Has anyone implemented the use of ECM in the Receiving Process? We were wondering if anyone has been able to receive parts off of a packing slip by sending it through DocStar. Seems like it would be very difficult with different PartNums and VendorPartNums, but was curious if anyone has had any success with something like this?
1 Like
We’ve not automated the receiving process, but we do consume the packing slips into ECM and attach them to the Receipt transaction - which also allows the ‘related document’ feature to match them up to the AP Invoices for a visual 3-way match inside ECM.
I suspect that any automation would work equally as well as the AP/SO Automation workflows, with accuracy dependent on Pack Slip uniformity and readability. I think it would be easy enough for the workflow to datalink-validate Part #'s using the Vendor Part# cross-reference functionality.
I’m curious if anyone has done this already as well.
3 Likes
Matthew, I would steer you towards using kinetic mobile warehouse to help with the receipt entry process instead of trying to automate it using OCR.
Thanks for the recommendation! What all does that offer? From what I’ve read, it looks like a lot of it involves barcode scanning to help with the receiving process?
We have employees in the shop that receive material as it comes in, they are just falling a little behind due to the sheer number of things coming in and also their other duties. My boss was just wondering if there was something else we could do with DocStar outside of the AP Automation!
Yeah barcode reading to cut down on typing.
You get more accuracy, arguably, and they don’t have to go back to the office to enter it in, they can do it at the time they are receiving it. They can tag it properly and also move it to locations, etc.
As for ECM/IDC if you’re just trying to automate data entry of the receipt, you’d need your supplier’s packing slips to be super clean and you’d need them to be correct all the time cause it doesn’t do well reading handwritten notes/corrections (if you’re using IDC).
1 Like
We do have computers out in the shop so they usually enter the data into Epicor as they process it.
Kind of figured it would come down to this. I do find that the PO is left off of the packing slip a decent amount of the time as well…
Thanks for your input!
As much as a human struggles with reading the document because of missing or incorrect data, so too will the computer.
2 Likes
Also, @mgordon you should probably take a look at the process and figure out what takes the most amount of time. Does entering the receipt really take up the majority of the time in the process?
They may be focusing on the wrong part of the process here.
2 Likes
That’s a good point! I’ve got a lot to think about
2 Likes
We are processing pack slips, but not driving the receipt from ECM.
What we have done is create a BPM that uses BarTender to print a little sticker, this is the equivalent of a received stamp. They stick this somewhere on the delivery note. The clever bit is that whilst the sticker contains the Received By and Date details, it also contains a QR code with the SysRowID of the receipt.
The team then scan to a network folder and ECM does it’s magic to index the paper work and attach to the receipt.
2 Likes
Steve - this is excellent!
I was thinking this through since my earlier comment and thought - what if I printed a receiver (my format, from Epicor, for the receipt transaction, with barcodes or whatever, in a really nice OCR-likable format), then I could simply put it in front of the actual packing slip and scan them as a single PDF into ECM (or IDC). Then I could use the first page as the ‘data’ for the workflow process.
But now that I see your barcode idea - I like that even more - less paper wasted.
2 Likes
So you all are processing the receipts using the typical (for the most part) Epicor process, and then using ECM to go in and attach the packing slip? Did I read that correctly?
2 Likes
That’s what we do too.
Yes
Yep - std Epicor plus an ECM process to attach.
1 Like
Us also, but not as fancy as the sticker.
Thanks to the awesome people in this forum, I think now this is possible.
If you wanted to create packing slips from DocStar…Here is an idea:
Somehow you would need to get the receipt(physical copy, or create a form)
With a datalink that looks at the Company and PO, Populate the Open PO lines from the PO.
Ask the user to remove or modify the lines to create the receipt(similar to the PNP workflow process)
Create a REST API Datalink to create a new Receipt record then fill in the details from the fields that you pulled into the field group in the previous step.
1 Like