Importance of 'Active in Journals' and 'Stocked Product' control WRT Project Supplier Invoice

Direct Supplier invoice (without a PO) that is to be created for the project can make use of items as well as procurement categories. In that case, items as well as the procurement categories should be linked to a project category. To setup and link a procurement category to a project category, refer the post Procurement Categories and related setup.

Please refer below for the two main configuration items that can frustrate you if you are trying to create a supplier invoice directly without a PO.

Importance of 'Active in Journals'

Very often it is required to create a supplier invoice for the project and in that case the item that is to be used in the supplier invoice should be linked to the project category. You think that the steps to that are very simple, which actually are, but with a small catch. You think you will create a project category and you will create a released product and then link it, which is correct as well. While linking the same, you need to navigate the 'Manage Project' fast tab of the Item record and select the project category from the drop down. However when you look for the desired project category, recently created, for the item, you cannot see it and then you get baffled as to why other item categories are being seen and why not the one which was recently created. You know that you have missed some setup, but there seems to be no clue. I faced the same situation and was frustrated to the core about it, until finally i found out that issue, which after fixed, the project category started appearing in the drop down and i could link the item to the project category. The frustrating toggle switch (as called in AX7 aka Dynamics 365) is called the 'Active in journals' in the 'Project Categories' window, which when turned to 'Yes', the category started showing in the drop down in the 'Manage Project' fast tab of the Item record.

Importance of  'Stocked Product' checkbox

After the released product is linked with the project category, as mentioned above, the task is still not over, as that item should be visible in the 'Item number' drop down of the supplier invoice. The items that are visible in that drop down are the ones for which are of type 'Non stocked'. Hence for all the items, for which supplier invoice needs to be created, without the PO, make sure that in the 'Item model group' of the item, the 'Stocked' checkbox (as seen in the screenshot below) should be unchecked or else the item will not be visible in the 'Item number' drop down of the supplier invoice.

Thanks
Sarang

Intercompany Vendor / Customer creation

Intercompany Vendor and Customer can be created by creating a relationship between the two intercompany records.

Whenever the intercompany vendor and customer is created, the 'Active' checkbox should be checked in the 'Miscellaneous details' tab of the Vendor / Customer record. However, this is a non-editable field and hence cannot be checked manually by the user.

To check that 'Active' checkbox and form an intercompany relationship, a user should navigate to 'General' tab of the customer / vendor record and click the 'Intercompany' button in the ribbon. This will open up an intercompany form, where an intercompany relationship can be formed.

User will have to check the 'Active' checkbox and then will have to select the company and the appropriate intercompany customer / vendor record from the drop down, of the selected company.

Note : One very much important thing to note here is the 'Remove relationship' button at the top. Suppose you no longer need the relationship between the intercompany customer /vendor and so you decide to uncheck the 'Active' checkbox. However this will just make the relationship inactive, but the relationship will still be there. This will mean that, even if the relationship is inactive, you will not be able to link that record with other intercompany customer / vendor. Hence if you are sure that the relationship is no longer needed, always ,make sure that first, you uncheck the 'Active' checkbox and then click the 'Remove relationship' button to completely delete the relationship.

Thanks

Sarang

Two IMP parameters from Procurement and Sourcing

There are two parameters worth noting from the Procurement and Sourcing module (under Parameters > Update) . They are:

1. Safety level of invoiced orders
2. Check for product receipt number used

• "Safety level of invoiced orders" drop down has three values. They are as follows:
• None - User can change the value on the fully invoiced PO
• Warning - User will receive a warning, if the user tries to change the value on the fully invoiced PO
• Locked - User will not be able to change the value on the fully invoiced PO
• "Check for product receipt number used" drop down has four values. They are as follows:
• Reject duplicate - Duplicate receipt number not allowed
• Reject duplicates within accounting year - Duplicate receipt number not allowed, within same year, but will be allowed if the numbers are from different accounting year.
• Accept duplicates - Duplicate receipt numbers allowed
• Warn in case of duplicates - User will be warned, in case of duplicate receipt number detected.

Though these parameters seem trivial, but for reference purpose noting it down here.

