erp inventory management

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Table Of Contents

Inventory Overview........................................................................................................................................ 1

Master Products vs. Vendor Catalogs......................................................................................................... 1

Creating Inventory.......................................................................................................................................... 2

Adding Master Products to Inventory Tracking ......................................................................................... 2

Manually Adding Inventory Items ............................................................................................................. 4

Non-serialized Inventory........................................................................................................................ 6

Serialized Inventory................................................................................................................................ 6

Generating Equipment with Inventory ....................................................................................................... 7

Stock Locations.............................................................................................................................................. 7

Overview .................................................................................................................................................... 7

Enabling Specific Companies as Stock Locations......... .......... ........... ........... .......... ........... .......... .......... 8

The Stock Levels Tab................................................................................................................................. 9The Transfer Log Tab............................................................................................................................... 10

The Purchase Orders Tab ......................................................................................................................... 10

Default Stock Location............................................................................................................................. 11

Stock Level Warnings .............................................................................................................................. 11

Requesting vs. Assigning Inventory......................................................................................................... 13

The Inventory Management Grid ................................................................................................................. 14

The Inventory Management Grid Filter.................................................................................................... 15

Inventory Management Grid Rows and Columns .................................................................................... 15

Rows..................................................................................................................................................... 15Request Columns (or What are my inventory needs?").......... .......... ........... ........... ........... ........... ...... 16

In Stock / On Order Columns (or How can I meet my Inventory needs?") ........... ........... ........... ....... 16

Assigning Inventory Items via the Inventory Management Grid .......... ........... .......... ........... ........... .... 16

Reassigning Inventory Items to Another Job.................. .......... ........... ........... .......... ........... ........... ...... 18

Assigning Inventory Items to a Job .............................................................................................................. 18

The Inventory Management Grid ............................................................................................................. 19

The Job Record......................................................................................................................................... 19

The Completion Wizard ........................................................................................................................... 19

Adjusting Inventory Levels .......................................................................................................................... 20

Removing Inventory Stock........................................................................................................................... 21

The Purchasing Assistant ............................................................................................................................. 22

Ordering Inventory via the Purchasing Assistant ..................................................................................... 24

Purchase Orders............................................................................................................................................ 25

Overview .................................................................................................................................................. 25


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Purchase Order Workflow........................................................................................................................ 26

Creating a Purchase Order........................................................................................................................ 29

The Purchase Order Properties Tab...................................................................................................... 29

The Purchase Orders Items Tab............................................................................................................ 31

The Purchase Order Notes Tab............................................................................................................. 32The Purchase Order History Tab .......................................................................................................... 33

Adding an Inventory Item to a Purchase Order .................................................................................... 33

Adding a Miscellaneous Item to a Purchase Order................... .......... ........... ........... .......... ........... ....... 35

Transferring Inventory.................................................................................................................................. 37

The Pending Transfer Tab........................................................................................................................ 38

Creating Pending Transfers ...................................................................................................................... 38

Voiding Inventory Transfers .................................................................................................................... 39

Completing an Inventory Transfer ........................................................................................................... 39

The Open Tickets tab................................................................................................................................ 40Transfer Tickets........................................................................................................................................ 40

Creating Transfer Tickets ..................................................................................................................... 40

Vendors ........................................................................................................................................................ 44

Vendors Overview.................................................................................................................................... 44

Creating a Vendor..................................................................................................................................... 44

The General Tab of a Vendor Record................................................................................................... 45

The Detail Tab of a Vendor Record ..................................................................................................... 45

The Parts Catalog tab of a Vendor Record ........................................................................................... 46

The Purchase Orders Tab of a Vendor Record..................................................................................... 47

The Links tab of a Vendor Record ....................................................................................................... 47

Defining Preferred Vendors...................................................................................................................... 47

Vendor Catalogs....................................................................................................................................... 48

Vendor Catalog Items........................................................................................................................... 48

Updating Catalog Items ........................................................................................................................ 51

Creating New Master Products when Importing a Vendor Catalog .......... ........... ........... ........... .......... ........ 51

Integrating with Accounting......................................................................................................................... 53

Linking Vendors to QuickBooks.............................................................................................................. 53

Updating the Vendor Link.................................................................................................................... 55

Exporting Purchase Orders....................................................................................................................... 56

Index............................................................................................................................................................. 57


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Inventory OverviewAny company that sells products may need to also track the inventory of those products. This inventory is alist of goods and materials (stock) that is available for sale to your customers. The amount of inventory thatis In Stock - or available for sale - will vary depending on your sales (outflow of stock) and/or ordering of

new stock (inflow of stock).ServiceCEO can help you manage all of the many variables involved with tracking inventory, including:

Tracking both serialized and non-serialized inventory Stocking at and transferring inventory between multiple stock locations (i.e., warehouses, trucks,

etc.)

Managing vendors, stock levels, and purchase orders Definition of default stock levels with automated warnings when stock falls below this level

All of these functions are tightly integrated with ServiceCEO's scheduling functionality.

Before you begin tracking inventory, you must first do two things:

Enable Inventory management. See the Defining Inventory Management Options section formore. Know the difference between Master Products and Vendor Catalogs. See the Master Products

and Vendor Catalogs section for more.

Master Products vs. Vendor CatalogsThe Master Product List lists every product that your business offers for sale. These Product items arelisted exactly as they will appear on work orders and invoices, so names and descriptions should becustomer-friendly. The part numbers entered on the Master Product page should be the ones you useinternally for referencing a part, regardless of the vendor or supplier from which it came.

Example Master Product Entry:

Part Number: TR304-02 Description: Widget Cost: $32.00

For more on creating a Master Product, see the Product List Overview section of the Help System.

A Vendor Catalog, on the other hand, is a list of parts offered by a particular vendor. Each entry in thecatalog is an item that the vendor will sell to you. Each catalog item contains fields similar to the fields in aMaster Product record; however, the catalog item's fields reference the vendor's name, description, priceand part number for each item, as opposed to your internal values in ServiceCEO.

Example Vendor Catalog Entries:

Vendor: Bobs Widget Warehouse

Part Number: R205 Description: Smith-Co Widget (10-

pack)

Cost: $31.75

Vendor: Widgets-R-Us

Part Number: AX-0307 Description: Smith-Co Widget (4-pack) Cost: $32.05


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Each catalog item is linked to a ServiceCEO Master Product, which allows ServiceCEO to support multiplevendors for every part you offer. In other words, when you order inventory for a particular master product,you will see a list of all vendors that offer that product.

In addition, when you add a master product to a job - let's say you have a job requiring 6 Widgets, allcustomer-facing printed material will show the internal part number and description TR304-02 Widget.Internally, you can use an inventory item from any vendor on the job (the R205 or AX-0307, for example).

See the Assigning Inventory Items to a Job section for details.

Creating InventoryOnce Inventory Tracking is enabled, you can add Master Products to inventory tracking in several ways:

Importing Vendor Catalogs. See the Importing Data into ServiceCEO section for details. Creating Master Products with Inventory

Once a master product is added to the inventory module, you can add or order inventory parts for thatproduct in a number of ways:

Using the Purchasing Assistant Creating a Purchase Order Manually Increasing Inventory Levels

Please see the appropriate section for more details.

Adding Master Products to Inventory TrackingYou can easily add any master product to inventory tracking.

1. Select Tools > Lists > Master Product List or type CTRL + F5. The Master Product Listappears.

2. ClickNew. The Product and Service Detail dialog box appears.3. Enter all of the fields as usual. See the Defining Product Items section for details.4. Click the Inventory tab.


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Note:Once an item is marked as In Stock or On Order, you will not be able to edit any of thesevalues, so the Inventory tab will be read-only.

5. Select the Track Inventory check box to start tracking inventory items for this product.6. Select the Serialized or Non-Serialized option button. See the Serialized Inventory and Non-

Serialized Inventory sections for details about the options for each one.

