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9.05.604
Disclaimer
This document is for informational purposes only and is subject to change without notice. This document and its
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9.05.604
Revision: March 02, 2011 7:05 p.m.
Total pages: 331
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Feature Summary Contents
Contents
9.05 Feature Summary.........................................................................................................32
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights.............................................................................................33
Epicor 9.05.604 Feature Highlights................................................................................................................33
Service Management..............................................................................................................................33
Project Management Overview........................................................................................................33
Capture COS for Projects..........................................................................................................33
Capture Project Revenue..........................................................................................................34
Time Management Overview...........................................................................................................34
Select Range of Dates...............................................................................................................35
Financial Management............................................................................................................................35
General Ledger Overview.................................................................................................................36
Reference Rules........................................................................................................................36
System and Tools....................................................................................................................................36
BAQ Search Dialog Enhancements...................................................................................................37
BAQ Support for Windows Server ODBC Data Sources.....................................................................37
Handle Business Entities in BAQ Designer........................................................................................37
Debugging Customizations in Visual Studio.....................................................................................37
Import Active Directory Users...........................................................................................................38
Status Balloon Properties.................................................................................................................39
Support Customizable Tracker in ESP...............................................................................................39
Adding AppBuilt Dashboards to MES...............................................................................................39
Epicor 9.05.603 Feature Highlights................................................................................................................40
Sales Management.................................................................................................................................40
Demand Management Overview.....................................................................................................41
Demand Contract Entry - Close a Contract...............................................................................41
Demand Contract Entry - Open a Contract...............................................................................41
Service Management..............................................................................................................................41
RMA Inspection Sample Size............................................................................................................42
Production Management........................................................................................................................42
Enhanced Quality Assurance............................................................................................................43
Multiple Inspection Plans..........................................................................................................44
System and Tools....................................................................................................................................44
CRM User Interface.........................................................................................................................44
Multiple System Agents...................................................................................................................45
Alternate Clients BPM Messages......................................................................................................45
Required Field Visual Indicator.........................................................................................................45
Epicor 9.05.602 Feature Highlights................................................................................................................45
Epicor 9.05.601 Feature Highlights................................................................................................................45
Sales Management.................................................................................................................................45
Case Management Overview...........................................................................................................46
Close Case...............................................................................................................................46
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Reopen Case............................................................................................................................47
Configuration Overview...................................................................................................................47
Synchronize Revision Approval.................................................................................................47
Customer Relationship Management Overview................................................................................47
CRM Call Enhancements..........................................................................................................48
Case Entry - People Sheet.........................................................................................................48
Customer Tracker - Tree View...................................................................................................48
Task List - People Sheet............................................................................................................48
Order Management Overview..........................................................................................................48
Quote Order Wizard - One Time Ship To...................................................................................48
Quote Management Overview.........................................................................................................48
Alternate Parts.........................................................................................................................48
Opportunity/Quote Entry - People Sheet...................................................................................49
Quote Header Miscellaneous Charge........................................................................................49
Quote Order Wizard - One Time Ship To...................................................................................49
Service Management..............................................................................................................................49
Expense Management Overview......................................................................................................49
Employee Expense Report.........................................................................................................49
Field Service Overview.....................................................................................................................49
Add and Remove Items............................................................................................................50
Invoice Contract.......................................................................................................................50
Renewal Codes........................................................................................................................50
Renew Contracts......................................................................................................................50
Project Management Overview........................................................................................................50
Capture Revenue and COS Recognition Activity........................................................................51
Time Management Overview...........................................................................................................51
Recall Previously Approved or Rejected Transactions.................................................................52
Default Shift.............................................................................................................................52
Restrict Time Entry....................................................................................................................52
Production Management........................................................................................................................52
Job Management Overview.............................................................................................................53
Production Detail Report - Exclude Miscellaneous Charges........................................................53
Quality Assurance Overview.............................................................................................................54
Employee Training....................................................................................................................54
Engineering Overview......................................................................................................................54
Engineering Workbench - People Sheet....................................................................................54
Financial Management............................................................................................................................54
Accounts Receivable Overview.........................................................................................................55
VAT on Settlement Report........................................................................................................55
Accounts Payable Overview.............................................................................................................55
VAT on Settlement Report........................................................................................................56
Legal Numbers.........................................................................................................................56
Asset Management Overview..........................................................................................................56
Asset Depreciation Forecast Report...........................................................................................56
Cash Management Overview...........................................................................................................56
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Petty Cash................................................................................................................................56
Deferred Revenue Accounting Overview..........................................................................................57
Revenue Amortization..............................................................................................................57
Revenue Recognition................................................................................................................57
Hold/Unhold Amortization Periods............................................................................................58
General Ledger Overview.................................................................................................................58
Annual Total Journal Report.....................................................................................................58
System and Tools....................................................................................................................................58
Advanced Quality Management (AQM) Overview............................................................................58
Move WIP................................................................................................................................58
Business Activity Query Overview.....................................................................................................59
BAQ Zone................................................................................................................................60
Compression...................................................................................................................................60
Dashboards Overview......................................................................................................................60
Epicor SharePoint Publisher......................................................................................................61
Copy to Excel...........................................................................................................................61
Excel Uptake Enhancements.....................................................................................................62
URL Query Phrase Subscribers...................................................................................................62
Integration with Performance Canvas.......................................................................................62
Data Tagging Overview...................................................................................................................63
Epicor Web Access Data Tag Support.......................................................................................63
Enterprise Content Management.....................................................................................................63
Email Attachments...................................................................................................................63
Report Tools....................................................................................................................................63
Alternate Report Styles.............................................................................................................63
Searches Overview...........................................................................................................................64
Enterprise Quick Search............................................................................................................64
Epicor Search Anywhere...........................................................................................................64
Epicor 9.05.600 Feature Highlights................................................................................................................65
Epicor 9.05 Functionality Chart...............................................................................................................65
Sales Management.................................................................................................................................65
Customer Relationship Management Overview................................................................................66
Contact Attributes....................................................................................................................67
Customer Quick Entry..............................................................................................................67
Industry Classification Types.....................................................................................................67
National Account Visibility........................................................................................................67
Person Contact Maintenance....................................................................................................67
Shared Contacts.......................................................................................................................67
Case Management Overview...........................................................................................................68
CRM Cases...............................................................................................................................68
Quote Management Overview.........................................................................................................68
Multiple Forecast Confidence Factors........................................................................................68
Demand Management Overview.....................................................................................................68
EDI Enhancements....................................................................................................................69
EDI/Demand Management Configured Parts.............................................................................69
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Letters of Credit.....................................................................................................................100
Subcontractor Invoices...........................................................................................................100
Use Tax..................................................................................................................................100
Advanced Allocations Overview.....................................................................................................101
Allocation Codes....................................................................................................................101
Allocation History and Reversal...............................................................................................101
Allocation Processing..............................................................................................................102
Advanced Financial Reporting........................................................................................................102
Asset Management Overview........................................................................................................103
Asset Management................................................................................................................103
Asset Activities.......................................................................................................................103
Asset Register.........................................................................................................................103
Conventions...........................................................................................................................103
Depreciation Methods............................................................................................................103
Module Integration................................................................................................................104
Multi-Currency Support..........................................................................................................104
Physical Asset Tag..................................................................................................................104
System and Tools..................................................................................................................................104
Business Activity Query Overview...................................................................................................104
BAQ Directives.......................................................................................................................105
External Update Method........................................................................................................105
Updatable Business Activity Queries (BAQs)............................................................................106
Customization Overview................................................................................................................106
Custom Web Forms................................................................................................................106
Dynamic User Defined Fields...................................................................................................106
Non-Customizable Forms.......................................................................................................106
Dashboards Overview....................................................................................................................107
Dashboard Interface Types.....................................................................................................107
Dashboard Mass Update........................................................................................................107
Publish Dashboards................................................................................................................107
Updatable Dashboards...........................................................................................................108
Uptake From Excel..................................................................................................................108
Data Tagging Overview.................................................................................................................108
Enterprise Performance Management Overview.............................................................................109
Performance Canvas...............................................................................................................109
Server and Cube Connect Tools..............................................................................................109
Epicor Information Worker Overview.............................................................................................109
Information Worker Re-Architecture.......................................................................................110
Epicor Web Access™......................................................................................................................110
Epicor Web Access Flexibility...................................................................................................110
Localization Overview....................................................................................................................110
Available Country Specific Functionality Packs.........................................................................110
Available Languages...............................................................................................................111
Country Specific Functionality.................................................................................................112
Searches Overview.........................................................................................................................112
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Segmentation................................................................................................................................123
Shared Contacts............................................................................................................................123
Synchronization.............................................................................................................................124
Task List - People Sheet.................................................................................................................124
Task Management.........................................................................................................................124
Templates......................................................................................................................................124
Unlimited Call Notes......................................................................................................................124
Web Design Tools..........................................................................................................................124
Web Microsite Design....................................................................................................................124
Win/Loss........................................................................................................................................124
Case Management Overview................................................................................................................124
Alerts............................................................................................................................................125
Case Categories............................................................................................................................125
Case Context.................................................................................................................................125
Case Entry - People Sheet..............................................................................................................125
Case Management Workbench.....................................................................................................125
Communication.............................................................................................................................125
Contact Management...................................................................................................................125
Convert Case.................................................................................................................................125
CRM Cases....................................................................................................................................125
Online Knowledge Base.................................................................................................................125
Task List - People Sheet.................................................................................................................125
Traceability....................................................................................................................................126
Workflow......................................................................................................................................126
Quote Management Overview..............................................................................................................126
Manufacturing Details...................................................................................................................126
Miscellaneous Charges..................................................................................................................126
Multiple Forecast Confidence Factors.............................................................................................126
One Time Ship To Location............................................................................................................126
Opportunity/Quote Entry - People Sheet........................................................................................127
Quote Entry...................................................................................................................................127
Quote Header Miscellaneous Charge.............................................................................................127
Quote Order Wizard......................................................................................................................127
Quote Order Wizard - One Time Ship To........................................................................................127
Quote Tracker...............................................................................................................................127
Searches........................................................................................................................................127
What-If Scheduling........................................................................................................................127
Demand Management Overview...........................................................................................................127
Automatically Close Rejected Schedules.........................................................................................128
Automatic Demand Matching........................................................................................................128
Automated Shipping.....................................................................................................................129
Cancel Non Matched.....................................................................................................................129
Contract Changes.........................................................................................................................129
Contract Matching........................................................................................................................129
Contract Quantities.......................................................................................................................129
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Contract Structure.........................................................................................................................129
CUMM Validation..........................................................................................................................129
CUMs............................................................................................................................................130
Demand Entry - Close and Process Schedules.................................................................................130
Demand Entry - Update Parts and Prices........................................................................................130
Demand Contract Entry - Close a Contract....................................................................................131
Demand Contract Entry - Open a Contract....................................................................................131
Demand Mass Review - Close Demand..........................................................................................131
Demand Mass Review - Demand Types..........................................................................................131
Demand Processing Override.........................................................................................................131
Demand Review Report.................................................................................................................131
Demand Review Report - Log Entries and Price Discrepancies.........................................................131
Demand Schedule.........................................................................................................................132
EDI Enhancements.........................................................................................................................132
EDI/Demand Management Configured Parts..................................................................................132
Efficient Interface..........................................................................................................................132
Evaluated Receipt Settlements/Pay on Receipt................................................................................132
Forecast Pro® Integration..............................................................................................................133
Forecasts.......................................................................................................................................133
Locking Header and Line Details....................................................................................................133
Manual Creation of Demand Reconcile Records.............................................................................133
Manual Processing.........................................................................................................................134
Price Discrepancy Validation..........................................................................................................134
Reservation Priority Codes.............................................................................................................134
Sales Order Review Process............................................................................................................134
Allow Non Perfect Match...............................................................................................................135
Unmatch Process...........................................................................................................................135
Order Management Overview...............................................................................................................135
Alternate Parts...............................................................................................................................135
Backorders....................................................................................................................................135
Bill-To Customer Logic...................................................................................................................135
Blanket Orders...............................................................................................................................137
Build Order From History...............................................................................................................137
Buy To Orders................................................................................................................................137
Calculations at the Header, Line, and Release Levels......................................................................138
Contact Tracker.............................................................................................................................138
Copy Order Enhancements............................................................................................................138
Create Demand Entries..................................................................................................................138
Credit Card Authorization and Encryption......................................................................................138
Credit Checks................................................................................................................................138
Customers.....................................................................................................................................138
Delivery Days without Trading Partner............................................................................................138
Drop Ship......................................................................................................................................139
Flexibility.......................................................................................................................................139
Fulfillment Processing....................................................................................................................139
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Inventory Allocations.....................................................................................................................156
Invoice Directly..............................................................................................................................156
Labor Charges...............................................................................................................................157
Material Charges...........................................................................................................................157
Returns..........................................................................................................................................157
Service Call Center Workbench......................................................................................................157
Service Contracts...........................................................................................................................157
Service-Level Agreements..............................................................................................................158
Time and Material Billing...............................................................................................................158
Tracking Service Inventory.............................................................................................................158
Warranties.....................................................................................................................................158
RMA Inspection Sample Size..........................................................................................................158
Maintenance Management Overview....................................................................................................158
Maintenance Job Prefixes..............................................................................................................159
Labor Interface Options.................................................................................................................160
Maintenance Job Approval Options...............................................................................................160
Maintenance Jobs..........................................................................................................................160
Preventive Maintenance Planning..................................................................................................161
Project Management Overview.............................................................................................................161
AP Invoice Entry.............................................................................................................................161
Capture COS for Projects...............................................................................................................161
Capture Project Revenue...............................................................................................................162
Invoicing Methods.........................................................................................................................162
Other Direct Costs.........................................................................................................................163
Project Billing.................................................................................................................................163
Project Duplication........................................................................................................................164
Project Entry..................................................................................................................................164
Project Revisions............................................................................................................................165
Rates.............................................................................................................................................165
Revenue Recognition.....................................................................................................................165
WBS Phases...................................................................................................................................165
Time Management Overview................................................................................................................166
Approvals......................................................................................................................................166
Default Shift..................................................................................................................................167
Recall Previously Approved or Rejected Transactions......................................................................167
Restrict Entry Check Box................................................................................................................167
Restrict Time Entry.........................................................................................................................167
Select Range of Dates....................................................................................................................168
Time and Expense Entry.................................................................................................................168
Time Booking Exception Report.....................................................................................................168
Time Entry and Approval Workflow...............................................................................................168
Time Report...................................................................................................................................170
Time Types....................................................................................................................................170
Views............................................................................................................................................170
Production Management.............................................................................................................................171
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Equipment Calibration...................................................................................................................193
Inspection Attributes.....................................................................................................................193
Inspection Data Collection.............................................................................................................194
Inspection Plans.............................................................................................................................194
Part Revisions................................................................................................................................194
Skip Lot Control............................................................................................................................194
Skip Lot Processing........................................................................................................................194
Specifications................................................................................................................................195
Inspection Results Entry.................................................................................................................195
Handheld Overview..............................................................................................................................196
Serial Number Capture..................................................................................................................196
Serial Number Scanning.................................................................................................................196
Process Material Queue.................................................................................................................196
Manufacturing Execution System (MES) Overview.................................................................................196
Enhanced Work Queue..................................................................................................................196
RMA Processing and RMA Disposition...........................................................................................197
Quality Assurance Overview..................................................................................................................197
Audit Trails....................................................................................................................................197
Certificate of Compliance..............................................................................................................197
Corrective Action...........................................................................................................................198
Cost of Quality..............................................................................................................................198
Course Request Browse.................................................................................................................198
Debit Memos.................................................................................................................................198
Discrepant Material Report Processing...........................................................................................198
Employee Training.........................................................................................................................198
Inspection Workbench...................................................................................................................199
Material Review Board...................................................................................................................199
Non-Conformant Records..............................................................................................................199
Non-Nettable Bins.........................................................................................................................199
Packing Slips..................................................................................................................................199
Supply Chain Management..........................................................................................................................199
Inventory Management Overview.........................................................................................................200
Allocation Views............................................................................................................................201
Assign Serial Numbers to Parts.......................................................................................................201
Country of Origin..........................................................................................................................201
Cost Tracking................................................................................................................................201
Cross-Reference............................................................................................................................201
Custom Serial Number Format.......................................................................................................201
Customer and Supplier Managed Inventory...................................................................................201
Cycle and Physical Counts.............................................................................................................202
Dimensional Inventory...................................................................................................................202
FIFO Costing Method.....................................................................................................................202
Flexible Costing.............................................................................................................................202
Global Trade Standards.................................................................................................................202
Inventory Clarification....................................................................................................................203
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Customer Tracker..........................................................................................................................226
Debit Notes...................................................................................................................................226
Finance Charges............................................................................................................................227
Finance Charges - Include CM.......................................................................................................227
Free Form Invoice Numbering........................................................................................................227
History...........................................................................................................................................228
Invoice Entry..................................................................................................................................228
Invoice Tracker..............................................................................................................................228
Invoice/Statement Forms................................................................................................................228
Letters of Credit............................................................................................................................228
Manual Selection of Shipments and Invoices..................................................................................228
National Accounts.........................................................................................................................228
Payment Instruments.....................................................................................................................228
Report Format Transmission...........................................................................................................229
Sales Analysis................................................................................................................................229
Sales Commission Report...............................................................................................................229
Sales Commissions........................................................................................................................229
Sales Tax Register..........................................................................................................................229
Settlement Currencies...................................................................................................................229
Settlement Taxes...........................................................................................................................230
Soft Formats for EFT......................................................................................................................230
Storno Accounting........................................................................................................................230
Tax Regimes..................................................................................................................................230
Taxes on Detail Lines.....................................................................................................................230
Terms and Conditions....................................................................................................................230
VAT on Settlement Report.............................................................................................................231
Void Invoices and Cash Receipts....................................................................................................231
Accounts Payable Overview..................................................................................................................231
AP Prepayments............................................................................................................................231
Central Payment............................................................................................................................231
Checks..........................................................................................................................................232
Exchange Rate...............................................................................................................................232
Future Dated Payment Instruments................................................................................................233
General Ledger Interface...............................................................................................................233
History...........................................................................................................................................233
Inspection......................................................................................................................................233
Job Cost Updates..........................................................................................................................233
Legal Numbers..............................................................................................................................233
Letters of Credit............................................................................................................................234
Payment Entry...............................................................................................................................234
Purchasing Variance......................................................................................................................234
Recurring Entries...........................................................................................................................234
Soft Formats for EFT......................................................................................................................234
Subcontractor Invoices...................................................................................................................234
Supplier Tracker.............................................................................................................................234
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Administration Console........................................................................................................................257
Import Active Directory Users.........................................................................................................257
Advanced Print Management Overview.................................................................................................258
APM Plus Sub-Module...................................................................................................................258
Color Prints and Scans...................................................................................................................259
Document Distribution..................................................................................................................259
Document Management................................................................................................................259
Document Splitting........................................................................................................................259
Microsoft Office Integration...........................................................................................................259
Multiple Data Formats...................................................................................................................259
Multiple Image Formats.................................................................................................................259
Multiple Output Methods..............................................................................................................259
Advanced Quality Management (AQM) Overview..................................................................................259
Audit and Cost Monitoring............................................................................................................260
Customer Communications...........................................................................................................260
Employee Database.......................................................................................................................260
Epicor 9 Integration.......................................................................................................................260
Manage Documentation................................................................................................................260
Move WIP......................................................................................................................................260
Quality Management.....................................................................................................................261
Supplier Communications..............................................................................................................261
AutoVue Overview................................................................................................................................261
Cimitry-Autovue Integration..........................................................................................................261
BAQ Report Designer Overview.............................................................................................................261
BAQ Directives...............................................................................................................................262
BAQ Report Tools..........................................................................................................................263
Custom BAQ Report......................................................................................................................263
Deploy Reports to the Main Menu.................................................................................................263
Export and Import BAQ Report......................................................................................................263
External Update Method................................................................................................................263
Standard BAQ Report....................................................................................................................263
Updatable Business Activity Queries (BAQs)....................................................................................263
Bartender Overview..............................................................................................................................264
Auto-Print Integration....................................................................................................................264
Label Printing................................................................................................................................264
Business Activity Management Overview...............................................................................................264
Auto-Print Reports or Labels..........................................................................................................264
BAM Rules.....................................................................................................................................264
Business Activity Manager.............................................................................................................264
Change Logs.................................................................................................................................264
Custom Global Alerts....................................................................................................................265
Custom Procedures.......................................................................................................................265
Dashboard.....................................................................................................................................265
Executive Dashboard.....................................................................................................................265
Business Activity Query Overview..........................................................................................................265
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BAQ Designer................................................................................................................................266
BAQ Printing.................................................................................................................................271
BAQ Searches................................................................................................................................271
BAQ to XML..................................................................................................................................271
Change BAQ Author.....................................................................................................................271
Custom Queries.............................................................................................................................271
Export and Import Queries.............................................................................................................271
External Update Method................................................................................................................271
Generate ASP................................................................................................................................272
BAQ Zone......................................................................................................................................272
Standard Queries...........................................................................................................................272
Updatable Business Activity Queries (BAQs)....................................................................................272
Handle Business Entities in BAQ Designer......................................................................................272
BAQ Support for Windows Server ODBC Data Sources...................................................................273
BAQ Search Dialog Enhancements.................................................................................................273
BAQ Zone......................................................................................................................................273
Business Process Management Overview...............................................................................................274
.Net Action Content......................................................................................................................274
Actions..........................................................................................................................................274
Condition Statements....................................................................................................................274
Data Directives..............................................................................................................................274
Data Form Designer.......................................................................................................................275
Holds.............................................................................................................................................277
Informational Messages.................................................................................................................277
Method Directives.........................................................................................................................277
Multiple Changed Row Support.....................................................................................................278
Property Bag Support....................................................................................................................278
Service Connect Integration...........................................................................................................278
Customization Overview.......................................................................................................................278
Custom Web Forms.......................................................................................................................278
Customization Wizards..................................................................................................................278
Debugging Customizations in Visual Studio...................................................................................281
Dynamic Extended Properties.........................................................................................................282
Dynamic User Defined Fields..........................................................................................................283
Embedded Dashboard Panel Wizard..............................................................................................284
Export Customizations...................................................................................................................284
Grid Customization.......................................................................................................................284
Image Column Row Rule Wizard...................................................................................................284
Image Column Wizard...................................................................................................................284
Multiple Customizations................................................................................................................284
Non-Customizable Forms...............................................................................................................284
Revert to Original Format...............................................................................................................285
New Standalone User-Defined Tables............................................................................................285
Toolbox - New PictureBox Control.................................................................................................285
Web Form Customization..............................................................................................................285
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Options Window...........................................................................................................................312
Reset Layouts to Base....................................................................................................................313
Save Personalizations.....................................................................................................................313
Shortcut Bar..................................................................................................................................313
View Menu....................................................................................................................................313
Product LifeCycle Management Overview.............................................................................................313
Document Management................................................................................................................314
Export or Import Documents..........................................................................................................314
Microsoft Office Integration...........................................................................................................314
Workflow Management................................................................................................................314
Replication Server Overview..................................................................................................................314
Report Tools.........................................................................................................................................314
Alternate Report Styles..................................................................................................................314
SQL Server Reporting Services Overview.........................................................................................315
Searches Overview................................................................................................................................315
Advanced Searches........................................................................................................................316
Business Activity Query Searches....................................................................................................316
Enterprise Quick Search.................................................................................................................316
Enterprise Search...........................................................................................................................316
Epicor Search Anywhere................................................................................................................316
Enterprise Search Management Console........................................................................................316
Named Searches............................................................................................................................317
Quick Searches..............................................................................................................................317
Standard Searches.........................................................................................................................317
Security Overview.................................................................................................................................317
Menu Security Report....................................................................................................................318
ShopVision Overview............................................................................................................................318
Cash Flow.....................................................................................................................................318
Customer Shipping Performance...................................................................................................318
Plant Performance.........................................................................................................................318
Sales Order Backlog Analysis..........................................................................................................318
Supplier Performance....................................................................................................................318
Sourcing Overview................................................................................................................................318
Sourcing Integration......................................................................................................................318
Styling and Themes Overview...............................................................................................................318
Load Style Theme..........................................................................................................................319
Microsoft Office® 2007 Style.........................................................................................................319
RunTime Styler..............................................................................................................................320
Style Tracking................................................................................................................................320
Theme Maintenance Wizard..........................................................................................................320
System Management Overview.............................................................................................................320
/RPT Run Time Argument...............................................................................................................320
Administration Console.................................................................................................................320
BI Web Parts..................................................................................................................................320
Company Configuration................................................................................................................321
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Compression.................................................................................................................................321
Context Menu Maintenance..........................................................................................................321
Cube Connect...............................................................................................................................321
Customization/Personalization Maintenance..................................................................................322
Document Attachments.................................................................................................................322
External Company Maintenance....................................................................................................327
Implementation Checklist..............................................................................................................327
Multi-Company Menu...................................................................................................................327
Multiple System Agents.................................................................................................................328
System Tasks.................................................................................................................................329
Performance Tuning Technical Reference Guides ..........................................................................329
Plant Configuration Control...........................................................................................................329
Processes.......................................................................................................................................329
Report Style - Output EDI...............................................................................................................329
Sales Connect................................................................................................................................329
Status Balloon Properties...............................................................................................................329
TIE Commerce Overview.......................................................................................................................330
TIE Commerce Integration.............................................................................................................330
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 31
9.05 Feature Summary Feature Summary
Welcome to the 9.05 Feature Summary—an overview of the features and functionality in your Epicor application.
This document is a high-level overview of the major capabilities contained in the current release, and it is oriented
towards anyone who wants a general understanding of overall features and functionality. This document assumes
that the reader has no detailed knowledge of current functionality, but has general business knowledge relative
to this Epicor application.
The Feature Summary is organized into feature highlights by service pack and cumulative (since 9.04.500) features:
• Epicor 9.05 Service Pack Feature Highlights -- This section contains the features introduced in specific
Epicor 9.05 service packs. Within the highlights section, features are organized first by module group (for
example, Sales Management) and then by module (for example, Demand Management). If you are upgrading
the Epicor application, review this section to see the features added with the latest release.
• Epicor 9.00 - 9.05 Cumulative Features -- All the features included in all releases of the Epicor application
from 9.04.500 through the current 9.05.602 version appear in this section. This section is also organized by
module groups and then by modules. If you are new to the Epicor application, review this information for an
overview of the major available features.
The Feature Summary is available in both online and printable (.pdf) formats.
32 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
This section contains the features introduced in Epicor 9.05.600 and each subsequent Epicor 9.05 service pack.
The features are organized first by service pack. Within each service pack section, the features are then organized
module group (for example, Sales Management) followed by module (for example (Demand Management). If
you are upgrading the Epicor 9.05 application, review this section to see the features added with each service
pack.
The following contains new features added for Epicor 9.05.604. If you are upgrading from a previous version of
the Epicor application, review this information to see the features added with this release.
Service Management
Service management capabilities (for example, Field Service) include such areas such as production and facilities
maintenance.
This suite of modules are particularly important for businesses in today's climate where maintenance and repair
are often more cost-effective than new capital acquisition.
The Project Management module is enhanced to provide more accuracy for tracking costs and managing project
phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project.
Now each Project WBS phase contains features which improves accuracy and simplifies labor entry:
• You can define multiple activities against each WBS phase. These activities have resource requirements and
the estimated time costs for each specific resource assigned to the phase.
• The interface is simplified so that users can quickly enter the project number and the WBS phase. The Epicor
application then automatically assigns the job number, and this job automatically records the labor placed
against this phase of the project. Users select the operation they need to record time against, and the labor
expense is automatically placed against the job which contains the operation.
When you run Project Analysis, you can now increase the revision level of a project. The current project and its
data is then archived into history. You can then view this historical information through the Project tracker.
Material costs are now further broken down into Other Direct Costs (ODC). These material costs are entered as
miscellaneous charges. For job costing purposes, these separate direct costs are totaled within the overall material
cost for the job. However, within the Project Management module, these costs are separated into the Material
and Other Direct Costs categories.
The Capture COS/WIP Activity process now calculates (captures) the cost of sales (COS) for projects in place
of the Capture Revenue and COS Recognition process.
Important The Capture Revenue and COS Recognition process has been renamed to Capture Revenue
Recognition.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 33
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
Note For more information, review Application Help topics: Capture COS/WIP Activity, Capture Revenue
Recognition, and Project Management Recognition Methods Transaction Hierarchy.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Material Management > Inventory Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
• Production Management > Job Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
• Service Management > Project Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
Capture Revenue and COS Recognition has been renamed to Capture Revenue Recognition.
Use the Capture Revenue Recognition process to calculate (capture) revenue for projects. This program allows
you to recognize revenue at different stages of a project. Four recognition methods are supported by this process:
• On Invoice Recognition
• Labor Booking Recognition
• Actual Burden Recognition
• Manual Recognition
Note For more information, review Application Help topics: Capture Revenue Recognition, Relationship
between Invoicing Methods and Recognition Methods, and Project Management Recognition Methods
Transaction Hierarchy.
Important The processing of cost of sales (COS) on projects is now done solely through the Capture
COS/WIP Activity process.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Service Management > Project Management > General Operations > Capture Revenue Recognition
The Time Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter employee time entries
against a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately track how much labor is being
used to complete each project.
You first define time types, like Regular Time, Over Time, Vacation, and so on. These time types define the specific
kinds of time used to calculate the current and complete expenses placed against a project. You select these time
types within Time and Expense Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee time is verified against a selected project.
Users first launch the Time Approval program to indicate how much time is budgeted to be placed against a
specific project. After the employee time is approved, the employee time is then available to place against the
project through Time and Expense Entry.
You can then monitor the amount of time being placed against each project. Launch the Time report to review
all of the time entries entered between a specific Start Date and End Date period. Likewise, you can use the Time
Booking Exception report to review any indirect labor entries currently entered against one or multiple projects.
34 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Through this functionality, you can monitor the labor costs being accumulated against a project. This functionality
improves planning and calculates more accurate expense calculations.
In Time and Expense Entry, use the Shift key to select a range of dates in the Calendar view.
The transactions included within the range will display in the Calendar view as well as in the tree view. To see
all transactions in a range spanning more than one week, you must be sure that Month is selected in the Retrieve
Records By action item.
Financial Management
Epicor financial management solutions provide manufacturers with the tools needed to create value through
monitoring financial conditions and timely decision making.
This functionality reduces costs and improves cash flow. Epicor Financials can help improve your ability to drop
more to your bottom line—the ultimate test of your success and competitive advantage.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 35
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
General Ledger (GL) processes and posts entries created by Job Management, AR, AP and Payroll, as well as
manual entries made directly in the general ledger.
