VISUAL ERP Consulting and Support - Visual Nuggets

Here are the steps we did in upgrading VISUAL

2018-08-21T10:10:37-04:00

Jon Davis is our special guest author at visualnuggets.com and is an active participant in the VISUAL community. Jon is a Software Engineer/Systems Analyst at Helwig Carbon Products - who recently upgraded to VISUAL 9 from VISUAL 7 on a SQL Server platform.

I want to sincerely thank Jon for sharing his upgrade thought process and experience.

Connect with Jon Davis online at LinkedIn

Our Background

Helwig Carbon Products is a mid-sized manufacturing company, makers of specialty carbon products, has been using VISUAL for almost 15 years. This past year we upgraded from VISUAL 7.0.0 to 9.0.3, doing all the upgrade work internally. Our IT department consist of three employees and it took roughly 3-4 months to prepare and execute the upgrade.

We have 75 user licenses and have added a lot of customizations to VISUAL over the years. Most of our customizations are done through Macros or internally built applications that connect to the Visual database directly.

We also use SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) as our reporting solution and our database is SQL Server 2008 R2. Our client machines are running Windows 7, mainly because VISUAL 7.0.0 doesn’t work in Windows 10 and we had to hold off on our Windows 10 upgrades until we moved to VISUAL 9 (which does support Windows 10).

Our Challenges

The biggest hurdles to overcome in the upgrade were caused by the schema changes in 9.0.3 especially because we’re a single-site company that was using 7.0.0 which didn’t include multi-site functionality.

We also had several applications and reports that referenced the VISUAL database directly and all had to be reviewed to see if the schema changes affected them. Fortunately, the “look and feel” between VISUAL 7 and 9 are roughly the same so little training was required for end users.

Our Preparation

To prepare yourself for the upgrade you’ll first have to set up a test database and application server. We ended up having to run through the test upgrade process roughly 6 times before we were even able to get the actual upgrade script to run successfully, so having a test system will be necessary.

The first thing to note is that the upgrade caused our database file to more than double in size and it caused most of our problems. In our case, we have nearly 20 years of data in our VISUAL database (some was migrated from our old ERP system) so our DB file went from 70GB to 200GB.

If you can purge any data in your VISUAL system before upgrading it would be highly recommended.

Our Considerations & Decisions Made

A lot of the steps you’ll need to take depend on how your current system is set up, so I’ll just run down a few things that affected us or you might need to review in your environment

We had our Macros stored on the client machines as VMS files and would be switching to saving Macros in the Database after we upgraded. VISUAL has a built-in process for migrating from files to the database
We never used User Profiles, so we never had any set up or assigned to users. Because database macros are applied to users via their profiles we had to set up a series of profiles after the upgrade was completed. We speed up the process by scripting this in SQL queries
We are a single-site company but because 9.0.3 uses multi-site we had to assign all users to a site. In the upgrade process it’ll ask you what you want your default site to be, but it didn’t automatically add all users to that site. We created a script to run after the upgrade to update all users to the correct site.
Preferences are now stored in the database instead of the INI files on the client machines. We had to add some new Preferences to some users because of changes in functionality that were different than in 7.0.0. We had to add the following preferences to maintain the functionality as it was in 7.0.0 (but your experience may differ)
- SuppressZeroLines in Shipping Entry (without this a packlist will include all lines on the order, even if they aren’t being shipped in that packlist)
- ConsolTaxesByID in InvoiceGeneration (Invoice taxes were showing line by line instead of summarized)
- NewMaterialMode in Inventory Transactions (without this a user cannot issue new material to a work order)
Review if you have any customizations in the VISUAL database schema itself. This was an issue we had in a prior upgrade but have since resolved. We currently never change any of the data tables in the VISUAL database and instead maintain a second database (but on the same instance so it can be referenced in the same SQL query as the VISUAL database) outside of VISUAL. If you have schema changes in your VISUAL's DB you’ll have to undo these before you run the upgrade script

