Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Item Setup: The source of it all

Well, first I should apologize for being buried in Sure Step curriculum lately, so I have been blog-absent :) But recently I have been reminded of the importance of item setup. It seems like the bulk of issues and misunderstandings in Sales Order Processing and Purchase Order Processing can be tracked back to decisions made during the setup of items. Sometimes, users assume the system functions one way or another, but really it is the item setup that is controlling the behavior-- which could be easily changed in a lot of instances. I chalk this up the fact that the users who set up items are often not the same users entering transactions, or so much time has passed since item setup was initially done (and understood) that no one remembers why certain decisions were made (yet another argument for documentation...can you hear the collective groan from my coworkers?).

When I teach the Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner Academy for Distribution, new GP consultants are often overwhelmed by the number of item setup screens in inventory, as well as which ones may or may not be required based on how users may or may not be using SOP or POP (confused yet?). So a couple of years ago, I put together a hand out that I share with students that breaks out the different setup screens and which modules they impact. I will summarize that handout here (it's nothing fancy), but I am happy to share the actual handout with anyone who is interested-- just post a comment on this blog or email me at christinap@theknastergroup.com. Keep in mind, this is meant to be a basic breakdown to keep it simple and clear for students, as there is a lot of grey area :)

Module Settings:
Options to control how module behaves as well as defaults
Inventory Page>>Setup>>Inventory Control
Purchasing Page>>Setup>>Purchase Order Processing
Sales Page>>Setup>>Sales Order Processing

General Item Setup:
Item Class: Inventory Page>>Setup>>Item Class
Provides defaults for:
--Item: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Items
--Item Currency>>Inventory Page>>Cards>>Item Currency
--Used to determine which currencies are valid for an item in POP and SOP
Count Cycle Assignment: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Count Cycle Assignment

General Site Setup:
Site Maintenance: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Sites
Site Resource Planning: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Site Resource Planning
Provides order policy and order point defaults from site for item resource planning (below)

General Landed Cost Setup:
Landed Cost: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Landed Cost
Individual landed costs to be grouped together
Landed Cost Group: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Landed Cost Group
Landed cost groups to be assigned to item/site combinations below

Purchasing Item Setup:
Item Quantities Maintenance: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Quantities/Sites
Provides item default site, primary vendor and landed group
Item Vendor Maintenance: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Vendors
Provides vendor item number, vendor item description, default unit of measure, last originating invoice cost, and EOQ for Purchase Order Generator
Item Purchasing Options: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Purchasing Options
Provides revalue option/tolerance and U of M options
Item Resource Planning: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Item Resource Planning
Provides order policy (use PO gen), order point, order up to level, and PO gen options (along with mass update capability)

Sales Item Setup:
Item Price List: Inventory Page>>Cards>>Price List
Provides default price level (if customer or RM setup not defined with price level), default selling unit of measure, and U of M options

So, that's it :) Easy enough, right? Have a great Tuesday!

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