A chart of accounts is easily established to control how you want the application to report on your business. You
can even export your general ledger data to a spreadsheet to handle any special requirements.
Reference Rules
There is a new type of posting rule named Reference Rule in GL Transaction Type Maintenance.
The Reference Rule supports the correspondence accounting in the form of generating strictly bi-line general
ledger (GL) transactions. This rule works similarly to the way pre-posting rules currently works and is used only
to populate a GL control that would be linked to a post entity for future use without populating any amounts
or debit/credit accounts.
Correspondingly, this rule type does not create any GL details. However, unlike pre-posting rules, this new rule
type is still run during the normal posting process and has a property that indicates the specific posting entity
the outgoing GL control is attached to.
Note For more information, refer to the GL Transaction Type Maintenance topic in the Application Help.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Important This program is not available in the ®Epicor Web Access™ interface. You can launch this
program from an Epicor Smart Client (Windows ) interface.
Finding the right information quickly is the key element to the success of using any software package. That's
why Epicor offers several tools that allow you to tailor your system to meet your specific needs. It's an amazing
characteristic of Epicor that will help you find any information you need, when you need it.
There are several enhancements that impact the system as a whole, and not just a single module or program. In
addition, there are many changes in our third party applications.
The Executive Dashboard is a single application that encompasses multiple capabilities such as inquiries, ad-hoc
reports, workbenches, graphical analysis, alerts, and business monitoring. It is a robust, one-stop interface that
replaces traditional menu systems with a personalized role or context based views that link into core transactions
of the system.
The Executive Dashboard also puts the visual indicators and functions that you use the most right at your fingertips.
The Executive Dashboard enables you to develop your own workbenches using a series of online views of
information - such as a Tracker. From a Tracker, "open with" technology lets you drill into any part of the system:
whether to enter a new order, modify an existing job, or update a customer record. The power of the Dashboard
is in how it enables you to specify your work preferences, then tailor Epicor to match your needs.
36 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the BAQ Search form to quickly locate the query of your interest.
On the Basic sheet, use the following options to narrow down your search.
• System - Use this option to allow searching for system (delivered) BAQs.
• Updatable - Use this option to allow searching for updatable BAQs.
• Cross-Company - Use this option to allow searching for cross-company BAQs.
• Shared - Use this option to allow searching for shared BAQs.
• External - Use this option to allow searching for external (ODBC) BAQs.
• Global - Use this option to allow searching for global BAQs.
• Query ID Starts With - Use this option to search for a query based on first characters of a Query ID.
• Author - Use this option to search for a query based on its author.
• Description Substring - Use this option to search for a query based on its description. A wildcard matching
is supported.
The ODBC query execution is sent as a single statement, that is generated during a query design. It doesn't need
to be regenerated on each query execution.
If you have Microsoft Visual Studio, you can debug customizations and step through code.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010™ any version except Express must be installed on the computer where you are
running the Epicor client. You should have C# or VB.NET (or both) installed in Visual Studio for complete debugging
functionality.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
To debug a customization:
4. In the Select Customization window, select the Debug in Visual Studio check box, click the customization
layer you want to debug, and click OK.
Visual Studio is launched into a source code file and stopped at a break point on the first line of the
InitializeGlobalVariables method (this may take some time). At this point you can use the debugging features
of Visual Studio to step though lines, set other break points, evaluate values etc. To get past the first break
point that was set for you and to run the form, press F5. Now if you complete actions on the form that
reach a break point that you set, Visual Studio again becomes the active application (you may have to click
its flashing item on the taskbar).
Note Remember the following:
• You cannot make code changes in the debugger. Stop the debugger (Shift + F5), and use the
Epicor customization environment to make your code changes. Then debug again as needed.
• Each time you debug a new source code file is opened in Visual Studio. Closing no longer active
code files is ok. However, if you close Visual Studio, you have to exit Epicor and restart Epicor to
debug again.
You can import Windows users from your Active Directory domain to create Epicor users. You can set defaults
both by settings used in a template user record and by entering data during the import wizard.
Prerequisites:
• Your company network must use Windows Active Directory.
• Set up template users. A template user is a standard user record whose user account settings are configured
to match what you want when importing a particular group of Windows users. For example, you might have
a user record set up for accounting users and another for executive users and so on. Open the Epicor client
to add template users (System Management > Company Maintenance > User). Template user records do not
have to be enabled to use them during an import, and disabling a template user record is the best practice.
To import Active Directory users to create Epicor users:
1. In Epicor Administration Console, under the server installation to which you want to add users, click Users.
4. For User, enter the user ID of the template user you would like to use for this import to filter the list. Highlight
the template user record and click Next.
5. In the text box left of Add, enter a Windows user name or a Windows group name, then click Add. If users
came in that you did not want to add, highlight them and click Remove. When you are ready with the list
of users and/or groups to import, click Next.
38 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
6. Review the list of users about to be imported. You can see what information is being brought over from
the Windows account(s). You can type missing information in if you wish. If you wish for all of the user
being imported to be enabled upon import select Enable imported users. When you are ready, click Finish.
Users who successfully import disappear from the list. Users who did not import due to a conflict stay in the
list with an exclamation point icon. Hover over the icon for error message. If all users/groups imported
successfully the wizard closes.
Set the status balloon properties to enable or disable balloon notifications from being displayed by the System
Monitor icon.
Users can choose whether or not to receive balloon notifications for tasks tracked in their System Monitor.
Example of a balloon notification:
Use the Handheld Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to view deployed dashboards.
To display a dashboard on the MES menu, first create a dashboard using a smart client. Once finished, deploy a
dashboard as a smart application. In the MES developer mode, use the Customization Tools Dialog window to
hang a dashboard on one of the available buttons.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 39
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
The following contains new features added for Epicor 9.05.603. If you are upgrading from a previous version of
the Epicor application, review this information to see the features added with this release.
Sales Management
Quoting and managing sales orders enables the vital coordination of activities between your sales, plant, shipping,
and accounting groups.
You dictate whether to hold all companies in a single database, or each company in individual databases, where
each company can have its own chart(s), currencies, and calendars.
Use the Quote Management and Order Management modules to capture orders and seamlessly integrate the
information with supply chain, production, fulfillment, and accounting systems.
By streamlining the sales process—centralizing access to product, pricing, customer information - orders can be
generated with a minimal number of steps. It automates and improves labor-intensive processes for quoting,
proposal generation, configuration, and order entry. You can increase sales productivity by ensuring accuracy
during the quote and order processes and identifying the right solution to meet your customers’ needs.
40 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use Demand Management to more efficiently manage short and long term contracts, turning the demand from
these contracts into sales orders and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) forecasts.
Demand Management incorporates the framework and business logic necessary to efficiently manage long term
contracts. These contracts encompass forecasts, sales orders, changes to sales orders, and shipping schedules,
whether the information is entered manually, electronically, or both.
You can enter demand information manually, electronically through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), or both.
The EDI feature suite generates electronic information that passes both to and from your customers.
Demand Management handles creation, analysis, editing, and reconciliation of cumulative records for releases
from your customers.
Demand Management includes the following functionality to support long term contracts:
• Provides the ability to have several sales orders/lines attached or subordinate to the contract.
• Creates the ability to review contracted values and quantities with actual incoming quantities and values.
• Delivers an efficient interface and process to manage the volume of data possible with long term contracts.
• Includes the capability to view the impact of incoming contract changes before accepting, while allowing
them to be accepted, revised, or rejected and provides the appropriate response to trading partners.
• Provides access to both forecasts and sales orders from one point of entry.
• Allows the management and reconciliation of CUMs (cumulative shipping quantity).
• Allows the acceptance of incoming information to be handled individually, in mass, or in auto-accept mode
at the trading partner or document level.
Important For this module to be fully functional with EDI, Service Connect must be installed. If you use
EDI to process your demand, you need to install and configure the EDI functionality on your application.
You set up the EDI functionality on your network server.
You can close a demand contract using the Actions menu. Once you close a contract, you cannot create new
demand entries for that contract.
You can reopen a closed demand contract using the Actions menu. After you reopen a contract, you can add
new demand entries for that contract.
Service Management
Service management capabilities (for example, Field Service) include such areas such as production and facilities
maintenance.
This suite of modules are particularly important for businesses in today's climate where maintenance and repair
are often more cost-effective than new capital acquisition.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 41
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
The Return Material Authorization (RMA) module now has the ability to define both a sample size percentage
and a sample size amount for the RMA inspection process.
The RMA inspection sample size value is obtained from the Part Inspection data record sample size, the sample
percent or both. If there is a sample percent quantity, then the Inspection quantity is calculated using the sample
percentage multiplied by the receipt quantity field. If the quantity is less than the sample size, you can set the
inspection quantity to the sample size, if not, you can set the inspection quantity equal to the calculated quantity.
If no part inspection record exists then the quantity value defaults.
Example
Addison Inc. wants to inspect at least 10% of parts received on any receipt and make sure that a minimum
of 100 parts is inspected every time. To do this, enter a sample percentage of 10% and a sample size of
100 in Part Inspection.
Production Management
The Epicor suite of production management applications, comprised of Job Management, Scheduling, Material
Requirements Planning, and Quality Assurance, uses sophisticated technologies to model your best practices and
empowers your personnel to make decisions that result in optimization of your production process.
Whether you are a global, multi-site enterprise or a single-site manufacturer, the fundamental need for precise
and flexible planning and scheduling is an ever present requirement for your business. Specific functionality like
consolidated purchasing, transfer functionality, and consolidated financials helps global enterprises manage the
complexity of their size and take advantage of the efficiencies that smaller organizations enjoy.
42 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
The Enhanced Quality Assurance module contains a number of features which help you to assess the quality of
received and manufactured parts. Use this module to reduce the cost of goods sold, so you can improve the
financial performance of your products in cost and revenue.
Available functionality within this module are:
• Test Plans - Use Configurator to define the items you wish to monitor through the quality process. You can
leverage this program to create rules to determine whether a part quantity passes or fails inspection. Each
test plan links to a part or operation. Test data is entered against this part or operation, and the Epicor
application determines the results of the inspection. Using the test results data, the application determines if
the inspection process has passed or failed for the part or operation. In the event of a failure a non-conforming
material record is created and handled through standard processing. All test results are stored for future
analysis and review.
• Skip Lot Processing - You leverage this functionality to define how often parts are inspected at the time of
receipt. If the receipt does not require inspection, this receipt quantity is passed directly to stock. If parts
require inspection the receipt is placed on the inspection queue and is evaluated through a test plan. You
define a series of skip lot rules in Configurator. The skipping rules are controlled at the part and supplier levels.
• Calibration - You can use this module to enter calibration information against equipment. The calibration
information ensures the values used by the equipment during the quality process are accurate. The calibration
information form is used in conjunction with the Configurator. Calibration information is stored against the
equipment as a resource. This functionality is created to work together with the Maintenance Management
and Asset Management modules.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 43
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
The Enhanced Quality Assurance module now has the ability to assign multiple inspection plans and specifications
to a part, nonconformance material (NCM), or a job. The multiple records display in the Inspection Plans sheet
and can be selected for the inspection process.
Inspection Results Entry contains three grids:
• Inspection Plans - Displays the available inspection plans and specifications used in the in the inspection
process. For each row in this inspection grid there will be corresponding grid in the other two grids.
Note The Inspection Plan grid is always additive, when you select a subassembly or an operation,
plans for that subassembly or operation are added to any plans already in the grid.
• Inspection Sample Detail - Displays the samples to be inspected for the selected inspection plan.
• Results - Displays the entered results once the inspection results have been entered.
Note The Results grid displays only one result for the selected inspection plan, specification, and
sample.
Finding the right information quickly is the key element to the success of using any software package. That's
why Epicor offers several tools that allow you to tailor your system to meet your specific needs. It's an amazing
characteristic of Epicor that will help you find any information you need, when you need it.
There are several enhancements that impact the system as a whole, and not just a single module or program. In
addition, there are many changes in our third party applications.
The Executive Dashboard is a single application that encompasses multiple capabilities such as inquiries, ad-hoc
reports, workbenches, graphical analysis, alerts, and business monitoring. It is a robust, one-stop interface that
replaces traditional menu systems with a personalized role or context based views that link into core transactions
of the system.
The Executive Dashboard also puts the visual indicators and functions that you use the most right at your fingertips.
The Executive Dashboard enables you to develop your own workbenches using a series of online views of
information - such as a Tracker. From a Tracker, "open with" technology lets you drill into any part of the system:
whether to enter a new order, modify an existing job, or update a customer record. The power of the Dashboard
is in how it enables you to specify your work preferences, then tailor Epicor to match your needs.
The CRM User Interface is available for users with a CRM user license.
The /CRM argument causes the application to launch using the CRM User Interface.
The CRM User Interface displays the modules that include:
• Customer Relationship Management
• Case Management
• Quote Management
• Configurator Management
• ShopVision
• Trackers
• Status Dashboards
44 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
You can set up multiple system agents based on your requirements for generating reports and processes. With
multiple system agents, you can send reports to different AppServers based on a set of rules you define. For
example, a system agent can be defined using AppServers with different schedules so various processes and
reports run at times that make better use of your available network resources. System agents could also be located
on servers in different time zones so that multiple sites in these different time zones can all share one common
database. Use System Agent Maintenance to set up multiple system agents; this program is located in the System
Management > Utilities folder on the main menu.
To enhance the BPM coverage, BPM information messages are transmitted to alternate clients - Epicor Mobile
Access, Epicor Web Access, Web Services and Service Connect.
The Required Field option is available on the General tab within the Options window, accessible from theTools
menu in a program interface.
Select this check box to indicate which fields need data before a new record is saved. This field defaults to false.
Once selected, use the drop-down menu to select a color of the indicator.
No feature enhancements were released with the 9.05.602 service pack. This service pack focused on improving
the performance of existing functionality.
The following contains new features added for the Epicor 9.05.601 service pack. If you are upgrading from a
previous version of the Epicor application, review this information to see the features added with this release.
Sales Management
Quoting and managing sales orders enables the vital coordination of activities between your sales, plant, shipping,
and accounting groups.
You dictate whether to hold all companies in a single database, or each company in individual databases, where
each company can have its own chart(s), currencies, and calendars.
Use the Quote Management and Order Management modules to capture orders and seamlessly integrate the
information with supply chain, production, fulfillment, and accounting systems.
By streamlining the sales process—centralizing access to product, pricing, customer information - orders can be
generated with a minimal number of steps. It automates and improves labor-intensive processes for quoting,
proposal generation, configuration, and order entry. You can increase sales productivity by ensuring accuracy
during the quote and order processes and identifying the right solution to meet your customers’ needs.
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 45
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
From initial call to resolution and follow-up, the Case Management module provides a customer focused solution
for personalized, high-quality service.
This comprehensive one-stop solution enables your service team to manage current case load and respond quickly
to customers for industry leading customer satisfaction.
This module includes a Case Workbench equipped with time saving links to customer focused activities (for
example, new quotes, orders, RMA requests, or service calls). In addition, a search-driven knowledgeable and
case driven workflow are available for standardizing case resolution. You now have easy access to dispatch field
activities and enable field service representatives access to online knowledge bases, existing customer field service
calls, warranty information, and service contracts.
Case Management is fully integrated with all customer facing functions such as LOQ, Contact Management,
Customer Management, Order Processing, Field Service, and Invoicing.
Close Case
The case can be closed in Case Entry. Use the Case > Close Case option of the Actions menu to close the case.
The Status field indicator on the Case sheet displays the current status of the case. Once the case is closed, the
case details cannot be changed.
46 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Reopen Case
The details of the closed case cannot be updated. To update the closed case use the Case > Reopen Case option
of the Actions menu in Case Entry.
The Status field indicator on the Case sheet displays the current status of the case.
Configuration Overview
Configurator enables on-the-fly configuration of highly customizable and dimensional products. You configure
products through a straightforward question and answer evaluation.
Configurator can be accessed from Quote Entry, Order Entry, and Job Entry. It is Web-enabled, and is also available
to disconnected users employing Mobile Connect.
The Synchronize Part Revision Approval check box, located in the Configurator Designer > Status sheet, is
renamed to Synchronize Revision Approval.
When you select this check box, and you approve/unapprove the configured part in the Configurator Designer
(using the Approved check box in the Status sheet), the Epicor application automatically approves or unapproves
the associated part revision within Part Maintenance. The approved revision displays on the Revisions sheet within
this program.
In addition to synchronizing part revision approval, the Epicor application also automatically synchronizes the
approval of the associated inspection plan (if any) with the approval of the configured part. The application either
automatically selects or clears the Approve check box in Inspection Plan Maintenance. This option is based on
the setting of the Approved check box in the Status sheet.
Outfitting your sales team with advanced, easy-to-use software is not just smart; it is a matter of survival. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) is equipped with the tools you need to find more prospects and quickly convert
them to satisfied customers.
Your sales people can manage the complete prospect-to-customer life cycle, give accurate revenue forecasts to
management and automate many administrative tasks. The bottom line is better qualified prospects, shorter sales
cycles, reduced lead-time, and more revenue.
With CRM you can manage and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and events. Marketers can
pinpoint targets, capture highly qualified leads, and perform cost/benefit and return on investment (ROI) analyses
on promotional activities. The campaign manager can track the number of leads, opportunities, orders, and costs
per campaign. Once you have the lead, the CRM functionality helps manage the entire sales process more
effectively, with features such as workflow and forecasting.
Contacts can be shared across the Epicor application. For example, a payroll employee can now be added as an
authorized user for a buyer records reducing time and ensuring consistency You can share contacts between the
following records:
• shop employees (Shop Employee Maintenance)
• payroll employees (Payroll Employee Maintenance)
• workforce people (Workforce Maintenance)
• buyers (Buyer Maintenance)
• supplier contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
• purchase point contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
Epicor 9 | 9.05.604 47
Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
The Call Log now includes the Related To, People, and Contacts sheets.
You use these sheets to associate any contact details you need with the CRM call. Leverage these additional
sheets to enter specific details you want included with each call.
Use the Case > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a case.
The Customer Tracker tree view now allows you to view information contained on the National Accounts sheet,
as well as the Price List, Ship To, Child, and Contacts sheets and any attachments to the customer record. Use
this feature to easily navigate through the tracker sheets and related functionality.
Use the Detail > People sheet to view and maintain information on contacts related to a task.
Order Management drives the Epicor ERP system. From the time a sales order is entered, its progress is tracked
through final shipment, producing timely reports on demand.
All sales orders and change orders are effectively managed online, reducing your chance for error and smoothing
out the entire order-to-delivery process for maximum customer satisfaction.
When creating a sales order from a quote, use the One Time Ship To sheet to enter information about the one
time ship to party for the order. You can also use this sheet to quickly create a customer record based on that
information. You can only use this functionality if the customer for which the order is generated allows one time
shipping and shipping to third parties.
Quote Management is often the starting point for the supply chain cycle. When a quote is entered, manufacturing
details are entered for the record. These records give your organization a solid head start for job management,
scheduling, purchasing, and other functions of the application. Best of all, the result is greater efficiency.
Alternate Parts
To improve quote and sales order accuracy, define upgrade, downgrade, substitute, and complimentary parts
for each part record.
Alternate parts can now be defined on each part record. These parts are defined as being either a direct substitute,
a downgrade substitute, an upgrade substitute, or a complimentary product to this part.
When users enter quotes or sales orders, they can display these suggestions for upgrading, downgrading,
substituting, or complimenting the original part. Users can then, if desired, select a different part that better
reflects the needs of the customer. This feature both improves customer satisfaction and enhances sales accuracy.
48 Epicor 9 | 9.05.604
Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the Tasks > Details > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a task.
The Header > Misc Chargers sheet in Quote Entry allows you to enter the header miscellaneous charge.
When creating a sales order from a quote, use the One Time Ship To sheet to enter information about the one
time ship to party for the order. You can also use this sheet to quickly create a customer record based on that
information. You can only use this functionality if the customer for which the order is generated allows one time
shipping and shipping to third parties.
Service Management
Service management capabilities (for example, Field Service) include such areas such as production and facilities
maintenance.
This suite of modules are particularly important for businesses in today's climate where maintenance and repair
are often more cost-effective than new capital acquisition.
The Expense Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter expense entries
(claims) for employees who work on a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately
track the expenses being accumulated against each project.
You first define the expense groups, or types, you need to link with each employee. These expense types define
the specific kinds of expenses placed against a project. You select these time types within Time and Expense
Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee expenses are then verified against a selected
project. Users first launch the Time and Express Approval program to indicate how much expense is approved to
be budgeted against a specific project. After the employee expense is approved, this expense amount is then
placed against the project through Time and Expense Entry.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the expense amounts being accumulated against a project. This
functionality improves planning and calculates more accurate billing calculations for each project. It supports
multi-currency expense requirements. You can manage direct expenses arising in AP along with specific postings
to pre-defined General Ledger accounts.
Use the Employee Expense report to generate and print an expense report for project and indirect expenses for
yourself or your employees.
You can use the Employee Expense report to track expenses or to attach to receipts and other expense
documentation to provide to the Accounts Payable department for expense reimbursement.
The Field Service module is designed to manage the installation, repair, and on-going service of equipment for
your customers at their facilities or out in the field. Use Field Service to schedule service calls on a timetable you
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
define. The Service Call Center centralizes all processes related to dispatching technicians and cost reporting of
service calls in the field.
Field service also includes valuable reports that provide detailed information on individual contracts and warranties
to know whether you are making or losing money.
The Epicor application supports drop shipment of service parts directly to the customer site. The application is
set up for a single interface, so a dispatcher can track all stages of each service call with just a few mouse clicks.
Once a field service contract is invoiced, use Service Contract Entry to add or remove items from the contract.
Note that if a new item is added, it will display as an Uninvoiced line until it is invoiced in AR Invoice Entry.
Invoice Contract
In AR Invoice Entry, use the Get > Contract Billing command to invoice a service contract directly without having
to create a sales order and ship the contract. You also use the Contract Billing command to invoice an item added
to an invoiced service contract and a recurring invoice contract.
To do this, be sure to clear the Ship Contract check box within Service Code Maintenance.
Renewal Codes
Use Renewal Code Maintenance to create an entry that controls the price increase when renewing a contract.
When creating a contract renewal, the renewal codes are linked to the service contract codes and they use the
renewal entry settings.
Renew Contracts
Use the Renew Contracts process to automatically renew one or more contracts at the same time.
Within Service Contract Entry, click the Actions menu and select the Get Contracts/Renewals option. You
can then retrieve all the contracts that expire before the Expire Date value. Note you must also select the
Renewable check box in Service Contract Entry for contract records to display.
The Project Management module is enhanced to provide more accuracy for tracking costs and managing project
phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project.
Now each Project WBS phase contains features which improves accuracy and simplifies labor entry:
• You can define multiple activities against each WBS phase. These activities have resource requirements and
the estimated time costs for each specific resource assigned to the phase.
• The interface is simplified so that users can quickly enter the project number and the WBS phase. The Epicor
application then automatically assigns the job number, and this job automatically records the labor placed
against this phase of the project. Users select the operation they need to record time against, and the labor
expense is automatically placed against the job which contains the operation.
When you run Project Analysis, you can now increase the revision level of a project. The current project and its
data is then archived into history. You can then view this historical information through the Project tracker.
Material costs are now further broken down into Other Direct Costs (ODC). These material costs are entered as
miscellaneous charges. For job costing purposes, these separate direct costs are totaled within the overall material
cost for the job. However, within the Project Management module, these costs are separated into the Material
and Other Direct Costs categories.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the Capture Revenue and COS Recognition Activity to calculate (capture) the posted Accounts Receivable
(AR) Invoices for a selected project(s). The process results are defined by analyzing the selected projects with an
Apply Date that is less than or equal to the defined As of Date.
This process can be accessed in two ways, through the Main Menu or in Project Entry through the Recognition
Workbench.
• If this process is accessed through the Main Menu, you define the As of Date for invoiced transactions to be
included in the recognition of revenue and cost of sales (COS). The process then searches for the posted AR
Invoices based on the defined parameters.
• If this process is accessed through the Recognition Workbench in Project Entry, the As of Date is disabled
and set to the As of Date from the last run of the Build Project Analysis process. This limits the transactions
recognized and includes only transactions comprised in the Build Project Analysis results.
Four Recognition Methods are supported by this process:
• On Invoice
• Labor Booking
• Actual Burden
• Manual
• All Methods
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Service Management > Project Management > General Operations > Capture Revenue Recognition
The Time Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter employee time entries
against a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately track how much labor is being
used to complete each project.
You first define time types, like Regular Time, Over Time, Vacation, and so on. These time types define the specific
kinds of time used to calculate the current and complete expenses placed against a project. You select these time
types within Time and Expense Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee time is verified against a selected project.
Users first launch the Time Approval program to indicate how much time is budgeted to be placed against a
specific project. After the employee time is approved, the employee time is then available to place against the
project through Time and Expense Entry.
You can then monitor the amount of time being placed against each project. Launch the Time report to review
all of the time entries entered between a specific Start Date and End Date period. Likewise, you can use the Time
Booking Exception report to review any indirect labor entries currently entered against one or multiple projects.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the labor costs being accumulated against a project. This functionality
improves planning and calculates more accurate expense calculations.
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You can recall previously approved or rejected time and expense transactions.
You can recall these time transactions as long as the Capture WIP has not been run against these time transactions
or the AP invoice has not been generated for expense transactions. Use this feature to recall the approval or
rejection of any time or expense transaction not touched by the Capture WIP process or not invoiced in accounts
payable processing.
Default Shift
You can establish a default shift at the company level. A new field, Default Shift, is available in Company
Maintenance on the Modules > Production > Data Collection sheet.
If you select a default shift in Company Maintenance, the default shift will automatically display in the Shift field
in Employee Maintenance whenever you add a new employee or a new ID for an existing employee. The Shift
field in Employee Maintenance is found on the Production Info sheet.
You can restrict an employee from entering their own time. To do so, select the Disallow Time Entry for user
assigned to employee check box in Employee Maintenance, located on the Time and Expense > Time >
Detail sheet.
You can also identify an employee (for example, a payroll manager) in User Account Maintenance with the
ability to update time or expense records for employees. This can be found on the Company > Detail sheet.
Production Management
The Epicor suite of production management applications, comprised of Job Management, Scheduling, Material
Requirements Planning, and Quality Assurance, uses sophisticated technologies to model your best practices and
empowers your personnel to make decisions that result in optimization of your production process.
Whether you are a global, multi-site enterprise or a single-site manufacturer, the fundamental need for precise
and flexible planning and scheduling is an ever present requirement for your business. Specific functionality like
consolidated purchasing, transfer functionality, and consolidated financials helps global enterprises manage the
complexity of their size and take advantage of the efficiencies that smaller organizations enjoy.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Job Management is a comprehensive manufacturing control solution, designed specifically for the routing,
scheduling, costing, and tracking of either custom or repetitive parts manufactured on the shop floor.
Job Entry for a repeat part takes minimal effort. Analysis tools provide the quick and accurate reference necessary
for re-quoting a part or identifying the types of work at which your company is most profitable.
To provide more flexibility for reporting purposes, the Exclude Miscellaneous Charges check box has been
added to the Production Detail Report. Use this check box to remove shipment charges from this report.
By default, miscellaneous charges for expedite fees are included in the report.
This new functionality can be accessed on the Selection sheet of the Production Detail Report.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Production Management > Job Management > Reports > Production Detail
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The Quality Assurance module ties together all quality functions, whether it is scrapping end parts, rejecting raw
materials, or tracking first article inspections.
Inspectors have queues of items to inspect with full disposition and corrective action follow-up. Shop floor
employees can indicate parts are non-conformant, which moves them into an inspection queue. Parts that fail
inspection may be selected for review by a material review board.
Employee Training
The Enhanced Quality Assurance module now has the ability to maintain requests, approvals, and results of
employee course training.
Important The following functionality is only available with the purchase of the Enhanced Quality
Assurance module.
Engineering Overview
The Engineering module (Product Data Management - PDM), serves as a central knowledge repository for process
and product history. It also promotes integration and data exchange among all enterprise users who interact
with the product - including project managers, engineers, salespersons, buyers, and quality assurance
representatives.
Epicor offers a solution for manufacturers that manages the powerful information traditionally contained in
engineering documents, plant floor routings, changes, sales orders, and quality documentation. It does this within
a single online solution easily shared across the enterprise business.
Use the Tasks > Maintenance > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a task.
Financial Management
Epicor financial management solutions provide manufacturers with the tools needed to create value through
monitoring financial conditions and timely decision making.
This functionality reduces costs and improves cash flow. Epicor Financials can help improve your ability to drop
more to your bottom line—the ultimate test of your success and competitive advantage.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the Accounts Receivable (AR) module to bill your customers as orders are shipped and then track payments
as they are received.
Because you can specify the creation of invoices through the order release process, you can reduce billing for a
different quantity than for what was actually shipped.
Customer invoices may be previewed, printed on laser or continuous preprinted forms, or faxed or emailed directly
to your customer. With Accounts Receivable, you know who is buying what, and who is paying their bills on
time.
Use this report to view the outstanding taxable balances on items that are invoiced, but are not yet fully reported
since they have not been paid.
Use the Accounts Payable (AP) module to enter supplier invoices for purchases that you make and then create
checks for the invoices you want to pay.
The application can generate payments for all invoices due, those for a particular supplier, or only for specific
invoices. If a supplier calls you to discuss an invoice, you have complete information at your fingertips and that
history can be kept indefinitely.
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You use the Accounts Payable functionality to update both purchase orders in Purchase Management, as well
as actual job costs. Adjustments are created if the purchase price does not match the invoiced price. With Accounts
Payable, you know how much you owe and when it is due.
Use this report to view the outstanding taxable balances on items that are invoiced, but are not yet fully reported
since they have not been paid.
Legal Numbers
Some countries require you use unique identifiers (or legal numbers) for transactions. These identifiers have
controls to prevent gaps in sequence and provide an additional tracking method.
You can now use the legal number functionality within the Accounts Payable module for payment, void payment,
and bank fund transfer operations.
The Asset Management module (previously called Fixed Assets) is designed to handle complex calculations of
asset depreciation and asset valuation. You can use either the depreciation methods included with the module,
or create custom depreciation methods to reflect the standards required in your locality.
In business and accounting, assets are everything of value owned by a person or company. This module handles
the needs of companies involved in the buying, selling, depreciation, and management of fixed assets. The
functionality matches the global requirements for managing and accounting for assets. When your organization
leverages this module, balance sheets display the monetary value of the assets owned by the company.
Use the Asset Management module to set up assets using various depreciation methods and conventions. You
can record asset additions, impairments, and disposals, and calculate and post depreciations.
