Setting Up New Branches in Eterm. Release 8.7.3

Transcription

1 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Release 8.7.3

2 Legal Notices 2012 Epicor Software Corporation. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws. Epicor and the Epicor logo are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Epicor Software Corporation in the United States and other countries. Epicor Eclipse is a trademark and/or service mark of Epicor Software Corporation. All other trademarks or service marks are the property of their respective owners and should be treated as such. Epicor Eclipse Online Help System, Educational Services Curriculum This online help system, the curriculum contained therein, as well as the software described in it, is provided under license and may be used only in accordance with the terms of the license. The content provided is for informational use only and is subject to change without notice. Epicor Software Corporation assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or inaccuracies that may be included in this documentation. Publication Date: April 16, 2012

3 Table Of Contents Adding New Branches Overview... 1 New Branch Questionnaire... 2 New Branch Check List... 3 New Branch Setup Flow... 4 Create New Branch Entity... 5 Additional Notes:... 6 Create the Branch ID... 7 Entity ID and Remit-To ID... 7 Ship-Via... 7 Inventory Inquiry Branches... 7 Branch Matrix Hierarchy... 8 Authorize User(s) for New Branch Home Branch Home Territory Inventory Inquiry Territory Authorized Branches Create and Update Territories Authorizing Customers and Vendors Active/Inactive Mass Loading Authorized Branches to Entity File Method 1 - Add branch Method 2 - Add branch setting ACTIVE flag to No Method 3 - Delete branch Method 4 - Change ACTIVE flag Method 5 - Delete ALL branches Method 6 Add ALL territory Authorization for Products / Price Lines Geographical Price Sheets and Discount Classes Mass Loading a Price Sheet to Products Discount Class Geographical Sell Groups/Buy Groups Branch/Territory Specific Product Settings Update Procurement Groups with New Branch iii

4 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Existing Company Separate Company iv

5 Adding New Branches Overview As you grow your business, you must add new branches to the system. Adding new branches to the Eclipse system, depending on the purpose of the new branch, requires answering many questions surrounding the purchasing and demand parameters to determine the complexity of your setup. This reference guide contains a questionnaire and checklist to help you through the steps you need to successfully create and implement a new branch or set of branches within the Eclipse system. Note: You must be familiar with mass load procedures to complete some of these steps. 1

6 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm New Branch Questionnaire Before you begin, review and answer all of the questions below to ensure a thorough and correct setup of your new branch. You may need other members of your staff for assistance. 1. Is the branch you are creating for pricing purposes only? (Yes/No) 2. Is the new branch part of the existing company you already have running on the Eclipse system or a separate company? Separate/Existing If the branch is separate: Is the new branch a startup company or will data need to be converted into Eclipse? Startup/Conversion Can your existing customers purchase material from the new branch? Yes/No Will you have the same vendors as your existing branches? Yes/No Can the existing products be sold out of the new branch? Yes/No Is the warehouse empty or are you buying the inventory from previous owners? Empty/ Buying Will your existing employees be able to sell material out of the new branch? Yes/No Can your existing pricing matrix be leveraged for use in the new branch? Yes/No If you have existing products that can be sold, is there a branch that has demand you think can be copied to the new branch for use with suggested Po s? Yes/No Do you have special forms that will be required for your invoices, checks, statements, ship tickets, etc. If the branch is already existing: Is the branch close enough in proximity to an existing branch, where current product demand would move to the new one? Yes/No If the previous question is No, can the product demand of an existing branch be used to copy into the new branch? Yes/No Will material be transferred from an existing branch to the new branch for stock replenishment? Yes/No Can your existing pricing matrix be used in the new branch? Yes/No Will the List price on products be the same as existing branches? Yes/No Will your existing employees be able to sell material out of the new branch? Yes/No Is it an empty warehouse or did you buy inventory from previous owners? Empty/buying 3. Is the new branch being created because an existing branch is moving to a new location? Yes/No 4. Do your employees know about the new branch? Yes/No 5. Do you have all the hardware and licenses required for the new branch? Yes/No 6. Before the new branch is added, are you a single branch establishment? Yes/No 2

7 New Branch New Branch Check List The following represent Files that may be affected by the new branch addition. File Name Description Checked CONTROL TERRITORY ENTITY PRODUCT PROD.PRICE MATRIX BUY.LINE PRICE.LINE INITIALS PROCURE.GROUP SYSTEM.QUEUE TTY.DEFINE PRINTER.LOCS The Branch specific Control Records will need to be updated to appropriate settings for the new branch. The Territory File stores the branch information and territories that exist within Eclipse. Your customer and vendor records exist in the ENTITY file. If you are creating a separate company, and you have customers and vendors that will exist in both companies, these records will not only need to be duplicated, but the existing records must be updated to only do business out of your current branches. When the new branch is created, customers and vendors that do business with it, will need to be created and flagged to only do business out of the new branch. Therefore, your customers will have separate statements from each company. You product file can be branch authenticated, which means products you sell in your existing branch, cannot be sold in the new branch. This will only come into play if your existing products cannot be sold in the new branch. If your pricing can be leveraged, then you will not need to worry about geographical price sheets, otherwise that needs to be added to the list of concerns. If your existing matrix setup cannot be leveraged, then a matrix cell that is territory specific will need to be put in place for the new branch. New buy lines that will exist in the new branch will need to be created with targets if you are not using existing buy lines. New Price lines that will only exist in the new branch will need to be created and marked as branch specific. If possible, you can leverage existing products in the new branch. New User Profiles will need to be added (if required) to work out of the new branch. Branch Authorizations will need to be updated for existing employees who can operate in the new branch, which will also include Printer locations if an existing user can do business out of this branch. If material can be transferred from an existing branch to the new branch (separate company setup will not do this), the procurement groups will need to be updated to make the new branch part of a purchasing network. This file will need to be updated regardless of methods to allow for suggested Purchase orders to run. Phantom processes will need to be created and/or updated to reflect the new branch. (Terminal Setup) New Terminal configurations will need to be created for terminals operating in the new branch location. Existing terminals that can also do business in the new branch will need to be reviewed. New printer locations must be defined in the new branch and then assigned to users and terminal setup. 3

