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

Crossroads Connections

Infor ERP Tips & News from the Experts

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

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Transaction Accounts – Commissions

Kathy Barthelt 0 96368 Article rating: No rating

In Baan IV, if a link with Financials exists for commissions and rebates, invoices are created directly in the Commission Control System (CMS) module and posted to Financials. As a result, users must specify the ledger accounts that are used for posting commissions and rebates in the Maintain Commission/Rebate Transaction Accounts (tdcms2101m000) session.

In LN, the Maintain Commission/Rebate Transaction Accounts (tdcms2101m000) session is removed from the Commission Control System (CMS) module, because invoices are no longer created directly in the Commission Control System module.

Grindmaster-Cecilware Selects NextTrack Sales For Sales Analysis

Kathy Barthelt 0 39913 Article rating: No rating

Grindmaster-Cecilware (GMCW), a leading provider of products for the food and beverage industry, has selected NextTrack Sales to satisfy their sales analysis requirements. Integrated with their Baan ERP system, NextTrack Sales provides sophisticated pivot grid and charting functionality, and the ability to generate any number of views of the data, all without customizing their ERP system. Grindmaster’s VP of Sales said it was "the perfect fit for him, and covered all of his reporting needs".

Peerless Instrument Selects Crossroads RMC for Baan Data Collection

Kathy Barthelt 0 35066 Article rating: No rating

Peerless Instrument, a division of Curtiss Wright, has selected Crossroads RMC for Baan data collection. Peerless is interested in furthering the data collection partnership that Curtiss Wright began with Crossroads RMC 20 years ago. The data collection implementation will include Receiving, Material Issue, Inspection and Report Operations Complete, and is expected to be completed in July of 2016. 

Peerless Instrument provides state-of-the-art electronic components, systems, and software to the US military. Peerless' advanced instrumentation and control systems are not only used in Navy propulsion systems but provide sophisticated monitoring systems for the gas, oil, or petrochemical industries.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Inventory Control

Anthony Etzel 0 59495 Article rating: No rating
  • In Infor LX you need to determine how inventory will be moved in and out of warehouse storage locations, and which of the following transactions to use for inventory control:
  • A transfer transaction can be used to move inventory from one warehouse location to another warehouse location.
  • A production receipt transaction is used to add inventory to a warehouse location.
  • A material issue or backflush is used to reduce inventory from a warehouse location.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Project Templates

Kathy Barthelt 0 91902 Article rating: No rating

Project templates are useful because you can specify all of the information that you would normally want to include when creating a new project such as project structure, budget and so on.

In Baan IV/V, project templates do not exist, but you can set up a project template by creating a regular project, and setting the status to simulated or free. This is done so that the project does not create plans. Under this scenario, you can easily copy one project to another.

In LN, when you create a new project, a template can be used as the starting point. This is similar to copying a normal project, but unlike normal projects, no costs or revenues can be posted on a template.

BPCS/LX Tip of the Week: Operational Inefficiencies

Anthony Etzel 0 58010 Article rating: No rating

Two big sources of inefficiencies in manufacturing are paper and spreadsheets. I know that you love ‘em, but they are the cause of more problems than you probably realize. Think of how long it takes you to get paper based data into the hands of those who can do something valuable with the data. Are you capturing all of the information correctly? Timely? What about those spreadsheets? Can everyone access that information across your organization? Is that data married with all of the related data regarding your operations to give your executive and middle management the information they need when they need it?

Make your shop floor paperless and put in place systems that talk to one another and automatically pull and push data to and from your ERP so that you can look in one place for all the information you need to run your business effectively.

If you’re not doing this today, you might as well be burning money.

Baan/LN Tip of the Week: Are you Doing These Things For Month End?

Kathy Barthelt 0 104965 Article rating: No rating

Accounts Receivable:

  • Check A/R Aging Balance with Trial Balance.
  • Check for Detailed Customer Transactions.

Accounts Payable:

  • Check A/P Aging Balance with Trial Balance.
  • Check Open Purchase Orders for Potential Accruals and A/P Reconciliation.
  • Check for Registered Purchase Invoices (Not Matched or Approved).
  • Print Listing of all Purchase Invoices Entered for Period.

Tip of the Week: Tips to Attain Greater Inventory Accuracy

Anthony Etzel 0 55855 Article rating: No rating
  1. Record data regarding your inventory as soon as the items arrive at your door/receiving dock. With information, you can make decisions. Without it, you waste money, time and effort.
  2. Leverage data collection, label generation and RFID solutions to make your life easier.
  3. Set inventory accuracy goals for the business and for employees.
  4. Train your employees so they know what is expected of them, and how to best perform their job and therefore how best to maintain accurate inventory counts.
  5. Count the inventory – and do it regularly. Find a method that works best for your employees, and for your business.
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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

An ERP System Review is NOT a Report Card

It's a no-judgment-review - we promise!

report card C minusWe all remember our school days and the nervousness that we felt when it came time to get our grades. Even if we were doing well, we were still nervous. Sometimes we experienced that same nervousness when it came time for a performance review on our job. Nervousness…sometimes dread…knowing that our performance was not what we wanted it to be, or others expected it to be. 

Somehow I think the feelings that we felt in our past often find ways to creep into our present. I have seen this recently when I suggested an ERP system review to one of our customers. They immediately became flustered and thought about every possible problem that they knew existed within the software and how they were currently using it. I asked them to consider the purpose of the ERP system review.

An ERP Utilization Review will:

  • Document how your company is using your ERP system (or a particular aspect of the system) and to what extent the system meets the needs of the business.
  • Identify challenges encountered using the software.
  • Create opportunities for improving business processes and generating additional value.
  • Identify potential risks and areas that need improvement.


key hole to the futureSo, if the result of ERP system review is to establish a path forward for growth based on current status, then why doesn’t every company take advantage of it? I think for some, the answer lies in the feelings of nervousness and dread still stuck in the recesses of our brains.

An ERP system review or more specifically a utilization review is NOT a personal report card, or performance review showing how well a particular individual does his/hers/their job, nor is it an attack on the team that implemented the software. 

As they say, hindsight is 20/20. What we view now to be a less than ideal implementation methodology may have been absolutely appropriate at the time the software was originally deployed. The software has likely matured and the skillsets of the individuals responsible for the system have likely matured as well. In some cases, those resources are no longer with the company, leaving those that remain with no back story as to how and why implementation decisions were made.

Instead of viewing the ERP utilization review as a reason to find fault in previous decisions, think of it as discovering untapped potential – both of the ERP system and the people who use it. Viewing an ERP utilization review in this way puts a positive spin on it and allows us to challenge ourselves to identify opportunities for growth far greater than anything we imagined before. This means not only moving our businesses forward faster but also advancing the strength of the company as individuals and as a team.

What untapped potential lies within your company?

Consider a utilization review of your entire ERP system, or just a part of it like Finance, Technology, Materials Management, Order Processing, or Shop Floor Control. You just might be surprised at what greatness can be achieved… far greater than anyone could have imagined.  

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Kathy Barthelt

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