What’s New Since Elliott V7.3

Use ATP as MRP

The ATP (Available to Promise) feature has been in Elliott since V6.7.  Initially, ATP only supported parent items and was mainly used by importers to view scheduled sales orders and purchase orders together to predict the quantity balance of an item.  It can be used by buyers for purchasing or customer service reps for advising a customer of their delivery schedule.  ATP was later expanded to support components so it can be used for MRP (Material Requirement Planning) as well.

 

If you are a planner or buyer, you will be glad to know Elliott V7.4 ATP has been improved to a new level by adding the following features:

 

 

Forecast Orders

In the past, planners could predict future quantity balance of an item based on the actual orders in the system.  “Actual orders” refers to Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Production Work Orders and Shop Orders.  If you are in a purchase/production to order environment (i.e. you only purchase or produce if there is a confirmed sales order), this will work fine.  However, many users work on a purchase/production to stock basis or on a mixed to-order and to-stock basis.  In that case, users will need to have a forecast model to predict future sales.  Based on the forecasting, the system can determine the proper future replenishment (i.e. Purchase or Production Orders). 

 

Elliott V7.4 now provides a forecast database where users can enter the future sales forecast data and it becomes a part of the ATP system.  This will help the ATP system to create future plan orders.  Since many companies use a spreadsheet to build their forecast model, your customers may provide their forecast data to you in a spreadsheet format and this can be imported into the Elliott forecast database.

 

Planning Orders

In the past, buyers looked at the ATP data to spot negative quantity balances in the future and placed the necessary PO or Work Order to fill the hole.  In Elliott V7.4, the system can now create planning orders to fill the hole automatically.  Planning Orders are replenishment orders created in Elliott V7.4 to save buyers and planners time.  If buyers or planners agree with the system created Planning Orders, they can simply confirm them through ATP Processing and the actual orders (PO or Work Orders) will be created.

 

Various factors can be setup in Elliott to help the system to determine the planning order quantity and date.  This includes planning lead time (field 84 in Item Master), safety stock(field 59 in Item Master), planning period(field 14 in Global Setup, ATP), buffer days (fields 15 and 16 in Global Setup, ATP) and forecast records previously created.  Users on a manual MRP system must realize that to switch to an autopilot ATP system will take some time to fine tune these factors to fully automate it correctly.  The ATP system will only create Planning Orders for those items that have field 73 (Master Sch Item) set to “Y.”

 

Since Planning Orders are created by the system automatically, the planner (or buyer) may not agree with all of the values and can override them.  This can happen especially in the beginning stages of implementing ATP as MRP.  In Elliott V7.4, we introduced a utility called “ATP Processing” and one of its many functions is to allow adjustments to Planning Orders.  Once a planner is satisfied with the planning order, they can turn it into an actual order, like a PO or Work Order.  Sometimes the planning order may not be ready to become an actual order and the planner may simply adjust it and leave it at the planning stage.  However, each time the system performs the ATP Re-Gen (like MRP Re-Gen), the previous planning orders will be wiped out and re-calculated.  If planners want to keep the adjusted planning orders from being overridden by the re-calculation (Re-Gen Process), they need to change it into a firm plan order.

 

The Four Planning Types of ATP

Depending on the level of the firmness of an order, the ATP records can be divided into four different categories:

“A” - Actual – ATP records prior to Elliott V7.4

“F” - Firm – New Feature

“X” - Firm Plan – New Feature

“P” - Plan – New Feature

Actual: All the ATP records supported prior to Elliott V7.4 are actual ATP records.  Actual ATP records refer to printed Purchase Orders, Sales Orders and Work Orders.  They will correspond and match with the Item Qty Allocated or Qty on Order. 

 

Firm:  Firm ATP records refer to a PO Requisition, a PO that has not been printed, a Blanket PO/Sales Order, or a Work Order that has not been allocated.  Firm ATP means these records will become the actual ATP in the near future.  These ATP records did not exist prior to V7.4.

 

Plan and Firm Plan: The Plan ATP records are created by the system automatically as a suggestion for a buyer or planner.  Each time ATP is regenerated, the Plan ATP records are deleted and recalculated again.  If a planner wants to keep certain Plan ATP records from being recalculated, the planner can make the plan record firm, and thus it is called “Firm Plan.”

 

All ATP Related Features, like ATP Inquiry, ATP Report, Edit List and ATP Processing, will now prompt for the “Planning Type” to view or print.  You can only select one Planning Type at a time.  However, that does not means you can only view or print one Planning Type at a time.  When you choose “A” – Actual Orders, then only the Actual ATP Orders will be displayed or printed.  When you choose “A”, the display and report will basically show you the same kind of ATP information as you knew prior to Elliott V7.4.

 

When you choose “F” – Firm Orders, both Actual Orders and Firm Orders will be displayed or printed.  Since you can not predict future quantity without the Actual Orders, it  is logical to display or print the Actual Orders with the Firm Orders.  By the same principle, if you choose “X” – Firm Plan Orders, then Actual Orders and Firm Orders will be selected too.  When you choose “P” – Plan Orders, then all Plan Types will be included.

 

The Three Lines of ATP Inquiry and Report

In Elliott V7.4, the ATP Inquiry screen and Report  can display four zones separated by the following three lines:

            (A) Today Line

            (B) Lead Time Line

            (C) Lead Time + Planning Period Line

 

These three lines will always be displayed on the ATP Process screen.  They are optional to display on the ATP Inquiry screen and to print on the ATP Report,  based on values in the Global Setup for ATP.  If you do not setup Planning Lead Time(Item File) and Planning Period (Global Setup), then Line (B) and (C) will not be meaningful.  Therefore, we suggest you set them up as part of the first step of configuring ATP.

 

Any ATP data before Line (A) is internal data maintenance issues.  For example, if there is an outstanding PO Line Item Request/Promise Date showing 10/01/07 and today’s date is already 10/15/07, it is obvious you cannot count on this 10/01/07 date since that date has come and gone and you have not received the goods yet.  In most situations, this is because your organization lacks an internal mechanism to follow up with the vendor to get a revised estimated date of arrival.  In order for ATP to work and provide valuable information, we must make sure the date is accurate.  Therefore, any ATP records displayed before Line (A) – Today Line is an indication that those records should be revised.  This Line (A) provides better visibility for management to spot problems and effectively direct the staff to follow up with their work in a timely manner.

 

Line (B) is the Lead Time Line.  Every item can have a different lead time based on the Planning Lead Time (not the Lead Time field) set up in the Item Master file.  For example, if you place a purchase order with the default vendor for Item A and that vendor is overseas and it takes 60 days for the goods to arrive at your warehouse, counting their preparation, production time, plus the shipping, then the Planning Lead Time will be 60 days.  If you have a negative quantity balance before this 60 days line, it means there is a serious situation for you to look into.  You won’t be able to solve the problem by simply making an additional purchase because it will arrive too late, based on the Lead Time principle.  There may be other ways to solve the problem, like shipping via Air Cargo (which will increase your freight cost) or calling your customers to get their permission for late shipments.  If the problem still cannot be resolved, they should cancel the order.  If there is any negative quantity between Line (B) and Line (A), then it is considered “Past Due.”  So we call this area the “Past Due Zone.”