8 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm New Branch Setup Flow Use the check list below to make sure each step has an owner. Each item is outlined in more detail later in this document. We recommend completing these steps in the order listed. Note: Depending on the type of branch you are setting up not all steps will apply to you. In some cases, multiple options are available in a step. The answers to the questionnaire above will help you choose the appropriate option. Read the details carefully for each step to make sure you address all concerns. Step Step Name Assigned To 1 Create the branch entity in Customer File Maintenance. 2 Create the branch in Branch File Maintenance. 3 Authorize yourself for new branch and log in again. 4 Create / update territories and delete cache records. 5 Authorization for Customers. 6 Authorization for Vendors. 7 Authorization for Product/Price Lines 8 Geographical Price Sheets / Discount Classes. 8a 8b Geographical Sell Groups (optional) Branch-specific / territory-specific product settings. 9 Update procurement groups with new branch. 10 Update buy lines with targets / buyers for new branch. 11 Update branch-specific control parameters. 12 Add demand to new branch (optional) 13 Create transfer matrix cells. 14 Copy or create matrix cells for new branch (optional) 15 Delete and recreate phantom processes. 16 Create any new phantom processes required for new branch. 17 Create printer locations for new branch. 18 Update terminal maintenance for terminals in new branch. 19 Update fax settings for the new branch. 20 Create new G/L accounts. 21 Verify ship via records assigned to new branch. 22 Authorize other users to access new branch / territories. 23 Verify product families in new branch. 4

9 New Branch Create New Branch Entity Note: Required for adding any branch to the system. Open Customer Maintenance ( Files > Customer) and create a new record containing the name and address information for the new branch you are adding to the system. On the main screen, flag the Bill To, Ship To and Branch prompts to set the entity record apart from your standard Customer and Vendor records. Use the Pricing hot key to open the Customer Pricing/Printing screen. Set the Default Price Class field to a unique branch-only class, such as 99. Tip: Make note of the internal ID number for your record displayed on the main screen (42289 in the example above) to help in creating the branch ID. You will also need the branch record that represents the remit-to address for this new branch. If 5

10 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Additional Notes: the remit-to address is the same as an existing branch you can look it up in Branch Maintenance. Consider the following if this branch is existing or separate: Existing If the branch is new to an existing company only one entity record is required. Separate If the branch is for a separate company, you will want to create two entity records. One for the branch where the inventory moves through and the other branch to define your remit-to address. 6

11 New Branch Create the Branch ID Open Branch Maintenance (Files > Branch > Branch) and create a new branch. The ID can be alphanumeric and up to 4 characters in length. We recommend staying with the naming convention your company uses. Note: There are no numbering restrictions. For example, creating a branch 5000 does not have a negative impact on the system. The information in the Short Desc field displays on the F10 lists when a user is prompted to choose a branch. The long description may appear on certain reports that display the branch. Entity ID and Remit-To ID The Entity ID represents the branch created in Customer Maintenance in your first step. Existing Company If the new branch is part of your existing company, the remit-to ID may already exist and can be assigned to this new branch. Check another existing branch in Branch Maintenance for the Remit-To ID. Then update your new branch to use the same. Separate Company If the new branch is a separate company, the remit-to ID may be the same as the Entity ID. If the remit-to address is different from the Entity ID, then create the entity record in Customer Maintenance and assign it in the new branch s Remit-To ID field. Ship-Via When the branch record is updated, the system prompts you to load all valid ship-via records to the new branch record. You can choose to answer no to this prompt, if your current ship-via records need to be reviewed before they are added to the new branch. Inventory Inquiry Branches The system checks the user s home branch upon login. The system then checks the branch record that matches the home branch to determine what inventory inquiry branches should display. 7

12 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm If the user profile has an Inventory Inquiry Branch/Territory assigned at the user level, that assignment takes priority. The order for which these branch numbers are listed is the order for which they will display in the Inventory Inquiry screen. Note: Some companies create territories and assign Inventory Inquiry Branch/Territory settings to the user profile in lieu of this functionality. Keep in mind that the branches and territories always sort the branches in alphanumeric order regardless of how they are entered in Territory Maintenance. You can define what branches display on the Inventory Inquiry screen. Existing Company Because the new branch will be part of your existing company, you need to update all the branches that should see this new branch on the Inventory Inquiry screen. If your setup was done at the branch level as outlined in this document, then each branch record updates. If your setup was done on a territory, then the territories need to be updated to include the new branch. Territories are discussed later in this document. Separate Company If the only inventory this new company should view is its own, only assign the stocking branch for the new branch on this screen. Branch Matrix Hierarchy The matrix option within Branch Maintenance is used to define territories that participate in the pricing hierarchy. If your company has geographical pricing and your matrices are set up by territory, then you must list the territory(s) that participate in the price check. 8

13 New Branch Note: If all of your pricing is created and maintained at the DFLT branch level, then nothing is required here, unless you plan on overwriting you pricing in the new branch to use a territory. Address these settings after you have created your territories discussed later in this document. You may want to revisit this record later to add or update information, such as Credit Card Processing and Check Verification. 9

