Interface with Inventory Control

The Order Processing application interfaces with the Inventory Control application in two major areas.  During sales order line item creation, the Part Master and Warehouse Balance files are accessed to build the line item record.  After the operator has entered the line, the line update logic updates the Warehouse Balance file and creates the sales order line record.  The billing conversations also update the Location/Lot file.

Inventory Control Functionality

For lot-assignable items, the Location/Lot file is used to build the line/lot records.  The Order Entry conversation also updates this file with the reserved quantity.

The Part Master and Warehouse Balance files are accessed during line item entry in the Sales Order Maintenance, Postbilling and Debit/Credit Memo Entry, and Open Order Shipping and Billing conversations if a line is added.  These files are also accessed in the billing conversations.

All Order Processing conversations, except Sales Order Inquiry, update the Warehouse Balance file during file updating.  This involves updating statistical fields such as on-reserve, on-backorder, date last shipped, value and units on-hand, unit and sales statistics, cost of sales, and unit cost.  The Open Order Shipping and Billing and Postbilling and Debit/Credit Memo Entry and Order Processing conversations (for lot-assignable parts only) also update or add records to the Location/Lot file as a result of updating. 

If updating the Warehouse Balance file creates an illogical condition (for example, on-hand quantity equals 50 and on-hand value equals -100.00), the transaction will not be accepted.

If, after update, the on-hand quantity is zero and the on-hand value does not equal zero, an adjustment transaction is automatically written, and the on-hand value is set to zero on the Warehouse Balance file.

Considerations

Because operators can alter unit cost on nonstandard parts during sales order entry and shipping and billing and make standard cost changes with inventory adjustments, the unit cost on the Sales Order Line file may be different from the unit cost on the Warehouse Balance file.  If this occurs, files may be incorrectly updated.  For example, if the Warehouse Balance file indicates that 10 units are on-hand at a cost of 5.00/unit, the initial value on-hand is 50.00.  If invoicing ships five units at 75.00/unit, units on-hand is reduced to five, but value on-hand is reduced to -325.00 (equals 50.00 minus (5)(75.00)).  Because this implies a unit cost of -65.00 (equals 325.00/5 units), the transaction is not accepted.  When such exceptions occur, inventory accounting personnel must reset the part's unit cost and value on-hand fields to the proper amounts.