 

Line (C) is the Lead Time + Planning Period.  Planning Period refers to how often the buyers or planners will review an item to make a purchase decision.  If the buyer will review it on a weekly basis, then the Planning Period is 7 days.  If the buyer will review it on a bi-weekly basis, then the Planning Period is 14 days.  This is a flag to be set up in ATP Global Setup.  If you have a planning period of 14 days, with the previous example of 60 days lead time, Line (C) will be 60 days + 14 days.  Any negative quantity between Line (C) and Line (B) are called “current affairs,” because the buyer and planner should take care of it now.  If the buyer and planner do not take care of it now and wait for the next review (14 days later), then it will be late.  For this reason, we call this zone the “Current Zone.”

 

ATP records after Line (C) are called Future ATP Records.  If there is any negative quantity balance in this future zone, the planner can either take care of it or ignore it for now since we have enough time to respond when we review it again next time (14 days later, in the previous example).  You may not want to replenish future zone shortage items because things can change and the customer might cancel the order.  While your customer may be able to cancel your order, you may not be able to cancel your PO with your vendor once their production is in motion and you eventually end up with the extra inventory.  In many situations, you want to wait until the last moment to issue a purchase order with your vendor.

 

ATP Processing

ATP Processing is designed for the planner or buyer of an organization to allow them to make adjustments to the Plan Orders or elevate a Plan Order to a higher level, like a Firm Order or Actual Order. 

 

Adjustments to Plan Orders may mean: Change Quantity; Change Date; or Consolidate Multiple Plan Orders into One.

 

If planners agree with the Plan Orders created by the system, planners have two choices: create PO Requisitions or create BOMP Work Orders, depending on the type of items on the Plan Order.  For purchased items, the choice is to create a PO Requisition.  For manufactured items, the choice is to create a BOMP Work Order.

 

Create PO Requisition:  PO Requisition is the pre-processing for Purchase Order.  Creating purchase orders directly from ATP Processing would produce many small purchase orders with only one line item and may not select the best vendor. So, PO Requisition provides a middle step to shop for different vendors and adjust the price, quantity and date.  Once everything is confirmed, the PO Requisition can create the purchase orders by vendor with the combined items and quantity.  The planner can directly update the Requisition transaction or delete it.  They can also change the Requisition transactions back to Plan Orders.  However, once the Requisition becomes a Purchase Order, the planner can only change the Purchase Order through Purchase Order change processing.

 

Create BOMP Work Order:  The planner can change the Plan Orders directly into Work Orders.  When a Work Order is created, the planner still has a lot of flexibility to change it directly in ATP Processing.  The planner can determine if the Work Order should be Allocated (Actual Order) or not Allocated (Firm Order). 

 

Reschedule or Adjust Work Orders:  One shortcoming prior to Elliott V7.3 was Work Orders could not be easily adjusted once they were created.  With Elliott V7.4, the created Work Orders can be deleted, changed or converted back to Plan Orders easily in ATP Processing.  Once a Work Order is printed it is protected from changes in ATP Processing, however the planner can cancel the printed Work Order.  “Cancel” does not mean “delete the work order,” it simply means to flag the Work Order as if it were not printed, allowing the planner make any changes as needed.

 

ATP Netable Location

A new flag, “ATP Netable Loc” has been added to I/M Location File Maintenance.  By default, this flag will have a “Y” value.  The purpose of this flag is to exclude the inventory quantity of miscellaneous warehouse locations like “Defect” or “Service,” which can not be considered as general inventory.

 

Some reports (like the Stock Status Reports) now offer the option to print “ATP Netable Location Only?”  For Stock Status Inquiry, based on the Global Setup flag “Only Show ATP Netable Loc in Stock Status Inq,” the system could exclude the Non-Netable Location’s inventory quantity when a user chooses “All” locations.  ATP Inquiry and Report, by default, will skip locations that the “ATP Netable Loc” flag is set to “N,” unless the user specifically requests that single location.

 

Job Number Support

A Job Number selection criterion is introduced in the V7.4 ATP Inquiry and Reporting functions.  If you utilize the Job Number function to control your purchasing, sales and production, you can zoom in on the ATP data by a particular Job with ATP Inquiry, use F4=Show Job to select by Job No (To use this feature, you need to turn on flag 22 in Global setup, ATP).  For the ATP Report by Items, enter a Job number in field “16. Print Job No”. A Job Number can be a customer, a contract, or even a PO.  The COP Job Number literal is user definable in Elliott V7.4

 

Existing MRP and MS Users

Elliott users who currently use MRP (Material Requirement Planning) and MS (Master Scheduling) can continue using these two modules, however it is our opinion that the new ATP functions in Elliott V7.4 are easier to use and we suggest users migrate to the new ATP features.

 

Material Work Order

The BOMP (Bill of Material and Production) module has been greatly improved by the introduction of Material Work Order.  There are now two different types of work orders supported in Elliott V7.4, “Material Work Order” and “Legacy Work Order.”

 

“Legacy Work Order” refers to the original BOMP work order.  It provides an easy way of entering production work orders and back flushes the materials at time of production reporting or printing of the work order (with WIP option).  The main weakness of the Legacy Work Order is it does not have the ability to capture the bill of materials per work order.  If you change the bill of material structure and have outstanding Work Orders in the process of production, based on the previous bill of material structure, you will have an integrity issue.

 

In addition to the “capture of bill of material” issue, when the work order is completed and the material is back flushed, there is no way to report any variance.  Variance can happen when there is a defective component or simply production waste.  Variance can also happen if there is a substitution of components.  In the past, this type of variance was typically handled by a manual adjustment through I/M Inventory Transaction Processing.

 

Material Work Order is designed to address the shortcomings of the Legacy Work Order.   Not only will it capture the bill of materials when the Material Work Order is created, it also allows the user to change the copied bill of material if necessary.  Upon production completion, the user has the flexibility to report variance of quantity, as well as substitute different components.  Since this new type of work order offers total flexibility with component materials, we call it “Material” Work Order.

 

Material Work Order is a super set of Legacy Work Order.  Therefore, the default choice now is to create a Material Work Order.  We are still supporting the Legacy Work Order for backward compatibility.  Most of the menu choices in BOMP Processing now have two choices, “Material Work Order” and “Legacy Work Order.”  At this moment we do not support the WIP option with Material Work Order.  Therefore if you need to use WIP, you will need to continue using the Legacy Work Order.

