If you would like to restrict at a user level which users are allowed to post credit memos a very simple BPM can be established to control this.   This is an example of the many practical ways simple BPMs can be utilized within Epicor to modify system behavior.

Installation Steps

1.       Establish a new BPM on the InvcGrp.PrePostInvoices method at Pre-Processing.

2.       Name it whatever you like and give it a group name.

3.       Add a new action to synchronously execute 4GL code with the following code:

find first ttInvcGrp no-lock.
find first UserFile where UserFile.DcdUserID = DCD-USERID no-lock.

for each InvcHead where InvcHead.Company = ttInvcGrp.Company and InvcHead.GroupID = ttInvcGrp.GroupID and InvcHead.CreditMemo = true no-lock:
if UserFile.CheckBox01 = False then
{lib/PublishEx.i &ExMsg = “‘This user is not authorized to post credit memos.’”}
end.

This snippet will check for a CheckBox01 field equal to ‘true’ in User Maintenance, but you can tweak that “find first” statement / the “if” statement to do lookup whatever you prefer.

Please contact us today for more information on importing data into Visual Manufacturing/Enterprise using Excel!

In your “out of the box” Epicor installation the process of running a job through the system consists of the following (in a generic sense):

1. Create the job
2. Issue materials
3. Receive quantities through each operation on the job
4. Receive quantities from the job to finished goods when it has passed through the last operation
5. Use Job Completion / Closing Maintenance to complete / close the job.

Epicor provides us with a process that can automate #5.   This document describes how to set that up.

Job Complete / Close Parameters

The first step to automate job closing and completion process is to specify the parameters for when a job is a candidate to be completed or closed.   To do so, navigate to Job Complete / Close Parameters under Production Management / Job Management / Setup.

The following excerpt from Help explains this screen:

Use Job Complete/Close Code Parameters Maintenance to create closing and completion codes for jobs.

These codes direct the Epicor application to automatically complete or close several jobs at once without further review. This allows you to complete or close jobs by exception, as only jobs that do not fall within the threshold of a specific code need to be reviewed.

Each threshold of a specific code is defined by material, operation, and subcontract criteria. You further define this criteria through quantity and cost variance percentages.

Alternately, the code threshold can be set using a monetary threshold by entering a variance amount in the Job Cost Under or Over field(s). Once closing codes are established, they can optionally be assigned to specific product group(s). A code can also be set as the default, regardless of the product group.

Moreover, you can exclude Make Direct Jobs not shipped from processing by selecting corresponding check boxes in the Make Direct Job Processing box group. By default the Epicor application processes all of the specified jobs.

Implement Your Codes

When you create closing codes, you must select them on product groups. These product groups are assigned to specific part records. Any jobs that manufacture these parts can then be automatically completed or closed.

To do this, set up both the Auto Job Closing Process and the Auto Job Completion Process to run regularly on a schedule you select. Any jobs that match the threshold criteria defined on the code automatically complete or close through these processes.

Any jobs not completed display on the Job Completion Exception Tracker. Likewise, any jobs that were not closed display on the Job Closing Exception Tracker. Use these trackers to determine why the job did not complete or close properly. You can then open the job in Job Entry, or another related program, to correct the exception.

Detail Fields

Closing Code
A unique code to identify the job closing record. Enter a concise value that will help you quickly identify the closing code.

Code…
Click this button to search for existing records. This search program pulls in the record type displayed on the button label.

Complete Inspection in Pending Jobs
When selected, this check box indicates that jobs awaitinginspection can still be automatically completed through this code. When this check box is clear, however, the Auto Job Completion Process will ignore any jobs awaiting inspection.
>> Important: Jobs that have not completed inspection cannot be closed.

Description
A concise explanation that further defines the closing code.

Job Closing
When selected, this check box indicates that this code will automatically close jobs.

Job Closing Default
When selected, this check box indicates that this code will be the default closing code within the system. If a closing code is not selected on a product group, the system will use this default code to close jobs within this group.
>> Important: If you do not select a default closing code within this maintenance program, the manufacturing system will not close jobs automatically.

Job Completion
When selected, this check box indicates that this code will automatically complete jobs.

Job Completion Default
When selected, this check box indicates that this code will be the default completion code within the system. If a closing code is not selected on a product group, the system will use this default code to complete jobs within this group.
>> Important: If you do not select a default completion code within this maintenance program, the manufacturing system will not complete jobs automatically.

Job Cost Over
A monetary threshold that can be used to automatically close or complete a job. The Job Cost Over value defines how much above its estimated cost a job can be before it is completed/closed. If you enter a value in this field, the Auto Job Completion/Close process will activate this costing method; this process is run before other completion/close methods.

Job Cost Under
A monetary threshold that can be used to automatically close or complete a job. The Job Cost Under value defines how much below its estimated cost a job can be before it is completed/closed. If you enter a value in this field, the Auto Job Completion/Close process will activate this costing method; this process is run before other completion/close methods.
If the difference between the Estimated Job Costs and the Actual Job Costs is less than or equal to the Job Cost Under value, the job is automatically completed or closed. Note however, that other limitations, like active labor transactions and pending inspections, can still prevent a job from being completed or closed.