Our Timeline

It took us roughly three months from start to finish. The complexity of your customizations and your specific environment will greatly change this for you. Our actual project timeline looked like this:

Discuss client installs with IT department to decide on deploy strategy
- 1/5/2018
Set Up copy of current DB on Test system and run VISUAL 9 upgrade scripts
- 1/12/2018
Confirm upgrade worked with several users
- 1/19/2018
Convert text file based macros into VISUAL 9.0 DB versions and confirm they work
- 2/2/2018
Database Compare to see what custom Triggers, Indexes, etc. did not transfer and need to be rebuilt
- 2/9/2018
Discuss training strategy with managers
- 2/9/2018
Begin user testing in VISUAL 9.0 test environment
- 2/16/2018
Train users for VISUAL 9
- 2/23/2018
Deploy (Weekend TBD by IT department)
- Back Up of Database and Server
  - Friday After Hours
- Install 9.0 on server and run conversion utility
  - Friday After Hours
- Install clients
  - During the week whenever a user is done for the week
- Super user testing
  - Sunday morning
- Go/No Go
  - Sunday 3:00pm

Our VISUAL Upgrade Steps

As for the details on our upgrade process...here are the step-by-step instructions we followed on our actual upgrade. I’ve included some notes to help clarify some steps:

Back up Database
Disable Database Jobs that will interfere with upgrade
1. Make sure SQL Sentry monitoring is off (This was monitoring software that constantly pings the database and checks for issues)
2. Turn off all scheduled tasks on automated server (These are scripts that run against our VISUAL database and our automated Work Order Printing and Costing Utilities)
3. Turn off Pick Ticket Printing service (We have our own custom-built software that prints Pick Tickets)
4. Confirm all backups are off (We don’t want backups running during the upgrade and slowing things down.)
Install VISUAL 9 on VISUAL Server
1. Uninstall VISUAL 7
2. Uninstall Gupta Runtimes
3. Uninstall Macros (you probably won’t have to do this depending on if and how you use macros)
4. Install V9 Runtimes
5. Install V9 Application Server
Run “Before update scripts” (These scripts basically removed our custom indexes and triggers from the database, so they don’t interfere)
Run V7.0.0 to 9.0.3 upgrade
Install V9 Macros on VISUAL
1. Install V9 version of Macros on VISUAL (including VMS files)
2. APPLICATION GLOBAL MAINTENANCE -> Default “Store Macros in Database” (Check this box)
3. Convert file Macros into DB Macros
4. Copy all VMS files from Project Folder onto VISUAL
5. Go to V9 -> Admin -> Load Macros
6. Remove VMS files
7. Import MACRO_PROFILE table
Update all users with Default Profiles
1. Run “Macro Scripts” in VISUAL Users List and Scripts.xlsx (These were the scripts I mentioned that added the profiles to VISUAL and added those profiles to the correct users)
2. Set Default Profile permissions all to “Yes” (Including menu security and program security) (This was because we had a default profile we never used before but will now be using it to set macro permissions on all users)
Update all users with Site ID 1
1. Run scripts in “Site ID Scripts” tab of VISUAL Users List and Scripts.xlsx
Insert InvoiceGeneration Preference Script
1. Run scripts in “Preferences Scripts” tab of VISUAL Users List and Scripts.xlsx
Copy over updated QRPs
1. Copy updated V:\modified QRP files (This was the directory where all of our customized QRPs are stored, they were prepared ahead of time to work in VISUAL 9 so they needed to be copied over existing ones)
2. Rename Accounting/QRP folders (We already converted all of the QRPs for the Report Writer, so we changed the directory to point to VISUAL 9 updated QRPs)
Match To Standard on all Custom QRPs
1. Update Order Acknowledgement QRP to new V9 directory (Ord Ack QRP is stored on Client machines to avoid conflicts when you share the QRP amongst multiple users)
Update Preferences
1. Admin -> Application Global Maintenance -> Options -> Preferences -> Preferred C/O Entry = Order Management
Deploy SSRS Reports
DEPLOY ALL APPS THAT REFERENCE NEW SCHEMA
1. (This was a list of our custom applications that reference the VISUAL Database, unique to our company)
Give SQL Service account permissions to the following tables: (If you have custom apps and reports that reference VISUAL you may need to add those permissions to these new tables. Not included in this list is CUSTOMER_ENTITY and CUSTOMER_SITE)
1. PART_SITE (select)
2. EMPLOYEE_SITE (select)
Enable all things turned off in Step 2
Deploy MacrosDeployment to all PCs (A lot of our VISUAL Macros just call .NET dll applications so these updated DLL apps need to be deployed alongside the new VISUAL)

