Single Level and Rolled Up Cost Shares in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

If you are a manufacturing company using the Dynamics NAV Standard Cost Method, it is important that you understand the concept of Single Level and Rolled Up cost Shares.

When you Roll Up Standard Costs in Dynamics NAV, the system not only populates the Standard Cost Field for the manufactured items, but also populates the following fields:

• Single Level Material
• Single Level Capacity
• Single Level Capacity Overhead
• Single Level Subcontracting
• Single Level Manufacturing Overhead

• Rolled Up Material
• Rolled Up Capacity
• Rolled Up Capacity Overhead
• Rolled Up Subcontracting
• Rolled Up Manufacturing Overhead

If we look at an Item Card from Dynamics 2013, we see that the Standard Cost for this item is 352.999. 

Figure 1 – Standard Cost for an item from the Item Card

If we dig a bit deeper, we will see that the Standard Cost is broken down to Rolled Up Material Cost and Rolled Up Capacity Cost.

Figure 2 – Standard Cost broken down to Rolled Up Material Cost and Rolled Up Capacity Cost

And the Standard Cost is also broken down to its Single Level Material Cost and the Single Level Capacity Cost.

Figure 3 – Standard Cost broken down to Single Level Material Cost and the Single Level Capacity Cost

What is the difference then between Rolled Up and Single Level Cost Shares?

For a produced item, if you want to know the total content of Material, Capacity, Capacity Overhead, Subcontracting, or Manufacturing Overhead, you would look at the Rolled Up Cost Shares. Looking at the example below, we can see that the Rolled Up Cost Shares are the summed up costs from all of the BOM layers below.

Figure 4 – Rolled Up Cost Shares (Taken from Dynamics NAV Manufacturing Costing Training Manual)

If, however, you want to know the ‘Value Added’ at a single BOM layer for a produced item, you would look at the Single Level Cost Shares. Notice in the example below that the Single Level Material contains not only the Material added at that layer, but all of the cost from the layers below.

Figure 5 – Single Level Cost Shares (Taken from Dynamics NAV Manufacturing Costing Training Manual)

When a Dynamics NAV Released Production Order is changed to a Finished Production Order, the Adjust Cost-Item Entries Program uses the Single Level Cost Shares to calculate variances for that Production Order. 

Below are examples of the Single Cost Level and Roll Up Reports

Figure 6 – Dynamics NAV Single Level Cost Shares Report

Figure 7 – Dynamics NAV Rolled Up Cost Shares Report

If you would like more information on this subject or another Dynamics NAV subject, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Item Inventory Value Changes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

There are times where it seems like an item’s inventory value changes without an explanation.

This blog attempts to show how the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Inventory Valuation Report calculates the Inventory Value and may help explain why the inventory value might appear to magically change.

We have set up an example to try to explain this.

First, we created the Item INV VALUE with the Costing Method FIFO.

Figure 1 – Create a new item with the Costing Method FIFO

We then created a Purchase Order for quantity 10 and a Direct Unit Cost of 10.00.

Figure 2 – Create a Purchase Order for quantity of 10 and Direct Unit Cost of 10.00

Post the receipt of the Purchase Order and then run the inventory valuation report with an as-of date of 9/10/2014.  As expected, we see that the inventory value is 100.00.

Figure 3 – Inventory Valuation report with a date of 9/10/2014 with a unit cost of 10.00 and quantity of 10 yields an inventory value of 100.00

We then invoiced the receipt with a posting date of 9/15/2014 and a direct unit cost of 15.

Figure 4 – Change the posting date to 9/15/2014 and a direct unit cost of 15.00 shows a total of 150.00, as expected

We then re-ran the Inventory Valuation Report with an as-of date of 9/10/2014, and the inventory valuation remained the same at 100.00.

Figure 5 –Inventory Valuation Report with an as-of date of 9/10/2014 shows an Inventory Value of 100.00

The Unit Cost on the Item now shows 15.00.

