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Products & Services

Maintain Products (511)

Purpose & Benefits
This function allows you to maintain data in TAS Product records. A page of records is displayed at a time allowing updates to multiple records at a time, like in a spreadsheet, for real ease of use.

The Product information is already set up in various columns as shown below. On loading, the Maintain Products grid is filled with the 1st page of Product records:

Each row in the grid displays the details for one product record. You can edit most of the data on the grid itself. Each column is formatted so that you cannot enter incorrect data, e.g. text cannot be entered where a currency amount is expected. Data that cannot be modified are shown with a coloured background.

Using the 'Sort By / Search' dropdown box, the Product details can be sorted by:

You can filter the list of Products displayed by Product Code, Product Group or whether Products are discontinued or not. To load ALL product records into the Grid click the 'Show All' tickbox at the top.

In addition to the Product code and Quantity In Stock drilldown (see below), two other drilldowns are provided:

Double-click on the 'Quantity On Sales Order' field and the ' Stock Quantities on Sales Order' form opens. In addition to the Product Code, Description and Bin number, this lists the Sales Orders / Credit Orders the Product is on. The information displayed in the grid can be exported to Microsoft Excel by clicking the Export button.

Double-click on the 'Quantity On Purchase Order' field and the 'Stock Quantities on Purchase Order' form opens. In addition to the Product Code, Description and Bin number, this lists the Purchase Orders the Product is on. The information displayed in the grid can be exported to Microsoft Excel by clicking the Export button.


At the top there is a handy search button to help you find products based on partial text within code, group and description:

To 'drill-down' and edit a product record in more detail, especially if you are using the ' Trade' or ' Manufacture' option, hover the mouse over the desired product's code (the mouse pointer changes to a ) and click once to bring up the Maintain Product form (see below).

Click Save to update the TAS Product file with your changes, Cancel to exit to the main form or use one of the navigation buttons on the right to populate the grid with another page of records. If you have modified and not saved any records, you are prompted to save before continuing.

To add a new Product, click the New button. This brings up a form for a single Product record, as if you had clicked the drill-down option.

By default all columns are displayed. The user can customise which columns to show and in which order by pressing the ' Show/Hide' button. This causes the 'Show/Hide Items' form to be displayed, as shown below.

HINT: You can save these settings by clicking on the red ball in the status bar at the bottom right. When your settings are saved the ball turns green.

Having drilled-down on the Product Code, the selected Product record is available for editing. In the example below, we selected the PRODUCT01 product to edit in more detail – information is displayed in the 6 group areas shown. Here, we have clicked the + button on each group, thus causing the Code & Description and Details sections to be expanded:

Within the Code & Description section, you can see the Extended Description (you can enter up to 500 characters here) and Product Notes (you can add a virtually unlimited number of notes to each Product).

Within the Details section, you can see a variety of information – all self explanatory.

Here we have expanded the sections for Code & Description, Units of Measure and Locations :

If you have the Trade option enabled, you can select the […] Drill-down button in the Locations section to set up Multiple Locations/Warehouses for the product.

Once you have made your changes click Save.

Maintain Products at Warehouses (part of 511) - Trade feature users

Purpose & Benefits
This function is available if the Trade option has been enabled. Click the browse button next to Multiple Locations/Warehouses in the Product record. It allows you to maintain certain data in the Warehouse Product records. A page of records is displayed at a time allowing updates to multiple records simultaneously, like in a spreadsheet, for extra ease of use.

On loading, the Maintain Product at Warehouse form displays any existing Product Warehouse records for each Warehouse at which a Product record has been created:

The greyed out columns are automatically maintained by the system, but in the grid you can edit the Min Qty value, i.e. the minimum in-stock quantity before re-ordering to replenish, and the Order Qty value, i.e. the minimum quantity to purchase when (re-)ordering.

To 'drill-down' and edit a record in more detail, if you are using the ' Trade' option to control stock at multiple locations, hover the mouse over the desired product's code (the mouse pointer changes to a ) and click once to bring up the Maintain Product Warehouse form (see below).

In the example we selected the HEED warehouse to drill down to. The form displays the full details of the selected Warehouse Product record as shown below.

You will note that the individual Warehouse Product record has its own NL Account details. This allows you to do 'per Warehouse' analysis of your accounts if you need to.




Maintain Product Groups (513)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you quickly add and edit TAS product groups and export a list of them to Excel. The product groups are displayed in a grid:

You can edit a group's description in the grid or double-click the Group code to drill-down to the Maintain Product Group form. Click the Save button to save your changes. Click the Export button to export a list of Groups to Excel.

To add a new group, click the New button which also displays the Maintain Product Group form:

Click the Save button to save your new product group.