Thanks

Sarang

Procurement Categories and related setup

1. Procurement categories are setup at Product Management > Setup > Categories > Category Hierarchy.
2. Initially, only category structure is created (as mentioned in step 1) and then the type is assigned to the structure at Product Management > Setup > Categories > Category hierarchy types. This is really weird, as anyone would normally think that the category hierarchy type would be mentioned somewhere in the category hierarchy record, as a drop down. But no, there are fixed system-defined categories, which are mentioned in the path above.
3. The user has to associate the category hierarchy to the category hierarchy type. There are fixed category hierarchy types. They are:
• Procurement category hierarchy
• Sales category hierarchy
• Retail product hierarchy
• Commodity code hierarchy
• Derived financial hierarchy
• Supplemental retail hierarchy
• Retail channel navigation hierarchy
• Management reporter
4. Only one type of category hierarchy is allowed for one category hierarchy type.
5. We are interested in Procurement category hierarchy here in this article. The moment, the category hierarchy is linked to the category hierarchy type, additional fields related to the category hierarchy type, will be displayed on the category hierarchy records. User needs to fill them.
6. Ledger posting setup for procurement categories:
• If the procurement categories are used in project module, for project PO, then the procurement categories needs to be linked with the project categories. Project Category Ledger posting setup will then link this to the appropriate ledger code / account.
• If the procurement categories are used in a stand-alone PO, then the procurement category postings to the appropriate code is to be setup at Stock and warehouse management > Setup > Posting > Posting. In the 'Item code' drop down, apart from the standard 'Table', 'Group', 'All', there is one more option to select 'Category'. This category drop down will then show all the categories created in step 1.
7. Point 6 is all about the postings in the P&L .i.e. Cost postings. The balance sheet posting for a PO will always be Trade / Account payable.
8. This was all about the setup of the procurement category and its posting setup from a standalone PO and Project PO perspective. There is one more point to be discussed and that is invoice matching.
9. Invoice matching setup for procurement categories:
• Invoice matching setup applicable for 'Items' is setup at: Purchase Ledger > Setup > Purchase Ledger parameters > Invoice validation > Price and quantity matching.
• Invoice matching setup applicable for 'Procurement categories' is setup at: Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Policies > Purchasing policies > Policy rule > Category policy rule > Category matching policy.
10. Procurement categories can be accessed from following navigation : Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Categories > Procurement categories.  From this navigation user will not be able to create the new categories in the category hierarchy structure, but will be able to edit certain fields. However there is a button called ' Edit category hierarchy' which when clicked will open open up the category hierarchy structure form (which is same as navigation from step 1).
11. There is one more setup which is different for items and for procurement categories, i.e. over and under delivery.
12. Over / Under deliver settings for:
• Items is at Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Procurement and sourcing parameters > Updates. (Checkbox)
• Procurement categories is at Procurement and sourcing > Setup > Categories > Procurement categories > Under / over delivery (percentage field to be filled in manually)

This was all about main settings related to procurement categories and items and their relationship with the general ledger. Will update this post more, if i find anything worth noting down.

Thanks

Sarang

Set the Cost Price as the Sales Price by default...!

This thing has always troubled me. Whenever i needed to find the related configuration i would always look at the wrong place in the system. The parameter is actually related to supplier invoice and hence i would always search it in Purchase Ledger parameters, Procurement and sourcing parameters, Stock and Warehousing parameters etc. And finally being frustrated would find that under the Project management and accounting parameters.

The parameter i am talking about is, "Set the cost price as sales price by default". This parameter:

• if checked, will make the Sales price field (under the project tab in the pending supplier invoice) non-editable IF THE PROCUREMENT CATEGORY IS SELECTED in the pending supplier invoice line.This parameter does not hold true, if the pending supplier invoice line is for an item and not procurement category.

• if unchecked, will NOT make the Sales price field (under the project tab in the pending supplier invoice) non-editable IF THE PROCUREMENT CATEGORY IS SELECTED in the pending supplier invoice line.This parameter does not hold true, if the pending supplier invoice line is for an item and not procurement category.

Thanks

Sarang

Address Book, Teams and Security

1.      Option opted for – Secure by address book.

2.      When the new entity is created following things are MANUALLY done:

a.      ADDRESS BOOK created for that entity – MANUALLY

b.      TEAM created for that entity – MANUALLY

c.      ASSIGN the created TEAM to ADDRESS BOOK – MANUALLY

3.      When the following records are created, the ADDRESS BOOK is assigned to the records MANUALLY. The address book is the company in which the record is created:

a.      Customers

b.      Suppliers

c.      Trade hierarchy records

d.      Employees

4.      In standard AX, an employee is assigned to the team.

Standard AX

 

However not any user can be assigned to the team. If the user is not associated with the employee, then system throws an error.

Error

 

In standard AX, if the employees are to be added to TEAM, they should be assigned to the USER or else they cannot be selected in the ‘Add team members drop down:

When the ‘SJK SJK’ (employee) is assigned to the USER:

When the ‘SJK SJK’ (employee) is NOT assigned to the USER:

So in effect:

a.      Address Books contains Teams

b.      Teams contains Employees (Associated with Users)

c.      All the AX records (Customers, Vendors, Employees etc) are stamped with the Address Books.

d.      Teams will direct the logic about which AX records should be shown to the employees of that team.

6.      So while debugging, first step is to check the EMPLOYEE’s TEAM, ADDRESS BOOK to which the TEAM belongs and then the AX record’s ADDRESS BOOK.

EMPLOYEE’s TEAM -> ADDRESS BOOK -> ADDRESS BOOK on the AX record

If the ADDRESS BOOK on the EMPLOYEE’s TEAM = ADDRESS BOOK on the AX record, then the AX record should be seen by the EMPLOYEE.

7.      This is also controlled by whether the security roles that are assigned to the USER have access to ALL organizations or specific organizations:

Thanks

Sarang

Copy forecast feature

The standard copy forecast will always copy the forecast from one forecast model into other forecast model in the SAME project, provided the ‘From forecast model’ is used in the project. The standard copy forecast feature will NEVER copy forecast from one project to other project.

However apart from this there are four more filters given namely:

1.      Forecast

a.      Project ID - The standard copy forecast will always copy the forecast from one forecast model into other forecast model in the SAME project, provided the ‘From forecast model’ is used in the project.

b.      Category - The standard copy forecast will always copy the forecast for that category from one forecast model into other forecast model in the ALL the projects, provided that category is used in the ‘From forecast model’ in the projects.

2.      Projects

a.      Project ID - The standard copy forecast will always copy the forecast from one forecast model into other forecast model in the SAME project, provided the ‘From forecast model’ is used in the project.

b.      Project contract ID - The standard copy forecast will always copy the forecast from one forecast model into other forecast model in ALL the projects of the selected project contract, provided the ‘From forecast model’ is used in the projects.

Thanks

Sarang