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Infor LX Tips, Infor LN Tips, BPCS Tips, Baan Tips, Infor M3 Tips & Infor ERP News

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Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

Infor LX | Infor LN | BPCS | Baan | Infor M3

The Far-Reaching Impact of Disconnected Data

Kathy Barthelt 0 1409 Article rating: 5.0

Disconnected data doesn’t just slow you down—it creates bottlenecks across your entire business. When your ERP isn’t connected to the systems you rely on, every department feels it.

How Disconnected Data Hurts Your Organization

  • Operations: Spreadsheets and manual order entry waste valuable time.
  • Finance: Budgets, POs, and invoices stuck in silos cause delays and errors.
  • Technology: Teams burn hours exporting data to stay “up to date.”
  • Executives: No single source of truth makes it hard to see the big picture.

A recent study found that 61% of companies face project delays from slow data integration, while employees waste the equivalent of 19 workdays per year moving data between systems. That’s lost productivity you can’t afford.

Why ERP Integration Matters
Your ERP is the heart of your operations. Connecting it to the rest of your business tools unlocks:

  • Real-time data access → no more outdated spreadsheets.
  • Improved communication → one source of truth for every team.
  • Higher productivity → eliminate duplicate entry and manual reporting.
  • Smarter supply chains → better visibility, fewer delays.
  • Sales enablement → reps get live pricing, inventory, and customer data.


Simplify Integration with Infor ION...

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for OPERATIONS: Subcontracting Overview

Kathy Barthelt 0 2126 Article rating: 5.0

Companies can decide to involve a subcontractor and subcontract part of their activities. The subcontractor carries out the work and returns the products to your company.

In Infor LN, subcontracting is considered as purchasing labor from a third party. Therefore, if a manufacturer wants to subcontract work, he must generate a purchase order to start the subcontracting process. These are the types of subcontracting:

  • Subcontracting with material flow
    • Operation subcontracting: For operation subcontracting, a part of the production process (one or more operations) is subcontracted.
    • Item subcontracting: For item subcontracting, an item's entire production process is subcontracted. Therefore, it is always used with material flow support.
  • Subcontracting without material flow: The simplest form of subcontracting is to generate a subcontracting purchase order to record the operations outsourced to a subcontractor. The subcontracting purchase order only represents the administrative handling of the subcontracting process. When the subcontracted item is received back from the subcontractor, you must close the subcontracting purchase order, which initiates the production process.
  • Unplanned subcontracting: Unplanned subcontracting is applicable when you subcontract after generating a production order. For unplanned subcontracting, a purchase order is generated from the production order and the material supply lines are populated by Shop Floor Control.
  • Service subcontracting: For service subcontracting, work on an item to be maintained or repaired is subcontracted. This work entails the entire repair process, or only a part of it. Service subcontracting can be used with or without material flow support.

To start the subcontracting process, a purchase order is required.

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for FINANCE: Set Up and Calculate Currency Differences

Kathy Barthelt 0 999 Article rating: 5.0

To set up and calculate currency differences for foreign currencies:

  • Use the Company Parameters (tfgld0503m000) session to specify the profit and loss ledger accounts, 12 profit and loss dimensions, and transaction type for a posting exchange rate differences that is calculated using the FIFO method. To specify this data, use the Currency Diff. FIFO tab. The reports printed from the Print Company Parameters (tfgld0404m000) session, include the Currency Differences FIFO fields.
  • Use the Calculate Currency Differences (tfgld5201m000) session to calculate the currency differences resulting from transactions posted on accounts for which the field Currency Analysis in the session Chart of Accounts (tfgld0508m000) is set to Required.

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Using the Data Access Layer (DAL)

Kathy Barthelt 0 985 Article rating: 5.0

During an Exchange import, you can use all the functionality programmed into the Data Access Layer (DAL). If you use the DAL, Exchange carries out all the constraint checks, integrity checks, and side effects, for example, updates on other tables, that are programmed into the DAL. Database integrity is guaranteed automatically.