 

Warehouse Receiving & Import from CSV

Warehouse Receiving was an add-on feature before Elliott V7.4.  We are now releasing Warehouse Receiving as a general Elliott feature.  Traditionally, most companies have the office personnel enter PO receiving transactions.  Warehouse Receiving has some advantages over the Legacy PO Receiving functions in the following ways:

(1)   Warehouse Receiving is simplified and allows scanning operation.  No G/L account entry is needed and cost fields are skipped by default.  This makes the Warehouse Receiving function ideal for the warehouse operator.  In our opinion, this will speed up the receiving process and improve productivity and accuracy.

(2)   Warehouse Receiving offers an Import From CSV File option.  If you are an importer, most likely your overseas vendors can provide you with container details in a spreadsheet format as soon as the ship departs the port.  This data can be imported into Warehouse Receiving Transaction tables to save you data entry.

 

Warehouse Barcode Receiving Operation

Some users have already used the Elliott Warehouse Receiving, with great success, to receive items by scanning the UPC barcodes.  Typically, they will have the warehouse setup with Wi-Fi devices.  Since covering the entire warehouse with Wi-Fi can be expensive, some only cover the receiving area with Wi-Fi by purchasing a single wireless router.  A notebook or tablet PC is used to run Elliott in the warehouse and the users will either carry the computer with them or set it on a small cart and move around the warehouse.  The barcode scanner will connect to the computer’s PS/2 or USB port by wire.  For ultimate flexibility, the scanner can connect to the computer through another wireless connection.  This type of scanner is typically not expensive and does not have a screen or keypad, since they are simply a keyboard wedge scanner.

 

Keep in mind the notebook computer is not limited to run Warehouse Receiving.  It can be used to run any Elliott application, like Shipping Verification, Physical Count, Inventory Transfer (especially for Multi-Bin operations) or simply Stock Status Inquiry.  Throughout the Elliott application, wherever the system prompts for an item number, the user can scan the barcode item number (like the UPC, GTIN or Manufacture Item Number) and the system will convert it into the Elliott Item Number.

 

Warehouse Receiving and Goods on Ocean ATP Visibility

In Elliott V7.4, both Legacy Receiving and Warehouse Receiving transaction quantities will be displayed in PO Inquiry and in the F5 window of the PO Line Item Maintenance as pending.  Both can work with the Vessel file for batch control.  If you change the vessel arrival date, all corresponding receiving transactions’ scheduled receiving date will be changed as well (and reflect in the ATP details).  Users can enter the receiving transactions in advance and place the vessel on hold for posting.  In addition to the visibility of the PO data showing on the ATP, the un-posted (on-hold) receiving transactions will now show up on the ATP to give customer service better visibility of the goods on the ocean.  This On Ocean ATP information will have a much more accurate arrival date than those ATP transactions for a PO.

 

Therefore, if you are an importer, you can consider importing the spreadsheet data provided by your overseas vendors as warehouse receiving transactions.  This will give the Goods on Ocean ATP visibility to customer service.  Upon the actual arrival of the container, you can let the warehouse personnel verify the already imported receiving data against the actual receiving.  If it matches, then release the vessel and now you can post the warehouse receiving transactions.  We believe this is a much more streamlined, productive and informative receiving method.

 

CSV Files Import Features

 

Elliott V7.3 had the capability to import several CSV Files:

            Future Price & Price Code Import

            Physical Count Tag Import

            Customer & eContact Import

            Customer User Defined Fields Import

            Add-on Sales Item Import

 

With Elliott V7.4, we are supporting the following additional CSV imports:

            Attribute Import

            Cash Receiving Import (Details & Summary)

            Warehouse Receiving Import

            New Item Import

            Item User Defined Fields Import

            Bill of Material Product Structure Import

            Kit Item Structure Import

            PO Requisition Import

            PO Line Item Change Import

In addition, the Physical Count Import now supports serial numbers.

 

We expect to add more CSV import functions in the future so mass data can be edited through a spreadsheet before it is imported into Elliott.  Since editing data in a spreadsheet is extremely flexible and productive, our intention is to leverage the spreadsheet application as a way to input data into Elliott.

 

Cash Receipt Import (Details & Summary)

We support two types of CSV formats for Cash Receipt Import: Detail and Summary.

 

Detail Cash Receipt CSV Format: Detail means the CSV file contains the check and apply-to invoice information.  In Detail format, the customer number field is optional since the system can reference it based on the apply-to invoice number.  If the customer number is provided, it will be used for cross checking to ensure data integrity.  The Detail CSV Format can be used for, but not limited to, the following type of scenarios:

(1)   Lock Box:  The customer payments are sent to a lock box and your bank will perform a cash receipt on your behalf and send you the data in electronic format. 

(2)   High Volume Customer: A high volume customer, like Wal-Mart, may pay a thousand invoices with one check and the check and invoice information is available in a spreadsheet.

 

Summary Cash Receipt CSV Format: Summary means the CSV file only has the check information, without the apply-to invoice.  The Customer Number must be provided in the CSV file.  The Summary CSV Format can be used for, but not limited to:

Self Scanning Checks and Clearing: Many banks have begun providing high volume, premium customers with an in-house scanner and OCR software for scanning checks.  The checks clear much faster than the conventional way of depositing checks into the bank.  The scanning OCR system can usually provide CSV data to speed up the Elliott Cash Receipt Import.

Since the summary CSV file does not contain all necessary information for a cash receipt, the import is to speed up the cash receipt data entry, not to totally automate it.  The user will still need to perform the cash application.

 

As part of the Cash Receipt Import improvement, Elliott V7.4 now supports batch ID and cash receipt transactions can be printed and posted by batch ID.

 

Warehouse Receiving Import

This was an add-on feature before Elliott V7.4.  We are now releasing it as a general feature.  For more details, please refer to the Warehouse Receiving and Import from CSV section in this document.

 

New Item Import

This is an add-on feature.  Elliott had a New Item Import feature before Version 7.4 that supported a fixed length ASCII file.  In Elliott V7.4, we are adding support for a CSV file.  Only Item Number and Item Description fields are required.  All other fields are optional and, if not provided, will assume a default value.  The default value can either be the Elliott’s default value when adding a new item or the value in DEFAULT-ITEM, if it exists.

 

The CSV Import option also supports copying a default value from another item.  If the item you are copying from is a Kit, Feature or BOMP parent item, then its components structure can be optionally copied as well.   A special feature will also make the copy from item as the only kit component if the copy from item is a regular item (not a kit or feature/option) and the copy to is a Kit item.

 

The CSV Import option can also automatically assign UPC codes upon importing new items.

 

Item User Defined Fields Import

This utility is used to update the Item User Defined fields and descriptions.  This includes Item Note 1 – 5, User Amount, User Date and Item Description 1 and 2.  The utility can also be used to add or update UPC codes.  If any of the Item Notes 1 – 5 are used for the UPC code, the system will validate the import value and assign a check-digit, if necessary.

