Warehouse Management System Startup Overview

The following are the basic tasks that should be completed when you are starting up the Warehouse Management system.  The items in the first section should all be completed before you attempt to perform any warehouse specific startup tasks.

Items that should be completed Prior to Warehouse Management Startup

•      Verify that all System Tables (Product Lines, Groups, Gencode Tables) used by the Warehouse Management system have been loaded with the appropriate information.  The Catalog and Inventory records contain multiple fields which must point to valid data in these files and tables.

•      Verify that the Vendor and Manufacturer Files are loaded.  Catalog and Inventory records must be loaded with valid Manufacturer and Vendor information.

•      Verify that the Field Labels for the fields displayed in the Warehouse Management programs have been adjusted as required.  If you are using custom field labels for any fields in the Inventory or Catalog records, these labels should be setup using the Field Display Name Setup program.

•      Verify that the Field Security settings for the fields displayed and or maintained in the Warehouse Management programs are correct.  The field security settings can be used control access to each field in the Catalog and Inventory record, and they can be setup or maintained using the Field Security Setup program.

•      Set up the New Record Default information that will be used by the system for new inventory items.  The Field Defaults Setup program can be used to view or edit the default information that is loaded into new inventory items when they are created.

•      Set the Counters (System parameters that are used to assign unique transaction numbers) that are used by the Warehouse Management System.  The Warehouse Management Counters are identified with the WM or WMS in the Module field of the parameter records.

•      Accept or Change the information in the other System Parameters or Policy records that are used by the Warehouse Management System.  The Policies used by the Warehouse Management system are identified with “WM” or “WMS” in the Module field of the parameter records.

•      Set up the Textdata records that are used by the Warehouse Management System.  The WM system makes use of  type ACR and SCR (System Control records) in the Textdata file.

•      Verify that Catalog records have been created for all inventory items and that the Catalog records are valid (that all required fields in the records are loaded with valid data and that any table driven fields (Prodline, Group, Vendor) point to data that is present in the Parent files or the tables used to control the field.

•      Verify that the Department records have been set up and that any Warehouse Locations to be used have been entered into a Department record.

Warehouse Management Specific Startup Tasks

•      Create Inventory or Warehouse records for each warehouse location.  Once the Product Catalog file has been loaded, you can use the Inventory Maintenance “Create Inventory records for all active Catalog Items” option to create the Inventory records for each warehouse that you will be processing in.  The Create Inventory records option does not load the average cost or the on hand quantity for the item into the new inventory records, it just creates an inventory record for each item in the selected location – if it does not already exist.

•      Load the On hand quantity and cost for each Warehouse and Item Number into the new inventory records (Load the Inventory Beginning Balances)  The Inventory Multi-Field Loader program can be used to update the inventory records in a new startup system with the on hand quantity and the current average cost for each item.  The Inventory Multi-Field loader allows you to process a CSV file containing the warehouse location, item number, quantity on hand and cost for each item.  It finds each item and updates the on hand quantity and cost fields.  Note.  You should only load an on hand quantity for stocking items (non stock items have a quantity of 0 and are not tracked by the system).

•      Verify the Inventory Beginning Balances.  Run the Inventory Valuation report and verify that the report matches the ending inventory from the old system being converted.  Retain the reports in case they are needed for audit purposes or research.

•      Create Bin records for the on hand inventory items.  The Create Bins option in the Inventory Maintenance program can be used to create Bin records or Warehouse Detail records for the items with on hand quantities.  The routine will prompt for a default bin and a location.  If the Default Bin for the inventory item is loaded, the system will create the bin using the inventory default bin.  If the Default Bin for the inventory is not loaded, the system will create the Bin using the value entered into the prompt.  Once a default bin value and a location have been specified, the Create Bins routine creates a bin record for all stocking items in the selected warehouse which do not already have a bin record (existing bin records are not overwritten).  As each bin is created, the system also creates a BB (beginning balance) Warehouse Transaction record to document the beginning balance in each bin.

•      Optional:  Convert any Open Pending records and verify the Beginning Balance after conversion.  The Pending Subledger is a part of the Warehouse Management system as it tracks the open value of the items that are owned by your company but that are not physically present in a specific warehouse location.  The open pending value is included in the Inventory Balance in your General Ledger.  If you have open Pending records during system startup, you should contact Cove Systems for assistance in creating the appropriate records in the Pending file.

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Warehouse Management System Startup Tasks