Purchase requisition

After a few implementations of AX 2009, I am extremely expecting some upgrade of purchase requisition functionality:

1. Purchase requisition doesn’t support blanket purchase order.

2. Purchase requisition doesn’t support purchasing fixed asset at all.

3. No validation against Purchase Forecast nor GL/Fixed asset Budget.

Create Intercompany PO from Project item requirement

This might be a bug of standard AX:

Go to CEE company.

Go to Project > Item tasks > Item requirement and create a new Item requirement then Click on Function > Create Purchase order

Select vendor 9100 which is CEU, and click OK.

System creates a purchase order which is linked to the sales order (of the item requirement). But:

1. Purchase type is [Journal] and you can’t change it.
2. You can’t post the purchase order
3. No intercompany sales order is created in CEU.

OK… I have just received feedback saying that this is a bug in AX 2009 and will only be fixed in the next version… That’s not a good news then.

Setting up a link between a financial dimension and the site inventory dimension

Setting up a link between a financial dimension and the site inventory dimension enables a company to produce profit and loss figures per site. Use the following procedures to configure and manage financial dimension links for your sites. Set up a financial dimension link to a site Activate the financial dimension link Lock the financial dimension link Unlock the financial dimension link Deactivate the financial dimension link

Note

The Logistics configuration key must be enabled to carry out these tasks.

Set up a financial dimension link to a siteEstablishing a financial dimension link to a site results in the following conditions: A financial dimension is associated with the site inventory dimension. A financial dimension value is associated with each site.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Posting > Dimension link.
2. In the Dimensions field, select the financial dimension that you want to link to the site inventory dimension. The Department dimension is selected by default, but you can change it.
3. Click the Sites button to open the Sites form. The financial dimension that you selected (in the previous step) now appears as a column header on the Overview tab.
4. Select a site. In the Dimensions column, select a financial dimension from the lookup list. The list displays the dimensions that are set up in the Dimensions form, which is located at Basic > Dimensions.

The specified financial dimension value is now associated with the selected site. Repeat this step for each site. Activate the financial dimension linkActivating the financial dimension link results in the following conditions: When new transactions are created that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions, the linked financial dimension is assigned the dimension value that is specified for the site. You can post transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions even though the linked financial dimension value does not match the value that is specified for the site. On open transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions, you can change the value of the linked financial dimension.

Note

You must assign a financial dimension value to each site before you can perform this task.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Posting > Dimension link.
2. In the Current status: field group, click the Activate link button.
3. The program displays a dialog box that asks whether or not to update the value of the financial dimension value on all open transactions so that it matches the value that is specified for the site.
4. Click Yes. The program updates all open transactions accordingly.

Note

The transactions are updated even if the resulting set of financial dimensions is not a valid combination that is set up in the Dimension sets. This step is the same as running the Linked dimension update batch job, which you can access at Inventory management > Periodic.

1. The program generates the Account dimension validation report, which you can access at Inventory management > Reports > Base data. This report lists the accounts, if any, that are used for inventory-related postings, and that will override the value of the financial dimension that is selected in the Dimension link form.
2. The Current status: button states that the financial dimension link is active, and the colour of the button is yellow. The Dimensions field is unavailable.

Lock the financial dimension linkLocking the financial dimension link results in the following conditions: New inventory transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions are assigned a financial dimension value based on the value that is specified for the site. You can post transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions only when the linked financial dimension value matches the value that is specified for the site. You cannot change the value of the linked financial dimension on transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions. You cannot edit the financial dimension value that is associated with a site. The prerequisites for locking the financial dimension link are: A financial dimension link with the site inventory dimension must be established. The multisite functionality must be activated.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Posting > Dimension link.
2. Click the Lock link button.
3. The program generates the Account dimension validation report. This report lists any general ledger accounts that are used for inventory-related postings and that will override the value of the linked financial dimension that is selected in the Dimension link form.
4. The program displays a dialog box stating that it will update the linked financial dimension value on all open transactions so that the linked financial dimension value matches the value that is specified for the site.
5. Click OK. The program updates all open transactions accordingly.
6. The Current status: button states that the financial dimension link is locked, and the colour of the button is green.

Unlock the financial dimension linkOnce the financial dimension link is locked, you can unlock it. When it is unlocked, you can perform the following tasks: Post transactions that carry both inventory dimensions and financial dimensions, even though the linked financial dimension value does not match the value that is specified for the site. Edit the value of the linked financial dimension on open transactions that carry both financial dimensions and inventory dimensions. Edit the financial dimension values that are set up in the Sites form.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Posting > Dimension link.
2. Click the Unlock link button.
3. The Current status: button states that the financial dimension link is active, and the colour of the button is yellow.

Deactivate the financial dimension linkWhen the financial dimension link is deactivated, the following conditions apply: The link between the site inventory dimension and the financial dimension is removed. The linked financial dimension is not assigned the dimension value that is specified for the site inventory dimension. You can select a different financial dimension to link to the site inventory dimension.

