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The Far-Reaching Impact of Disconnected Data

Kathy Barthelt 0 5003 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  • Real-time data access → no more outdated spreadsheets.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...

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

Kathy Barthelt 0 10906 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.

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

Kathy Barthelt 0 5121 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.
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Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Using the Data Access Layer (DAL)

Kathy Barthelt 0 5504 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.

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

George Moroses 0 10708 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.

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Tips:  LX | BPCS | M3

Tips: LN | Baan

Kathy Barthelt
/ Categories: Infor LN & Baan Tips, Executive

Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for EXECUTIVES

TECHNOLOGY & FINANCE: Archiving Finalized Transactions

To support correct archiving in a multicompany structure, the following rules apply:

  • Each company must have its own archive company. Companies cannot share an archive company.
  • The structure of archive companies must be an exact copy of the live environment.
  • A company must keep the same archive company until the end of its lifetime. Once data has been archived, you cannot change the archive company.

If extra archiving capacity is required, it is recommended that you set up a second archiving environment, which must also be an exact copy of the live environment. Define the companies of the second archive environment as the archive companies of the companies of the first archive environment. If necessary, a third and more archiving environments can be set up. You must then archive the data from each archive company to its archive company in the second archiving environment, and so on.

When you archive the data, LN builds an array with all the companies of the group and the archive company linked to each company. If any of the companies in the group does not have an archive company, LN reports an error and aborts the archiving process.

Batches and batch lines are only archived and/or deleted if you perform archiving and deletion in the company in which they exist. This is always the source company. Any intercompany documents and related finalized transactions that belong to the batch are not archived and/or deleted until the target company is archived.

If the batch has been deleted from the live environment, such intercompany documents and transactions will then temporarily exist without a batch in the live environment until the target company’s transactions are archived. Therefore, it is recommended to archive all the companies of a group within a short time.

Finalization runs are also archived. A finalization run can only be deleted from the live environment if all the attached batches have also been deleted.

Financial documents are archived and/or deleted if you perform archiving and deletion in the company in which they exist. For each document, LN searches whether a related intercompany document exists.

If the document’s transaction type indicates that the document numbering does not have to be in a fixed sequence, the document is not deleted from the live environment, to avoid duplicate document numbers.

A finalized transaction is not deleted from the live environment if the fiscal year of the transaction does not equal the fiscal year of the batch and the fiscal year of the transaction cannot yet be archived. If the Archive option is selected, the related batch, batch line, and document are copied to the archive company and retained in the live environment.

If a transaction is still referenced by open sales orders or purchase orders, it is marked as Deleted but not actually deleted. The related batch, batch line, and document are copied to the archive company and retained in the live environment. They are deleted when the referenced open transactions are closed and archived, for example, when you run the Archive/Delete Fully Paid Purchase Invoices (tfacp2250m000) session

If the transaction’s ledger account is a matchable account, any related matching data is also archived.

During the archiving process, the originating company of the finalized transaction is replaced with the originating company’s archive company. In this way, the archive environment will not contain references to the live environment.

During archiving, intercompany document relations are also copied to the archive environment. In the archive environment, these relations are updated in such a way, that each document in the relation refers to the environment in which the document actually exists. In the live environment, the document relation is retained until all related finalized transactions are deleted. For invoice-related transactions, this only occurs during the removal of fully-paid invoices. The document relation is also updated in the live environment, in order to refer to the archived document if all related finalized transactions have been removed from the live environment.

After the normal archiving process, an additional archiving step is performed in which all transactions and documents in the live company that arise from intercompany postings, are archived. During this step, intercompany relations are archived and/or deleted as described earlier.

Batches, batch lines, and documents that have the Deleted status are deleted from the live environment, unless the document’s transaction type indicates that the document numbering does not have to be in a fixed sequence. Such documents are not deleted from the live environment, to avoid duplicate document numbers.

OPERATIONS: Simulated Purchase Prices (ticpr1170m000)

Use this session to define simulated purchase prices for purchased items per site.

Field Information:

  • Cost Calculation Code - price calculation code
  • Item

The raw materials, subassemblies, finished products, and tools that can be purchased, stored, manufactured, and sold.

An item can also represent a set of items handled as one kit, or which exist in multiple product variants.

You can also define nonphysical items, which are not retained in inventory but can be used to post costs or to invoice services to customers. The examples of nonphysical items:

  • Cost items (for example, electricity)
  • Service items
  • Subcontracting services
  • List items (menus/options)
     
  • ​Site - The site for which the purchase price is simulated.
  • Purchase Currency - The currency of the simulated purchase price.
  • Simulated Price - Purchase price

The simulated purchase price and currency are recorded twice.

  • Simulated Price Multi Currency - The purchase price in multiple currencies.

The simulated purchase price and currency are recorded twice. The amount in this field is related to the price of the supplier.

  • Unit - Purchase price unit
  • Cost Component - The cost component that must be of the type Material Costs.

Note: The cost component specified in this field does not become part of the standard cost detail structure if it is part of the cost component scheme of the selected item. If calculations are performed with a calculation code not used for actualization (simulations only), the simulated purchase price is mapped to the cost component defined in the records for this session.

  • Latest Price - The purchase price that is displayed on the most recent invoice received for the selected purchased item.

  • Average Price - The average purchase price which is based on cumulative purchases or on the current inventory, as specified in the Method of Calculating Average Purchase Price field of the Purchase Order Parameters (tdpur0100m400) session.

Previous Article Infor LN & Baan Tips & Tricks for TECHNOLOGY: Table Sharing with a Multi-Company Setup - Using a Master Data Company
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Kathy Barthelt

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