 

Bill of Material Product Structure Import

This is an add-on feature.  This utility can be used to either import a new product structure or modify an existing product structure.  Modifying an existing product structure may cause a quantity allocation integrity issue, if the parent item already has activity.  Since this problem can be easily resolved through the Reset Qty Allocation utility, the import utility will only give a warning message when this happens.

 

Kit Item Structure Import

Like the Bill of Material Product Structure Import, this is also an add-on feature.  This utility can be used to either import a new kit structure or modify an existing kit structure. Modifying an existing kit structure may cause a quantity allocation integrity issue, if the parent item has activity.  Since this problem can be easily resolved through the Reset Qty Allocation utility, import utility will only give a warning message when this happens.

 

PO Requisition Import

You can consider the PO Requisition function as a pre-Purchase Order process.  Buyers and Planners can enter items that need to be purchased into the requisition transaction file first.  Once the item quantity, price, vendor and date have been confirmed, the user can post the requisition to create the purchase order.  The PO Requisition Import from CSV will allow Buyers and Planners to enter the requisition transactions into a spreadsheet, import the spreadsheet data to create a requisition and post the requisition to become a purchase order.

 

PO Line Item Change Import

This is an add-on feature.  This utility can be an important link in the supply chain management where a purchase order is issued to your vendor and your vendor responds  with revised dates and quantities.  If your vendor can provide the revised data in a spreadsheet format, then you can import the data into Elliott and revise the PO line item quantities and dates without manual data input.  Most fields in the PO Line Item Screen can be updated through this import utility.  Once the import makes an update, you still need to print the changed PO to make the change take effect and establish a revision number.

 

Physical Count Import to Support Serial Numbers

In Elliott V7.3, the Physical Count Import did not support serial numbers.  In Elliott V7.4, not only does the Physical Count Import support serial numbers, but the Create Count Tag and Physical Count Export utilities do as well.  Depending on your barcode scanning capability, collecting serial number information may be tedious.  For this reason, we support two types of serial number import and verification methods: (1) Total Physical Count mode; (2) Partial Physical Count mode.  In the Total Physical Count mode, we expect the user to provide serial numbers for all serialized items.  If this proves to be too time consuming for your situation, you may consider using the Partial Physical Count method where you only need to count the quantity of the serialized item.  When the quantity matches, then we assume the serial numbers match.  When the quantity does not match, you will need to either reconcile the difference or provide the serial numbers in the import file.  The assumption that the serial numbers match when quantity is correct is obviously a convenient one, but it is not totally correct.  If you use this method, you assume the risk of not matching the serial numbers.

 

System Manager

Support PSQL 10

Beginning with Elliott V7.4, PSQL 10 is supported.  PSQL 10 is needed to fully support Windows Vista.  In addition, PSQL 10 provides 64-bit support, which improves the performance by greatly increasing the amount of memory the PSQL database engine can cache.  For Elliott users who wish to use the Windows Vista operating system, they are advised to upgrade to Elliott V7.4 and the PSQL 10 database engine.

 

Display Locked Record Offending User ID

Prior to Elliott V7.4, the system would display the locked table and key when it was stuck in a locking loop.  In Elliott V7.4, the system will also display the user who has the record locked so the offending user can be notified to exit the current operation as soon as possible, releasing the locked condition.  System wide efforts have been added to reduce potential locking conditions.  Overall, users will experience less locking conditions in Elliott V7.4.  Even if a lock condition takes place, the user will know who will have the record locked, preventing the current operation from proceeding.  No longer do they need to look up this information through PSQL Monitor or ask an administrator to do so.

 

Capture Printer Font in Printer Configuration

In Elliott V7.4, a user can add a printer configuration and associate it with a specific printer font.  In the past, the printer font was selected by Elliott automatically for the best fit.  If the user wanted to use a specific font, the user had to use font 99 to bring up the font dialog and manually choose the printer font each time.  In Elliott V7.4, a checkbox “Specify a font”, has been added to the Add Printer Configuration window (thru the Print Options Window).The user will be prompted for a font when this box is checked, which will be saved as part of the configuration.

 

Description Column in Print Spooled Report Manager

A new description column has been added to Print Spooled Report Manager.  The data in this description column comes from the Deferred Processing Description or a manual entry by the user for each spooled report. 

 

This feature will make the Print Spooled Report Manager easier to use since it now offers more information about a spooled report.  For example, you may want to spool a Commission Due report for each salesman and email it to them.  In the past, all of the spooled report entries would show up as “Commission Due Report,” but you didn’t know which report was for which salesman.  With Elliott V7.4, you have the option to specify which salesman the Commission Due Report is for upon setting up the deferred report or when you spool the report to disk.

 

To enable the description prompt when spooling a report to disk, each user can go to Setup Preference on the toolbar, choose the Print etc. tab and turn on the “Enter descriptions for spooled reports” check box.  Once this is done, each time the user spools a report to the disk, the system will prompt for the description of the report.

 

Deferred Processing Completion Event

To ensure a deferred process that runs after business hours has completed successfully, new events are now supported that triggers when a deferred report has not finished in 4 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, etc.  An administrator or deferred process operators can subscribe to such events to monitor any incomplete deferred process.

 

Deferred Processing also supports an event when there is a file access error.  Therefore, an administrator can be notified when the deferred process has stopped due to a file access error.

 

Digitally Signed EL700*.exe

All Elliott EXE files are now digitally signed by Netcellent System, Inc.  Starting with Windows XP SP2, users who run Elliott from a mapped network drive might be prompted with a security warning asking if they want to “run this software.”  In the past, the prompt would show the manufacturer as “Unknown.” 

 

The digital signature by Netcellent does not prevent the prompt from showing up.  Rather, the prompt will simply show the software manufacturer as Netcellent System, Inc., so you can trust to execute the program.  To stop this message from showing up, you will need to add the mapped drive server to your trusted Local Intranet zone (in Internet Explorer, choose Tools -> Internet Options -> Security tab).

Linking User to Buyer Code

A user can be linked to a buyer code in Elliott V7.4 Password Setup, similar to how a user can be linked to a salesman in this and previous versions.  If a user is linked to a buyer, the linked buyer code for the user will be used as the default when a purchase order is created.

 

Export Processor

In Elliott V7.4, the new category “G/L Balance File” has been added to Export Processor.  In addition, a comparison value is now supported for many system defined variables, like today, yesterday, beginning of the month, beginning of the year, etc.  This will enable the Export Processor to handle repetitive tasks that need to be run daily or monthly.  The export file path also supports company or user variables so the template can be defined in a central company and copied to others.  A user interface has been added in the comparison value field to ease the process of adding the variables, including the database variables supported in the past.

