Sage 100

looking for best practice advice...Sorry if this was posted before. interested in how the location of inventory being sent out for outside processing is tracked. is there a generally accepted way to track the physical movement of parts being sent out for things like powder coating? what is the quantity currently at the vendor? These will then be brought back in to complete a final assembly in work order. A PO would be created for the cost of the treatment and received to the work order.

Back in the day when I ran an accounting department, we had a separate step in the work order for inventory at outside processors. PO was issued for the work being performed off site and it had to be AP invoiced before closing the work order. I would imagine it would still work today.

The way I have done it as is follows (sort of winging it didn't fully test, but I think this is close): Set up a product line ""OUT"". Set up an item ""POWDER COAT"" with product line OUT. In WO set up a Work Center ""PWRCT"" and an Operation Code ""OUT"". In Wo Entry add a step with the PWRCT work center and the OUT operation code. Create a PO: Item POWDER COAT. Link the item to the Wo by entering the Wo#, Step#, and the Transaction Type of ""Outside Processing"" in the secondary grid. Receive in the PO. Complete the WO and the cost of the outside processing should be included in the cost roll up.

I'm thinking we issue the parts under a raw material part number to the outside process step. That establishes the cost of the initial part. Cut a PO for the improved part under a different part number. Ship the parts to the vendor. Receive the improved part number against the work order with the cost being just the cost of the services. Under this scenario their is no shipping documentation that sage creates to ship the part to the vendor. Tracking the cost isn't really the problem, it is the process of the the physical movement and tracking of the part we are trying to improve. Creating a Sales order to ""sell"" the part to the vendor is one way to create the shipping documentation. Invoicing will track that is has been shipped. Keeping track of what the vendor should have after that is the part we're trying to figure out.

If you add the raw material part number on the ""Materials"" tab of the work order and link it to the outside processing step, when you release the work order you will have visibility of the item in item inquiry.

If you're looking for a way to tell which items are still in your warehouse vs. which are out at the vendor, there are a couple of ways that I explain to customers some require more steps than others, so I let the client decide which will work best for them. 1.Create an ""outside processing"" Warehouse a.Process a warehouse transfer to that move the items to the vendor warehouse when items are sent out; if you only have a few vendors, you could even setup a separate warehouse for each vendor. b.When the items come back from the vendor: i.Set the work order to pull that item from the vendor warehouse and do the material issue as you normally would to issue them to the work order. 2.Setup two different item codes for that item ""WIDGET"" and ""COATED WIDGET"" for example then do the following a.Create a separate work order with parent item COATED WIDGET b.Put the WIDGET on as the component item. c. When you send the item out to the vendor, issue the WIDGET quantity to the work order using a material issue transaction. This takes them out of your warehouse; you can look at these work orders to see how many are issued. d.Use the method Doug described to apply the cost of the powder coating when the items are returned to your facility e.Complete the work order for the number that you have received this will put the finished items back into inventory under the new part number with the item cost plus the cost of the powder coating. 3.If bill of materials is used, but not work order you can use a combination of 1 and 2 above. a.Create a BOM for the original item (WIDGET) and a miscellaneous charge for the added cost of powder coating b.Transfer the items to a separate warehouse when they go out to the vendor c .When the items come back from the powder coating vendor: i.Create a production entry set component warehouse to the vendor warehouse, ii.Produce X number of COATED WIDGET parts. This will pull the WIDGET parts from the vendor warehouse and place COATED WIDGETs into your warehouse. iii.Enter you vendor invoice using the same G/L account that you assigned to the Miscellaneous cost on the BOM.

For the shipping documentation, create an ""alternative"" PO form that prints with the PO for outside processing. Or create a Crystal WO form that server the same purpose. When the items are assigned to the WO, print one of those forms.

Thanks for all the responses. The transfer function is what we were leaning toward. Combining that with an alternate PO form that could serve as the shipment paperwork for the shipping department to box up the items being sent to the vendor ( a pick list and shipping address) would work. We could add the PO number to the item transfer record for additional tracking.