14 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Authorize User(s) for New Branch Until you go enable the new branch on your system, you can limit access to a small number of users. Start with your own ID. In User Maintenance (System > System Files > User Control > User Maintenance), display your own user ID. Use the Brchs hot key to display the Accessible Branches screen and add the new branch to your list. Log out and back into Eclipse for this update to take effect. After adding the new branch, manage the Home branch, Home Territory and Inv Inquiry Territory settings. Home Branch The home branch typically represents the branch ID the user primarily works in. The home branch is used throughout the system, such as on Commission or A/R reports, and can prompt for the user s home branch. However, since the home branch prompt exists on Customer and Vendor records, some companies set the home branch prompt to a corporate branch value and not the actual branch the user works in as it was originally designed. Existing Company - Verify how your current setup exists to determine whether new user profiles working in this branch should have the home branch assigned to the new branch or existing corporate branch ID. Separate Company Verify how you currently setup your corporate / branch structure and mimic that in your new company setup. Either the home branch is the new company s corporate branch ID or it is the branch out of which the user actually works. Home Territory When running separate companies on one system it is easier to run a report for all branches in a territory then to list them out individually on the report. Very large companies may only have one company running on Eclipse, but take advantage of the home territory setting for this reason. It may be geographical or industry specific as to the setup for this type of territory creation. 10

15 New Branch Existing company The new branch needs to be added to the territory assigned as the home territory. This field is optional. If this field is blank, do nothing. Separate Company You need to have two territories in the system. One that represents your existing company and all the branches within it and another that represents the branches for the new company. Each user should be assigned a home territory. Inventory Inquiry Territory As shown in the figure above, the user profile has a home branch of 1. The territory settings are blank. This means that when the user logs into the system, the system looks the Inventory Inquiry settings in branch 1 to verify what branches this user should see displayed. If branch 1 has not been updated to include the new branch, then this user will not see it in Inventory Inquiry, but will have the ability to create a sales order for that branch. If the Inv Inq Territory prompt displays a territory, the new branch will not display on the Inventory Inquiry screen until the territory is updated to include it. Existing Company As mentioned in previous section, if the branch is part of the existing company AND you are using the Inventory Inquiry Territory Logic, then the new branch should be added to the territory listed. Separate Company If the separate company should not see the branches for your existing company in the Inventory Inquiry, then you can use the branch ID Inventory Inquiry logic and point the new user profile to the home branch representing the new company branch ID or setup a new territory and assign on the user profile. Authorized Branches The Auth column on the branch listing is used to narrow the ability the user has in the branch you are assigning. 11

16 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Leaving this column blank allows the user normal full access to the branch. The branch is included in reports run for the ALL territory. You can limit the user s capabilities in the branch by assigning either an I or S. I Only Inventory Inquiry allows the user to see the branch s available quantities on the main Inventory Inquiry screen. The user will not have access to the History Ledger or the Future Ledger. This setup is ideal for those who run two separate companies on one Eclipse account. The user can see very limited information and will not be able to see pricing for that branch s products. If the new branch is part of a separate company, use this option. S- Sales Orders/Inv Inq allows the user the same views as described above, however it also allows the user to ship material out of the branch. The user still cannot access the History Ledger and Future Ledger for this branch. If the new branch is part of your existing company, use this option. For example, if you had two companies that ran on separate systems, you would never be able to price out of your existing company and ship out of a different company. 12

17 New Branch Create and Update Territories Now that you are officially authorized for the new branch created, update and create any territories that may be used going forward in your setup processes. Use the F10 key in Territory Maintenance (Files > Branch > Territory) to display a list of valid territories. If your valid territories is a long list, you can create a report through Report Writer using the TERRITORY file to report back the territories that exist and branches assigned. Note: If Attribute 11 of this file is empty or blank, then it is a territory, otherwise it is a branch record. Territories are used in many ways throughout the system. You can create a territory for reporting purposes only. For example, you create a territory named STHWST and add all your branches in the southwest region. Then when you run a report, you get a report for all the branches without having to add each branch individually. In Release 8.0 and higher, data can be assigned to a territory name which assigns the value to all the branches within the territory. A hierarchy ensures that the data is assigned accurately since the same branch can exist in multiple territories. To create a territory for reporting purposes only, leave the priority level blank. If a priority level is set, then the territory becomes part of a list of branches to assign data. 13

18 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm In the figure above, a Product Priority has been assigned to the territories CB and GLOBE. In this way, items such as buy line targets or emergency vendors, can be assigned to the and applies to both equally and all branches housed within the territory. The priority number assigned to the territory determines how the system sorts the territory when sorting in descending order. A higher number makes the territory more of a priority. In the example above, CB would be listed after GLOBE. For example: If different sell groups are assigned to both of these territories, when a sales order is created for branch 3, the system uses the sell group assigned to the CB territory because it has a higher priority than the one assigned to the GLOBE territory. If a sell group is assigned to the branch record, the system uses that sell group rather than those assigned to any territory. Note: The Matrix Hierarchy on the Branch record is different from this logic. The order for which territories are assigned to the branch ID, is the order for which the system checks for a price. The Product Priority does not need to be set when it comes to the Matrix hierarchy in Branch Maintenance. Existing Company If the new branch is part of an existing company, then you need to add this branch to your existing territories when appropriate. Important: Once all territories are either created or updated, exiting out of the Territory Maintenance screen to save your changes prompts you as follows: You MUST answer Yes to this question or the system will not respect the changes you made to the Territories. 14

19 New Branch If your company has Geographical Price sheets that point to a territory ID, then you must also run the Rebuild Price Sheet/Discount Class Cache utility (Tools > Rebuild Price Sheet/Discount Class Cache). The system prompts you to enter the Price Lines: Leave the Price Line field blank to capture all of your price lines and use the Begin hot key. Or if you only have a limited number of price lines that have territory-assigned price sheets, you can run it for just those lines. Important: If this procedure is not done, your pricing will not function properly. Both of these functions can be run during the day with no negative impact on the system. Separate Company If the new branch is for a separate company you are adding, then the existing territories remain the same and the new territories are added for the new company. Because no changes are being made to the existing territories you do not need to delete the cache records and you do not need to rebuild the price sheets. Typically, separate companies may have different pricing on products because the multiplier may be different, therefore your REP-COST is not the same. Eventually you will have a separate price sheet assigned to your products to keep the pricing separate from your current pricing. However, you can leverage your existing matrix discounts and your base values can be different for each item for each company. 15