Figure 6 –Unit Cost for this item shows 15.00

The Item Ledger Entry for this receipt shows a Cost Amount (Actual) of 150.00.

Figure 7 – Item Ledger Entry shows an Acutal Cost Amount of 150.00 for this receipt

If we drill down on the Cost Amount (Actual), we can examine the Value Entries for this receipt. The original receipt was made with a Posting Date of 9/10/2014. The Invoice has a Posting Date of 9/15/2014. When the Inventory Valuation Report runs, it finds the Item’s Value Entries up to and including the as-of date.

Figure 8 – Value Entries for both 9/10/2014 and 9/15/2014

While this may seem to be a simple example, it goes a long way toward understanding how the Dynamics NAV Inventory Valuation Report calculates the Inventory Value.

If you would like more information on this subject or another Dynamics NAV subject, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Quick Reporting in Dynamics NAV Using Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables

Yesterday a client called and asked if there was a report in Dynamics NAV that listed inventory on hand and in which warehouse bins the inventory was located.

We did not find a report for this, so we thought that if we could get to the Bin Contents Table, we could export the data to Excel and create a Pivot Table to present the information.

Using Dynamics NAV 2013, we went to an item card.

From there, select “Bin Contents.”

Figure 1 – To show inventory on hand and the associated bins, start by selecting “Bin Contents” from the Item Card

This gives us only the Bin Contents for the current item, so we removed the item filter.

Figure 2 – Remove the item filter

This then gave us the entire Bin Contents list for all items.

Figure 3 – The entire Bin Contents list for all items is displayed

We filtered out all of the zero quantities, which gave us the all of the Bin Contents containing inventory.

Figure 4 – Remove the zero quantities to list all the Bin Contents containing inventory

We then copied and pasted the data to Excel.

Figure 5 – Copy and Paste the data into Microsoft Excel

And from there, we created a Pivot Table to present the report.

Figure 6 – Create a pivot table to display the report

You can see that with a little knowledge of Dynamics NAV and some skills in Microsoft Excel, you can write reports from the Dynamics NAV data. This report took less than 5 minutes to generate. If this report became widely used, then you would want to write it using other report writing tools such as Jet Reports.

If you would like more information on this subject or another Dynamics NAV subject, pleasecontact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Understanding Concurrent Capacities on Microsoft Dynamics NAV Routing Lines

There is a field in the Dynamics NAV Routing Line named Concurrent Capacities.

The question is, “What is it used for?”

We hope to answer this question through the use of a practical example that will hopefully demonstrate its usefulness.

We set up a simple example to illustrate the use of this field.

Figure 1 – Concurrent Capacities field in the Dynamics NAV Routing Line

First, we created a Work Center named ASSEMBLY. We set the Capacity of the Work Center to 10.

Figure 2 – Setting the Capacity field of the Work Center card

We calculated the Work Center Calendar and can see that the Work Center has a Capacity of 80 hours per day.

Figure 3 – Capacity shown on the Work Center Calendar

We then created a test routing that uses the ASSEMBLY Work Center and has a Run Time of 10 hours.

Figure 4 – Test routing for the Work Center shows a Run Time of 10 hours

We then created a Production Order for the Item using this Routing. If we look at the Production Order Routing Lines, we see that the Starting Date is 8/27/14 and the Ending Date is 9/12/14.

Figure 5 – Production Order Routing Lines with Starting and Ending Dates

If we look at the Work Center Load for the ASSEMBLY Work Center, we see that Dynamics NAV only scheduled 8 hours per day, even though we had a capacity of 80 hours.

Figure 6 – Work Center Load for this Work Center shows only 8 hours per day have been allocated, even though NAV shows a capacity of 80 hours

In order for Dynamics NAV to schedule using all of the 80 hours of capacity, we need to set the Concurrent Capacity on the Routing Line to 10.

Figure 7 – Set the Concurrent Capacity to 10 in the Routing Line in order to use all 80 hours of capacity

After we refreshed the Production Order to use the new Concurrent Capacity, we see that the Starting Date is no longer 8/27/14, but 9/11/14.