7. To automatically create equipment with Serialized items, select the Generates On-SiteEquipment when sold check box. See the Generating Equipment with Inventory section for more.

8. ClickOK. The Master Product is now part of inventory tracking.Next steps include:

Creating Vendor Catalog entries for this master product Adding or Purchasing inventory for this item Defining Preferred Vendors Defining Stock Level Warnings


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Manually Adding Inventory ItemsStock can be added to the system by manually inserting items into a specific stock location.

Note that manually adding inventory adds the items directly into the stock location without a PurchaseOrder. POs provide a structured method of tracking the order and its financial implications. See the

Purchase Order Workflow section for the benefits of using purchase orders.

Note:You will not be able to track the cost of inventory you add manually (without a PO). You will,however, be able to export the money to QuickBooks.

To manually add inventory items, click the Add Inventory button from one of several locations:

Any tab of a Stock Location The Inventory Management Grid The Completion Wizard Price Change screen

The New Inventory Items dialog box appears.

1. Type the first few letters of the item you want to add in the Quick Search field. A list of inventoryitems matching your criteria will automatically appear.2. Select the Search superseding catalogs check box to search previous versions of parts. In other

words, selecting this check box will enable you to find a part using values that have since beenupdated.

3. Select the item you want to add from the list of available parts. The fields on the bottom of thepage will be populated with the selected item's default values.


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Note:The search results may contain the same part but from different vendors. The master product towhich the part is linked is indicated in the two "internal" fields: "Internal Part No." and "InternalProduct", and the item's vendor name appears in the Supplier column.For example, in the screenshot above, both part 1 (from the Meigs Ltd. vendor) and 787 (fromthe Stereolab vendor) are linked to the "WIRELESS USB EXTERASYS" Master Product.

4. If necessary, you can link the selected item to a new Master Product by selecting from theInternal Product drop-down list. You can also add a new catalog item for the selected item byselecting from the Catalog Item drop-down list.

5. If necessary, edit the Vendor Part No. or Vendor Description fields.6. Select the stock location to which you want to add the inventory item from the Add To drop-down

list.

7. ClickNext. The Details tab of the New Inventory Items dialog box appears.

7. Enter the number of the selected inventory items you want to add to the stock location in the TotalUnits to Addspin box.

8. The cost and sales tax will be populated by default based on the values in the vendor catalog. Ifnecessary, you can edit these values in the Base Cost and/or Sales Tax fields.


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9. If you are integrated with a GL account, select the appropriate GL income accounts from theInventory Asset Account and Offsetting Account drop-down lists.

10. Enter a note to attach to the added inventory items in the Notes field, if necessary.11. If you are adding a serialized item, enter the number with which you want to start the items' serial

numbers to start with into the Starting Serial No. field.

12. ClickSave. The inventory is added to the stock location.Non-serialized Inventory

Non-serialized inventory items are small parts that are generally indistinguishable from one another. Itemsreceived from different vendors are assumed to be interchangeable for filling any inventory part request.Non-serialized items can be sold and tracked in fractional quantities up to the nearest millionth of a part(i.e.: 43.3082 widgets). Note, however, that while you can use any vendor's product for a given job, the costof these items may vary depending on the item's vendor.

Because non-serialized items are interchangeable, ServiceCEO supports several costing models forestimating the cost of a given item when it is sold. You can define the default method for each item.

Average On Hand This is the costing model supported by QuickBooks. If 50 items are in stock,with a total value of $500, and 10 items are sold, then the cost of each item will be $10 and thevalue of the entire stock will be decreased to $400 (because $50 divided by $500 = $10).

Last Purchase Price Each items cost is set to the unit-cost of the last item of this MasterProduct that was entered on a Purchase Order (PO) or manually entered into the system. If noitems of the given Master Product type are on a PO or manually entered, the cost reverts to the oneentered as a default in the Master Product List.

Exact The (LIFO) or first-in-last-out (FIFO) methods are used to determine which cost to assignto each item sold.

o Last-in-first-out (LIFO) The item used to fulfill the job will be the item that was mostrecently received. For example, if you have 50 items in stock, the LIFO method woulduse the item that has been is stock the shortest amount of time (i.e., item number 50).

o First-in-first-out (FIFO) The item used will be the oldest item in the system. Forexample, if you have 50 items in stock, the FIFO method would use the item that hasbeen in stock the longest (i.e., item number 1).

Caution:Depending on when you assign items to a job or invoice, the LIFO/FIFO behavior may bedifferent than you expect. The charge for a requested item is determined at the time the item isassigned to the job or invoice (and thus pulled from the general stock). Thus, the LIFO/FIFOmethod is applied when the item is assigned, not when the job is performed or completed.Because you can assign an item to a job or invoice days or weeks before the job is actuallycompleted, the flow of items may be difficult to follow.

See the Item Costing section for details and examples about these costing methods.

Serialized Inventory

Serialized items are different then non-serialized in that serialized items are not indistinguishable. In fact,each serialized item has a unique serial number attached to every item (hence the name).

When creating or adding serialized inventory, or receiving a Purchase Order with serialized inventory, youwill be prompted to enter the serial numbers of the inventory items.


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Serialized items each have a unique unit cost and sell-price; thus, the exact cost for a job or invoicedepends on the exact items selected to fill the charge. Until the specific items (and corresponding prices)are assigned to a job, default pricing and cost information is obtained from the item's corresponding MasterProduct. When viewing a job prior to completion, you can view the inventory items assigned to a job bydouble-clicking on the charge line item in the Charges page of the Completion Wizard.

Generating Equipment with InventoryIf you are tracking Equipment, you can automatically create a piece of equipment at a customers sitewhenever a serialized inventory item is attached to a job. To do so, you must select the Generates On-siteEquipment when sold check box on the Inventory tab of the item's Master Product. (See the DefiningProduct Items section for details.)

When a serialized products that have the this check box selected are present on a job, a piece of equipmentat the appropriate customer location will be added when the job is completed. After the equipment item iscreated, you can track future services and parts that equipment item in order to provide a complete servicehistory. For more on Equipment tracking, see the Equipment Overview section.

Stock Locations

OverviewStock locations places, such as warehouses or trucks, where stock is physically stored are notindependent structures within ServiceCEO. Instead, you can mark existing office locations or teams asstock locations in the Inventory Management Options dialog box.

Follow the steps below to configure your stock locations:

1. Enable Stock Location Types. See the Defining Inventory Management Options section fordetails.

2. If you have enabled company locations as stock locations, Enable Company Locations as StockLocations.

All of your inventory will be marked as being present in one stock location or another. Jobs with aninventoried product assigned to it will not be able to be completed unless one of the following conditionsare met:

The inventory assigned to the job is located in the job's stock location (typically, the Teamassigned to the job). If the inventory assigned to the job is not in the correct stock location, youcan transfer Inventory from one stock location to another.

Enough inventory items are located in the job's Default Stock Location to cover what is needed forthe job.

Tip:

If you assign inventory from another stock location to the job during completion, the inventorywill automatically be moved to the to the job's stock location. However, note that no transferticket will be created if you move inventory items between stock locations via the Charges pageof the Completion Wizard.

All of your stock locations are displayed on the Stock Locations tab:


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Double-click a stock location to open its record.

Enabling Specific Companies as Stock Locations

If you have defined any company locations as stock locations (see the Defining Inventory ManagementOptionssection), you need to enable each specific location as a stock location. In other words, enablingcompany locations as stock locations only says that company locations can be stock locations; to actuallyturn a location in to a stock location, you need to select it's Stock Location check box.

To enable your company as a stock location:

1. Select Tools > Options > Company Information. The Company Information dialog box appears.2. In the right pane, scroll down and select the Stock Location check box.3. ClickOK.