Maintain Warehouses (514)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you create and maintain multiple warehouses and other locations where stock is held, such as depots, vans or even quarantine and returned goods holding areas. You must have the ' Trade' option enabled to create/use more than one warehouse.

Initially there is only one warehouse: "CENTRAL" (you can change the code to suit, e.g. to "MAIN" by drilling down on CENTRAL, updating the code and clicking Save.). All warehouses are displayed in a grid for rapid editing:

Click the Show/Hide button if you want to select or reorder the columns. To view/edit a record in detail, select the row and single-click the Product Code. To create a new Warehouse click the New button, which gives you a detail warehouse record form to complete.

The drill-down (or New) gives you a detailed record to edit/create:

Process the Warehouse Details fields as follows:

# Field Default Entry Action/Description
1 Warehouse Code n/a Yes Enter/change the code used to identify the stock location, warehouse or depot.
2 Warehouse Name n/a Yes Enter/change the name of the stock location, warehouse or depot.
3 Warehouse Description n/a Yes Enter/change any description you want for this warehouse.
4 Address Lines 1 to 5 n/a Yes Enter/change the address lines as required
5 Post Code n/a Yes Enter/change the Post Code, if any.
6 Country Code n/a Yes Enter/change the Country Code, if any, or browse to lookup.
7 Telephone/Fax/Email n/a Yes Enter/change these fields as required
8 Warehouse Type Default   For future use
9 Warehouse Group Default   For future use
10 Status Active Yes Use the drop-down menu to select whether this warehouse is Active or Discontinued
11 Default Purchase Delivery Address n/a Yes Select the default Purchase Delivery Address which you want for this warehouse by clicking on the browse button to lookup. By using this address when POs are created in TAS as the address to be used for goods to be delivered to, the assignment of PO Receipts to the correct warehouse is massively quicker.

Expand other sections of this form by clicking the section's " +" button then fill in details as needed.

The remaining sections are as illustrated below. The Record Creation & Usage Details are for information only.

Process the Default Details fields as follows:

# Field Default Entry Action/Description
1 HENX Home Yes Use the drop-down menu to select whether this warehouse is Home, EC, Non-EC or Exempt for VAT purposes.
2 Used for Sales On Yes Click the checkbox to set the Warehouse to be used for sales (or uncheck if not required)
3 Default Currency Base Yes Enter/change the default Currency Code for Sales from this warehouse.
4 Main Contact n/a Yes Enter/change the name of the main contact
5 Default Dept for NL Postings 100 Yes If you are using TAS Departments to identify Sales, Stock and Cost of Sales values in the TAS Nominal Ledger, change the default NL Department Code to use for these NL Accounts with products at this warehouse.

If you have made any changes, or are creating a new record, click the Save button to save them.




Stock Movements

Stock Adjustments (521)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you enter stock adjustment transactions of the 4 Type’s, shown top-left in the first screenshot below, so that quantities in stock are kept up to date, whether using a single stock location or multiple warehouses ( Trade option required).

There are two Method s of entering stock adjustments:

Using the Actual Method, you enter the actual quantities in stock and the program conveniently calculates the adjustment quantity for you, thus saving time. To save even more time, you can import stock adjustments from a simple CSV file created from a spreadsheet.

This screenshot shows the two methods available for entering stock adjustments:

This table summarises how the various fields are handled:

# Field Default Entry Action/Description
1 Type Adjustment Yes You can select another type from the drop-down menu
2 Date NL date Yes The posting date. Double-clicking in the date field gives you a handy popup calendar - see Tip and screenshot below
3 User You/First Yes Accept or Enter the proposed User; you can use the normal navigation and Lookup to select another user.
4 GMV n/a Yes Enter the appropriate Goods Movement Voucher number
5 Source Warehouse n/a Cond This is only used for Intra-Warehouse Transfers, i.e. for the warehouse from which the goods are being transferred
6 TargetWarehouse Yes Yes You can select another warehouse from the drop-down menu
7 Method Adjustment Yes You can select the other type, ' Actual' from the drop-down menu.
8 Product Code n/a No Enter a TAS Product Code; you can use the normal navigation and Lookup to select one.
9 Prod Desc n/a No Displays the TAS Product's description/name
10 Description Auto-text No Accept or Enter the proposed Description of the adjustment
11 Initial Qty n/a No Displays the pre-adjustment quantity in stock for the warehouse concerned.
12 Adj Qty Yes Yes If using the Adjustment method, enter the quantity of stock being adjusted, either + or -.If using the Actual method, this value is calculated by the system by taking the difference between the Initial Qty and the Actual Qty.
13 New Qty No Yes If using the Actual method, enter the actual quantity in stock, either + or -.If using the Adjustment method, this value is calculated by the system by adding the Adj Qty to the Initial Qty.
14 Cost Price TAS Cost Price Yes Accept or Enter the Cost Price, which defaults to the cost price of the type set up in TAS for the product.
15 NL Acct TAS Stock Adjustment Yes Accept or Enter the proposed NL Account number; you can use the normal navigation and Lookup to select another Chart of Account.
16 NL Dept TAS No Displays the NL Department of the CoA record
17 Desc n/a No Displays the description/name of the selected CoA record

With the Trade option enabled, if you select one or more warehouses which have not previously held any stock of a particular product, the product record for the warehouse concerned is created automatically based on the defaults you set up, e.g. NL Department.