Material Cost Over %
The material threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual material values against the estimated material values. Any jobs that have material values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Material Cost Under %
The material threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual material values against the estimated material values. Any jobs that have material values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Material Quantity Over %
The material threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual material values against the estimated material values. Any jobs that have material values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Material Quantity Under %
The material threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual material values against the estimated material values. Any jobs that have material values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Operation Cost Over %
The operation threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual operation sequence values against the estimated operation sequence values. Any jobs that have operation values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Operation Cost Under %
The operation threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual operation sequence values against the estimated operation sequence values. Any jobs that have operation values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Operation Quantity Over %
The operation threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual operation sequence values against the estimated operation sequence values. Any jobs that have operation values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Operation Quantity Under %
The operation threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual operation sequence values against the estimated operation sequence values. Any jobs that have operation values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Subcontract Cost Over %
The subcontract threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity and/or cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual subcontract values against the estimated subcontract values. Any jobs that have subcontract values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Subcontract Cost Under %
The subcontract threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for cost. These are variance percentages that measure the actual subcontract values against the estimated subcontract values. Any jobs that have subcontract values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed..

Subcontract Quantity Over %
The subcontract threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual subcontract values against the estimated subcontract values. Any jobs that have subcontract values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

Subcontract Quantity Under %
The subcontract threshold for the code; you can enter percentages for quantity. These are variance percentages that measure the actual subcontract values against the estimated subcontract values. Any jobs that have subcontract values that fall under one of these percentages will not be automatically closed or completed.

So on my screen shot I am specifying that the quantity that has been completed through all operations (and up to 20% over the quantity requested) and material / subcontract can be +/- 20%.

Creating a Schedule to Run the Process Periodically

If you don’t have one already, you’ll need a schedule set up in your System Agent to periodically run processes like the job completion processes.   To do so, navigate to System Agent under System Management / Utilities.

Now go to File / New Schedule:

Here specify a description (can be whatever you want), check Enabled, set the Schedule Type to ‘Interval’ and specify an interval (how often you want this task to run) in seconds.   Here I have mine set to run every 5 minutes which might be a bit excessive for some environments.

Submit the Auto Complete / Close Processes to This Schedule

Now navigate to Auto Job Completion Process under Production Management / Job Management / General Operations.

When this window is presented, select your new schedule in the schedule section and then press the Process button:

Repeat this for Auto Job Completion Process.

Monitoring

Epicor provides us with a set of trackers to monitor the exceptions when jobs are not closed or completed using this process.   These trackers exist in Production Management / Job Management / General Operations and are named ‘Job Closing Exception Tracker’ and ‘Job Completion Exception Tracker’.

1. Find a search dialog that you wish to auto-populate with search results.   Here I have selected the ‘Customer’ button on the quote entry form.   Now click the ‘Named Search’ button:

2. Next, press the New button:

3. Now fill in a named search ID (it can be whatever you want as long as it doesn’t have spaces – I recommend ‘AUTO’) and also give it a description (again, whatever you want is fine here – I recommend ‘Auto Search’).   Use the lower portion of the screen to configure the default search preferences.

4. Now click on the Detail / Options tab and check ‘Default’ and ‘Auto Execute’.

5. Lastly click ‘Save’.

Now any time you click this search button it will automatically load up the results just as it did in Vantage.   For example, here in sales order entry when I click the ‘Customer’ button I immediately get results:

Next click on the ‘Wizards’ tab:

And then click on the ‘Form Event Wizard’:

These events allow us to connect directly into the underlying functionality of the form via connecting to data changes, business object calls, when the form is opened, closed, and much more. For what we are doing, we want to intercept whenever a new record is created and set a value so for the box ‘Select Event Type’ choose EpiViewNotification. The EpiView is a representation for all of the data that is represented on the form. In the ‘Select View/Table (and Field)’ box we will select the table that we want to set the default value in. In this cause, I’m modifying the UD01 table.

Next we click the right arrow:

And click the Update All Event Code:

Now click on the Script Editor to see our new code:

At the bottom now, we have a new code block called edvUD01_EpiViewNotification which is our connection to when data changes in the UD01 EpiView. By default it has an if block checking to see if the NotifyType is an AddRow (meaning a new record is created) and that the row is greater than -1. All we need to do is add a statement inside of that second if block telling it what record we want to set to what value. We do this by saying:
view.dataView(args.Row)(“Key2″) = “Test”
The “Key2″ is the field I would like to set and “Test” represents the value that we would like to set it to. It should then look like this:

Save and run your new customization. When you click on the new button, you should now see that Key2 is filled in automatically!

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For more information on this and our other range of extensions, add-ons and customizations for Visual Enterprise/Manufacturing, please visit our website or contact SaberLogic at 330-335-6442.