If you are running ServiceCEO Enterprise, see the ServiceCEO Enterprise Configuration document fordetails on how to enable specific Regional and Branch offices as stock locations.


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The Stock Levels TabThe Stock Levels tab of a Stock Location displays the amount of inventory that is present in the stocklocation. It also displays the Stock Levels of those items.

From here, you can define the stock levels for each part in the stock location:

Reorder. The amount of the item below which you will be prompted to order more of the item. Inother words, setting this level to X tells the system "when my In Stock amount + On Order amount

+ Pending Order amount is less than or equal to the Reorder amount (X), prompt me to reorderhowever many items I'll need to get the stock level back to the Optimal level."

Optimal. The item quantity you would like to have on hand. When ordering inventory, the defaultamount ordered will be enough to bring the stock level back up to Optimal level.

Comments. This is used to store any internal comments about the stock in this stock location.For more on these levels, see the Stock Level Warnings section.


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The Transfer Log TabThe Transfer Log tab of the Stock Location dialog box displays all of the transfers to and from this stocklocation.

The icon and the value indicates if the transfer was from or to this stock location.

From. Designated by the icon, from transfers are also Indicated by From in the To/Fromfield.

To. Designated by the icon, to transfers are also indicated by To in the To/From field.Double-click a line item to open the transfer ticket on which this transfer was located.

The Purchase Orders TabThe Purchase Orders tab of a Stock Location displays all purchase orders associated with the stocklocation.

Double-click the appropriate line to open the purchase order.


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Default Stock LocationIntroduced in 6.1, the default stock location determines the stock location from which inventoried productswill be pulled if inventory assignment has not yet occurred. In other words, if you have not specificallyassigned a particular inventory item for a job charge, it will be taken from the job's default stock location.

A Default Stock Location drop-down list appears on the Products/Services tab of a job record. It

automatically defaults to the organization's stock location. You can change the default stock location at anypoint by selecting a new stock location from the Default Stock Location drop-down list..

Note:If you are running ServiceCEO Enterprise, the default stock location may be at a branch or regionlevel.

ServiceCEO will automatically use inventory items from the default stock location when completing thejob, unless at least one of two things occur:

You have already manually assigned inventory from another stock location There is no inventory available from the default stock location

You can tell if the default stock location is being used during completion by opening up the Charge Detailsdialog box. In the line immediately above the Information box, you can see that one item is being usedfrom the Default Stock Location (Great Service Pest Control, Inc.).

Stock Level Warnings

Stock Level Warnings are used to inform you about the amounts of every inventoried part in the stocklocations. They also serve to alert you when the amount of a particular part falls below the specifiedReorder point.

The stock levels are:

In Stock. This is the amount of the item that you currently have in your stock location. Read-only. On Order. This is the amount of the item that has been ordered and is in the process of being

delivered. Read-only.

Reorder. The amount of the item below which you will be prompted to order more of the item.Editable.In other words, setting this level to X tells the system "when my In Stock amount + On Orderamount + Pending Order amount is less than or equal to the Reorder amount (X), prompt me to

reorder however many items I'll need to get the stock level back to the Optimal level."

Tip:Note that you can exclude items that are already assigned to jobs from the In Stock and On Orderfigures for the Reorder calculation; see the Defining Inventory Management Options section fordetails.


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Optimal. The item quantity you would like to have on hand. Editable.When using the Purchasing Assistant to order new items to fill a general stock, the quantityordered defaults to whatever quantity will bring your stock level up to the optimal quantity.Note that the Optimal amount will always be equal to or higher then the Reorder level. In fact,entering an Optimal value will always default the Reorder amount to Reorder + 1 (unless theOptimal amount is already higher then the new Reorder value).

If you want your Reorder amount to be the same as the Optimal amount, you need to edit theOptimal value after you set the Reorder value.

Pending Order. The amount of the item that has been flagged as needing to be ordered (in theInventory Management Grid) but that has not yet been ordered (i.e., no Purchase Order has beencreated to order more of the item). Read-only, only visible in the Inventory Management Grid.

To define the Optimal and Reorder levels, simply click into the appropriate field and type the value youwant. You can do this in two places:

1. The Stock Levels tab of the Stock Location dialog box.

2. The Stock Levels tab of the Master Product Detail page.


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Based on these levels, if an item needs to be ordered, a warning will be displayed in the followinglocations:

The Stock Location tab. The icon means that the stock location is fully stocked. Theindicates that one or more stock levels have been violated in that stock location.

The Stock Levels tab of a Stock Location. The appears for every item whose reorder pointhas been reached.

The Inventory Management Grid. If any warning levels are currently being violated they willappear in the General Stock Levels portion of the grid with a description ofStock Level Violationin.... You can click on the levels (many of them are hyperlinked) to adjust them, or transfer ororder items as needed. See the Inventory Management Grid section for more details.

Requesting vs. Assigning InventoryIn ServiceCEO, a request for an inventory part is created whenever you add a Master Product to ajob,schedule, or project (normally done on the Services/Products tab). Master products are assigned to jobswithout regard for current inventory levels; thus, you can add products to a job even if you currently havenone of that inventory item in stock.

At any point before job completion, you can assign specific inventory parts to the job to satisfy thisrequest. Typically, this is done through the Inventory Management Grid.

Regardless of when inventory assignment is done, a job containing inventoried products must have theirrequested quantities filled with actual inventory before the job can be completed and billed. For example,if you create a job with six products, four of which have associated inventory products, you mustspecifically assign the four parts to the job before you can complete the job.

Inventory assignment varies depending on the type of inventory item:

Serialized items are selected by serial number. Non-serialized items, you can select a specific stock location from which the items were drawn.


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Tip:The stock location you select must contain enough items to fulfill the job request or the job can'tbe completed until enough inventory is transferred to that stock location.

Although you do not need to assign specific stock to a job until the job is completed, we highly recommend

that you assign inventory to charges sooner rather than later. Doing so will enable you understand yourinventory requirements ahead of time and thus plan your inventory purchasing needs.

The Inventory Management GridThe Inventory Management Grid is the key component of the ServiceCEO Inventory system. The InventoryManagement Grid automates many tasks - Assigning Inventory Items to Jobs, creating Purchase Orders,checking stock levels, and transferring items between stock locations - through a single interface. TheInventory Management Grid also enables users to look ahead at job bookings and stock levels to evaluatetheir future inventory needs.

To open the Inventory Management Grid:

1. ClickInventory from the Navigator bar. The Inventory page appears.2. ClickManagement Grid. The Inventory Management Grid appears.

Tip:Many of the values in the Inventory Management Grid are hyperlinked. For example, you canopen a the job record by clicking the job name in the "Charge - Job # - Summary" column.

For more, see the Inventory Management Grid Items and Inventory Management Grid Columns section.


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To control what data appears in the grid, you can adjust the filter settings. See the Inventory ManagementGrid Filter section.

General actions you can perform here include:

ClickAdd Inventory to manually add Inventory Items to stock. ClickRemove Inventory to removing Inventory Stock.

The Inventory Management Grid FilterThe Inventory Management Grid filter lets you limit the amount of items that are displayed on the grid.

There are two settings you can define on the filter:

Date Range. Select the start and end date for which you want to display your inventory needs. Bydefault, this value will be for the next week. For example, opening the Inventory ManagementGrid on 3/12/07 defaults to displaying 3/12/07 - 3/19/07.

Location. Select a specific stock location to display. To display all stock locations, select .In addition, you can change the display of the Inventory Management Grid by selecting a Display Order.These are:

Order by Job or Project. The Inventory Management Grid will display each job / project withinventory needs, in the order in which they occur.

Order by Product Type. All items will be listed alphabetically by the product's master category,then by product name. The job/product will appear in a different column.

Once you have defined your filter settings, clickRefresh to change the display.

Inventory Management Grid Rows and ColumnsThere's a lot of information on the Inventory Management Grid. How it appears in the grid is broken downbelow.

