Stock Management & Re-Order Process

The Stock Management & Re-Order Process function allows you to manage your stock levels and re-order points for all your inventory items.  You have the ability to analyze a sub-set of your inventory at any given time. Select a range of  items or all items.  You may further limit the selection by class and sub-class codes.   This allows you to manage your inventory in distinct groups of similar items.   You can elect to have the system calculate your recommended stock levels based on historical sales data, thus allowing you to fine tune your economic order quantities. Once you have established the desired parameters, you can elect to have the system automatically create purchase orders,  to replenish your stock.  

Overall the Stock Management & Re-Order Process provides a fast and efficient mechanism to manage all of your stock levels and minimize the cost of carrying your inventory.

Choose Inventory followed by Stock Management & Re-Order from the main menu bar.  You can click on the menu selection or highlight the selection with the cursor keys, then press the ENTER key.

The Stock Management & Re-Order form should appear as depicted in the figure below.  This is the main form to process and generate the data set for analysis and creation into purchase orders. 
The exit Icon , clicking it will exit the form. 

The Process Data Icon , clicking it will start the analysis process and  gather the data based on the selection criteria.  If there is an existing data set, you will receive a warning message, There is an existing data set, Over-write this Data?   If you select Yes, the existing data set will be erased and a new data set will be created. The existing data set might have been left over from a prior analysis.  

The results of the data selection process appear in the lower section of the screen in a Page Frame.  There are two views available after you have created the data set, the Stock Analysis and the Auto P.O. views. The Stock Analysis displays the results of the data set created from the selected criteria.  You can then export the results to an excel file or view several reports.  The Auto P.O. view screen is where you select the vendors to generate the purchase orders from the recommend re-order values.  This will be discussed in more detail in the coming sections.

The posting Icon , clicking it takes the existing data sets minimum (Min Rec.)  and maximum (Max Rec.) recommended values, then updates the live inventory master file's minimum and maximum fields.   It is strongly recommend that you perform this task after you review the results of the selected criteria. Once you select to update the data in the inventory master file, there is no way to revert to its original state.  The only fields that are updated in the inventory master file are the minimum and maximum on hand values.  If you feel you made a mistake, go back to the main  Stock Management & Re-Order screen, select the parameters for a new analysis, click the Process Data Icon , and create a new data set. Review the data set, then post it. The min and max values will be updated.  You can use this tool to set these values without the need to create purchase orders.

 


Stock Management & Re-Order - Main Screen and Analysis Tab (Figure 1.)

Stock Management & Re-Order  - Main Screen Field Definitions

Its important to note, the values depicted on the analysis screen are taken form the live inventory data at a particular point in time.  In essence you are looking at a snap-shot of your inventory at the time you clicked the Process Data icon.  If your operations continue to buy, sell and adjust inventory, the values in the analysis data set will not change dynamically. The values generated will remain as of the time you clicked the Process Data icon.

There are three pre-formatted reports that you can view.  Use the Printer Group icons to view or print the reports.  Select form the Radio Buttons A, B or C to view the different formats and data listed on the reports.  If you need additional views you can click the export to excel icon to generate an excel file.


Stock Management & Re-Order - Analysis Screen Tab Field Definitions ( from figure 2.)



Stock Management & Re-Order - Analysis Screen Tab (figure 2.).

Stock Management & Re-Order  - Analysis Screen Tab (figure 2.) - Field Definitions


The figure below is the Purchase Order Auto Generation screen displaying the data set with the items to be converted into a purchase order.  Items that did not have a quantity greater than zero in the Required Quantity field on the analysis screen, will not show up here.  Your are given a chance to over-ride this value by changing the Min. Rec. value in the analysis screen.   If you do not see an item here that was included in the analysis screen, exit this screen and go back to the analysis screen. make the changes to the Min. Rec. values until you have a value greater than zero for the Required Quantity, then you can return to process the purchase orders.


Purchase Order Auto Generation - Screen.

Purchase Order Auto Generation - Screen Field Definitions

To start the Purchase Order Auto Generation process click the transaction  icon  . A message will display asking, Transfer all Quantities to Purchase Order?  If you click Yes, all the values in the QTY Ord field will be copied into the Qty to PO field.  If you checked the ReOrder QTY box, then the values from the Re-Order Quantity field in the master inventory record will be placed into the Qty to PO field.   If you are going to convert most of the items, its best to select this option and avoid having to manually enter the values one by one. Then you can select those items you will not create a purchase order for and insert a value of zero.  If you answer No, you will have to manually enter the values into the Qty to PO field.  If you enter a quantity of zero for any Qty to PO field, that item will not be passed to the purchase order, it will be ignored.

Next, select the vendor to generate the purchase order for. If there is a vendor already displayed, it was taken from the default vendor in the inventory master file. You can select a different vendor by entering the vendor code under the Vendor column or by clicking the button under the VS column, the vendor selection screen will pop-up.   If you leave a vendor code empty, that item will not be passed to the purchase order even though it might have a Qty to PO value greater than zero. 

Once you have the Qty to PO values entered, selected a vendor and reviewed your entries, click the save Icon .  This will begin the process of creating the purchase orders.  Upon completion, a message will display with a list of the purchase order numbers generated.

If you want to start over again, click the Revert icon, this will fill all the Qty to PO fields with zero.  If you click the exit Icon at this juncture, you will exit without any changes being made or purchase orders being created.

Click the exit Icon to exit the form and not save any changes.  You will be returned to the main process screen..