Finally, please bear in mind that if your TASBooks is configured to use Last Cost for Product Costing (setup in TASBooks program 012 > Stock > Costing), then processing Stock Adjustments WILL UPDATE the Last Cost of each product adjusted.



Stock Adjustment Types

Select one of the 3 adjustment Type’s of adjustment:

When you have entered all the data you need, click the Save button to post the stock transactions and update the TAS Nominal Ledger with the values.

Inter-Warehouse Transfers

If you have the Trade option enabled, you can process an adjustment as an Inter-Warehouse Transfer. In this case, both the " Source" and " Target" warehouses must be specified:



Import from File

For high speed automation, you can use the Import From File feature by clicking on its button. The program reads a simple CSV file and, like manual entry, can use one of the 2 methods explained above:

  1. Adjustment - the CSV quantities represent the +/- quantities to be adjusted, or
  2. Actual – the CSV quantities represent the actual stock take Qty's in Stock and the program calculates the +/- adjustments that are needed to arrive at these quantities.

A relatively straightforward 3-step procedure is involved as outlined below. Many businesses semi-automate their stock-take counting by using ruggedised PDA's (Personal Digital Assistants) equipped with barcode scanners. The results of these stock-take counts can usually be uploaded from the PDA to a CSV file on a PC, and this eliminates Step 1 and, probably, most of Step 2 below.

Step 1 - Get a list of Product Codes from TAS. Create an Excel spreadsheet containing a list of product codes only; suggested method is:

  1. Go to menu item 531 (Product Lists).
  2. Set Filters to suit and click Process.
  3. In Crystal Viewer process the Export report (top left button) to 'Microsoft Excel 97-2000 (XLS)' Format and Destination 'Disk File'.
  4. Click OK and save to Desktop.

Step 2 - Edit Spreadsheet and save as CSV file , by following these steps:

  1. Open the spreadsheet in Excel and remove all columns except product code.
  2. Use Excel File -> Save As -> ToImport.csv (make sure File Type is set to CSV).
  3. For each product, depending on the Adjustment Method to be used, enter
  4. Adjustment – enter the adjustment Qty in column B
  5. Actual – enter the actual counted Qty In Stock in column B
  6. Save the CSV file.

Step 3 - Import the CSV file into MultiTAS Stock Stock Adjustments as follows:

  1. On the menu got to 521 (Stock Adjustments).
  2. Set Type accordingly, e.g. if you are doing a stock take, set the Type to Stock Take.
  3. Enter the GMV Number.
  4. Set the Method :
  5. Adjustment means that the product's TAS Qty in Stock will be adjusted by its quantity in the CSV file;
  6. Actual means that the product's TAS Qty in Stock will be set to its quantity in the CSV file, with the system calculating the +/- adjustment quantity.
  7. Click the Import From File button and select the CSV file prepared in step 4 of the previous section.
  8. The system reads the CSV file records up into the grid and you can preview what the New Qty in Stock figure will be.
  9. When ready, click the Save button.




Assign Stock Movements (522)

Purpose & Benefits
Where stock transactions have been posted in TAS, rather than with an Infoplex module, this program lets you assign the resulting movements to specific warehouses, as shown in the screenshot below, thus keeping the quantities in stock at each warehouse up to date. If you select one or more warehouses which have not previously held any stock of a particular product, the product record for the warehouse concerned is created automatically based on the defaults you set up, e.g. NL Department.

Where stock movements have not been posted by an Infoplex module with Trade option enabled, e.g. the postings were done in TAS itself, this function lets you assign each such movement to a Warehouse. Note that the Warehouse default is that set up for the Customer/Supplier to whom the transaction relates - see Maintain Customer/Supplier Preferences later.

When you have completed your assignments, simply click the Save button to update the system.

To quickly assign all movements to the CENTRAL warehouse, double-click the OK column heading – all boxes should then auto-tick. Finally click Save to update the system.




Build TAS Assemblies (523)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you enter TAS Assemblies to be built (rather than BoM Assembly Builds, which are processed through Works Orders), together with their dates and quantities. If you select a warehouse which has not previously held any stock of a particular assembly and/or part, the product record(s) for the warehouse concerned are created automatically based on the defaults you set up, e.g. NL Department.

