SE 6.4 Issues Affecting QBI?

[alloutrepair]

I have been on Manager+ and integrator for about a month now, and here are a list of concerns that are occurring in Mitchell and causing problems to the data that is being fed into QuickBooks. I have already talked to the integrator team, and they have confirmed that the issues exist within Mitchell and not with integrator. (Garbage in = Garbage out)

1. Sales tax is not always calculating correctly... it would appear that this may be a rounding issue...

2. Why is the ref/inv# not feeding into the item like it is being attached to at the time of the receipt?
I do not understand why I would have to re-enter this number especially if I am liking the receipt to the order line.
This means I cannot back-track to my purchase for warranty items.

3. Inventory is adjusting at the time the line is 'confirmed' (which by the way is when I complete the PO receipt if I link the receipt to the order line).
This is causing inventory balances to be incorrect on all pre-ordered items that are received before the scheduled appointment.
This is also causing 2 inventory adjustments to be entered into QuickBooks for every item on every order (I'm upto 543 adjustments in less than 1 month on only 75 orders).

4. Why am I not notified that the item is -0- or -neg- before I transfer the order to an invoice?
Why is there no way to see if I have created a PO, received the PO, etc on the order?
Due to the limitations of the QBI, if I do not get this correct, it takes a lot of manual work to balance what it should be...

[timbre4]

Regarding #3

Receiving PO parts is not confirming them; Purchase Orders can be generated from EST, R.O. or INV stage. Converting the Repair Order to an Invoice is the moment that committed parts become confirmed and subtracted from inventory.

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If I understand correctly, parts are being ordered in advance? You must be starting an Estimate or something to generate the PO from and receive parts to, please provide more detail about the workflow.

[timbre4]

Regarding #4

I have replied to this 0 quantity question as this was posted elsewhere.

1. What "order" is being transferred to an invoice?
2. The Order screen provides two ways to check related POs; a) Options - Purchase Orders -and- b) SE 6.5 has a View PO button for direct access.

If you opened Options - Purchase Orders and it was blank, there is no relationship established between the order and the PO parts. Looks like there are some workflow issues to work through.

[timbre4]

Regarding #2

The Ref/Inv # text is entered in the Parts Ordering window when parts are ORDERED not when received. When the electronic parts order (PO automatically created at same time) is transmitted, the Ref/Inv # is copied into every part item being ordered at that time (on that PO).

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[alloutrepair]

Here is the high level outIine of the steps i am using...
I would be willing to walk through this process with anyone you can advise as I would be very happy to find it is a process issue.

1. setup customer and vehicle

2. proceed to order screen and select labor (usually from the estimator)

3. look up parts using aftermarket parts catalog and transfer them back to the ESTIMATE (or setup manual parts and add them to the estimate)

4. get customer approval and convert estimate to repair order

5. order parts either by using online ordering or calling in the order. (if the part is ordered by phone, then I create a manual purchase order for this item by selecting the line from the 'pick list from orders' screen)

6. once the parts have been physically received, then I will continue with receive PO

7. convert order to invoice & post.

However, I have had several occasions where I have forgotten to 'receive PO' and it 'confirms' the item to a -neg- qty and plays havoc with my costs and qbi.
Also, I do have canned jobs setup for oil changes, with kits assigned (one for filters, and one for oil types) and there have been several occurrences where this has caused negative inventory without any warning.

[alloutrepair]

#1 when i say rounding issue i do not mean between Mitchell and QuickBooks... the tax amount shown in Mitchell is absolutely incorrect.


#2 not sure how i am supposed to know the vendor's invoice number at the time i place the order...
what about manually ordered parts???
since this field feeds to the PO receipt, and then becomes vendor invoice number in QuickBooks, it really needs to be the vendor invoice number once it is available.

#3 when receiving a PO, the system is absolutely 'confirming' the items, and adjusting inventory
the popup you showed me is a duplication as the items are in fact already in 'confirmed' status

#4 I didn't really understand your comments in the other thread, it might be easier to keep these all together...
my process steps are in the post just prior to this one.

[timbre4]

#1 - Best to review with support as it's probably beyond the scope of the forum.