20 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Authorizing Customers and Vendors Some companies have set their branch authorization to ALL branches on the entity records. If you are adding a new branch to an existing company and all customers and vendors can do business in the new branch, then there is nothing for you to do. If your customers and vendors are only authorized for a limited number of branches, then you must consider whether to authorize them for the new branch. If you are adding new branches because it is a separate company, then the level of effort here is higher. In order for an existing customer to do business in a separate company, the record must be duplicated and only authorized for the new company s home branch and distribution branches. You cannot have the same A/R for two separate companies. 16

21 Active/Inactive New Branch The Accessible Branches screen contains prompts related to the activation of the customer or vendor within the branch. Use the Display Customers/Vendors Who Are Inactive At a Branch control maintenance record to activate this functionality. In addition, review the following authorization keys and the levels associated with these prompts. CUST.BR.AUTH.OVRD: Level When a user enters a transaction from a branch not listed on the customer's Accessible Branches, the system displays the following prompts: Don't Activate, Activate for Branch, and Activate for Onetime Use. Users assigned an authorization level greater than or equal to the level entered in the Branch Activation Level field on the customer's Accessible Branches screen can activate the customer. When a user activates a customer, the system adds the branch to the customer's Accessible Branches and sets the Active field to Yes. CUST.BR.AUTH.ONETIME: Level The system verifies the user has this authorization key assigned with the appropriate level. If yes, then the user can activate a customer for a one-timeonly transaction in Sales Order Entry or Cash Receipts Entry, if the customer is not set up being active or inactive for the sales branch. The same two authorization keys exist for the vendor activation: VEN.BR.AUTH.ONETIME VEN.BR.AUTH.OVRD Mass Loading Authorized Branches to Entity File You can use the Mass Load utility to enter authorized branches for an entity files. However, the Mass Load set up needs to be very selective. For example, your select statement may be: if the entity record has access to branch 4, then it can have access to branch 20. If all the entity records can have access then you can select out all customers and add the new branch to the list. We recommend having someone familiar with running mass loads complete this task. You can contact the Eclipse Support staff to help you. You will want to make the first attempt by creating the mass load. Below are examples of 6 methods for mass loading. When this mass load is run the load must be set to Set, not Update. To test the load, select one record, run the load and verify the record updated as you expected. Before you set up your mass load, verify that you have the following dictionary items in place. 17

22 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm 18

23 New Branch Method 1 - Add branch Using dictionary AUTH_BR, set value to BRANCH and that branch will be appended to the end of the current branch list with the ACTIVE flag set to Y. Example using branch 1: AUTH_BR S 1 Method 2 - Add branch setting ACTIVE flag to No Using dictionary AUTH_BR, set value to BRANCH~N and that branch will be appended to the end of the current list with the ACTIVE flag set to N. Example using branch 1: AUTH_BR S 1~N 19

24 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Method 3 - Delete branch Using dictionary AUTH_BR, set value to BRANCH~DEL and that branch will be deleted from the list if it exists. Example using branch 1: AUTH_BR S 1~DEL Method 4 - Change ACTIVE flag You will need to create a dictionary item for attribute 24, value 2 calling the same update routine, DICT.ADD.ENTITY.BR as AUTH_BR uses. Set the value to BRANCH~Y or BRANCH~N and the ACTIVE flag will be changed for that branch. Example using branch 1 which will change ACTIVE flag from Y to N : AUTH_BR_FLAG S 1~N 20

25 New Branch Method 5 - Delete ALL branches Using dictionary AUTH_BR, set value to (null) and the entire branch list will be removed. Method 6 Add ALL territory Using dictionary AUTH_BR, set value to ALL and the ALL territory will be added to the list with ACTIVE flag set to Y. You could add ALL~N if you wanted to add the ALL territory but with the active flag set to N. Note: With this method you would do the following to make sure to clear out any branches that may exist in the list. AUTH_BR S AUTH_BR S ALL Existing Company If the new branch is part of your existing company than everything above becomes relevant. 21

26 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Separate Company If the new branch is a separate company then as mentioned earlier the entity records must be added only to the new company setting. There are control parameters related to the Customer Template the system should use when creating a new customer for a given branch. Create a dummy customer to be used as your template that has the proper branch authorization and assign it to the correct branch with the control parameters your company uses. Using the correct parameters ensures that new customers are authorized in the correct branches. If the new company is a Start Up, then typically customers are created on-the-fly through Sales Order Entry at the time of sale. If you have a list of customers that need to be added, then you can use the Customer Import functionality within your hold file. However the Customer Upload functionality is immediate and permanent. If an error occurs it is difficult to undo or go back without restoring from a backup. There is no vendor update (import) utility in the system. 22

27 New Branch Authorization for Products / Price Lines Release 8.0 and higher allows you to authorize products and/or price lines to display in a branch. The selection for Enable Branch Specific Products For control maintenance record is as follows: User Branch - System checks what branches the user is authorized for and displays products authorized in those branches. Price Branch - System checks the pricing branch on an order to determine what products should display. After this control maintenance record is set, the price lines and/or products can be assigned to the appropriate branches. Territories cannot be assigned. For example, the new branch is a separate company that provides a service. A price line is created for the service items and the authorized branch assigned is the service company you created. The service items do not display to anyone in the exiting company. Only staff members who create orders for the service company would see the service items. If your company does not utilize this functionality and all products can be sold in all branches regardless if you have a separate company setup, then this function can remain disabled. 23

28 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Geographical Price Sheets and Discount Classes As mentioned earlier, the pricing on products could be different in the new branch especially if you are adding branches for a separate company. If all the basis values maintained on your products are correct for the new branch, then there is nothing that needs to be done for this step. However, if the new branch will have separate LIST prices on products, then this step must be completed. On the product file s Product Price Maintenance screen (Prices hot key from Product Maintenance) you can assign a price sheet to a branch or territory. This creates a separate, empty price sheet: In the figure above, branches in the MASS territory use the price sheet called MA to determine the LIST, REP-COST, STD-COST etc. These basis values are used to formulate your discounts to your customer when the matrix formula is applied. Viewing the Product Price Sheet Maintenance screen (Price Sheet hot key) for the item above the user is prompted to choose the price sheet to view or edit (if authorized). For example, the default price sheet may have a LIST price of $10.00 for the item, but the MA sheet may have a list price of $ In addition, one price sheet may have more effective dates than another. 24

