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Setting Inventory Options

Inventory options are system wide options that govern how the Inventory module functions. These options identify inventory adjustment accounts, negative inventory behavior, over-allocation behavior, production offset accounts and basic barcode settings.

From the Tools menu, select Options to open the Options window.

In the left pane of the window, double-click on Inventory. The Inventory options display sub-topics in the left pane and the Inventory options region in the right pane.

Enter the appropriate information. See below for field descriptions.

Cost method: Your database’s costing method is displayed by e-automate. The cost method is determined when you create the database and you cannot change it.

Inventory adjustment: The GL account to which inventory adjustment issues are posted.

Negative Inventory:

If you do not want to be warned prior to inventory going negative, select the Do not warn before allowing inventory to go negative option.

If you want to be warned before your inventory goes negative, select Warn before allowing inventory to go negative.

If you do not want e-automate to allow inventory to go negative, select Do not allow inventory to go negative.

Over Allocation: When you add an item to a sales order or service call and you have inventory on hand, e-automate allocates the inventory to either the sales order or the service call. If you do not have inventory on hand, e-automate can backorder the items. If you override the backorder and allocate anyway, this is called over-allocation. You are over-allocated when your quantity available is negative.

If you do not want to be warned prior to inventory over-allocation, select the Do not warn before over allocating inventory option.

If you want to be warned before your inventory is over-allocated, select Warn before over allocating inventory.

If you do not want e-automate to allow over-allocation of inventory, select Do not over allocate inventory.

Enable assembled bin tracking on equipment accessories: When checked, e-automate displays two new bin defaults on the warehouse profile. Instead of transferring the accessories to the same warehouse and bin as the host, e-automate transfers the accessories to the bin identified in the Assembled bin field for the host equipment’s current location warehouse. The bin identified in the Assembled bin field is for accessories attached to hosts that are in stock, and the bin identified in the Sales shipped/assembled bin is for accessories that are still in stock but have been shipped using the sales order shipping functionality. Accessories in the bin identified in the Sales/shipped/assembled bin field remain there until the sales order is fulfilled or the sales order shipment is reversed or canceled. For more information on how this functionality works, see the Assembled Bin Tracking topic.

Enable option to reduce on hand quantities by allocated quantities: When checked, the system will display a Reduce on hand quantities by allocated quantities checkbox below the Description field on the New Physical Inventory List window. If this box is checked when a physical inventory list is created, the "system" quantity listed for each item on a physical inventory list will be the on-hand quantity minus any allocated quantities.

Default to checked: When checked, the Reduce on hand quantities by allocated quantities option on the New Physical Inventory List window will be checked by default.

In the left-hand pane of the window, click on Production.

Enter the appropriate information. See below for field descriptions.

Payroll expense offset: As indicated in the following explanation, this is the GL account for applied manufacturing labor. When e-automate records the assembly of an inventory item, the manufacturing labor costs are combined with raw material and overhead costs to establish the cost of the manufactured item. When the assembly record is posted, an Inventory GL account is debited for the amount of the total value of the assembled/manufactured items. Offsetting credits reflecting the labor, raw materials and overhead costs are posted to applied accounts. The applied labor costs are credited to a Mfg Labor Applied GL account, which serves as an offset/contra account to the Mfg Payroll GL expense account. If an applied labor account was not used, labor and overhead costs would be expensed twice, once as a part of the cost of goods sold when the manufactured item is sold, and a second time as Mfg Payroll when the paycheck of individual(s) who performed the labor is recorded.

Payroll expense offset department: Department to which payroll expense offset is associated.

Manufacturing overhead offset: The GL account for applied manufacturing overhead. This GL contra expense account serves the same function for applied manufacturing overhead as the Mfg Labor Applied account serves for applied manufacturing labor.

Manufacturing overhead offset department: Department to which manufacturing overhead offset is associated.

Click [OK] to save your changes and to close the Options window.

If you made any changes, e-automate displays an Attention window, indicating that all users must restart e-automate in order for these changes to take effect. Do the following:

Click [OK] to acknowledge the message.

Restart the client so that these changes will take effect.

If you are running e-agent, restart e-agent as well.