Rows

Each row of the Inventory Management Grid represents one of two things:

1. Inventory Requests. The top portion of the grid. This section displays all specific inventoryrequests within the date range.

2. General Stock Levels. The bottom portion of the grid. This section displays any Stock LevelViolations that require attention. In other words, when a part falls below its defined reorder point,the stock location in violation will appear here so you can order more of that item.

If there are no open issues for either section then it will not appear. For example, if there are no Stock LevelViolations in the date range, no General Stock Levels section will appear.

One easy way for distinguishing between the two is that Inventory Requests will always display a date inthe Date column, while Stock Level warnings always display an "n/a".


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Tip:All colored or under-lined items are hyperlinks. You can double-click each hyperlink to drill-down for more information.

Request Columns (or What are my inventory needs?")In the Inventory Requests section, the Request columns answer two questions:

Qty Req. Answers How much stock do I need to satisfy this request?. It displays the quantityrequested on the job that is displayed in the Charge - Invoice # - Summary field.If you need to edit this amount, click on the job description in the Charge - Job # - Summarycolumn) and adjust the Master Products assigned to the Job in the Job Editor.

Qty Assigned. Answers How much stock have I already set aside for this request? It displaysthe amount of inventory that has been assigned to this charge on the job. Colored Qty Assignednumbers require attention for one of two reasons:

1. Red numbers. The full amount of the requested items has not been assigned.2. Blue numbers. At least one of the inventory items needs to be transferred, but is not yeton a transfer ticket.3. Purple numbers. At least one of the inventory items is on a transfer ticket, but the

transfer has not yet been completed.

In the General Stock Levels section, the Optimal column displays the stock location's optimal amount,while the Current column displays the item's current status for the stock location.

In Stock / On Order Columns (or How can I meet my Inventoryneeds?")

The In Stock and On Order columns represent inventory items that might be used to fill each requested

charge or stock location violation. Click on any number to drill-down for details about the number.In the Inventory Requests section, these numbers are:

Available items have not yet been designated to a specific job and are thus available forassignment or transfer. Click the number in the Available column to assign the items. See theAssigning Inventory Items via the Inventory Management Grid section for details.

Assigned items are those already assigned to another job. This number is useful because it givesyou a picture of how many items you currently have on-hand. For example, if an emergency jobarises for which you do not have enough items in your general unassigned stock to satisfy the partrequest, you can click on the In Stock Assigned number and enter zero in the Use field. Thiswould remove the item(s) from the current job so that you could use them on the emergency call.For more, see the Reassigning Inventory Items to Another Job topic.

Note that On Order amounts cannot be used immediately (i.e., you will not be able to complete a job withitems that are On Order.

Assigning Inventory Items via the Inventory Management Grid

One of the easiest ways to assign inventory to a job is to use the Inventory Management Grid. To do this:

1. Open the Inventory Management Grid. A list of all of jobs that need assignment appear.2. Adjust the filter settings, if necessary.


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3. To assign inventory items, click either:o The In Stock Available field. This field lets you select items that are currently available.o The In Order Available field. This field lets you select items that have been ordered and

are in the process of being shipped to the appropriate stock location.

Caution:While you can assign an on order inventory item to a job before you have received it, a job withan on order inventory item that cannot be competed until the appropriate Purchase Order hasbeen received.

Depending on what you clicked, a version of the Select Inventory dialog box appears.

4. To assign serialized items, select the check boxes for all inventory items that you want to assign tothis job.To assign non-serialized items, type the amount of items that you want to assign into the Usecolumn.

5. ClickOK. The Assignment is reflected in the Inventory Management Grid.Note:If you assign an inventory item that is from a different stock location then the one servicing thejob, you will be prompted to mark the inventory item as Pending Transfer. Doing so willautomatically put these items on a Transfer Ticket.

6. ClickClose.The Select Inventory dialog box displays the inventory items that are available for use along with the

following information:

4. Drop Ship. Indicates if the item was shipped directly to the customer. Drop-shipped items willonly appear in the dialog box for customers to whom the item was shipped.

5. Location. The item's stock location.6. Description. Indicates the job to which they are attached along with any relevant order or transfer

information.

7. Available. Indicates how much of a non-serialized item is available for assignment.


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Reassigning Inventory Items to Another Job

Occasions may arise where you have to use inventory items that were previously assigned to one job toanother job. This can be easily done in the Inventory Management Grid.

Note that you cannot reassign items on jobs that have already been completed.

1. Open the Inventory Management Grid.2. Find the job for which you want to assign an item previously assigned to another job.3. Click in the Available column. The Select Inventory dialog box appears.

4. Type the amount of inventory items you want to use from each location in the appropriate Usecolumn.

5. ClickOK.The Select Inventory dialog box displays the inventory items that are available for use along with thefollowing information:

Drop Ship. Indicates if the item was shipped directly to the customer. Drop-shipped items willonly appear in the dialog box for customers to whom the item was shipped.

Location. The item's stock location. Description. Indicates the job to which they are attached along with any relevant order or transfer

information.

Available. Indicates how much of the item is available for assignment.Note that if you take an inventory item away from a job, you will need to reassign an inventory item to thatjob at some point in the future.

Assigning Inventory Items to a JobIf an inventoried product is assigned to a job, you need to indicate what specific inventory items will beused on that job. These items need to be assigned before the job is completed. For serialized items, thismeans indicating the specific item(s) that you want to use. For non-serialized items, you simply need toindicate the number of the items you want to use from each stock location.

Note that if you select an inventory item from a different stock location then the job, the inventory itemswill be marked as requiring transfer between the stock locations. Clicking OK will create the transfer,which will need to be completed before you can complete the job. You can complete a transfer individually


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from the Pending Transfer tab or as part of a transfer ticket from the Open Tickets tab. (However, notransfer is required if you assign items from the Completion Wizard).

If you do not assign specific inventory items to a job before the job is completed, ServiceCEO will try touse items from the job's Default Stock Location.

Inventory can be assigned to a job from three places in ServiceCEO:

1. The Inventory Management Grid2. Job Record3. Completion Wizard

The Inventory Management GridFor details on assigning inventory via the Inventory Management Grid, see the Assigning Inventory Itemsvia the Inventory Management Grid topic.

The Job RecordTo assign inventory from a job record:

1. Openthe Services/Products tab of a job record.2. If necessary, add the inventoried products to the job.3. ClickInventory (the button is located in the toolbar). The Inventory Management Grid appears,

displaying information for only this job.

4. Assign inventory items to the job in the manner described in the Assigning Inventory Items via theInventory Management Grid topic.

The Completion WizardTo assign inventory via the Completion Wizard:

On the Charges page of the Completion Wizard, double-click the product for which you want to assigninventory. The Charge Detail dialog box appears.


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A list of available inventory items appears in the bottom portion of this dialog box. The list of items willappear differently if you are using Serialized vs. Non-Serialized items:

Serialized. select the check box corresponding to the specific inventory items you want to use.Note that some inventory items may already be in use; if they are, the job number will appear inthe Stock Location field.

Non-serialized. Type the amount of items you want to use from each stock location into theappropriate Use field.

Tip:If you need to add additional inventory items, clickAdd Inventory and enter in the appropriateinformation in the New Inventory Items dialog box. See the Manually Increasing InventoryLevels section for details

When complete, clickOK.

Keep in mind that inventory is not removed from its stock location until the job is completed.

Adjusting Inventory LevelsAt any point, you can manually adjust your inventory levels in each stock location.

For details about increasing inventory, see the Manually Increasing Inventory Levels topic.

For details about decreasing inventory, see the Removing Inventory Stock topic.