Since VISUAL doesn’t have an MSI or any solution to easily mass install clients on multi PCs we used a piece of software called “Auto IT” to semi-automate the process.

After our GO LIVE Upgrade, we had a few things to work out, mostly because VISUAL 9.0.3 was a little tighter on data integrity with certain things VISUAL 7 didn’t care about. Namely, how our terms were set up for customers and our allocations of Customer Orders to Work Orders.

Most of our issues stemmed from custom macros needed to be tweaked to work with VISUAL 9 but we did have a handful of actual bugs in the VISUAL 9.0.3 code that needed to be resolved with Infor Incidents. Most of those issues have been resolved as of now (4 months after our upgrade) but we are still waiting on one or two more to be fixed.

All in all, the process took a lot of preparation, but the actual upgrade was deployed over a weekend.

How to easily update linked workorder want dates

2018-08-16T13:38:03-04:00

I often get asked...

Why Use Macros? What are they good for?

A Macro is one of the many components (features) in VISUAL ERP that you can use to drive productivity and efficiency within your organization. When carefully designed and deployed, macros can have a tremendous impact on your operations - with immediate benefits.

Why? Well they can facilitate in areas where you may want to:

Automate tasks
Follow (enforce) business rules
Reduce (or eliminate) data entry errors
process things faster - time savings opportunities
Integrate VISUAL with other business applications

And this is just to name a few.

I would say that with any continuous improvement initiates that involves using the VISUAL user interface - a macro element should be involved.

just sayin...

Here's a snippet of a macro that will update the want date of linked work orders to equal the desired ship date of the customer order. So if you have customer orders that are constantly changing desired ship dates AND the have linked work orders attached - this macro makes it easy to keep dates aligned (if needed). You certainly don't what to work on work orders early if the CO has been pushed out.

This can be used as an "On Demand" macro or be integrated into a "OnAfterSave" macro. You can take this further by prompting the VISUAL on whether they want to update the linked work orders with a YES OR NO - whatever makes sense for your business

If you like this snippet - and would like access to more and other nuggets, please be sure to subscribe below.

strServerName="E N T E R Y O U R S E R V E R    N A M E"
strDatabase="E N T E R    Y O U R    V I S U A L    D A T A B A S E    N A M E"
strUserName="E N T E R    Y O U R    R E A D O N L Y    U S E R    I D"
strPassword="E N T E R    Y O U R    P A S S W O R D"

'*** Connection string for SQL Server
strcnn="Driver={SQL Server};Server=" & strServerName & ";Database=" & strDatabase & ";Uid=" & strUsername & ";Pwd=" & strPassword & ";"