#2 - No you cannot know the Vendor invoice # until you receive the parts order. You mentioned the Ref/Inv # field (entered at time of order not receipt) and so the discussion went in that direction, I would agree that is how it should work; we have an enhancement request for the PO receive process to allow entry of vendor's invoice # and apply it to all of the parts received on that PO.

#3 - For sake of clarity, let's keep Confirmed as an Invoice parts state and use RECEIVED (part lines turned green) for PO parts. IE They are seen by the system and QOH is increased where inventory records exist. If the parts are to be used on Repair Orders in the Shop they are COMMITTED as the Part Item Edit window for each of these items indicates (and Inventory record IF they are stocked items). They are not CONFIRMED until the RO is converted to Invoice, subtracted from inventory (if applicable) and Committed falls back to zero.

#4 - The question was "why is there a need to be warned about zero quantities for parts?" I listed the sources that parts come from and the default quantities that are used. Please explain what causes you to be in this predicament.

[alloutrepair]

#1. I will follow-up with a support call...

#2. I will look anxiously for this update...

3 & 4 might actually be an aligned task as the 2 issues really relate to each other for me

If you follow the process steps I indicated earlier, while receiving the PO, the system asks me if I want to assign the lines to the open order (which I believe I do if I know I am ordering them for that specific order). At this time, my order status is 'APPROVED RO'...

Once the receipt is complete, none of my lines change color, but I gain a + sign to the right of the part that was on the PO, and if I open this part line, there is a box on the bottom which states... 'Confirmed 1.00' and the box next to it is checked...

Sorry, still looking at adding in screen shots for you...

Maybe I am misunderstanding something with the system, but from a user standpoint a box called 'confirmed' tells me the system has 'confirmed' the item, and I am certain that QuickBooks is receiving information for an inventory adjustment at this time.

*** I also get an error message that pops up on my screen about another process making changes (just after each PO receipt) if I have the order open at the same time.***

The second part of my question most likely relates to the fact that there are issues with me identifying what items are on a PO that has been received. Since the inventory numbers appear the same for items I have received (and assigned to an order) as it does for items which I have not created a PO and/or received said PO.

I suppose that this may change if the beginning is corrected, as all of my current inventory balances are 0.00 when I convert a repair order to an invoice, and I am not getting a 'warning' - ever.

I really am starting to feel lost!!!
But maybe there's just something setup incorrectly...

However, if in fact the inventory balances were showing correctly after a PO receipt, then I would think that it would make sense to warn the user that they are creating an invoice (adjusting inventory) causing a negative inventory balance so that it could be reviewed and possibly corrected before the invoice is created. Possibly something as simple as creating a PO receipt? I believe this would save time and frustrations in performing inventory adjustments and trying to get the correct costs aligned with the job.

[timbre4]

Keep in mind that there are TWO checkbox options for receiving PO parts. 1) Receive to ROs wherever possible (as you mention doing), 2) create an Inventory record if one doesn't exist. Do you use this or no? If these are one-time pass through parts you don't expect to stock, I believe you are not. When you receive a non-stock part and dispatch it out to the RO, it's a wash. (needed one, ordered one, received one, done) If you made an inventory record it would have QOH zero.

As for the Confirm checkbox, historically that would be checked when the RO was converted to INV. Users could also use the Confirmed checkbox to take it out of inventory EARLY so as not to be oversold. This morning I have run through a PO part ordering process on 6.5.34 and I observe something new; as you say a) green line, b) '+' appears for line and c) Confirmed checkbox is checked. I have made an inquiry to know precisely in which circumstances this occurs.

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I'm now thinking that when you speak of being warned about a ZERO quantity, you are referring to INVENTORY level *not* item quantity used on the order, am I correct? It is possible to sell something you don't have; typically you need the freedom to select the item(s) for the order and then set about ordering sufficient quantities to fulfill the need. There are some tools to know there is an issue to resolve but these are not visible in the moment of selection; the QOH box displays 0 or negative quantities in RED, you have to re-open Part Item Edit window to see it. Purchase Orders - Pick List from Orders would also turn up the need to order, but you have to run that process to see it. Our first steps were to apply color to the parts ordering process as that's what most users asked for, I suspect we will do something in this regard in the future.

