For our business (well any business) cashflow is king. When COVID started we had to move all our staff offsite which meant a lot of uncashed checks.
We decided to integrate with the Bank via LockBox process which meant that our customers could all send the checks directly to the bank for processing.
That alleviated the cash flow issue but it added a huge amount of work in the Epicor side of things, we had 6 employees full time processing these lockbox checks manually one at a time to be able to reconcile the incoming checks with the corresponding invoices in ERP.
We ended up integrating with the bank via hourly SFTP transfers and using Epicor Rest to automate the process. Now a job which took 6 people all week, takes 2 people a couple of hours and that has been a huge win ensuring we can continue to operate and work safe from home while keeping the cashflow going.
Epicor does provide a lockbox integration that can be purchased but we needed a lot more than what was offered we wanted the checks visible within epicor be able to automatically match for customer and invoice number handle discounts, handle variances and be able to handle correspondence (sometimes customers just mail us “other crap” that the bank receives)
The bank sends us files every hour or so and we import them into Epicor using REST then match and process each record to find matching customer, invoice, account number etc.
Everything is validated and valid records are automatically entered as cash receipt, any records which don’t automatically validate can be manually verified and then the corresponding cash receipt is generated.
Oh and copies of the checks are attached to each check head record for reference
Excellent example Re cash flow and a nice solution I like the fact you can view the checks to validate. Did you collect via a scheduled function or use something else to initiate the process? Keeping things simple with SFTP based transports keeps systems decoupled, auditable, restartable and easily testable. I assume you already have payment ETF direct to your banks? How about Statement reconciliations do you have that interfaces also?
Has anyone done or thinking about anything with PowerApps, PowerBI, none ECC stores (shopify), external Configurators, transport route planning, Uber shipping, pick to light, andon, voice based picking / hands free operations, wearables, back to work safety, mes based contact tracing, qr code automations, RPA, kiosks, tool management, energy monitoring?
Anyone shipping or planning to produce connected products, or new novel business models to serve remote?
Anyone doing light assembly from home? split shifts, robot cleaners ?
Certainly nothing as earth shattering as some, but we’ve benefited from our custom storefront we built using the Epicor REST API. This integration allows customers to enter, track, and change status of orders as needed (i.e. put an order on hold, etc.). I am currently in the process of a total re-write on the backend to take advantage of the Epicor Functions features.
Secondly, I leveraged the REST API to serve as the data service layer for an iOS application we implemented for use by our suppliers. We are in the business of matching donated human cartilage and tendons to patients awaiting specific surgeries. The app consumes demand data via the BAQSvc and displays it for the technicians producing the tissues. The app allows the users to take photos of the tissues and those get uploaded to AWS S3 storage, then submits a record back to Epicor via the BAQSvc with details about which S3 object keys were created. Below is an example of the data that is pulled into the app.
We also leverage the UserProcessScheduler (perhaps to be replaced by a scheduled Epicor Function) to then scan the table the app calls and then go out to S3, download the objects by key, and create specific directory and file names associated with the photos. We then consume those photos in an SSRS report to present the tissue along with the associated qualities of the specific tissue to the surgeon, who then makes a decision if the graft will work for their patient.
Yes all the time, but missing some of the knowledge (and time) to get around this.
Some of the things I really want to delv into are:
Part creation with Power Automate (we have a pretty long approval and sign off process that is just ripe to get correct and automated)
We have a custom transport module, that would benefit from integration with GPS tracking and route planning (along with integration with EMWW sign on glass)
Monitoring of volumes levels of treatment fluid storage.
Integration with inputs and outputs to our CNC cutting systems.
Load Planning software integration is another point of interest.
We have made some small timber specific Android modules, but nothing earth shattering. Probably the most useful has been the offline pack counting for stocktake, which still needs refinement since our first stocktake.
Sadly at this stage we just need to walk before we can run, we have to get the basics right first.
Amazing! I’m looking forward to functions as well! The BAQ services are so meaningful, both for gathering & updating data, Epicor please do not ever let this go. Just refine and add features plz!
One of the process automation done to replace SO/PO/AR/AP cycle between the Plants/Sites by using Transfer Order functionality reduced number of steps from 8 to 3 without missing any GL transactions and approval process. Each plant is treated as profit centre in this scenario as each plant sells products to other plant at a margin. One posting rule was changed to achieve this as the sales account was different for inter plant sales. When this was developed in Epicor, at the same time one of my friend developed similar solution in SAP which was 5 times costlier than Epicor.