if TRIM(ORDER_ID & "")<>"" and Lines.Value.Count>0 then

Set Conn = CreateObject("ADODB.Connection")
conn.open strcnn

Set cmd = CreateObject("ADODB.Command")
Cmd.ActiveConnection = conn

    SQL="UPDATE WORK_ORDER SET DESIRED_WANT_DATE = ISNULL(COL.DESIRED_SHIP_DATE,CO.DESIRED_SHIP_DATE) " & _
    "FROM DEMAND_SUPPLY_LINK AS DSL " & _
    "INNER JOIN CUST_ORDER_LINE COL ON DSL.DEMAND_BASE_ID = COL.CUST_ORDER_ID AND DSL.DEMAND_SEQ_NO = COL.LINE_NO " & _
    "INNER JOIN WORK_ORDER WO ON DSL.SUPPLY_BASE_ID = WO.BASE_ID AND DSL.SUPPLY_LOT_ID = WO.LOT_ID " & _
    "AND DSL.SUPPLY_SPLIT_ID = WO.SPLIT_ID AND DSL.SUPPLY_SUB_ID = WO.SUB_ID " & _
    "INNER JOIN CUSTOMER_ORDER CO ON COL.CUST_ORDER_ID = CO.ID " & _
    "WHERE (DSL.DEMAND_BASE_ID = ?) AND (DSL.DEMAND_SEQ_NO = ?) and WO.STATUS NOT IN ('X','C') "

    Cmd.Parameters.Append Cmd.CreateParameter("@OrderID",adVarChar,AdParamInput,15)
    Cmd.Parameters.Append Cmd.CreateParameter("@LineNo",adVarChar,AdParamInput,15)

    cmd.CommandText=SQL

    For i = 0 To (Lines.Value.Count - 1)

        cmd("@OrderID")=ORDER_ID
        cmd("@LineNo")=LINES(i)("LINE_NO")
        cmd.Execute

conn.close

end if

What you need to know about running MRP

2018-08-15T11:18:43-04:00

So now that we covered some of the basic setups for MRP - let's run MRP and see what happens.

(remember, we're just scratching the surface here...one step at a time)

For your reference or catch up:

From VISUAL's Material Planning Window, select Material Requirement Planning from the FILE menu

In the following window, you have several options to choose from that will affect how MRP will execute and plan your supply orders.

On the left, you have the options on WHERE you want to run MRP ...

across ALL your warehouses, OR
plan each INDEPENDENTLY planned warehouse separately, OR
just plan your UNIVERSAL warehouses

As for the options on the right, let's start with the first 2 radio buttons ...

Regeneration OR New Change?

Regeneration (1st radio button) processes ALL parts (from the top down) to determine any shortfalls between supply and demand and will generate planned orders for parts accordingly based the defined Order Policy under the part's Planning Tab

Net Change (2nd radio button) looks at only those parts which have had activity since the last time you ran MRP. Note: Deleting a planned order of a part is not considered an "activity" on its own - so just know that this activity alone will not flag a part to be included in a Net Change MRP run.

Regeneration should be run at least once a week to ensure that all parts are processed

Single Pass

MRP is an interactive and dynamic process - it will evaluate ALL parts until planned orders cover ALL supply shortfalls.

When MRP generates planned supply orders - these planned supply orders themselves can create demand (for sub-components) that will in turn generate additional planned supply orders

If you select Single Pass - MRP will only do one pass, which could result in parts having newly created demand but may not have planned orders created for them if MRP created the demand after the first pass.

Clear as mud?

Let's say that part ABC is used in part XYZ and there is demand on part XYZ...

MRP will evaluate ABC first and see no demand, it will then move on to XYZ and create a planned order.

Only in the second pass will MRP find that there is now demand for ABC and create a planned order for it.

MRP will keep running passes until there is no more shortfalls in supply

So, in a Single Pass scenario, only a planned order for XYZ will be created

Why use single pass? Well - you may want this if you are wanting to run MRP during production hours and don't want to use up too much system resources evaluating - especially if you have complex, deep and multi-level BOMs - that would require many, many many passes.

MRP Exception Marking Limits

This allows you to configure MRP to evaluate based on a horizon or time frame - which you may consider as a "firm" schedule.

I suggest selecting NO HORIZON - basically have MRP evaluate all demand - regardless of how far out they may be in the future. You can then easily focus on the amount of orders to look at by filtering on a date range/time frame.

If you do want to set a horizon for MRP to evaluate- you are free to do so. The option Plus part leadtime ensures that MRP evaluates demand for a part within the part's leadtime so that planned orders will be created in time - so the horizon then varies for each part.