Use this report to view the full year depreciation value forecast. The forecast displays regardless of whether the
depreciation values have been posted.
Improve cash management through the automatic handling and reporting of discounts available, payment due
dates and payment selection methods.
Petty Cash
Use this set of cash management features to enter and track petty cash transactions.
This functionality set enables you to create petty cash document forms; these forms are in compliance with the
requirements needed by various government organizations. You can also create cash issues and receipts against
AR and AP invoices.
You leverage the Petty Cash functionality to create daily summary reports and print cash documents. You can
maintain petty cash transactions in both local and international currencies as well as handle unauthorized petty
cash documents. You can also use this functionality to automatically post transactions to the General Ledger and
update sales (AR) and purchase (AP) invoices with payment information.
The Petty Cash functionality requires you purchase an additional license from Epicor. These programs are then
available within the Cash Management module on the Main Menu.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Deferred revenue is a revenue recognition procedure; through this procedure revenues are recognized only when
the earnings process is complete.
If funds are received and no goods or services have been provided, the process is not complete and revenue
cannot be recognized. In this case, a deferred revenue liability is recorded. Specifically, the deferred revenue
account is credited and cash, or other assets, are debited.
Through the Deferred Revenue Accounting module, you can activate deferred revenue billing for customers,
product groups, service contracts, and specific Accounts Receivable invoice lines. You can define a fiscal calendar
to structure amortization dates. Select the fiscal calendar on the revenue amortization code to generate appropriate
amortization periods and dates.
After you post a deferred revenue invoice, recognize revenue based on the defined amortization code and
schedule. If necessary, place amortization periods on hold or update posted invoice details.
Use the module's reports to review amortization and revenue recognition details.
Programs within the Deferred Revenue Accounting module include:
• Revenue Amortization Maintenance
• Hold/Unhold Amortization Periods
• Revenue Recognition
• DRA Forecast Report
• DRA Reconciliation Report
Revenue Amortization
Use Revenue Amortization Maintenance to define the duration of amortization, frequency of amortization
periods, and recognition amount for each period.
Various amortization calculation methods are available.
Use Fiscal Calendar Maintenance to create a calendar that structures amortization recognition dates.
Example If you want to recognize revenue on a weekly basis, you can set up a fiscal calendar with weeks
as periods. Revenue will then be recognized at the end of every week.
Revenue Recognition
Use Revenue Recognition to record the revenue for selected amortization periods.
From this program's Actions menu, select Get Amortizations to populate the Amortizations grid with available
invoices. You can highlight invoices for which you want to post amortization amounts. When the process is
submitted, the appropriate GL journals are created and revenue moves from the deferred revenue account to
the corresponding sales account.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
Use the Hold / Unhold Amortization Periods program to place a number of amortization periods on hold. Revenue
is not recognized for periods that are on hold.
General Ledger (GL) processes and posts entries created by Job Management, AR, AP and Payroll, as well as
manual entries made directly in the general ledger.
A chart of accounts is easily established to control how you want the application to report on your business. You
can even export your general ledger data to a spreadsheet to handle any special requirements.
Use this report to review a summary of total debits and credits from each General Ledger journal.
Finding the right information quickly is the key element to the success of using any software package. That's
why Epicor offers several tools that allow you to tailor your system to meet your specific needs. It's an amazing
characteristic of Epicor that will help you find any information you need, when you need it.
There are several enhancements that impact the system as a whole, and not just a single module or program. In
addition, there are many changes in our third party applications.
The Executive Dashboard is a single application that encompasses multiple capabilities such as inquiries, ad-hoc
reports, workbenches, graphical analysis, alerts, and business monitoring. It is a robust, one-stop interface that
replaces traditional menu systems with a personalized role or context based views that link into core transactions
of the system.
The Executive Dashboard also puts the visual indicators and functions that you use the most right at your fingertips.
The Executive Dashboard enables you to develop your own workbenches using a series of online views of
information - such as a Tracker. From a Tracker, "open with" technology lets you drill into any part of the system:
whether to enter a new order, modify an existing job, or update a customer record. The power of the Dashboard
is in how it enables you to specify your work preferences, then tailor Epicor to match your needs.
Advanced Quality Management (AQM) is powered by the IQS company. This software is a third-party application
useful for collating data that pertains to quality information on your products.
Advanced Quality Management provides the foundation for significant productivity improvements and cost
reductions across your entire enterprise. This solution includes Product and Process Documentation, Customer
and Supplier Management, Nonconformance and Corrective Action capability.
Move WIP
Use the Move WIP program to move a work in progress (WIP) part from one job operation to another. This
program has been significantly enhanced; after specifying a "from" job number, assembly part, operation,
warehouse bin and part, the Epicor application now validates that a matching record exists in the PartWIP table.
When you save this transaction, it updates the quantity and operation assignment in the PartWIP table record,
and if the job contains a serial tracked part, the Epicor application updates the appropriate serial number and
serial tracing tables to reflect the newly assigned operation.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the Business Activity Query (BAQ) Designer to create personalized queries (BAQs) and to copy system queries
so you can modify them. Queries can be accessed in different ways throughout the Epicor application.
Queries can be used to generate a Crystal Report, included in Quick and BAQ searches, viewed and updated
through a dashboard, and viewed and updated through a mobile device. Queries can also be exported as .xml
or ASCII files, so you can edit their data in third party applications as well. The functionality has some security
options, as you can create queries only available for your personal use, or create shared queries available to
everyone within your company.
Example You are in charge of your company's security. You need to build one query that lists all security
IDs in the system for the current company. Since this item is a sensitive query, you do not select it as a
shared query.
You next create a query that summarizes the status of current orders. Because you want everyone to be
aware about the progress of the sales orders, you define this query as a shared query.
Leveraging this functionality does require some fundamental knowledge of database concepts such as table
relationships, records, and field types. This knowledge helps you create queries that have good performance and
display the results you want. You start by defining the information to display through your BAQ, and then finding
out which database tables contain the appropriate columns which hold this data. Some application tools are
available which can help you find the database information you need.
Once you determine the information you want to display, you can begin creating the query through the Business
Activity Query Designer. The Phrase Builder sheets define which tables you want to include in your query and
what relationship each table has with each other. The Display sheets indicate which columns appear for the end
user. You can also test your queries on the Analyze sheets, correcting any errors before you use this query on a
dashboard or mobile device.
Advanced Features
Advanced features are available for more BAQ functionality. You can create updatable BAQs for data entry,
executive queries that pull in complex views of data for dashboard display, and global BAQs that pull in data
from several companies at the same time.
Queries can be read only tools which you can later place on a smart client dashboard for display on the Main
Menu. You can also create an updatable BAQ. These BAQs can be placed on a smart client dashboard and/or
used on a mobile device, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry. Users then enter data through either the dashboard
or the mobile device, and this new data updates records within the main database. Business Process Management
(BPM) directives can be created which monitor the data entered through an updatable BAQ. Based on the
conditions defined in the BPM directive, various actions run automatically. For example, you could use this
functionality to verify data is being correctly entered into the database.
If you have the Executive Dashboard module, you can create advanced displays for a Business Activity Query's
data by creating multiple executive queries. These queries can display a BAQ's data through various graph formats.
To learn more, review the Executive Query and Executive Dashboards topics.
If you have the Multi-Site module, you can also create global queries which display data across multiple companies.
You can then place these global BAQ's on multi-company dashboards to view the records generated by companies
throughout your organization. Review the Multi-Site Technical Reference Guide for more information.
Tip You can periodically export a query as either an .xml file or an ASCII file. To do this, first create your
query and then export it using Business Activity Query Export Process. For more information, refer to the
Business Activity Query Export Process topic.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
BAQ Zone
A BAQ (Business Activity Query) zone is an embedded query you can link to a specific field on a program interface.
When you activate a BAQ zone, it displays as a linked tool tip window. The data that populates this window
depends on both the business activity query and current value, if any, within the linked field.
After you create or modify the BAQ you will use for the BAQ zone, you then link the BAQ to a specific field by
either using Extended Property Maintenance or embedding the BAQ zone in a customization. When you launch
the program that contains the customized field, you will see a BAQ zone indicator on the field. You can then
modify the color used to display this indicator and define a shortcut key combination that will activate the BAQ
zone. You define these personalization features on the Options window; this window is located under the Tools
menu.
When a BAQ zone is linked to a field, a zone indicator displays on a program interface during Rune Mode. These
zone indicators display as arrow buttons next to the field. Users move their mouse pointer over the BAQ zone
indicator to display the tooltip window. For example:
Depending on the columns the BAQ zone returns, different behaviors are available. For example, you could have
a BAQ zone that has a query linking the Customer.CustID and Customer.CustURL fields. When a user holds the
mouse pointer over the zone indicator, the tooltip display a view of the web page for the current customer. Or
the BAQ Zone can return standard grid data; users can then select a record from the generated data.
Compression
Application data between the client and application server can be compressed to improve performance.
You can enable data compression between the client and application server on a per user basis. Using compression
may increase application performance, especially when data transmission distances between the client and
application server are significant.
To enable compression for a user, launch User Maintenance, navigate to the Options sheet, and select Enable
network compression. The setting takes effect the next time the user logs on.
There are three entries in the .mfgsys file that affect compression. The CompressionEnabled setting is controlled
as described above in User Maintenance. The value set on the user record always overrides the CompressionEnabled
value in the .mfgsys file. The other two entries are maintained in the .mfgsys file. They are <CompressionLevel
value="7" /> and <CompressionThreshold value="512" />. Both are set at recommended values. Compression
level, as it is adjusted higher, compresses data into smaller packets but takes more processing time to do the
compression. Compression threshold is the point (in kilobytes) at which any compression is done at all. For
example, at the default setting any data set smaller than 512k is not compressed.
Dashboards Overview
Dashboards are flexible, powerful tools that provide easy access to critical information in a real-time environment.
In addition to the standard dashboards provided with the application, you can also create custom dashboards
that display specific data you need and updatable dashboards to enter data that matches your business needs.
Think of a dashboard as your personalized information and command center. Much like your car's dashboard
gives you current information and controls to run the car, the dashboard displays the current information and
processes you need to more efficiently perform your tasks. The data you choose to display can be refreshed
automatically or manually, so you are able to act on changes as they immediately occur.
The dashboard displays data by using Business Activity Queries (BAQs); these queries can be custom, complex
data views that display the data you need, or updatable queries users leverage to enter data specific to your
business process. Several display options are available. For example, you can present data in a grid, a Chart (or
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
graph), or even a graph. You can add a Tracker View (to display an advanced search) where you define the fields
by which users can search data.
In addition, you can add a URL link to display web pages or web parts on the dashboard. You can also add a
report or link out to a report or process.
The functionality also provides a way for you to export and import your custom dashboard for use in other
companies within your organization.
Use this functionality to display dashboards as web parts in the Microsoft® SharePoint® environment.
Epicor SharePoint Publisher (ESP) supports the creation of SharePoint web parts that directly link to Epicor 9.xx
dashboards and business activity queries (BAQs). Web Parts are integrated sets of controls for creating web sites
that enable end users to modify the content, appearance, and behavior of web pages directly from a browser.
All dashboard web parts access the Epicor application server directly; no web services or other intermediate layers
are used to improve performance.
ESP supports publish and subscribe between views, updatable dashboards and links to Performance Canvas for
embedded EEPM functionality. ESP capability can eliminate the need to use Epicor Portal and supports most
functionality available in the portal.
The main ESP features include:
• WinClient identical data render.
• Data updatability supported.
• Connection information and properties set up in Edit mode.
• OrderBy and GroupBy functionality in grids.
• "Open with" functionality (Epicor Web Access must be installed and deployed in your environment ).
• Links between Grid-Tracker-Chart-Gauge.
• DSP (Epicor Performance Canvas) integration.
• Customizable web part settings.
• Single Sign-On for Windows machines in domain.
• Asynchronous Grid/Chart/Gauge update.
• A single click dashboard deployment (autoconnect feature).
• Supports SharePoint 2010
• ESP supports all modern browsers (Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Safari®, Mozilla Firefox®, Google Chrome™
).
• Web Dasher utility allowing you to manipulate SharePoint pages and web parts.
Copy to Excel
Use this function to automatically copy all data from a dashboard grid into Microsoft® Excel®.
This feature is available in all dashboard grids, except in Dashboard runtime.
If you apply any Group By settings in the grid, these will be retained in Microsoft Excel.
Important To use this feature, you must have Microsoft Excel installed in your environment.
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The Uptake from Excel functionality allows you to add new records or update existing ones using a Microsoft®
Excel® spreadsheet.
The Uptake from Excel functionality uses an Open XML, which is an XML-based file format developed by Microsoft.
It is the default document format for saving applications in Microsoft® Office® starting with Office 2007.
To perform any data transactions using Uptake from Excel, the Excel spreadsheet needs to be saved in Office
2007 format (*.xlsx).
Important If you use previous versions of Microsoft Office, install the Microsoft Office Open XML
compatibility pack.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101686761033.aspx
Uptake from Excel supports multithreaded updates. Use this function to specify how many threads to use at a
time to make updates. You can specify up to 10 submission threads.
The new new capability of the Dashboard allows a URL to change based on data values published within the
Dashboard. This featue is particularly useful for referencing pictures, specifications, or other static content without
having to add a specific URL as a UD field in numerous records.
While adding a new query to a Dashboard, publish a field that you will later use as a query phrase subscriber.
Use the Dashboard URL / XSLT Properties window to set a publisher to a specific replacement token on a URL
phrase.
Example Use the Dashboard Query Properties window to publish a field from a query, for example,
Part.PartNum. On your local drive, create a folder that includes pictures of parts you wish to display in a
Dashboard. Make sure the naming of pictures is equal to application part names. Add a New URL/XLST
View. In the URL/XSLT Address field, specify a path to a folder and replace a name of a picture with token.
For example, c:\PartPictures\[MyParts].
In the Query Phrase Subscribers section, set a publisher to Part.PartNum and in the Token field, enter
[MyParts]. As you change rows in a grid, the URL pannel displays a picture of a selected part.
Use the new capability to add a Performance Canvas dashboard as an embedded URL panel on Epicor dashboard.
Note Before you create a new reference, on the Company Configuration > System > Epicor
Everywhere sheet, enter a valid Performance Canvas URL address.
Within an Epicor dashboard, use the New URL/XSLT View to create a reference to an existing Canvas.
Use the Query Phrase Subscriber section to set a Performance Canvas subscriber, where Canvas Slicer will
respond to Query publications.
This functionality is currently available in Dashboard runtime, deployed Dashboard assembly and Epicor Web
Access™.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Leverage the data tagging functionality to mark records with a unique condition. You can then use these unique
tags to gain better search results and launch BPM directives.
You can apply both personal or shared group tags to any record. To facilitate this functionality, the following
features are available:
• Tag Maintenance -- This set up program is available on context menus throughout the application. Use this
program to create the personal and group tags you want to apply to records.
• Search Programs -- All search programs now contain functionality to select records by unique tags.
• Enterprise Search -- Use this global search application to search across all records by tags.
• Business Process Management (BPM) -- A new directive condition is added which monitors data linked to
a specific tag. Use this condition to launch actions you need on tagged data.
You can now attach data tags to records created through the Epicor web client interface.
Use this functionality so that any records created through the web client interface can be included in data tag
search results.
The Enterprise Content Management functionality contains the features you use to manage and link outside
documents to specific Epicor records. These attached documents can be stored on your network either within a
server file location or within a Microsoft® SharePoint® sit library.
Once you define where your source documents will be stored, you can then indicate which file formats are
available to attach onto Epicor records within the current company. To prevent these file formats from being
used everywhere, however, you can also restrict which formats can be attached to which specific Epicor records.
You can then further define how these files interact with the SharePoint library and/or the external file system.
To complete the setup, you then indicate which third-party programs automatically launch when users select the
attached file.
Email Attachments
You can directly attach email message files (.msg format) to Epicor records. You do this by clicking and dragging
email message files to the Epicor records.
The .msg files are automatically attached to the Epicor record. This feature eliminates the previous process where
you had to place .msg files on your desktop before you could attach them to records within your Epicor application.
Report Tools
You use alternate report styles to automatically print out report versions based on criteria you define. When the
data values on the report/form match criteria defined for an alternate style, the report/form prints or generates
using this alternate style.
You can set up this functionality globally across all the companies in your organization or create alternate report
versions for use in specific companies. You can create alternate styles for every report within the Epicor application.
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Use this functionality after you have created alternate report files within Crystal Reports or an SSRS report writer.
Then use Report Data Maintenance to define the routing fields the Epicor application will monitor through
this functionality. You then enter the various styles you wish to use within Report Style Maintenance. To
complete the setup, you define the data criteria you want to automatically activate each alternate report within
Alternate Report Style Maintenance.
Searches Overview
Search programs are available throughout the application. Use these programs to find and select specific records
to open within another program.
Use each search program to filter and organize the search results through record-specific criteria.
You can launch search programs by clicking a button found next to a key field or on the Navigation toolbar.
Within Customer Maintenance, for example, you click the Customer button to launch the Customer Search
program. Within Sales Order Entry, you click the Sales Order button. On either program, you can also click the
Search (Binoculars icon) button on the Navigation toolbar to display their respective search programs.
Some fields also have a Triangle icon in their top right corners. If you right-click these fields, you display a context
menu that contains an Open With... sub-menu. This sub-menu displays links to the various search and entry
programs related to the selected field. You can launch a search program by selecting the appropriate link.
Regardless of the way you launch the search program, each program has identical functionality you can leverage
to locate the records you want. The Basic tab contains the primary search fields available for each program. The
Quick Search tab displays any user-defined configurable searches available; you can create quick search options
exclusively for your user account or share them publically throughout your company. The BAQ tab contains a list
of business activity queries you can use to generate search results; these queries are either system or custom
queries. The Advanced Search tab gives you access to related dashboards that each contain a complex series of
searchable fields which return precise search results. Other functionality, like Data Tag Searches and Named
Searches are also available to improve the accuracy and performance of searches. Leverage this powerful
functionality to return the records you need.
Example You are searching for sales order 3014. You launch Sales Order Entry and click the Sales Order
button. In the Sort By field, you select the Sales Order option. In the Starting At field, you enter 3000.
Click Search, and the search grid returns all the sales orders that start with 3000. These records are also
sorted by sales order number, so you quickly find sales order 3014.
If the record for which you are searching has multiple tables like orders, jobs, customers, suppliers, and so on,
and you select multiple records in the Search window, the program's Tree View only shows the one record in
context. Use the navigation functionality within the Tree View to go between tables or pages within that record.
The Navigation toolbar contains a list of all the records you selected in the Search window.
Any field that supports searching can be configured to use Enterprise Search. You can then search for records
and return a record of the appropriate type to the search field.
You can set up these configurations per each user or share this functionality across the entire company.
Use the Epicor Search Anywhere program to trigger Epicor Enterprise searches from any application through
keystroke combinations. You launch this program by clicking an icon in the system tray.
Use Epicor Search Anywhere to search Enterprise Search from a spreadsheet application, a word processing
application, or an email. Search Anywhere also contains functionality that returns search results to the application
from where you started the search.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
The following contains new features added for Epicor 9.05.600. If you are upgrading from a previous version of
the Epicor application, review this information to see the features added with this release.
Sales Management
Quoting and managing sales orders enables the vital coordination of activities between your sales, plant, shipping,
and accounting groups.
You dictate whether to hold all companies in a single database, or each company in individual databases, where
each company can have its own chart(s), currencies, and calendars.
Use the Quote Management and Order Management modules to capture orders and seamlessly integrate the
information with supply chain, production, fulfillment, and accounting systems.
By streamlining the sales process—centralizing access to product, pricing, customer information - orders can be
generated with a minimal number of steps. It automates and improves labor-intensive processes for quoting,
proposal generation, configuration, and order entry. You can increase sales productivity by ensuring accuracy
during the quote and order processes and identifying the right solution to meet your customers’ needs.
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Outfitting your sales team with advanced, easy-to-use software is not just smart; it is a matter of survival. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) is equipped with the tools you need to find more prospects and quickly convert
them to satisfied customers.
Your sales people can manage the complete prospect-to-customer life cycle, give accurate revenue forecasts to
management and automate many administrative tasks. The bottom line is better qualified prospects, shorter sales
cycles, reduced lead-time, and more revenue.
With CRM you can manage and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and events. Marketers can
pinpoint targets, capture highly qualified leads, and perform cost/benefit and return on investment (ROI) analyses
on promotional activities. The campaign manager can track the number of leads, opportunities, orders, and costs
per campaign. Once you have the lead, the CRM functionality helps manage the entire sales process more
effectively, with features such as workflow and forecasting.
Contacts can be shared across the Epicor application. For example, a payroll employee can now be added as an
authorized user for a buyer records reducing time and ensuring consistency You can share contacts between the
following records:
• shop employees (Shop Employee Maintenance)
• payroll employees (Payroll Employee Maintenance)
• workforce people (Workforce Maintenance)
• buyers (Buyer Maintenance)
• supplier contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Contact Attributes
The contact functionality is enhanced so you can enter additional communication data for each contact.
The new contact fields include:
• IM address
• Facebook ID
• LinkedIn ID
• Twitter ID
A Customer Quick Entry program is available within Sales Order Entry and Opportunity/Quote Entry. Use this
program to enter the primary details you need on each customer.
You can later launch Customer Maintenance and enter any other information you need for the customer record.
You can now enter Industry Classification Types and codes (NAICS, SIC, NACE, and so on).
These types and codes can then be selected on customer records within Customer Maintenance.
The customer National Account structure can now be viewed on business activity queries. You can then display
national accounts on dashboards.
Use this maintenance program to create and update person records. These records can then be selected as
contacts for records across the application.
Person Contact Maintenance is located within setup folders throughout the Sales Management suite of modules.
Developed as part of the Shared Contacts functionality, you create contact records within this program and then
select them on customer, supplier, payroll employee, shop employee, and workforce records.
You enter the primary address, email, phone and similar information on each contact record. You also define
name details like First Name, Last Name, Prefix, and Suffix information which displays on records and reports.
You can also use this program to review all of the records on which this contact is used.
Shared Contacts
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
From initial call to resolution and follow-up, the Case Management module provides a customer focused solution
for personalized, high-quality service.
This comprehensive one-stop solution enables your service team to manage current case load and respond quickly
to customers for industry leading customer satisfaction.
This module includes a Case Workbench equipped with time saving links to customer focused activities (for
example, new quotes, orders, RMA requests, or service calls). In addition, a search-driven knowledgeable and
case driven workflow are available for standardizing case resolution. You now have easy access to dispatch field
activities and enable field service representatives access to online knowledge bases, existing customer field service
calls, warranty information, and service contracts.
Case Management is fully integrated with all customer facing functions such as LOQ, Contact Management,
Customer Management, Order Processing, Field Service, and Invoicing.
CRM Cases
Case Management workflows can be assigned to workforce role, in the event the case transitions into an
Opportunity/Quote.
Quote Management is often the starting point for the supply chain cycle. When a quote is entered, manufacturing
details are entered for the record. These records give your organization a solid head start for job management,
scheduling, purchasing, and other functions of the application. Best of all, the result is greater efficiency.
Quote Entry now includes best, worst and most likely confidence factor.
Within Workforce Maintenance, managers will be able to declare their own confidence factor on the person
records.
Use Demand Management to more efficiently manage short and long term contracts, turning the demand from
these contracts into sales orders and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) forecasts.
Demand Management incorporates the framework and business logic necessary to efficiently manage long term
contracts. These contracts encompass forecasts, sales orders, changes to sales orders, and shipping schedules,
whether the information is entered manually, electronically, or both.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
You can enter demand information manually, electronically through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), or both.
The EDI feature suite generates electronic information that passes both to and from your customers.
Demand Management handles creation, analysis, editing, and reconciliation of cumulative records for releases
from your customers.
Demand Management includes the following functionality to support long term contracts:
• Provides the ability to have several sales orders/lines attached or subordinate to the contract.
• Creates the ability to review contracted values and quantities with actual incoming quantities and values.
• Delivers an efficient interface and process to manage the volume of data possible with long term contracts.
• Includes the capability to view the impact of incoming contract changes before accepting, while allowing
them to be accepted, revised, or rejected and provides the appropriate response to trading partners.
• Provides access to both forecasts and sales orders from one point of entry.
• Allows the management and reconciliation of CUMs (cumulative shipping quantity).
• Allows the acceptance of incoming information to be handled individually, in mass, or in auto-accept mode
at the trading partner or document level.
Important For this module to be fully functional with EDI, Service Connect must be installed. If you use
EDI to process your demand, you need to install and configure the EDI functionality on your application.
You set up the EDI functionality on your network server.
EDI Enhancements
The EDI functionality is enhanced to both improve the quality of the data received and integrate this data more
accurately within your sales workflow.
The enhanced EDI functionality includes:
• The ability to handle and reconcile cumulative quantities.
• Receipt settlement capability including "Pay on Receipt."
• Alternative definitions for rejection rules when the need by and/or ship by dates cannot be met.
• Additional support for allowance and charge codes including flat amounts and percentage-based calculations.
• Report enhancements to allow for ease of review of net changes in demand received through EDI.
• Full automation to accept inbound 830, 862, 850, 860 documents and generate outbound 855, 856, and
810 documents.
• Demand Management functionality can send configuration answers to Sales Order Entry. This configuration
is then used for the order detail lines on this configured part.
• The Capable to Promise functionality now works with the Demand Management module.
Use this EDI and Demand Management functionality to receive an intelligent configured part number and
automatically run/validate the configuration. If there is a failure in the configuration, you are notified to manually
reconfigure the part.
Two auto-configuration options are available:
• Store the inputs through another method like Service Connect into the Configurator; the Configurator then
runs against those answers.
• Have the Configurator accept an intelligent part number. This number is then used as an input against the
Configurator rules; these rules then parse out the part number to generate the input answers.
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The Epicor application is integrated with Forecast Pro®, a third-party application that provides affordable and
powerful sales forecasting capabilities.
This integration is at the forecast entry level and is designed to offer a simple solution for the forecasting needs
of most organizations.
Order Management drives the Epicor ERP system. From the time a sales order is entered, its progress is tracked
through final shipment, producing timely reports on demand.
All sales orders and change orders are effectively managed online, reducing your chance for error and smoothing
out the entire order-to-delivery process for maximum customer satisfaction.
If your company ships to a distribution center instead of directly to a customer, you can specify the final destination
of the order using the Mark For sheet in Sales Order Entry.
Use this sheet to define the Mark For Customer and Ship To Address. After the distribution center receives the
shipment, it will be sent along to the customer defined on this sheet.
If you need, you can also enter a One Time Mark For customer. A shipment will only be sent once to a customer
defined as a one time mark for location.
The Capable to Promise (CTP) feature of Order Entry can now perform multi-level CTP. To accomplish this, CTP
uses the Plan as Assembly parameter to create the assembly structure on materials defined as View as Assembly
when the demand is found within the cumulative lead time.
This status is always true for make direct parts. It has also been extended to include stock parts if the demand
falls within the cumulative lead time and the quantity on hand is short of the required quantity.
For a stocked part, when demand is within the cumulative lead time and per Available to Promise (ATP), not
enough stock is available to cover the demand, then an unfirm CTP job is created following the rules (which
include Plan as Assembly). If the CTP is accepted, then the CTP jobs for stock parts is marked as firm, but will not
directly link to the sales order.
You can create multi-level configured sales kit parent part records. These multi-level sales kits can also include
non-stock part components.
Each level of the sales kit is generated as a separate component detail line on a sales order. You can fulfill these
component detail lines through a non-stock transaction like a job or a purchase order. The component configuration
data is available for display in Job Entry; you can then pull in the details (Get Details) for each component which
is defined as a Make Direct part quantity.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Service Management
Service management capabilities (for example, Field Service) include such areas such as production and facilities
maintenance.
This suite of modules are particularly important for businesses in today's climate where maintenance and repair
are often more cost-effective than new capital acquisition.
The Expense Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter expense entries
(claims) for employees who work on a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately
track the expenses being accumulated against each project.
You first define the expense groups, or types, you need to link with each employee. These expense types define
the specific kinds of expenses placed against a project. You select these time types within Time and Expense
Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee expenses are then verified against a selected
project. Users first launch the Time and Express Approval program to indicate how much expense is approved to
be budgeted against a specific project. After the employee expense is approved, this expense amount is then
placed against the project through Time and Expense Entry.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the expense amounts being accumulated against a project. This
functionality improves planning and calculates more accurate billing calculations for each project. It supports
multi-currency expense requirements. You can manage direct expenses arising in AP along with specific postings
to pre-defined General Ledger accounts.
Approval Workflow
Users can define an approval workflow for expense transactions employees enter and submit for approval in
Expense Entry. Expense approval workflows can be created for both indirect expenses and project expenses.
Approval workflows for indirect expenses are primarily defined in Plant Configuration Control. If the Approval
Required check box is selected in Plant Configuration Control, the approval method must be defined as Automatic
or Employee. If the approval method is set to Employee, additional setup is required. To designate a group of
employees as approvers, an expense workflow group for approving expense transactions must also be set up.
A workflow group is comprised of tasks, task sets, and group members assigned to an approver role.
• Task - A task is a combination of a task and a corresponding approval role. Different roles are used in different
workflow groups.
• Task Set - A task set is a group of organized tasks and milestones. An approval task set includes all the tasks
required to approve an expense transaction.
• Workflow Group - A workflow group consists of an approval task set and the group members assigned to
the approver roles.
Once an expense workflow group is created, it can be associated with an employee in Employee Maintenance,
or it can be set as the default expense workflow group in Plant Configuration Control to apply it to all employees.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
There are four pre-defined approval workflow groups that can be used as templates to define an expense approval
workflow. These pre-defined groups include the roles, task type, tasks, and task set needed to define an expense
approval workflow. The pre-defined groups include:
• Supervisor Approval
• Project Manager Approval
• Project Manager & Supervisor Approval
• Multiple Level Approval
If you are using the Multiple Level Approval workflow group as a template, you must assign group members to
the approval roles in Workflow Group Maintenance. If you are using the workflow groups Supervisor Approval,
Project Manager Approval, or Project Manager & Supervisor Approval as a template, you do not need to assign
group members to the approval roles as the application uses the employee's supervisor or the project manager
as approvers.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Employee Maintenance
Expense features have been added to Employee Maintenance. The Enter Expenses check box must be selected
in order for an employee to enter expenses. A Supplier is required and is used to reimburse employees for expenses.
Expense Search
Users can search for a group of expense transactions by user-defined claim reference number or by accounts
payable (AP) invoice number. The search results can be used to reconcile submitted expenses with invoices from
the AP department.