Figure 8 – By changing the Concurrent Capacity, the Production Order shows an adjusted Starting Date

And if we look at the Work Center Load, we see that the system used the full 80 hours of Capacity in the Work Center to make a schedule for this Production Order.

Figure 9 – Work Center Load now shows full utilization of Capacity to make a schedule for this Production Order

If you would like more information on this subject or another Dynamics NAV subject, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Inventory Valuation by Location Report for Average Cost Item shows Zero on Hand but has a Value

We often get the question from clients using the Dynamics NAV Average Cost Method, “Why is there a dollar value when there is zero on hand in a location, but when I run the report for all locations combined, it has a correct value?”

First, we should look at the Inventory Setup. We can see that the Average Cost Calc. Type is set to “Item”. 

What this means is that the average is calculated for all locations combined.

Figure 1 – Inventory Setup showing Average Cost Calc. Type set to “Item”

To illustrate, here is an example. Create a purchase order for an average cost item with 10 pieces going into to Location BOB 1 and BOB 2. The unit cost for those going into BOB 1 is 10.00 and those going into BOB 2 100.00.

Figure 2 – Purchase order showing two different locations and different unit costs using Average Cost

We then post and invoice the receipt and run the inventory valuation report for each location. We can see that the values are correct for each location.

Figure 3 – Inventory Valuation Report showing correct values for each location

We then created a Sales Order to ship the 10 pieces in Location BOB 1. 

Figure 4 – Sales Order to ship 10 pieces all from one location

Now, when we run the Inventory Valuation Report, we get the unexpected results of zero on hand in location BOB 1 with a value of -450.00.

Figure 5 – Inventory Valuation Report now shows zero on hand and a negative value

If you would like to maintain an average cost for locations, you must select Average Cost Calc. Type to be Item & Location & Variant.

Figure 6 – Changing the Average Cost Calc. Type to Item & Location & Variant in Inventory Setup will maintain an average cost for locations

Now, when we run the Inventory Valuation Report we get what we might expect.

Figure 7 – After changing the Inventory Setup, the Inventory Valuation Report yields expected results

When we run the Inventory Valuation Report for just Location BOB 1, we can see that the valuation for zero on hand is equal to zero.

Figure 8 – The Inventory Valuation Report for just location BOB 1 shows zero on hand and zero value…as expected

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Tracking Production Order Variances in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

We had a question from a client recently regarding Production Order Variances. The client was seeing Variances being posted to the General Ledger and wanted to know what was causing them.

Keep in mind that this analysis is only for those items that have a Costing Method of Standard Cost. Also keep in mind that there will be no variances calculated and posted to the General Ledger until the Production Order has been changed to status “Finished” and that the Adjust Cost-Item Entries has been run and the results are posted to the General Ledger.

The first step in the analysis, of course, is to identify a variance in the General Ledger that you want to analyze. In this case we are seeing a Material Variance of favorable 1,444.06 in Production Order PROD00497.

Figure 1 – Identify variance in the General Ledger

The next step in the analysis is to Navigate to the Production Order. Navigate will bring up a list of places where the system has found the document number (the Production Order Number in this case).

Figure 2 – Navigate to the Production Order

We will want to select the Production Order Line and then “Show”.

Figure 3 – Select the Production Order and “Show”

This will bring us to the Production Order that we want to Analyze.

Figure 4 – View of the Production Order

From here we would select “Statistics”.

Figure 5 – Select Statistics for this Production Order

By looking at the Statistics for this Production Order, we can see that the Material Variance agrees with what we are seeing in the General Ledger and perhaps more importantly that the Expected Cost is equal to the Standard Cost. If the Expected Cost and Standard Cost are not equal, it could mean:

• The Standard Cost hasn’t been rolled up correctly
• The BOM and/or Routing have been changed without doing a new Cost Rollup
• The Work Center/Machine Center Rates have been changed without doing a new Cost Rollup
• The Components have been changed on this Production Order
• The Routing has been changed on this Production Order
• If you are using Setup Times in your Routings, the Production Order Quantity is not equal to the Lot Size on the Item Card
• The Standard Cost of a Component in the BOM has changed without doing a new Cost Rollup

In this case, the Standard Cost and Expected Cost are equal so we are looking for a true Material Variance.

