How Is Number of Boxes (Cartons) in an Order Calculated in Elliott?
In many areas of Elliott, the system will calculate the number of boxes in an order. This includes the following:
- Pick Ticket - You may optionally print the total number of cartons at the end of the pick ticket.
- Shipping Label - When you print the shipping label of an order, it can calculate the number of labels needed.
- Legacy Bill of Lading - Calculates total number of cartons on BOL. Even though this function is still available, we suggest you use VICS BOL instead.
- VICS Bill of Lading - When a VICS Bill of Lading is first created, if the order is processed through Shipping Verification already, the system will get the number of cartons information from the shipping verification database. Otherwise, the system will calculate it.
In many situations, you may set up your item stocking UOM in "EA" and selling in "EA." Your customers may buy from you by the carton (box). Let's say each carton contains 4 each of item ABC. Your customer may purchase 8 EA of item ABC from you. The system somehow needs to figure out when that represents 2 cartons in the areas mentioned above. Where do you set up the information of 4 each for item ABC? In Elliott, you can potentially set that up in two areas:
- Item User Amount
- Item Order Multiple
- Item Case Size (Support in 8.5 after 4/22/2019 release)
Global Setup for Which Field To Use for Case Size
This is determined based on a flag in Global Setup -> Dist -> I/M Global Control, Screen 2: 2. Use Which Item Field For Quantity/Box?
See sample screen below:
In the above example, we choose to use "Order Multiple." Therefore, you will go to the Item Master, and set the "Order Multiple" as quantity each per carton. See sample screen below:
Note above sample screen shows "Case Size Qty" show "N/A" is not accessible. This is because this is a new field and we do not enable this field unless you specifically setup the Global Setup flag to use this field for case quantity. All users who has quantity per box values store them either in user amount or order multiple in the past. We don't want to confuse our existing users starting to put case size quantity in this field and confuse why it does not work. If you wish to switch from user amount or order multiple to this new field which make a lot of sense, you should perform conversion moving case size quantity from old field to here. If you need help, speak to Elliott's support representatives.
Setup Special Case Size by Trading Partners
Sometimes your customers may submit a special request to you to sell them a different box size. To override the standard box size by customer, you will set that up in the "Customer Item" table. See sample screen below:
In the above example, this customer does not have a special "Customer Item Number," so we set up the Customer Item Number to be the same as the Item Number. Then in field "5. Customer item Case Size" for their special size of 25 to override the Item Master default "Order Multiple" of 100, the system will use "25" instead of "100" to calculate the number of cartons.
As for the "Innner Size" field, that is used for EDI purposes. In the Item Master, we borrowed the "Order Minimum" field to use as the standard "Inner Size" which can be overridden at the customer item level. If you need to set up a customer item record, but do not wish to override the standard item case size and inner size, then leave the customer item case size and inner size field as "0."
Pick Ticket
In order to print the total number of cartons at the bottom of the pick ticket, you will need to set the flag to "Y" in Global Setup -> Cop-Func -> Pick/Pack Ticket/Ship Label:
27. Print No of Cases On Pick Ticket (Calculated)?
Shipping Label
In the following function -- COP -> Processing -> Print Pick/Pack Tickets & Lbls -> Print -> Shipment Labels -- you can either print legacy or bar code labels. Legacy labels print directly to the printer and the system will ask you the number of labels needed for each order. The bar code label does not print to the printer. Instead, it will create a CSV file designed to feed to Bartender to print the final label. In Bartender, you can define the label layout in a WYSIWYG format and detect and merge the CSV file when created. Hence the label can look very professional and support bar codes as well. This offers the ultimate flexibility on label printing. The downside is the extra cost for purchasing Bartender software.
You can decide whether to use legacy or bar code labels in Global Setup -> System -> Bar Code Printing Setup. See the following two flags:
7. Enable COP Shipping Label Print Function?
8. Shipping Label Quantity Determine Method
See sample screen below:
If you answer "Y" to "7. Enable COP Shipping Label Print Function?" Then you are using the bar code label format. Otherwise, you are using the legacy format.
For flag "8. Shipping Label Quantity Determine Method," the possible values are:
- A=By Qty To Ship: System will print as many label as the quantity to ship on the order. The system assumes that you need one label per quantity to ship. This can work if your selling UOM is by the box.
- S=By Qty To Ship/Item User Amount:The "Item User Amount" can be either "Item User Amount" or "Order Multiple" depending on the Global Setup flag mentioned above.
- M=Manual: You will manually enter the number of labels needed on an order-by-order basis.
VICS Bill of Lading
When a VICS Bill of Lading is first created, if the order is processed through Shipping Verification already, the system will get the number of carton information from the shipping verification database. Otherwise, the system will calculate it bases on the setup above. There is one more setup flag related to this calculation in Global Setup -> COP-CTL -> VICS Bill of Lading:
24. Calc Carton Qty When UOM="EA" Only?
See sample screen below:
The default value is "N," which means if BOL needs to calculate the total number of cartons, it will use either Item User Amount or Item Order Multiple, as long as their value is not zero. No exceptions.
if the value is set to "Y," then it means if BOL needs to calculate the total number of cartons, it will only get the box quantity from Item User Amount or Item Order Multiple if the UOM equals "EA." For any other unit of measure, it will assume the quantity to ship is equal to the number of cartons.
Keep in mind that if the BOL is for a customer that does not require EDI ASN, you can adjust the number of cartons in BOL after it is created. If the BOL is for a customer that requires ASN, then the number of cartons is determined either by the shipping verification process or from automatic calculation, and you can't override for EDI ASN integrity issues.
EMK