 

Purge Control for COP Sales History Transaction File

COP Sales History Transaction File is now added to Purge Control.  This is to prevent users from accidentally purging sales history transactions, which is now used in various areas of Elliott for history analysis.  We recommend keeping at least two years worth of history in the Sales History Transaction file.  The “Post & Purge” function has been removed and replaced with separate “Post” and “Purge” Functions.  When a user chooses “Purge,” the proper warning message will be given and the cut-off date will default to two years prior to the current date to keep two years worth of history.

 

Email Tracking in Elliott

To better support CRM (Customer Relationship Management), all emails sent through Elliott will now require a “Subject” line first.  For example, when users click on the “Email” button in eContacts, instead of immediately executing the email client (like Outlook or Outlook Express), Elliott will first prompt for “Subject.”  Once the subject has been entered, the email client will pop up with the subject line filled.  The entered subject will be recorded in Elliott’s activity database and can be viewed through the eContact activity tab.  In addition, this activity is also supported as an event.  As a result, managers can monitor what emails have been sent by each user.

 

Serial Number Tracking

Elliott V7.4 Serial Number supports Notes, as well as the other five amigo features.  There can be many applications for this improvement.  For example, if a returned serialized item has a minor scratch and it can still be sold at a discount, you can now record notes for the serial number to indicate the condition, which can assist you with selling that item.   Notes may be entered in COP, Inquiry,  Invoice History Inquiry, Invoice inquiry by Serial/Lot No; I/M, Inquiry, Serial Stock Status Inquiry; I/M, Inquiry, Stock Status Inquiry to Drill down to Serial Stock Status Inquiry, and further to drill down to Serial History Inquiry.  User can also access the Note window through the Serial Entry window.  Furthermore, you can take a digital picture to record the condition of the item and attach it to the serial number using the link function.  You can send your customer an email of that digital picture to help you communicate the condition of the item to the customer.

 

Accounts Receivable

A/R Distribution Report Enhancement

The A/R Distribution Report now supports the following addition selection criteria:

            Starting Account

            Ending Account

            Starting Customer

            Ending Customer

 

Copy Customer from One Company to Another

This feature has been improved to support the following:

(1)   Override the customer if it already exists in the target company.  This is to allow the address, phone number or other setup value changes in one central company to apply to other secondary companies.

(2)   It will now copy the new or changed eContacts, Notes, Attributes and Links.

Accounts Payable

A/P Inventory Value Report (A/P, Reports, Distribution History)

This is essentially an Inventory Stock Status/Valuation Report from the A/P point of view.  This information can be especially valuable if you use the Standard Cost method for Inventory Valuation.  For example, your Auditor may want to compare the value difference between the item standard cost and the actual cost paid in A/P.  This report will show the latest receiving to make up the current inventory and the associated A/P vouchers and checks.  Variance between A/P and Standard Cost will be printed for each item; subtotal and grand total level should give the Auditor sufficient information to determine if the book inventory valuation is acceptable.

 

Comprehensive Cash Projection Report (A/P, Reports, Cash Requirement Report)

This cash projection report will analyze data in the A/R, A/P, COP and PO modules to project the future cash flow.  Based on the Cash Account range, the system can first attempt to establish the beginning cash position by reading from the G/L account balance.  The user can override this beginning balance.  Next, the system can optionally read from the A/R, A/P and P/R distributions for any un-interfaced cash activities to adjust the G/L beginning balance.  Finally, the A/R and A/P open items, the COP Sales Orders and the PO Purchase Orders are analyzed and project the cash balance in the four bucket period format (usually 30, 60, 90 and 120 days, but may be defined differently by the user).  Manual adjustments are also allowed and can be used as a default for future printing.  These adjustments can be recurring expense or revenue transactions or any additions that the user may know is not in the system.

 

Inventory Management

Inventory Aging Report

This is one of the most powerful reports we have introduced in Elliott.  This report replaces Inventory Turn Over Report which is under COP Invoice History Report section.  The inventory aging report can provide the current inventory data breakdown into multiple aging buckets, like 30, 60, 90, or over 90 days.  The period is user definable in Global Setup and can be overridden at each printing instance.  What makes this report so powerful is it can backtrack to provide past inventory aging data as of a certain date.  Since the current inventory stock status report is not able to print the inventory value as of a certain date, this report can be a lifesaver to supplement the Inventory Stock Status/Valuation report, if you miss the month-end or year-end procedure.  Since there was no easy way to obtain the Elliott inventory aging data in the past, many buyers may be in shock from disbelief when they see this report for the first time.

 

The report can be printed in detail, item summary or summary level: (1) Detail means for each item, the detail receiving that makes up the current inventory quantity balance will be printed.  Since this can make the report quite large, you would normally not print in this format.  You may choose this format to provide proof of the aging calculation.  (2) Item Summary means for each item, the system will print one line.  This makes the report size similar to the Inventory Stock Status report.  This may be the common format used by most buyers or auditors. (3) Summary means you can print at summary level to get an overall view for managers to identify problem areas quickly.  For example, if you print by Product Category sequence, the summary format means one product category per line.

 

This report can be sorted and summarized in many different ways including:

            By Item

            By Product Category

            By Material Cost Type

            By Buyer

            By Location

 

The Inventory Aging Report can also be printed directly from Stock Status Inquiry or Component Availability Inquiry by pressing the F4 Key.  In each case, the system will only print the aging information for the specific item inquired.  The cost will not print if the user does not have security to see item cost.

 

Re-Order Level Calculation

The re-order level calculation  has been improved so you can restrict the calculation to a certain product category or buyer range.  This is in addition to the item number range, which was supported in previous versions.  Once the recalculation is done, the previous re-order level value is written to “Last Re-Order Level” to preserve the previous value.

 

Customer Order Processing

Transfer Sales Order

A flag has been added to customer file maintenance, Transfer Customer.  If this flag is set to “Y,” the system will allow input to the “Transfer To-Loc” and “Transit Days” fields in the customer file.  The idea is to set up your remote warehouse location as a customer record.  Instead of using “I/M Inventory Transaction” or “I/M Inventory Transfer” to transfer the inventory, you can use COP Sales Order to transfer inventory.  Many organizations may wish to make the transfer process just like the regular COP shipping process, due to their shipping operations being tied to Picking Ticket, Shipping Verification, Starship, Packing Slip and Bill of Lading.

 

When you enter a sales order for the transfer customer, the sales amount will be forced to zero (since this is an internal transfer).  Even though the invoice posting will not update sales and cost of goods sold, you may optionally enter freight or a miscellaneous charge if cross division profit center billing is applicable. 

 

The proper invoice, as well as other historical databases, will be updated so you can track the details of what has been sent to a location.  Since most of the invoice history reports are used for sales analysis, they will exclude transfer orders.  The Invoice History Edit List  and Invoice Summary  reports have options to include transfer orders or print transfer orders only.

