Inventory Management Made Easy With Sage CRM (Part 3)
Last month, I dove further into the Inventory Management module from the Azamba Operations Suite. This month, I will round out the Inventory Management module with Transfers and Assets.
Transfers
Transfers correspond to IC Transfers in Sage Accpac ERP. They have a header/detail relationship like every other document in Op Suite. The header information is very basic and contains such fields as Transfer Number, Description, From Location and To Location. The From Location is the Location where the inventory is being pulled. The To Location is the Location receiving the inventory. Each Transfer can have unlimited detail lines. Here is a list of fields that are displayed when keying in Transfer Detail records:
Item: This is the Item that you wish to transfer. This is limited to Items that are authorized at the To Location. Also, only stock Items that are not trackable (serialized) can be transferred using this method.
UOM: This is the Unit of Measure by which you wish to transfer. This field is automatically limited to the UOMs that are configured for the Item that is selected.
From Bin: This is the Bin from where the quantity is pulled.
To Bin: This is the Bin where the quantity is received.
Qty: The quantity that you wish to transfer. This value must be positive.
Notes: General notes about the detail line.
Once all of your Items are keyed in, the Transfer can be submitted for approval via the included Workflow structure. We include a best practice Workflow for all of our Op Suite Documents. These can be customized depending on the client’s needs.
Assets
Assets represent individual serialized Items in Op Suite. When an Op Suite Item is flagged as Trackable, then any quantities of that Item are represented by individual Asset records. For example, if Item ABC has a quantity of 15, then there are 15 Asset records that correspond to that Item. Assets are handled in a specific way with regards to Op Suite documents. Here is a brief breakdown for each document:
Adjustments: Trackable Items cannot be added to Adjustments.
Transfers: Trackable Items cannot be added to Transfers. Instead, there is workflow on the Asset record that allows the user to Transfer the Asset to another Location.
Purchase Orders: Purchasing an Asset is the only way to bring that Asset into Op Suite. Asset records are generated when the PO is placed, so they may be quoted before they are physically received into Op Suite.
Purchase Receipts: Generating a PO Receipt is what physically brings Asset records into the system.
Purchase Returns: Generating and completing a PO Return retains the Asset record in Op Suite, but removes the quantity associated with the Asset. This is done by setting the Stage and Status fields on the Asset record.
Sales Quotes and Orders: The same Asset record can be added to multiple Quotes, but once any of those Quotes is promoted to an Order, then the other Quotes lose that Asset. This is done to maintain data integrity.
Sales Shipments/Invoices: Once an Order is Shipped/Invoiced, any Asset records included in the Shipment/Invoice are flagged as Sold and their quantities are removed from Op Suite.
Credit/Debit Notes: This can be done to physically remove or return Assets in the system or to simply associate a gain or loss in revenue against an Asset.
Work Tickets: Whenever work is performed on an Asset, you can specify the Asset on the header of a Work Ticket. This allows the user to track costs and other revenue tied to the Asset.
Damage Reports: When damage is assessed or a baseline status of an Asset is needed, you use this document.
Next month, I’ll introduce the Sales module.
