If your projects fit Vantage's definition... it works. Ours doesn't, but since our problem isn't unique, Epicor would do well to do something about. I can see it now... ETO module... more $.
Thanks, Scott. We do something similar in Excel.
Thanks, Scott. We do something similar in Excel.
----- Original Message -----
From: "brychanwilliams" <brychanw@...>
To: <vantage@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, February 14, 2006 1:03 PM
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Project Accounting
Well,
Wow... I have been looking at your posts from afar. Would it be fair to say that vantage doesn't really embrace project type work? I understand that 'projects' was tagged on to the system but it would be great just to post a misc invoice(ap) to a project. But we are not using projects to generate wip then cos then invoice etc.
In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "Lepley, Scott A." <sal@...> wrote:
Hello Chris,
I apologize for the long delay in responding, but here's a brief summary of what we have in place. More work remains, but at least we're moving in the right direction now. At least I think we are...
I just uploaded a Report Builder report that calculates, for every open make-to-order job linked to a sales order release flagged as subject to percentage-of-completion accounting, the actual job costs-to-date, the percentage-of-completion ratio and the resulting earned revenue-to-date. In turn, it totals invoiced-to-date and compares that value to the earned revenue-to-date to determine over- and under-billing. This report is, without a doubt, the most complicated one that I have ever created in Report Builder, so suffice it to say that there are probably better ways to do what I have done in it and that Crystal Reports is probably much better suited to the task. At some point, I will need to convert it from RB to CR.
The report is dependent upon the proper use of several user-defined fields, some of which are set up in VB forms. In sales order releases, we have a VB form where we designate a planner and whether the release is subject to PoC. In the corresponding job headers, we use one of the check-off boxes (JobHead.CheckOff2) to indicate that the job is 'ready for PoC' and one of the user fields (JobHead.UserInteger1) to enter the estimated cost from our quote. From there, everything else happens in the report. Again, there are probably better ways to do this, but this is the outcome to date of my trials and errors (of which there have been plenty). Our company president would like to see some cash flow forecasting added to the report based on anticipated milestone billings, so I still have that challenge ahead of me. If you have any ideas, please share.
I hope this helps!
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Robisch [mailto:blue.wine@...]
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 12:41 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Project Accounting
You're the only one, so far. One problem is the percentage complete revenue recognition, negotiated invoicing and over/under billings between the two. This we would like Vantage to be more helpful with.
Another is Engineer Purchasing for Engineer To Order, which we can mostly solve with V8 customization. But Vantage 8.0.805e still corrupts seven of our large jobs and PO contact phone numbers don't appear on the screen properly when using a Purchase Point. Purchasing is THE most important activity for engineers in Vantage and has to work and be friendly.
We can't go to V8 until its problems are resolved.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lepley, Scott A." <sal@...>
To: <vantage@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2006 9:11 AM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Project Accounting
Hey Chris, just wanted to let you know that I haven't forgotten about this, but I just haven't taken the time to summarize our process yet. Have you received a reply from anyone else?
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Robisch [mailto:blue.wine@...]
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 5:10 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Vantage] Project Accounting
Electroimpact is strictly Engineer To Order (no Inventory) and 15-20 jobs at any one time require percentage-complete accounting which we do in Excel using Vantage data and then post back to Vantage manually. We use Miscellaneous Shipments, not Customer Shipments for these jobs, as we're shipping a unique machine, some assemble jet aircraft wings, in containers which are reassembled/tested by us at the customer site. Our estimated job costs are fairly accurate while our actual costs are accurate as we track all dollars and hours for everyone working on the job -- engineers, inspectors, machinists and technicians -- with true pay rates in Vantage. Overtime $ is automatically applied to the jobs through custom programming. Overhead is allocated based on labor $.
Fiscal period is one year. Being a privately held company, we care more about IRS forms than GAAP. We're on 6.0 going to 8.0 as soon as it and we are ready. You would think that Epicor would address our business better since Vantage 8 and beyond is to support all of their various Manufacturing Packages. But Project Accounting and ETO Purchasing is still a pain in Vantage. We can, however, address some of the problems of ETO Purchasing with the new V8 Customization tools.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lepley, Scott A." <sal@...>
To: <vantage@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 1:10 PM
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Project Accounting
Holy GAAP, Batman! Based on responses (or lack thereof, really) to similar postings in the past, I didn't think anyone else was even interested in doing this strictly in Vantage!
I suspect most Vantage users faced with these issues are using Access, Excel and/or Crystal Reports (any or all with or without ODBC) to accomplish their accounting and then posting G/L adjusting entries accordingly. We have struggled with percentage-of-completion accounting for long-term contracts for quite a while now. I can try to summarize what we have done here, but that must wait until next week. In the meantime, I have for you a few questions based on our experiences here. By "fiscal period", I presume you mean "one year". Is that right or are you referring to months or quarters? What criteria do you use to distinguish contracts subject to percentage-of-completion treatment from those that are not subject to it, e.g. do you use certain thresholds related to sales amounts or delivery times? Do you fully plan your jobs before production begins, so that you have a reasonably accurate estimated cost in your jobs? If not, can you rely on estimated costs you're your estimating/quoting process? Is your job cost tracking reliable? What version of Vantage are you using? Do you use VB forms and Report Builder?
-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Robisch [mailto:blue.wine@...]
Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 3:15 PM
To: Yahoo Vantage
Subject: [Vantage] Project Accounting
How are you handling jobs open through more than one fiscal period where recognizing revenue on a Cost % Complete basis with Over/Under Billings are an issue?
Have you heard if Vantage will ever support this type of work directly?
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