Other solution developed was using Mobile dashboard where Service Technician selects customer, enter serial number and PO. Based on this info, sales order is created with three lines (Parts, Labour, and consumables), creates jobs with default parts, job released and assigned to service technician for recording time against that. This was developed before REST with Updatable BAQs.
If you get a chance, look at Quickbooks. I really admire their bank statement import, auto matching and ease of creating rules for auto matching on the fly.
Something that has piqued my interest are Jupyter Notebooks. Microsoft has them now for SQL Server 2019. Jupyter Notebooks got their start with people doing Data Science in Python. They are a combination of markdown (which this site uses) with Excel cells.
Do imagine walking through a document and running SQL code at the same time. For Epicor, this would be a FANTASTIC way to distribute SQL instructions for users who need to create an Epicor database. Instructions and code together.
The not-ready for primetime feature are .Net Notebooks. This means we can run .Net code in a Notebook, which means we can call REST from a Notebook, which means we can do Epicor Transactions. Think of the process of doing a payment run in Epicor. You have the documentation and the code together of which the results are saved all in the Notebook! The Group, the Edit List, etc. all in one place. Rules can be added to do extra business rule checking too. I think this is going to be very powerful by next year.
Lots of cool interesting things people are doing out there!
In terms of thinking of doing something, I have experimented with machine learning in Epicor. It was surprisingly accessible / not difficult to create a machine learning model and make use of it in Epicor. As a learning exercise I created a machine learning model to predict if a part was a fastener or not based on it’s description and a few other properties (but not part class). I then used the model in a BPM to warn the user if the model predicted the part was a fastener but was not in the fastener part class.
We have done a few interesting things with Epicor…
Used Service Connect to link Epicor to our SolidWorks Vault. If an engineer checks in a new revision job planners will be notified via email triggered from a BPM.
We have made a webservice that serves up part images. This was used in the email notification above so users can see what part it is that has changed.
We have equipment installed on offshore platforms / Rigs that move around the world and often work with little to no internet connection. To over come that we have developed an app that syncs Epicor data and makes it available when there is no internet connection. Users can update the data which is pushed back to Epicor via Service Connect once it is sync’ed back onshore.
We have a system to automatically scan in “as built” drawings and attach the pdf to the material on the job. Users print the drawings from Epicor (which inserts a barcode) then collects them all from the shop floor and bulk scans then to a folder. The system reads the barcode and attaches the scan to the correct job / material.
Have also automated our Manufacturing Report. After manufacturing is complete we produce a report that contains all the material certs, as built drawings, test reports etc, etc which at attached to the job. This report can many 100’s of pages long.
For us, this time really emphasized how much we needed to change our AP process, related to document handling and data entry. We had been doing everything manually, printing invoices when they come in, emailing / hand delivering to various places / people for approval, generally a mess overall and basically untrackable. Then we had a data entry person entering all the invoice data into Epicor.
We implemented a document management solution ( Docuware ) that is cloud hosted. With the software we can OCR, create workflows, track revisions to documents, and make web service calls.
Our process now is an AP Invoice gets sent from a supplier, to a monitored email address.
Docuware OCR’s the necessary data from the invoice; supplier, amount, purchase order etc.
Based on various conditions like location, invoice type, PO status, it routs to different people for approval, or for corrections that need made. During all this various pieces of data is checked and validated against Purchase Order, Receipt Pack, and GL data, using REST calls to Epicor.
Once all the criteria is set, an AP Invoice is created using REST, matched to the appropriate receipts / GL Accounts, and posted to the GL.
The invoice can now be paid using the normal Epicor payment process.
After invoices are paid, remittance info for the payment loads back to Docuware, and is linked to the paid invoices.
This was huge for us, everything is super trackable now at any stage, organized, and easy for our Accounting department do what they need to do to get our suppliers paid on time. We also saved an incredible amount of data entry time by automating the AP invoice creation process.
Last year we also implemented a project with our bank. We generate a payment batch in Epicor, and send it to them through SFTP.
They allow the suppliers to choose if they want to receive a one-time credit card payment, ACH or live check. The bank splits the payments, prints any live checks needed, mails them, and processes the payments.
We then receive remittance info back, which goes back into our document management, and matches the AP Payments and payment data with the AP Invoice.
