What is a Kit? (THIS IS DIRECT FROM GP HELP)
An item type assigned to items that consist of other component items that are assembled at the time of sale. The kit is a single item with an item number; it consists of one or more component items in your inventory. Component items can be services, sales inventory, discontinued, miscellaneous charge, and flat fee items.
Kit items consist of other component items. Quantities on hand won’t be tracked for items you designate as kits. However, current costs are associated with these items, and the quantity sold will be tracked when the items are assembled at the time of sale. When you post a transaction that contains a kit item, amounts will be posted to the Sales account specified for the kit item and the Inventory account and Cost of Goods Sold account for each of the component items in each kit.
Even if you select Kit as the item type for a class of items, you can sell components as separate items if you want to.
So what does this mean to you?
I always use the example of buying a Big Mac at McDonald’s. You buy a Big Mac and that is what you see on your receipt, 1 Big Mac. McDonald’s does not keep Big Mac’s in inventory. They do keep in inventory:
- 2 All Beef Patties
- Special Sauce
- Lettuce
- Cheese
- Pickles
- Onions
- Sesame Seed Bun.
So when you buy a Big Mac, you are reducing their inventory for all of the above. If you do not want Cheese on your Big Mac, your receipt will say “Big Mac w/no Cheese.” Then you are reducing the following from inventory:
- 2 All Beef Patties
- Special Sauce
- Lettuce
- Pickles
- Onions
- Sesame Seed Bun.
This is a great way to offer promotions by combining items. A good example of this is McDonald’s Happy Meals. It consist of:
- Hamburger
- Small fries
- Small Coke
- Toy.
McDonalds can then capture how many burgers they sold (with and without the Happy Meal,) and independently track how many Happy Meals they sold.
I do not know what McDonald’s uses for an Accounting/ERP system, but if you use Sales order Processing, I’m sure you can think of a lot of opportunities by using Kits. They are easy to setup and easy to use!
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
If you use Microsoft Dynamics GP Inventory Control, you may need to occasionally return some of these items to the Vendor (or Supplier) you purchased them from. The Purchase Order Processing module can handle this for you using the Returns Transaction Entry window. The return window will return any item entered as returned through Sales Order Processing (SOP) or any item entered in Inventory from Inventory Transactions.
Type:
- Inventory: This type allows you to reduce your Inventory quantities and inventory value.
- Inventory w/Credit: This type allows you to reduce your Inventory quantities and inventory value AND issue and post a return in payables to reduce the amount you owe your vendor. If you choose this option, you will still need to manually apply the return to the appropriate invoice using Apply Payables Document.
Check Boxes:
- Replace Returned Goods: Checking this box indicates that you expect to receive replacements for the goods you are returning. A PO will be created.
- Invoice Expected for Returned Goods: If you choose the type “Inventory w/Credit” this option will be checked and dimmed out so you can change the field.
Use Microsoft Dynamics GP Inventory Returns Part 1 will follow and will cover the return types: Return and Return w/Credit.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
If you use Microsoft Dynamics GP Purchase Order Processing (POP) to receive Inventory Items, you may need to occasionally return some of these items to the Vendor (or Supplier) you purchased them from. The Purchase Order Processing module can handle this for you using the Returns Transaction Entry window.
Type:
- Return: This type allows you to reduce your Inventory quantities and inventory value.
- Return w/Credit: This type allows you to reduce your Inventory quantities and inventory value AND issue and post a return in payables to reduce the amount you owe your vendor. If you choose this option, you will still need to manually apply the return to the appropriate invoice using Apply Payables Document.
Check Boxes:
- Replace Returned Goods: Checking this box indicates that you expect to receive replacements for the goods you are returning. If the original Purchase Order has not been moved to history, the quantity you expect will be added to the PO. If the PO has been moved to history, a new PO will be created.
- Invoice Expected for Returned Goods: If your vendor will issue an invoice for the original amount, a credit memo and another invoice for the new amount (if you choose to replace the goods) then check this box. If you choose the type “Return w/Credit” this option will be checked and dimmed out so you can change the field.
Use Microsoft Dynamics GP Inventory Returns Part 2 will follow and will cover the return types: Inventory and Inventory w/Credit.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
(The attached video includes all of the information in the text below for those of you who prefer to “watch it” rather than “read it.”)
“Suggested Sales Items” is an awesome new feature in Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013. This new version is due to be released at the end of December, 2012.