The Purchasing Miscellaneous Charge/Credit Maintenance interface has been enhanced to enable users to
better manage expenses.
On the Expense Type Detail sheet, the following additions have been made:
• A Chargeable check box defines whether the expense is chargeable.
• The value in the Tax Liability field defaults in Expense Entry.
• In the Comments pane, the Required check box defines whether comments about the expense are required
in Expense Entry.
• In the Comment field, comments about the expense are added that then display in Expense Entry. This can
be instructions about the expense type.
On the Unit Based > Detail sheet, the following additions have been made:
• An Effective From Date and Effective To Date can be defined.
• The Claim Unit Maximum field allows users to define the maximum number of units that can be entered.
A value of zero indicates there is no maximum.
Note For example, your company may want to set a maximum of 50 miles for Mileage expenses.
Quick Entry Maintenance enables users to determine frequently used expense entries and associate them with
a quick entry code, or quick code. When a user adds an expense in Expense Entry, he or she can just select the
quick code to populate the expense record with the defaults defined in Quick Entry Maintenance. Quick codes
can be defined for each employee record.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
In Pay Method Maintenance, a Reimbursable check box has been added that allows users to define if the expense
will be reimbursed to the employee.
The expense approvals view displays all pending transactions for the approver. These pending transactions can
be approved or rejected all at once. Rates do not display by default. The Rate Preview button allows users to
view rate information in the grid. The Status of each transaction also displays in the grid.
This program enhances how users enter time and expenses in the Epicor application.
• Users can use the Calendar to determine what expenses display in the tree view and hence, the expense
information that displays in the Time and Expense Entry sheets.
The Calendar also uses colors to indicate days for which transactions exist.
• Green - Time
• Yellow - Expense
• Blue - Time and expense
• Red - Rejected time or expense
• In the Time and Expense pane on the left, icons indicate the status of transactions.
• E - Entered
• S - Submitted
• P - Partially Approved
• A - Approved
• On the Employee > Expense > Detail sheet, the Claim Reference field is used to group invoices for reconciliation
in AP Invoice.
• The Expense Comment Instruction explains what to enter in the Expense Comment field just below it. The
Expense Comment Instruction is defined for the expense type.
The Project Management module is enhanced to provide more accuracy for tracking costs and managing project
phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project.
Now each Project WBS phase contains features which improves accuracy and simplifies labor entry:
• You can define multiple activities against each WBS phase. These activities have resource requirements and
the estimated time costs for each specific resource assigned to the phase.
• The interface is simplified so that users can quickly enter the project number and the WBS phase. The Epicor
application then automatically assigns the job number, and this job automatically records the labor placed
against this phase of the project. Users select the operation they need to record time against, and the labor
expense is automatically placed against the job which contains the operation.
When you run Project Analysis, you can now increase the revision level of a project. The current project and its
data is then archived into history. You can then view this historical information through the Project tracker.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Material costs are now further broken down into Other Direct Costs (ODC). These material costs are entered as
miscellaneous charges. For job costing purposes, these separate direct costs are totaled within the overall material
cost for the job. However, within the Project Management module, these costs are separated into the Material
and Other Direct Costs categories.
AP Invoice Entry
You can allocate invoices directly to a project using AP Invoice Entry. Accounts Payable (AP) costs are applied
to the project as Other Direct Costs (ODC).
Invoicing Methods
• Cost Plus - This method is based on labor booked to a manufacturing or project job linked to the project as
well as material costs issues to a job linked to the project. It is also affected by other direct costs booked to
the project through Accounts Payable. The invoice value is the cost amount and then the markup percentage
is applied.
• Fixed Fee - This method is not based on jobs but on measured work. Multiple billing schedules are allowed
and a schedule of works can be used to define a different billing structure. Also, multiple measured work
activities are allowed for a billing schedule.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
• Progress Payment - This method allows for a sales order of products at a price of zero. Products are
manufactured and shipped, but not invoiced. This method uses monthly invoices for a percentage of the labor
and materials used in production. Once a final price is agreed upon, shipment invoices are produced for the
balance percentage. After all progress payments are liquidated, product invoices are produced at the full sales
price.
Material costs can be classified as Other Direct Costs (ODC), entered as miscellaneous charges. For job costing
purposes, ODC are included in the overall material cost for the job. In the Project Management module, ODC
are further separated into Material and Other Direct Costs categories.
Note
Accounts Payable costs are considered ODC.
Project Billing
The Project Management module now provides a higher rate of accuracy for tracking costs and managing
project phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project. The new project
billing functionality within the Project Management module allows for the creation, tracking, and invoicing of
non- manufacturing projects.
As project details are entered in Project Entry, contract parameters are entered to set the invoice method. The
invoice method is the project billing method. Invoice options include:
• Fixed Fee
• Time and Materials
• Cost Plus
• Progress Payments
Project Duplication
You can duplicate existing projects to create templates for internal processes or recurring project structures. You
can define the project identifier, name, and start date, as well as all elements of the duplicated project can be
edited to suit the needs of the new project. When a new project is created using the duplication process, optionally,
jobs can be automatically created that correspond with duplicated WBS phases.
Note
It is important to know that sales orders, quotes, manufacturing jobs, and WBS phase jobs linked to the
original project are not linked to the new project.
Project Entry
You create, update, and complete projects through Project Entry. This program is now simplified to quickly
define project details and generate project jobs as well as WBS phases. You select the operation(s) users need to
post time against and the labor expense automatically rolls-up against the appropriate job and job operation
within the project.
Using Project Entry, you define specific project operations, operation sequences, resources, and the planned
hours for each job phase. Optionally, you can also define the approvals method and workflow group(s) at each
WBS Phase level. If approval methods or workflows are not established at the WBS Phase level, both are inherited
from the parent WBS phase or project level.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
• Selection Criteria
Use the Milestones > Detail > Selection Criteria > Detail sheet to define which project items must be
finished before the current milestone can be marked as complete. Use this sheet to also define the type of
selection criteria to use for each milestone.
• Contract
Use the Contract sheets to define specifics of the project contract. These sheets allow you to specify the
project contract, variations that may occur as the project proceeds, contract billing methods, and taxes to be
calculated against the life of the contract. Use the Contract > Invoicing > Fixed Fee > Measured Works
> Activity Detail sheet to enter the details of the measured work activities that you plan to add into a fixed
fee invoice. These details can be maintained up to the time the activity is marked as Ready for Invoice. Once
you have created a fixed fee project you must run the Project Invoice Preparation process to generate the
invoice. The Invoice field on the Activity Detail sheet allows you to verify whether the invoice has been created
successfully. Zero number means that the draft invoice has not been created or was created but real AR Invoice
has not been generated yet. This field is read only and can open Fixed Fee Invoice Review Entry.
• Project Costs
Use the Project Costs sheet to update and review overall project costs. This sheet breaks out monetary costs
for Labor, Burden, Sub Contract, Material, Material Burden (Mtl Burden), and Other Direct Costs (ODC). You
can also utilize this sheet to manually enter the planned budget and final cost to complete (CTC) values.
Project Revisions
You can now increase the project revision once the Build Project Analysis process is run. The current project
and project data is archived for historical record purposes and can be used for future projects. In addition, the
Project Tracker provides all historical information on projects for you to review.
Rates
You define project rates in Company Configuration in the Modules > Services > Project Billing sheet, which
can optionally be overridden at the project level.
Project rate options include:
• Project
• Employee Only
• Role Code Only
• Hierarchical
This option searches for a rate in the following order: project, employee, and role.
Role code rates can be defined for each project by date and time type.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
Revenue Recognition
Burden Code Actual Percentage updates actual burden percentages for burden codes in a burden set. You
can leverage the actual burden rates to create a revenue recognition journal that records actual burden costs
each month.
Use the Revenue Recognition Workbench to create general ledger (GL) journals that recognize revenue for
an ongoing project. Journal entries are based on costs calculated from the Build Project Analysis process as
well as defined parameters. Use the Revenue Recognition Workbench to automate revenue recognition, process
project milestones and billing points. You can also close the project, which causes the application to reverse the
journals for the revenue recognized to date.
Using the Build Project Analysis process you can generate and review overall project costs, as mentioned above.
Use this functionality to total the Estimated, Actual, Calculated Cost to Complete (CTC), and Quoted costs. These
costs are further broken down into Labor, Burden, Sub Contract, Material, Material Burden (Mtl Burden), and
Other Direct Costs (ODC).
In Company Configuration, in the Module > Services > Project Billing sheet, in Revenue Recognition section,
use the following fields to specify the revenue recognition rules:
• Default Revenue Recognition Method
• Allow Revenue Recognition Method to be Changed per Project check box
• Revenue Recognition Journal Reversal
WBS Phases
Optional Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) phases, both parent and child, can be defined for a project and
used to track progress of the project. This functionality can also be used to record phase costs. Each WBS phase
can have a phase job and checklist tasks that define the steps to complete in each phase. You can define a start
and due date for a task as well as the resource responsible for completing the task. In addition to resource
requirements, estimated time costs for each resource are also available.
Below is an example of a WBS Phase workflow:
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Use the Maintenance Management module to plan and track preventative maintenance tasks performed on
equipment used or installed in a manufacturing or distribution facility. This can include internal capital equipment,
tools, gauges and fixtures such as air conditioning units, forklifts, shelving, and shop floor tools.
Preventative maintenance can be performed according to predefined schedules, based on elapsed use time or
meter values. You can also use functions within the module to manage manual requests for maintenance on
specific pieces of capital equipment. Maintenance jobs can originate from three sources:
• Entered directly by a trades person/manager - At times unplanned maintenance is necessary for tools or
equipment and can be entered directly for service. For example, a trades person is aware that maintenance
is suddenly needed for a torque wrench due to malfunction, he or she directly creates a maintenance job
through Maintenance Job Entry.
• Planned Preventative Maintenance - Preventative maintenance jobs can be planned in advance and
scheduled based on a calendar schedule or usage (meter reading).
• Maintenance Work Order Requests (MWOR) - Any user with access to Maintenance Request Entry can
enter a request for maintenance against a specific tool or piece of equipment. Access to this program is
provided through the application's Main Menu, the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), the Web
application, and the handheld applications.
Note The Maintenance Management module is not intended to manage preventative maintenance
performed on equipment that is sold to customers. You must use the Field Service module to manage
service performed on customer-managed items.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
A Job Prefix field has been added to the Plant Configuration Control > Modules > Maintenance Management
and Company Maintenance > Modules > Maintenance sheets. These fields define the starting prefix used to
assign identifiers for maintenance jobs created in a specific plant or company by the Maintenance Plan Processor.
If the Job Prefix field at the plant level is left blank, the Epicor application uses the job prefix defined at the
company level.
Company Maintenance
Menu Path: System Management > Company Maintenance > Company
Important This program is not available in the Epicor Web Access™ interface. You can launch this program
®
from an Epicor Smart Client (Windows ) interface.
Use Equipment Maintenance to setup and configure equipment for use within the Maintenance Management
module. This program tracks data against each piece of equipment in the Epicor application. Information such
as serial numbers, in service data, warranty expiration date, location, and specific maintenance required for each
tool or piece of equipment.In Equipment Maintenance, select a Labor Interface Option.
It is essential that you enter all equipment into the application. Enter each piece of equipment as a part (Equipment
ID) in the application with a defined part type. Equipment Maintenance also provides the ability to attach and
store a picture of each piece of equipment in the part record.
In Equipment Maintenance, an important feature to define is to select a Labor Interface Option. This selection
indicates if an how equipment meter values can be updated from Labor Entry. Valid selections include:
• No - Labor does not update equipment meter values.
• Hours - Hours are +/- against the Current Meter.
• Quantity - Quantity is +/- against the Current Meter. There is not unit of measure conversion, just the field
value.
• Current Meter Value - The meter value is entered directly. The equipment is updated only when the Labor
Date/Time is greater than the latest meter reading.
Use Maintenance Request Queue to disposition maintenance job requests previously entered into Maintenance
Request Entry.
Once a maintenance request order is entered, the request is available in the Maintenance Request Queue for
approval by a manager or trades person.
From this queue a manager or trades person is able to select a maintenance job approval option which include:
• View - Open Maintenance Work Order Requests to review.
• Approve Job - Approve Maintenance Work Order Requests which creates a maintenance job for the order.
• Approve Job on Hold - Approve Maintenance Work Order Requests but immediately place the maintenance
job on hold.
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• Reject - Reject a Maintenance Work Order Request and enter the resolution reasoning.
Note You can approve requests one at a time using the Approve Job button or select multiple records
for approval using the grid view and the Actions menu option.
Maintenance Jobs
You can now enter maintenance jobs, which are similar to regular jobs, into the application in several ways. Use
Maintenance Job Entry for direct entry of maintenance jobs. This program is used to initiate and track the
progress of preventative maintenance performed on a piece of equipment.
Maintenance Job Entry is used by both tradesman and managers to create a maintenance job for a particular
piece of equipment. The maintenance job can be assigned to a particular resource during the creation of the job
or can be sent to the maintenance job order Management Queue to have a resource assigned.
Valid maintenance job order statuses include:
• Open / Closed
• Template
• Hold
Note Maintenance Job Entry is a simplified form for the creation of a job in the Epicor application. Because
maintenance jobs pertain to servicing of a particular piece of equipment, each maintenance job is created
with a quantity of one. Since maintenance jobs are always issued with a quantity of one, the material
requirements should unconditionally be a Fixed Quantity. The Fixed Quantity check box does not display;
however, the qty/per field displays as Quantity.
Note Memos are available for maintenance job orders the same as they are for Jobs.
The Maintenance Plan Processor is a behind the scenes process that scans the maintenance plans configured
for each piece of equipment. Once scanned, this processor analyzes the data creating maintenance jobs based
on the schedules defined. Maintenance jobs are available to view in the Maintenance Job Tracker.
The Time Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter employee time entries
against a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately track how much labor is being
used to complete each project.
You first define time types, like Regular Time, Over Time, Vacation, and so on. These time types define the specific
kinds of time used to calculate the current and complete expenses placed against a project. You select these time
types within Time and Expense Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee time is verified against a selected project.
Users first launch the Time Approval program to indicate how much time is budgeted to be placed against a
specific project. After the employee time is approved, the employee time is then available to place against the
project through Time and Expense Entry.
You can then monitor the amount of time being placed against each project. Launch the Time report to review
all of the time entries entered between a specific Start Date and End Date period. Likewise, you can use the Time
Booking Exception report to review any indirect labor entries currently entered against one or multiple projects.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the labor costs being accumulated against a project. This functionality
improves planning and calculates more accurate expense calculations.
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Approvals
Multiple programs within the application can be used to define approval settings.
Employee Maintenance
• The Auto Approve Time check box indicates whether employee time is automatically approved.
• Users can define the Time Group in this program.
Any user can enter time and expenses if the Restrict Entry check box is clear in Plant Configuration Control,
which is the default.
If this check box is selected, a user is restricted to only enter time and expenses for the employee in the User
Name field on the Production Info sheet in Employee Maintenance.
In addition, if the Supervisor Allowed Entry check box is selected, then an employee's supervisor can manage
time and expense entry for their employees.
Time and Expense Entry allows users to enter time into the application.
• On the Time > Daily Time > Detail > Detail sheet, the Labor Entry field determines what fields are available.
• Users can submit, recall, or copy transactions.
• The Project section allows users to identify the project, WBS phase, and operation for which he or she is
entering time.
• The Role and Time Type can be defined.
• The Calendar uses colors to indicate days for which transactions exist.
• Green - Time
• Yellow - Expense
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• In the Time and Expense pane on the left, icons indicate the status of transactions.
• E - Entered
• S - Submitted
• P - Partially Approved
• A - Approved
• On the Time > Weekly Time sheet, users can copy a week and then just change the Week Begin value.
Use the Time Booking Exception report to determine employees with missing hours and to analyze employee
utilization. Missing hours are determined by calculating the difference between employee available work hours
and total booked hours.
Missing Hours = Employee Available Work Hours - Total Booked Hours
The report displays the number of booked hours that are chargeable, non-chargeable, and indirect. Users can
also select indirect codes to include or exclude from the calculation of employee percentage utilization.
Users can define an approval workflow for time transactions employees enter and submit for approval in Time
Entry. An approval workflow is the process a time transaction must complete to be approved. When approval is
required, an approval workflow is defined for indirect time, production time, and project time. Approval workflows
for indirect time and production time follow the same process.
To implement approval workflows in the application, the Approval Required check box must be selected in
Plant Configuration Control. If you need an approval process that incorporates multiple approvers or multiple
approval levels, you need to define one or more approval workflow groups. Users can create an approval workflow
that applies to all employees or just specific employees.Supervisor approval is the default approval workflow
when approvals are required. If the approval workflow has Employee set as the approval method, additional
setup is required. For this approval method, to designate a group of employees as approvers, you must also set
up a workflow group for approving time transactions.
More complex approval workflows can also be created.
• Serial Approval - This is a hierarchical workflow, for example, Supervisor approval and then Project Manager
approval.
• Parallel Approval - This involves multiple approval tasks which can be completed in any sequence. For
example, Supervisor approval and Project Manager approval can occur in any order.
A workflow group is comprised of tasks, task sets, and group members assigned to an approver role.
• Task - A task is a combination of time approval and an approver role. Users define one or more approval
tasks in Task Maintenance.
• Task Set - A task set is a group of tasks and milestones. A time approval task set must include all the approval
tasks required to approve a time transaction. Use Task Set Maintenance to create a task set.
• Workflow Group - A time approval workflow group consists of a time approval task set and the group
members assigned to the approver roles. Set up a time approval workflow group and assign group members
in Workflow Group Maintenance. Users can set up one or more workflow groups and apply them to specific
employees or use one as the default for all employees.
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Once you create a time workflow group, you can associate it with a specific employee in Employee Maintenance,
or you can set it as the default workflow group in Plant Configuration Control to apply it to all employees.
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Time Report
Use the Time Report to generate and print an employee time sheet. This report displays time employees entered
for a time period which typically begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday.
Time Types
Use Time Type Maintenance to define different charge rates for labor hours such as Regular Time, Over Time,
and Vacation. Employees can then use time types when they enter time for project labor in Time and Expense
Entry. Time types define the specific kinds of time used to calculate current and complete expenses placed against
a project.
Views
There is more than way one to view information in Time and Expense Entry.
• Calendar - Users can select multiple dates in the Calendar on the left. Transactions from these dates then
populate the Labor grid.
• List View - Each time record is represented by a row in the Labor grid.
• Week Calendar View - Users can select a date and time in the calendar and then right-click to enter time.
Entries are also color coded.
• Blue - Submitted
• Clear - Entered
• Red - Rejected
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• Grey - Approved
Production Management
The Epicor suite of production management applications, comprised of Job Management, Scheduling, Material
Requirements Planning, and Quality Assurance, uses sophisticated technologies to model your best practices and
empowers your personnel to make decisions that result in optimization of your production process.
Whether you are a global, multi-site enterprise or a single-site manufacturer, the fundamental need for precise
and flexible planning and scheduling is an ever present requirement for your business. Specific functionality like
consolidated purchasing, transfer functionality, and consolidated financials helps global enterprises manage the
complexity of their size and take advantage of the efficiencies that smaller organizations enjoy.
Job Management is a comprehensive manufacturing control solution, designed specifically for the routing,
scheduling, costing, and tracking of either custom or repetitive parts manufactured on the shop floor.
Job Entry for a repeat part takes minimal effort. Analysis tools provide the quick and accurate reference necessary
for re-quoting a part or identifying the types of work at which your company is most profitable.
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Run the Auto Job Firm Process to automatically change unfirm jobs generated through MRP to firm jobs. These
jobs are then available for review by your production planners.
You use the From and To date parameters to identify the time period for which you want to firm the jobs. Any
jobs which have Scheduled Start Dates within this time period will then be defined as firm.
You can then indicate whether these firm jobs should be included in a mass print. You can also determine if
assemblies which fall within manufacturing lead time should be included; jobs linked to these assemblies will
then also be defined as firm. Likewise, you can also decide if any demand requirements from subassemblies need
to be measured before these jobs are selected for the firm status.
The jobs selected through this process can be further limited by plants, product groups, planners, and parts.
Run the Auto Job Release Process to automatically indicate firm jobs which fall within the process parameters
can now be released. These jobs are then available for your manufacturing center and production on them can
begin.
You use the From and To date parameters to identify the time period for which you want to release the jobs.
Any jobs which have Scheduled Start Dates within this time period will then be defined as released. You can then
indicate whether these released jobs should also be included in a mass print.
The jobs selected through this process can be further limited by plants, product groups, planners, and parts.
Job Types
Jobs now use different categories, or types, to automatically determine the purpose for each job.
You can use job types during searches to only pull in the specific jobs you want to review. Available job types:
• Service -- Jobs created to complete field service orders.
• Maintenance -- Jobs created to record maintenance tasks on equipment.
• Project -- Jobs created in order to complete WBS phases within a project.
• Manufacturing -- Jobs created to assemble a part quantity required to satisfy one or more demand links.
Lean Metrics
Use the Production Activity tracker to dynamically evaluate the production activity for each resource group.
Evaluate these production results against the lean performance metrics you have established for your manufacturing
processes.
You can indicate a number of lean metrics against which you want to evaluate the data. You can measure the
lean metrics by period, day, week, resource group, and even free form parameters like season or product line.
You can dynamically measure the performance on a real time basis and then further examine the details on each
activity record. The labor reported against each production activity updates the actual levels of production activity
by each period.
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Production Activity
Use the Production Activity functionality to capture production data automatically through manufacturing center
transactions. The data you capture through this process can then be analyzed as needed against any lean
performance metrics you define.
The Production Activity workflow begins by first generating the production data. Launch the Generate Production
Activity process to define the time period and resource groups you need to evaluate. You can also indicate
whether this data is pulled from all plants within the company or the current plant.
You next run the Production Planner Workbench Process to further refine the data. You can set up this
process to define a final Cutoff Date for the production activity data. You can also indicate whether this data
is pulled from all plants or the current plant, includes released jobs, and includes backflush material. You can
also enter a Material Horizon to determine which job materials are included in the activity data. Lastly, you can
filter the resulting data by jobs, parts, and product groups.
When the data is generated through this process, you can then use Production Activity Maintenance to pull
in each generated record to fine tune the results for accuracy. After you finish using this program, you are ready
to evaluate the data.
To do this, view the data within either the Production Planner Workbench and the Production Activity
Tracker. Use these tools to evaluate the lean efficiency of the production process within each period.
Scheduling Overview
The scheduling functionality helps insure that your jobs are manufactured on time to meet the demand of your
customers.
Several possibilities must be measured during the scheduling process. Each part can have a different method of
manufacturing, which creates multiple methods by which operations are handled on the same resource groups.
Planned and actual demand on resources can vary from one day to the next. And the availability of materials
required on operations can cause scheduling estimates to generate unexpected results, causing jobs to be complete
after their original Due Dates.
Because of these issues, you must estimate the demand required each day or week to make sure that enough
supply of time or other capacity to complete production quantities by the date on which they are due. Some jobs
are also more important than others. For example, a job for a good customer may take precedence over a job
manufactured for inventory.
The scheduling engine uses several factors that affect production - quantity, setup time, production time, capacity,
priority, and so on - to calculate how long it takes each job to complete. It then displays the schedule through
the Job Scheduling Board, the Resource Scheduling Board, and the Multi-Resource Scheduling Board.
Scheduling offers the following tools:
• Base Scheduling - Multiple resource views and online scheduling tools such as the Change Impact Informer
offer the master scheduler and management the ability to visually locate overload problems and slack conditions.
You can use this tool to perform cost and throughput analysis on schedule changes before they are firmly
committed.
• Advanced Scheduling (APS License Required) - An extension of scheduling, APS incorporates the strength
of the Scheduling engine and enhances it with advanced functionality such as multiple constraint scheduling,
a wide range of scheduling methods, visual drag-and-drop scheduling, capability and dependent capability-based
scheduling, real-time capable-to-promise functionality, and advanced material planning functionality.
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You can now directly affect the relationship between operations scheduled Start to Start
The scheduling offset of the secondary operation is directly related to the offset time calculated (or entered) on
the primary operation. The offset time can be calculated by pieces or percentage of the operation duration, or
entered manually on the primary operation. The secondary operation is scheduled to start after the offset period.
You have the option by plant if the offset will start the setup or production time.
Engineering Overview
The Engineering module (Product Data Management - PDM), serves as a central knowledge repository for process
and product history. It also promotes integration and data exchange among all enterprise users who interact
with the product - including project managers, engineers, salespersons, buyers, and quality assurance
representatives.
Epicor offers a solution for manufacturers that manages the powerful information traditionally contained in
engineering documents, plant floor routings, changes, sales orders, and quality documentation. It does this within
a single online solution easily shared across the enterprise business.
Leverage the Calculate Manufacturing Lead Time process to regularly determine how much additional time is
required before a part quantity can begin the manufacturing process.
This value is used during MRP processing to plan jobs for part components lower down in the assembly
manufacturing structure for each part revision.
You can set up the Calculate Manufacturing Lead Time process so that it regularly determines the lead time for
a single part, a product group, one/multiple plants, and one/multiple parts. You enter an As of Date value to
define a starting date which then filters on the Effective Date values enter for each part revision.
Rough cut scheduling is then run during the process. This functionality calculates the lead time, in days, by pulling
in the Costing Lot Size specified through MRP planning. Then by using the part quantity which needs to be
manufactured, the lead time required for each part revision is calculated and made available to the MRP process.
Use the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) tools to both estimate potential demand and propose the supply
that answers this demand.
The MRP tools do this by generating job, purchase, and transfer order suggestions. MRP is designed primarily for
companies that manufacture make to stock quantities or for mixed-mode manufacturers that run both custom
and stock products. By using MRP, you can anticipate the future demand for your products and ensure materials
are in the right place at the right time.
Plan As Assembly
The Plan As Assembly functionality enhances MRP processing by planning lower component manufacturing parts
through a direct relationship with the end part.
These lower manufacturing parts do not have to be included in the assembly structure. the Plan As Assembly
functionality can still account for these demand quantities. It does this by leveraging the multi-level assembly
build structure to correctly synchronize demand requirements.
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You can also use its flexibility so that subassembly part quantities can be manufactured to stock or manufactured
on a job directly linked to the parent part requirements. Any jobs generated through the Plan As Assembly
functionality can be automatically given the firm status through the Auto Job Firm Process.
This capability minimizes the impact to standard MRP by using the Pull as Assembly (PAA) logic for creating PAA
assemblies, using Auto-Consume stock during the scheduling process, and creating a new process to firm up
jobs which breaks off PAA assemblies to separate jobs and creates the material demand links.
Recycle Jobs
The recycling jobs feature significantly speeds up the MRP process by removing the time spent within the application
while it deletes un-firm jobs at the beginning of a full MRP regeneration.
The goal with this feature is to make MRP more efficient by reusing un-firm jobs rather than deleting and recreating
them.
The Rough Cut Scheduling functionality enables MRP to process demand more quickly by removing the time
spent scheduling jobs beyond a specified time threshold, or Rough Cut Horizon.
The material due dates are derived from a Days Offset value based the Requested Date on the on the job. To
keep the Due Date values accurate, a process populates the Days Offset value by using a part revision and an
alternate revision.
This Rough Cut Horizon value is stored on each part plant record using calendar days. When MRP runs, this
horizon value is used to determine how the scheduling engine will schedule the unfirm job. When the scheduling
engine processes a job outside of the Rough Cut Horizon, it only populates the assembly Start Date and Due
Date values based on the manufacturing Lead Time and the Due Date values defined on each material.
Tip The previous Rough Cut Scheduling functionality available in the Epicor application has now been
renamed to Shop Load Horizon. This name more accurately reflects the purpose of this feature.
The Start Minimum Quantity feature enhances MRP to account for situations where you can start manufacturing
before an entire constrained material quantity is received.
For example, if you need a 200,000 quantity to finish a job, but can start after you receive a partial 100,000
quantity, this MRP feature can generate jobs for this partially received quantity.
Each part-plant record now contains the Start Minimum Quantity and a Minimum Lot Buffer values. The
Start Minimum Quantity value indicates the quantity of constrained material which is required as a minimum to
begin generating unfirm jobs.
When the MRP process generates a job, but then discovers a part which has this Start Minimum Quantity value
and the demand falls within the Minimum Lot Buffer days, the process checks for the minimum quantity of the
material. If the material quantity is available, the MRP process creates a new job using the Start Minimum Quantity
value. The quantity which remains is then placed on the original job.
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The Enhanced Quality Assurance module contains a number of features which help you to assess the quality of
received and manufactured parts. Use this module to reduce the cost of goods sold, so you can improve the
financial performance of your products in cost and revenue.
Available functionality within this module are:
• Test Plans - Use Configurator to define the items you wish to monitor through the quality process. You can
leverage this program to create rules to determine whether a part quantity passes or fails inspection. Each
test plan links to a part or operation. Test data is entered against this part or operation, and the Epicor
application determines the results of the inspection. Using the test results data, the application determines if
the inspection process has passed or failed for the part or operation. In the event of a failure a non-conforming
material record is created and handled through standard processing. All test results are stored for future
analysis and review.
• Skip Lot Processing - You leverage this functionality to define how often parts are inspected at the time of
receipt. If the receipt does not require inspection, this receipt quantity is passed directly to stock. If parts
require inspection the receipt is placed on the inspection queue and is evaluated through a test plan. You
define a series of skip lot rules in Configurator. The skipping rules are controlled at the part and supplier levels.
• Calibration - You can use this module to enter calibration information against equipment. The calibration
information ensures the values used by the equipment during the quality process are accurate. The calibration
information form is used in conjunction with the Configurator. Calibration information is stored against the
equipment as a resource. This functionality is created to work together with the Maintenance Management
and Asset Management modules.
Configurator
Use the Configurator to define specification requirements during the quality process through the input forms.
You can also use this program to create business rules and determine whether a part quantity passes or fails
inspection.
Each test plan is linked to a part or operation. Test data is entered against this part or operation, and the Epicor
application determines the inspection results using the rules established. Using the results data, the application
determines if the inspection process passed or failed for the part or operation. In the event of a failure, a
non-conforming material record is created and handled through standard processing. All test results are stored
for future analysis and review.
Equipment Calibration
An inspection plan or specification set can be used to record calibration data. In Resource Group Maintenance,
enter calibration information against equipment. This information ensures the values that equipment uses during
the quality process are accurate. The calibration information form is used in conjunction with the Configurator
and is stored against equipment as a resource.
Inspection Attributes
The Epicor application contains a global list of attributes users can tie to specifications. Inspection attributes are
defined in Inspection Attribute Master Maintenance.