Using the DAL reduces the costs of interface development. You can use the DAL to import standard interfaces developed by Infor for partner products, as well as for specific interfaces built by customers, for example, to integrate LN with legacy systems. You can use the DAL in both single site and multisite environments.

The checks or additional actions specified in the DAL are carried out for each row that is imported. Database errors are logged in the same way for DAL and non-DAL import. DAL hook errors are also logged. You can specify whether the DAL property checks are or are not carried out.

If you specify the use of the DAL for a table relation for an import, the dal.new, dal.update, and dal.destroy functions are used instead of db.insert, db.update, and db.delete. You can choose to use DAL for particular tables and not for other tables, therefore, an import batch can contain both types of table relations simultaneously. The import through DAL works for both the import based on audit or indicators (inserts, updates, deletes), and the full import (inserts only).

DAL settings are run time aspects, which means you can change these aspects without having to regenerate the import program. DAL settings are also logged in the log table at batch line level, to enable you to find out what the DAL settings were when the import was run.

Important to realize is that an update through the DAL can result in a number of side effects. Actions performed by the DAL must not be carried out twice. For example, if the DAL updates the available to promise (ATP) quantity for an item when importing order data, the ATP quantity must not be updated in a condition script as well.

For this reason, you must not add any actions in condition scripts, or import additional data, that are already handled in the DAL.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Add Last Maintained Audit Fields to SYS600

George Moroses 0 2156 Article rating: 5.0

LX has enhanced the SYS600 User Security Maintenance application by adding the ZXUP audit fields:

  • Last Maintained Date

  • Last Maintained Time

  • Last Maintained User

These fields are updated whenever a user or role is revised, deleted, or reactivated.

This enhancement provides standard audit tracking to identify who modified a User Security record and when. The audit fields can be used for ad hoc tracking, reporting, and analysis.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for OPERATIONS: Add Item Description to Inbound Delivery Lines

George Moroses 0 1871 Article rating: 5.0

The Inbound Delivery Line Detail panels have been enhanced to provide clearer item information and improved usability.

Key updates include:

  • Item Description added to the Inbound Delivery Lines Selection screen.

  • Increased number of lines displayed on the selection panel.

  • Multi-language support:

    • Item Description is shown in the user’s language (if available).

    • Defaults to the base language if a translation is not available.

  • On the PO Detail panel, the Item Description also supports multi-language display.

These enhancements give users more detailed item information on inbound deliveries, with Item Descriptions presented in their preferred language and more delivery lines visible at once.

Infor LX/BPCS Tips & Tricks for FINANCE: IDF Ledger Book Journal Line Analysis

George Moroses 0 276 Article rating: 5.0

This enhancement introduces the IDF Ledger Book Journal Line Analysis business object, which displays reference information on summarized journal lines. To implement this enhancement, request and apply MR 81558.

Key features include:

  • Ledger Book Journal Line Analysis

    • Provides analysis attribute details.

    • Has a 1-to-many relationship with Ledger Book Journal Line Source.

    • Default view: General.

  • Ledger Book Journal Line Source

    • Has a many-to-1 relationship with Ledger Book Journal Line Analysis.

    • Displays the Ledger Book Journal Line Analysis detail card.

This enhancement enables users to access detailed reference information on summarized journal lines, improving analysis and reporting capabilities.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Archiving Concept

Companies are developing procedures for entering data into an ERP system and for archiving manuals, drawings, specs, and other hard-copy documents. However, in many cases there is no defined procedures to store historical electronic data. Archiving electronic data should be an integral part of your business processes. 

Generally, archiving is the process of moving historical data from the operational environment to a special archive environment. At home, you might move old bank statements from a closet in your study to a box in the attic. At the office, you might store old hard copies of purchase orders in a room far from your own desk. Just because you no longer need the information in your daily work, does not mean you can dispose of the information. In terms of electronic data in your ERP system, archiving means moving historic data from the operational company to a special archive company; in that way, the historic data will be out of your way and safely stored. To free up disk space on your machine after you have archived the data, you can also move the historic data to an external medium.

