers Button (Manufacturers and Manufacturer Item numbers)

As a convenience, manufactures and manufacturer item numbers for the item can be entered by clicking the Manufacturers button.  You will be presented with a screen identical to that of BM-L  Enter Approved Manufacturers.  Refer to that program for details.  For more information on using approved manufacturers, see How to Use Approved Vendors and Manufacturers.

International Fields

You will be given access to the following fields based on settings in IM-A  International Configuration.

Tax-In

If the item is subject to an excise tax in which a tax is embedded in its selling or purchase price, set this field to Y.  Upon invoice posting or purchase order receiving, this will cause the tax to be backed out of the price for General Ledger, sales analysis, and tax reporting purposes.  See IM-G  Enter Tax-In Codes for more details.

Duty Code

This is the 3-character code that comprises the second half of the 6-character code used in IM-E  Enter Landed Cost Duty Codes to establish a duty rate for landed cost processing.  In essence it represents the Item Classification Rate specific to this item when imported from a particular country.

General Program Operation

Adding an Inventory Record

Before entering new item numbers, you should first create item classes through SM-C  Enter Item classes.

Enter the various fields on the screen as required.  Refer to Field Explanations above for details.  At a minimum you must enter the Item number, Class, Part Type, Stock UM, Price UM, and Purch UM fields before you will be permitted to save the record.  .

Click the Save button to save the record (or press Alt-S).

Deleting an Inventory Item

You may not delete an inventory item if it has an on-hand quantity, open orders, if it is in a bill of material, if it has a routing, or if it is part of an active or non-purged physical inventory.  To delete an item, use the Lookup or F2 to select the item, display the record on the screen and press <Enter>, then click the Delete button.  If it can not be deleted, a list of the reasons why will be presented.