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Materials

Contents

TracManager Materials & Inventory

MaterialFlowChart

What is a Materials & Inventory List? *

The materials and inventory list view provides a high level view of all items. The list may be filtered by selecting a filter value from the drop-down selectors located in the Filters section.

To find an item you may begin typing the part number or the description in the Find entry box. Select which field to search for by clicking  on Part No. or Description.

Materials & Inventory List: Preview/History *

Select an item from the list by clicking on the item. The preview form will populate with details about the selected item.

You may also view the usage history of the item by selecting History above the preview section. The history may be filtered to a specific date range by setting the From and To dates. Uncheck the date setting to remove the date from the range.

The total quantity used during the selected date range is displayed in the Quantity Used box

Materials & Inventory List: What are the functions of the buttons? *

Materials & Inventory List: Sort Button *

The list may be sorted by Part Number, Description or Category. Click on the Sort button drop-down selector and choose the desired sort condition. Click on the Sort button to reverse the sort order

Materials & Inventory List: Purchase Button *

The purchase button will only appear if there is at least one supplier associated with the item. To purchase the item click the purchase button. The purchase order will automatically be populated with the supplier information and the purchase item with a purchase quantity of one.

Materials & Inventory List: Edit Button *

To edit the selected record double-click on the record or click on the Edit button. The item record is presented for editing

Materials & Inventory List: New Button *

To create a new item, click on the New button and then complete the item record as desired.

Materials & Inventory List: Delete Button *

The delete button will be disabled if the item has transactions. If you want to remove an item from use and you cannot delete it, mark the item Inactive.

To delete a record, click on the delete button and confirm

What is a Material Item? *

To view/edit a material item, double-click on the item in the list, or select an item then click on the Edit button.

The following describes the material item for editing an existing item or creating a new item.

What are the functions of the fields? *

Inactive Checkbox – Checkbox to mark the item as inactive. Inactive items are removed from list choices.

Part Number Field – A unique item identity may be numeric or alpha-numeric up to 64 characters. However, Tractivity recommends a short Part Number along with a meaningful description. In most cases, material items are displayed with the Part Number and the description together.

UOM of Consumption Selector – This setting is normally set to Each (EA) unless the item is consumed by a different UOM. If the item is a gallon of paint the UOM would still be set to Each because we would use 1 each gallon of paint. The UOM is not a description of the package, which should be included in the description. See the UOM descriptions for more details

Description Field – This text describes the item and will often include package information.

Category Selector – Set the category to organize items. The category provides an organizational benefit when you are looking for an item. It is easy to select “Hardware” from the list and only show items that are in the hardware category. To create a new category click on the green button to the right of the category selector.

Sub Category Selector – Set the sub category to further organize items. To create a new subcategory click on the green button to the right of the subcategory selector.

What is the Item Details Tab? *

Place Holder Checkbox – If checked the material item on a job budget is highlighted to prompt the user to change to the correct item. This is very useful when importing a job budget from CAD software such as Cabinet Vision and the material item is generic (i.e. Laminate with out a specific color) . The Place Holder items are not intended for purchase but instead they ‘hold the place’ for the final mateirla selection.

Job Specific Checkbox – When using the Purchasing Manager and selecting the ‘Order To Stock’ option:  Items marked ‘Job Specific’ will be exempted and purchased to the associated job (if assigned).

Taxable Checkbox – The taxable checkbox sets the default Taxable status for the item. When material is charged to a job or material is received to a job the taxable default status is set in the material charge.  A Purchase Order sales tax is calculated for all items marked taxable using the Tax Rate. See Tax Item Checkbox below.

Labor and Material Cost reports reference the material taxable status to separate job materials by taxable and non-taxable.

Buy Checkbox – Check this checkbox for all items that are purchased from a supplier. If the item is not purchased uncheck the checkbox. Only items marked as Buy may be purchased from a vendor. If the item is a type Other, the Buy checkbox is hidden as it does not apply.

Tax Item Checkbox – Check this checkbox to indicate the item as a sales tax calculation item. The total sales tax for all items marked Taxable will populate the Tax Item amount on a PO which saves you the time of manually calculating this amount.

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Thickness Field – optional entry to indicate the thickness of the item if applicable

Item Type Selector – Set the item type as follows:

  • Inventory (Automatic) – the item is counted and will automatically be charged to a job when released and material is available.
  • Non-inventory – the item is not counted. This type of item is useful for purchasing custom items such as cut glass etc. The part number could be “Glass” and the description changed for each purchase as necessary.
  • Other – items that are not material such as tax, freight or other charges would be set to type Other

Weight lbs Field – (Optional) weight of the item

Alias List Field – If connecting to an external system such as Cabinet Vision the alias field may contain material names that would be used to match the imported part number. If a match is found the imported part number is translated into the TracManager part number. The list of alias values may contain multiple items. Separate the items with a new line.

Market Cost Field – This field only applies when using the TracManager Estimating Module. The value is used to apply pricing updates to products that use the item.

What is the Custom Fields Tab? *

Custom Date Fields – There are four (4) optional custom date fields that may be used for any purpose. The caption for these dates may be changed by clicking on the caption and entering new caption text. The date fields are set to “Nothing” if the date checkbox is unchecked.

Custom Text Fields – There are four (4) optional custom text fields that may be used for any purpose. These drop down selector choices may be configured by selecting the File Menu, then View/Edit List Choices. Select Inventory from the List Type, then the folder for the list choice. Right click in the right panel “List Choices” to add a new choice

What is the Picture Tab? *

       Set – Click the Set button to browse to a picture file to relate to the item.

