Please Wait a Moment
X

Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

Crossroads Connections

Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

Infor LX | Infor LN | BPCS | Baan | Infor M3

Eliminating ERP Customizations: Key Considerations and Modern Solutions

Kathy Barthelt 0 88 Article rating: 5.0

Transitioning away from customizations can indeed pose challenges, but it's not insurmountable with the right approach. Here’s a look at the real issues and solutions that can pave the way for a streamlined, up-to-date ERP.


Common Challenges:

  1. Dependency on Custom Processes
    Custom processes become ingrained, and removing them disrupts established workflows. However, business processes often evolve over time, as do best practices incorporated into modern ERP systems.

  2. Cost and Time Constraints
    Testing, retraining, and hiring consultants for an upgrade are valid concerns. Yet, consider the efficiency gains and reduced maintenance costs over time by utilizing standard ERP features.

  3. User Resistance
    Change management is critical, as employees can be skeptical of losing tools they’re familiar with. Effective communication about the benefits of standardized, future-ready tools can help ease the transition.


The Reality Check: Has Your Organization Changed?

Evaluate how much your business needs have shifted, how user expectations have evolved, and if any workarounds or interim solutions are now adding unnecessary complexity. Many companies discover that industry-standard ERP features can replace outdated customizations.


Did You Know?

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for FINANCE: Use of Electronic Bank Statements

Kathy Barthelt 0 626 Article rating: 5.0

All actions required for converting, validating, matching, and posting electronically received bank statements can be performed within a single session:

  • Bank Statement Workbench (tfcmg5610m100)
  • Bank Statement (tfcmg5610m000)

Alternatively, you can use the sequence of electronic bank statement sessions outlined below.

Steps to Process Electronic Bank Statements:

Harnessing the Power of AI to Help Manufacturers Sell More at the Right Time

George Moroses 0 225 Article rating: 5.0

AI: Transforming Manufacturing—From Production to Profitability

As AI reshapes industries, manufacturers are asking critical questions: How will customers discover and purchase products in an AI-driven world? And how can companies keep pace with these advancements?

At Crossroads RMC, we address these challenges with our AI Readiness Assessment (AIRA). An AIRA creates a clear, actionable digital roadmap, significantly boosting efficiency, accuracy, and strategic capabilities. This assessment ensures a smooth, swift AI transition.

Our AI Readiness Assessments target key areas:

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

George Moroses 0 617 Article rating: 5.0

TECHNOLOGY: Facility Security Ranges

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

FINANCE: Expiration Date for Quotes and RMAs

A Cancel-by-Date has been added to the Quote Header and RMA Header panels. This optional field can limit how long a quote or authorization to return items for credit is valid.  

For quotes, this enhancement provides an optional end date for the quote. For RMAs, it provides an optional date by which the customer must return the items to receive the credit listed on the RMA.

The Cancel-By-Date prints on the Order Acknowledgement and RMA Acknowledgement to inform the customer of this important limitation to the quote or return authorization. 

An Order Entry user cannot copy the quote to create a new order if the Cancel By Date has caused the quote to expire.

OPERATIONS: Default Split Salesperson to Customer Orders

Sales commissions are based on combinations of the Primary, Split, and Line-Level salesperson and the commission codes defined for the customer and item. You can now define the Split Salesperson in the same master files as the Primary Salesperson. While the Primary Salesperson is mandatory, the Split Salesperson is optional. It defaults during Order Create using the identical hierarchy as Primary Salesperson. Using Split Salesperson provides more flexibility in the calculation of sales commissions. The ability to define a default Split Salesperson improves the accuracy of sales commission qualification and calculation and reduces maintenance and adjustments necessitated by corrections.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Facility Security Ranges

George Moroses 0 542 Article rating: 5.0

Previously, a user could complete the Cost Transfer (CST920) process for any range of facilities regardless of their security settings established in SYS600. This enhancement verifies the user security settings set up in SYS600 before processing cost transfers for a range of facilities in CST920. If the user has authority for a facility range, but there are facilities within that range that are not authorized, the program skips those facilities and completes the cost transfer process.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for FINANCE: Expiration Date for Quotes and RMAs

George Moroses 0 586 Article rating: 5.0

A Cancel-by-Date has been added to the Quote Header and RMA Header panels. This optional field can limit how long a quote or authorization to return items for credit is valid.  

For quotes, this enhancement provides an optional end date for the quote. For RMAs, it provides an optional date by which the customer must return the items to receive the credit listed on the RMA.

The Cancel-By-Date prints on the Order Acknowledgement and RMA Acknowledgement to inform the customer of this important limitation to the quote or return authorization. 