There are over 200 variables for each inspection attribute type, such as:
• Numeric
• Check box
• Character
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• Date
• Comments
Inspection attribute settings include:
• Minimum and Maximum values
• Incremental value
• Initial Value
• Configuration tool tips
Users can collect, store, and report on inspection results. Collected inspection data is stored in the Epicor application
database.
Inspection Plans
Revision controlled inspection plans control the inspection process and are created in Inspection Plan
Maintenance. An inspection plan can run more than one specification and the generated Configurator screen
will change depending on the specification attributes.
Inspection plan types include:
• Inspection Plan
• Calibration Plan
• Supplier Audits
When users create an inspection plan, they can click the Configure Inspection Plan button to launch
Configurator, which allows users to design the inspection forms. Inspection plans can be specified at the
operations, quotes, the Engineering Workbench, Job Entry, and Purchase Order Entry levels. Users can also
copy an inspection revision to a new revision.
The Inspection Data button is available in Labor Entry, if the operation has an inspection plan. This button is
also available in Inspection Processing Entry, if the part has an inspection plan.
Part Revisions
Parts must be revision controlled in order to allow inspection plan and specification input.
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Use Skip Lot Processing to define how often parts are inspected at the time of receipt. If the receipt does not
require inspection, the receipt quantity passes directly to stock. If the receipt requires inspection, the receipt is
placed in the inspection queue and evaluated through a test plan.
Define skip lot rules in Configurator. These rules are controlled at the part and supplier levels. User parameters
at the part level determine the following:
• Soft Directed to Inspection
• Inspect next 5 Receipts / Or Next 30 Items
• Lot Example:
• Inspection X Receipts
• Skip Y Receipts
• Repeat Cycle Z timex
• Definition of what to do on passing or failing skip lot cycle
Specifications
Specifications are revision controlled and established in Specification Maintenance. A specification set is a set
of characteristics to inspect. Specifications control the inspection elements that need to be checked and can be
tied to a part, operation, or equipment.
When the test plan is executed, Configurator reads the specification and sets the following:
• Minimum and Maximum values for each valid input
• Label text
• Valid list of combo box list items
• Help tool tips
• Initial values
• Input increments
• Any input that is not applicable is invisible
Handheld Overview
You can now scan in or manually enter serial numbers on a handheld device.
This functionality is added to improve the productivity and data capture for organizations that track items using
serial numbers.
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The Work Queue program is enhanced to better dispatch and report labor within a lean environment.
The Work Queue can now handle small run quantities and the required materials available using Kanban or
replenishment bins. Enhanced features:
• You can select multiple operations for work at the same time.
• Each sheet can now be removed from the Work Queue and displayed as a full screen.
• An Active sheet identifies all of the work currently in process.
• You can select multiple activities to end from the Active sheet.
• You can select multiple production activities from the Current, Available, and Expected sheets.
• You can target specific operations for work based on TAKT, Pieces, Hours, and Setup Group definitions.
• Default search selection criteria is available for resources, resource groups, and operations when a search
program first launches. This improves Work Queue performance, as these items are easier to locate.
• The Work Queue is no longer a modal window, so other windows can be accessed while this window is open.
Linking the trading partners, process and systems that make up your supply chain has become the differentiation
you need to achieve industry leading performance.
Removing processes that do not add value and synchronizing processes within and outside a company enable
you to meet customer demands for lower cost and faster delivery. Epicor provides the most effective coordination
from initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product by providing the visibility you need
throughout your value chain.
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Use the Shipping and Receiving module to monitor incoming and outgoing part quantities, whether they are
shipments against an order, subcontract parts sent to a supplier, raw material received from a purchase order to
a job or into inventory, or filling a sales order from stock.
Through this functionality, all activity relating to shipments and receipts can be performed and tracked.
Online transaction processing promotes efficiency and ease of use, while online editing promotes accuracy. With
Shipping/Receiving, a consistent interface processes all shipments and receipts in an efficient, accurate, and
cost-effective manner.
If your company ships to a distribution center instead of directly to a customer, you can specify the final destination
of the order using the Mark For sheet in Customer Shipment Entry.
Use this sheet to define the Mark For Customer and Ship To Address. After the distribution center receives the
shipment, it will be sent along to the customer defined on this sheet.
If you need, you can also enter a One Time Mark For customer. A shipment will only be sent once to a customer
defined as a one time mark for location.
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SSCC Codes
Shipments can now be sent using Serial Shipment Container Codes. Use these codes to both improve the speed
and reduce the costs of shipments.
You use SSCC codes to electronically exchange information about the current state of a shipment. You can track
these shipments through the supply chain by using the SSCC code assigned to the shipment. This data exchange
and tracking process is an application of the GS1 System (originally called the EAN.UCC System). Each SSCC code
provides a concise way to define specific information about the cartons, pallets, trailers, and other containers
used to move shipments.
You set up the SSCC code format within Legal Number Maintenance, and then automatically generate these
codes using functionality in the Shipping/Receiving module. You can generate SSCC codes on both packing slips
and master packs.
The Purchase Management module handles purchase order writing and the tracking of supplier performance.
Detailed line items indicate planned receipts to inventory or a job, although their destination may be changed at
the time of actual receipt entry.
Purchase order receipt processing updates suggested supplier and detailed purchase history files, which provides
continual reference to aid in making purchasing decisions.
An online time-phased material requirements report provides a strategic planning tool to buy the right amount
of material - at the right time. With Purchase Management, you can reduce inventory levels, improve on-time
deliveries, enhance your cash flow, and increase your profit levels.
Non-Inventory POs
You can now create purchase orders which are not linked to inventory. Leverage this functionality to create POs
which track purchasing costs not tied to inventory quantities.
Use Tax
A Use Tax calculation is now included as part of the Avalara sales tax integration. This additional tax is automatically
generated whenever sales taxes are calculated through the Avalara® third-party application.
A Use Tax is a type of excise taxation that exists in the United States. It is assessed due to a purchase of a product
by a resident of the state issuing the tax. In most cases, this occurs when a product is purchased by a company
from a supplier that is located in a different state and that state charges Use Tax. This tax is strictly to account
for usage, storage or consumption of the goods in that state (not for resale), regardless of where the purchase
took place.
This typically occurs is when the consumer (buyer) of the products and services did not have a sales tax included
in the purchase transaction by the seller (supplier) on what should have been a taxable purchase. Once this is
assessed, the buyer accrues the liability of the amount of consumer use tax assessed and in turn has to report
and remit the tax to the state and/or local taxing jurisdictions.
Existing functionality within the Epicor application is enhanced to handle Use Tax. On supplier records, the Tax
Liability value determines whether the supplier needs to be included within the Use Tax calculation. On purchase
orders, the Tax Category value can indicate whether a purchased part is eligible for a Use Tax.
The tax engine can then leverage these values to automatically generate the use tax value required for the
purchase order.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Financial Management
Epicor financial management solutions provide manufacturers with the tools needed to create value through
monitoring financial conditions and timely decision making.
This functionality reduces costs and improves cash flow. Epicor Financials can help improve your ability to drop
more to your bottom line—the ultimate test of your success and competitive advantage.
Use the Accounts Receivable (AR) module to bill your customers as orders are shipped and then track payments
as they are received.
Because you can specify the creation of invoices through the order release process, you can reduce billing for a
different quantity than for what was actually shipped.
Customer invoices may be previewed, printed on laser or continuous preprinted forms, or faxed or emailed directly
to your customer. With Accounts Receivable, you know who is buying what, and who is paying their bills on
time.
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
You can now change sales accounts on miscellaneous invoice lines within AR Invoice Entry.
The sales of products or services often need to be placed within different sales accounts. AR Invoice Entry now
contains the functionality to override the default sales account within each AR miscellaneous line. This functionality
is similar to the miscellaneous invoice line functionality within AP Invoice Entry.
AR Prepayments
Letters of Credit
You use letters of credit in situations when you do not want the risk of offering credit to a customer.
Instead, the customer sets up an agreement with a bank where the bank is held liable to pay for specific goods
up to a certain value using some condition – usually a confirmed receipt such as a bill of lading. You are then
assured your organization will be paid, as you then place the AP invoice amounts against credit available at the
bank. The letter becomes its own independent line of credit between the customer and the bank.
You enter and modify customer letters of credit through Letters of Credit Entry.
Payment Instruments
Additional payment instruments are now available within the Epicor application. These instruments account for
transaction methods used in different localities. Examples of countries which commonly use this functionality
include France, Taiwan, Japan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
You can create Promissory Notes within the Accounts Receivable module. These legally binding documents
promise to make a payment to your company at a future date. Your company receives payment on these
documents on the Due Date defined within the promissory note. You handle the amount due on a promissory
note by either creating the GL transactions at a later date or by creating an accounting note which moves the
debt value from the AR invoice to the promissory note (payment instrument).
You can also create a variation on this payment instrument called a Wishful Promissory Note. These payment
instruments are generated by the supplier, and they typically are complete checks that just need to be approved
and signed. Like the promissory note described above, you define when you want to track the debt value -- either
at a later date or within an accounting note.
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Feature Summary Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights
Another available payment instrument is the Post Dated Check. Use this instrument to create a payment that
will be made in the future. This amount is then paid on the future date specified on the payment. In some
countries, these payments can also be deposited earlier than the future post date.
Use these enhancements to track different types of instruments and their corresponding status, from initial
generation or receipt through clearance/settlement. You can also generate General Ledger movements as the
status changes within the application. Customer credit tracking is maintained through the life of the payment
instrument, and it reflects the available credit based on the status and final settlement of the payment instrument.
This enhancement also ensures that settlement-related taxes are correctly handled when payment is made through
payment instruments. Default bank or stamp charges can be defined for each payment type, which in turn you
can update individually as you need. These items can include tracking charges which are deducted from the
issued payment itself.
You can view these payment instruments on the AR Aging report and various financial trackers like the Customer
Tracker and the AR Invoice Tracker.
The credit card processing functionality is enhanced allowing users to process transactions following a legal
requirement for securing credit card information. Epicor has integrated leading credit card processing solutions
to offer the best credit card authorization and processing methods available.
The Payment Application Data Security Standards (PA-DSS) is the PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) managed
program; its goal is to help software vendors and others develop secure payment applications that do not store
prohibited data and ensure payment applications facilitate PCI-DSS compliance.
In order to fulfill PA-DSS Compliance Certification, the Credit Card Processing module now has Credit Card Entry
to enter any credit card information a transaction requires. It communicates directly with Epicor Secure Data
Manager which processes transaction with PayFlow Pro.
Settlement Taxes
The Epicor application can now handle the calculation of settlement taxes. These are taxes levied when your
company receives the settlement amount.
This functionality is part of the Payment Instrument feature. Once a payment instrument is settled (complete),
this tax is calculated against the settlement amount.
Use the Accounts Payable (AP) module to enter supplier invoices for purchases that you make and then create
checks for the invoices you want to pay.
The application can generate payments for all invoices due, those for a particular supplier, or only for specific
invoices. If a supplier calls you to discuss an invoice, you have complete information at your fingertips and that
history can be kept indefinitely.
You use the Accounts Payable functionality to update both purchase orders in Purchase Management, as well
as actual job costs. Adjustments are created if the purchase price does not match the invoiced price. With Accounts
Payable, you know how much you owe and when it is due.
AP Prepayments
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Epicor 9.05 Feature Highlights Feature Summary
These prepayment records can then display within various trackers and reports. They can also be used in AP debt
analysis. The reference information can be used to help locate these prepayments.
AR prepayments are not subject to tax.
Letters of Credit
Letters of Credit are a standard way to provide credit in some countries, and these items are also used in
international trade to cover credit risks.
You agree with a bank that the bank will be held liable to pay for specific goods up to a certain value using some
condition - usually a confirmed receipt such as a bill of lading. The supplier is then assured they will be paid, as
the supplier places the AP invoice amounts against the bank. The letter becomes its own independent line of
credit between your organization and the bank.
You enter and modify letters of credit through Letters of Credit Entry.
Subcontractor Invoices
Use Tax
You can generate use tax amounts within AP Invoice Entry. This additional tax is automatically generated whenever
sales taxes are calculated through the Avalara® third-party application.
A Use Tax is a type of excise taxation that exists in the United States. It is assessed when purchase of a product
is made by a resident of the state issuing the tax. In most cases, this occurs when a product is purchased by a
company from a supplier located in a different state -- and that state charges Use Tax. When a business purchases
goods or services from a supplier who is not required to charge and collect sales tax in the buyer's state, the
buyer must accrue and pay use tax to their state. This tax is strictly to account for usage, storage or consumption
of the goods in that state (not for resale), regardless of where the purchase took place. In most cases, the buyer
of goods is required to accrue the liability of the amount of consumer use tax assessed and in turn report and
remit the tax to the state and/or local taxing jurisdictions.
Epicor Tax Connect UT (Use Tax) is companion functionality to Epicor Tax Connect ST (Sales Tax); functionality
released with the Epicor 9 application. Both features provide tax calculations and reporting on-demand through
current Internet updates. This functionality is maintained by Avalara®, the leading provider of Web-based sales
tax automation solutions for businesses of all sizes.
This functionality automatically populates the required use tax values assessed for an AP invoice. You can configure
which parts and suppliers will launch use tax processing. The functionality then sends this information to the
Avalara service, which in turn sends the appropriate tax values to the Accounts Payable feature set.
Your Epicor application contains enhanced functionality for distributing allocations to specific target GL accounts.
Use this functionality to set up, distribute, review, and (in some situations) reverse the allocations you generate.
Many organizations need a sophisticated method to allocate cost and revenue across multiple projects, departments,
and locations. Use the Advanced Allocation functionality to create, execute, retain, and reuse allocations for your
entire organization. This functionality allocates costs and revenue based on either static or dynamic calculations.
It is designed to work together with the Project Billing functionality; this functionality is also released with Epicor
9.05.
Available functionality:
• Allocate an amount from a single account to one or multiple accounts.
• Group accounts together for pooling and allocation.
• Create allocations based on statistical data like square feet, headcount, rooms, and so on.
• Base allocations on Business Activity Query (BAQ) data. BAQs are dynamic query tools you can use to pull the
data you need out of the database. This dynamic data can help you pull in items like monthly revenue, help
desk service calls, and so on.
• Structure tiered allocations which run sequentially following a sequence you define.
• Create and post allocation journals.
• Use the output of the calculations elsewhere within the application.
• Reverse allocations when you need.
Allocation Codes
To set up GL allocations, you first must define the allocation codes you need to use.
Each allocation code contains the following elements:
• GL Book -- Select the book inside which the allocations will occur.
• Allocation Type -- Each allocation code can either be balance-based or transactional.
• Source Accounts -- You define selection criteria which pulls in the specific accounts you need. You define
selection criteria through account categories, journal codes, account masks, and ranges of account segment
values.
• Offset Account -- An account which records offset amounts you may need as part of the allocation.
• Target Accounts -- These accounts will receive the allocation amounts. The value received depends on the
Ratio percentage assigned to each target account.
• Ratios -- Ratios can be defined as either fixed values or as formulas. You can define the formulas you need.
The fixed values can come from the balances of specific GL accounts, a summarized value across several GL
accounts, and the data results from a BAQ (Business Activity Query).
Allocation Processing
You process allocation codes through batches; each batch distributes the allocations as needed. Within each
batch, the allocation codes are further organized into different levels, or tiers.
When the Epicor application processes an allocation batch, each tier processes -- one after the other. All the tiers
processed after the first tier access the results of the allocations made within the previous tier.
When the application processes an allocation batch, tiers are processed one after another -- starting with Tier 1.
For each allocation code within Tier 1, the application selects source accounts and calculates source amounts. It
then calculates ratios, generating the partial amounts and creating the GL transactions required to distribute the
amounts across the target accounts.
When the application finishes processing Tier 1, it then repeats these steps for Tier 2. When Tier 2 is complete,
it moves on to Tier 3 and so on.
The Epicor Advanced Financial Reporting (AFR) application builds upon the existing Financial Report Designer
located within the General Ledger module. This new program contains enhanced functionality that integrates
your financial reporting with the capabilities of Epicor 9.05 and other Epicor applications.
Available functionality:
• Support for multi-company consolidation (soft consolidations).
• Reporting across multiple GL books.
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• Ability to deliver reports as Microsoft and Office Excel spreadsheets. XBRL reporting can then be
accommodated through third-party products or services using the AFR-generated Excel spreadsheets. Future
releases of the AFR are planned to deliver full and direct XBRL output.
• Other reporting options like desktop, Web, printer, XML, xlsx, docx, pptx, PDF, or file.
• The ability to send reports as email attachments in secure .pdf and .jpg formats. You can also send reports
as a direct URL link users can access.
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• Microsoft Office integration at the report level. The report preserves its format (numbers, currency, date
fields, underlines) as required.
• Ability to save report selections and templates -- then attach these items to menus.
• Provides run-time parameters selected by the application when the report is run -- including user, date,
company, and cost center.
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AFR makes use of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). All report designs can be managed using
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SSRS Report Designer and reports can be published to the Web or Microsoft SharePoint . Additional components
include the ability to import/export report definitions and the ability to schedule and distribute reports.
AFR requires a license for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and, for customers using a Progress database, a license for
Epicor Replication Server. Epicor AFR is planned as a multi-release deliverable designed as an alternative to
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Microsoft FRx and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Management Reporter, which in the interim will remain
available to customers currently using these solutions. Additionally, a conversion tool is planned for a future
release; this conversion tool will take existing FRx and Management Reporter report structures and automatically
convert them to AFR structures.
Note New AFR features are documented in the separate Epicor Advanced Financial Reporting Feature
Summary. This document is available to view and download from EPICWeb.
The Asset Management module (previously called Fixed Assets) is designed to handle complex calculations of
asset depreciation and asset valuation. You can use either the depreciation methods included with the module,
or create custom depreciation methods to reflect the standards required in your locality.
In business and accounting, assets are everything of value owned by a person or company. This module handles
the needs of companies involved in the buying, selling, depreciation, and management of fixed assets. The
functionality matches the global requirements for managing and accounting for assets. When your organization
leverages this module, balance sheets display the monetary value of the assets owned by the company.
Use the Asset Management module to set up assets using various depreciation methods and conventions. You
can record asset additions, impairments, and disposals, and calculate and post depreciations.
Asset Management
The Asset Management module (previously called Fixed Assets) is designed to handle complex calculations of
asset depreciation and asset valuation. You can use either the depreciation methods included with the module,
or create custom depreciation methods to reflect the standards required in your locality.
In business and accounting, assets are everything of value owned by a person or company. This module handles
the needs of companies involved in the buying, selling, depreciation, and management of fixed assets. The
functionality matches the global requirements for managing and accounting for assets. When your organization
leverages this module, balance sheets display the monetary value of the assets owned by the company.
Use the Asset Management module to set up assets using various depreciation methods and conventions. You
can record asset additions, impairments, and disposals, and calculate and post depreciations.
Asset Activities
The Asset Management module now provides the Addition, Depreciation, Disposal, and Impairment activities.
Asset Register
Asset Registers give you the ability to have parallel asset valuations. By using asset registers, you can assign
different attributes to an asset such as depreciation methods, service dates, and estimated life. You use this
functionality for both analysis and reporting. Asset registers can also be linked to one or multiple GL books.
Conventions
Depreciation conventions determine how the application handles the first year of an asset's depreciation. Several
conventions are now available, including Mid-Month, Half-Year, Quarter, and Full-Month.
Depreciation Methods
Several default deprecation calculation methods are now available, including Rate Straight Line, Life Straight Line,
Sum of Years Digits, Declining Balance, Declining Balance to Straight Line, Fixed Amount Per Month, and Fixed
Amount Per Year. You can also create custom depreciation methods to reflect the depreciation schedule required
in your locality.
Module Integration
The enhanced Asset Management module integrates with the Accounts Payable, Inventory, Project Management,
and Maintenance Management modules to streamline the broader processes needed for acquiring, maintaining,
and disposing of company assets.
Multi-Currency Support
Asset Management provides full multi-currency support. It contains the ability to track the original cost,
depreciation, and other activities in both transactional and reporting currencies.
Each asset is saved using a physical asset identifier tag. You use this tag to track the asset throughout your
company.
Finding the right information quickly is the key element to the success of using any software package. That's
why Epicor offers several tools that allow you to tailor your system to meet your specific needs. It's an amazing
characteristic of Epicor that will help you find any information you need, when you need it.
There are several enhancements that impact the system as a whole, and not just a single module or program. In
addition, there are many changes in our third party applications.
The Executive Dashboard is a single application that encompasses multiple capabilities such as inquiries, ad-hoc
reports, workbenches, graphical analysis, alerts, and business monitoring. It is a robust, one-stop interface that
replaces traditional menu systems with a personalized role or context based views that link into core transactions
of the system.
The Executive Dashboard also puts the visual indicators and functions that you use the most right at your fingertips.
The Executive Dashboard enables you to develop your own workbenches using a series of online views of
information - such as a Tracker. From a Tracker, "open with" technology lets you drill into any part of the system:
whether to enter a new order, modify an existing job, or update a customer record. The power of the Dashboard
is in how it enables you to specify your work preferences, then tailor Epicor to match your needs.
Use the Business Activity Query (BAQ) Designer to create personalized queries (BAQs) and to copy system queries
so you can modify them. Queries can be accessed in different ways throughout the Epicor application.
Queries can be used to generate a Crystal Report, included in Quick and BAQ searches, viewed and updated
through a dashboard, and viewed and updated through a mobile device. Queries can also be exported as .xml
or ASCII files, so you can edit their data in third party applications as well. The functionality has some security
options, as you can create queries only available for your personal use, or create shared queries available to
everyone within your company.
Example You are in charge of your company's security. You need to build one query that lists all security
IDs in the system for the current company. Since this item is a sensitive query, you do not select it as a
shared query.
You next create a query that summarizes the status of current orders. Because you want everyone to be
aware about the progress of the sales orders, you define this query as a shared query.
Leveraging this functionality does require some fundamental knowledge of database concepts such as table
relationships, records, and field types. This knowledge helps you create queries that have good performance and
display the results you want. You start by defining the information to display through your BAQ, and then finding
out which database tables contain the appropriate columns which hold this data. Some application tools are
available which can help you find the database information you need.
Once you determine the information you want to display, you can begin creating the query through the Business
Activity Query Designer. The Phrase Builder sheets define which tables you want to include in your query and
what relationship each table has with each other. The Display sheets indicate which columns appear for the end
user. You can also test your queries on the Analyze sheets, correcting any errors before you use this query on a
dashboard or mobile device.
Advanced Features
Advanced features are available for more BAQ functionality. You can create updatable BAQs for data entry,
executive queries that pull in complex views of data for dashboard display, and global BAQs that pull in data
from several companies at the same time.
Queries can be read only tools which you can later place on a smart client dashboard for display on the Main
Menu. You can also create an updatable BAQ. These BAQs can be placed on a smart client dashboard and/or
used on a mobile device, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry. Users then enter data through either the dashboard
or the mobile device, and this new data updates records within the main database. Business Process Management
(BPM) directives can be created which monitor the data entered through an updatable BAQ. Based on the
conditions defined in the BPM directive, various actions run automatically. For example, you could use this
functionality to verify data is being correctly entered into the database.
If you have the Executive Dashboard module, you can create advanced displays for a Business Activity Query's
data by creating multiple executive queries. These queries can display a BAQ's data through various graph formats.
To learn more, review the Executive Query and Executive Dashboards topics.
If you have the Multi-Site module, you can also create global queries which display data across multiple companies.
You can then place these global BAQ's on multi-company dashboards to view the records generated by companies
throughout your organization. Review the Multi-Site Technical Reference Guide for more information.
Tip You can periodically export a query as either an .xml file or an ASCII file. To do this, first create your
query and then export it using Business Activity Query Export Process. For more information, refer to the
Business Activity Query Export Process topic.
BAQ Directives
The Business Process Management (BPM) functionality is extended to include BAQ directives. Use this additional
set of BPM directives to monitor data entered through updatable BAQs.
You can set up a variety of conditions and actions for each updatable BAQ you create. As users enter data through
their client and mobile devices, these BAQ directives can help validate the data, trigger email notifications, and
run other actions you need.
A new external update method (UpdateExt) has been added to all transactional business objects to support bulk
updates via integration engines such as Epicor Service Connect.
This method implements the functionality previously incorporated in the Epicor Web Service Update method to
accept a complete dataset containing hierarchical data and multiple records and to call the base Update method
of each business object repeatedly for each row in the dataset and for all records in the dataset. Since all processing
is conducted on the server within one login session, the use of this method eliminates much of the latency within
the Web services and improves performance for bulk updates.
Previously Business Activity Queries (BAQs) could only pull in data selected through the query tool. Now, however,
you can create a BAQs through which users can enter data.
Use this tool to create updatable BAQs you can then place on customized dashboards. These dashboards can
either be displayed on the standard Epicor client or modified for display on a mobile device like an iPhone. Users
can then launch these custom dashboards to enter and save data needed within your business flow.
Leverage this functionality to create custom entry programs for any aspect of your business you need.
Customization Overview
You can customize nearly every program within the Epicor application. A powerful tool, Customization, can save
you time and money as you use these modifications to directly match the Epicor application to your business
needs.
The Epicor application offers you a variety of customization tools. You can add controls such as text boxes and
lists, which are then linked to a data source you can select. You can also create new sheets and make them
available to all users, specific users, and even different companies. You can also activate your own customized
code through events or new buttons and use this feature to run processes that are unique for your company.
Note Customizations can potentially be used by everyone within your company, so you need to make
sure these customizations work properly. If you want to significantly customize the application, consider
getting assistance from your consultant.
You can build custom programs which you then deploy to a web based application like Epicor Express.
This feature is part of the Epicor Everywhere® functionality. Within the customization tools, you indicate whether
the custom program is available for display within a web application. You can then add this customization to the
Main Menu of Epicor Express or another web-based Epicor application.
Epicor 9 supports a range of user defined fields in all primary tables in the database.
At this release we have added the capability to extend the Epicor schema via customization to include any number
of additional User Defined fields against such tables thus allowing unlimited growth in usage of these fields which
may be used for both customer installations and for Epicor Localizations.
Non-Customizable Forms
The Epicor application now contains some forms which you cannot modify through the customization tools.
These programs are essential areas of the application which should not be modified. An example of a
non-customizable form is Menu Maintenance.
Dashboards Overview
Dashboards are flexible, powerful tools that provide easy access to critical information in a real-time environment.
In addition to the standard dashboards provided with the application, you can also create custom dashboards
that display specific data you need and updatable dashboards to enter data that matches your business needs.
Think of a dashboard as your personalized information and command center. Much like your car's dashboard
gives you current information and controls to run the car, the dashboard displays the current information and
processes you need to more efficiently perform your tasks. The data you choose to display can be refreshed
automatically or manually, so you are able to act on changes as they immediately occur.
The dashboard displays data by using Business Activity Queries (BAQs); these queries can be custom, complex
data views that display the data you need, or updatable queries users leverage to enter data specific to your
business process. Several display options are available. For example, you can present data in a grid, a Chart (or
graph), or even a graph. You can add a Tracker View (to display an advanced search) where you define the fields
by which users can search data.
In addition, you can add a URL link to display web pages or web parts on the dashboard. You can also add a
report or link out to a report or process.
The functionality also provides a way for you to export and import your custom dashboard for use in other
companies within your organization.
The Dashboard designer now contains functionality which defines the interface output for each dashboard.
Available dashboard interface types:
• Smart Client Dashboards -- Previously the only option. These dashboards display within a standard Epicor
smart client installation.
• Epicor Web Application Dashboards -- These dashboards display within a web-based application like Epicor
Express.
• Mobile Device Dashboards -- These dashboards display within a mobile device like an iPhone or a Blackberry.
In order for updatable dashboards to pull in large amounts of new data, the Mass Update functionality is available.
When you run this feature, a dashboard can pull in potentially thousands of rows of data. Typically you will only
pull in several rows, but this functionality is created to allow for better performance in most situations.
Publish Dashboards
You can now publish any dashboard view for reuse on another dashboard.
You do this by right-clicking on the View node in the dashboard Tree View and selecting the Publish option.
Now when you are creating a new dashboard, use the Dashboard Query Properties window to select the
published dashboard. The published dashboard is then pulled into your current dashboard, and you can modify
it as you need.
Within the Dashboard program, you can view all of the available published dashboards from the View menu.
Updatable Dashboards
Use the Updatable Dashboard functionality to place updatable BAQs on either a client dashboard or a mobile
device dashboard.
When you create a dashboard for a mobile device, you select a mobile device profile which specifies the available
dimensions (height and width) for the program. It then modifies the design interface to match this profile, so
you can preview what the custom dashboard looks like in the mobile device.
When you create a dashboard for an EWA form, it creates a lightweight base form so that most of the processing
is handled on the server. If you create an EWA form to use on a mobile device, the application first creates the
lightweight form and sets up the mobile device definition.
Examples of updatable dashboards you could make include:
• A form consisting of one updatable BAQ which displays Detail and List sheets. Users would use this updatable
dashboard to enter and edit simple records.
• A complex dashboard which contains multiple views, graphs, URL pages and so on. Some of the sheets or
panels on this complex dashboard are updatable.
• A mobile application which is sized appropriately for a specific mobile device. One or more sheets can be
updated, and these sheets are either tabbed or sequentially paged to organize the flow of data entry.
• A simple or complex application which has sheets and panels that support multiple dirty rows. You can then
make a number of changes to a record, like selecting a series of check boxes across different rows, before
you save all of these records to the database.
The Updatable Dashboard functionality integrates with Microsoft® Excel® so users can add new records and
update existing records through a spreadsheet.
The Uptake from Excel is only available to use with Updatable Queries on an Updatable Dashboard.
Leverage the data tagging functionality to mark records with a unique condition. You can then use these unique
tags to gain better search results and launch BPM directives.
You can apply both personal or shared group tags to any record. To facilitate this functionality, the following
features are available:
• Tag Maintenance -- This set up program is available on context menus throughout the application. Use this
program to create the personal and group tags you want to apply to records.
• Search Programs -- All search programs now contain functionality to select records by unique tags.
• Enterprise Search -- Use this global search application to search across all records by tags.
• Business Process Management (BPM) -- A new directive condition is added which monitors data linked to
a specific tag. Use this condition to launch actions you need on tagged data.
Performance Canvas
Several enhancements are available with the server the cube connect tools:
• EPM Glossary Designer. Use this tool, which is similar to Object Designer, to create new EPM glossaries which
support customized systems or modifications to existing glossaries.
• Portable EPM glossary installation. This tool help ease both the upgrade and modification of glossaries without
the need to release a new version of EPM Server.
• Ability to process cubes more frequently through a user-defined refresh schedule.