 

Pickup Process

A new flag has been added to A/R Ship Via Code maintenance, Create Pickup Record.  If this flag is set to “Y”, you will also need to enter a customer number.  We suggest setting up a dummy customer, perhaps “PUPEND”, to stand for Pickup Pending.   This customer number is only relevant for serialized items.  Separate tracking records will be created for COP invoices posted with this Ship Via Code so the customer can pick up the merchandise at a later time.  A separate menu item, Pickup Process, has been added to the COP Processing menu.  In the pickup process, users can print a pending report of all the items waiting to be picked up.  Users can also use the pickup process user interface to print a pickup form identifying the items pending for customer pickup.  This form is identical to the invoice form.  The items that show on this pickup form can be controlled by I/M user defined code setup.  Users can use the same user interface to indicate the items for the invoice have been picked up and remove the invoice from the pending list.

 

Additional Fields Supported on Invoice

Fields 85 to 99 have been added to the Invoice Form Setup for Invoices, as well as Laser Order Acknowledgements, Laser Quotes and RMA Acknowledgements.  They are as follows:

• Item Unit Price: This is the Unit Price in the Item master table, not the unit price in Order Line Item.  This may be used to show customers the list price of the item.
• Net Unit Price: This is the Order Line Item Unit Price minus the line item discount percent.
• Total Item Unit Price: This is the total order sales amount calculated based on the Item master unit price.  It can be used to show customers the total sales amount based on the list price (item master unit price).
• Total Discount Amount: This is the difference between Total Item Unit Price and Order Total Sales Amount (after the discount).  It is intended to show customers the discount amount they saved from the list price.
• Terms Due Date: This is the due date of the invoice based on the invoice terms and invoice date.  This field is not supported on the Order Acknowledgement, Quote or RMA.
• Terms Disc Date: Similar to the previous field, this field is the date that the customer can pay the invoice with a discount if the term is applicable.  If the term is not applicable, this field (including the literal portion) will not be printed.
• Terms Disc Amount: Similar to the previous field, this field is the discount amount that customer can deduct if the invoice is paid before the discount date.  A global setup flag “16. Print Disc Amount or Net Amount After Disc ?” in Invoice Printing can determine if this field shall represent the “Disc Amount” or the “Net Amount” after terms discount.
• Item Note 1 – 5: These fields can often be used to print the UPC code, Manufacturing Item number, or any special information that you need on the invoice for that item.
• User Defined Field 1 – 3.

 

Expanded Laser Invoice Format

A new laser invoice format template (form number 90) has been added in Elliott V7.4 to support 110 column printing in portrait mode.  This expanded laser invoice format is easier to read than the 80 column format.  To use it, select COP -> Util-Setup -> Invoice Form Setup -> Reset -> Expanded Laser Invoice.  This will create invoice form 90 in the 110 column format.  Then you will need to go to COP -> Util-Setup -> COP Setup and change “14. Default Invoice Form” to 90.

 

During invoice printing, in the print option window, you should choose “Options” and “Edit Form”.  In the Elliott Laser Form Designer, you should choose “Import” and import the Laser Form template “CPINVPRT.F90”, which should have been installed into your \Elliott7\Forms directory with the V7.4 update. 

 

Once the laser form template 90 has been imported, you should choose laser form template 90 from the invoice print option window.  You will need to do this for all workstations that print invoices.  Since the system defaults to the last laser form template used, Elliott will default to form 90 for future printing.

 

Multiple Salesman Default Commission Percent

Even though the COP Order Entry supports up to three salesman codes, only one could be defined as the default from the customer or ship-to salesman.  In Elliott V7.4, you can now define each salesman code default value in Global Setup, cop-Func, Order Header Screen.  For example, you may specify the first salesman default value to be the customer/ship-to salesman and the second salesman to be the user who enters the order.  You can also define the commission percentages, so the first salesman could be set to 60% of the total commission and the second to 40%.

 

Sales Desk Enhancement

Sales Desk only supported one salesman field in the past.  We can now optionally support the 2^nd and 3^rd salesman in Sales Desk by turning them on in Sales Desk Global Setup.  The default commission percentage split is defined in the same way as the regular order header salesman commission split.

 

Sales Desk also supports more POS (Point of Sales) operations now:

(1) It supports the “Quick Scan Mode,” which means as each item is scanned (or entered), the rest of the fields will be skipped (quantity assumed to be one or the scanned package quantity, and the price assumed to be the default price) and the item is added to the order.  This is the desirable operation if you use Sales Desk for point-of-sale (POS). 

(2) The invoice can now be printed in silent mode (without asking the invoice date or if the invoice was printed OK).

(3) Cash Drawer support has been added for device connected LPT1-LPT3, COM1 and COM2.  Two type of open codes are supported at this moment: Hex 07 (Bell) and Hex 1C.

(4) You can now set up a default customer for sales desk in Global Setup for the cash customer purpose.

 

Customer Order Inquiry by Customer PO#

This is a new inquiry function so customer service can inquire sales orders by the customer’s purchase order number.  This feature is especially important for servicing chain store customers where a PO is typically placed for many stores.  Since Elliott requires a sales order for each unique ship-to (store or distribution center), inquiring by the Elliott sales order would limit the user from seeing the entire PO activity.  This feature resolves this problem by allowing you to see the entire POand drill down by Sales Order (Store or DC) or by Item.  This inquiry function will show purchase orders that are outstanding and those that have been processed (shipped and invoiced).  The data can also be exported to a spreadsheet format based on your user definable setup in the export process.

 

COP Job Number Field Name User Definable

The COP Job Number field is used by many users for different reasons.  Some of them use it to track the mail order catalog number, some to track the order process status and some to keep track of the source of the order.  Now we allow the Job Number literal to be user definable so users can specify the literal of Job Number in Global Setup, cop-Func, Order Header Screen to reflect the Job Number’s real meaning.

 

Support Cancel Picking Ticket to Back Order at the Same Time

When an order can’t be shipped for some reason (maybe due to items being out of stock), the printed picking ticket should be canceled until the order is ready to ship.  We are now supporting the process of canceling the picking ticket and back order it at the same time.

 

Line Item Cancel, Close, Short Ship or Delete Control

In the past, when users changed the Qty Order to zero in COP Line Item, it meant the line item would be deleted.  Now if you do so in Elliott V7.4, the system will ask to clarify if your intention is to:

            Delete the line item

            Cancel the line item

            Close the line item

Delete usually means you made a data entry error and the line item should be deleted.  Cancel means the customer changed their mind and they no longer want this line item.  In that case, Elliott keeps the line item for audit analysis and marks it as “Canceled.”  Close means you are not able to deliver this item.  Elliott keeps this line item for audit analysis and marks it as “Closed.”  By retaining the “Canceled” and “Closed” line items, future analysis can be done for these items.

