Reserving Inventory Feature on PCAW 2003

[sbpressman]

I just received info on PCAW 2003. I might be interested in the new 2003 release, except that I don't understand the description of the "reserving inventory" feature. "Reserving" means setting aside; putting a hold on. The description is unclear as to whether inventory is actually "reserved". It says "avoid overselling by including item quantitities on orders when issuing "out of stock" warnings on sales orders and invoices." What does this mean? If I currently input a quantity and it exceeds the available stock, PCAW still accepts the order and deducts the amount from inventory on a sales invoice - - that's how you can get negative inventory quantities. And I already "include a quantity" on sales orders -- but PCAW doesn't change the inventory level on sales orders. The description for 2003 makes it seem more like a reminder than a reservation. What is the real story?

[dringstrom]

Given that the software hasn't been released yet, I don't think anyone can answer your question. I suspect there are a least a few beta testers that participate in this forum, but I'm sure their beta testing agreement precludes them from discussing features prior to the software's release.

[sbpressman]

The problem is that the "special pricing" in the promo material Peachtree sent expires in two weeks, and since I JUST bought PCAW 2002 a few months ago, I wouldn't upgrade unless I really needed a new feature. Turns out, I really need "reserving" capabilities -- if it works properly.

[dringstrom]

Unless they've changed it recently, Peachtree has a 60-day return policy, so you should be able to lock in the discount pricing, yet return the product if it doesn't meet your needs. I'd confirm this with someone at Peachtree before you place the order, though.

[kj000]

I believe it's the ability to calculate the qty available (QOH-Qty on SO + QTY on PO) when issuing the out of stock info on Sales Orders and Sales Invoicing.

[Marka]

I dont understand why PCA would deduct from inventory on a sales invoice unless you actually shipped that amount. you would not invoice a customer for a quantity unless you actually shipped that amount. This would just add to ordered. Unlike other programs Peachtree do not have that COMMITTED Amount which then lets you know you available.

As reserved even. I tried to do this once before with another program. This can be tricky. i set it up so that there is a priority to customers.

Example:

on hand item ABC = 100

REceived orders for a total of 150. Now who do I give the goods to. When I printed out my open order to ship report it would allocate quantities to the first 100 ordered by customers that placed their orders. But some customers were more important than others so I would want them to receive goods first before some of the other customers. So I designed my crystal report to go according to priority. Used a user defined fild in the customer item file and if crystal saw that field and the specific value then it assigned the available stock to that order even if that order was received days after the previous orders already going past the 100 available pieces. This way when my open order report printed it would truly represent what customers orders would be shipped complete and which ones would have back orders. It was a bear to create but it worked most of the time and gave me a good view of my available inventory when the customers called. It would also reflect my inbound shipments from overseas. So if I was short it would let me know if the goods would be in before the order had to be shipped. We did receive orders from customers with future ship dates. This was a handy feature to have.

Mark

[sbpressman]

Our company imports wines, many of which have very limited availability. We use "sales orders" not to place current orders to be fulfilled same day and invoiced, but to set up reservations for customers who can pre-order the scarcer wines. That way, if we can only get 100 cases of a certain wine, we may reserve 80 cases to various customers through sales orders.

PCA will give you a report showing total qty on sales orders, but it doesn't "hold" that inventory -- it doesn't deduct it from inventory. Now, not every sales order is a reservation -- a firm order for a future sale (when the boat lands) that will preclude a sale to another customer (sometimes, it is more of a reminder to get in touch with the customer when that item comes in). What I have suggested to Peachtree (on numerous occasions) is a check box in the sales order screen for "reserve inventory." This would necessitate, as kj000 suggested, a "quantity available" field, which should be the default field for quantity on the drop down lists when you create an invoice, sales order, etc. If this is what PCA is going to have, then great. I just wish they were more clear in describing it.

FYI Marka, we create "sales invoices" at the time a "current" order -- one that gets delivered the next day -- is placed, because if it is in stock and it gets ordered for immediate delivery, it WILL ship. So even though we invoice prior to shipping, it does not create a problem.

[Marka]

sbpressman - I understand you now. I do see what you are doing. By the way my uncle used to import wines many years ago, since then he has died and for the life of me I can remember the name of his company.

Anyway I see that you mention the word 'BOAT' meaning you import the wines which of course I would assume when you say fine wines. How do you track your inbound shipments. I had the same problem at my last position. We imported fine leather goods like wallets, rolling catalog cases etc from Taiwan, China, Hong Kong etc. They were keeping track of this only by placing the copy of the vendor's packing slip in a book (this made it even more difficult because all packing slips looked different depending on the vendor it came from). But when sales needed to know the status of some items that we were short on sales would have to take the packing slips, manually take them and break them all out and place in spreadsheet. then fill in all the item on hand quantities. I made it much easier for them; took me a while to figure it out but with the use of Crystal reports I was able to create some reports called "Imbound Shipment Reports". This would list the vessel, the items on the vessel, the vendors on the vessel (some vessels had more than one vendor on it), the quantities of the items etc etc etc. This way we knew and the sales department knew at the click of a mouse what was coming in and when. This even worked for the vendors Pre-Shipping Advice. If a vendor gave us an estimate on what they were shipping and when this would also be included in the report. so we could forcast much easier when the goods would be in and avaialble to ship when selling to our customers.This made it so much easier for us to track our inbound shipments (vessels). Many people who do not import do not realize how important this is because orders placed overseas are not usually delivered to your dock for 60 to 90 days depending on their lead times and the ocean transit times. Many companies order from vendors in the states who may be able to deliver with in days of the company placing the order. But when you have 60 to 100 day lead times this is a very handy feature to have. These reports also made it much much easier for us to track vendors open purchase orders and also the backorders of the vendors. It would show the vendor, the items we have on order with them, the orders that were shipped, how much of the item was shipped, on what vessel it was shipped on (the name of the vessel) and the date it was expected to arrive our dock. Very handy to have.

Just wondering how you do it. My other company that I worked for I used Macola software, not Peachtree which gave me much more flexibility in tracking our inbound shipments. Figuring out the prcess using Peachtree was a real nightmare but after hours and hours of thought I finally did it.

Technically the software should not pull from the inventory prior to actually shipping the item because the sale does not actually take place at that time. This would be okay if the customer does not mind being billed for the shipment prior to shipment but actually the sale is made the day the order is invoiced even though the goods may not be shipped for several days later etc. If this occurs towards the end of the month then the sales are reflected in the wrong month. If the company is working with Asset Based Lending then this misrepresents the actual shipping amount for the month. also misrepresents the amount in inventory for that month and then the company would nt get the amount available to borrow on the inventory for that month as maybe 35 to 40% on the inventory. Some companies do have higher available to borrow on inventory than that but not much more. But I guess in that case the invoice amount or the Accounts Receivable for the usual 80% available to borrow would be better on the invoice amount. Depends on the bank the company is dealing with. some banks would not like that at all. But then again you may have avaialble to borrow on any L/C's you have at the time too because the company technically has paid for the goods because the L/C ties up the money. Sorry I seem to have gone off on a tangent here.

Allocation - meaning researvation of the item quantity is used in Macola in that sense and is very helpful. But i do understand what you are saying.

Mark