29 New Branch This setup is like having two separate products for two different companies. One company has its pricing and the other has the its pricing, but the system maintains everything on the same record in the system. Mass Loading a Price Sheet to Products If your business requires separate pricing, then you need to mass load a price sheet to the territory for branches that will use the pricing. Keep in mind that this creates a blank price sheet and no pricing exists until the territory is populated with the correct pricing. The figure below is an example of a mass load for a price sheet within the product file. Your selection is important especially if this load should only be assigned to certain product lines within the system. Also, you must make sure you have pricing (on diskette or other media) to populate to the sheet you are creating, otherwise transactions will not be priced. 25

30 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Important: After this mass load runs, it is important to run the Rebuild Price Sheet - Discount Class Cache Record(s) from the Tools menu. Discount Class Discount classes are sheet specific, not branch specific. That means that a discount class on a different sheet will not automatically move to the new sheet you create. The dictionary item to use when updating discount classes on the product file is DISCOUNT_CLASS. When the system prompts you for a branch, remember that it pertains to the sheet assigned to the branch you enter. That is why this dictionary item will not prompt to Ignore the Branch Hierarchy. 26

31 New Branch Geographical Sell Groups/Buy Groups Buy/Sell groups are used to group like products together for customer discounting purposes. The discounts are setup in the Pricing Matrix. While most customers are assigned to a price class, all products are assigned sell groups. Formulas are created to discount based upon this information. For example, a Price Class 6 customer may receive a 10% discount on your Watts Regulator items, whereas a Price Class 4 customer may only receive an 8% discount. The sell group assigned to products determines the group of items eligible for the discount to these types of customers. If your sell groups are assigned to the ALL territory, then the new branches added to the system automatically use the existing sell group. This saves a lot of maintenance because the discounts outlined above will be conducted using the correct price sheet for each branch. A 10% discount in Branch 1 may work off of a $10.00 list price whereas a 10% discount in branch 20 may work off of a $12.00 list price. Most companies leverage the existing matrix setup for use in the new branch regardless if it is a separate company or an existing company. Even if you needed to create new matrix cells for your new territory, the sell groups and price classes for customers are already in place. Note: If your sell groups are currently branch specific, which could be for some items if you upgraded from release 7 to release 8, you can mass load sell groups onto the new branch or territory. If the sell group should be the same in all branches, then we recommend mass loading the sell group to the ALL territory so ongoing maintenance is not required. 27

32 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Branch/Territory Specific Product Settings After considering price settings for the new branch you are creating, you must consider specific product settings. There may be other branch overrides on items that could be copied to the new branch. For example, the default demand setting for an item in a branch is non-seasonal. If the item should be flagged to be seasonal in the branch, then use a mass load to set these items. It helps when you can copy the settings from an existing branch into the new branch. The prompts which are branch-specific related to purchasing should be reviewed first: Forecast Method Seasonality Flag Lost Sale setting Exceptional Sales % Trend % Backorder Tolerance Quantity EOQ$ EOQ% Most of the prompts listed above you can manage from the Forecast Parameters for Demand Calculation control maintenance record. This control maintenance record parameters can be set for the branch and the system uses the settings from without the need of additional mass loading. However, there may be certain products that have overrides to the default setting at the control maintenance record level. If that is the case and it is important that these settings are copied into the new branch, then you can run a mass load to populate the data. Information that does not copy or get automatically populated from the control file should be verified by creating a report through Report Writer that can be used as a mass load if need be. 28

33 The data elements to review are: BUY_PKG Buy Package Quantity BUY_PKG_DIVISIBLE Buy Package divisibility setting SELL_QTY Minimum sales quantity QTY_BRK_QTY - Multiple value quantity break quantities QTY_BRK_UOM - Quantity Break UOM COMM_GROUP Commission Group SERIAL Serial Number Tracking Control FREIGHT_CHG Freight Charge FREIGHT_FACTOR_PCT Freight Factor Percentage PASS_DISC Percentage for Pass Long Vendor Discount LABEL_PER Number of Labels to print PRICE_SHEET_PRT Price Sheet Print Flag RESTRICT_PRICE_CHNG Restrict Price changes in SOE New Branch Create a report writer on the product file with these dictionary items and run it for a branch that will be similar to the new branch you created. Scan the report to determine if overrides exist. If so, set the data in the new branch to the data that already exists in the existing branch you want to copy. Below is an example of a Mass Load copying branch 2 s information into branch 20: 29

34 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm The column data screen looks like: 30

35 New Branch Update Procurement Groups with New Branch Your procurement groups control how products are replenished. Your company may have one procurement group or hundreds depending on how your system was set up. Note: We recommend reviewing and cleaning up duplications to make the procurement paths more manageable to maintain before continuing. If you are not familiar with purchasing, we recommend consulting the purchasing department before making any changes. Making the wrong change can have adverse affects on how your inventory is purchased and transferred. Depending on your purchasing needs, procurement group setups can be basic or more in depth. A basic procurement group setup may look like the following: In this example, branch 1 buys and warehouses material for all other branches in the company. Branch 1 replenishes material to those branches by way of transfers. This document does not cover details surrounding all the different methods for procurement groups. For more information about procurement groups, see the Inventory Management section of the online help or the Inventory Management Workbook materials, if you have attended that class. When adding a new branch to the system, you want to also update the procurement groups to include the new branch as part of the replenishment. Existing Company If Branch 20 is added to an existing company and branch 1 is going to buy and warehouse for it the same as all the other branches, then the above example would accomplish this. Because the ALL territory is used and branch 20 is part of the ALL territory, then it is automatically added to the network. The only updates to this screen that need to be made is the Transfer Branches for emergencies (procurements). When procurement groups are more complicated or in depth in setup, pay more attention to these updates. Separate Company When adding a new branch that is a separate company, then the material must be assigned as distributed for that company. 31