Figure 6 – Identify where the variance occurs

To look for a true Material Variance, select “Line/Components” to get to the Component List for this Production Order. In this case, it is clearly evident that the Front Wheel has not been issued to this Production Order. If we multiply the Unit Cost of 143.621 times 10 we get 1,436.21, which explains nearly all of the Material Variance we are seeing. The next step in the analysis would be to interview the Production Staff to see how they could build a bicycle without a Front Wheel.

Figure 7 – View of the Line Components of the Production Order

It is a bit more difficult to analyze Capacity Variances. In this case we want to Navigate to the Capacity Ledger Entries for this Production Order.

Figure 8 – Navigate to the Capacity Ledger Entries

When we look at the Capacity Ledger Entries, we can see the Actual Time that was used for Setup and Run Time.

Figure 9 – View of the Capacity Ledger Entries shows the Actual Time for Setup and Run Time

Now if we look at the Routing for this item, we can see the Standard Times. NOTE: Our Production Order was for Quantity 10.

Figure 10 – View of the Routing for the item, showing the Standard Times

This is the analysis that agrees with the 501.60 that we see in the Production Order Statistics.

Figure 11 – Table showing the source of the variances in this example

If you would like more information on this subject or another Dynamics NAV subject, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Understanding Low-Level Code When Running Adjust Cost-Item Entries

or When Running Adjust Cost-Item Entries, why does the Microsoft Dynamics NAV need to know the Item Low-Level Code?

The scenario:

Your company is a manufacturing company and has a Bill of Material that has several levels. Your company has not started to use the Dynamics NAV MRP (Planning Worksheet) functionality yet. You are running the Adjust Cost-Item Entries program on a regular basis. 

So the question is, “Why you would need to run the ‘Calculate Low-Level Code’ program before you run the Adjust Cost program?”

Figure 1 – Selecting Calculate Low-Level Code before running the Adjust Cost program

Looking at the Bill of Material example below, we can see that this structure has 4 levels. When the Adjust Cost-Item Entries program runs, it needs to know the ”lowest level” of an item. This lowest level is represented in the Item’s Low-Level Code. (We discuss Low Level Codes in more detail in the blog, Using Low Level Codes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV.)

In order to know the full cost of Item A, the Adjust Cost program must start at the bottom of the structure and “push costs upward” through the BOM structure levels.  It would start with F and G, then D and E, then B and C, and finally A.

Figure 2 – Diagram of Low-Level Code in BOM structure levels

If you are running the Adjust Cost-Item Entries program without first calculating the Low-Level Code, then the Adjust Cost program is producing incomplete costing results.

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

How Should the Interim COGS Account be Set Up in Microsoft Dynamics NAV?

We frequently get questions about how the Dynamics NAV Account should be set up.

If we look at the General Posting Setup in Dynamics NAV, we see that there are two setup columns:

• COGS
• COGS Interim

The COGS Interim Account is for items that have been shipped, but not invoiced to the customer.

Figure 1 – General Posting Setup in Dynamics NAV

This account should be set up as a Balance Sheet Account as there has been no Revenue recognized, but the items are no longer in the Inventory Account.

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Accounts Payable to General Ledger Reconciliation in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Are you Running the Microsoft Dynamics NAV Accounts Payable to General Ledger Reconciliation Report?

It is vital that you keep up with Invoicing (Vouchering) in Microsoft Dynamics NAV if you want your system to show the accurate value of inventory and calculate the correct Cost of Goods Sold.

From time to time, we find clients that are not keeping up with their Purchase Receipt invoicing. We can tell this by running the A/P to G/L Reconciliation Report. This report can be found under the Financial Management/Payables menu.

