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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

Infor LX & BPCS Tip of the Week: Purge optional during Month/Period End - LX 8.4

George Moroses 0 56836 Article rating: 5.0

For various month/period end programs, the purge function is now optional.

Scope:

INV903, Inventory Month End Close, optionally purges both inventory records as well as customer invoices. Some applications already have a flag or option for purging (for example, ACP900) and other applications are stand-alone. If you do not want to purge, do not run these programs: Order Purge and Close, ORD900, Close Quotes, ORD930, and Delete RMAs, ORD935. Now there are options on whether to purge records during the month end or period end programs.

The Benefits include:

• Flag or option added to allow the user to decide whether to perform month-end function with or without purge.

• Allows for month-end processing without purge.

• Improves efficiency of month-end processing.

Impact:

This enhancement includes these programs or areas:

• INV903, Inventory Month End Close

• ACR900, A/R Period Close

• CST900, PRF900, SFC900 Shop Order Close

• PUR900, Purchasing Month End Close

Johnson Crushers Selects Crossroads RMC for LN 10.6 Data Collection

Kathy Barthelt 0 37879 Article rating: 5.0

Johnson Crushers International (JCI), a global leader in engineering and manufacturing full lines of cone crushers, horizontal and incline vibrating screens and track-mounted, portable and stationary crushing and screening plants, has selected Crossroads RMC’s Data Collection solution for their Infor LN 10.6 implementation. 

JCI’s main objectives with this project are to support their continued growth and enable a continuous improvement effort to drive additional value to the business. In phase 1 of this project, JCI will implement Crossroad RMC’s Labor Reporting and Maintain Receipts data collection applications. Go live is expected to occur in early Q1 of 2020.

Factors to considered when undertaking an ERP implementation or upgrade

Kathy Barthelt 0 38171 Article rating: 5.0

Things to consider when choosing your ERP Implementation Partner:

ERP Partner Value Add:

  • Proven track record
  • References
  • Focused on-time / on budget
  • Strategic partnership with Infor
  • Knowledge of extension products that are available for your ERP
  • Post-implementation – What does the partner bring to the table once the project is complete?

Project Management

  • Does your assigned project manager fit your needs?
  • Past project management experience with the same ERP
  • Project Management methodology
  • Project Plan development and style
  • Does the PM develop a realistic plan with clear objectives, timeline, and responsibilities?

 
Consulting Team Selection​

Need help figuring out if your organization is properly positioned for an implementation or upgrade? Contact Kathy Barthelt today. We can help to ensure that your organization is positioned for success.

  • Does my ERP Implementation partner have the team to support my project?
  • Resume review
  • Interview all candidates
  • Working knowledge of ERP system/version
  • Communication skills
  • Geographic location
    • Relative industry experience
    • Technical Viewpoint
    • Understanding of any enhancements made to your system and what the best approach to streamlining for future releases. Knowing the tools available to accomplish this task.

LN & Baan Tip of the Week: Inventory In Transit Report – 10.7

Kathy Barthelt 0 80929 Article rating: 5.0

A new In Transit Inventory report can be printed in the Print In Transit Inventory (whinr1410m300) session. The report provides an overview of company inventory that is on the move and not stored in a warehouse. This concerns only inventory that is transferred from one warehouse to another. Items that are shipped to, for example, customers or projects, or items that are issued to production lines or service departments are excluded.

The report shows item inventory quantities and values on warehouse transfer orders which are issued at the origin warehouse, but are not yet received in the destination warehouse. These open inter-warehouse transfer orders represent inventory that is loaded on trucks or other means of transport, or located at intermediate pooling points such as harbors and train stations.

The quantities and values are retrieved from the Item-Warehouse-Inventory Transactions and the Inventory Integration Transactions sessions.


Do you know where you're required to collect sales tax?

Crossroads RMC 0 34186 Article rating: 5.0

More than 40 states have changed their rules on sales tax obligations for remote sellers in the past year, meaning more companies are required to collect sales tax in states they’ve never even considered before. 

Attend the Avalara sessions at Inforum to learn more:

333450 - Vision: From 1 to 50—Scaling your business to handle new sales tax requirements, sponsored by Avalara
New laws that obligate remote sellers to collect sales tax are spreading throughout the US. In many states, you’re now required to register, file, and remit if you make 200 transactions or $100,000 in sales into the state. In this session, a sales tax compliance expert will break down what these new laws mean for your business and how you can scale your business effectively without turning your accounting and finance operations upside down. Join us to learn how to prepare.
Wednesday, Sep 25, 2:00 PM - 02:45 PM – Room 288

333727 - Speed: Sales tax compliance in the post South Dakota v. Wayfair era, sponsored by Avalara
Join Avalara to learn about sales tax compliance in 2019. We’ll review new mid-year sales tax changes for 2019; economic nexus laws and how to mitigate risk and maintain compliance; help you determine where to file and register based on where you conduct business; and discuss how Avalara and Infor deliver end-to-end cloud-based sales tax automation, including rate determination, return filing, remittance, and exemption certificate management.
Wednesday, Sep 25, 1:30 PM - 01:50 PM – Hub Theater 6 (Product Spotlight)

Anxious to learn more about IDF? Attend Inforum Sessions highlighting the latest and greatest updates

Anthony Etzel 0 24697 Article rating: 5.0
  • ERP242 - Product: What’s new with LX 8.4
    Learn about our latest release of LX and the value it can provide to your business. This release includes additional support for IDF, new application features, and an expanded database. Additionally, this release continues to improve through ongoing enhancements from our enhancement request system.
    Thursday, Sep 26, 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM – Room 272