We had to build a lot of timesavers to avoid having a major slowdown when we went live (Sorry Epicor…) and in support of a hybrid MTO, MTS, ETO, ATO ATS, manufacturing environment where the same product might be manufactured to order or to stock, shipped from stock or from a job, transferred in from another site, or purchased fully assembled, and that combination can change several times in the same day for a given product in a given site. We promise 3-5 day shipping and every job takes about 15 minutes, so not a lot of scope for paperwork.
Custom order entry to:
allow entering orders for all sites from the same screen
automatically select appropriate PartRev based on site (because labour resources are site-specific)
automatically check inventory for manufactured items and if present, unset “make direct” on the release
automate the tasks involved in changing order sites, including cleaning up and recreating jobs in the new site
Many BPMs including
automatically firm jobs created by MRP based on criteria, so that any negative available components show up right away
automatically reschedule jobs based on one of 5 order types
automatically send customer order confirmations with dates based on order types
Customized MES interface to match workflow
Custom production activity start and stop screens in MES to:
check for subassemblies we have decided to kanban receipt upon order
create and execute the KB receipts
roll up all the picking operations from all of the assemblies and execute them with a single human action
issue all the material for all of thoose picking ops
if material is not present in the primary bin upon issuing, automatically find it and move it before issuing
roll up all the similar ops downstream, and execute with a single human action
Custom Shipment entry to allow mass ship from a combination of jobs and stock on a given order
process to allow us to use sales kits with manufactured items
a dashboard to analyze demand for the sales kits, creating a grid to copy/paste into excel for DMT
custom picking sales order picklist to enable collecting sales kit items from stock or assembly line
Custom planner dashboard - the original workbench is so labor-intensive as to be unusable. We had 6 people full-time using it, and built a tool that allowed 5 of them to go back to their normal work
pulls up all jobs and child jobs for the day’s work
shows man-hours needed
planner selects a shop-floor day and hits save
tool sets the job date, releases the job, firms and releases the child jobs, sets mass print
typically allows assigning 200-300 jobs to 70-80 workers for the day, in about 1.5 hours
Those are the main projects but there are an awful lot more. I inherited over 160 customizations and some 40 BPMs. I’m sure most of them were not needed.
My next focus is automating any regularly occurring DMT, like the quick-job entry we use for sales kits. I’d rather create a job with a demand link to the line item in the sales order.
So cool to read some of these projects! I am have to steal some of these ideas for us.
A cool time saver that was here before I started is a screen that allows you to Issue Material to jobs and completes a Serial Match at the same time if your Top Level and Issued Parts are serialized. We will be revamping this process a little as it wasn’t built in the most efficient way, but the concept is solid. Personally I would love to see something like this in out of box Epicor as this isn’t the first place I’ve seen this need come up.
Here’s a list of things either in development or in the list of projects:
Fully electronic Device History Record report (Electronic DHR Traveler) for manufactured medical devices
This is replacing a completely paper process and should net 10% efficiency gains immediately, with potential for 20-25% efficiency compared to paper.
This was accomplished with EQA and Inspection Plans. There are some BPMs in place to ensure Devices (SNs) are being processed in the correct order along with some screen customizations to better streamline the OOB processing. Getting from MES End Activity to the Inspection plan through Inspection Results Entry is pretty clunky.
A key process improvement was a prompt for MES users in End Activity asking if they would like to stay clocked into the same Job Operation. If yes, it will complete the End Activity process then clock them back into the same Job Opr without any additional interaction. If no is selected, they are clocked out as normal.
Customer Complaint/Feedback tracking and processing linked to Service and Service History
A customized version of Cases that leverages OOB Field Service to work on customer devices and a UD table to track the service history of each device.
(Future project) Integration with Outlook Calendar Events and Epicor Time Entry for Engineers
This one is recent, but think will be huge for us. We want to allow engineers to use their outlook meetings as essentially their time card entries. The desire is for there to be enough detail within the Outlook Event to know if it’s billable work to a project or indirect time, and take the details and put those into the labor notes. This will bring a lot of efficiency to the current admin workload of our engineering team and hopefully lead to fewer time mistakes.
Like others in this thread, I inherited over 100 customizations. My goal has been to get rid of as many as I can so our upgrade validation is less rigorous, and take the required ones from custom code to wizard-based.