Other Options

The next 2 options, Net on-hand quantities and Apply Min/Max/Multiple, are available to use if you use Advanced MRP and have parts that are Master Scheduled.

If you happen to use Advanced MRP...

Net on-hand quantities for master scheduled parts - MRP will subtract nettable, on-hand balances from the total demand.
Apply Min/Max/Multiple to master scheduled parts - MRP will use these values (if present) in evaluating and creating planned orders.

Exclude On-hold Customer Orders - MRP will exclude these customer orders when evaluating demand

Exclude Unreleased Work Orders - MRP will exclude these work orders when evaluating supply and demand.

Enable netting message - This will display a message if the processing of a part exceeds 10 seconds. Don't enable this - it just slows down everything

Log MRP - This option will create a log file detailing MRP process and steps taken. Great source/tool for troubleshooting issues (if any) with MRP and unexpected results

Part of the MRP Fundamentals Series (for Infor VISUAL ERP). Be sure to check back soon as I continue further into using MRP in VISUAL

What is the Inherit Demand Warehouse Option?

2018-07-31T14:06:47-04:00

Picking up from where I left off in How to set up Part Planning,

You likely noticed an option under the PLANNING tab in Part Maintenance to set "Do Not Inherit Demand Warehouse" for a part. What is this?

Well, it’s something you really only need to be concerned about if dealing with multiple warehouses – with a mix of universal and independently planned warehouses.

What’s the difference between universal and independently planned? Read this

What exactly does Inherit Demand Warehouse mean? Basically, it allows you to configure how or where demand for a part is to be driven from - meaning from which warehouse.

For instance, if you look at an Engineering Master/Work Order - demand for component parts can either be driven from the warehouse specified on the EM/WO Header Card (inherit) OR can be driven from the warehouse specified on each individual material card.

So, if demand for component parts are to be driven by the warehouse specified in the header card - the parts are "inheriting" the demand warehouse of the EM/WO.

There are a couple of places in VISUAL where you can configure a part to "Inherit Demand Warehouse" or not.

On the Material Card (Manufacturing Window), there is a checkbox to set Inherit Demand Warehouse.

When CHECKED – demand for the part will be driven from the Warehouse specified on the Header Card (EM/WO). The Warehouse ID will auto-populate with warehouse id of the EM/WO
When UNCHECKED, you can specify (on the material card) the warehouse where the part should be coming

The Inherit Demand Warehouse is checked by default in the Material Card UNLESS you checked the DO NOT INHERIT DEMAND WAREHOUSE of the part under the PLANNING TAB in Part Maintenance.

If you select this checkbox in Part Maintenance - the Inherit Demand Warehouse option in the Material Card becomes unavailable for the part and you can specify the warehouse on the card or as needed at time of transaction.

BTW - you would normally want to Inherit the Demand Warehouse. But you have the option if your situation calls for it.

Next: What you need to know about running MRP

MRP Fundamentals - How to set up part planning

2018-07-24T10:30:26-04:00

The most important piece in setting up MRP in VISUAL falls under the PLANNING tab in Part Maintenance.

The first thing you need to be aware of is that you can have a unique set of planning parameters for each of your Independently Planned Warehouses AND one set of planning parameters for your other warehouses deemed Universal

What the difference between Universal and Independently planned warehouses? Read this

Warehouse ID
Select the Warehouse ID or Universal you are wanting to set the planning parameters for. Please note that VISUAL will always default to Universal when you first call up a part.

Planner User ID
This is a free form field that can be used for searching and reporting. Basically, you can enter values that you can easily filter on.

Buyer User ID
As with the Planner User ID, this is a free form field that can be used for filtering - however values entered in this field will be maintained in the VISUAL database and existing values can be selected from a dropdown box.

Safety Stock Qty
This is used where you would like to maintain a certain quantity level for a part. You may want to consider this for parts with long lead times. MRP will look at upcoming demand and supply and your projected qty always wants to meet this safety stock quantity.