36 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Example setup: As shown above, the new branch buys and warehouses for its self and will not be able to procure material by way of transfers from the existing company. The Procurement Group Copy utility (Purchasing > Maintenance) allows you to add this type of setup quickly and without the need of a mass load. However, if the setup is more complicated, then it is best to review the procurement group on an individual basis. Most companies have their purchasing staff update the groups. Tip: If your company has a separate procurement group for every buy line for the sole purpose of posting the emergency procurement vendor to each group, then you may be able to rid yourself of all the maintenance. In Release 8, assigning *BUYLINE* to the emergency procure vendors screen tells the system to look to the buy line record for the vendor. You may be able to make the switch and eliminate all the extra groups that are duplications. 32

37 Update Buy Lines with Targets / Buyers for New Branch New Branch Targets and buyers are actually purchasing branch specific. This means that the buyer assigned to the buying branch column on the procurement group is used. Existing Company If branch 20 was added to an existing company and it becomes part of an existing Central Warehouse network, then the buy line maintenance screen does not need to be updated. All the framework should exist on the buying branch. If branch 20 was added to an existing company, but it is going to buy and warehouse for itself, then it must be assigned a target and buyer and any other setting that is relevant. Understanding your procurement group setup and replenishment paths is important before reviewing the buy lines. If you do not know what the path is doing, then you do not know whether you need to update the buy line or not. Separate Company If the new branch is a separate company, then it will be doing its own buying and warehousing. Therefore, it is important that the buyer and target information and any other settings are updated. For example, in a previous example we made branch 20 distributive on the CW procurement group because it is going to buy and warehouse on its own. Therefore, buy lines that point to the CW procurement group need to at least have a buyer and target assigned. Based on the above example, SCOTTR is the buyer for the existing company and NICOLE is the buyer for the new company. Each buyer have his own suggested purchase order for the company they work for. If procurement groups are assigned to your buy lines, then you can use a mass load to select out the buy lines using the procurement group. This narrows your selection to those buy lines you need to update. 33

38 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm In our previous example, branch 20 was added as a new branch and it was made a distributive branch for the CW procurement group. Therefore the mass load below updates branch 20 for only buy lines assigned to the procurement group called CW. In the figure above, everything is set to a value with the exception of the value. Notice that value is blank and the type column is set to a U. This allows the user to type in the value for each buy line. 34

39 New Branch When the mass load is run, the user can enter the dollar amount for each buy line. 35

40 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Update Branch-Specific Control Parameters The system has many control maintenance record settings to make it work the way you want it to. You must review the following control maintenance records that are branch specific. Above is an example of a report writer report that displays the Category, Area and Prompt. There are over 200 branch specific control settings to review. Below is the section and sorting criteria defined for the report. This report can be used to scan through and mark off the control maintenance record parameters you need to review. If your company does not use RF then you can skip through those. We recommend you review the list with those who have expertise in the category and area defined. In other words, we do not recommend an accounting person review and set purchasing settings. 36

41 New Branch Note: It is important to understand that the remainder control settings are settings for ALL branches regardless if you have a separate company running on the same Eclipse account. 37

42 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Add Demand to New Branch (Optional) When a new branch is created, there is no history to calculate demand for purchasing purposes. There are multiple ways to provide products with data to suggest purchase orders in the new branch without actually having any history to calculate from. How you decide to move forward with this is optional. Options: Do nothing and wait for the system to have enough history to calculate demand. Use manual minimum and maximum values that can expire after six months and let the system calculate the demand. Add the demand from an existing branch that will be similar to the new branch and have this value expire after three months and then calculate on its own after the expiration. If you are acquiring a new company or branch that includes inventory, then the on-hand values need to be updated into the new branch. The easiest way to update these values is to convert the data and import into Eclipse. However, this would require a staging account and paying additional time and material for a conversion programmer to convert the data. Another option would be to conduct a Year End Physical to update the on-hand values into the Eclipse system. When the update is run for counts entered, you point to the G/L Account called Inventory. Technically, this will not affect G/L because you are debiting and crediting the same inventory account. A Journal Entry is made for the entire acquisition which includes the inventory you purchased. When the first month end process is completed and you create your journal entry to tie your inventory back to your GL, any differences would be updated. If you decide to copy demand from an existing branch you need to setup a mass load to run and verify that the data elements are accurately set within your system. Mass Loading Add Demand to Items to a New Branch from an Existing Branch Question: "A lot of my products already have data in the Add Demand screen on products. I don t want the system to wipe this data out. What do I do?" Answer: Complete the following steps. 1. Create a Dictionary item called COUNT_ADDDEM_PNS. This dictionary item counts the multivalued list that exists in attribute 64. Obtaining this number lets you know what multi-value # you need to update to when adding to the list. 38

43 New Branch This dictionary must be marked as numeric so that you can use it as part of your select criteria. 2. Verify that the From Br and To Br dictionaries are accurately defined: Check this carefully. Often these dictionary items can missing altogether, backwards or only one is set up. 39

44 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm After you have all of your dictionaries setup and verified, you can create your mass load. 3. Create the mass load: When this mass load runs, it must run in the phantom, you cannot use the continue option. Therefore you must also set Type to S to set the data. Important: Test one product before running this for a group of items. If you have never run a mass load before in the system, we highly recommend finding someone in your organization who can assist you. 40