When you run the report, select “Item”.

Figure 1 – Running the Accounts Payable to General Ledger Reconciliation Report

When you run this report, it gives you a list of all of the Purchase Receipts that have not been invoiced.

Figure 2 – The Accounts Payable to General Ledger Reconciliation Report shows a list of Purchase Receipts that have not been invoiced

If you find very old Purchase Receipts on the list and you know that the vendor has been paid, your only option is to invoice the receipt and then issue a Dynamics NAV Credit Memo to get the Payable off the Vendor Aging.

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Using a Frozen BOM to Roll up Standard Cost in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

When you are rolling up Standard Costs at the beginning or end of a Fiscal Period, it is often desirable to keep a copy of the “Frozen BOM” for reference purposes. This will help answer the question, “What was the composition of the BOM when the Standard Costs were rolled up?”

To do this, create a Production BOM Version for each BOM with the version number—something like “FY2013” with a starting date far into the future, like 12/31/2113.  In this way, the BOM will never be inadvertently used for anything but the cost rollup.

NOTE: To create these BOM Versions in bulk for all of your Production BOMs, you will need to contact your Dynamics NAV partner to write a processing report.

Figure 1 – Create a Production BOM Version for each BOM with the version number using a starting date far into the future, like 12/31/2113

Now, when rolling up the Standard Cost using the Dynamics NAV Standard Cost Worksheet, use the “Calculation Date” of 12/31/2113 so that the system will use that version of the Production BOM.

Figure 2 – Roll up the Standard Cost with the Dynamics NAV Standard Cost Worksheet using the new Calculation Date

The result of this is that you have used the Production BOM Version FY 2013 for the rollup, and that Version will be saved for future reference.

For more information on Standard Cost rollups for another Dynamics Cost topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Phasing in ECN for Bill of Material Changes in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

As with most if not all manufacturing companies, product engineers will make changes to the product Bills of Material (BOM).

One possible reason for an Engineering Change Notice (ECN) change is to use up the existing inventory of component parts before switching to the new component part. Another possibility would be the introduction of new packaging at the beginning of a new model year.

In Dynamics NAV, we have two possible ways to handle this:

• Using Starting and Ending dates in the BOM line itself
• Using Starting dates in BOM Versions

If we look at a Production BOM in Dynamics NAV 2013, we can see that there are columns for Ending Date and Starting Date:

Figure 1 – Production BOM showing Starting and Ending Dates

Selecting and Ending Date of 12/31/2014 for Item 1400 and a Starting Date of 1/1/2015 means that when MRP is planning, it will use item 1400 up to 12/31 and will begin using Item 1450 on 1/1.  It also means that if you create Production Orders on or before 12/31, the system will use Item 1400 and Item 1450 after that.

Figure 2 – Production BOM with Starting and Ending Dates populated

Another way to accomplish this ECN Phase In is to use Dynamics NAV Production BOM Versions.

We created two Production BOM Versions.

In Version 1, we have set the Starting Date to 1/1/14:

Figure 3 – Production BOM, Version 1

In Version 2, we have set the Starting Date to 1/1/15:

Figure 4 – Production BOM, Version 2 with a later Starting Date

What this means is that when MRP is planning, it will use item 1400 up to 12/31/14 and will begin using Item 1450 on 1/1/15. It also means that if you create Production Orders on or before 12/31, the system will use Item 1400 and Item 1450 after that.

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Variable and Fixed Overhead Absorption in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

There are Dynamics NAV clients that would like to separate Variable and Fixed Overhead.

If we look at a Dynamics NAV Work Center Card, we see that we can put in a Direct Unit Cost and an Indirect Cost % or Overhead Rate. However, there is no place to indicate if this cost is Variable or Fixed.

To accommodate a Fixed Cost Component to the Cost of Production, we start by creating a new Work Center that I have named “FIXED OVERHEAD”.

Figure 1 – View of the Work Center Card

We have set the Direct Unit Cost to 10.00 and the Unit cost Calculation to “Units”.