If you have the Trade option enabled you can select the Warehouse stock location which holds the finished assemblies and their parts, as shown in this screenshot:

When you have entered all the data you need, click the Save button to post the stock transactions and update the TAS Nominal Ledger with the values.





Reporting

Product Lists (531)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you report on Products using Crystal Reports, the international standard reporting tool. About 90 fields (columns) are available for reporting. By using Product List template StdSTPR3.rpt you can export your product details to a PROD.DAT file, manipulate them in that file using Notepad or Excel, then reimport them using the Product Import (581) function.

Filters

Decide which filters you want to apply to your report.

# Filter Field Options Remarks/Notes
1 Product Code All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
2 Product Group All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
3 Include Discontinued Products Yes or No  

You can select which Crystal Report Template to use from the drop-down menu; remember you can add one or more extra templates using the Document Templates function in the Central > Central Information menu. Having completed your selections, simply click the Process button to run the report.

The report is displayed for you to preview.




Product Margins (535)

Purpose & Benefits
This report lists Stock records by Product within Group and shows the Gross Profit and percentage Gross Margin, based on the latest Standard cost against Selling price 3 (usually the lowest selling price, giving the minimum margin normally achieved).

The Product Margins filter selection form is initially set with default information from Maintain Central Information. There are 4 filters as shown above. The way in which you make selections for each of these filters is crucial to the nature of the analysis results, and each filter is described in the following table.

Filters

Decide which filters you want to apply to your report.

# Filter Field Options Remarks/Notes
1 Product Group AllRangeSingle If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
2 Product Code AllRangeSingle If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
3 Include DiscontinuedProducts Yes or No Default is Yes
4 Cost Price Type Standard, Last or Average  

You can select which Crystal Report Template to use from the drop-down menu; remember you can add one or more extra templates using the Document Templates function in the Central > Central Information menu. Having completed your selections, simply click the Process button to run the report.

The report is displayed for you to preview, as in this example portion:




Stock Valuation Lists (539)

Purpose & Benefits
Use this function to report on Stock levels and values using Crystal Reports, the international standard reporting tool. The report can be run with the FIFO report template to give you a FIFO ( First-In First-Out) or 'actual cost' valuation for your stock.

If you have the Trade option enabled, you can select All , a Single or a Range of Warehouse Codes to include in the report.



Filters

Decide which filters you want to apply to your report.

# Filter Field Options Remarks/Notes
1 Cost Price Type Average, Last or Standard  
2 Product Code All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
3 Product Group All, Range or Single Product Group code. If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
4 Warehouse Code All, Range or Single Only if the Trade option is enabled; if you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
5 Include Discontinued Products Yes or No The default is to include products which are flagged as discontinued in TAS, but you may wish to exclude them.
6 Include Zero Qty's In Stock Yes or No By default you would not want to include products at any location where they have zero quantities in Stock. However, you can opt to include products which have zero quantities as a result of net movements or of having been set up, but without any movements. Remember, TAS overall may show zero quantity for a product but with the Trade option enabled, this could be because there is, for example, +10 in one location and -10 in another.


Report Options

Decide which Report Options you want to apply to your report.

# Option Options Remarks/Notes
1 Preview Yes or No Whether or not you wish to see a preview of the report on screen before sending it to its destination.
2 Template As Setup The default report template appears, but you can change that. Remember that there is a standard FIFO Stock Valuation report, which can give you more accurate valuations where you have items in stock which arrived at different cost prices.
3 Report Title As Setup As set up for the selected template, but you can change to suit
4 Send To None, Printer, File, Application, Email The destination of the report. If you select File, Application or Email, a further set of options appears, as described in the next option(s)
5 Format Character, CSV, Excel, HTML, PDF, Rich Text, Text, Word or XML Select one of these File and Application formats.
6 Path   This defaults to the current TAS company's data folder.
7 Use report date format Yes or No Uncheck if you want to use your Windows set up for dates
8 Use report number format Yes or No Uncheck if you want to use your Windows set up for numbers

You can select which Crystal Report Template to use from the drop-down menu; remember you can add one or more extra templates using the Document Templates function in the Central > Central Information menu. Having completed your selections, simply click the Process button to run the report.

The report is displayed for you to preview.

To use the FIFO version of the template please setup StdSTSV2.rpt as a Stock Valuation template using the Maintain Document Templates function in the Central > Central Information menu.





Product Reports

Product Movements (541)

Purpose & Benefits
This function gives you detailed analysis of product movements in ways not available in TAS. It uses the industry standard reporting tool, Crystal Reports, which enables you to use customisable report layout Templates that can easily be tailored to suit individual business needs, and which gives you many export options to other file formats (CSV, spreadsheet etc) to email or directly to another application (Excel, Word etc).