We’ve all been to a restaurant and ordered an entrée only to have the wait person suggest some additional side or appetizer based on our entrée selection. This is known as “upselling.” We’ve also been in the situation where we have seen a newspaper advertisement for a product on sale only to get to the store to see another version of the sale product that is better but not on sale. This is known as a “loss leader.”
It is probable that you’ve bought the extra side dish or the “non-sale” more expensive item in both of the situations above at least once.
Q: So how can you use Microsoft Dynamics GP to translate this action in your customers?
A: The new feature in GP 2013 “Suggest Sales Items.”
This feature is setup in Inventory Control, but used in Sales Order Processing. You start with the Inventory Item Maintenance Window (Inventory ~ Cards ~ Item.)
SETUP
- Select an item using the Item Lookup Window.
- Click on the new button in the bottom of the Item Maintenance Window called “Suggest Items.”
- The new “Suggest Sales Item Maintenance” window will open.
- Select which Sales Order Processing (SOP) Document type for which you want to have suggestions made to you while working with a customer or prospect. (The default is for all SOP document types. This feature does not work with Back Orders or Returns.)
- In the grid at the bottom, select the item you want Microsoft Dynamics GP to suggest to you. Click on the Lookup icon for a list, then enter the quantity that you want suggested. This may not always be a one to one relationship (e.g. If you are selling a 10 gallon bucket of paint, you may want to suggest 2 paint rollers or 8 brushes or a single spray painting machine.) In this example you’ll notice we can suggest more than item.
- Click OK.
TRANSACTIONS
- Begin your Sales Order Processing transaction in the SOP Entry window.
- After an item that has suggestions assigned to it is entered, the “Suggest Sales Item Entry” window will appear. This will allows you as a sales person to discuss these additional options with your customer or prospect.
- OPTIONAL: If you do not have enough of the original item OR the suggested item in stock, you will receive the “Sales Quantity Shortage Options” window at the appropriate time to ensure you are given the option of how you want to handle shortages.
- OPTIONAL: If the client is over their credit limit, you will receive the Credit Warning window after you enter the original item and BEFORE the “Suggest Sales Item Entry” window appears. It will still appear giving you the opportunity for upselling, however normal Credit Rules already in place will still exist.
- Should the customer or prospect choose to receive any of the suggested items, all you have to do is:
- Click on the box next to the item number in the grid at the bottom.
- Ensure the quantity is the desired quantity, if not change it. Once you are returned to the Sales Order Processing Entry window, you can edit the quantities and pricing there as well.
- Click OK.
- If the customer does not want the items, just click OK to close the window.
This is a really cool new feature and I hope everyone who utilizes the distribution series takes advantage of it!
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
(The attached video includes most of the information in the text below for those of you who prefer to “watch it” rather than “read it.”)
How can Microsoft Dynamics GP improve your customers’ experience when ordering your product?
- Customer Items
- Substitute Items
Customer Items
In the Sales Series, under Cards is an option called “Customer Items, which opens the Customer Item Maintenance window. In this window you can pull up a customer from the Customer and Prospects Lookup List. You then will select one of your item numbers using the Items Lookup List.
At this point you can then set your customer’s:
- Item Number or ID
- Item Description
- Five User Defined Text fields and substitute item information
More often than not, your customer will use a different item numbers than you. By setting up the item number your customer uses in your Microsoft Dynamics GP, you will be able to take your customers’ Purchase Orders or talk to them on the phone using numbers they are familiar with, thus making the ordering process easier for them and the customer / vendor experience better.
Substitute Items
If you choose to use the Substitute Item Number area of the Customer Item Maintenance window; you can setup another one of your items that you can recommend to your customer should you not have enough inventory of the item being ordered. Let’s assume you are having a sale of one of your items and a customer calls to order that item. If you do not have enough in stock, rather than backorder the item you can recommend another item from your inventory.
Should you choose to populate the Substitute Item’s Effective Date Range in the Customer Item Maintenance window; the Substitute Item selected will be suggested if the transaction date falls within that date range. You can also use this Effective Date Range to remove temporary Substitute items.
To set up customer item numbers and substitute item numbers:
- Open the Customer Item Maintenance window.
(Cards >> Sales >> Customer Items)
- Enter or select a customer and an item number.
- Enter the item name that the customer uses. When you create a sales order and enter the customer item, the inventory item number will be displayed.