Figure 2 – Creating a new Work Center for the Fixed Cost Component

We created a new General Product Posting Group called FIXED OH and pointed the Direct Cost Applied Account to a new General Ledger Account that we also called FIXED OH.

Figure 3 – Creating a new General Product Posting Group

We then added a Parallel Operation to the Routing Lines using the new FIXED OVERHEAD Work Center.

Figure 4 – Adding a Parallel Operation to the Routing Lines

To test it, we created a Released Production Order that calls for the routing to which I added the parallel step.

Figure 5 – Creating a Released Production Order that calls for the routing set up previously

After we have changed the Production Order to the finished status, we can see in the General Ledger that it reflects the appropriate Debit to the WIP account and to the Fixed Overhead Absorbed account.

Figure 6 – The General Ledger shows the appropriate values as desired

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Using Alternate Production BOM Versions for Production Orders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

The scenario:

Your company produces bicycles and uses Dynamics NAV Production Orders.

The Production Orders feature automatically uses the “Current Version” of the Production BOM, but in this instance we want to use an “Alternate Version” of the Production BOM.

First, we set up the Versions of the Production BOM.

When we open up the Production BOM in NAV 2013, we see what we call the “Header Version”; however, it could also be called the “Version-less Version”. We can see that the Active Version is the Current Version. When a Production Order is created, it will default to the Active Version.

Figure 1 – Production BOM in NAV 2013

If we select Versions from the BOM card, the system will display a list of the versions of the Production BOM’s we have entered. In this case, there are two versions. Note the starting date for the alternate Version; it has been set to 12/1/2099 with the idea that it is so far into the future that it will never be inadvertently used.

Figure 2 – Viewing the Production BOM Version List

We can see the differences in the Production BOM Lines using the Dynamics NAV “Matrix per Version”. Note that there are no Mudguards in the Alternate Version.

Figure 3 – Comparing the difference between Production BOMs using the Production BOM Matrix per Version

Next, we create the NAV Production Order in the normal way. We can see that the system automatically used the Production BOM 100 and the Version set to Current.

Figure 4 – Creating a NAV Production Order

To use the Alternate Version, we select “Production BOM Version Code” and then set the Version to Alternate.

Figure 5 – Select Production BOM Version Code and set the Version to Alternate

To complete the process of using the Alternate Production BOM Version, we need to “Refresh” the Production Order again. The trick to getting the system to use the Alternate Version and to not default to the Active Version is to “un-check” the Lines Option.

Figure 6 – To use the Alternate Production BOM Version, Refresh the Production Order again un-check the Lines Option

We can now see that the system used the Alternate Version of the Production BOM. Note here that there are no mudguards in the Production Order Component List.

Figure 7 – The final Production BOM is shown

For more information on this or any other Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Rework Production Orders in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

There are times in manufacturing, particularly process manufacturing, where the quality of the output doesn’t meet specifications and needs to be returned to manufacturing for rework.

To accomplish this in Dynamics NAV, you will need to manually create a production order that consumes the batch of output plus any other needed material.

In the example below, a bicycle has been produced, but the front wheel is defective and needs to be replaced.

To start, manually create a production order by populating the header and also a line for the item that needs to be reworked.

Figure 1 – For Rework Production Orders, start by manually creating a production order

Then manually add the bicycle and the front wheel to the production order component lines.

Figure 2 – Manually add the items to the production order component lines

Finally, consume the bicycle and front wheel and output the finished bicycle.

Figure 3 – Finally, consume the item(s) and output the finished product

Now if we look at the resulting Item Ledger Entries for this Production Order, we see that we have consumed a bicycle to produce a bicycle with the addition of the new front wheel.

Figure 4 – The Item Ledger Entries for this Production Order shows that we have consumed the item with the additions

For more information on this or other Microsoft Dynamics NAV topics, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Using Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables to Verify Posting Group Setup and Analysis in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

In the early stages of a Dynamics NAV implementation, it is essential to verify your Posting Group Setup through testing.