• Localization and translation support.
• Easier Content Pack deployment and cube editing and streamlined EPM Server administration.
• Usability enhancements.
Information Worker allows Microsoft Office users to view and update Epicor data from Office applications.
Information Worker (IW) gives employees that depend on enterprise data ("information workers") direct access
to Epicor data from inside Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel.
Once Epicor data is imported into Office, users can keep the data synchronized between Office and Epicor, and
can work either in online or offline (disconnected) modes.
Epicor Information Worker provides access to Epicor data from Microsoft Office applications-- specifically Microsoft
Outlook®, Excel®, and Word®.
The underlying architecture has been modified to eliminate the need for Epicor Portal and Service Connect and
instead accesses business objects directly and through updatable BAQs. Installation and implementation have
been simplified as a result. See feature summary under Systems and Tools for more information on Information
Worker.
The Epicor Web Access displays programs as web forms within a browser window and is significant part of the
Epicor Everywhere™ Framework.
These forms are generated from Epicor 9 programs. Because of this, the appearance and functionality of the
Epicor Web Access forms is nearly identical to the Epicor smart client programs, but do not require the installation
of the Epicor client. You can run Epicor Web Access programs on multiple operating systems and on multiple
devices including handheld devices.
If you are a Web user, you now have the option of switching to the Windows smart client for certain forms. You
can then run a hybrid application designed to improve performance and user flexibility.
In addition to this key feature, Epicor ICE 2.5 introduces Group By (for grids) and Personalization functionality
for Epicor Web Access forms similar to that found in the Windows smart client version.
Localization Overview
The application contains translation tools that allow you to select the language displayed throughout the interface.
You can change the language that appears during each session. You can also assign a default language for a
selected user or a specific program.
Leverage this flexibility to use the language that best fits your personnel in specific locations and workstations.
Several Country Specific Functionality (CSF) packs are available. These packs localize the Epicor application to
match the legal requirements needed in a specific country.
Available CSF packs:
• Australia
• China
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Romania
• Russia
• South Korea
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• Thailand
Available Languages
Several language files are available for installation on your Epicor application. These files change the language
displayed on the interface.
Contact your Customer Account Manager for more information about purchasing language files. The following
languages are available:
• Arabic
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Chinese (Traditional for Taiwan)
• Czech
• Dutch
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Estonian
• Finnish
• French (Canadian)
• French (France)
• German
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Russian
• Spanish (Latin)
• Swedish
• Thai
You can modify each form within the Epicor application for a specific locality. These forms display the text and
functionality required for use within this country or geographical area.
Each localized program can be defined as a Country Group, like Europe or Southeast Asia. It can also be defined
for a specific Country code, like Germany or Thailand. This list of country group and country codes install through
the Administration Workbench and are then available for use on each company within your organization.
You select these codes within companies as you need, and any localizations defined for the Country Group/Country
combination are then available for display on the Main Menu within that specific company.
Searches Overview
Search programs are available throughout the application. Use these programs to find and select specific records
to open within another program.
Use each search program to filter and organize the search results through record-specific criteria.
You can launch search programs by clicking a button found next to a key field or on the Navigation toolbar.
Within Customer Maintenance, for example, you click the Customer button to launch the Customer Search
program. Within Sales Order Entry, you click the Sales Order button. On either program, you can also click the
Search (Binoculars icon) button on the Navigation toolbar to display their respective search programs.
Some fields also have a Triangle icon in their top right corners. If you right-click these fields, you display a context
menu that contains an Open With... sub-menu. This sub-menu displays links to the various search and entry
programs related to the selected field. You can launch a search program by selecting the appropriate link.
Regardless of the way you launch the search program, each program has identical functionality you can leverage
to locate the records you want. The Basic tab contains the primary search fields available for each program. The
Quick Search tab displays any user-defined configurable searches available; you can create quick search options
exclusively for your user account or share them publically throughout your company. The BAQ tab contains a list
of business activity queries you can use to generate search results; these queries are either system or custom
queries. The Advanced Search tab gives you access to related dashboards that each contain a complex series of
searchable fields which return precise search results. Other functionality, like Data Tag Searches and Named
Searches are also available to improve the accuracy and performance of searches. Leverage this powerful
functionality to return the records you need.
Example You are searching for sales order 3014. You launch Sales Order Entry and click the Sales Order
button. In the Sort By field, you select the Sales Order option. In the Starting At field, you enter 3000.
Click Search, and the search grid returns all the sales orders that start with 3000. These records are also
sorted by sales order number, so you quickly find sales order 3014.
If the record for which you are searching has multiple tables like orders, jobs, customers, suppliers, and so on,
and you select multiple records in the Search window, the program's Tree View only shows the one record in
context. Use the navigation functionality within the Tree View to go between tables or pages within that record.
The Navigation toolbar contains a list of all the records you selected in the Search window.
You can now generate reports using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
®
This feature does not replace Crystal Reports ; it expands the existing reporting technology by giving you additional
option. The optional SSRS report writer functionality includes:
• Emailing reports
• Faxing reports
®
• Storing reports within SharePoint
In order to use this functionality, you indicate whether printers within your company can print SSRS reports. You
also define how a report should be printed, Crystal, SSRS, or both. When you print an SSRS report, the SSRS print
window displays, giving you additional options for both previewing and printing out the report.
® ®
You can also create custom SSRS reports through the Microsoft SQL Server Report Builder .
This section of the 9.05 Feature Summary contains all of the features from the 9.0 release through the 9.05.602
version of your application. If you are new to the Epicor application, use this section to review all major application
features.
This information is arranged first by module group, like Production Management, and then by module, like Job
Management.
Sales Management
Quoting and managing sales orders enables the vital coordination of activities between your sales, plant, shipping,
and accounting groups.
You dictate whether to hold all companies in a single database, or each company in individual databases, where
each company can have its own chart(s), currencies, and calendars.
Use the Quote Management and Order Management modules to capture orders and seamlessly integrate the
information with supply chain, production, fulfillment, and accounting systems.
By streamlining the sales process—centralizing access to product, pricing, customer information - orders can be
generated with a minimal number of steps. It automates and improves labor-intensive processes for quoting,
proposal generation, configuration, and order entry. You can increase sales productivity by ensuring accuracy
during the quote and order processes and identifying the right solution to meet your customers’ needs.
Outfitting your sales team with advanced, easy-to-use software is not just smart; it is a matter of survival. Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) is equipped with the tools you need to find more prospects and quickly convert
them to satisfied customers.
Your sales people can manage the complete prospect-to-customer life cycle, give accurate revenue forecasts to
management and automate many administrative tasks. The bottom line is better qualified prospects, shorter sales
cycles, reduced lead-time, and more revenue.
With CRM you can manage and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and events. Marketers can
pinpoint targets, capture highly qualified leads, and perform cost/benefit and return on investment (ROI) analyses
on promotional activities. The campaign manager can track the number of leads, opportunities, orders, and costs
per campaign. Once you have the lead, the CRM functionality helps manage the entire sales process more
effectively, with features such as workflow and forecasting.
Contacts can be shared across the Epicor application. For example, a payroll employee can now be added as an
authorized user for a buyer records reducing time and ensuring consistency You can share contacts between the
following records:
• shop employees (Shop Employee Maintenance)
• payroll employees (Payroll Employee Maintenance)
• workforce people (Workforce Maintenance)
• buyers (Buyer Maintenance)
• supplier contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
Account Information
Call History
Maintain detailed call history regarding new opportunities with prospects or existing jobs with customers and
share with the entire organization.
Call Log
Campaign Creation
Campaign Management
Generate and manage a marketing campaign for tracking effectiveness and ROI of marketing programs or
individual events.
Use the Case > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a case.
Use standard editing tools such as spell check and formatting to draft professional customer e-mail and letter
communication. Use Microsoft standard cut-and-paste technology to easily manipulate text.
Contact Attributes
The contact functionality is enhanced so you can enter additional communication data for each contact.
The new contact fields include:
• IM address
• Facebook ID
• LinkedIn ID
• Twitter ID
Contact Information
Store multiple contacts per organization by contact function. Track and report contact communication along
with the entire organization activity.
Contact Management
Contact Management makes communication with your customers and prospects easy.
It provides a basic component of CRM and promotes responsive and proactive communication. Contact
Management enhances your customer service by documenting and sharing customer communication with the
entire organization. Improve overall responsiveness to customer inquiries with simple user task management.
Use Contact Management to actively analyze your most compelling opportunities and assign them to sales
representatives.
Contacts can be shared across the Epicor application. For example, a payroll employee can now be added as an
authorized user for a buyer records reducing time and ensuring consistency You can share contacts between the
following records:
• shop employees (Shop Employee Maintenance)
• payroll employees (Payroll Employee Maintenance)
• workforce people (Workforce Maintenance)
• buyers (Buyer Maintenance)
• supplier contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
• purchase point contacts (Supplier Maintenance)
• customer contacts (Customer Maintenance)
You can also store all recipients in one place for easy access.
Throughout the CRM module, the context menu for the Contact Name field has some additional commands.
Right-click on the name of a contact and create a CRM call, help desk case, lead/opportunity/quote, RMA, sales
order, service call, and task. You can also right-click to send an email directly to a contact; the email program
lets attachments be added onto the email.
The Call Log now includes the Related To, People, and Contacts sheets.
You use these sheets to associate any contact details you need with the CRM call. Leverage these additional
sheets to enter specific details you want included with each call.
A Customer Quick Entry program is available within Sales Order Entry and Opportunity/Quote Entry. Use this
program to enter the primary details you need on each customer.
You can later launch Customer Maintenance and enter any other information you need for the customer record.
The Customer Tracker tree view now allows you to view information contained on the National Accounts sheet,
as well as the Price List, Ship To, Child, and Contacts sheets and any attachments to the customer record. Use
this feature to easily navigate through the tracker sheets and related functionality.
Data Management
Extract marketing lists based on any criteria such as customer type, (suspect, prospect, customer) and other
attributes including standard industrial classification (SIC) code, location, contact type, territory , and so forth.
Automatically create telemarketing or sales follow ups.
Automatically log an entry for customers when they are included in a marketing list. Marketing list import allows
customer and contact information to be imported from external sources. De-duping capabilities allow the
management of imported lists and the tidying up of the marketing database.
Design email promotions in HTML or plain text formats based on the preferences of your audience.
emailConnect
emailConnect is a comprehensive tool that helps you design and distribute e-mail communication to customers,
suppliers, and business partners.
Whether developing a marketing campaign or creating a company statement to business partners, emailConnect
ensures your company is professional, takes advantage of its e-mail marketing opportunities, properly responds
to market requirements for opt-out controls, and analyzes the campaign results for better effectiveness in the
future. emailConnect makes marketing easy. It manages the entire campaign cycle from identifying and importing
contacts, to creating targeted e-mails and a corresponding Web landing page.
It delivers thorough reporting and analysis tools to help you build more targeted campaigns. Its user-friendly
environment enables you to quickly and easily implement focused e-mail campaigns with minimal training. An
extension to the full CRM application, emailConnect helps drive efficiency and gain true ROI for your campaigns.
By simplifying and automating campaign processes, emailConnect shortens campaign cycles, allowing you to
produce more campaigns, more often. And emailConnect dramatically reduces overhead by eliminating the need
for postage, printing and shipping required for traditional direct mail campaigns.
Forecasting
Manage forecasts by opportunity probability, category, and territory. Analyze sales quota and forecast at each
level of the sales team.
Hub mConnect
Configure your remote sales office server with Hub mConnect, and multiple mConnect users can access its
database simultaneously. Individual mConnect users do not need to synchronize because Hub mConnect does
it all and there is no downtime due to lost connections to a remote database.
Import Wizard
Use a simple flat file import from a standard CSV or text file format for easy campaign generation. Open database
connectivity (ODBC) import offers flexibility in data sources.
You can now enter Industry Classification Types and codes (NAICS, SIC, NACE, and so on).
These types and codes can then be selected on customer records within Customer Maintenance.
Information Worker is an Epicor application which Microsoft® Outlook 2007® users can leverage to view and
update data to and from the Epior application.
Users can do this during both online and offline (disconnected) modes. Although Information Worker is primarily
designed to give employees direct access to application data from inside Outlook 2007, this data can also be
viewed in other applications.
E-mail customer or prospect from within the solution. E-mail is automatically stored as a call with the account.
Lead Management
Manage incoming leads and assign to territory sales representatives. Track lead sources to identify successful
advertising, events, or other campaign tactics. Analyze return on investment of lead generation activities. Easily
convert a lead into a quote/opportunity with Quote Management.
Use the CRM module to manage and analyze the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and events.
Your marketers can pinpoint their targets, capture highly qualified leads, and perform cost, benefit, and return
on investment (ROI) analyses on promotional activities. Use the campaign manager to track the number of leads,
opportunities, orders, and costs per campaign. Once you have the lead, the CRM functionality helps manage the
entire sales process more effectively, with features, for example, workflow, and forecasting. Outfitting your sales
team with advanced, easy-to-use software is not just smart, but a matter of survival.
The CRM module is equipped with the tools you need to find more prospects and quickly convert them to satisfied
customers. Your sales people can manage the complete prospect-to-customer life cycle, give accurate revenue
forecasts to management, and automate many administrative tasks. The bottom line is better qualified prospects,
shorter sales cycles, reduced lead-time, and more revenue.
Metrics Reporting
Review detailed metrics regarding a campaign, down to the segment, or broadcast including individual response
preferences.
mobileConnect
The CRM module gives you control over your customer interactions generating leads, developing opportunities,
and monitoring orders.
CRM functionality is available from anywhere in the world. The mobileConnect series incorporates a disconnected
database, enabling you to work anywhere you can take your laptop. Powered by the solid, fast SonicMQ®
messaging engine, mobileConnect is comprised of three components: Sales mConnect, Sales Engineer mConnect,
and Hub mConnect. Epicor mobileConnect helps your sales representatives and sales engineers stay connected
with their customers without requiring network connections.
The customer National Account structure can now be viewed on business activity queries. You can then display
national accounts on dashboards.
Opportunity Development
Improve sales efficiency with structured sales processes, freeing up sales staff from administrative tasks. From
account executive to engineer, identify all roles within the sales process, and establish an action plan for each.
Performance Analysis
Manage sales teams by analyzing performance at each level of the sales structure, from the region level down
to the representative level.
Manage requirements for effective permission marketing through structured opt-out controls enabled on a
campaign basis or globally. Additionally, allows respondents to determine whether they receive text or HTML-based
communications.
Use this maintenance program to create and update person records. These records can then be selected as
contacts for records across the application.
Person Contact Maintenance is located within setup folders throughout the Sales Management suite of modules.
Developed as part of the Shared Contacts functionality, you create contact records within this program and then
select them on customer, supplier, payroll employee, shop employee, and workforce records.
You enter the primary address, email, phone and similar information on each contact record. You also define
name details like First Name, Last Name, Prefix, and Suffix information which displays on records and reports.
You can also use this program to review all of the records on which this contact is used.
Quotations
Use engineering cost structures from existing products, same-as-except products, and brand new products to
create real-time quotations. Manage quotation changes and re-quote opportunities within the same opportunity.
RMA Processing
All the functionality of Sales mConnect is included, plus the ability to engineer entire BOMs. Use drag-and-drop
functionality to add subassemblies, operations and materials, or incorporate parts on-the-fly.
Sales Management
Manage the sales team through user-defined sales structure, pipeline management and quota management.
Automate key sales management functions such as territory management and region assignment of individual
prospects.
Sales mConnect
• Access the following types of information from the Epicor tracker series:
• Aged receivables
• Quotes, orders, jobs, and parts
• Customer data
• Project information
• Quantities on hand
• Time-phased balances
• Customer and miscellaneous shipments
• Returned material authorizations (RMAs)
• Invoice information
Sales Workbench
Give office-based sales representatives and management a single view of all customer and prospect related
information.
This view helps you manage your pipeline, marketing, telemarketing, opportunities, orders, returns, service orders,
contracts,jobs, calls, and tasks, as well as see all related information on a customer - from one place. A work
to-do list also ensures that the sales person is working on the right task at the right time.
Sales Workflow
Monitor every stage of the sales process, including parallel processes. Built-in workflow facilities ensure nothing
is overlooked.
Segmentation
Utilize the power of your existing systems to generate more effective campaigns. By responding to previous
purchases, requests or general demographics, you can generate targeted campaigns and optimize profits.
Shared Contacts
Synchronization
mConnect provides full and light options for synchronizing your remote database with your primary Epicor
database, ensuring data integrity and consistency, and fast and easy updates.
Use the Detail > People sheet to view and maintain information on contacts related to a task.
Task Management
Easily generate follow-up tasks for key employees when communicating with customers or prospects. Provide
each user their own task list that outlines their daily tasks.
Templates
Produce fast and easy campaigns with a consistent look using standard templates.
Share information across departments regarding customer inquiries by entering detailed call and communication
notes. Easily incorporate electronic communication in call history.
Create professional looking broadcasts with ease. From banner ads to your custom emailConnect home page,
your company can utilize the power of emailConnect to Web-enable your users.
Build a microsite to Web-enable your campaign, and then gather detailed campaign analysis by monitoring the
footprint of your audience as they step through the site.
Win/Loss
Analyze win/loss information by sales region, representative, opportunity category, or other criteria.
From initial call to resolution and follow-up, the Case Management module provides a customer focused solution
for personalized, high-quality service.
This comprehensive one-stop solution enables your service team to manage current case load and respond quickly
to customers for industry leading customer satisfaction.
This module includes a Case Workbench equipped with time saving links to customer focused activities (for
example, new quotes, orders, RMA requests, or service calls). In addition, a search-driven knowledgeable and
case driven workflow are available for standardizing case resolution. You now have easy access to dispatch field
activities and enable field service representatives access to online knowledge bases, existing customer field service
calls, warranty information, and service contracts.
Case Management is fully integrated with all customer facing functions such as LOQ, Contact Management,
Customer Management, Order Processing, Field Service, and Invoicing.
Alerts
Set up user-defined alerts to notify activities regarding service cases to management or specialized service
employees.
Case Categories
Case Context
Use case specific details, for example, part number, order number, service call reference, or warranty reference,
to inquire on and link directly to related information, optionally generating new transactions.
Use the Case > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a case.
Manage open case load by status, for example, open or under review, and allow support managers to assign
outstanding cases. Review customers, quotes, orders, outstanding return material authorization requests, field
service calls, warranties, service contracts, and cases from a single case workbench.
Communication
Manage and document communication between customer service or field service and the customer for
enterprise-wide visibility of customer case and resolution.
Contact Management
Manage and record all customer interactions for enterprise-wide visibility of customer satisfaction. Link contacts
related to a case for easy review of case history.
Convert Case
Easily generate a quote, order, field service order, repair order, job, and RMA from a case bringing the detail of
the case into the new document.
CRM Cases
Case Management workflows can be assigned to workforce role, in the event the case transitions into an
Opportunity/Quote.
Navigate into enterprise-wide knowledge documents for fast customer case resolution. Link knowledge documents
to cases for analysis.
Use the Detail > People sheet to view and maintain information on contacts related to a task.
Traceability
Link documents and communication events such as e-mails to cases and calls.
Workflow
Monitor every stage of the support process. Manage processes using user-defined workflow that is case or issue
specific, ensuring standardization of process and that nothing slips through the cracks.
Quote Management is often the starting point for the supply chain cycle. When a quote is entered, manufacturing
details are entered for the record. These records give your organization a solid head start for job management,
scheduling, purchasing, and other functions of the application. Best of all, the result is greater efficiency.
Manufacturing Details
You can get details for a part, configure the part, and determine the applicable pricing of the part, directly from
Quote Entry.
Miscellaneous Charges
Enter unlimited miscellaneous charges or credits on each quote header or quote line. These charges will then
print on the quote and applicable order, and carry over to invoicing.
Quote Entry now includes best, worst and most likely confidence factor.
Within Workforce Maintenance, managers will be able to declare their own confidence factor on the person
records.
Use the Tasks > Details > People sheet to maintain a list of contacts related to a task.
Quote Entry
Provides the user with the optional ability to automatically populate the Engineering section, when the form is
opened, with data relating to Parts, Operations, Capabilities, Resource Groups and Resources. Limitation: No
provision to load data based on Named Search, BAQ or Dashboard.
The Header > Misc Chargers sheet in Quote Entry allows you to enter the header miscellaneous charge.
Quickly generate appropriate orders from new quotes. Along with the Order Job Wizard, you can quickly create,
plan, schedule, and release jobs against multiple lines and multiple releases.
When creating a sales order from a quote, use the One Time Ship To sheet to enter information about the one
time ship to party for the order. You can also use this sheet to quickly create a customer record based on that
information. You can only use this functionality if the customer for which the order is generated allows one time
shipping and shipping to third parties.
Quote Tracker
As a single source for all activity about an order, use the Quote Tracker to see a summarized view of the quote;
then drill down on selected items to see greater details. Based on technology used in the Dashboard™, optionally
use real-time data to link to other parts of the system.
Searches
You can search by Quote Number, Customer Name, Salesperson, Part Number, and Customer Part Number. You
can filter by All, Quoted, Lead, Opportunity, Quote, and Not Quoted. You can search only within a particular
territory. The result is a very powerful search for quotes.
What-If Scheduling
You can perform a what-if schedule on a quote line, for better understanding and communicating when a part
might be done.
Use Demand Management to more efficiently manage short and long term contracts, turning the demand from
these contracts into sales orders and Material Requirements Planning (MRP) forecasts.
Demand Management incorporates the framework and business logic necessary to efficiently manage long term
contracts. These contracts encompass forecasts, sales orders, changes to sales orders, and shipping schedules,
whether the information is entered manually, electronically, or both.
You can enter demand information manually, electronically through EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), or both.
The EDI feature suite generates electronic information that passes both to and from your customers.
Demand Management handles creation, analysis, editing, and reconciliation of cumulative records for releases
from your customers.
Demand Management includes the following functionality to support long term contracts:
• Provides the ability to have several sales orders/lines attached or subordinate to the contract.
• Creates the ability to review contracted values and quantities with actual incoming quantities and values.
• Delivers an efficient interface and process to manage the volume of data possible with long term contracts.
• Includes the capability to view the impact of incoming contract changes before accepting, while allowing
them to be accepted, revised, or rejected and provides the appropriate response to trading partners.
• Provides access to both forecasts and sales orders from one point of entry.
• Allows the management and reconciliation of CUMs (cumulative shipping quantity).
• Allows the acceptance of incoming information to be handled individually, in mass, or in auto-accept mode
at the trading partner or document level.
Important For this module to be fully functional with EDI, Service Connect must be installed. If you use
EDI to process your demand, you need to install and configure the EDI functionality on your application.
You set up the EDI functionality on your network server.
To help facilitate pairing similar releases together to create a more efficient release schedule, a new option can
be activated within the Demand Management module.
This option, the Automatically Match All check box, is found within Company Configuration. You can navigate
to this sheet by clicking on the Modules-Sales-Demand Management tabs within this program.
When you select the Automatically Match All check box, part quantity matching suggestions are generated by
the demand process. Releases for the same part record are matched using this logic hierarchy:
When the Demand Schedule Matching window displays, you can more easily decide which pairs should be
matched. The Match All and UnMatch All buttons are available on this window. You can also manually match
or unmatch pairs as needed.
Automated Shipping
Automatically process the shipping schedules that have no lead time warnings, immediately allowing quantity
or date changes. Only transactions that have errors are displayed within Demand Entry.
You can now automatically cancel all demand releases not matched with a n order release.
To do this, you select this option as a default value on the Customer Maintenance>Demand sheet. When you
select the Cancel Non Matched check box, all demand releases not matched to a n order release and linked to
the current customer record are automatically canceled. You can then override this default value within Demand
Contract Entry; do this by selecting or clearing the C ancel Non Matched check box on the Demand Contract
Entry> Header>Matching sheet.
Contract Changes
The ability to view the impact of incoming contract changes before accepting them.
The system also allows you to accept, revise, or reject these changes -- and provides you with the appropriate
response to the trading partner. If you accept the changes, the program automatically processes all changes on
the sales order.
Contract Matching
The Demand Contract Entry program has matching functionality. Use the fields on the Matching sheet to define
how to pair incoming sales orders to existing sales orders. This feature lets you define a pattern of matching for
use with each demand contract. You can match sales orders through the following values:
• Reference
• Ship By Date
• Quantity
• Open
Contract Quantities
The ability to review the contract quantities with the actual incoming quantities.
Contract Structure
A contract structure where you can have many sales orders, lines, or releases attached or subordinate to the
contract.
CUMM Validation
The application now contains functionality you can leverage to validate cumulative quantities generated through
Demand Management.
Check Discrepancies
You can indicate how CUMM discrepancies will be handled for each customer. Within the Customer Maintenance>
Demand sheet, a Check Discrepancies check box is available.
Select this check box to activate the Action drop-down list; available options:
• Stop - The demand header record is rejected during Demand Processing. A log entry is created that indicates
this record was not processed. If you need, you can change this result by selecting the Override System
Reject check box within Demand Entry on either the Lines>Detail or the Schedule>Detail sheets.
• Warning - The demand header record is turned into a sales order within Sales Order Entry. A log entry is
created which indicates that a CUMM mismatch occurred while this demand header was processed.
When the Check Discrepancies check box is clear, the Epicor application does not review CUMM discrepancies
for this customer.
CUMs
Added functionality to manage and reconcile the cumulative shipping quantity (CUMs) information that is provided
by your customers.
You can now close demand schedules and process them in a single step.
Demand Entry has a new Actions menu option under the Demand Header sub-menu - Close and Process All
Schedules. Select this command to close all schedules linked to the current demand record.
You can now override or enter new part numbers and prices as necessary and the Demand Entry - Line Detail
sheet.
When you do this, the Epicor application automatically updates the linked demand contract and any associated
sales orders accordingly. If the demand contract does not contain that part, the Epicor application creates a new
contract line for the new part and price. If the demand contract does contain an existing line with that part
number, only the price is updated.
You can close a demand contract using the Actions menu. Once you close a contract, you cannot create new
demand entries for that contract.
You can reopen a closed demand contract using the Actions menu. After you reopen a contract, you can add
new demand entries for that contract.
The Demand Mass Review program now contains the Close sub-menu on the Actions menu.
Use this sub-menu to close demand entries you do not need. You can close all demand entries, worklist entries,
all demand entries for a specific part, all demand entries, or all rejected demand entries.
Within Demand Mass Review, users can review specific demand records based on the Firm, Unfirm, and Forecast
demand types. Users select the check boxes to indicate what types of demand they wish to review through this
program.
By default, the Demand Processing program automatically rejects any new demand requirements placed against
an order release linked to a partial shipment.
Likewise, if the Required Date for an order release is changed, but this date falls within the Lead Time date range,
the new date is rejected. Users can now override these automatic options and cause the process to accept both
new demand requirements and updated Required By dates on order releases.
These features are also included in the EDI functionality. The EDI logic now accepts order releases which are
overridden as previously described.
The Demand Review report is now available. Use this report to see what demand records were processed, which
sales orders were updated to meet these demand requirements, and which sales orders were rejected and/or not
processed.
You can then correct the sales orders listed on the report so these records will integrate during the next demand
processing run. You launch this report from the Main Menu by opening the Sales Management>Demand
Management>Reports folders.
You can now display both log entries and price discrepancies on the Demand Review report.
This report interface has the following options:
• Display All Log Entries Specifies -- if all demand log entries should be displayed on the report. Select the
check box to include all demand log entries on the report. Clear the check box to include only log entries
with demand record errors and discrepancies on the report.
• Demand with Price Discrepancies Only -- Specifies if only demand entries with price discrepancies should
print on the report. Select the check box to only print demand entries with price discrepancies. Clear the
check box to print all demand entries (those with and without price discrepancies).
Demand Schedule
When you have defined the demand you want, you can then schedule it through firm order releases, unfirm
order releases, and MRP forecasts.
EDI Enhancements
The EDI functionality is enhanced to both improve the quality of the data received and integrate this data more
accurately within your sales workflow.
The enhanced EDI functionality includes:
• The ability to handle and reconcile cumulative quantities.
• Receipt settlement capability including "Pay on Receipt."
• Alternative definitions for rejection rules when the need by and/or ship by dates cannot be met.
• Additional support for allowance and charge codes including flat amounts and percentage-based calculations.
• Report enhancements to allow for ease of review of net changes in demand received through EDI.
• Full automation to accept inbound 830, 862, 850, 860 documents and generate outbound 855, 856, and
810 documents.
• Demand Management functionality can send configuration answers to Sales Order Entry. This configuration
is then used for the order detail lines on this configured part.
• The Capable to Promise functionality now works with the Demand Management module.
Use this EDI and Demand Management functionality to receive an intelligent configured part number and
automatically run/validate the configuration. If there is a failure in the configuration, you are notified to manually
reconfigure the part.
Two auto-configuration options are available:
• Store the inputs through another method like Service Connect into the Configurator; the Configurator then
runs against those answers.
• Have the Configurator accept an intelligent part number. This number is then used as an input against the
Configurator rules; these rules then parse out the part number to generate the input answers.
Efficient Interface
An efficient interface and process to manage the volume of data that is possible through long term contracts.
You first set up this functionality within Company Configuration by defining the Evaluated Receipt Settlement
(ERS) prefix your company will use for all invoices generated through the Pay on Receipt functionality. You can
then indicate which customers can receive ERS orders within Customer Maintenance. Lastly within Demand Entry,
you indicate that sales orders generated through the demand record will be ERS orders. When you ship a quantity
defined as an ERS order, the invoicing information is automatically sent to this customer.
The Epicor application is integrated with Forecast Pro®, a third-party application that provides affordable and
powerful sales forecasting capabilities.
This integration is at the forecast entry level and is designed to offer a simple solution for the forecasting needs
of most organizations.
Forecasts
Enter forecasts from trading partners to interact with the application's MRP functionality.
When Service Connect locks either a demand line detail or the demand header, users cannot update the line or
header information within Demand Entry.
The line detail sheet and/or the header sheet display as read-only. You can, however, open up both the header
and line details information for data entry. To do this, click the Actions menu and select the Unlock option.
You can manually create demand reconcile records on existing contracts and demand purchase orders. Within
the Demand Reconciliation program, you search for demand records based on their Part, Demand Contract, PO
Number, and Customer values.
These demand records then match the results of actual shipping records you have received so far.
Manual Processing
You can manually process demand, which means that you review everything and accept or reject the demand
within Demand Entry. You can also accept this demand through a mass review.
If the Unit Price defined on a demand contract line does not match the unit price on the sales order, the demand
management functionality places the sales order on hold.
If you update the Reservation Priority Code on a demand header record, this code is also automatically updated
on the corresponding sales order header.