The options and procedures for this report are very similar to those for the Sales General Analysis report described here.

NOTE : Please run Assign Stock Movements (program 522) BEFORE running this report to ensure the report figures are accurate

The Product Movements filter selection form is initially set with default information from Maintain Central Information. There are up to 6 filters as shown above. The way in which you make selections in each of these sections is crucial to the nature of the analysis results, and each filter is described in the following table.

Filters

Decide which filters you want to apply to your report.

# Filter Field Options Remarks/Notes
1 Product Code All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
2 Product Group All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
3 Date Range - Year Current, 1 Year Past etc and Custom Either one of the 5 'standard' years or, if you want specific dates to cover part-months or a period spanning one or more financial year-ends, select 'Custom'
4 Date Range - Period Range: From 1, To 12/13 Not available if you select 'Custom' Year
5 Date Range - Dates Any dates Only available if you select 'Custom' Year. See Tip and screenshot below
6 Include Discontinued Products Yes or No Products which have been flagged as discontinued
7 Product Type Goods Only, Services Only orInclude Both Default is 'Include Both'
8 Warehouse Code All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
9 Include Balance Brought Forward Yes or No Calculates and includes the Balance Brought Forward figure in the report.
10 Include Open Sales Orders Yes or No  

You can select which Crystal Report Template to use from the drop-down menu; remember you can add one or more extra templates using the Document Templates function in the Central > Central Information menu. Having completed your selections, simply click the Process button to run the report.

The report is displayed for you to preview, then export/print as needed.




Sales Stock Coverage (542)

Purpose & Benefits
This function enables you to estimate the number of weeks (or months) of Sales your current Stock levels can service. It is of most benefit to users of the Trade option but maybe of use to other users too. The data is populated into the grid and can then be exported to Excel.

The 'From' date of the report is important as it is used to get the first figure in the 'Stock In Qty Balance B/F'. For accuracy the report should always be started at the beginning of a period/month.

To get full weeks of Sales figures (rather than a part-week for the last week), the 'To' date should be a number of days, which is divisible by 7, after the start date, e.g. for 7 weeks analysis enter a date 49 days after the start.



Filters

Decide which filters you want to apply to your report.

# Filter Field Options Remarks/Notes
1 Date Range Current – 4 Years PastWeeks or Months  
2 Product Code All, Range or Single For Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
3 Product Group All, Range or Single If you select Single or Range, complete the From and To fields as required
4 Include Discontinued Products Yes or No Default is to include discontinued but you may wish to exclude them.

Once the filters are set appropriately, decide which Warehoues apply by clicking Configure Warehouses and ticking/unticking the box beside each warehouse.

Click Process to produce the report. It can be exported to Excel by clicking the Export button.

The final report shows:

# Field Remarks/Notes
1 Product Code  
2 Product Name  
3 Default Stock Qty Quantity in Stock at default warehouse (normally CENTRAL)
4 Warehouse A Stock Qty Quantity in Stock at other warehouse AOther fields after this show quantities at other warehouse(s)
5 Total In Selective Stock Qty Total Quantity in Stock for selected warehouse(s)
6 Estimated Weekly/Monthly Cover on Selective Stock Is calculated from 'Total In Selective Stock Qty' divided by estimated weekly (or monthly) sales
7 Total Stock Qty Total Quantity in Stock
8 Estimated Average Weekly/Monthly Sales Calculation: Sum of total sales for selected number of weeks (/months) divided by Qualifying number of weeks. A Qualifying week is where the Balance brought forward for that week is greater than zero.
9 Estimated Average Weekly/Monthly Sales Cover Calculated by dividing the Total Stock Qty by the 'Estimated Average Weekly/Monthly Sales' figure

An example (to show how the calculations work):

Here, we want to estimate the stock cover for product '8670577'. The figure in yellow is calculated based on Product Movements (see image below).

Product Movements: note the Bal B/F drops to 0 twice hence 5 Qualifying Weeks rather than 7..





Utilities

Import Products (581)

Purpose & Benefits
This function allows you to create and update TAS Products automatically by importing data from an ASCII CSV file, as well as utilising the TAS Free Format Text Blocks to allow extended Product descriptions of up to 540 characters. By using Product List template StdSTPR3.rpt in Product Lists (531) you can export your product details to a PROD.DAT file, manipulate them in that file using Notepad or Excel, then reimport them using this function.
Important
The file containing the records for import must be output from your third party software or spreadsheet as a CSV file and stored in an accessible folder as 'PROD.DAT', e.g. for a default single user PC it could be: C:\TAS Books 3\DATA1\PROD.DAT. The order, format and size of the fields/columns for each record are critical for the import to succeed. Full details of the current file specifications, which must be used to output your data from your third party software, are documented separately in TAS Data Transfer File Specs which you can obtain from the Infoplex website, together with a TAS Data Transfer Toolkit containing sample files. It is crucial that you and/or your third party software provider follow these specifications. The specifications also give you useful information about how the program behaves if the import file contains blank or invalid data in the various fields/columns. The process of importing data requires the exclusive use of the TAS data files to ensure good performance. All other users are therefore required to log out of TAS during the import process.