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Removing Inventory StockIf you lose or damage some of your inventory, you can remove the appropriate inventory items fromServiceCEO. To do so:

1. From the Inventory Management Grid, clickRemove Inventory. The Remove Stock dialog boxappears.

2. Type search criteria into the Search for a Master Product to Remove... field. A list of inventoryparts appears.

3. To further limit your search, select a stock location from the Select the Stock Location to searchdrop-down list.

4. Select the item you want to remove from the section 3 list box.5. For Non-Serialized items, type the amount of the item you want to remove in the Remove column.

For Serialized items, select the check box for all of the items you want to remove.

6.

ClickNext>. The Details tab appears.


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7. Select a status code for the removed items from the drop-down list.8. Enter any notes in the Enter any relevant notes field. This note is currently not displayed

anywhere in ServiceCEO.

9. If you are integrated with a third-party accounting application, select the accounts to be adjustedfrom the Inventory Asset Account and Offsetting Account (Expense/Loss) drop-down lists.

10. ClickSave.Note:If you are not integrated with an Accounting application, the process is complete. If you areintegrated, export the Inventory Adjustment line item in the usual manner. See the ExportingSales section for more.

The Purchasing AssistantAccessible from the Inventory Management Grid, the Purchasing Assistant takes the parts that you want toorder and presents you with a list of all known vendors who supply each part. You can then decide thevendor(s) from which you want to order the parts and automatically create any needed purchase orders.

To open the Purchasing Assistant:

1. Open the Inventory Management Grid.2. Click the Order check box corresponding to the inventory items you want to buy.3. ClickOrder from the toolbar. The Purchasing Assistant appears.


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Every inventory item whose Order check box is selected in the Inventory Management Grid appears in thePurchasing Assistant. Located under the description of each part is a list of all of the vendors that supplythat part.

The values in this dialog box are:

Description. The part's description, as displayed in the Master Product Vendor. The vendor that supplies the part. Displayed in blue underneath the part description.

Click the vendor's name to display the Vendor Catalog Item dialog box for that part.

Note:Your preferred vendor for the part appears first. By default, the Qty column for the preferredvendor will be populated with the full amount of the requested part.The order of vendors is defined on the Vendor tab of the Master Product record. See Defining

Preferred Vendors for specifics.

Lead Time. When the part could arrive at the stock location. Derived by taking the part's LeadTime (from the Properties tab of the Vendor Catalog Item) and record and added it to today's date.

Qty. On the part row, displays the amount needed. Displayed in blue.On the vendor row, the amount of the part that will be ordered. Displayed in black.

Note:This Qty value at the part level is also a hyperlink; click it to display the Requested ProductBreak-Down dialog box, displaying details about the job(s) for which the requested items arebeing ordered. This information can be used in conjunction with each vendor's lead time todetermine which vendor you want to use to place the order.


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Cost. Pulled from the Properties tab of the Vendor Catalog Item. Total. The total cost of this line item. Derived by multiplying the Qty by the Cost. PO#. If an unsent purchase order already exists for this vendor, it will display the number of the

purchase order. This part will be included on that purchase order.If is displayed, a new purchase order will be created for this vendor.

Ordering Inventory via the Purchasing AssistantTo order inventory via the Purchasing Assistant, perform these steps:

1. In the Inventory Management Grid, select the Order check box for all of the items that you want toorder.

2. ClickOrder. The Purchasing Assistant appears.

3. Type the amount you want to order into the appropriate Qty column for each vendor. The totalcolumn for each item will update accordingly.Note that if your vendor Qty values do not match the part's Qty, the Total Qty will appear bolded,to inform you of this discrepancy.


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4. To add an order to an existing purchase order, select a purchase order from the PO # drop-downlist on the Purchasing Assistant dialog box. To create a new purchase order for an order, select from the PO # drop-down list.If more than one part is being ordered from a single vendor, and all items are set to create a newPO, all of the parts will be inserted into a single new PO.

Tip:You will be able to add a line item to an existing purchase order only if the purchase order'svendor and the part's vendor match. Only POs that have NOT been sent to the vendor will appear.

5. ClickOrder. New Purchase Orders will be created and/or items will be assigned to existingPurchase Orders.

All Purchase Orders will be displayed on the Purchase Orders tab of the main Inventory page. All newpurchase orders and purchase orders with new parts will have the Pending Approval status. Parts beingordered for a specific job will be marked as assigned to that job. Items being ordered to fill a general stockoutside of the main office will be marked as Pending Transfer to that stock location.

Purchase Orders

OverviewA Purchase Order (PO) - a document that authorizes a vendor to sell and ship you inventory parts at aspecific price - is the tool by which you order inventory from your vendors.

Purchase orders can provide a formal, structured workflow for ordering from your vendors - see thePurchase Order Workflow topic for the different steps in the workflow process.

Alternatively, they can be used as a loose shopping list for example, instead of sending a printed PO toHome Depot, you could print a PO for an employee, have that employee shop for the items himself and,when he returns, add the bought items to ServiceCEO by receiving the PO.

Regardless of how you use it, you can view, access, and create Purchase Orders on the Purchase Orders tab.


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Purchase Order WorkflowServiceCEO's default Purchase Order (PO) workflow contains five steps:

1. Create the PO. For details, see the Creating a Purchase Order topic.All created POs have a status of Pending Approval.

2. Approve the PO. A purchase order must be approved before it can be sent to the vendor. ClickApprove from any tab of the PO to approve it. Approving a PO changes its status to Not Sent.Note that if you make edits to an approved purchase order, the purchase order will need to be re-approved before it is sent.

3. Send the PO. Marking the PO as sent means that is was sent to a vendor or purchasing agent andis in the process of being fulfilled. To send the PO to your vendor:

o ClickSend from any tab of the PO. An Update PO dialog box appears, asking you if youwant to mark the PO as sent and mark the parts as On Order.

o ClickYes. The Report Preview page appears, displaying the purchase order's details.From here, you can send the purchase order to your vendor in any number of ways,

including:

Print the report and mail it to the vendor. Export the report to another format and e-mail it to the vendor.

o ClickClose. The Purchase Order dialog box reappears.Sent purchase orders have a status ofPend. Receipt. Inventory parts on sent POs have a status ofOn Order.


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Tip:You can void a Purchase Order at any point before you receive it. Simply open the PurchaseOrder and select File > Void.

4. Receive Purchase Order. When the parts arrive at your stock location from the vendor, you mustreceive them. Receiving a PO tells ServiceCEO that the items are now in stock. You will be givenan opportunity to edit the quantity and cost of all received items before the items are added to thestock location. To do so:

ClickReceive from any tab of the PO.The Items tab appears, with a newReceived section highlighted with a bluebox (displayed at right).

If the Quantity if a part is different thenwhat you originally ordered, edit theappropriate Received Qty value.

If the cost of a part is different thenwhat it was when you originally orderedit, edit the appropriate Received Costvalue.

When receiving serialized items, theReceived Cost column will display(click) rather then a specific cost.perform these steps:

Click in the Received Cost columnwhere it says (click). TheReceived tab of the PO Item

dialog box appears.

Type the starting serial numberinto the New Starting Serial No.field. The received products willall be assigned a serial number.

If necessary, edit the individualserial numbers in the Serial No.column.

If necessary, edit the individualcosts in the Unit Price column.

ClickOK. Click Receive. A confirmation dialog

box appears.

Click Yes. You may receive someprompts:


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If a part's Received Qty is lessthen the amount you ordered, aBack Order dialog box willappear, prompting you to create anew purchase order for the itemsyou have not yet received. Click

Yes to create the new purchaseorder. The back order purchaseorder will appear with a status ofNot Sent, so you will need to sendit to the vendor as its firstworkflow step.

If a part's Received Cost isdifferent then the original cost,you will be asked if you want toupdate the Vendor Catalog Itemsfor this part. For details, see theUpdating Catalog Items section.

Received purchase orders have a status ofPend. Bill. Items on a received purchase order have astatus ofIn Stock.

