We don't use it so I don't know much of anything about it but have you
looked at the milestone billing?
________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Zack Ready
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 11:18 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Need ideas for unusual invoicing/billing/inventory
system
Hello everyone, the confused annoying guy is back. I just opened a call
to Epicor with this, I figured posting it here might help get some ideas
too (it usually does). I apologize in advance for the length of this
post, I just didn't want to leave out any details. If anyone has any
tips for us it'd be immensely appreciated!
Hello,
We have been setting up a new company in Vantage which will be
shipments from inventory only, there is no manufacturing or labor
involved. The owner wants 4 types of products in stock: regular
instruments, samples, leases, convention items. I have been running in
circles trying to setup the A/R & inventory system how he wants, with
limited success. I'll try to sum up what he wants. This is all in a
test system first before we go live.
Regular instruments are normal parts sold to the customer. These go
through the normal PO/SO > customer shipment entry > invoice entry
routine. The correct A/R & sales accounts are hit, and COS is generated
when the WIP/COS activity capture is run. This all works perfectly and
we have no problems with it.
Convention items are parts taken by sales people to
tradeshows/conventions. They are never sold and no transaction ever
takes place with these unless they are lost, which they are then written
off through a journal entry (unless we are told of a better way). The
only action ever taken place on these parts is when they are transfered
from the regular inventory into convention inventory, where they sit for
good until they are returned back into normal inventory, or adjusted out
when one of those journal entries are created. No invoicing is ever
done with convention items. This is easy enough, simply transfer the
parts into the correct warehouse/bin and use stock status reports on
that warehouse or Part Classes (which I don't think are possible to use
in this setup, I'll mention why below) to keep track of the value of
that inventory. No problem there unless someone can suggest a better
system to deal with these.
The problems lie with samples & leases, which are similar situations
but not exactly the same. Samples are sent out to customers at no
price, and aren't billed unless they are never returned. The owner
wants samples that have been sent out to sit in their own inventory and
to have not been removed from stock, but the customer has been invoiced
at $0 just to keep a record of the sample being sent. As far as I can
tell, misc. invoices still pull the item from stock, decreasing
inventory and creating a COS at the stocked item's cost. Can a "dummy"
invoice be made in Vantage (and not in Word or Crystal, etc.) that keeps
track of the invoice at $0 and never touches the inventory? I realize
if the item's cost was set to 0 in inventory it wouldn't affect COS if
it were invoiced normally, but he doesn't want the inventory decreased
at the time of invoicing for $0. Also, for the same reason part classes
can't be used which i'll mention below, we'd be unable to set those
parts to 0 cost in inventory anyway. If the sample is never returned it
would then be invoiced/pulled from stock using product groups to hit the
correct A/R & sales accounts, this part works fine, it's the initial
"invoicing" at $0 that is holding us up. Is it possible to send some
type of invoice with part info/etc. on it that does absolutely nothing
to A/R, sales, inventory, and COS?
Leased items are the same as sample items except that they aren't
expected to be returned, they are simply paid for weekly or monthly (yet
to be decided) in payments by the customer leasing them. Just like
samples they are initially moved to their own warehouse/bin (each
customer would have their own bin, there wouldn't be too many of them),
where they sit while they are in the hands of the customer. At the time
of shipping the part out they would also have to be invoiced at $0, just
like samples. The customer then pays periodically, and while these
payments would hit A/R-Leases & Sales-Leases, we again don't want them
to touch the leased inventory or COS-Leases. What would be the best way
to go about invoicing for the periodic payments? Accounts the owner
wants used in these payments: A/R-Leases, Sales-Leases, Leased Inventory
Reserve, COS Leases _but not at the cost listed in stock by that part
number_. These may also have to be journal entries?
Part Classes aren't a good solution for us because each part has one
part number, but can be different types. For example, part "12345" can
have 80 pieces the first warehouse (regular instruments), 2 leased out
to customers (sitting in the leased warehouse), and 3 sent out as
samples (sitting in the samples warehouse), all using the part #12345.
The owner doesn't want multiple part masters for each part (which was my
idea, each having different costs), and he doesn't want inventories to
be affected by anything but normal sales.
I guess basically my major 2 questions are 1) can invoices be made
in the system for $0 that don't affect inventory or COS whatsoever, but
are kept on record as normal - WITHOUT using part classes, and 2) what
would be the best way to bill a customer who is leasing an item, once we
have inventory & billing setup the way the owner wants?
Am I making this way more complicated than it needs to be (which I
assume is the case)? If it were up to me I'd have used Part Classes,
attached each part to a certain class/inventory G/L account, ONLY have
sent a misc. packing slip when the item went out, and let the
sample/leased inventories change with shipments/billing for those types
when they had to be billed (having the cost at 0 which kept the COS at
0, and letting the inventory decrease). It's not up to me though.
Thanks,
Zack
Not an accountant, just a confused IT guy
This message has been processed via your triumphgroup.com e-mail
address.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
looked at the milestone billing?