45 New Branch The select statement narrows your list based upon the position that you will be updating in the product file. For example, the above select is gathering all A and B ranked items in branch 2 that have one item already listed on the Add Demand screen in the product file. In order to add to the list without overriding what is already listed, we will update value 2. When conducting this mass load, run a report in summary mode, breaking on the COUNT_ADDDEM_PNS. Doing this provides the number of add-demands tied to your products and displays the largest number tied to an item. If the highest count is 6, then your first pass with the mass load will be to select items with the COUNT_ADDDEM_PNS = 6 to narrow your list. When updating you set your Column data to update Multi Value Pos = 7. With each pass, decrease the number on your select and your column Data by 1 and updated appropriately. 41

46 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Create Transfer Matrix Cells You can create matrix cells for existing company parameters or separate company parameters. Existing Company If material will be transferred between branches, the system uses transfer order entry, suggested transfers, suggested transfer returns and surplus transfer returns. Matrix cells need to be in place to make sure that the system is transferring the material at the correct cost value. Customer specific matrix cells are higher on the matrix hierarchy than a Class / Group matrix cell. Therefore, we recommend that the matrix cell you create is Customer Specific (Your Branch Customer ID) and Group All. Tip: If you do not know the Customer ID for your branch, it is displayed for you on the Branch Maintenance Screen. Separate Company If material will ship back and forth between two separate companies running on the same machine, a customer and vendor record needs to be created for each company (Company A and Company B) The customer record is a bill-to / ship-to and is different from the branch in the Customer Maintenance record. If company A needs to purchase material from Company B, a purchase order is generated in Company A. Company B, in turn creates a sales order to ship the material to Company A. Company B issues an Invoice to Company A, for which Company A pays for the invoice through A/P Entry. If special pricing must exist between the two companies, these are created through sell matrices and buy matrices so the purchase orders and the sales orders price accordingly. 42

47 New Branch Copy or Create Matrix Cells for New Branch (Optional) If all of the matrix cells in the system can be used for the new branch and are set to the Default branch then you can skip to the next section. Earlier this document covered geographical price sheets. The system uses the pricing branch s price sheet to apply the formula it finds on a matrix cell. If all the formulas are different, then the existing matrix cell can be copied to the new branch or territory and the formulas can be adjusted accordingly. Note: If you plan on using a territory then make sure the territory is listed on the Branch Maintenance screen for hierarchy purposes. No pricing will be found otherwise. In Quick Sell Matrix, select each Class, copy to the Branch/Territory and adjust formulas as needed. This should be done for each price class that is used in the new branch/company. Due to the nature of the Matrix File, its hierarchy and the expiration capabilities, this is not something that can be mass-loaded. However, there is a Matrix Upload Utility that can be used if you wanted to start from scratch and load your matrix cells into the system using this program. For more information on the Matrix Upload program see Creating User-Defined Matrix Cells During Price Updates in the Pricing Management online help or register for the Web based training class on this topic. 43

48 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Delete and Recreate Phantom Processes Scheduled phantom processes can be found in the phantom status located on the Systems menu. From the Phantom Status screen, display the Schedule screen (Alt-E). To see all processes, leave the user ID field blank. Prior to Release 8.7.2, if you used territories for scheduled reports, changes to those territories were not reflected when the reports ran. You were required to cancel and reschedule your report in order to pick up the branch changes to the territory. In Release 8.7.2, the system picks up any changes to territories by evaluating the territory when the report runs as opposed to when it is scheduled. Important: While currently scheduled reports will still work, to use this change the reports must be rescheduled once after taking the Release upgrade. Also, some reports can be edited directly from the phantom schedule without the cause for deletion. For example, the Inventory Valuation report can be edited and the driver can be updated from within the Phantom Job Scheduler. Therefore, before deleting the report, first access the edit function to determine if the branch can be added to the driver without the need of deleting. Create New Phantom Processes Required for New Branch If a new phantom process must be initiated for the new branch, find the driver on your menu and schedule accordingly. For example, if your company does daily cycle counting and the new branch should follow the same procedures as your existing branches, this phantom would be its own separate scheduled event. 44

49 New Branch Create Printer Locations for New Branch Before creating Printer locations, you must already have your printers setup to assign to the printer location. Printer locations are assigned to user profiles as well as terminal setup. The new printers created for the branch also require a printer location. When the user logs into the system, it may default to a printer location based upon the terminal setup, or prompt the user upon login to choose a location. To streamline the process of how the system finds a printer to print review the following printer location priority cheat sheet. Note: Printer locations can be assigned to the ship via record for each branch, the branch assigned to the printer location as shown above, the default printer location control file and the terminal setup. Location priority is determined as follows: Process Automatic Ship Ticket Phantom Ship Via Branch Override Location Location with Ship Ticket Branch Default Printer Location for Branch Control Record Current Terminal Location Additional Location set on driver Pick Up Now Release Hold from Open Order Status Review Queue Locations with form assigned to the PICK.TICKET document SOE Status 1 POE Status - Local 1 POE Status - Warehouse TOE Status Cross Dock - If Use Current Location When Printing From Cross Dock Use

50 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Process Current Location When Printing From Cross Dock control maintenance record* set to Yes. Cross Dock - If Use Current Location When Printing From Cross Dock Use Current Location When Printing From Cross Dock control maintenance record* set to No. Ship Via Branch Override Location Location with Ship Ticket Branch Default Printer Location for Branch Control Record Order Reprint 1 Manifest 1 Manifest Ship & Transfer Tickets Manifest Return P/O 1 Print Invoices 1 Statements 1 Current Terminal Location Additional Batch Transfer Order Location set on the driver. Reports 1 A/P Preview Queue 1 Print Checks 1 Batch Print Shipping Tickets Batch Reprint Acknowledgements, Bids, Invoices, P/Os Batch Reprint Tickets and Transfers Warehouse Picking Confirmation - Pick/ Ship Warehouse Picking Confirmation - Work Tickets Closing Order from RF Location set on the driver

51 New Branch Process Ship Via Branch Override Location Location with Ship Ticket Branch Default Printer Location for Branch Control Record Work Tickets 1 Cut Tickets outside the Product Cutting Queue Product Cutting Queue Current Terminal Location Additional 47