- You can enter a customer item description, short name, and generic name.
- You can enter additional information in the text fields.
- To assign a substitute item, you can enter or select an item to substitute for the item displayed in the Item Number field.
- You can enter a date range for when the substitute item is effective. This date also can be used to remove customer/item substitute records in the Remove Customer/Item Substitutes window.
- Choose Save.
Removing Substitute Items
To remove Substitute Items, you can open the “Remove Customer / Item Substitutes” window which is located under Utilities in the Sales Series. This window will remove item substitute records with expiration dates equal to or earlier than the date you enter.
To remove customer/item substitute items:
- Open the Remove Customer/Item Substitutes window.
(Microsoft Dynamics GP menu >> Tools >> Utilities >> Sales >> Remove Substitute Items)
- Enter the date to remove customer/item substitute records that expired on or earlier than the date.
- Choose Process. The Customer/Item Substitutes Removed report will be printed.
Different than Inventory Setup Substitute Items
This feature is different than Inventory Item Maintenance Options Substitute Items. They work the same in that they suggest a pre-selected item number at the time of the sale if the item requested is out of stock. But the Inventory option is general and not specific to a customer AND it does not expiration dates.
Bryant Park as Fall approaches!
Hope this Helps!
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
(The attached video includes most of the information in the text below for those of you who prefer to “watch it” rather than “read it.”)
Today we’re going to look at the Microsoft Dynamics GP Inventory Control module. We will look at how to assign all items to a specific site or a range of items to a specific site. This feature has been included in Dynamics GP for a long time, but it’s a feature that many users don’t know about or have forgotten about.
Opening the Site Maintenance window, which is under Inventory and Cards, allows you to create a new site or make changes to an existing site such as the address, phone information, tax schedules and the department segment of the General Ledger Chart of Accounts that is assigned to the site.
In the bottom right corner of the Site Maintenance window is an Assign button. Once you pull up a site and click on this button, you have the ability to assign items to the selected site. You can leave it set to “all”; or select a single item (or range of items) based on Item Number, and/or Generic Description, and/or Class ID, and/or Vendor ID; then simply click OK.
Mass assigning is great, but once a site is assigned to an item and has been used, it is difficult to remove the relationship between the item and the site. Also if a site is no longer used, you cannot remove it.
Other Site Maintenance Window Options
(The following is not included on the video.)
To the left of the Assign button on the Site Maintenance window are two other buttons: the Bins button and the Planning button.
The Bins button allows you to specify which bins will be the default bins for different types of item transactions. You can change the bin at the time of entry, and you can change the defaults at any time. If you use bins, setting up these defaults can save you a lot of time.
If you use Resource Planning for your inventory, the Planning button allows you to enter default information for sites and item-site combinations. Once you’ve entered default information for a site in this window, you can change the information of each item-site combination.
At a recent Partner Technical Event, we learned about many of the new features to be released. Below is a picture of another New York City Partner, Anne-Claire McAllister, and an independent GP and CRM consultant, Vilas Wibhandik. Both Anne-Clair and Vilas are very good friends of mine, and we had a wonderful time learning and growing our skill sets.
GREAT CHANGES TO GP 2013
There are two great improvements with the upcoming release of GP 2013 regarding inventory sites:
- Inactivating Sites
- Inactivating relationships between sites and items
Inactivating Sites
This great new feature enables you to inactivate a site that is no longer used. We have not, and will not, be able to delete a site that has been used. This restriction protects the integrity of the history. But with the release of Microsoft Dynamics GP 2013, we will be able to inactivate a site, preventing us from using the site from within Inventory Control, Purchase Order Processing and Sales Order Processing.
Inactivating Relationships Between Sites and Items
This is an even more powerful feature of GP 2013! We can now inactivate the relationship between a site and an item. Imagine you have an inventory site that is still active, but you no longer store your item “WidgetABC” at that site. You can inactivate the site for this item, and your users will be forced to use another site for receiving, fulfilling orders and inventory adjustments. Should you choose to once again store your “WidgetABC” at the inactive site, you only need to unmark the “Inactive” box and begin use again.
There are more than 150 new features already in Microsoft Dynamics GP due at the end of calendar year 2012. If you are an Inventory Control user, this upgrade is a must. You can see the new features highlighted above in the video above.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
I’d like to walk you through how Kits are setup in Microsoft Dynamics GP Inventory Control and how they work in Sales Order Processing.