Caution:After the PO is sent, editing the Ordered Qty or Cost fields will change the values on the POitself, not the received values. If you want to enter the values of the items as you received them,first clickReceive and enter the values into the Received section with the blue border.

5. Log Bill/Invoice. If you are integrated with a third-party Accounting application (likeQuickBooks), you can export the PO to that application in order to increasing the payables for theappropriate vendor. A summary description of the item entered is also included.If Accounting integration is not enabled, this step allows the user to simply log the invoice number

and date for their internal records.For details, see the Exporting a Purchase Order section.Once a PO is exported, it will no longer appear in ServiceCEO.

Note:You can edit the cost of any inventory item at three points in the workflow:

When receiving the purchase order (step 4) When logging the purchase order (step 5) During job completion

Updating the cost will update the cost of any completed jobs.

In addition, you can edit the sell price of any item prior to the Log Bill/Invoice step. Any createdinvoices will be updated. Note that if the invoice is locked, a new invoice will automatically becreated, reflecting your changes.

Users will only be able to work on POs if they have the proper security rights. See the Purchase Orderssection of the Groups tab of the Admin - User Access Rights dialog box. For details, see the See theEstablishing Security Rights section of the ServiceCEO Help System.


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Creating a Purchase OrderTo create a Purchase Order (PO) perform one of the following steps:

ClickNew Purchase Order from the Parts Catalog tab or the Purchase Orders tab of a vendorrecord.

Use the Purchasing Assistant. ClickNew PO from the Purchase Orders tab.

Once created, you can define the POs values on each tab. For more, see the following sections:

The PO Properties Tab The PO Items Tab The PO Notes Tab The PO History Tab

Once created, the PO will be a part of the PO Workflow.

To edit an existing purchase order, double-click the purchase order you want to edit from the Purchase

Order tab or the Purchase Orders tab of the Vendor record and make any appropriate changes.

You can print a purchase order at any time by clicking . However, if you print a PO before it isreceived, it will reflect the parts' order cost, not their received cost.

The Purchase Order Properties Tab

The Properties tab of the Purchase Order dialog box contains the vendor and shipping information for thepurchase order.


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The important fields on the Properties tab are listed below:

Vendor. Each purchase order is for only one vendor. Select the appropriate vendor from theVendor drop-down list. To search for a vendor who supplies a particular part, part number or

serial number, click . The Catalog Item Search dialog box appears where you can search forthe vendor by the a particular part description, part number or serial number.

Note that once the PO is saved, you will not be able to change the vendor.

Ship To. This section lets you define where the parts will be shipped. You can either have theparts sent to a stock location or you can have it drop-shipped to a customer location.There are three options here are:

1. To send the parts to a stock location, simply select a stock location from the StockLocation drop-down list.

2. If this entire purchase order is for one specific customer, select the Order for Customercheck box. Click to search for and select the customer for which this order isintended. While the parts will still be sent to the stock location selected in the StockLocation drop-down list, the parts on this PO will be marked as belonging to theidentified customer so that they will not be assigned to a job for another customer.

3. To drop-ship the order directly to the identified customer, select the Customer Locationoption button and select the appropriate customer address from the Customer Locationdrop-down list.

Expected Arrival Date. By default, the purchase order's expected arrival date is defined by thelargest lead times of any of the PO's parts. You should only edit this date if the vendor hasprovided you with a different expected arrival date. To do so, select the purchase order's expectedarrival date from the Expected Arrival Date calendar box.


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Notification Date. An optional field. Enter the date by which you want the vendor to notify you ifthe order will be delayed or changed. Defaults to the date on which the PO was created.The exact format of how the notification date appears on the printed purchase order can be edited;see the Defining Inventory Management Options section.

Payment Terms. The payment terms of the purchase order are defaulted from the vendor's Termsfield as defined on the Detail tab of the Vendor record. To change, select a different value from the

drop-down list.

Shipping. This field enables you to add additional shipping requests of the vendor that will beincluded on the printed purchase order.

Sales Tax. If selected, sales tax will paid for this purchase order. Defaults from the Detail tab ofthe Vendor record.

Caution:In order to charge taxes for the PO, both the Sales Tax check box here AND in the VendorCatalog Items need to be selected..

Accounting File. If you are integrated with a third-party Accounting application (likeQuickBooks), this field will appear so that you can change the account that will receive the billassociated with this PO. By default, the purchase order will be associated with the accounting fileas defined on the General tab of the vendor record. If you are using multiple accounting files, youcan change this by selecting the check box associated with another accounting file and clickOK.

The Purchase Orders Items Tab

Each item on the Items tab corresponds to one of the specific parts that is being ordered. There are twotypes of items:

Vendor catalog entry. Vendor catalog items will add inventory items to your order and In Stockinventory levels throughout the Purchase Order process. See the Adding an Inventory Item to aPurchase Order section.

Miscellaneous entry. Miscellaneous items do not affect inventory levels and are simply a way ofaccounting for fees you pay your vendor (for example, shipping and handling charges). If youwant, you can distribute the cost of the miscellaneous charges amongst all of the inventory itemson the Purchase Order, increasing the cost of each items. This distribution enables you to bundlecharges like shipping and handling with the actual purchase price of the items. See the Adding aMiscellaneous Item to a Purchase Order section.


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Caution:If tax does not appear for a purchase order item, taxes may not be enabled in the vendor's DetailTab.

The Purchase Order Notes TabThe Notes tab displays all notes attached to the Purchase Order.


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There are two Notes fields:

Notes to print on Purchase Order. Anything typed in this field appears on the printed purchaseorder.

Notes for Internal use. Notes typed here are for internal use only and will not appear on theprinted purchase order.

Caution:Neither of these notes will appear on the purchase order's History Tab. Only automatic statuschange notes and comments entered on the History tab will appear as history.

The Purchase Order History Tab

The History tab contains itemized notes for internal use. These are useful if there are many individuals inyour organization who are involved in the purchasing process.

To add a note to the History tab of a Purchase Order:

1. ClickAdd Comment. The PO History Note dialog box appears.2. Type the note you want to add in the large text field.3. ClickSave. The note is added as with a type of "comment".

Tip:The administrator can opt to force users to enter notes after each step of the Purchase Orderworkflow in the PO Settings dialog box. For more, see the Defining Inventory ManagementOptions section.

Adding an Inventory Item to a Purchase Order

You can add a new part to a Purchase Order (PO) at any point before the PO is sent.

Note that you can create a PO whose items are already added to the PO from a Vendor's Parts Catalog tabby selecting the items you want to order and clicking New PO. You can also use the Purchasing Assistant.


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To search for and add an Inventory Item to a Purchase Order:

1. From the Items tab of the Purchase Order dialog box, click the drop-down arrow on the Add Itembutton and select Inventory Item from the drop-down menu.

o If the PO is already assigned a vendor on the Properties Tab, then the PO Item dialog boxappears. Go to step 4.

o If you PO does not yet have an assigned vendor, the Catalog Item Search dialog boxappears.

Note:Select the Search superseding catalogs check box to search previous versions of parts. In otherwords, selecting this check box will enable you to find a part using values that have since beenupdated.

2. Type the first few letters of the inventory item you want to add in the Search field. A list of partsappears.

3. Select the part you want to add.4. ClickSelect. The PO Item dialog box appears.


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5. If you have selected a vendor for the PO (and thus have skipped steps 1-4), select the catalog itemyou want to use from the Catalog Item drop-down list.If you searched for and selected an item via the Catalog Item Search dialog box, the item youselected will already appear in the Catalog Item drop-down list.

6. The defaulted values default from the vendor record. Edit any of the fields in this dialog box asnecessary.

Note:Editing any of the values in the PO Item dialog box will not change the vendor record, just thisinstance of the item for this individual purchase order.