An Order Entry user cannot copy the quote to create a new order if the Cancel By Date has caused the quote to expire.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for OPERATIONS: Default Split Salesperson to Customer Orders

George Moroses 0 642 Article rating: 5.0

Sales commissions are based on combinations of the Primary, Split, and Line-Level salesperson and the commission codes defined for the customer and item. You can now define the Split Salesperson in the same master files as the Primary Salesperson. While the Primary Salesperson is mandatory, the Split Salesperson is optional. It defaults during Order Create using the identical hierarchy as Primary Salesperson. Using Split Salesperson provides more flexibility in the calculation of sales commissions. The ability to define a default Split Salesperson improves the accuracy of sales commission qualification and calculation and reduces maintenance and adjustments necessitated by corrections.

RSS
12345678910Last

Theme picker

Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Understanding: How many hours remain in total and at each operation?

First let’s look at some key BPCS Master File data starting with the routing file.

How many routing steps (operations) are set up that reflect how the product is produced in the factory? If you take a short cut and set up only one operation for the entire process, then you will limit the information seen on the SO inquiry program. Set up the operation steps to reflect what you want to report back to from the factory floor.

Will each of the routing steps run in one work center, or in different work centers? To keep it simple you may want to set up work centers as departments. For example:

  • Assembly
  • Machine
  • Paint
  • Etc.

For each operation setup consider how you have set up the following:

  • Load Codes – for example a code 5 is used if reporting both setup time and run labor time. These codes are maintained in the work center file
  • Basis Code – typical codes are P for pieces per hour,  3 is used for hours per 1,000 pieces
  • Setup hours – if you set them up, you also want to report them
  • Run hours – Direct Labor
  • Machine hours

How you set up th

Came across an article online from Lauber CFO’s, and thought I would share. Here is a checklist for things to consider in order to finish out the year and help you plan for 2016:

 

  • Are your accounting records up to date so that you can make a projection of how the current year will turn out?
  • Are all account reconciliations currently up to date to facilitate the closing of the books after year end?
  • Are there accounts receivable that should be reserved for or written off prior to the end of the year?
  • If your business carries inventory, do you need to plan a physical count as of the end of the year?
  • Has depreciation on your fixed assets been recorded during the year? Have you considered depreciation on current year additions?
  • Have all new asset purchases and bank loans been recorded on your books?
  • Are there any liabilities, for example, pending legal actions or warranty issues, which will need to be recorded prior to year end? 
  • Do you have a plan in place to properly “cut-off” revenue at year end to properly match revenue and expense?
  • Will there be bonuses, profit sharing contributions or discretionary retirement plan contributions paid prior to the end of the year? How will these payments affect cash f
First123124125126128130131132Last

Theme picker

Tips: LN | Baan

An ERP System Review is NOT a Report Card

It's a no-judgment-review - we promise!

report card C minusWe all remember our school days and the nervousness that we felt when it came time to get our grades. Even if we were doing well, we were still nervous. Sometimes we experienced that same nervousness when it came time for a performance review on our job. Nervousness…sometimes dread…knowing that our performance was not what we wanted it to be, or others expected it to be. 

Somehow I think the feelings that we felt in our past often find ways to creep into our present. I have seen this recently when I suggested an ERP system review to one of our customers. They immediately became flustered and thought about every possible problem that they knew existed within the software and how they were currently using it. I asked them to consider the purpose of the ERP system review.

An ERP Utilization Review will:

  • Document how your company is using your ERP system (or a particular aspect of the system) and to what extent the system meets the needs of the business.
  • Identify challenges encountered using the software.
  • Create opportunities for improving business processes and generating additional value.
  • Identify potential risks and areas that need improvement.


key hole to the futureSo, if the result of ERP system review is to establish a path forward for growth based on current status, then why doesn’t every company take advantage of it? I think for some, the answer lies in the feelings of nervousness and dread still stuck in the recesses of our brains.

An ERP system review or more specifically a utilization review is NOT a personal report card, or performance review showing how well a particular individual does his/hers/their job, nor is it an attack on the team that implemented the software. 

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. What we view now to be a less than ideal implementation methodology may have been absolutely appropriate at the time the software was originally deployed. The software has likely matured and the skillsets of the individuals responsible for the system have likely matured as well. In some cases, those resources are no longer with the company, leaving those that remain with no back story as to how and why implementation decisions were made.

Instead of viewing the ERP utilization review as a reason to find fault in previous decisions, think of it as discovering untapped potential – both of the ERP system and the people who use it. Viewing an ERP utilization review in this way puts a positive spin on it and allows us to challenge ourselves to identify opportunities for growth far greater than anything we imagined before. This means not only moving our businesses forward faster but also advancing the strength of the company as individuals and as a team.

What untapped potential lies within your company?

Consider a utilization review of your entire ERP system, or just a part of it like Finance, Technology, Materials Management, Order Processing, or Shop Floor Control. You just might be surprised at what greatness can be achieved… far greater than anyone could have imagined.  

Get a free phone consultation button

800.762.2077

Print
23099 Rate this article:
5.0
Kathy Barthelt

Kathy BartheltKathy Barthelt

Other posts by Kathy Barthelt

Theme picker

Contact author

x

Categories