1.  Vessel Number

This alphanumeric field is user-definable.  Purchase Order Receiving prompts for Vessel Number when you respond “YES” to field 12, “Hold Posting?”  It is assumed that placing a hold on the post means Landed Cost of the item needs to be calculated and that can come from the Vessel File.

2.  Vessel Description

Enter the description of the vessel.  Lower-case lettering is allowed.

3.  Vessel Category

This field is user-definable. It can be used to print edit lists for user-defined groups of vessels. For example, the company Evergreen carries three vessels and each vessel entry could have “EVG” as the category.  Now you can print an edit list only for vessels with a category of “EVG”.

4.  Departure Date

Enter the date in which the vessel departs.  This field allows you to print reports showing your total inventory value on the sea at any given time.

5.  Expected Port Arrival Date

This field holds the EXPECTED port arrival date of the vessel.  This is a reference field.

6.  Actual Port Arrival Date

Here you can enter the ACTUAL port arrival date.  When this field is used in conjunction with Expected Port Arrival Date you can analyze ocean carrier performance.  This field is optional and does not affect Landed Cost calculations.

7.  Exp Warehouse Arrival Date

This field holds the EXPECTED arrival date of inventory at the warehouse.  This is a reference field.

8.  Act Warehouse Arrival Date

Here you can enter the ACTUAL arrival date at the warehouse.  When this field in used in conjunction with Expected Warehouse Arrival Date you can analyze land carrier performance.  This field is optional and does not affect Landed Cost calculations.

9.  Miscellaneous Charge

You can enter any other charges such as brokerage or insurance fees for the vessel.  This field is always distributed by the value of the inventory.  If your merchandise has the same kind of duty rate, you can put a duty fee into this field instead of setting up a duty percentage in the item file.

The amount held in this field will be added to the total purchase price for each purchase order shipped on this vessel.

10. Total Freight Charges

Enter the freight charges for this vessel.

The amount held in this field will be added to the total purchase price for each purchase order shipped on this vessel.

11. Freight Dist Method

Enter the freight distribution method from one of the following values:

W: Distribution by weight.  Airlines are good examples of companies that use weight as their distribution method.  If you use this method, be sure to enter the weight for each item in Item File Maintenance.

V: Distribution by volume.  Ocean shipments are usually based on the volume of an item since they charge by the container regardless of weight.  If you use this method, be sure to enter the volume for each item in Item File Maintenance.  The VOLUME field in Item File Maintenance is found  in conjunction with field 49, Weight.  After you enter the weight, a window pops up asking for the volume information.  Figure 42.2, shown above, shows you this pop-up window with the Volume field.

A: Distribution by Amount.  In certain shipments, volume and weight are closely tied to the value of an item and using the amount to distribute freight will be very close to reality.  This method can be handy in situations where the item weight or volume is not properly set.

12. Receiving Through

Enter one of two choices:

I: Receiving through I/M.  This means that freight distribution is based upon Inventory Transaction Receiving records in Inventory Management.

P: Receiving through P/O.  This means that freight distribution is based upon Purchase Order Receiving records.

Display Fields Only

13. Total Invoice Amounts

This field displays a running total of all received purchases.  Upon receiving a purchase order, the FOB cost (Unit Cost times Quantity) is added to this field.  When the receiving is posted, the FOB cost is then deducted from this field.  So this field displays the total amount of unposted purchase orders, not including Landed Cost.

14. Total Weights

If Freight Distribution Method is “W”, this field displays the total weight of all items currently shipped on this vessel.

15. Total Volumes