Monday, November 14, 2011

Reconciling Your Inventory Is Only The First Step

Basic Concept

The basic concept behind the standard methodology for reconciling your inventory in JD Edwards is to compare the balances in the following three tables, and identify any variances that exist.



There is more than one way to do this. 

So what are your options?
  1. You can implement the standard JD Edwards inventory integrity process and use the standard tools provided to reconcile inventory.
  2. You can develop your own set of custom tools to reconcile inventory, and monitor inventory integrity issues.
  3. You can purchase a 3rd party tool to do it all for you.
The keys to remember when selecting your option for reconciliation are:
  1. Ensure that variances are being identified between On Hand and Cardex as well as Cardex and GL.  Variances can and DO exist in both places, and WILL impact you at month end.
  2. Ensure that varaiances are being identified at a granular enough level so that the root cause of the variance can be determined.  Once the root cause is determined the variance can both be explained and corrected.
Getting to the root of the problem...

Remember, regardless of what tool you decide to use to reconcile your inventory, none of them will solve the root issues that are causing your variances.  Variances can be caused due to issues with:
  • Configuration
    • AAI's
    • Lot serialization
    • Cost levels
    • Cost methods
  • Bad Processes
    • Improper cancellation of work orders
    • Timing of re-attaching parts lists
    • Reversals of work order transactions
    • Cost Changes
    • Month-End process timing and cut off periods
  • Corrupt Data
    • Unapplied ESU's
    • Changes to primary UOM
    • UOM conversion factors
    • Commit Fails
.....and the list goes on.....

It's What We Do

CJ Inventory diagnostics specializes in determining and solving the root cause of your variances in order to eliminate them from recurring every month.  Find out more about us at:  http://www.cjinv.com/, or email me directly at jjensen@cjinv.com.

Stay Tuned!

Beginning next week I will start a series about implementing and understanding the standard approach to reconciling your inventory in JD Edwards.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

As OF - Did you know?


 



  • The As Of Posted Code (PC) in the cardex tells you the progress of a transaction in the cardex   
  • If the As Of Posted Code is = 'S', then the transaction has not been recorded in the General Ledger 
  •  If the As Of Posted Code is = to ‘ ‘, then the transaction has been recorded in the general ledger, but has not been processed to As Of
  • If the As Of Posted Code is = 'X', then the transaction is not a reconciling item and will not get processed to As Of 
  • If the As Of Posted Code is = to 'Y', then the transaction has been processed to As Of
Reconciling the general ledger directly to the cardex and/or on hand can be challenging, because not all transactions post to the general ledger immediately.  They do, however, update on hand and cardex immediately.  So if you try to reconcile these tables without knowing this information, you will have variances due to timing that are not true variances.  The standard JD Edwards methodology for reconciling inventory is to use the as of process which takes these timing differences into account as illustrated above.  So the key to a much smoother reconciliation is to incorporate the as of process.  We will discuss this process and the standard approach to JD Edwards inventory reconciliation in future posts.  Stay tuned!
Visit us on the web at:  http://www.cjinv.com/  or email me directly at jjensen@cjinv.com.





Wednesday, October 26, 2011

JD Edwards Inventory Reconciliation Challenges Poll

I am looking for some feedback regarding how many companies are currently experiencing challenges when reconciling inventory in JDE at month end. 

Question:  Do you find reconciling inventory in JD Edwards to be

A.  Easy
B.  Moderate
C.  Challenging
D.  I give up!

Please leave your answer in a comment, or email me directly at jjensen@cjinv.com.
For more information on CJ Inventory Diagnostics, visit us at:  http://www.cjinv.com/.

Thanks in advance for your participation!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Standard Cost - Behind the Scenes

High Level Illustratation of How Standard Cost Impacts the Shop Floor Control Process


  • Standard cost is comprised of two key tables:  the cost ledger (F4105) and the cost components table (F30026)
    • The cost components table contains the material, labor, outside processing, over head and extras components that make up the standard cost.  This table also contains both the simulated and frozen values for these components.
    • The cost ledger table contains the sum total of these components.
  • Did you know that shop floor control transactions such as material issues and work order completions hit the cardex with the standard (07) cost in the cost ledger (F4105) while the journal entries that are written for these transactions are updated with the cost from the cost components (F30026) table?
  • How can this impact you?
    • If these two tables get out of sync, then it can cause an integrity issue between the Cardex (F4111) and the General Ledger (F0911) making it very difficult to reconcile inventory at month end.
  • What can you do to prevent this?
    • Never update the standard (07) cost in the cost ledger (F4105) manually.  Always use the simulated and frozen cost programs UBE's to update the standard cost.
    • There is a processing option that can secure this field from being updated manually.

Visit us at:   http://www.cjinv.com/
Email questions to:  jjensen@cjinv.com