                Remove – click the Remove button to remove the picture reference

What is the Notes Tab? *

   Note pertaining to the material items may be entered into the Notes section. These notes will appear on the Purchasing Manager screen when selecting the item for purchase.

On Hand

The on hand section lists the currently on hand information including the quantity for each location, bin and cost. The setup wizard provides an additional eight (8) more fields that could be tracked.

On Hand Button Menus – used to edit/override the detail record (see inventory adjustment which is a preferred method for adjusting inventory)

  • Edit Selected Item Details – this menu choice allows you to override the record to set new values for: Qty on Hand, Unit Cost, Lot, Location and Bin. Any edit made here will not change existing postings and is not sent to QuickBooks
  • Change location or Bin – this menu allows you to move a specified quantity from one location to another
  • Add new item record – this menu choice allows you to add a new detail record including the qty, cost and location.

On Order

Displays a list of open purchase orders that include this part number

Suppliers

A list of qualified suppliers for the selected part number. The supplier listed first is the “preferred” supplier and default choice when creating a purchase order for this item.

  • Pref – the order of preference. The smaller the number, the more preferred. Right click on the Pref column to expose a menu:
    • Increase vendor preference level – changes the selected supplier (vendor) preference. An increase in preference level lowers the Pref value.
    • Decrease vendor preference level – changes the selected supplier (vendor) preference. A decrease in preference level raises the Pref value.
    • Delete Supplier – removes the supplier (vendor) from the list
    • Cancel Menu – exits the menu without taking any action
  • Vendor Name – the name of the supplier
  • Vendor PN – the supplier’s part number or SKU for the selected item. This Vendor PN appears on some purchase orders reports (depending on the template choosen)
  • Vendor Price – the price the selected supplier (vendor) charges for this item. This may be different than the Unit Cost or Market Cost. This value is presented as a choice when using the purchasing manager or creating purchase orders.
  • Last Buy – the most recent purchase order price for the select it from this supplier. This value is presented as a choice when using the purchasing manager or creating purchase orders.

History

The History button presents a list of the most recent ten (10) purchases

  • Date – the date of the transaction
  • Lot – optional lot value
  • Qty – the quantity purchased
  • UOM – the unit of measure purchased
  • Cost/UOM the price for each unit
  • Vendor – the name of the supplier the item was purchased from
  • PO – the number of the purchase order

Documents

You may associate one or more documents with this item. Document references record the Windows path to the document and so it is recommended that all users have access to the same mapped drive or network location.

  • Add Document Button – To add a document, click on the Add Document Button. Browse to the desired document then provide a description or name for the document. The description is what is listed in the document name list.
  • Remove Document Button – To remove a document, click on the document name to remove then click on the Remove Document Button
  • Rename Document – To rename a document in the list, click on the document name to select the document then click on the Rename Document Button. Enter a new description
  • Open Document – to open the document using the associated Windows program click on the Open Document Button

Print Labels

A label may be printed for the item by clicking in the Print Labels button. Select a report template from the drop-down list. The report templates are set up for address size labels typically used in label printers such as Dymo LabelWriter.

QB Accts (if applicable)

When sending a new material item to QuickBooks certain account settings are required. The account settings may only be changed when the QuickBooks link is enabled. Once a item exist in QuickBooks, the account setting have no effect as TracManager will not change a QuickBooks account assignment for existing items in QuickBooks.

Enable Automatic Reorder

Inventory items may be set to for automatic re-order based upon a reorder level. To enable automatic reorder, check the Enable Automatic Reorder checkbox.

Reorder Level – set the reorder level to the quantity to trigger a reorder. If the value were set to 10 then a reorder would be triggered if the available quantity fell below 10

Min. Reorder QTY – Once a reorder is triggered the item appears in the purchasing manager screen. The quantity required will always be at least the value of the Min. Reorder QTY. For example if the reorder level was set to 10 and the Min Reorder QTY was set to 12 then if the available quantity fell to 8 the reorder quantity requirement would be 12 rather than 2.

QTY on Hand

This is the quantity that is physically on hand

Allocated QTY

This is the quantity that is set aside for jobs but has not yet been charged to a job. When the allocated quantity is greater than the QTY on Hand minus the QTY on Order a purchase requirement is created.

To view which jobs have this material allocated click on the green button to the right of the Allocate QTY value

QTY on Order

This is the number of units currently on open purchase orders that have not been received

Available QTY

This is the quantity that is available for use. This quantity excludes allocated quantities and quantities on order

Unit Cost (value)

The mean average unit cost for on hand items. If 10 items were purchased at $1 each and then another 10 items were purchased at $2 each the unit cost would be ( (10 x 1) + (10 x 2) ) / 20 or $1.50 each

Unit Sales Price

The optional price you set if you were to sell the item directly. Typically this value is not used because TracManager is tracking costs

Total Cost Value

The total valuation of items based upon the mean average cost

Total Sales Value

The total potential sales value based upon the sales price

Importing Materials and Inventory Items

See Importing Materials for information regarding import methods.

Methods for Creating Purchase Orders *

There are three main methods to create a purchase order:

  1. If a material item has been associated with a supplier, you may select a material item in the Materials list and then click on the Purchase Button, This will create a purchase order for selected item with a quantity of “1”. Edit the purchase order as desired. Note – the Purchase button will only appear if one or more suppliers have been associated with the item.
  2. Manually create a purchase order by clicking on the New button located on the Purchase Order list screen. You will then need to completely fill out all desired information.
  3. The Purchasing Manager screen automatically determines what items need to be purchased based upon released budget items and the automatic re-order levels. Select the item to be purchased, then select the supplier to purchase from and click Purchase. After all selections are made, click the Create POs button to create the purchase orders.