  • ERP243 - Product: LX—IDF Master Data Management
    Learn about the new flexibility and features available with item, cost, vendor, and customer definition through IDF during this session. Maintaining this critical information is now easier to manage and control with LX 8.4
    Wednesday, Sep 25, 12:00 PM - 12:45 PM – Room 272

  • Academy: Learn to Use IDF to Better Manage Customer, Vendor, and Item Data with LX
    Attend this session for hands-on experience using IDF to manage your critical master data in Infor LX 8.4. (Length: 1hr & 45mins) 
    Wednesday, Sep 25, 1:00 PM - 02:45 PM – Room 277

  • ERP106C - Case Study: Trinity—Upgrading a 20-Year-Old Customized ERP system
    Join this session to learn why and how Trinity is upgrading its customized 20-year-old BPCS ERP system to the latest version of LX and going vanilla. Trinity is using the best business practices built into LX along with Infor OS and IDF to support the latest user experience and integrations.
    Wednesday, Sep 25, 2:00 PM - 02:45 PM – Room 272

OTTO: Making plans happen isn’t just about monitoring material shortages

George Moroses 0 27752 Article rating: 5.0

Making plans happen isn’t just about monitoring material shortages. Supporting activities can be the real cause of delays. Some non-material events customers have monitored using OTTO include:

  • Scheduling and coordination of outside services (such as heat treating and plating)
  • Quality Assurance for pharmaceuticals and inspection
  • Moving off-site inventory to the plant
  • Moving inventory from temporary (conveyor) location to pickable location
  • Scheduling of overseas containers
  • Design engineering for make-to-order

OTTO provides the ability to proactively manage the entire customer order backlog from top to bottom. It begins monitoring orders as soon as they’re booked and identifies and prioritizes those critical events that must happen every day so they can be managed and get orders produced and shipped on time.

Visit Our OTTO page to learn more.

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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.

Last

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt

Infor LN & Baan Manufacturing Tip: Performance Problems in Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000)

When the Generate Order Planning (cprrp1210m000) session is run it can take minutes to days to finish the process.

The performance of this session depends on many settings, like the number of plan items, the number of orders, but it also depends on hardware and database setup.

Here are some guidelines on how performance can be improved.

  • Be sure you are always on the latest solutions with the planning sessions. We are constantly improving the software to gain more speed in the Enterprise Planning (EP) sessions.
  • The number of planned items is critical. Try to reduce the number of planned items. Is it necessary that all items be planned via EP? For shop floor stock the TPOP or SIC replenish systems are often more suitable.
  • When you use PCS, be sure to close the projects when they are finished. When a PCS project has status Closed, the customized items will not be planned.

It's better to run Remove Plan Items for closed Projects (cprpd1220m000). This session removes the item planning data for customized items of closed projects.

  • If you run EP with the option, Also Generate Item Master Plan and/or Online Update Item Master Plan, consider if you need an Item Master Plan for all plan items. An Item Master Plan is usually meant for global long-term planning. Again this is not very useful for shop floor stock. Reducing the number of master-planned items improves performance.
  • When you use Resource Master Plans; are all your resources really critical? If a work center is not critical do not create a Resource Master Plan for it.
  • When using Item Master Plans and/or Resource Master Plans, set in Scenarios (cprpd4100m000) the total scenario length as short as possible. For example, if your sales order horizon is 2 years, a scenario end date which is 3 years after the current date is sufficient. During the calculations of the Item Master Plan and the Resource Master, all periods defined in the scenario are checked and calculated. So if you have the end date of the scenario on 2038, EP will do the calculations (for every master-planned item) until 2038.

Defining a rolling scenario will keep your scenario length constant and you don’t have to worry that you run beyond your scenario's end date.

  • Updating the pegging relations has a serious impact on the EP performance. In EP Parameters (cprpd0100m000) you can set the Pegging Horizon in days. Keep this horizon as short as possible. The Update Signals by Item/Planner option also has some impact, but less than the pegging.
  • EP uses the so-called phase numbers to detect the lowest level in which an item is used within a BOM structure or in a supplying relation. If the phase numbers are not ‘up-to-date’, EP will correct the phase numbers during the planning. This takes time during the planning run. If there are loops in BOMs or in supplying relations, this recalculation has a big impact on the performance. Therefore you could run Compute Phase Numbers (cprpd6200m000) on a regular basis. For example once a month. Always run this session with the Generate Report option selected. If loops are detected these are reported. Be sure to solve all the reported errors.
  • When unexpected results occur, especially when the data is imported from external packages, always check the number of records in tables cprpd100 and cprpd120. The number of records should match! Remark: From 10.4 onwards the table cprpd120 has become obsolete so this point not applicable anymore.
  • The number of calendars also impacts planning performance. Then for every warehouse, work center, or BP, and so on, a different calendar is defined. Planning has to read all of these calendars from start to end. This can have a huge impact on performance.
    • If you link a calendar to a work center or warehouse, avoid defining a new calendar for every work center/warehouse. Try to link the same calendar to more than one department.
    • Define the start of the calendar close to the start date of the scenario. For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the start date of the scenario is 365 days in the past. So a start date for your calendar could be 01-07-2012.
    • Define the end date of the calendar not too far in the future. Depending on the end date of the scenario you could use 5 years ahead.  For example, the current date is 01-07-2014, the end date of the scenario is 3 years in the future. So an end date for your calendar could be 01-07-2022. Do not define an end date past 19-01-2038, which is the last UTC date Infor LN can handle.

Also, the interaction with the database can have a big impact on performance. 
A commonly used way to improve the total run time of the EP run is to start the session in parallel processing. 
See also Knowledge Base Article 22881401 Performance, Tracing and tuning Guide, for more details.

These guidelines are just some hints, and a good starting point because performance is a complex issue.

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