Excel Pivot Tables are ideal for this analysis.

We will use a Dynamics NAV Finished Production Order to illustrate this concept.

What we want to find out is: Did postings go to the correct General Ledger Accounts?

Figure 1 – View of the Dynamics NAV Finished Production Order

We find the Item Ledger Entries associated to this Finished Production Order:

Figure 2 – View the Item Ledger Entries associated to this Finished Production Order

We then use the Dynamics NAV Navigation tool to find all of the General Ledger Entries associated with this Production Order. To make sure we have all of the entries, always remove the date filter and select “Find”. The reason for this is that the transactions for a Production Order may have taken place over a period of many days:

Figure 3 – Use the Dynamics NAV Navigation tool to find the General Ledger Entries associated with this Production Order.  Be sure to remove the date filter to find all the entries.

Then “Show” the General Ledger Entries:

Figure 4 – “Show” the General Ledger Entries

This gives us the list of General Ledger Entries associated with this Production Order, which we copy to Excel:

Figure 5 – Copy the list of General Ledger Entries associated with this Production Order to Excel

In Excel, we highlight all of the Columns and Rows that we want to convert to a Pivot Table:

Figure 6 – In Excel, highlight the Columns and Rows to convert to a pivot table

We then select “Insert/Pivot Table” which brings up this Options Dialog Window:

Figure 7 – Select “Insert/Pivot Table” which opens the Pivot Table Options Dialog Window

We select “OK,” which brings me to this window, where we drag down G/L Account No. and G/L Account Name into the “Row Labels,” and we drag down Amount into the “Sum of the Values”:

Figure 8 –Populate the fields to report: G/L Account No. and G/L Account Name into the “Row Labels,” and Amount into the “Sum of the Values”

This then populates the Pivot Table with a summary of the General Ledger Entries for this Finished Production Order:

Figure 9 – The Pivot Table is populated with a summary of the General Ledger Entries for this Finished Production Order

From this analysis, it is clear that the Posting Setups are correct.

For more information on this or other Microsoft Dynamics NAV topics, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

How to Customize a Fast Tab in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 R2

Fast Tabs in Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2013 allow users to “roll up” information pertinent to the screen being viewed at the time. Users can customize the fields in a Fast Tab so that the information is:

• Promoted – Viewed even when the tab is collapsed, used for access to information at all times (in previous versions, the classic view required the user to access each tab to see the fields; now, the Fast Tabs allow users to view essential information without having to expand the tab
• Standard – Viewed when the Fast Tab is expanded
• Additional – Viewed only when the user selects “show more fields

This short video shows how users can customize Fast Tabs to display only the information they need, when they need it, saving time and improving accuracy.

Basics of PCI Compliance

As retailers, it is important to reduce your liability as much as possible. Things happen and you want to be able to protect your business and its assets as much as possible. One way to reduce your liability with your customer’s data is by becoming PCI compliant.

Being PCI compliant means that you are securing payments. In the past year we’ve seen some big companies get hit by data breaches costing them billions of dollars in fines. Reduce your chances of having your data stolen or having to pay hefty fines by following key steps to becoming compliant.

You can begin implementing some measures right away to help you reach compliancy and secure your business. Read these three key steps from our blog post to get started on making your business PCI compliant. If you’re not already compliant, now’s the perfect time to get started.

How to Get Customer Data without Being Intrusive

As retailers, Big Data helps drive decisions. We can better understand how many times a person comes to a store, what buying patterns to associate with our customers, which sales work, and so much more. By having access to consumer data, you open up a possibility to create lifetime customers that are loyal to your business.

But what is the best way to go about collecting this information? You will need to create an atmosphere that you’d be comfortable sharing your personal information in. After all, we aren’t just business owners at the end of the day, but consumers as well! By putting yourself in your customer’s shoes, you can better understand how they feel in your store when being asked for information such as their email, zip code, or telephone number.