Archiving strategy:
Archiving historical data is an irreversible process. After data is moved to the archive company, the data can no longer be uploaded back into the operational company. Archiving has a direct effect on the accessibility and availability of information; therefore, you must define a robust archiving strategy which addresses three major topics: What, When, and Who.

Business requirements:
Your business requirements determine what must be stored and for how long. For example, if you have a warranty situation on your projects for five years, you might be required to keep your project open during this time, or you may keep the project in an archive company. Therefore, if the project must remain open, no project-related information, including orders and integration transactions, can be archived.

Every business manager must decide how long what data must be stored in an operational environment for quick access. Reporting requirements must also be listed.

Legal requirements:
In most countries, legal requirements apply to financial data. Tax authorities may require financial data to be stored for a minimum number of years. Additionally, in specific lines of business such as food and beverages or aerospace, governments maintain specific legal requirements, which impact your archiving strategy.

User requirements:
Users rely on historical information. For example, a customer service employee may need to have shipment information of up to one year in the past to accurately address customer queries. These requirements must also be taken into account when you define what can be archived.

Data to be archived or deleted:
Various parties related to your company use information based on logistical and financial transactions occurring in the past. Before you archive or delete this information, you must investigate the need for the information.

Your ERP system contains standard archiving sessions in all major modules. These sessions are designed to copy historical data to the archive company, and then delete the data from the operational company. 

You have three options in archiving sessions:

  1. Archiving and deleting: Data is transferred to the archive company and then deleted in the operational company.

  2. Deleting: Data is deleted in the operational company, but not archived.

  3. Archiving: Data is transferred to the archive company, but not deleted in the operational company.

Using option 1 or 2 makes archiving irreversible. If you archive only because you want to preview the results, the archiving can be done a number of times.

Usually, in archiving sessions, you can also specify:

  • The date up to which the data must be archived
  • If texts must also be archived
  • If texts that already exist in the archive company must be replaced

In addition to archiving logistical and financial data, you can archive general data. 

Delete sessions:
In all major modules, your ERP system contains delete sessions. These sessions only have delete functionality, no archive functionality. Consequently, they are used to clean up data in the operational company, not to transfer data to the archive company. For more information about these delete sessions, see the "Delete sessions" sections under the various modules. For example, see Delete sessions under Procurement.

After data is deleted using delete sessions, the data is no longer available in the operational company. However, parameter settings may determine whether history data is logged when you remove specific data. If required, you can archive the history using the appropriate archiving session.

When can data be archived?
Based on the answers to the previous question, you can now set a term of retaining relevant historical data in your operational environment, and a term of keeping data available in the archive environment.

Who can archive data?
Because archiving is an irreversible process, a certain risk is involved. For example, what if one of your employees starts up an archiving session by mistake? For this reason, you must determine who is authorized to archive and delete data, and then set up these authorizations with the functionality your ERP system offers.

Because no further changes must be made to archived data, access to the archive company must also be restricted to read-only authorization for most users.

Match strategy with ERP functionality: 
After you list all your requirements, the next step is to verify whether the standard ERP functionality is sufficient to facilitate your needs. Usually, your ERP system provides the functionality to meet all of your needs, but must not force you to compromise. We recommend that you avoid customizing your software, however, because we are looking for long-term operational-data storage, customizations must not be ruled out entirely. An example is the requirement to show, in one report, the data from the operational company and archive company. In the current version, this is not standard functionality, but this can be important to manage your business. What can be even more important, if you are using customized software, is the question of whether the archiving sessions have been included. Do you take into account the fields and tables you have customized? Customized tables and fields may have to be included when performing delete/archive runs.

Archiving plan:
After you define an archiving strategy that suits your requirements, you can define the archiving plan. In this plan, you translate the strategy to a more operational level.

Contact Crossroads RMC— Let's take the next step together to execute your archiving plan.

800.762.2077

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Kathy Barthelt

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