Leadtime (in Days)
This is the number of days it takes between the time you place a supply order and when the part is received into inventory. Leadtime is always in days. This value is used to compute when to release an order and set the want date of supply orders.

Min/Max/Multiples Of
These fields are here to help you make better decisions and plan more efficiently.

Min - the minimum quantity that MRP will generate a planned order

Max - the maximum amount that the MRP will generate a planned order

NOTE – for clarification, this only caps the quantity of an individual planned order. So, if you have demand for a 1000 units for a part and you have a Max value of 200. MRP will generate 5 planned orders for 200 each. This allows you to better manage your orders. For instance, you may shop floor constraints where you can only manufacture 200 units at a time – so you would not want your work orders with build quantities greater than 200.

Multiples of – allows you to define the multiple to use when MRP plans an order. For example, if Part A is ordered in multiples of 10, and you have demand for 7, then MRP will generate a planned order for 10.

Order Policy
This is the key indicator that will determine how MRP will plan for the part.

Not Planned
MRP will not generate planned orders. It will completely ignore this part. FYI – This is the default setting when creating a part.

Discrete
Most commonly used when first starting with MRP. This setting will have MRP replenish exactly the quantity by which demand exceeds supply. It will plan the supply order to match each element of demand.

So if you have 3 orders creating demand, one for 2, one for 5 and one for 10 ... MRP will create 3 planned supply orders - with quantities of 2, 5, and 10 respectively

It’s a one to one relationship unless you use min/max/multiple of – then planned orders will reflect those parameters.

Period Supply
MRP will generate planned order to meet a shortfall on a given date – PLUS the number of days you specify in the Days of Supply field

Fixed and EOQ
These settings a basically the same. Regardless of the amount of the shortage – MRP will plan for orders using the fixed amount specified in the Order Qty field

Master Scheduled
Planned orders are generated to meet quantities and dates specified in the Master Production Scheduled. This option is only available if you are using Advanced MRP and dealing with forecasts

Days of Supply
Used with period of supply

Order Qty
Used with Fixed and EOQ

Order Point Qty
If the part is NOT PLANNED, you can use this field to enter the minimum quantity you want to keep on hand. When it falls below that amount it will appear on the Order Point Report (in the Material Planning Window) for you to place an order. NOTE – MRP WILL NOT plan the order – you need to manually create it when needed

Order Up to Qty
If the part is NOT PLANNED – you can use this field in conjunction with the Order Point Qty field to determine quantity to use to create a supply order.

Next: The Inherit Demand Warehouse Option

MRP Fundamentals – How to setup your warehouses

2018-07-18T16:36:30-04:00

Part of the MRP Fundamentals Series (for Infor VISUAL ERP). MRP basically looks at all your existing demand and supply for your fabricated and purchased parts – and will generate "planned" supply orders for those parts that are short. Simple enough.

Planned supply orders are based on several factors relating to the part, such as:

Order Policy
Lead Time
Existing Inventory (On Hand and Supply Orders)
Existing Demand
Master Production Schedule

But before we can get into any of these - we need to start at the warehouse.

In Warehouse Maintenance, there are 2 ways you can set up a warehouse that will have an impact on MRP.

Universal Warehouse vs Independently Planned Warehouse

Warehouse is considered UNIVERSAL when "Independently Planned Warehouse" is UNCHECKED

Universal Warehouses - MRP will treat all universal warehouses as a single unit where inventory is pooled and considered shared - meaning, MRP will net inventory across all universal warehouses based on planning parameters specified for UNIVERSAL (under PLANNING tab in Part Maintenance - we'll get to that in another post)

Independently Planned Warehouses - This option allows you to separate inventory and plan by warehouse. You can view inventory along with universal warehouses or look at it separately. These warehouses have their own unique set of planning parameters for associated inventory.

Associating your Parts to Warehouses

You likely know this already - but I only bring this up as I wanted to bring your attention to the Warehouse and Location Status field for a part and what it means to MRP.