1. Click Inventory management > Setup > Posting > Dimension link.
2. Click the Deactivate link button.
3. The Current status: button states that the financial dimension link is inactive, and the colour of the button is red.

 

Alternative Item

Actually, when you set up alternative item with “Nothing in inventory” and create sales order line, system will check the total physical available of ALL site and warehouses. If there is not enough stock, AX will change to the alternative item.

Sometimes, this is confused when you turn on the “Auto reservation” functionality. Because the reservation will only work at warehouse level, not site level. Therefore, if you have enough stock in all sites, system will not replace the item. But it doesn’t reserve against the other site, and you always have something to be available for checking of “Nothing in inventory” functionality.

Here is an example:

Scenario	Sample data	Expected Results
Open item master file, select item number 1501	– Use alternative = “Nothing in stock” – Alternative item number = “1509”
Check the inventory on-hand of item 1501, make necessary quantity adjustment to make sure the on-hand quantity (available physical) is	– Site 1, warehouse 11 = 10 – Site 2, warehouse 21 = 294 – Site 3 = 0
Create a new sales order line	– Item id = 1501 – Site = 2 – Warehouse = 21 – Quantity = 304 – Reservation = Automatic	AX to save the sales order line without replacing the item with alternative item.
Create a new sales order line	– Item id = 1501 – Site = 2 – Warehouse = 21 – Quantity = 11 – Reservation = Automatic	System will change the item id from 1501 to 1509

Adjust Standard Cost of Item

 

If you are sunning standard cost for an item, recalculation needs to be run after adjustment of item std cost.

Test:

Go to Inventory Management/Items, select item OL-TrainCost_STD, make sure that Inventory Model Group is set up with STD, which is standard cost price.

Make sure that you don’t have anything in stock, this is just not to confuse the test result.

Go to tab Price/Discount, make sure Cost Price is set to 30.

Now create 1 purchase order of 10 items. Post PO invoice and check the cost amount of the transaction by go to purchase line, Inventory/Transaction. The cost amount is 30*10 = 300.

Go to Item Master, select item OL-TrainCost_STD, change the standard cost price from 30 to 32.

Create another PO with of 10 items. Post PO invoice and check the cost amount of the transaction by go to purchase line, Inventory/Transaction. The cost amount is 32*10 = 320.

Now you have on-hand quantity as 20 in stock and the value of your stock is (10*30)+(10*32) = 620

Create a Sales order with 5 items. Post Sales Invoice and check the cost amount of the transaction by to to sales line, Inventory/Transaction. The cost amount is 32*5 = 160. So you can see AX takes the current standard cost to manipulate the cost price of issued items. But in this case, it is not true because you have 10 items with $30 and 10 items with $32 in your stock.

Create another sales order with 7 items. Post sales invoice and check the cost amount of the transaction by to to sales line, Inventory/Transaction. The cost amount is 32*7 = 224

Now, what we need to do is to run RECALCULATION by go to Inventory Management/Periodic/Closing and Adjustment/Recalculation.

After running Recalculation, if you go to item master, check transactions of the 2 sales order above. Expected result are:

SO1- Cost Amount = 30*5 = 150

SO2- Cost Amount = (30*5) + (32*2) = 150 + 64 = 214

AX does recalculation base on the FIFO principle to settle between Receipt and Issue transactions in the stock.

 

 

Be careful with Inventory journal

 

 

In Dynamics AX, you can use inventory transactions for various of purposes.

 

When you create an inventory transaction with cost price and cost amount:

– Receipt: AX will allow you to input directly the cost price of item.

– Issue: AX will automatically update the cost price of the item in a specified warehouse.

 

The funny things (when you are running actual costing methode):

 

In the Issue journal form (inventory movement), AX will take the cost price of the Item Master to fill in the cost price field. But during the posting, AX may update the cost price with another value (base on the Warehouse, Location, …). This is correct.

 

But user may be confused when the cost price on journal form is different from the actual inventory transaction.

 

So… let’s say you have Item ABC. And you are running AX without Manufacturing module.

• Cost price on Item master is: 50
• Cost price of Item ABC in warehouse WH1 is: 45
• Cost price of Item ABC in warehouse WH2 is: 40

Now you want to issue this item from WH1 to the packing vendor by using Inventory movement journal. On the journal form, AX will display the cost price of item ABC is 50. But when you post this journal, AX inventory transaction has 45 as it cost price. But on the journal form, it still says 50.

After that, when you try to make another inventory transaction to receipt item ABC into warehouse WH1 again by adding packing cost (3USD for example). You have to enter the cost price of item ABC is 45+3 (not 50+3).

 

Try this by yourself and I am willing to have a discussion out here…

Thank you.

 

 

Order Alt. Address

 

Normally, in a sales/purchase order, you can set alt. address for different lines.

 

With AX 4.0 if you set up different delivery address for each sales lines, then system will split your sales/purchase order into many packing slip base on the number of addresses you are using now.