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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

Have You Heard About the Latest & Greatest Way to BOOST Productivity?

LIFE HACKS

Kathy Barthelt 0 22892 Article rating: 5.0

In a world of life hacks and constantly changing routines, we could all use help boosting productivity.

With Crossroads RMC support services, boosting your productivity just got 10x easier! Boost the productivity of your entire team by adding just ONE team member that you only pay when you need them. And the best part is that they are waiting for your call right now and every hour of every day, even on weekends and holidays.

Check out Crossroads RMC's Support Services Designed YOUR Way: ...

An ERP System Review is NOT a Report Card

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

Kathy Barthelt 0 28309 Article rating: 5.0

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 in our job. Nervousness…sometimes dread…knowing that our performance maybe 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.

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. 

An ERP Utilization Review will:

Infor LN & Baan Finance Tip: Unallocated Payment

Kathy Barthelt 0 69782 Article rating: 5.0

How do I assign an unallocated payment to a purchase invoice when the document dates are not the same?

When trying to assign an unallocated payment, it is possible that the purchase invoice is not displayed in session Assign Unallocated / Advance Payments to Invoices (tfcmg2106s000), even though it is showing in the open entries. This can happen when the document date of the unallocated payment lies before the document date of the purchase invoice you want to assign it to. There are 2 ways to handle this...

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: What items should be M-P-S planned vs. M-R-P planned?

George Moroses 0 33810 Article rating: 5.0

Master Scheduled Items are those items that are finished goods, or service items, that receive their requirements either specifically from Independent demand, or both Dependent and Independent demand.

  • Independent Demand is demand that cannot be calculated from higher-level demand in the product structure, and therefore must be either a forecast or an actual customer order (Finished Goods or Service parts sold to customers).
  • Dependent demand.....

Infor LN & Baan Tip: Separate item codes for incoming & outgoing subassemblies

Kathy Barthelt 0 61807 Article rating: 5.0

You may be wondering if it's necessary to have separate item codes for incoming and outgoing subassemblies.

No, it is not necessary to have separate item codes for incoming and outgoing subassemblies, but it is recommended. In theory, you could have only one item code with the description subassembly and use the same item code for the outgoing subassembly and for the incoming subassembly. However, when monitoring inventory movements and financial integration transactions, it will be difficult to understand the process. Also, the costing logic is much clearer when different item codes for the incoming and outgoing subassemblies are used. Because of this, it is advised to use a different item code for the outgoing subassembly and a different item code for the incoming subassembly.

Infor LX & BPCS Tip: Changing an item to non-inventory

George Moroses 0 24098 Article rating: 5.0

When an attempt is made to change an item’s type to a non-inventory item from any other value, a new validation is performed to determine if the item has any inventory on hand and, if so, prevents changing the item’s type.

This enhancement available in LX 8.4 prevents LX from showing an on-hand inventory balance for a non-inventory item.

The programs or areas impacted include:

  • Facility/Planning Data Maintenance, MRP140D2
  • IDF Enterprise Item

To get this enhancement, request and apply MR 80120.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Improves control over PO costing changes during invoice entry by replacing passive warnings with an intentional override action.

  • In ACP500D3 (Invoice Entry PO Costing), users previously could unintentionally accept changes by pressing ENTER, even when quantity to cost or amount to cost values had changed.

  • A new “F14 to Override” warning message replaces the old message:
    “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”
    This ensures users acknowledge and confirm significant changes explicitly.

New System Parameter:

  • “Apply GRN Costing Tolerance for PO Costing” (optional):

    • Within tolerance: Displays the original message —
      “Details have changed. Press enter again to accept data.”

    • Outside tolerance: Triggers the new override requirement —
      “F14 to Override”

Benefits:

  • Enhances oversight and reduces unintentional cost acceptance.

  • Enables better control of PO costs when invoice details differ from expectations.

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Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Data Sharing Methods (Advantages and Disadvantages)

Depending on the multicompany scenario you choose, an implementation team must decide whether or not tables must be logically linked or if data must be synchronized in another way to achieve availability of data across various companies. 

There are 3 ways in which data may be shared among companies. Here are some advantages and disadvantages of each:

  1. Logical Table Linking - If two companies use the same physical data, the physical table exists, or is used, in only one company: the physical company. Each piece occurs only once: one instance of the same data. If the term logical table linking is used, users from multiple companies use a single physical instance of the data. If the company tables are on the same server, this can be accomplished by logical table linking. Access to specific data can be restricted, if required.

    • Advantages: Logical Table Linking takes place in real time; therefore, the moment a record is created or modified in one company, a record becomes available in all other linked companies as well. The setup and maintenance of logical table linking is easier than the setup and maintenance of data replication. Logical table linking is extremely reliable because this type of linking is independent of network connections and user interventions. 

    • Disadvantages: Table sharing implies that all attributes for a record are the same in all companies. Therefore, suppose you share the item table and, for a particular item in a company, the product class is XXX. In this case, in all other companies, the product class for this item must be XXX as well.

  2. Data Replication - In this situation, each company has exactly the same data, but each company has a unique copy of the data. The same piece of data exists in multiple (physical) places: multiple instances of the same data. The process to copy the data is called data replication.

    • Advantages: Rather than using table sharing by means of the logical linking of tables, you can replicate the content of tables between companies. The advantage is that, on company level, some (non-key) attributes of a record can differ by company. For example, if the bills of materials are replicated instead of shared, for each company, you can link a different warehouse to the bill of material. As a result, the bills of materials can be the same across all companies and only the warehouses differ. Using replication, you can also make only a subset of the records available in other companies. For example, if you replicate items between companies, in a sales company, for example, by means of the item group, you can only make end items available. In addition, you can replicate only a subset of items, for example, depending on the item group. Note that replication also requires that the referenced tables are replicated or shared.

    • Disadvantages: Replication is not in real time, and therefore, for processes that require real-time integrated data as the financial integration processes, replication is not an option. For replication, you also must take into account the sequence in which you replicate. First, you must replicate the child tables and then the parent tables, and therefore first the business partners and then the purchase contracts. During the replication process, the data must be frozen. This point is of particular importance if the replication process takes a lot of time.

  3. Manual Syncronization - If only a small number of records are the same between some companies, you can enter, maintain, and keep the records synchronized manually. Note that the more dynamic data is, the more difficult this process is. This solution is strictly procedural. Therefore, depending on the discipline of the users, the solution is error sensitive: data can be forgotten, updated too late, or typing errors may occur.

  • Advantages - The main advantage is the flexibility so that only the data that really must be shared can be kept synchronized. By manually keeping data synchronized, not all attributes of a record need to have the same value.

  • Disadvantages - The main disadvantage is that this method depends on user interaction. Therefore, the method depends on the user’s time - because the method is not a real time procedure and the user may forget to update the data - and users can make mistakes.

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Kathy Barthelt

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