 

In Elliott V7.4, users can also “Short Ship” a line item, even if the line item is backorderable.  For example, if a customer ordered 10 each of Item A and we decide we can only ship them 7, normally the Qty Backorder becomes 3.  Upon shipping the 7 and posting the invoice, the 3 become the balance of the order.  In some situations, we may decide not to keep the 3 as backordered (i.e. to make 3 out of stock).  If the item is set to “not backorderable,” then this will happen automatically.  Items that are backorderable, the user may optionally press the F3 key at the unit price field to make the 3 as Out of Stock instead of Backordered.  Upon the posting of this line item, it will be closed out automatically.  The user may not want to enter the Quantity Ordered as 7 because (1) The correct quantity ordered should be entered for documentation purpose; (2) The stock situation may change and you may be able to fill the full order quantity before the shipping date.

 

In Elliott V7.4, we can also mass close out an item by changing the item status code from “Active” to “Obsolete.”  The system can prompt the user to close out all of the outstanding COP line items, depending on the value for “Close COP Line Item When Item Become Obsolete” in I/M Global Control.

 

Support Credit Memo for Kit & Feature/Option Items

Prior to Elliott V7.4, when a user issued credit memos for Kit & Feature/Option Items, the components would not be returned to inventory.  Typically, the user would use Inventory Transaction Processing to adjust the quantity.  Elliott V7.4 introduces global setup flags in the “Order Line Item Screen” to optionally allow the user to return components for Kit & Feature/Option Items in the order entry line item screen.  If the flag is set to “Y”, then the Kit or Feature/Options window will appear in the order entry line item screen as the user enters the credit memo with a quantity returned greater than zero and allows the user to enter the components returned.

 

Staging Slip Improvement

The Staging Slip (also called Wave Pick) window is expanded and allows editing.  In addition, the user can now enter both COP sales orders and BOMP work orders into the staging slip window.  This can be handy if some sales orders require assembly (Work Order).

 

Release Held Orders Improvement

The Release Held Orders function has been improved with the following:

(1)   Optionally (found in Global Setup, Cop-Ctl, Credit Check & Release) prompt for Shipping Cutoff Date: This is to allow the credit manager to filter out the future ship orders.

(2)   Optionally (found in Global Setup, Cop-Ctl, Credit Check & Release) prompt for Terms Code: This is to allow setting up multiple teams based on terms.  The terms entered will be retained by workstation.  So once the terms are entered for the first time, the same terms code will be used by default until overridden.

(3)   Display both Bill-to and Ship-to info of the order.

 

Sales History and Stock Analysis Report For managers who wish to make a purchase decision based on past sales history information, the sales history capture in Item Master (i.e. Sales PTD, YTD, etc.) is not flexible enough.  This report allows users multiple selection criteria by Date Range, Customer Type, etc. to provide a better analysis tool.

 

In addition, this report combines sales history with the current stock information to conveniently give the buyer information to decide replenishment quantity.  Some information on this report can be customized through Global Setup.  In addition, this report can be exported to a CSV file and launched into a spreadsheet so users can apply their own formula to determine the purchase quantity.  User can find this report under COP, Processing, Sales History Trx Processing, Report.

 

Order Status Report Improvement

Order Status Reports are improved in the following ways:

(1)   Allows selection by Starting and Ending Product Category.

(2)   Allows the report to be sorted by Product Category (in addition to being sorted by Customer and Item Sequence).

(3)   Allows selection by Purchase or Mfg. Item.

(4)   Various formats (Detail, Brief and Summary) supported, depending on the sort sequence.

 

Invoice History Report Improvement

Invoice History by Item now supports sorting by Line Item User Defined Code when field “12. Format ?” value is “S” (summary).  The User Defined Code is often used as a credit memo return reason code.  In addition, the invoice history by item summary report allows selection by Invoice type.  This may be useful for analyzing credit memos to negotiate with vendors.

 

Invoice History Edit List and Summary now support Starting and Ending Customer Number.  In addition, if the starting and ending customer number are the same, the system will utilize the invoice header customer key to improve performance.

 

Price Code Improvement

(1)   New fields have been added to record the price code last change date, source program for the change, and changed by which user.  This is to identify the party responsible for pricing changes.

(2)   Introduced a new flag in Price Code File Maintenance to allow “Ignore Customer Discount %.”  When certain price codes are configured, it may be heavily discounted and the user may not want to apply the additional discount percent as defined in the customer file maintenance.

 

Sales Order Import Improvement

Sales Order Import now supports Feature and Kit Items.  In addition, Sales Order Import now supports Batch import.  You can import multiple files at the same time by using a wildcard with the file name.  This feature has been added to better support Softshare’s ECS, making the EDI import process more automated.

 

Sales Order Export Improvement 

Unlike V7.3, the Sales Order Export function is now a printing function so it can be run through deferred processing making the EDI process further automated.  In addition, the export file name can be defined in the individual customer EDI profile.   This is to support integration with Softshare’s ECS for better automation.

Purchase Order

PO Receiving to Create AP Invoices

Starting with Elliott V7.4, any receiving transaction with “Inv/Doc Number” will be able to create an A/P Invoice automatically.  The “Inv/Doc Number” can be either the vendor’s invoice number, if available, or Packing Slip Number (Bill of Lading Number). 

Upon posting the PO Receiving Transactions, records will be added to the Pending A/P Invoice database.  When the actual invoice is received, the A/P person can inquire this pending database and select the receiving transactions grouped by vendor number and Inv/Doc Number.  Most of the information should match based on the PO receiving.  Users may only need to confirm the invoice number and invoice date and the A/P Voucher will be created instantaneously.  If there are any discrepancies, the A/P person can use the provided user interface to easily adjust it with variance distributions and create the A/P Voucher.

 

Some features were added in the past to speed up A/P voucher data entry for invoices related to the PO receiving, but they tended to have certain limitations.  This new process will greatly improve the A/P Voucher data entry for invoices related to the PO receiving.

 

PO Close Process

Before Elliott V7.4 you could flag the PO as closed, however nothing really happened until you purged the closed PO.  Still, the quantity on order and ATP details would appear in the system.  Since most Elliott users were reluctant to purge the closed PO, the PO close process was not very functional.

 

In Elliott V7.4, we have addressed many Close PO issues: 

(1)   You can now close a PO at the individual line item level.  This gives you a lot of flexibility since the entire PO does not have to be closed.  In addition, when a PO Line Item is closed the Quantity on Order and ATP details will be reflected in real-time, even though the closed PO Line Item has not been purged.  Flexibility extends further by allowing the user to unclose the line item if closing was a mistake, restoring the line item back to its original state without any consequences.  This function will give you much more control over the PO quantity in advance when the goods are on the ocean.  As discussed previously with the new ATP, when goods are on the ocean you can input (or import) the receiving transactions and put them on hold.  This will result in the pending receiving showing up in ATP to help customer service identify the goods on the ocean.  This can assist you with making the decision of whether the balance quantity on a PO should be closed or not.  You may close a PO line item even though there are receiving transactions for that PO line item.

