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

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

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Product Configurator - Part 2

Baan Tips

Kathy Barthelt 0 61031 Article rating: 3.0
Who gets involved?
  1. Most commonly Engineering is involved in writing the rules, creating the bills and routings.
  2. Sales or Customer Service determines the questions and the order they are asked in.
  3. Sales or Customer Service determines the rules for the pricing.
  4. Sales, or Customer Service, and Engineering work together in determining the part number, description and text.

What are the steps?

  1. You must start by defining the features and options (questions and answers) and the order in which these are asked. We work this out first using sticky notes and large easel paper. Normally during the process we find that we want to move these questions around. Setting them down on paper makes the process of getting the data into Baan much more efficient. We also then have a record of what decisions were made prior to entering the data. This is normally a joint effort of Engineering and Sales. This is required and must be the first step.
  2. Constraints for features and options. These are the rules for determining what questions are asked and which options are allowed. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is required.
  3. Generic Bill of Material. All possible bill options are entered here and constraints are written to determine which options are selected based on the answers to the questions. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is a required step.
  4. Generic Routing. Similar to the bill of material, but used for generation of the routing steps. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator. This is optional.
  5. Generic Item Data. This consists of creating custom item numbers, descriptions, text, material, size or standard fields in the custom item master. This is generally done by Engineering or whoever is responsible for the configurator though Sales may have some involvement. This is optional.
  6. Generic Pricing. This is used to calculate the selling price based on the answers to the questions. This is normally a responsibility of Sales or whoever determines the pricing. This group is also trained on writing the constraints for this section only. This is optional.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: How To Capture Re-Work Time (Part 1)

Anthony Etzel 0 50260 Article rating: No rating
In SFC600, there is no code to capture the time spent on re-work. Re-work is usually at a specific operation, or when the part is finished and QC determines that re-work is required in order to pass inspection. You are faced with deciding on how to report the additional labor time.

Do you continue to report it against the operation, or create a re-work shop order?

If you are re-working through a specific operation you can capture the time as run labor with the SFC600 program. Now you need to deal with the variance of actual to standard time and what impact this has on costing.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Configuration Management

Anthony Etzel 0 50682 Article rating: No rating

Make to Order? No problem if you use the Configuration Management System. This LX product allows you to define and configure a make to order product during Customer Order Entry. Basically, you have the option to create different products under the same common product item. You will get two completely different common end items that are configured from the same common parent.

The customer orders are planned and turned into shop orders for each end item with all the associated components. With an MES solution in place, the shop order side is easy to schedule and allows you to manage the shop floor.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Product Configurator - Part 1

Kathy Barthelt 0 62379 Article rating: No rating
What is it?
The configurator consists of a set of features (questions). The options (answers) to these questions then are used to generate the custom bill of material and routing. These questions may be answered at the time of order entry, prior to order entry (in a project or quote) or after order entry (in the project). The order of the questions need not have any relationship to the bill of materials. The configurator may also calculate the selling price, create a unique “smart” item number, custom description and text. Simple rules are used to interpret the answers.

Who uses the configurator?
Companies whose products have options. The configurator eliminates the need for part numbers for all combinations of options. The configurator ensures that the pricing and bills are correct. The configurator also keeps statistics on the frequency the options are selected.
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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

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.

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.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Year-End Processing Checklist for Period and Fiscal Year Closure

The conclusion of the fiscal year is inevitably a hectic period, making it crucial not to overlook essential tasks within your ERP system to ensure a seamless year-end close and set the stage for a successful start to the upcoming year. Below are critical items to include in your comprehensive checklist:

Year-End Close Process:

  1. Remove discontinued items.
  2. Eliminate sold purchase receipts.
  3. Clear lot attributes for sold lots.
  4. Update standard cost based on the current cost field (for environments without Manufacturing only).

Prepare for Year-End Close:

  1. Conduct a comprehensive physical inventory and update quantities before the actual year-end or establish a robust cycle-counting program.
  2. Review and post any applicable sales and purchase invoices/returns.
  3. Prepare users for a year-end push to complete all year-to-date inventory adjustments, receipts, and invoicing.
  4. Determine procedures for handling new year transactions without immediate posting.
  5. Establish new standard costs for the upcoming year (Manufacturing).
  6. Discuss cutoff dates for removing Archived BOMs and Closed/Canceled Mfg Orders (Manufacturing).

Finance Specific Items:

  1. Set up financial periods for 2024 (fiscal, reporting, and tax, as applicable).
  2. Open January period in 2024.
  3. Finalize any outstanding transactions from the current year (2023).
  4. Perform a soft-close for any open periods in 2023.

General Baan/LN Tips:

  1. Issue any pending old sales invoices.
  2. Resolve outstanding financial integration errors.
  3. Establish new integration mapping for 2024 as needed.
  4. Test the mapping in a controlled environment before the new year.
  5. Review and update jobs to ensure they will process in 2024.
  6. Determine, for cash-flow purposes, which purchase invoices won’t be paid until 2024.
  7. Verify that calendars are set up for the new year with holidays correctly indicated.
  8. Check jobs to ensure that any with hard-coded dates will point at the new year.

For additional insights and tips on year-end processing, refer to the relevant documents in the Infor Knowledge Base.

 KB 

 Content 

 1879191  

 Document including step by step procedure, possible error/warning messages, and more (Infor LN) 

 1147023 

 Step by step procedure description (Infor LN)

 1116239 

 Step by step procedure description (Infor LN)

 1117334

 Step by step procedure description (Infor LN; Portuguese)

 1171300 

 Step by step procedure description (Baan IV) 

If you require assistance or have any questions, feel free to reach out to us, and we'll gladly guide you through the necessary steps to ensure a thorough and accurate completion of your year-end processes. Contact us at 1.800.762.2077 or via email at solutions@crossroadsrmc.com. Your success is our priority, and we're here to help.

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Kathy Barthelt

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