7. ClickOK. The item appears on the Purchase Order tab.To add an item directly to the purchase order:

1. From the Items tab of the Purchase Order dialog box, clickAdd Item. A new line appears on theItems tab.

2. Select the item you want to add from the Internal Part No. drop-down list.3. Press Tab. Most of the other fields of this line-item will default from the vendor record.4. Edit any values as necessary.5. ClickItem Details the to display the PO Item dialog box.6. Edit the fields in this dialog box as necessary.7. ClickOK. A new item appears on the Purchase Order tab.

If you make any changes to an part that differs from its values in the vendor catalog, the Catalog UpdateOptions dialog box appears, listing any changes you have made to the part on this PO, and lets youdetermine how you want to make use of these changes. For details, see the Updating Catalog Items section.

Adding a Miscellaneous Item to a Purchase Order

A miscellaneous item on a Purchase Order (PO) is an expense that is not for the purchase of an inventorypart. For example, adding shipping and handling charges to the PO could be handed through amiscellaneous item.

To add a miscellaneous item to a purchase order:

1. From the Items tab of the Purchase Order dialog box, click the drop-down arrow on the Add Itembutton and select Miscellaneous Item from the drop-down menu. The PO Item dialog box

appears.


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2. Type a description of the miscellaneous item in the Description field.3. Enter the number of units ordered in the Qty Ordered spin box.4. Enter the cost of each unit in the Expected Cost spin box.

Tip:If you are entering a general charge, enter 1 in the Qty Ordered spin box and define the charge'samount in the Expected Cost spin box.

5. If sales tax will be charged on this item, select the Sales Tax check box and enter the taxpercentage in the spin box.

6. Click the Costing tab.

7. Select the costing distribution method from the Cost Distribution Mode drop-down list. Themethod you selected will affect the job costing of jobs that use the parts on this PO. Your optionsare:

o Do Not Distribute. The charge will not be distributed amongst any charges - it will be itsown line item on the purchase order.

o Distribute Evenly. The charge will be split evenly amongst all items in the purchaseorder.


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o Distribute Proportionally. The charge will be split proportionally amongst all itemsattached to the purchase order. For example, if you are adding a $100.00 miscellaneouscharge amongst a $100.00 item and a $400.00 item, $25.00 will be added to the $100.00item and $75.00 will be added to the $400.00 item.

Caution:

Currently, the Distribute Proportionally option is not working correctly. We hope to have thisoption working in a future release of ServiceCEO.

8. If you selected Do Not Distribute from the Cost Distribution Mode drop-down list, select aQuickBooks expense account for the miscellaneous charge from the QuickBooks Exp. Acctdrop-down list. If you are not integrated with QuickBooks, skip this step.

9. Click the Notes tab.10. Enter a note for the miscellaneous item in the Notes list box.11. ClickOK. The miscellaneous item is now part of the purchase order.

Transferring InventoryTransferring (or moving) inventory between stock locations is typically a two step process:

1. Create the Transfer Request. Transfers are created when you assign an inventory item to a jobthat occurs in a different stock location then where the stock is originally located. See CreatingPending Transfers for more.When you tell ServiceCEO that you want to transfer inventory items from one location to another,three things occur:

1. A transfer request is created.2. The transferred items are removed from their original stock location.3. They are added to the destination stock location with a Pending Transfer flag. This flag is

visible from the Inventory dialog box (accessed by clicking the appropriate Qty Assignedfield from the Inventory Management Grid).

All pending transfers are displayed on the Pending Transfer tab.

2. Complete a pending transfer. When a transfer is completed, the items in the destination stocklocation are no longer flagged as "Pending Transfer". For instructions on completing a transfer,see the Completing Transfers section.Keep in mind that a stock location's totals are NOT updated with the transferred inventory untilthe transfer is completed.

Note:On order items (items on a Purchase Order that have not yet been received from the vendor) maybe marked as pending transfer, but the transfer cannot be completed until the items are firstreceived.


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The Pending Transfer TabThe Pending Transfer tab contains all of the open transfers in ServiceCEO that are not part of a TransferTicket. Transfers that are part of a transfer ticket are located in the Open Tickets tab.

From here, you can:

Finalize a transfer. See Completing Transfers for details. Create a transfer ticket. See Transfer Tickets for details.

Creating Pending TransfersWhen an inventory part is flagged as "pending transfer", it is removed from its original stock location andappears in its destination stock location. Pending transfer parts have not yet been physically been movedbetween stock locations, (or it is in the process of being moved between the two locations), so you will notbe able to complete any jobs to which a pending transfer part is assigned until the transfer is completed.

Note that thus the totals of the destination stock location will not include any items in transit. In otherwords, items being transferred do not show up in the stock levels tab of either Stock Location.

A pending transfer is created in the Inventory Management Grid. Whenever you assign parts that arelocated in one stock location to a job that is being serviced by another stock location, it will ask you tomark these parts as pending transfer. For example, if five parts located in the central warehouse (the stock

location for the entire company) are assigned to a job serviced by the Suburb team, then you will beprompted to flag these parts as pending transfer to the Suburb stock location.


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Tip:You can create a transfer outside of the Inventory Management Grid by creating a new transferticket. To do so:

1. Open the Open Tickets tab.2. Click Create Transfer Ticket.3. Click Add New Transfer. A new line will be added to the transfer ticket.4. Search for and add the part you want to transfer as well as the source and destination

stock locations.

All pending transfers that are not part of a Transfer Ticket are located on the Pending Transfer tab.

Tip:You can group any pending transfers that are going to the same stock location together onto aTransfer Ticket.

Voiding Inventory TransfersVoiding a Pending Transfer will cancel the transfer. The parts pending transfer will be returned theiroriginal stock location.

To void a transfer:

1. From the Pending Transfer tab, select the check box corresponding to the transfer(s) you want tovoid.

2. Click . The transfer is cancelled.

Completing an Inventory TransferCompleting a pending transfer will complete the move of parts from one Stock Location to another.To complete a transfer:

1. From the Pending Transfer tab, select the check box corresponding to each transfer you want tocomplete.

2. ClickComplete Transfer. The Quick Complete screen appears.3. If necessary, select the employee who transferred the inventory from the Transferred By drop-

down list.

4. Enter any notes you want to attach to the transfer in the Notes field.5. Adjust the final transfer quantity by clicking the appropriate Qty Transfer column and entering

the amount of items that were transferred.

6. ClickFinalize Transfer.Once a transfer is finalized, the parts will appear as In Stock in the destination stock location.


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The Open Tickets tabThe Open Tickets tab displays all of open Transfer Tickets. A transfer ticket is a collection of transfers thatare being moved to the same stock location.

Note that individual transfers do not appear on this tab - they will appear on the Pending Transfer tabinstead.

For more on transfer tickets, see the Transfer Tickets section.

Transfer TicketsA transfer ticket groups multiple inventory transfers together, so that multiple items can be transferredwithout the need to complete multiple transfers individually. For larger organizations that rely heavily ontransferring inventory between stock locations, bundling together similar transfers into a transfer ticketkeeps all transfer information is in one place and is also much more efficient.

For example, an inventory manager for a large organization with a central shipping and receivingwarehouse can use the Inventory Management Grid to assign inventory items to all of the jobs scheduledfor the upcoming week. Assigning the items in this way automatically creates the transfers needed to moveany items to their proper stock location. Next, the inventory manager can open the Pending Transfer taband group together similar transfers into transfer tickets for the staff that will be moving the actual parts.

Creating Transfer Tickets

To create a transfer ticket, clickCreate Transfer Ticket from one of the following locations:

The Open Tickets tab. The Pending Transfer tab. Select the transfers you want to group together on a transfer ticket and

clickCreate Transfer Ticket.


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From the Pending Transfer tab, you can click the arrow next to the Create Transfer Ticket button foradditional options for creating a transfer ticket:

Selected Items. All selected transfers will be grouped together onto a new ticket. The same assimply clicking Create Transfer Ticket.