A new review process feature is available with the Demand Management functionality.
When this functionality is activated, the demand process does not allow sales orders to ship until they have passed
a review process. This process helps prevent errors during demand processing.
You activate this functionality within Demand Contract Entry by selecting the Hold Orders for Review check box.
Any sales orders generated through this contract then must pass review before they are validated as shipments
against demand records. Shipments then cannot be placed against these sales orders.
When a sales order is placed on hold, the Hold Set by Demand icon displays on the order within Sales Order
Entry. After you finish reviewing the sales order, clear the Hold check box on the Header-Detail sheet; the sales
order can then be including during demand processing.
Note that you can override this default setting, however, within Company Configuration. The
Modules-Materials-Shipping Receiving sheet contains the Allow Shipments for Orders on Hold check box. Select
this check box, and shipments can be created while the sales order is being reviewed. You cannot, however,
complete the sales order within demand processing until the Hold check box is clear on the sales order.
Demand contracts now generate demand through a Perfect Match calculation. Matching is a process that pairs
similar releases together to create a more efficient release schedule.
Through the Perfect Match calculation, demand will only generate when the paired schedules and releases reflect
any additional match criteria defined on each demand contract. You set up this criteria within the Demand
Contract Entry>Matching sheet.
However, you can shut off this functionality by selecting the Allow Non Perfect Match check box on the Matching
sheet. When you select this check box, the demand schedules pair similar releases together without using the
additional match criteria.
Unmatch Process
The Demand Mass Review program now contains an Unmatch All for Part option.
This option is found under the Actions>Matching sub-menu. Run this process to divide similar releases previously
matched. These releases are then evaluated as separate records during demand processing.
Order Management drives the Epicor ERP system. From the time a sales order is entered, its progress is tracked
through final shipment, producing timely reports on demand.
All sales orders and change orders are effectively managed online, reducing your chance for error and smoothing
out the entire order-to-delivery process for maximum customer satisfaction.
Alternate Parts
To improve quote and sales order accuracy, define upgrade, downgrade, substitute, and complimentary parts
for each part record.
Alternate parts can now be defined on each part record. These parts are defined as being either a direct substitute,
a downgrade substitute, an upgrade substitute, or a complimentary product to this part.
When users enter quotes or sales orders, they can display these suggestions for upgrading, downgrading,
substituting, or complimenting the original part. Users can then, if desired, select a different part that better
reflects the needs of the customer. This feature both improves customer satisfaction and enhances sales accuracy.
Backorders
Orders automatically create backorders for lines shipped incomplete. Backorder flexibility enables customer specific
backorder parameters for complete order lines or complete orders to be set.
Provides the ability for a Customer to maintain a list of allowed Alternate Bill-to (Alt-BT) customers, optionally
with one set as a default. This will default onto the Quote/Order/Direct Invoice and can be changed by the user
to a different authorized bill-to customer prior to posting the invoice. If no alternates have been set up, then the
Alt-BT customer is the Sold-to customer (but using the 'Bill-to address' on that customer).
• Customer table will hold a flag for which customers can be used as an alternate bill-to for other customers.
• Customer table will hold, against a customer, a list of authorized alternative bill-to customers with one customer
optionally setup as the default.
• Invoices will store the sold-to customer information.
• Default currency, terms and other fields are generated from the sold-to customer.
• Credit limit checking is performed against the bill-to customer.
• The invoice is posted to the ledger of the bill-to customer and subsequently tracked against that customer.
• Priority Override by Order.
Blanket Orders
Establish multiple releases (set up as either firm or not firm) for each sales order line and pull parts directly from
inventory, or seamlessly integrate with Job Management to generate production orders.
Create new sales orders based on previous detail lines defined for a specific customer.
Use this functionality to pull up previous sales orders linked to a specific customer. You can filter the results by
selecting a specific date; all sales orders created on or after this date then display in the Build Order From History
window.
You can now select the specific sales order detail lines you wish to use again on a current sales order. When you
click OK, the selected detail lines populate the order. You can then edit each line as you need.
Buy To Orders
Each sales order release can now be a buy to sales order linked to a specific purchase order.
Use this functionality, available on the Releases - Detail sheet, to link a supplier to a specific sales order release.
You can then indicate the purchase order, line, and release you need to connect with the sales order release.
You can also indicate whether or not this sales order release is a Drop Ship item.
Tax calculation fields are available at the sales order header, line, and release levels.
Contact Tracker
This tracker lets users follow contact activity throughout the application. This is a display-only version of consolidated
contact-related functionality found within Customer Maintenance, Sales Order Entry, Quote Entry, and so on.
The Copy Order window contains functionality you can use to more accurately copy information you need from
the original order.
You access this functionality within Sales Order Entry by clicking Actions>Order>Copy Order. When you launch
this function, the Copy Order window displays.
Use this window to enter the PO Number for the purchase order which prompted the new sales order. You can
also indicate whether you will only copy open releases, renumber the open releases, and/or keep the original
order's detail line sequence. When you keep the original order's detail lines, the last closed release on each line
is kept during the copy process, preserving the detail lines created on the original sales order. You can also indicate
whether this copied sales order can be immediately processed for completion.
A new Actions menu option, Create Demand Entries, is available within both Customer Maintenance and Sales
Order Entry.
Run this option to link any existing sales orders to demand records. Use this functionality when you first start
running the EDI/Demand Management module. Run this feature to link any existing sales orders to demand
records; these sales orders are then updated during demand processing.
With the increased the use of credit cards to purchase products, it is necessary to have an integrated system to
record and encrypt credit card information as well as process the payment.
Credit Checks
Check customer credit status online at quote entry, order entry and shipment entry.
Customers
Added Customer. EarlyBuffer and Customer.LateBuffer as on-time calculations to Order Tracker and VBI datamarts.
Mirrors the functionality in the Supplier master. Action menu enables user to view customers that use alternate
bill-to customers.
To more easily calculate Ship By Date values on sales orders, you can define a Delivery Days value for each Ship
To location without selecting a Trading Partner.
You enter Delivery Days values within Customer Maintenance; this field is located within the Ship To-Demand
sheet.
As part of this feature, the Action drop down lists on this sheet have a "Stop" option. When the Stop option is
selected for the action, this specific action does not run during demand processing. This option replaces the
previous "Bypass" option.
Drop Ship
You can indicate on Buy To orders that the order quantity must be shipped directly from the supplier to the end
customer.
You define this by selecting the Drop Ship check box on sales order releases. The selected supplier then sends
the part quantity directly to the customer defined on the sales order.
Flexibility
Relate orders to jobs using one-to-one, many-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many production strategies.
Fulfillment Processing
Use the Fulfillment Workbench to reserve and allocate material for sales, transfers and job order types. This
feature also includes the capability to cross-dock, tying potential supply to the demand picked against inventory.
You reserve quantities at the warehouse level and then allocate quantities from the reservation. The allocated
quantity nets from the reserve quantity, creating a hard, directed allocation that includes the lot, bin, and serial
numbers of the quantity requested through the sales order release.
Various fulfillment techniques, such as pick and pack and console-driven handheld processes, can now be
performed by using templates that automate the fulfillment process for each type.
Manage your work queues from the shop floor/warehouse to assign tasks that are created by, but not limited
to, the Fulfillment-Allocation process.
You can decide whether the shop floor/warehouse operates based on paper transactions or becomes a paperless
operation with automatic user assignments driven by the Material Queue.
Available transaction types:
• Put Transaction Types - Use for all directed Put-Away transactions, including purchase order receipts, transfer
receipts, RMA receipts, and job receipts.
• Pick Transaction Types - Use this transaction type is for all directed Pick transactions. These transactions
include sales order picks, issues to jobs, transfer picks, cross docking, and any bin to bin movements.
• Pack Transaction Types - Use this transaction type to track work station loads. During the pick process, the
application calculates which suggested work station should pack the order based on load.
• Material Queue Manager - Use the Material Queue Manager to view the status of Put, Pick, and Pack
transaction types. You can also set the data to automatically refresh. Managers can view shop floor/warehouse
activity without having to filter on the various queue transaction types -- all of which have unique identifiers.
Warehouses and Bins use attributes to identify what specific transactions need special equipment, and the
Queue Tracker assigns only those resources or groups with the ability to operate the specialized machinery.
Managers also create resources and groups. They can then assign the transaction types and the order of
priority for these transactions.
Fulfillment Workbench
The Order Allocation interface has been renamed to Fulfillment Workbench in order to utilize industry standard
terminology. Column titles and action menu items have been changed as well to standardize the terminology.
This new interface can be called from order entry to process the entire order.
Previously the Fulfillment Workbench reserved parts from all plants. Users can now use two Actions menu -
Reserve sub-menu commands to refine how parts are reserved.
Here are the commands:
• All Warehouses -- When selected, this command will pull parts from all the available warehouses.
• Primary Warehouse Only -- When selected, this option will only pull parts from the warehouse defined on the
order release. This is the primary warehouse.
Added ability to define a Sales Order line as a blanket order for a fixed quantity.
• Added logical field to the Order Line to keep line quantity constants.
• Total quantity for the blanket order and the final delivery date are held at the line level.
• New releases decrement the final delivery quantity on the final delivery date, keeping the total line quantity
in balance with the release.
If your company ships to a distribution center instead of directly to a customer, you can specify the final destination
of the order using the Mark For sheet in Sales Order Entry.
Use this sheet to define the Mark For Customer and Ship To Address. After the distribution center receives the
shipment, it will be sent along to the customer defined on this sheet.
If you need, you can also enter a One Time Mark For customer. A shipment will only be sent once to a customer
defined as a one time mark for location.
Each miscellaneous charge code can now be set up either as a flat amount or as a percentage of the Extended
Price value.
On the Miscellaneous Charge Maintenance > Detail sheet, the Type and Percentage fields are now available.
Use the Type drop-down list to indicate whether this charge code is a flat amount or a percentage. If you select
the percentage option, the Percentage field activates and you can enter the rate you need.
Miscellaneous Charges
Enter unlimited miscellaneous charges or credits on each order header or order line. These charges will then print
on the order and carry over to invoicing.
The Capable to Promise (CTP) feature of Order Entry can now perform multi-level CTP. To accomplish this, CTP
uses the Plan as Assembly parameter to create the assembly structure on materials defined as View as Assembly
when the demand is found within the cumulative lead time.
This status is always true for make direct parts. It has also been extended to include stock parts if the demand
falls within the cumulative lead time and the quantity on hand is short of the required quantity.
For a stocked part, when demand is within the cumulative lead time and per Available to Promise (ATP), not
enough stock is available to cover the demand, then an unfirm CTP job is created following the rules (which
include Plan as Assembly). If the CTP is accepted, then the CTP jobs for stock parts is marked as firm, but will not
directly link to the sales order.
You can create multi-level configured sales kit parent part records. These multi-level sales kits can also include
non-stock part components.
Each level of the sales kit is generated as a separate component detail line on a sales order. You can fulfill these
component detail lines through a non-stock transaction like a job or a purchase order. The component configuration
data is available for display in Job Entry; you can then pull in the details (Get Details) for each component which
is defined as a Make Direct part quantity.
If you need, you can also indicate that this ship to location should become either a new customer record or a
new ship to location for the original customer.
Online Reservation
Quickly generate appropriate jobs for new orders in a single step that enables the user to create, plan, schedule,
and release jobs against multiple lines and multiple releases.
Order Tracker
As a single source for all activity about an order, use the order tracker to see a summarized view of the order
then drill down on selected items to see greater details (for example, lines, releases, shipments, charges, bookings,
audit, and payment information). Based on technology used in the Dashboard™, optionally use real-time data
to link to other parts of the system.
Order-Based Discounts
Apply order-based discounts on an order value or product quantity basis. Optionally override and lock pricing.
Price Lists
Generate customer, product group, warehouse, and product specific pricing hierarchies while matching the end
user currency with flexibility. For global enterprises that share and distribute pricing, company, plant, and warehouse
specific pricing offers further flexibility in pricing products.
Project Management
The Project entry process has been enhanced to support the manufacturing of large capital projects. To achieve
this, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Phase has been introduced, which is the equivalent of a Microsoft
Project Task. With this enhancement, a WBS Phase can be created as a child of another WBS Phase thereby
providing multi-level phases.
When creating a sales order from a quote, use the One Time Ship To sheet to enter information about the one
time ship to party for the order. You can also use this sheet to quickly create a customer record based on that
information. You can only use this functionality if the customer for which the order is generated allows one time
shipping and shipping to third parties.
Sales Commission
Manage sales commission calculations for both direct and indirect sales teams. Optionally allocate commission
percentage over multiple sales entities per order line.
The Capable to Promise logic now works with Sales Kits. The kit components are accessible from the context
menu of the Job Number field.
Customer Shipments has been enhanced to determine the configuration of the sales kit. Based on the
configuration, the following actions occur:
• If the kit is flagged as ship complete and auto issue then the quantity of the kit parent item being shipped is
entered. The quantity for each of the kit components to meet the kit parent item shipment is calculated and
all of the kit children order detail lines are processed and added as shipped lines.
• If the kit is flagged as ship complete but not backflush then the quantity of the kit parent item is entered, the
children lines will be added and the picking location entered. The quantities for the kit components cannot
be changed.
• If the kit is flagged as NOT ship complete then the individual kit components can be selected and added as
shipment lines and the picking location, as well as the quantity shipped, are entered.
Packing slip and invoice printing can be configured to either print the individual kit items or just the kit parent
item.
Order Entry will determine if the part is a kit parent item. The kit parent item's bill of materials, associated with
the most recently approved revision, will be exploded. Each of the items on the bill of materials, along with the
quantity required, will be stored as an order detail record linked to the parent sales order line that contains the
kit.
To facilitate the use of phantom-type items, the concept of Sales Kits has been incorporated into the application.
To allow parts to be identified as sales kit items, a new Inventory Type called "Sales Kit" has been added.
A Copy Order feature is available from the Actions menu within Sales Order Entry. The feature copies the current
sales order to create another sales order. Everything from the original order is copied except the Quote Number
and Job Number values. Multiple releases will also not be copied. One detail line and one release will be created
for the copied sales order.
Previously a salesperson was not able to create a sales order when a Sold To location was located in a different
sales territory. Even though the customer was in their sales territory, the Sold To location was in another territory
and an error would result.
This limitation is removed. If the customer header is defined as being within the salesperson's territory, that
salesperson can create sales orders for all of the Sold To locations on this customer record as well.
Wave Picking
You can now consolidate similar sales orders together using a wave picking process. Leverage this functionality
to fully utilize the resources within manufacturing centers to efficiently produce a quantity of similar parts.
Multiple orders can be grouped under the same wave number. During the fulfillment process, users then combine
the transactions needed to pick multiple similar sales orders. For example, you have 50 sales orders that create
demand for Part A. You group all 50 sales orders under the same wave, moving the inventory (pick) from stock
to shipping for all 50 sales orders at the same time. Without the wave functionality, each pick transaction would
need to be selected individually.
A planner can continue to add sales orders to a wave until the first part quantity is picked or packed. Once a user
moves allocated items from the picking warehouse to the packing warehouse, the application closes the wave
group and no further sales orders can be added to it.
Miscellaneous Charge Maintenance contains new fields you can use to define each charge.
The available fields include:
• Type - Use this field to define how this miscellaneous charge will be calculated against sales orders and
invoices. The available field values include Amount and Percentage. The amount charge type indicates the
miscellaneous charge will be a set, or flat amount. The percentage charge type indicates the miscellaneous
charge will be a percentage of the Extended Price value.
• Percentage - If you select the percentage charge type, use this field to enter the percentage value that will
be multiplied against the Extended Price on an invoice or sales order to determine the miscellaneous charge
amount.
• Amount - If you select the amount charge type, use this field to enter the flat amount you need for the
miscellaneous charge. This amount is added to the Extended Price on an invoice or sales order.
The Billing > Detail sheet in Customer Maintenance contains the Order Invoice When Complete check box.
When shipping is marked complete for any sales orders associated with the customer that has the Order Invoice
When Complete check box selected, the Epicor application automatically generates AR invoices for these sales
orders.
Configuration Overview
Configurator enables on-the-fly configuration of highly customizable and dimensional products. You configure
products through a straightforward question and answer evaluation.
Configurator can be accessed from Quote Entry, Order Entry, and Job Entry. It is Web-enabled, and is also available
to disconnected users employing Mobile Connect.
Approval
Formally approve all configurations before they can be put into circulation. When a configurator revision has
been formally approved, it can be pulled into a quote, order or job. An audit trail logs user ID and approval date.
The Configurator contains a new input rule. The Input Rules - Pricing - Options sheet has the Automatically Mark
Method Materials Global check box.
Select this check box to cause the Configurator to indicate each material in a method is a global part. Each
material will then be exported through the multi-company process, and so can be linked to external companies.
This makes the material available for component pricing in external companies.
Bill of Materials
Tie a configuration to a BOM structure containing multiple options. Each option can also have rules attached.
Rules are executed during entry of a configuration to correctly configure the BOM and routing.
The Configurator Technical Reference Guide examines, in detail, the primary components that make up the
Configurator, the base calculations used when defining configured items, and the modifiers used to refine the
suggestion results.
This information will help you when you design configuration processes for Make-to-Order (MTO) products. You
will be able to set up configurations to best create accurate Methods of Manufacture (that specify the exact
material content and manufacturing sequences) when these items are ordered, quoted, or manufactured.
When a lower level part is called as a material requirement for a subassembly and that part is configurable in a
different plant, this part is configurable in the current plant.
For this functionality to run, this part cannot be defined as a Pull As Assembly part.
If these conditions are true, the Inputs window for the transfer part is now automatically displayed within the
Configurator.
A configured part can now be included in the Bill of Materials for another configured part. To do this, the Global
Input Variable check box is available on the Input Detail tab.
When selected, this check box indicates that input is available to any lower level configured parts within the
BOM. The input for the top-level configured part will be displayed as a selectable input when creating On Leave,
Prompt When, or Rule expressions on the lower level configured parts. The new features added to handle this
functionality are that:
• Users may add a configured part as a material sequence, letting it be referenced within the bill of materials.
• The application reviews any Keep When rules before the subassembly configured parts are displayed; depending
on the results of the rules, inputs for the lower level parts may or may not be shown.
• The Get Details processes for both Job Entry and Quote Entry have been modified. They can pull in configured
parts that have configured parts with their bill of materials.
Print what-if changes prior to posting. Review proposed change detail including variance percentage.
Optionally create actual part numbers in the inventory master file using the configured smart part number.
Creating the part automatically eliminates manual entry when a new part is configured and ordered.
The Configurator has a check box on its Input Detail sheet. When selected, this check box prevents the input
from being displayed on the Configuration Summary grid during the part reconfiguration process.
Test rules and inputs during design mode to eliminate surprises during processing. Full reporting is available as
an audit trail.
Excel Interface
Optionally interface to Microsoft Excel to map values to tables instead of building complex rules within the
Configurator.
Leverage new functionality in the Configurator Designer to use Global Input Variables in any subassembly of the
parent configured part. This aids in determining a common variable for use among multiple configurations.
Inputs can be moved from one page to another within the Configurator.
A Page field is available on the input sheets; users can enter the page number to which they wish to place the
current input values. When the configuration is saved, the input values move to this new page location.
MRP Inclusion
Configured parts can optionally be included within MRP to help manage mass produced custom product lines.
Multi-Company Rules
Options
Define the features and options of a product at design time, then customize during quote and order entry.
The Configurator now gives you page level control. Use this functionality to define when users are directed to a
new page during product configuration - as well as when page levels are both initialized and validated.
Pricing
Calculate pricing as a product is configured. Either features/options or rules-based pricing can be applied.
The Configurator - Page Detail sheet now has the Process Dynamic Lists Before On Leave Expressions For This
Page check box. When selected, this check box indicates that Dynamic Lists will be processed before On Leave
expressions.
Revisions
Optionally create unique configurations and rules for each revision of a BOM. Configuration responses are stored
with other product information for historical auditing and accuracy.
Rules
Build your own unique rules with an easy-to-use expression builder. Process rules during quote and order entry
to create an accurate BOM from the features and options selected.
Build custom screens in which product features and other inputs can be entered during quote and order entry.
Form controls (for example, fill-ins, combo boxes and toggle boxes) are used to prompt users for data.
Skip Page
The Configurator has a check box on its Page Details sheet. If none of these inputs are required or enabled, this
check box allows users to skip this page during the configuration process.
Build a smart part string during entry of a configuration to allow easy identification of the options selected.
Sub-Component Configuration
The Synchronize Part Revision Approval check box, located in the Configurator Designer > Status sheet, is
renamed to Synchronize Revision Approval.
When you select this check box, and you approve/unapprove the configured part in the Configurator Designer
(using the Approved check box in the Status sheet), the Epicor application automatically approves or unapproves
the associated part revision within Part Maintenance. The approved revision displays on the Revisions sheet within
this program.
In addition to synchronizing part revision approval, the Epicor application also automatically synchronizes the
approval of the associated inspection plan (if any) with the approval of the configured part. The application either
automatically selects or clears the Approve check box in Inspection Plan Maintenance. This option is based on
the setting of the Approved check box in the Status sheet.
Optionally use alternate routing in performing cost rollup. This is especially useful when generating what-if cost
analysis.
Configured Status
The configured status within Part Maintenance now includes material assemblies as well.
When the Configured check box is selected on the Revision sheet, it indicates that the part revision either has a
configuration linked to it or the revision's bill of materials contains a material or subassembly linked to a
configuration.
The Get Detail From Generated Method check box is now available within the Configurator Designer.
Located on the Part Creation sheet, selecting this check box causes the Configurator to automatically pull in the
details from the part's current method. This function activates when you save the configuration.
If you do not select this check box, you will need to manually pull in the part's method of manufacturing into
the configuration.
EDI Overview
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is utilized by many mid- to large-sized suppliers to manage supply chains more
efficiently.
The EDI functionality provides an interface for managing and exchanging electronic documents with your trading
partners. It offers direct integration with your Epicor data, reducing the turnaround time on schedule changes
and additions. It also eliminates potential data entry errors. Once EDI is properly configured, you can send and
receive EDI documents with both your customers and suppliers.
Epicor recommends the EDI solution delivered by TIE Commerce. However, other EDI solutions can be used with
the application as well.
Audit
Documents
Review incoming documents (830 and 850) online and compare to any current open orders.
Support for Automotive EDI and enhanced integration with TIE Commerce:
• Capture the information required by EDI transmittal inbound and outbound.
• Provide Advanced Shipment Notification (ASN) Functionality and Management necessary to meet EDI
requirements.
History
Implementation
Net Change
Maintain an audit of transaction data with the EDI net change report.
The report type, Outbound EDI Documents, is available within the Report Data Maintenance and Report Style
Maintenance programs. This report type can be used for the Order Acknowledgment, AR Invoice, Packing Slip
and Master Pack forms. You can auto-print this report type. You can also add fields from both linked tables and
existing report data definitions.
Third-Party Suppliers
Map data to ASCII files through the Epicor relationship with EDI software suppliers. Epicor has partnered with
industry suppliers to ensure close relationships with these suppliers.
Trading Partners
Set up any number of trading partners for both incoming and outgoing documents.
Transactions
Important Additional documents may be available or developed by the Epicor Custom Solution group.
Updates
Ignore, add new or replace imported information into current system sites.
Service Management
Service management capabilities (for example, Field Service) include such areas such as production and facilities
maintenance.
This suite of modules are particularly important for businesses in today's climate where maintenance and repair
are often more cost-effective than new capital acquisition.
The Expense Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter expense entries
(claims) for employees who work on a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately
track the expenses being accumulated against each project.
You first define the expense groups, or types, you need to link with each employee. These expense types define
the specific kinds of expenses placed against a project. You select these time types within Time and Expense
Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee expenses are then verified against a selected
project. Users first launch the Time and Express Approval program to indicate how much expense is approved to
be budgeted against a specific project. After the employee expense is approved, this expense amount is then
placed against the project through Time and Expense Entry.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the expense amounts being accumulated against a project. This
functionality improves planning and calculates more accurate billing calculations for each project. It supports
multi-currency expense requirements. You can manage direct expenses arising in AP along with specific postings
to pre-defined General Ledger accounts.
Approval Workflow
Users can define an approval workflow for expense transactions employees enter and submit for approval in
Expense Entry. Expense approval workflows can be created for both indirect expenses and project expenses.
Approval workflows for indirect expenses are primarily defined in Plant Configuration Control. If the Approval
Required check box is selected in Plant Configuration Control, the approval method must be defined as Automatic
or Employee. If the approval method is set to Employee, additional setup is required. To designate a group of
employees as approvers, an expense workflow group for approving expense transactions must also be set up.
A workflow group is comprised of tasks, task sets, and group members assigned to an approver role.
• Task - A task is a combination of a task and a corresponding approval role. Different roles are used in different
workflow groups.
• Task Set - A task set is a group of organized tasks and milestones. An approval task set includes all the tasks
required to approve an expense transaction.
• Workflow Group - A workflow group consists of an approval task set and the group members assigned to
the approver roles.
Once an expense workflow group is created, it can be associated with an employee in Employee Maintenance,
or it can be set as the default expense workflow group in Plant Configuration Control to apply it to all employees.
There are four pre-defined approval workflow groups that can be used as templates to define an expense approval
workflow. These pre-defined groups include the roles, task type, tasks, and task set needed to define an expense
approval workflow. The pre-defined groups include:
• Supervisor Approval
• Project Manager Approval
• Project Manager & Supervisor Approval
• Multiple Level Approval
If you are using the Multiple Level Approval workflow group as a template, you must assign group members to
the approval roles in Workflow Group Maintenance. If you are using the workflow groups Supervisor Approval,
Project Manager Approval, or Project Manager & Supervisor Approval as a template, you do not need to assign
group members to the approval roles as the application uses the employee's supervisor or the project manager
as approvers.
Use the Employee Expense report to generate and print an expense report for project and indirect expenses for
yourself or your employees.
You can use the Employee Expense report to track expenses or to attach to receipts and other expense
documentation to provide to the Accounts Payable department for expense reimbursement.
Employee Maintenance
Expense features have been added to Employee Maintenance. The Enter Expenses check box must be selected
in order for an employee to enter expenses. A Supplier is required and is used to reimburse employees for expenses.
Expense Search
Users can search for a group of expense transactions by user-defined claim reference number or by accounts
payable (AP) invoice number. The search results can be used to reconcile submitted expenses with invoices from
the AP department.
The Purchasing Miscellaneous Charge/Credit Maintenance interface has been enhanced to enable users to
better manage expenses.
On the Expense Type Detail sheet, the following additions have been made:
• A Chargeable check box defines whether the expense is chargeable.
• The value in the Tax Liability field defaults in Expense Entry.
• In the Comments pane, the Required check box defines whether comments about the expense are required
in Expense Entry.
• In the Comment field, comments about the expense are added that then display in Expense Entry. This can
be instructions about the expense type.
On the Unit Based > Detail sheet, the following additions have been made:
• An Effective From Date and Effective To Date can be defined.
• The Claim Unit Maximum field allows users to define the maximum number of units that can be entered.
A value of zero indicates there is no maximum.
Note For example, your company may want to set a maximum of 50 miles for Mileage expenses.
Quick Entry Maintenance enables users to determine frequently used expense entries and associate them with
a quick entry code, or quick code. When a user adds an expense in Expense Entry, he or she can just select the
quick code to populate the expense record with the defaults defined in Quick Entry Maintenance. Quick codes
can be defined for each employee record.
In Pay Method Maintenance, a Reimbursable check box has been added that allows users to define if the expense
will be reimbursed to the employee.
The expense approvals view displays all pending transactions for the approver. These pending transactions can
be approved or rejected all at once. Rates do not display by default. The Rate Preview button allows users to
view rate information in the grid. The Status of each transaction also displays in the grid.
This program enhances how users enter time and expenses in the Epicor application.
• Users can use the Calendar to determine what expenses display in the tree view and hence, the expense
information that displays in the Time and Expense Entry sheets.
The Calendar also uses colors to indicate days for which transactions exist.
• Green - Time
• Yellow - Expense
• Blue - Time and expense
• Red - Rejected time or expense
• In the Time and Expense pane on the left, icons indicate the status of transactions.
• E - Entered
• S - Submitted
• P - Partially Approved
• A - Approved
• On the Employee > Expense > Detail sheet, the Claim Reference field is used to group invoices for reconciliation
in AP Invoice.
• The Expense Comment Instruction explains what to enter in the Expense Comment field just below it. The
Expense Comment Instruction is defined for the expense type.
The Field Service module is designed to manage the installation, repair, and on-going service of equipment for
your customers at their facilities or out in the field. Use Field Service to schedule service calls on a timetable you
define. The Service Call Center centralizes all processes related to dispatching technicians and cost reporting of
service calls in the field.
Field service also includes valuable reports that provide detailed information on individual contracts and warranties
to know whether you are making or losing money.
The Epicor application supports drop shipment of service parts directly to the customer site. The application is
set up for a single interface, so a dispatcher can track all stages of each service call with just a few mouse clicks.
Automated Dispatching
Contract Renewals
Renew service contracts that are about to expire. A renewal is used to extend the duration of the contract before
the original expiration date. It can be renewed manually or automatically.
Use the New > Contract Renewal option in Service Contract Entry to manually renew an existing contract. Also,
use the Renew Contract process to automatically renew one or more service contract at a time. A renewal code
needs to be created to specify the contracts price increase. This code is created in Renewal Code Maintenance
and linked to a service contract code.
The Renewable check box in Service Contract Code Maintenance and Renewal Code Maintenance indicates if
the contract is available for a renewal or if the renewal contract can be re-renewed in the future. If this check
box is selected, the Renewable check box in Service Code Entry defaults allowing the contract to be renewed
and display in the Renew Contract process.
If necessary, you can generate a quote for the contract renewal to request customer approval before invoicing
and marking the contract as active.
Cost-of-Service
Access reports providing overall numbers, as well as detailed information on individual contracts and warranties
to know whether you are making or losing money.
Inventory Allocations
Allocate inventory from the field as needed. Demand is created and all Inventory Management rules are applied.
Invoice Directly
Directly invoice a service contract using AR Invoice Entry. Once a contract is created and marked as Ready to
Invoice, the contract can be invoiced without having to ship the contract previously using the Get > Contract
Billing command from the Actions menu. You can define whether or not a contract needs to be shipped in Service
Contract Code Maintenance.
Labor Charges
Once a job is complete, labor hours and service types are entered into a service call ticket. Depending on how
the service call is set up, charges may be absorbed into the service contract or automatically invoiced to the
customer.