52 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Update Terminal Setup for Terminals in New Branch Terminal Setup is located on the System > System Files menu. Each application running Eclipse, whether Solar or Eterm must have a terminal ID assigned either the preferences or configuration. This terminal ID is used to set defaults in the system for the user to eliminate key strokes during order entry and other processes. Field descriptions for the Terminal Setup Screen: ID The Terminal IDs. It is not necessary for each workstation to have a unique ID. For example, if your sales counter has three workstations and they use the same defaults, they can all use the same ID. This column is case sensitive and compares itself to the ETERM configuration ID. If a match is found, the default settings here will be used when transactions are created in the system. Prc Brch The pricing branch associated with this workstation. When an order is taken, the branch number assigned as the Pricing Branch on the Sales Order Entry screen defaults to the branch assigned in the terminal setup. If left blank, an order taker is prompted to enter the number for the pricing branch when an order is taken. Shp Brch The shipping branch associated with this workstation. Any transaction that creates a ledger record (SOE, TOE, POE, A/P, INV ADJ) will have this shipping branch number assigned as the default. When an order is taken, the branch number is assigned as the shipping branch during order entry. Location The printer location and the printers to which a port has access. The locations can refer to a branch, a department (such as accounting or warehouse), or a terminal that is remote to the office. If the location column is left blank, the system will look to the Physical Branch settings to determine if there are printer locations with the same physical branch. If there are, the system will display those matches as options to the end user. Therefore, this column is an override to your defaults. T Type offers two choices: M (Modem) or R (RF Terminal). 48

53 New Branch M is a modem connection used for dialing into your system. If a port is for a modem, enter M into the Type column. A user must have Remote Logon OK flagged in User Maintenance to be able to log on to the system on that port. R is for a hand-held radio frequency terminal that is used in a warehouse for picking and putting away a product. If a port refers to a hand-held terminal, enter R into the Type column for that port. RL Re-log is used for terminals that might be used by several different users. If enabled, the terminal returns to the Eclipse banner after every transaction or after a predetermined time of inactivity. This prevents an employee from entering transactions under another employee s password. Sales Source A sales source can be assigned to a terminal to track the origination of an order. For example, default sales sources could be counter sales, inside sales or showroom sales. If a terminal is not assigned a sales source, the user s sales source is chosen instead. Users authorized for multiple sales sources are prompted for a selection. Ship Via The default ship via for a port (terminal) is the way the product ordered on that terminal is delivered to the customer. Ship vias are defined on the Ship Via Maintenance screen. For example, a counter terminal has Pickup as the ship via. Press F10 for a list of ship vias. This field can be left blank. A customer can have a default ship via assigned in Customer Maintenance. If neither the terminal nor the customer has a default value, the order taker is required to enter the ship via manually. Under the branch option: The local storage branch deals only with Document Imaging. Only companies who have purchased Document imaging will need to assign the branch for which the images are being stored. The Physical Branch is the branch in which the terminal resides. This is compared to the physical branch settings on the Printer Location Maintenance screen. Those printer locations that match the physical branch in the terminal maintenance will be valid printer locations to choose from (unless overridden). 49

54 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Update Fax Settings for the New Branch The new branch may need to have its fax settings added as well as a logo if the branch is a separate company. For a complete detailed explanation of the Eclipse Fax System, see the Fax Management online help: press F11 to display the help from the system in a browser and from the Table of Contents click Communication and Workflow. Fax System is the second folder. You can also click Printable Documentation and select Fax System from the list. This document is approximately 58 pages in length and will step through the process of creating fax logos and setting up a new fax printer. 50

55 New Branch Create New G/L Accounts If the new branch requires additional G/L Accounts for posting, create the accounts in the G/L Maintenance screen. The P&L and other General Ledger reports can all be run based upon branches. Therefore, if you have two separate companies running on the same system, each company would run their own report using their branch territory or branch numbers. For example, if the new branch has a sales source that is different or new, you will want the Sales and Cost General Ledger accounts to point to the new auto postings related to the new sales source. 51

56 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm Verify Ship Via Records Assigned to New Branch Within the new branch, display the Ship Via screen (Alt-S) and assign the Ship Via records to the branch. You can delete ship via records from the list that are not relevant to the branch. The system checks the shipping branch to determine what list of ship via records are available for use. Therefore, the ship via records are specific to each branch. On this screen you can also set the pick ticket printer location so that the system knows where the phantom should print these tickets. If you need unique ship vias that should be used in this new branch, first create the ship via in Ship Via Maintenance and then you can add it to the branch. 52

57 New Branch Authorize Other Users to Access New Branch/Territories Users in the system may need access to do business out of the new branch. Therefore, in order for the user to create transactions within the new branch, he/she must be authorized to do so. If your user list is small, you can edit each record accordingly, however if you have a large list to deal with you may need to create a mass load. Mass Loading users to have Authority in new branches Note: Make sure that the AUTH_BR dictionary has the multi-value prompt set to a No. If it is set to a Yes and you have view-only access, copy the dictionary to a new name and set the multi-value prompt to No. Use the new dictionary item you created for your load. In the figure above the mass load is setting all the branches the user will have access to. If your company has too many branches and you cannot list them in this format you can add the new branch you want to the end of the list. 53

58 Setting Up New Branches in Eterm In the figure above, the system is adding a value marker to the existing data on the Authorized Branch list, and then adding the new Branch to the end of the list. This process keeps the integrity of the data and branches that are already authorized in place and simply adds the new branch to the end. Setting the Territory Flags If the user should have reporting, editing, viewing authority associated with territories that exist in the system, review the following example. Enter a Y on the Override Automatic Build and Authorized for All Terrs prompt for all three settings. 54

59 New Branch If however, the user should only be assigned these rights to a list of territories, the mass load would look something like below: The end result would display on the user file as follows: 55