Group By Source. All items coming from the same stock location will be automatically groupedtogether on one ticket.

Group By Destination. All items going to a specific stock location will be automatically groupedtogether on one ticket.

Group By Source/Destination. All items coming from the same stock location to another stocklocation will be automatically grouped together on one ticket.

Tip:If you use any of the Group By options, you do not need to select any individual transfers beforeyou click the Create Transfer Ticket option; the appropriate transfers will automatically beselected for you.

Regardless of the option you use, the Open Tickets page appears, containing all of the transfers you

selected.

There are several fields you can use in this dialog box:

Assigned To. Select the employee or team who will physically move the items from one locationto another from the drop-down list.

Due Date. Select the date by which the transfer must be completed.

Notes. If necessary, type a note. This note will appear on the printed transfer ticket.See the sections below for details on how to add new and existing transfers to the transfer ticket.

ClickCreate Ticket to save the transfer ticket.


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Adding Existing Transfer Items

To add existing transfers to the transfer ticket after the transfer ticket has been created:

1. Open the transfer ticket.2. ClickAdd Existing Transfer. The Pending Transfers - Without Ticket dialog box appears,displaying all parts awaiting transfer but that have not yet been assigned to a transfer ticket.3. Select the check box for each item that you want to add to the current transfer ticket.4. ClickOK. The selected items are added.

Adding New Transfer Items

To add new transfer items to the transfer ticket:

1. ClickAdd New Transfer. A new line appears.2. Select the item you want to transfer from the Part No./Description drop-down list.

Tip:To quickly search this list, type the first few letters or numbers of the item you want to transfer.You will be taken to the spot in the drop-down list that matches your search criteria.

3. Select the stock location from which you want to remove the item(s) from the Source drop-downlist.

4. Select the stock location where you want to locate the item from the Destination drop-down list.5. Type the amount of parts you want to move in the Qty Transfer field. If you are transferring a

serialized item you will need to select the exact items at this time.

6. Repeat steps 3-5 to add more items to the Transfer Ticket.7. ClickCreate Ticket. The Transfer Ticket appears on the Open Tickets tab of the Inventory

section.

Editing Transfer Tickets

To edit a transfer ticket:

1. ClickInventory from the Navigator bar. The Inventory page appears.2. Click the Open Tickets tab. The Open Tickets page appears.3. Double-click the ticket you want to edit. The Transfer Ticket dialog box appears.4. Make any needed changes to the transfer ticket.5. ClickSave and Close. Your changes are saved.


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Voiding Transfer Tickets

Voiding a transfer ticket will not only void the transfer ticket but also all of the individual transfers locatedon it.

1. ClickInventory from the Navigator bar. The Inventory page appears.2. Click the Open Tickets tab. The Open Tickets page appears.3. Double-click the ticket you want to edit. The Transfer Ticket dialog box appears.4. ClickVoid to void the ticket. A confirmation message appears.5. ClickYes. The Transfer Ticket is voided.

Finalizing Transfer Tickets

To finalize a transfer ticket:

1. Double-click the ticket you want to edit. The Transfer Ticket dialog box appears.2. Edit any of the fields in this dialog box as necessary.3. ClickFinalize Transfer to approve all of the transfers on the transfer ticket. A confirmation

dialog box appears.

4. ClickYes. The transfer ticket closes. The items are removed from their source and now appear inthe destination stock location. The transfer ticket no longer appears on the Open Tickets tab.


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Vendors

Vendors OverviewA vendor is a company that provides you with the inventory you sell to or use to service your customers.

All of a vendor's information is stored in their vendor record. All of your vendor records are displayed inthe Vendors tab of the Inventory section.

Double-click a vendor to display the Vendor dialog box.

Creating a VendorTo create a vendor in ServiceCEO:

1. From the Vendors tab of the Inventory page, clickNew. The General tab of a new vendor recordappears.

2. Navigate to and enter in relevant information on the following tabs:o Vendor General Tabo Vendor Detail Tabo Vendor Parts Catalog Tabo Vendor Purchase Orders Tabo Vendor Links Tab

3. When complete, clickSave and Close.


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The General Tab of a Vendor Record

The General tab automatically appears when you first open a vendor record. This page contains the maininformation about the vendor.

You can edit the vendor's information by editing the appropriate fields.

The Active check box is selected by default. Deselect it if you do not want this vendor or its parts to beused in ServiceCEO.

If you are integrated with QuickBooks, you can link your ServiceCEO vendors QuickBooks vendor. Seethe Linking Vendors to QuickBooks section for details.

The Detail Tab of a Vendor Record

The Detail tab contains the vendor's payment information.


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The fields on this page are:

Default Payment Terms. If you are integrated with QuickBooks, you can select the vendor'spayment terms from the drop-down list. Note that the available terms will be those as defined inthe linked QuickBooks account.

Sales Tax. To charge sales tax for all purchases made from this vendor, select the check box andenter the sales tax percentage in the spin box. Note that if this check box is not selected, no partordered from this vendor will include tax.Also note that in order for the part to include sales tax on a Purchase Order, the Sales Tax checkbox needs to be selected in the appropriate Vendor Catalog Item.

Default Lead Time. Enter the default amount of time, in days, between when you order a part andthe time when the vendor can deliver it to you.

Notes. Enter any notes about this vendor into the Notes field.The Parts Catalog tab of a Vendor Record

The Parts Catalog tab of a vendor record contains a list of all of the vendor's parts. Each part is linked to amaster product.

To edit or view the details of a part, double-click the appropriate part. To create a new part, clickNewPart. The Vendor Catalog Item dialog box appears. See the Vendor Catalog Items section for details onmanaging a vendor's part.

To create a purchase order, clickNew Purchase Order. See Creating a Purchase Order section for details.

To import parts from an import file, clickImport Parts. For specific steps,see the Importing Data intoServiceCEO Overview section.


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The Purchase Orders Tab of a Vendor Record

The Purchase Orders (PO) tab of the vendor record displays all of the purchase orders associated with thatvendor.

To create a new PO, clickNew Purchase Order.

You can edit POs that have not yet been received by double-clicking the PO. The Purchase Order recordappears, where you can make any necessary changes. See the Purchase Order sections for details.

The Links tab of a Vendor Record

The Links tab of the Vendor dialog box contains everything that is linked to the vendor.

For more on links, read the Adding a Link to a Record section.

Defining Preferred VendorsYour preferred vendor will appear first in the Purchasing Assistant, and will be the vendor that, by default,the purchasing assistant will use to order parts.

You can define your preferred vendors in the Vendor tab of the Product Detail dialog box. To do so:

1. Select Tools > Lists > Master Product List or press CTRL+F5. The Products and ServicesDetail page appears.

2. ClickNew. The Product and Service Detail dialog box appears.3. Click the Vendor tab.


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All of the vendors that have this master product in their Vendor Catalog appear on this tab. The order onwhich they appear on this tab indicates your preference; the top vendor is the preferred vendor, the secondlisted vendor the second best, etc.

To change the order of a vendor:

1. Select the vendor you want to move.2. ClickMove Up or Move Down to move the vendor up or down in this list.

To add this master product into a vendor's vendor catalog:

1. ClickAdd New. A System Search dialog box appears.2. Type some search criteria into the field. A listing of active vendors appears in the list box.3. Select the check box for the vendor to which you want to add this product.4. ClickOK. The Vendor Catalog Item dialog box appears with this master product selected in the

Internal Product drop-down list.

5. Enter the rest of the vendor catalog item in the usual manner. See the Vendor Catalog Itemssection for details.

6. When complete, clickOK. The vendor you selected in step 3 will now appear in the Vendor tab.Vendor Catalogs

Vendor Catalog Items

You can add or edit a vendor catalog item from the following areas:

Click the vendor's name in the Purchasing Assistant dialog box. The Parts Catalog tab of the V

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