Version 9.50 April 2007
Audit SystemA significant change has been made to the way the FactoryMaster audit system is structured & stored on your server system. Previously, if you were running a system with a database size limit (MSDE or MSSQL 2005 Express) then the audit system could take up a significant amount of your database allocation.
In this version we have split out the audit system files from the main 'data' database to create a separate 'audit' database. The database size limit is now applicable to each of the databases separately.
Please note that in order to create the new audit database this update MUST be run on the FactoryMaster server.
Many of the RTF document layouts have had extra tags added. Please see the appropriate document 'tag lists' for details of these additions.
Improvements have been made to the user access of sales invoices and credit notes. These are now controlled by the new user access codes 'Sales Invoices' and 'Credit Notes' respectively. Users will need to be given access to these codes in order to continue using these areas.
Twenty new 'user defined' access codes have also been added which can be used to control access to 'manually added' menu items. The titles of these access codes can be modified via the 'User Defined Fields' menu option.
It is now possible to dynamically include a quoted part's extended 'Notes / Comments' on the quote letter, rather than having to press a button to bring in a static copy of it. This can be selected on an 'item-by-item' basis, or can be set to happen automatically for new quotes by setting the control flag 'USE_STOCKED_PART_NOTES' to 'Yes'.
A new report has been added to allow users to report on current packaging items at a customer's site and to show the transactions made.
This export now gives the user the opportunity to amend the exported 'order item' number on each line as an export batch is produced. Please note that this does NOT change the actual item number stored on the FactoryMaster sales order records.
FactoryMaster has traditionally stored all purchase order and purchase invoice values in the HOME currency and converted these into the PURCHASE ORDER currency at the time of display or printing. This had led to a number of reported 'rounding' problems, whereby the value does not quite convert back to the value originally entered. For this reason, a change has been made this version so that the system now stores all these values in the currency in which they are entered.
This change will overcome these rounding issues but does mean that purchase orders can now ONLY BE RAISED IN THE CURRENCY SPECIFIED ON THE SUPPLIER RECORD. This is consistent with major accounting systems. If you need to raise purchase orders against a supplier in a currency other than the one specified you will need to set up a second record (with a different supplier code) for that supplier. A 'copy supplier' button has been added to 'Supplier Maintenance' to aid you in doing this.
This also means that purchase order-based reports which show in the HOME currency will be dynamic and will reflect the impact of fluctuating currency rates. Reports which show matched values will continue to use a static rate to reflect the rate applicable at the time you actually settled the account.
Users now have the facility to set default values (by supplier) for the 'Certificate of Release', 'First Article Report' and 'Material Mill' flags on new purchase orders.
There is also an update facility available to set the default values for ALL existing suppliers.
A new control flag has been added to control how much a user can 'over-book' in items from a purchase order.
The control flag 'PO_GI_OVER_REC_PERCENT' specifies what percentage of an item can be 'over-booked'.
If the control flag is set to zero then the option is ignored and users can over-book any quantity as required.
The part valuation screen now has an option to show either the 'unit' or 'total' actual values of the stock batches.
Redundant Manufacturing Routes
Manufacturing routes can now be set as 'redundant' and be removed from the available routes list. Please note that a manufacturing route will automatically appear as redundant if the part associated with it is made redundant.
These screens will now indicate if a listed sales order is currently 'on hold', and also display the current 'maximum stock' level of the item. This does not apply to customers using the 'last MRP' version of 'Forecast Stock'.
A new capacity planning menu has been added to the 'Production' tab of FactoryMaster. This includes both the existing 'Scheduled Capacity Planning' and a new 'Rough Cut Capacity Planning' option.
The new option uses the standard hours for each part and analyses the pending sales orders on the basis of these standard hours.
The standard hours can be calculated using the option on the capacity planning menu. The calculation uses the preferred route for each part as well as the preferred route in each of the manufactured component parts to give a total hours for the part. Once this has been calculated it is stored on the stocked parts record and used in the 'Rough Cut Capacity Planning Report'.
The FactoryMaster imports & exports have been adjusted to allow them to be more compatible with each other.
This is to allow customers to import / export data between FactoryMaster installations (for example between the 'Live' & 'Play' systems).