________________________________
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Zack Ready
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2007 11:18 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Need ideas for unusual invoicing/billing/inventory
system
Hello everyone, the confused annoying guy is back. I just opened a call
to Epicor with this, I figured posting it here might help get some ideas
too (it usually does). I apologize in advance for the length of this
post, I just didn't want to leave out any details. If anyone has any
tips for us it'd be immensely appreciated!
Hello,
We have been setting up a new company in Vantage which will be
shipments from inventory only, there is no manufacturing or labor
involved. The owner wants 4 types of products in stock: regular
instruments, samples, leases, convention items. I have been running in
circles trying to setup the A/R & inventory system how he wants, with
limited success. I'll try to sum up what he wants. This is all in a
test system first before we go live.
Regular instruments are normal parts sold to the customer. These go
through the normal PO/SO > customer shipment entry > invoice entry
routine. The correct A/R & sales accounts are hit, and COS is generated
when the WIP/COS activity capture is run. This all works perfectly and
we have no problems with it.
Convention items are parts taken by sales people to
tradeshows/conventions. They are never sold and no transaction ever
takes place with these unless they are lost, which they are then written
off through a journal entry (unless we are told of a better way). The
only action ever taken place on these parts is when they are transfered
from the regular inventory into convention inventory, where they sit for
good until they are returned back into normal inventory, or adjusted out
when one of those journal entries are created. No invoicing is ever
done with convention items. This is easy enough, simply transfer the
parts into the correct warehouse/bin and use stock status reports on
that warehouse or Part Classes (which I don't think are possible to use
in this setup, I'll mention why below) to keep track of the value of
that inventory. No problem there unless someone can suggest a better
system to deal with these.
The problems lie with samples & leases, which are similar situations
but not exactly the same. Samples are sent out to customers at no
price, and aren't billed unless they are never returned. The owner
wants samples that have been sent out to sit in their own inventory and
to have not been removed from stock, but the customer has been invoiced
at $0 just to keep a record of the sample being sent. As far as I can
tell, misc. invoices still pull the item from stock, decreasing
inventory and creating a COS at the stocked item's cost. Can a "dummy"
invoice be made in Vantage (and not in Word or Crystal, etc.) that keeps
track of the invoice at $0 and never touches the inventory? I realize
if the item's cost was set to 0 in inventory it wouldn't affect COS if
it were invoiced normally, but he doesn't want the inventory decreased
at the time of invoicing for $0. Also, for the same reason part classes
can't be used which i'll mention below, we'd be unable to set those
parts to 0 cost in inventory anyway. If the sample is never returned it
would then be invoiced/pulled from stock using product groups to hit the
correct A/R & sales accounts, this part works fine, it's the initial
"invoicing" at $0 that is holding us up. Is it possible to send some
type of invoice with part info/etc. on it that does absolutely nothing
to A/R, sales, inventory, and COS?
Leased items are the same as sample items except that they aren't
expected to be returned, they are simply paid for weekly or monthly (yet
to be decided) in payments by the customer leasing them. Just like
samples they are initially moved to their own warehouse/bin (each
customer would have their own bin, there wouldn't be too many of them),
where they sit while they are in the hands of the customer. At the time
of shipping the part out they would also have to be invoiced at $0, just
like samples. The customer then pays periodically, and while these
payments would hit A/R-Leases & Sales-Leases, we again don't want them
to touch the leased inventory or COS-Leases. What would be the best way
to go about invoicing for the periodic payments? Accounts the owner
wants used in these payments: A/R-Leases, Sales-Leases, Leased Inventory
Reserve, COS Leases _but not at the cost listed in stock by that part
number_. These may also have to be journal entries?
Part Classes aren't a good solution for us because each part has one
part number, but can be different types. For example, part "12345" can
have 80 pieces the first warehouse (regular instruments), 2 leased out
to customers (sitting in the leased warehouse), and 3 sent out as
samples (sitting in the samples warehouse), all using the part #12345.
The owner doesn't want multiple part masters for each part (which was my
idea, each having different costs), and he doesn't want inventories to
be affected by anything but normal sales.
I guess basically my major 2 questions are 1) can invoices be made
in the system for $0 that don't affect inventory or COS whatsoever, but
are kept on record as normal - WITHOUT using part classes, and 2) what
would be the best way to bill a customer who is leasing an item, once we
have inventory & billing setup the way the owner wants?
Am I making this way more complicated than it needs to be (which I
assume is the case)? If it were up to me I'd have used Part Classes,
attached each part to a certain class/inventory G/L account, ONLY have
sent a misc. packing slip when the item went out, and let the
sample/leased inventories change with shipments/billing for those types
when they had to be billed (having the cost at 0 which kept the COS at
0, and letting the inventory decrease). It's not up to me though.
Thanks,
Zack
Not an accountant, just a confused IT guy
This message has been processed via your triumphgroup.com e-mail
address.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]