The old adage: “Variety is the Spice of Life”, definitely applies to my life as a Visual consultant. There are so many ways to use Visual, lots of different types of manufacturing companies, so many different functions in Visual and lots of little questions or puzzles. Just to give you a flair for this lifestyle I am sharing some of the questions that come across my desk with some Visual tips. You never know, you might have one of these questions some day.
Imploding Costs
Question. When running the implode portion of updating standard costs I get this error message: “The following part could not be properly imploded due to an invalid Engineering ID and/or zero Engineering Lot Quantity”
Answer. This could be 1 of 2 things:
- Part Maintenance references an Eng. Master ID but it doesn’t exist.
- The Engineering Master has a desired quantity of zero, which is highly unlikely.
The first problem can be caused by copying an existing Part ID to make up a new part ID. In doing the copy, the Eng. Master ID is left on the part but the Eng. Master is not created. Solution is easy: either set up the Engineering Master or remove the Eng. Master ID from part maintenance.
Purchase Return of Linked Parts
Question. We link Purchase Orders to Work Orders. When the PO was received, it also issued the part to the work order. Now I want to return the goods to the vendor. We have created an issue-return to move the part into stock (QA location) but when I try to return the PO, I get the error message Quantity returned exceeds quantity issued by 1
Answer. The step of removing the part from the work order into stock that we discussed during the training was if the part was to be used on another work order. In this case, you would do the issue return (there is a warning about the PO link) and then issue the part to a different work order.
If you want to return the parts to the vendor, then you can skip the issue return to put it into stock. The process would be to do a PO receipt return. Visual would create 2 transactions:
- WO Issue Return
- PO Return
Since the part has been returned to stock, you can issue it back to the work order, so it is available for the PO Return. Then you should be able to do the PO return without any warnings/error messages.
PO Accrual Balancing
Question. I am having problems with my PO accrual reconciliation in Euros (our functional/system currency). Does the PO accrual report show the native amount x current exchange rate? Or does it use the original exchange rate? My Euro PO accrual report is just a tiny bit off from the General Ledger balance but the CAD (tracking currency) is way off. If you have any information that might be useful, let me know.
Answer. The PO accrual report uses the original exchange rate not the current exchange rate. Running revaluation revalues the account to the current exchange rate. That is considering the fact that we have restated the Purchases to their native amounts using GJE’s in native amounts. In order to balance the Euro General Ledger to the Euro Report, I would subtract or add-back on the reconciliation all revaluation entries created in Euro. If it still doesn’t balance, then you would want to look for:
- Invalid postings (only PUR and API should exist.) Plus, in your case there are the Revaluation (RVJ) entries.
- Accounts Payable invoices using the PO accrual account but with no receiver.
- Cut-off errors (i.e. Goods received in July but AP invoices recorded in June.)
- Cost Analysis Tools exceptions for Purchases
- PO Accrual incorrectly matched amounts.
For the CAD General Ledger (GL), Visual’s revaluation will take the Euro GL x month-end exchange rate and translate this to the CAD amount. The CAD will not reconcile to the existing report due to the changing exchange rates.
You may want a modified report to calculate the PO accrual based on current exchange rate. This would make a great enhancement request.
Accounts Payable – Pay Status
Question. How does an AP voucher get put on hold? Is this something we are doing wrong?
Answer. In AP Invoice Entry, there is a setting under Options – Preferences of whether you would like the default status to be “Hold, Pay or Log”. If it is set to Hold, that would be your answer. If it is set to Pay, then after the invoice is recorded that the status can be changed in that window or in Payment Scheduling. The last column below shows whether the voucher is set as Pay (checked) or Hold (no check mark). Many Visual user’s – use the checkmark during the cheque runs. I like to reserve the checkmark for disputed items and push out the “Pay Date” to include invoices in the next cheque run. On payment scheduling, I would suggest changing the Pay Date out a week or two, rather than putting on hold. That way they would not be missed.
Account Balances with Mixed Currencies
Question. We have transactions with incorrect currencies in 2 of our accounts.
Answer. This one took a little more research. We had to have a remote session so that I could review the transactions.
Account #1 – US Bank Account with CAD values in the Account-at-Native (That is when you click on F7 in the Accounting Window. This shows the transaction currency.) A cash receipt had been made in CAD instead of USD in error. We could void the transaction and redo it in the correct currency.
Accounts #2 – CAD Accounts Receivable had USD transactions in Account-at-Native. We had the Accounts Receivable aging in Native currency – Sorted by Currency ID. And sure enough, there were USD customer invoices posted to the CAD account. We went back to customer maintenance and the CAD was specified as the default account. In this instance, we didn’t have to do anything to fix. We just have to wait for the customer to pay.
So, there you have it. Such variety. It makes my life interesting. I really do love being able to help others love Visual as much as I do. Oh, I better go. There may be more e-mails to answers. I wonder what will be next?