What is a Kit?
A Kit represents several items sold as a single item. The example I use in this video is a hamburger order at a fast food restaurant. You receipt just reads “hamburger,” but you are removing many items from their inventory (patty, buns, condiments, etc.). If you custom order your burger, such as adding additional items or removing items, the list of items to be fulfilled (or removed) from inventory will change accordingly.
Will a Kit only include physical inventory items?
No, you can add any item from your inventory control system which includes services, miscellaneous and flat fee items as well as sales inventory. You can even list the same item more than once, provided that the unit of measure is different for each entry.
How is cost determined?
Cost is established when the Kit is setup in inventory. It can be based on the individual costs of the components, or you can establish a fixed cost for the Kit item itself.
When setting up a Kit, you will also include (in addition to the Component Item Number) the unit of measure used for the Kit and the quantity of each component.
What if you have a shortage in some of your Kit components?
Included in the Sales Order Processing Transaction Entry (Sales Item Detail Entry) window is a Kit button that will allow you to open the Sales Kit Options window. This window includes the components that are being used. This is the same window you would use to add inventory items, replace inventory items or remove inventory items for the sale of this particular Kit to this particular customer for this particular invoice. Should any Kit component have a shortage, this window will open automatically for you.
When the window opens, an alert icon will appear next to the component with the shortage, so you can handle it in whatever method you deem appropriate for this customer order.
Other items to note:
- A Kit can be returned in Sales Order Processing.
- A Kit cannot be backordered in Sales Order Processing.
- To change a Kit component (this includes changing the quantity), you will need to delete the Kit from the line in SOP and re-enter it. This ensures that any changes made for this order are handled properly.
The use of Kits can be a very valuable to your company!Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
Q:What happens if you receive a shipment in Microsoft Dynamics GP Purchase Order Processing and the invoice comes in for a different dollar amount?
A: That depends on how you set up the item in inventory.
There is a setup feature in the item class/item purchasing options that enables you to choose whether you want this adjustment amount to recalculate your inventory value or have it go directly to your designated variance account. The logical choice would be to set it up to update inventory; it is inventory after all. But there are quite a few factors you should consider first:
- How quickly do you turnover your inventory? If you are purchasing this item to fill a specific order and the customer order is created prior to receiving the invoice and creating the variance, then you would probably want the amount to go directly to a variance account. If it revalued inventory, you would be left with a dollar balance in inventory as the value but with a quantity of zero. If it is an item you keep in stock, then you may want the inventory value to update accordingly.
- What is your inventory valuation for this item? If you are using Average Perpetual, then you should probably have the difference go to the variance account instead of inventory. With Average Perpetual, you may already have a difficult job performing reconciliation tasks. Adding a variance would only make a tough job tougher.
- How much is the net variance and how often does this scenario occur? If this only happens occasionally, then I would suggest using the Purchasing variance account. Also if the net value is low, I would again suggest using the Purchasing variance account. If it happens frequently or the dollar value is large, then you should probably send the variance to inventory. You can set a tolerance percentage, so any variance over the tolerance percentage would go to inventory, and anything below the percentage would go to the Purchasing variance. Also, if this occurs a lot, I would review your operating procedures. Perhaps some of this could be reduced by more closely entering shipments (adjusting the unit cost there) or by updating PO’s after order confirmations are received.
If you are unsure, start with it unmarked and let the variance go to the designated Purchasing variance account. See what happens; you can always change it at any point in time.
Due the nature of inventory requiring regular monitoring, the decision on marking or unmarking this option should be well thought out. Managing inventory can be a complex task, but Microsoft Dynamics GP gives you the controls to make it easier!
Setup Notes:
- The Purchasing variance account is on the Account window for each individual item.
- Revalue Inventory for Cost Variance is in the Item Class Setup window AND can be accessed for each item from the “Item Purchasing Options Maintenance” window under Inventory Cards.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
In this video I will walk you through the scenario where receiving items (both with and without Lot Numbers) in Microsoft Dynamics GP can create an entry where the Lot Number is duplicated with a quantity of 1 with a Cost much higher than the remaining items.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070
In this Video I will show you how the Generate Suggested Dynamics GP Purchase Orders window generated a list of potential purchase order line items from which purchase orders can be created automatically to replenish inventory levels. Then I will turn 1 line item into a Purchase Order.
Belinda (the GP CSI) AllenBelinda@saci.com917-445-9070