Exception Reporting

Exception reporting is vital to maintaining system integrity. Exceptions should be monitored and corrected when necessary.

When a processing exception occurs in an online conversation, an exception report record is written. The following exception reports are prepared by the Order Processing application:

· Credit Exceptions

· Price Exceptions

· Availability Exceptions

The processing exceptions that can occur during online order entry are described below.

Processing Exception	Definition
A/R Balance Overdue	The customer's accounts receivable is monitored by the amount overdue. This amount exceeds the allowable amount.
A/R Days Overdue:	The customer's accounts receivable is monitored by the number of days. The oldest unpaid invoice is overdue. The customer's oldest unpaid invoice is older than the allowable limit.
Credit Limit Exceeded	The gross amount of the order plus the customer's amount of open orders plus the customer's accounts receivable balance less the customer's credit limit less the customer's on-account balance exceeds the allowable exception amount.
Order Exceeds Maximum	The gross amount of the order exceeds the customer's maximum amount allowed for a single order.
Gross Margin Exception	The gross margin of an ordered line is not within the range defined for the part.
No Cost Part	A part with a unit cost of zero was ordered or shipped.
Cost Override	The cost of a line was entered by the operator.
No Price Part	A part with a unit price of zero was ordered or shipped.
Manual Price Part	The operator manually priced a line item.
Backordered Part	A line contained a backordered quantity.
Direct Ship Part	A part ordered is to be or was shipped directly from the vendor to the customer.
Negative Availability	The quantity ordered exceeds the quantity available.

Considerations

The sales order exception reports inform management about unusual conditions that occurred as a result of entering or maintaining an order.

Some exceptions reported are informational, but may require follow-up activity. For example, if a gross margin exception occurs, sales management may want to reconsider the price of the line item on the order. The price of the item or discount amounts could be changed depending on the extent and frequency of the exception. If backordered and overshipped parts are reported frequently, consultation with the warehouse may be required.

The exceptions reported to the buyer/analyst relate to stockkeeping. Nonstandard, backordered, and direct ship parts are reported. If any of these exceptions appear too often, the buyer/analyst may consider changing a part from nonstandard to stock, increasing inventory, or stocking a direct ship part in the warehouse.

The exceptions reported to the credit manager concern credit problems and account collection. If the A/R balance overdue, A/R days overdue, credit limit exceeded, or order exceeds maximum exceptions are reported, the order is on credit hold and, depending on installation options, may not be released for shipment until credit for the order is approved and the hold code has been updated.

The Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Interface produces various off-line reports during processing of the Batch Sales Order Entry program, which contain information on any invalid EDI sales order header and detail line. The program also produces a control report listing the total number of EDI transactions posted to the sales order files and the total number of invalid transactions (see the Electronic Data Interchange key concept for more information).

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Exception Reporting

Considerations