This field can be one of 3 values:

Available: MRP will consider the qty in this location as available and nettable
Unavailable: MRP will not include the qty in this location in its netting
On Hold: MRP will consider the qty in this location as available and nettable.
(Why, you say? Well, On Hold items are typically those items going through QA as part of receiving inspection)

Next: The Planning Tab in Part Maintenance

How to effectively reconcile your inventory in VISUAL ERP

2018-07-08T11:03:33-04:00

In my experience, I found that there is a misconception related to inventory and WIP reconciliation process. This is why I want to provide more information on how Visual works in this area. I believe it will give you the knowledge on how to take the right approach in order to validate your published numbers.

The core of your Visual inventory resides in the accumulation of transactions. This happens to be in the Manufacturing side of the system. Typically, raw material is purchased and it is then used in the manufacturing process before being received into inventory and finally sold or shipped to consumers. The sequence of entering these transactions is critical for the guarantee of a proper cost allocation. When the sequence of this order is broken, discrepancies between the different Visual reports appear. This is when the confusion begins and you are left wandering which report has the correct numbers.

Let’s review the proper steps to take in order to validate those values:

The Inventory Valuation Report will contain the most accurate picture at month-end. You may, however, encounter errors if there is an incorrect FIFO layer or if a part has a negative quantity on hand at month-end. These issues must be fixed because it is crucial to have a trustworthy Inventory Valuation report at month-end in order to progress to the next step.

The Inventory Balances Report is a secondary table that is updated when Costing Utilities is run and MFG Journals are prepared. I often see a tendency for users to adjust the GL to the numbers shown in this report and this is incorrect. You should keep in mind that, according to the first step, the correct values are already in the Inventory Valuation report. Once you have verified that the Inventory Valuation report has no issues, you can compare it to the Inventory Balances Report. This allows you to identify any parts that are not displayed correctly in the Financial Subledger. Any differences must be fixed before progressing to the next step.

The GL (Inventory Control Account Balances) should reflect what is happening on the Manufacturing side. The GL almost always contains the correct values and should not be adjusted to the Inventory Balances too quickly, unless you have proven that the Inventory Valuation and Inventory Balances Subledgers are in sync. There might be times where the GL reports incorrect postings. These may include when a GJ has been posted to control accounts, if the inventory control account has been used in the wrong journal or if a change in product codes at Part ID level occurs without following the proper process. These issues are, however, a topic for a future blog.

Stay tuned, as I continue onto the next topic. Month-end quality: How fast can you close the month?

Valeria Vicco, CDDP - Financial Consultant, is our special guest author at visualnuggets.com and is an active participant in the VISUAL community. Valeria is part of BMS Business Monitoring Systems Inc (BMS 365) - who focus on Innovative solutions that move Visual ERP users forward.

Connect with Valeria online at LinkedIn and BMS365.com

Using SmartViews to improve user productivity

2018-07-04T17:05:19-04:00

How to leverage SmartViews in your Material Planning

2018-06-22T14:50:20-04:00

Here's an example on how you can take advantage of SmartViews to drive VISUAL in your Material Planning efforts.

Compatibility Matrix for VISUAL ERP made easy

2018-06-21T15:11:49-04:00

If you are considering a VISUAL upgrade or at the beginning stages of one - there's no doubt that you are navigating your way through system requirements and compatibilities. All to determine whether your environment is "ready" for a VISUAL upgrade.

Depending on how many supporting business applications you use with VISUAL, this can be a arduous task ⇒ reviewing release notes, manuals, calling on colleagues, forums, user groups, channel partner, Infor, etc.

Well, Infor has actually made this process a little easier. They've created an Online Compatibility Matrix tool which is available on Infor Xtreme.

This tool enables you to quickly determine what Infor products play well together as well as what versions of browsers, servers, O/S and other 3rd party software are supported. Simply select the version of VISUAL you are planning to upgrade to - and you get the entire list which you can then export for further review

You can use this tool for any of Infor's products.