QuickBooks will not be aware of anything regarding PO parts received, invoices or inventory changes until a Sync occurs.

[alloutrepair]

I am using both check boxes as the parts are being received in prior to the work being complete. If I do not put the item in inventory, it will not put the price of the item to cost, but instead it would put it to general expense, so in order to book costs correctly, the item has to be sent through inventory. This said... nothing occurs when the order is created, but when the po receipt is completed, I would expect to see on hand quantity at 1, and commited at 1, leaving an 'available' balance at 0, but it should not actually change the actual inventory balance until the order is converted to an invoice... what if I don't use that part??? it's still here and would need to be manually adjusted from inventory on hand when we return it to the vendor.

Also, even if I do not run through a sync until after I have completely billed out the order, it is still sending 2 inventory adjustments for each line to quickbooks along with the purchase and costs. I have had at least 3 occasions of these adjustments not balancing out correctly, causing quite a mess.

as for the 0.00 on hand warning, you are correct, I agree that I should be able to put any item on the order even if there is no inventory currently available. However, it would be great to know that no inventory has been received prior to converting the order to an invoice an putting the on hand quantities at a negative. Which again would create an incorrect cost of goods.

[timbre4]

For COGs you are creating a record for each part, got it.

I defer Integrator questions to QBI support, especially for anything happening prior to a Sync.

What I'm working through now is the fact that PO parts received are going straight to Confirmed status and this should balance QOH to zero.
Part ordered: Committed = 1
Part received: Create a record, receive to RO; Confirmed = 1, Committed falls to zero, QOH is zero (stock level and reorder are also zero unless and until user enters stocking values)

Because you specify 'Receive to RO wherever possible', (Confirmed status is immediate), this skips ever showing you Committed or QOH above zero. It went to the order not to inventory. If on the other hand no ROs could be found to associate to, THEN it would appear in Inventory at some quantity above zero.

[alloutrepair]

okay, so if I do not 'receive to ro' then it would show in inventory correctly, but not fill the vendor invoice number to the order line (in the update you spoke of in another post), and I believe my costs would be an 'average cost' instead of the 'actual cost'.

and if I do 'receive to ro' then the system will not book inventory balances based on the order status, but instead keep them at 0.00 all the time?

[timbre4]

Yes, if not rec'd to RO it would be visible as QOH 1 until either Convert To Invoice is applied or user manually checks the Confirmed box and clicks Save or Done. Then the QOH = 0

As far as cost method in the Manager SE system, it is a GLOBAL decision made under Standard Tables - Matrix tab:

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[alloutrepair]

Thank you for all of your help... I still believe that all items should remain in the inventory balances until an invoice is created regardless of assigning the parts to a specific order, but at least I understand what the system is trying to do.

I will try not assigning the line to the order and see if that helps make everything balance out on the accounting side of this life.

[timbre4]

After a little back and forth with support, it makes sense that PO ordered parts go to Confirmed as users can order parts multiple times (POs for each instance). Committed status drives part needs to the surface; if the received parts were still Committed and other parts were added to the RO that still need to be ordered, how to tell all of these apart? Going to Confirmed now keeps them off Committed Parts reports and the possibly of being ordered yet again.

I forgot to mention that the value typed into the Ref/Inv # field is put into the item's field at the time the part is ORDERED. (actually possible during Parts Ordering window Price Check function) So the not receiving part to the RO has no bearing on it's inclusion with the part at the item level.

[alloutrepair]

If given the chance to actually show where the specific concern is, I believe the team would understand where the trouble with this lies from an accounting standpoint.
When these transactions are being recorded, it is changing the company's income values and thus creating invalid accounting numbers from an IRS standpoint.

I understand that this is the current settings, but as a business owner I am still responsible to have accurate tax returns at the end of the year. These entries are occurring at the wrong time according to the IRS and have forced me to create a manual balance sheet in excel to be able to correct what is happening. With a Bachelor's in Accounting, I am able to fix this; but I believe your program would be a lot more marketable if it actually recorded the correct financial numbers to QuickBooks at the proper time. I will admit that because of my background and ability to find an correct these errors, this is still easier than hand keying every line (sales and costs) manually, which is why I decided to keep the QBI program.

THANKS!
Jennifer