The ASCII CSV file PROD.DAT is pre-processed, analysed and the number of individual product records is displayed in the Processing progress bar of the main import form:

When you click the Import button, an ASCII text log file is created in the same folder as the import file. The log contains details of each product processed and any errors encountered during the processing run. You should check this file after every run.

For processing to continue successfully, the PROD.DAT import ASCII CSV file must conform to the specification. PROD.DAT must be located in the directory/folder set up in Central > General Information > Maintain Central Information , otherwise you will get a "file not found" error message. PROD.DAT is read sequentially and its records are checked against the TAS Product and Free Format Text Block files. If a product exists the TAS records are updated with the ASCII details. If a product does not exist then a new TAS Product record is created, plus related Free Format Text Block record if appropriate.

Checks include seeing if the Nominal Account codes/numbers and departments exist within the TAS Chart of Accounts file. If not the Product record is assigned the default Nominal codes and departments from the TAS Central Setup Information file. In this case an entry is made to the Log file. Similar validation rules apply to the VAT Rate value (against the TAS VAT Rates file), to the Product Group code values (against the TAS Product Groups/Categories file) and to creating a new Product record.

The Progress bar lets you to see the progress of the import. The processing of hundreds of records is completed in seconds. Once the import run has completed a message appears in the progress bar. Click Exit to close the program.

You are informed of the renaming of the import file:

If there are any errors during the import you are informed with a message. You are also offered the opportunity to view the LOG file immediately. If you select Yes to view the Log file you will be presented with a report similar to the one shown in the View Text Files section above.

To troubleshoot any errors, you can use the Troubleshooting ASCII CSV File Data Errors section in the Appendices.

The import file is renamed to help prevent processing twice by mistake and the Log file is assigned a corresponding name. This is explained in detail in the Renaming & Log Naming Convention section in the Appendices.

Click Exit to return to the main program.

Note about possible TAS VAT Rates error

Some users get the following message the first time they run this program.

To resolve this, login to TASBooks and run program 0.3.1.

Note the Rate Type field has not been set correctly (highlighted in red). Update it as applicable:




Product Code Change (584)

Purpose & Benefits
This function allows you to change the TAS Product Code of one or more TAS Product/Service records at the same time. It updates the codes both in the main TAS database (as assigned by using TAS function 511) and in the Bill of Materials database, together with all related history. The change can be done interactively one Product at a time or in "bulk" from a simple pre-prepared ASCII CSV file. To avoid analysis reporting problems in TAS, the change is also applied retrospectively to the chosen product's history throughout the TAS database.
Important
It is strongly recommended that a backup of the TAS data is taken immediately before running programs involving "heavy-duty" database changes such as this. You are asked to confirm before proceeding further. The process of importing data requires the exclusive use of the TAS data files to ensure good performance. All other users are therefore required to log out of TAS during the import process.

The main form is displayed, initially with an empty grid:

To add a single product to the grid for its Code change, click on Add Single Product.

The 'Select Product' dialogue appears:

Existing Product

Select/enter an existing TAS product using the Navigation function keys (or by entering the code). The system displays its description.

New Product

Select/enter the New Product Code. Click the OK button to insert the change into the Product List grid:

Note that the system checks that the new Product Code does not exist for another product on the system. If it does, a warning appears in the Comment column and the change is not processed. Similarly, it provides warnings if a New Code is duplicated in the grid.

If you make an error, you can remove the offending row by pressing Ctrl+Del.

To add a list of products "in bulk" to the grid from an ASCII CSV file, click on Add List From File ; this brings up the standard CSV file selection dialogue with the starting folder being the current TAS data directory:

Open

Highlight your selection and click the Open button to continue.

The CSV file is pre-processed into the grid with old and new TAS Product codes being validated; any errors or problem areas are reported in the grid, which you can correct by highlighting the row and clicking Edit Row to edit. To troubleshoot any errors, you can use the Troubleshooting ASCII CSV File Data Errors section in the Appendices.

When satisfied with the grid's Product contents click Start Processing Product(s). Due to the many file updates, the program needs to "lock" the TAS system so that that users cannot then log into TAS whilst the import is in progress. When the system is successfully locked, simply click the Yes button to continue or No to cancel.

The main part of the processing starts, with progress being reported on the original form - all other buttons are now disabled. Each row in the grid is processed. If there are any problems in a row it is skipped.