(2)   A new batch utility allows users to close the PO Line Items based on certain selection criteria.  For example, you may choose to close all PO Line Items that are over three months past due.  You can run a pre-view report to verify the line items before you commit to closing PO Line Items in mass. 

(3)   Similarly, a batch utility has been introduced to allow the user to close the entire PO based on certain selection criteria.

 

Create PO by Sales History

The F3 key has been enabled in the P/O Line Item Screen “1. Line No” field.  Pressing the F3 key will provide up to two years of sales history breakdown by month, to assist the buyer with purchasing, in a popup window that prompts for the following selection criteria:

• Product Categories
• User Defined Codes
• Buyer Codes
• For Qty Available Less Than
• Show Item Qty on Order > 0
• Only Show Qty Available < Re-Order Level
• (Qty Avail/Last Year Usage) Less Than
• (Qty Avail/YTD Qty Usage) Less Than

 

Based on the criteria the user provides, a list of items will be displayed in the next list window.  In the list window, as each item is highlighted, the details of sales/usage history of that item will be displayed.  In addition, the user can drill down to stock status inquiry and further drill down to many other functions to obtain more details of this item.  The information provided will assist the buyer with determining how many to purchase for each item.  The buyer can simply indicate how many to order in the list window.  Once the user is done editing the list window, they can simply exit by using the ESC key.  The system will create the PO line items based on the quantity the user indicated in the list window.

 

A similar function exists in P/O Requisition Change Mode, Starting Item field.

 

Copy PO Function Improvement

This function has been moved to the PO Change Mode Purchase Order Number field.  When users press F3, they may create a PO by copying from an existing PO.  Once the PO is copied, the user will be in the change mode to make further changes if necessary.  In addition, this PO Copy function has been improved to support copying the comments and notes.

 

Receive PO Parent Line Item’s Components

This is a special enhancement for purchasing manufactured parent items.  For example, you may wish to purchase all the components of a manufactured parent item from a vendor (like your parent company) for assembly.  It is mutually understood between you and your vendor the purchase is for the components, not the assembled parent item itself.  You may use this feature by indicating “Y” to field 13 (Recv Comp) in the PO Line Item Screen and the ATP details will be created for the parent item.  Upon actual receiving, the quantity updates will be made to the component items.  To use this feature, you must turn on P/O Global Control “23. Allow to Receive Parent Item’s Components in PO” and the PO Line Item must be a Manufacturing Parent Item as defined in Bill of Material Structure.

 

Vessel Processing Improvements

In the past, the Vessel file was used exclusively for Landed Cost calculations.  In Elliott V7.4, the Vessel file function has been expanded: (1) The Vessel can now be used as the batch ID for the PO Receiving Process (both regular and warehouse receiving).  The user can put a vessel on hold for receiving posting and print the receiving edit list and post the receiving by batch ID.  (2) When a vessel’s scheduled receiving date is changed, all corresponding receiving transaction’s date for the vessel will be changed as well.  This also updates the ATP details to reflect the up-to-date estimated arrival date.  Since you only need to change the arrival date centrally in the vessel file, it saves you a tremendous amount of time from changing the date on the individual receiving transactions.  (3) If users delete the vessel, all corresponding receiving transactions for the vessel will be deleted as well.

 

Purchase Order Inquiry Improvement

For Purchase Order Inquiry by Item, the system will now display the total PO Qty and Outstanding Balance to give buyers a quick summary view.  In addition, for any un-posted receiving transactions (i.e. goods on ocean), the system will display their quantity in PO Inquiry as “Pending” quantity.

 

Print Both FOB and Landed Cost on Receiving Edit List and Posting Journal

Receiving Edit List and Posting Journal have been improved to reflect both Landed and FOB cost information.  If you are using standard cost, the standard cost will also be printed on the edit list and posting journal.  At each PO or Grand Total level, the total amount will be printed as well.  This is to provide helpful information for the user to adjust G/L entries.  This is especially helpful when the PO has to be prepaid or partially paid, which is not uncommon when doing business with overseas vendors.

 

Purchase Order Export

This is an optional add-on feature to support sending an EDI 850 from Elliott users to their vendors.  If both companies use Elliott, they can transfer the PO from one to the other by using the Export, as well as the Purchase Order Import function.

 

Vertex® V4.0 Support

Vertex® is a national sales tax calculation and reporting solution for companies who need to report sales tax nationwide.  Elliott provides an interface with Vertex® as a vertical add-on solution.  In the past, Elliott would interface with the Vertex L series V3.x.  Starting with Elliott V7.4, Elliott will interface with the Vertex L series V4.x.  If you were previously using Vertex with Elliott, you may need to convert your previous Vertex 3.x Registration File to the V4.x format (especially if you do not perform your Elliott V7.4 upgrade at month end).  To upgrade the Vertex 3.x registration file, you can go to the Elliott Main Menu, Util-Setup, Vertex Interface and Importing, and choose “Convert Register File.”

 

Areas Requiring Attention When Upgrading to V7.3 and Higher

If you are upgrading from pre-Elliott V7.3 to Elliott V7.4, you should be aware of the following:

 

Turn on PO Receiving Accrual Reconciliation

Even if you are not going to use PO Receiving Accrual Reconciliation, it is suggested that you turn on this feature by going to Global Setup -> Acct -> A/P Global Control and answer “Y” to the following question:

            2. Use Rec Accrual Account Reconciliation

The database created for Receiving Accrual is useful in many areas and is not limited for receiving accrual reconciliation.

 

Standard Cost Variance

If you are using standard cost method, please pay close attention to this new feature.  The system now supports both Purchase Cost Variance as well as Standard Cost Variance.  Standard Cost Variance is the difference between Standard Cost and Receiving Cost.  Standard Cost Variance is created during PO Receiving (the same principle applies to Landed Cost Variance).  The receiving accrual is created from the receiving cost.  Purchase Cost Variance is the difference between Receiving Cost and Invoice Cost.  Purchase Cost Variance is created during the AP Voucher Process.  This behavior is different from previous Elliott versions because (1) There was no differentiation of Standard Cost Variance and PurchaseCost Variance in the past and everything was lumped into one Purchase Cost Variance Account; (2) The receiving accrual was created from the standard cost; (3) The variance was created through the AP voucher process only.

 

In I/M Material Cost Type Location Account File, you may see the “Standard Variance” account now if you are using standard cost.  You may leave it blank, which implies your standard variance account is the same as the purchase variance account.  In the same maintenance screen, you may decide whether you wish to “Use Standard Cost Variance.”  In most situations, you should answer “Y.”  You may answer “N” for certain material cost types where your standard cost is zero.  This may be, for example, expense items like manufacturer tooling where it is not a real inventory item, but you may want to keep them in your item master to track their quantity.

 

In the past, Elliott did not create standard cost variance for any item where the standard cost was zero.  In Elliott V7.3 or higher, if you do not wish to create standard cost variance you must define this in the material cost type location account file and answer “N” to “Use Standard Cost Variance.”