By first figuring out what data you need to collect, you can then work on your approach. Find out six ways to approach your customers to get their data without being intrusive in our full blog post.

Regenerative versus Net Change MRP Planning in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Dynamics NAV gives us the option to run Regenerative or Net Change MRP Planning (NAV Planning Worksheet).

The question is: Which one should you use?

From the APICS Dictionary:

Regenerative MRP: An MRP processing approach where the master production schedule is totally re-exploded down through all bills of material, to maintain valid priorities. New requirements and planned orders are completely recalculated or “regenerated” at that time. Ant: net change MRP.

Net Change MRP: An approach in which the material requirements plan is continually retained in the computer. Whenever a change is needed in requirements, open order inventory status, or bill of material, a partial explosion and netting is made for only those parts affected by the change. Ant: regeneration MRP.

Some history:

MRP has been around now for nearly fifty years. In the early days, MRP was run on mainframe computers with little memory or disk space. There was a time when it would take nearly forty hours to calculate a Regenerative plan.

There was then an effort to reduce the Regeneration time. The result was Net Change MRP. When Net Change is run, MRP will only re-plan those items that have changed and would affect the plan.

Figure 1 – Select the option to run Regenerative or Net Change MRP from the NAV Planning Worksheet

Changes that would qualify for a Net Change Run are:

• Quantity on hand change due to a cycle count
• Bill of Material change
• New Sales Orders
• Routing change
• Etc.

When the system recognizes a change of this nature, it stores the item number and other information in the Dynamics NAV “Planning Assignment Table”:

Figure 2 – Changed items are stored in the Planning Assignment Table

Then, if you calculate a Net Change Plan, the system looks to this table to see what needs to be re-planned.

What’s our advice? It depends. If you are Calculating Regenerative Plans and it's taking a long time (more than an hour, perhaps) and it is interfering with business, try the Net Change Calculation to see if there is an improvement. If you are Calculating Regenerative Plans as a batch at night and it is not interfering with business, then stay with Regenerative.

For more information on this or other Microsoft Dynamics NAV topics, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Breaking out Material, Labor, and Overhead for the Balance Sheet and COGS in Microsoft Dynamics NAV

There are companies that desire to break out Material, Labor, and Overhead for their Balance Sheet and for COGS.

Unfortunately, Microsoft Dynamics NAV only has a single number available for Inventory for the Balance Sheet and COGS.

Dynamics NAV has a report that will break down these numbers for all costing methods. It is called the Cost Shares Breakdown.

Figure 1 – The Cost Shares Breakdown report will break down Material, Labor, and Overhead for all costing methods

The report can be run for Sales (COGS), Inventory (Balance Sheet), and WIP (also for the Balance Sheet).

Figure 2 – The Cost Shares Breakdown report can be run for Sales, Inventory, or WIP Inventory

When the report is run, you can see that the various cost elements are broken out.

Figure 3 – Running the Cost Shares Breakdown report breaks out the various cost elements

The shortcoming of this report is that it will only go down to the top level in the Bill of Material.

If you are using the Standard Cost Method and want to get the break out for all of the Bill of Material Levels, you can write a report to get it.

If we look deeper into the item record in Dynamics NAV, we can see the fields for Rolled Up Material, Rolled Up Capacity, Rolled Up Capacity Overhead, Rolled Up Subcontracted Cost, and Rolled Up Manufacturing Overhead Cost.

Figure 4 – View of the Rolled Up costs

The report for the Balance Sheet Inventory would simply be the on-hand quantity times the various cost elements.

The report for COGS would be a bit more difficult as it would have to go through the Item Ledger Entries looking for the type equal to Sales. The report would then multiply the quantity of the sale times the various cost elements.

ArcherPoint has written these reports, as well as reports that automatically create General Journal entries to break these numbers out in the General Ledger.

If you are interested in any of these reports, or for more information on another Dynamics NAV costing topic, please contact ArcherPoint.

Read more "How To" blogs from ArcherPoint for practical advice on using Microsoft Dynamics NAV.