An ASCII text CSV Log file is created listing all changes that have taken place during this process (Product_Code_Change_YY-MM-DD_NN.LOG). It records each successful change or error, including those items skipped, with: Product Code and Note – "Successful" or, if an error/skip is involved, an appropriate error message.

The import file is renamed to help prevent processing twice by mistake and the LOG file is assigned a corresponding name. When processing is complete a message to that effect is displayed in the top progress bar and the Close button becomes active

Click the Close button on the Product Code Change form and the TAS users are 'unlocked' following the same procedure in reverse as the locking method mentioned above.




Product Group/Category Change (585)

Purpose & Benefits
This function allows you to change the TAS Product Group (i.e. Category) of one or more TAS Product/Service records in the TAS Product file that have been assigned using TAS function 511. The change can be done interactively one Product at a time or in "bulk" from a simple pre-prepared ASCII CSV file. To avoid analysis reporting problems in TAS, the change is also applied retrospectively to the chosen product's history throughout the TAS database.
Important
It is strongly recommended that a backup of the TAS data is taken immediately before running programs involving "heavy-duty" database changes such as this. You are asked to confirm before proceeding further. The process of importing data requires the exclusive use of the TAS data files to ensure good performance. All other users are therefore required to log out of TAS during the import process.


The main form is displayed, initially with an empty grid:


To add a single product to the grid for its Category change, click on Add Single Product.

The following dialogue appears:

Product

Select/enter an existing TAS product using the Navigation function keys (or by entering the code). The system displays its description, its Current Category and that Category's description.

New Category

Select/enter the New Category which must be a valid TAS Product Category. You can use the usual Navigation Function keys to search the files. The system displays the new Category's description. Selecting the OKbutton gives you a confirmation message and clicking** Yes** inserts the record into the Product List grid:

If you make an error, you can remove the offending row by pressing Ctrl+Del.

To add a list of products "in bulk" to the grid from an ASCII CSV file, click on Add List From File ; this brings up the standard CSV file selection dialogue:


Open

Highlight your selection and click the Open button to continue.

The CSV file is pre-processed into the grid with the TAS Product codes and new Categories being validated; any errors or problem areas are reported in the grid, which you can correct by highlighting the row and clicking Edit Row to edit. To troubleshoot any errors, you can use the Troubleshooting ASCII CSV File Data Errors section in the Appendices.

When satisfied with the grid's Product contents click Start Processing Products. Due to the many file updates, the program needs to "lock" the TAS system so that that users cannot then log into TAS whilst the import is in progress. When the system is successfully locked, simply click the OK button.

The main part of the processing starts, with progress being reported on the original form - all other buttons are now disabled. Each row in the grid is processed. If there are any problems in a row it is skipped.

An ASCII text CSV Log file is created listing all changes that have taken place during this process (PCat_Chg_YY-MM-DD_NN.LOG). It records each successful change or error, including those items skipped, with: ProductCode, Old Group, New Group and Comment – "Successful" or, if an error/skip is involved, an appropriate error message.

The import file is renamed to help prevent processing twice by mistake and the LOG file is assigned a corresponding name. This is explained in detail in the Renaming & Log Naming Convention section in the Appendices.

When processing is complete a message to that effect is displayed in the top progress bar and the Close button becomes active. Click the Close button on the Product Category Change form and the TAS users are 'unlocked' following the same procedure in reverse as the locking method mentioned above.




Import Dynamic Discounts (586)

Purpose & Benefits
This function lets you insert/update unique discount rates for each customer/product combination as in TAS function 515. The change can be done interactively one Discount at a time or in "bulk" from a simple pre-prepared CSV file. As 515 is slow to use, this means large volumes of discounts can be handled very rapidly.

The main form is displayed, initially with an empty grid:

You add your requirements to the grid by clicking Add Single Line or Add List From File :


Add Single Line

To add a single dynamic discount to the grid, click on Add Single Line causing the following form to appear:

Select:-


Add List From File

To add a list of dynamic discounts "in bulk" to the grid from an ASCII CSV file, click Add List From File, bringing up the standard CSV file selection dialogue with the starting folder being the current TAS data directory:

Select the CSV file, click Open and it is pre-processed into the grid, any errors or problem areas, such as invalid TAS Customer codes or TAS Product Codes, are reported in the grid.

You can correct any errors by highlighting the row and clicking Edit Row to edit and correct. To troubleshoot any errors, you can use the Troubleshooting ASCII CSV File Data Errors section in the Appendices.

When satisfied with the grid's contents click Start Processing to continue. If there are lines shown on the grid that will not (for some reason) be able to be processed, you receive a warning.

This gives you the opportunity to click No to cancel processing, and amend it, or click Yes to proceed to process the dynamic discounts that can be processed.

During the import, you can see progress being reported on the original form via the progress bar. If there is an existing dynamic discount for the customer/product, the discount is updated , otherwise a new discount record is inserted.

An ASCII text CSV Log file is created listing all changes that have taken place during this process (Dyn_Disc_Import_YY-MM-DD_NN.LOG). It records each successful change or error, including those items skipped, with: Customer Code, Product Code, Dynamic Discount and Note – "Successful" or, if an error/skip is involved, an appropriate error message.

The import file is renamed to help prevent processing twice by mistake and the LOG file is assigned a corresponding name. This is explained in detail in the Renaming & Log Naming Convention section in the Appendices.

When processing is complete a message to that effect is displayed in the top progress bar and the Close button becomes active

When processing is complete you will see a message to that effect displayed in the progress bar and the Close button becomes active:

Click the Close button on the form to return to the Main Menu form.




Import BoM Assemblies (587)

Purpose & Benefits
For Manufacture feature users, this function allows you to create and update BoM Assembly processes and BoM Assembly records automatically by importing data from an ASCII CSV file.

The Product records for both the Assemblies and their components must already be setup in TASBooks (via program 5.1.1) – MultiTAS will not create these records.

Important
The file containing the records for import must be output from your third party software or spreadsheet as a CSV file and stored in an accessible folder. The order, format and size of the fields/columns for each record are critical for the import to succeed. Full details of the current file specifications, which must be used to output your data from your third party software, are documented separately in TAS Data Transfer File Specs which you can obtain from the Infoplex website, together with a TAS Data Transfer Toolkit containing sample files. It is crucial that you and/or your third party software provider follow these specifications. The specifications also give you useful information about how the program behaves if the import file contains blank or invalid data in the various fields/columns.


Click the […] button to locate and load the CSV file containing the data to be imported.

When you click the Import button, an ASCII text log file is created in the same folder as the import file. The log contains details of each assembly processed and any errors encountered during the processing run. You should check this file after every run.

For processing to continue successfully, the Import ASCII CSV file must conform to the Assembly Import specification. The file is read sequentially and its records are checked against the BoM Process and BoM Assembly files. If an assembly exists the records are updated with the ASCII details. If the assemly does not exist then new Process and Assembly records are created, plus related Extended Description records if appropriate.

The Progress bar lets you to see the progress of the import. The processing of hundreds of records is completed in seconds. Once the import run has completed a message appears advising of success or failure. You are informed of the renaming of the import file.

If there are any errors during the import you are informed with a message. You are also offered the opportunity to view the LOG file immediately.

To troubleshoot any errors, you can use the Troubleshooting ASCII CSV File Data Errors section in the Appendices.

The import file is renamed to help prevent processing twice by mistake and the Log file is assigned a corresponding name. This is explained in detail in the Renaming & Log Naming Convention section in the Appendices.

Click Cancel to return to the main program.




BoM File Integrity Check (588)

Purpose & Benefits
This utility is used to confirm the validity of your BoM data files – i.e. that TAS Product Records exist for all BoM Assemblies. Applies to Manufacture option users only.

On launch, you are asked to confirm you wish to run this Integrity check. Click Yes to proceed or No to cancel.

The program will then run the necessary checks, and confirm the result:

If issues were detected, the number of issues and supporting details is recorded in a Log File (named FileInteg.log) for investigation and resolution.

Once resolved, the ADMIN user must login to MultiTAS and choose Central > General Information > Maintain Central Information > BoM and change Number of Product Changes back to 0.




Recalculate Stock Quantities (589)

Purpose & Benefits
This utility is for use on the rare occasion where the summary database figures becomes "out of synch" with the underlying transactions and lets you run a recalculation of various Stock/Product Quantity figures. Sales Orders, for example, can become out of synch if TAS itself is used to create/edit and/or Print/Post Sales Orders.

Before running it you must ensure that all other users are logged out of this company, both in TAS and in any Infoplex software. You should also take a backup of the TAS data..

There are two ways you can run this:

  1. Reset Warehouse Nominal Accounts will update those Warehouse Product records which are different from the TAS NL accounts.
  2. Stock Quantities – akin to a full Recalculation which works through the entire history.

The amount of time taken to complete the Full Recalculation depends on the size of your database. If it is very large, you may wish to let it run outwith office hours, e.g. in the evening, overnight or over a weekend, so that business is not disrupted.

Click the Recalculate button to continue. Progress is indicated in the list of Processes, as the program automatically checks Stock movement assignments (matching with those in TAS), reassigns them and recalculates Product stock quantities at warehouses (but not TAS Product records' quantities) plus related history. A similar process is carried out with Sales Orders (but not TAS Sales Order records). The Synchronise Sales Orders process checks that TAS Sales Orders are correctly matched with Infoplex records.

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