Material Charges
As materials are used in the field, they can be entered into a service ticket as incurred costs against the service
call. If the costs are billable, the customer is automatically invoiced.
Returns
Add or update service orders, schedule service orders, execute purchase and material planning, and warranty
and service contract management. The service call center workbench allows drill-down into all associated
transactions.
Service Contracts
Establish service contracts for specific products, customers, and service level agreements. Each contract has an
expiration date that is automatically tracked, reducing manual look-up when a customer calls. Tracking of serialized
parts within service contracts is included.
Once a service contract is invoiced, you can add or remove items to the contract. The uninvoiced items can then
be invoiced in AR Invoice Entry using the Get > Contract Billing command.
Service contracts can be renewed. Once a contract is near its expiration date, use the renewal options to extend
the contract duration. For more information, refer to the Contract Renewals topic.
Service-Level Agreements
Easily access online time and material cost data and generate an invoice.
Perform inventory mass issues to a specific job or repair to quickly relieve inventory of all parts used. If stock is
allocated to the field engineer and consumed as needed, stocking locations can be setup and tied to the specific
engineer.
Warranties
Automatically activate warranties associated with a part or product group upon shipment of a part. When a
repair is needed, quickly determine if the problem is covered under warranty, or if it requires a billable service
call.
The Return Material Authorization (RMA) module now has the ability to define both a sample size percentage
and a sample size amount for the RMA inspection process.
The RMA inspection sample size value is obtained from the Part Inspection data record sample size, the sample
percent or both. If there is a sample percent quantity, then the Inspection quantity is calculated using the sample
percentage multiplied by the receipt quantity field. If the quantity is less than the sample size, you can set the
inspection quantity to the sample size, if not, you can set the inspection quantity equal to the calculated quantity.
If no part inspection record exists then the quantity value defaults.
Example
Addison Inc. wants to inspect at least 10% of parts received on any receipt and make sure that a minimum
of 100 parts is inspected every time. To do this, enter a sample percentage of 10% and a sample size of
100 in Part Inspection.
Use the Maintenance Management module to plan and track preventative maintenance tasks performed on
equipment used or installed in a manufacturing or distribution facility. This can include internal capital equipment,
tools, gauges and fixtures such as air conditioning units, forklifts, shelving, and shop floor tools.
Preventative maintenance can be performed according to predefined schedules, based on elapsed use time or
meter values. You can also use functions within the module to manage manual requests for maintenance on
specific pieces of capital equipment. Maintenance jobs can originate from three sources:
• Entered directly by a trades person/manager - At times unplanned maintenance is necessary for tools or
equipment and can be entered directly for service. For example, a trades person is aware that maintenance
is suddenly needed for a torque wrench due to malfunction, he or she directly creates a maintenance job
through Maintenance Job Entry.
• Planned Preventative Maintenance - Preventative maintenance jobs can be planned in advance and
scheduled based on a calendar schedule or usage (meter reading).
• Maintenance Work Order Requests (MWOR) - Any user with access to Maintenance Request Entry can
enter a request for maintenance against a specific tool or piece of equipment. Access to this program is
provided through the application's Main Menu, the Manufacturing Execution System (MES), the Web
application, and the handheld applications.
Note The Maintenance Management module is not intended to manage preventative maintenance
performed on equipment that is sold to customers. You must use the Field Service module to manage
service performed on customer-managed items.
A Job Prefix field has been added to the Plant Configuration Control > Modules > Maintenance Management
and Company Maintenance > Modules > Maintenance sheets. These fields define the starting prefix used to
assign identifiers for maintenance jobs created in a specific plant or company by the Maintenance Plan Processor.
If the Job Prefix field at the plant level is left blank, the Epicor application uses the job prefix defined at the
company level.
Company Maintenance
Menu Path: System Management > Company Maintenance > Company
Important This program is not available in the Epicor Web Access™ interface. You can launch this program
®
from an Epicor Smart Client (Windows ) interface.
Important This program is not available in the Epicor Web Access™ interface. You can launch this program
®
from an Epicor Smart Client (Windows ) interface.
Use Equipment Maintenance to setup and configure equipment for use within the Maintenance Management
module. This program tracks data against each piece of equipment in the Epicor application. Information such
as serial numbers, in service data, warranty expiration date, location, and specific maintenance required for each
tool or piece of equipment.In Equipment Maintenance, select a Labor Interface Option.
It is essential that you enter all equipment into the application. Enter each piece of equipment as a part (Equipment
ID) in the application with a defined part type. Equipment Maintenance also provides the ability to attach and
store a picture of each piece of equipment in the part record.
In Equipment Maintenance, an important feature to define is to select a Labor Interface Option. This selection
indicates if an how equipment meter values can be updated from Labor Entry. Valid selections include:
• No - Labor does not update equipment meter values.
• Hours - Hours are +/- against the Current Meter.
• Quantity - Quantity is +/- against the Current Meter. There is not unit of measure conversion, just the field
value.
• Current Meter Value - The meter value is entered directly. The equipment is updated only when the Labor
Date/Time is greater than the latest meter reading.
Use Maintenance Request Queue to disposition maintenance job requests previously entered into Maintenance
Request Entry.
Once a maintenance request order is entered, the request is available in the Maintenance Request Queue for
approval by a manager or trades person.
From this queue a manager or trades person is able to select a maintenance job approval option which include:
• View - Open Maintenance Work Order Requests to review.
• Approve Job - Approve Maintenance Work Order Requests which creates a maintenance job for the order.
• Approve Job on Hold - Approve Maintenance Work Order Requests but immediately place the maintenance
job on hold.
• Reject - Reject a Maintenance Work Order Request and enter the resolution reasoning.
Note You can approve requests one at a time using the Approve Job button or select multiple records
for approval using the grid view and the Actions menu option.
Maintenance Jobs
You can now enter maintenance jobs, which are similar to regular jobs, into the application in several ways. Use
Maintenance Job Entry for direct entry of maintenance jobs. This program is used to initiate and track the
progress of preventative maintenance performed on a piece of equipment.
Maintenance Job Entry is used by both tradesman and managers to create a maintenance job for a particular
piece of equipment. The maintenance job can be assigned to a particular resource during the creation of the job
or can be sent to the maintenance job order Management Queue to have a resource assigned.
Note Memos are available for maintenance job orders the same as they are for Jobs.
The Maintenance Plan Processor is a behind the scenes process that scans the maintenance plans configured
for each piece of equipment. Once scanned, this processor analyzes the data creating maintenance jobs based
on the schedules defined. Maintenance jobs are available to view in the Maintenance Job Tracker.
The Project Management module is enhanced to provide more accuracy for tracking costs and managing project
phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project.
Now each Project WBS phase contains features which improves accuracy and simplifies labor entry:
• You can define multiple activities against each WBS phase. These activities have resource requirements and
the estimated time costs for each specific resource assigned to the phase.
• The interface is simplified so that users can quickly enter the project number and the WBS phase. The Epicor
application then automatically assigns the job number, and this job automatically records the labor placed
against this phase of the project. Users select the operation they need to record time against, and the labor
expense is automatically placed against the job which contains the operation.
When you run Project Analysis, you can now increase the revision level of a project. The current project and its
data is then archived into history. You can then view this historical information through the Project tracker.
Material costs are now further broken down into Other Direct Costs (ODC). These material costs are entered as
miscellaneous charges. For job costing purposes, these separate direct costs are totaled within the overall material
cost for the job. However, within the Project Management module, these costs are separated into the Material
and Other Direct Costs categories.
AP Invoice Entry
You can allocate invoices directly to a project using AP Invoice Entry. Accounts Payable (AP) costs are applied
to the project as Other Direct Costs (ODC).
The Capture COS/WIP Activity process now calculates (captures) the cost of sales (COS) for projects in place
of the Capture Revenue and COS Recognition process.
Important The Capture Revenue and COS Recognition process has been renamed to Capture Revenue
Recognition.
Note For more information, review Application Help topics: Capture COS/WIP Activity, Capture Revenue
Recognition, and Project Management Recognition Methods Transaction Hierarchy.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Material Management > Inventory Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
• Production Management > Job Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
• Service Management > Project Management > General Operations > Capture COS/WIP Activity
Capture Revenue and COS Recognition has been renamed to Capture Revenue Recognition.
Use the Capture Revenue Recognition process to calculate (capture) revenue for projects. This program allows
you to recognize revenue at different stages of a project. Four recognition methods are supported by this process:
• On Invoice Recognition
• Labor Booking Recognition
• Actual Burden Recognition
• Manual Recognition
Note For more information, review Application Help topics: Capture Revenue Recognition, Relationship
between Invoicing Methods and Recognition Methods, and Project Management Recognition Methods
Transaction Hierarchy.
Important The processing of cost of sales (COS) on projects is now done solely through the Capture
COS/WIP Activity process.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Service Management > Project Management > General Operations > Capture Revenue Recognition
Invoicing Methods
• Cost Plus - This method is based on labor booked to a manufacturing or project job linked to the project as
well as material costs issues to a job linked to the project. It is also affected by other direct costs booked to
the project through Accounts Payable. The invoice value is the cost amount and then the markup percentage
is applied.
• Fixed Fee - This method is not based on jobs but on measured work. Multiple billing schedules are allowed
and a schedule of works can be used to define a different billing structure. Also, multiple measured work
activities are allowed for a billing schedule.
• Progress Payment - This method allows for a sales order of products at a price of zero. Products are
manufactured and shipped, but not invoiced. This method uses monthly invoices for a percentage of the labor
and materials used in production. Once a final price is agreed upon, shipment invoices are produced for the
balance percentage. After all progress payments are liquidated, product invoices are produced at the full sales
price.
Material costs can be classified as Other Direct Costs (ODC), entered as miscellaneous charges. For job costing
purposes, ODC are included in the overall material cost for the job. In the Project Management module, ODC
are further separated into Material and Other Direct Costs categories.
Note
Accounts Payable costs are considered ODC.
Project Billing
The Project Management module now provides a higher rate of accuracy for tracking costs and managing
project phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project. The new project
billing functionality within the Project Management module allows for the creation, tracking, and invoicing of
non- manufacturing projects.
As project details are entered in Project Entry, contract parameters are entered to set the invoice method. The
invoice method is the project billing method. Invoice options include:
• Fixed Fee
• Time and Materials
• Cost Plus
• Progress Payments
Project Duplication
You can duplicate existing projects to create templates for internal processes or recurring project structures. You
can define the project identifier, name, and start date, as well as all elements of the duplicated project can be
edited to suit the needs of the new project. When a new project is created using the duplication process, optionally,
jobs can be automatically created that correspond with duplicated WBS phases.
Note
It is important to know that sales orders, quotes, manufacturing jobs, and WBS phase jobs linked to the
original project are not linked to the new project.
Project Entry
You create, update, and complete projects through Project Entry. This program is now simplified to quickly
define project details and generate project jobs as well as WBS phases. You select the operation(s) users need to
post time against and the labor expense automatically rolls-up against the appropriate job and job operation
within the project.
Using Project Entry, you define specific project operations, operation sequences, resources, and the planned
hours for each job phase. Optionally, you can also define the approvals method and workflow group(s) at each
WBS Phase level. If approval methods or workflows are not established at the WBS Phase level, both are inherited
from the parent WBS phase or project level.
The following are additional sheet enhancements in Project Entry:
• WBS Phases Costs
Use the WBS Phases > WBS Phases Costs sheet to update and review phases costs. This sheet breaks out
costs for Labor, Burden, Sub Contract, Material, Material Burden (Mtl. Burden), and Other Direct Costs (ODC).
You can also utilize this sheet to manually enter the planned budget and final cost to complete (CTC) values.
Note
For parent WBS phases, you can pull in costs from child phases linked to the parent phase.
• Selection Criteria
Use the Milestones > Detail > Selection Criteria > Detail sheet to define which project items must be
finished before the current milestone can be marked as complete. Use this sheet to also define the type of
selection criteria to use for each milestone.
• Contract
Use the Contract sheets to define specifics of the project contract. These sheets allow you to specify the
project contract, variations that may occur as the project proceeds, contract billing methods, and taxes to be
calculated against the life of the contract. Use the Contract > Invoicing > Fixed Fee > Measured Works
> Activity Detail sheet to enter the details of the measured work activities that you plan to add into a fixed
fee invoice. These details can be maintained up to the time the activity is marked as Ready for Invoice. Once
you have created a fixed fee project you must run the Project Invoice Preparation process to generate the
invoice. The Invoice field on the Activity Detail sheet allows you to verify whether the invoice has been created
successfully. Zero number means that the draft invoice has not been created or was created but real AR Invoice
has not been generated yet. This field is read only and can open Fixed Fee Invoice Review Entry.
• Project Costs
Use the Project Costs sheet to update and review overall project costs. This sheet breaks out monetary costs
for Labor, Burden, Sub Contract, Material, Material Burden (Mtl Burden), and Other Direct Costs (ODC). You
can also utilize this sheet to manually enter the planned budget and final cost to complete (CTC) values.
Project Revisions
You can now increase the project revision once the Build Project Analysis process is run. The current project
and project data is archived for historical record purposes and can be used for future projects. In addition, the
Project Tracker provides all historical information on projects for you to review.
Rates
You define project rates in Company Configuration in the Modules > Services > Project Billing sheet, which
can optionally be overridden at the project level.
Project rate options include:
• Project
• Employee Only
• Role Code Only
• Hierarchical
This option searches for a rate in the following order: project, employee, and role.
Role code rates can be defined for each project by date and time type.
Revenue Recognition
Burden Code Actual Percentage updates actual burden percentages for burden codes in a burden set. You
can leverage the actual burden rates to create a revenue recognition journal that records actual burden costs
each month.
Use the Revenue Recognition Workbench to create general ledger (GL) journals that recognize revenue for
an ongoing project. Journal entries are based on costs calculated from the Build Project Analysis process as
well as defined parameters. Use the Revenue Recognition Workbench to automate revenue recognition, process
project milestones and billing points. You can also close the project, which causes the application to reverse the
journals for the revenue recognized to date.
Using the Build Project Analysis process you can generate and review overall project costs, as mentioned above.
Use this functionality to total the Estimated, Actual, Calculated Cost to Complete (CTC), and Quoted costs. These
costs are further broken down into Labor, Burden, Sub Contract, Material, Material Burden (Mtl Burden), and
Other Direct Costs (ODC).
In Company Configuration, in the Module > Services > Project Billing sheet, in Revenue Recognition section,
use the following fields to specify the revenue recognition rules:
• Default Revenue Recognition Method
• Allow Revenue Recognition Method to be Changed per Project check box
• Revenue Recognition Journal Reversal
WBS Phases
Optional Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) phases, both parent and child, can be defined for a project and
used to track progress of the project. This functionality can also be used to record phase costs. Each WBS phase
can have a phase job and checklist tasks that define the steps to complete in each phase. You can define a start
and due date for a task as well as the resource responsible for completing the task. In addition to resource
requirements, estimated time costs for each resource are also available.
Below is an example of a WBS Phase workflow:
The Time Management module contains the functionality you need to approve and enter employee time entries
against a specific project. By leveraging this functionality, you can then accurately track how much labor is being
used to complete each project.
You first define time types, like Regular Time, Over Time, Vacation, and so on. These time types define the specific
kinds of time used to calculate the current and complete expenses placed against a project. You select these time
types within Time and Expense Entry.
The module contains an approval process through which employee time is verified against a selected project.
Users first launch the Time Approval program to indicate how much time is budgeted to be placed against a
specific project. After the employee time is approved, the employee time is then available to place against the
project through Time and Expense Entry.
You can then monitor the amount of time being placed against each project. Launch the Time report to review
all of the time entries entered between a specific Start Date and End Date period. Likewise, you can use the Time
Booking Exception report to review any indirect labor entries currently entered against one or multiple projects.
Through this functionality, you can monitor the labor costs being accumulated against a project. This functionality
improves planning and calculates more accurate expense calculations.
Approvals
Multiple programs within the application can be used to define approval settings.
Employee Maintenance
• The Auto Approve Time check box indicates whether employee time is automatically approved.
• Users can define the Time Group in this program.
Default Shift
You can establish a default shift at the company level. A new field, Default Shift, is available in Company
Maintenance on the Modules > Production > Data Collection sheet.
If you select a default shift in Company Maintenance, the default shift will automatically display in the Shift field
in Employee Maintenance whenever you add a new employee or a new ID for an existing employee. The Shift
field in Employee Maintenance is found on the Production Info sheet.
You can recall previously approved or rejected time and expense transactions.
You can recall these time transactions as long as the Capture WIP has not been run against these time transactions
or the AP invoice has not been generated for expense transactions. Use this feature to recall the approval or
rejection of any time or expense transaction not touched by the Capture WIP process or not invoiced in accounts
payable processing.
Any user can enter time and expenses if the Restrict Entry check box is clear in Plant Configuration Control,
which is the default.
If this check box is selected, a user is restricted to only enter time and expenses for the employee in the User
Name field on the Production Info sheet in Employee Maintenance.
In addition, if the Supervisor Allowed Entry check box is selected, then an employee's supervisor can manage
time and expense entry for their employees.
You can restrict an employee from entering their own time. To do so, select the Disallow Time Entry for user
assigned to employee check box in Employee Maintenance, located on the Time and Expense > Time >
Detail sheet.
You can also identify an employee (for example, a payroll manager) in User Account Maintenance with the
ability to update time or expense records for employees. This can be found on the Company > Detail sheet.
In Time and Expense Entry, use the Shift key to select a range of dates in the Calendar view.
The transactions included within the range will display in the Calendar view as well as in the tree view. To see
all transactions in a range spanning more than one week, you must be sure that Month is selected in the Retrieve
Records By action item.
Time and Expense Entry allows users to enter time into the application.
• On the Time > Daily Time > Detail > Detail sheet, the Labor Entry field determines what fields are available.
• Users can submit, recall, or copy transactions.
• The Project section allows users to identify the project, WBS phase, and operation for which he or she is
entering time.
• The Role and Time Type can be defined.
• The Calendar uses colors to indicate days for which transactions exist.
• Green - Time
• Yellow - Expense
• Blue - Time and expense
• Red - Rejected time or expense
• In the Time and Expense pane on the left, icons indicate the status of transactions.
• E - Entered
• S - Submitted
• P - Partially Approved
• A - Approved
• On the Time > Weekly Time sheet, users can copy a week and then just change the Week Begin value.
Use the Time Booking Exception report to determine employees with missing hours and to analyze employee
utilization. Missing hours are determined by calculating the difference between employee available work hours
and total booked hours.
Missing Hours = Employee Available Work Hours - Total Booked Hours
The report displays the number of booked hours that are chargeable, non-chargeable, and indirect. Users can
also select indirect codes to include or exclude from the calculation of employee percentage utilization.
Users can define an approval workflow for time transactions employees enter and submit for approval in Time
Entry. An approval workflow is the process a time transaction must complete to be approved. When approval is
required, an approval workflow is defined for indirect time, production time, and project time. Approval workflows
for indirect time and production time follow the same process.
To implement approval workflows in the application, the Approval Required check box must be selected in
Plant Configuration Control. If you need an approval process that incorporates multiple approvers or multiple
approval levels, you need to define one or more approval workflow groups. Users can create an approval workflow
that applies to all employees or just specific employees.Supervisor approval is the default approval workflow
when approvals are required. If the approval workflow has Employee set as the approval method, additional
setup is required. For this approval method, to designate a group of employees as approvers, you must also set
up a workflow group for approving time transactions.
More complex approval workflows can also be created.
• Serial Approval - This is a hierarchical workflow, for example, Supervisor approval and then Project Manager
approval.
• Parallel Approval - This involves multiple approval tasks which can be completed in any sequence. For
example, Supervisor approval and Project Manager approval can occur in any order.
A workflow group is comprised of tasks, task sets, and group members assigned to an approver role.
• Task - A task is a combination of time approval and an approver role. Users define one or more approval
tasks in Task Maintenance.
• Task Set - A task set is a group of tasks and milestones. A time approval task set must include all the approval
tasks required to approve a time transaction. Use Task Set Maintenance to create a task set.
• Workflow Group - A time approval workflow group consists of a time approval task set and the group
members assigned to the approver roles. Set up a time approval workflow group and assign group members
in Workflow Group Maintenance. Users can set up one or more workflow groups and apply them to specific
employees or use one as the default for all employees.
Once you create a time workflow group, you can associate it with a specific employee in Employee Maintenance,
or you can set it as the default workflow group in Plant Configuration Control to apply it to all employees.
Time Report
Use the Time Report to generate and print an employee time sheet. This report displays time employees entered
for a time period which typically begins on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday.
Time Types
Use Time Type Maintenance to define different charge rates for labor hours such as Regular Time, Over Time,
and Vacation. Employees can then use time types when they enter time for project labor in Time and Expense
Entry. Time types define the specific kinds of time used to calculate current and complete expenses placed against
a project.
Views
There is more than way one to view information in Time and Expense Entry.
• Calendar - Users can select multiple dates in the Calendar on the left. Transactions from these dates then
populate the Labor grid.
• List View - Each time record is represented by a row in the Labor grid.
• Week Calendar View - Users can select a date and time in the calendar and then right-click to enter time.
Entries are also color coded.
• Blue - Submitted
• Clear - Entered
• Red - Rejected
• Grey - Approved
Production Management
The Epicor suite of production management applications, comprised of Job Management, Scheduling, Material
Requirements Planning, and Quality Assurance, uses sophisticated technologies to model your best practices and
empowers your personnel to make decisions that result in optimization of your production process.
Whether you are a global, multi-site enterprise or a single-site manufacturer, the fundamental need for precise
and flexible planning and scheduling is an ever present requirement for your business. Specific functionality like
consolidated purchasing, transfer functionality, and consolidated financials helps global enterprises manage the
complexity of their size and take advantage of the efficiencies that smaller organizations enjoy.
Job Management is a comprehensive manufacturing control solution, designed specifically for the routing,
scheduling, costing, and tracking of either custom or repetitive parts manufactured on the shop floor.
Job Entry for a repeat part takes minimal effort. Analysis tools provide the quick and accurate reference necessary
for re-quoting a part or identifying the types of work at which your company is most profitable.
Assemblies
Run the Auto Job Firm Process to automatically change unfirm jobs generated through MRP to firm jobs. These
jobs are then available for review by your production planners.
You use the From and To date parameters to identify the time period for which you want to firm the jobs. Any
jobs which have Scheduled Start Dates within this time period will then be defined as firm.
You can then indicate whether these firm jobs should be included in a mass print. You can also determine if
assemblies which fall within manufacturing lead time should be included; jobs linked to these assemblies will
then also be defined as firm. Likewise, you can also decide if any demand requirements from subassemblies need
to be measured before these jobs are selected for the firm status.
The jobs selected through this process can be further limited by plants, product groups, planners, and parts.
Run the Auto Job Release Process to automatically indicate firm jobs which fall within the process parameters
can now be released. These jobs are then available for your manufacturing center and production on them can
begin.
You use the From and To date parameters to identify the time period for which you want to release the jobs.
Any jobs which have Scheduled Start Dates within this time period will then be defined as released. You can then
indicate whether these released jobs should also be included in a mass print.
The jobs selected through this process can be further limited by plants, product groups, planners, and parts.
Backflush
Backflush labor and/or materials for a single assembly, branch or an entire job.
Burden Rates
Set up burden as a fixed rate or a percentage of labor. Separate setup and production, projected labor and burden
rates.
Customized Views
Drag-and-Drop Interface
Use a simple tree interface to easily drag-and-drop components, operations or direct materials from another
quote, BOM or previously run job.
• Added auto complete \ close process to effectively complete and close jobs based on configurable parameters.
• Completion \ closing processes can be scheduled to run separately with separate security codes.
• Completion \ closing Process Audit log provide details of process with exceptions written to an audit table.
• New Dashboard provides flexible environment for the user to identify and manage exceptions.
Job Costing
Compare actuals to estimates, review job costing for materials, subcontracting, operations (labor/burden), and
compare projected and actual billings for profitability analysis. Job costing can be performed on a job-by-job,
customer, part product group, or overall company basis.
The Job Costing Technical Reference Guide explores how the application first estimates and then records the
costs accumulated on jobs. The components and calculations the application uses to generate estimated costs
are examined in detail. The guide also explores how actual costing data is accumulated to arrive at the final cost
on each job record.
Job Entry
Auto Population of Engineering Data includes providing the user with the optional ability to automatically populate
the Engineering section, when a form is opened, with data relating to Parts, Operations, Capabilities, Resource
Groups and Resources. The limitation is that there is no provision to load data based on Named Search, BAQ or
Dashboard.
Job Manager
Quickly review the relationship between production jobs and demand. Make changes to the production plan to
accommodate the new and changing demand.
Job Tracker
Review a specific job, and check the status of all assemblies, operations and materials, including subcontract
status.
Job Types
Jobs now use different categories, or types, to automatically determine the purpose for each job.
You can use job types during searches to only pull in the specific jobs you want to review. Available job types:
• Service -- Jobs created to complete field service orders.
• Maintenance -- Jobs created to record maintenance tasks on equipment.
• Project -- Jobs created in order to complete WBS phases within a project.
• Manufacturing -- Jobs created to assemble a part quantity required to satisfy one or more demand links.
Kanban
• Provided flexible interface for the end user without the need to compile programs.
Lean Metrics
Use the Production Activity tracker to dynamically evaluate the production activity for each resource group.
Evaluate these production results against the lean performance metrics you have established for your manufacturing
processes.
You can indicate a number of lean metrics against which you want to evaluate the data. You can measure the
lean metrics by period, day, week, resource group, and even free form parameters like season or product line.
You can dynamically measure the performance on a real time basis and then further examine the details on each
activity record. The labor reported against each production activity updates the actual levels of production activity
by each period.
Query material availability at the time of job entry to determine whether jobs can be started within the scheduled
time period.
Verify that orders or changes are not missed when viewing and selecting new orders and changing orders from
Job Entry.
Review estimated versus actual costs by overall job and individual material, subcontracting and operation sequence.
Order-to-Job Linking
Handle one job or one delivery, one job or multiple deliveries, blanket production runs, and internal work orders
to build parts to finished goods inventory.
Planning Workbench
Access all job related actions in a single view - the creation of new jobs, changing job requirements to match
changing demand, and allocating and reallocating jobs to satisfy changing customer demand.
Production Activity
Use the Production Activity functionality to capture production data automatically through manufacturing center
transactions. The data you capture through this process can then be analyzed as needed against any lean
performance metrics you define.
The Production Activity workflow begins by first generating the production data. Launch the Generate Production
Activity process to define the time period and resource groups you need to evaluate. You can also indicate
whether this data is pulled from all plants within the company or the current plant.
You next run the Production Planner Workbench Process to further refine the data. You can set up this
process to define a final Cutoff Date for the production activity data. You can also indicate whether this data
is pulled from all plants or the current plant, includes released jobs, and includes backflush material. You can
also enter a Material Horizon to determine which job materials are included in the activity data. Lastly, you can
filter the resulting data by jobs, parts, and product groups.
When the data is generated through this process, you can then use Production Activity Maintenance to pull
in each generated record to fine tune the results for accuracy. After you finish using this program, you are ready
to evaluate the data.
To do this, view the data within either the Production Planner Workbench and the Production Activity
Tracker. Use these tools to evaluate the lean efficiency of the production process within each period.
To provide more flexibility for reporting purposes, the Exclude Miscellaneous Charges check box has been
added to the Production Detail Report. Use this check box to remove shipment charges from this report.
By default, miscellaneous charges for expedite fees are included in the report.
This new functionality can be accessed on the Selection sheet of the Production Detail Report.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Production Management > Job Management > Reports > Production Detail
The Production Planners Workbench is a Dashboard that provides an overview of the material shortages of the
selected jobs. Although this information is already available in each job this overview gives the job planner a tool
to quickly gather information for multiple jobs at once.
Productivity
Extensively track and analyze efficiency and utilization figures by employee, operation, resource group, and
department.
Quality Control
Reference Designators
Reference designators are used by the electronics industry to match a schematic to a board layout. You can now
create and link reference designators to a specific material within a method of manufacturing.
Each reference designator can be added as a series using the Add Range button or entered manually. You can
also add XYZ coordinates, rotation, and comment text for each reference designator.
Run this functionality to provide explosion reports both by component and also by reference designator from
quotes, jobs, and the Engineering Workbench.
Scheduling
Serial Matching
You can separate parts from their serial numbers through new functionality.
A Match button is available on the Materials, Assemblies, and Subassemblies sheets within the Serial Matching
program; click this button to separate the link between the current part and its serial number.
Yield Scrap
Added the ability for scrap reporting at an operation to affect the estimated production quantity of subsequent
operations if the scrap exceeds the scrap allowance.
The Project Management module is enhanced to provide more accuracy for tracking costs and managing project
phases. Use this functionality to gain more oversight over the progress of each project.
Now each Project WBS phase contains features which improves accuracy and simplifies labor entry:
• You can define multiple activities against each WBS phase. These activities have resource requirements and
the estimated time costs for each specific resource assigned to the phase.
• The interface is simplified so that users can quickly enter the project number and the WBS phase. The Epicor
application then automatically assigns the job number, and this job automatically records the labor placed
against this phase of the project. Users select the operation they need to record time against, and the labor
expense is automatically placed against the job which contains the operation.
When you run Project Analysis, you can now increase the revision level of a project. The current project and its
data is then archived into history. You can then view this historical information through the Project tracker.
Material costs are now further broken down into Other Direct Costs (ODC). These material costs are entered as
miscellaneous charges. For job costing purposes, these separate direct costs are totaled within the overall material
cost for the job. However, within the Project Management module, these costs are separated into the Material
and Other Direct Costs categories.
You can optionally include Cost of Sales (COS) Revenue Recognition data while you generate a project analysis.
The Capture COS for Revenue Recognition check box is available on the Build Project Analysis window; select
this check box to include this information. Note however, that adding this data will increase how long it takes
the Epicor application to generate the project analysis.
Scheduling Overview
The scheduling functionality helps insure that your jobs are manufactured on time to meet the demand of your
customers.
Several possibilities must be measured during the scheduling process. Each part can have a different method of
manufacturing, which creates multiple methods by which operations are handled on the same resource groups.
Planned and actual demand on resources can vary from one day to the next. And the availability of materials
required on operations can cause scheduling estimates to generate unexpected results, causing jobs to be complete
after their original Due Dates.
Because of these issues, you must estimate the demand required each day or week to make sure that enough
supply of time or other capacity to complete production quantities by the date on which they are due. Some jobs
are also more important than others. For example, a job for a good customer may take precedence over a job
manufactured for inventory.
The scheduling engine uses several factors that affect production - quantity, setup time, production time, capacity,
priority, and so on - to calculate how long it takes each job to complete. It then displays the schedule through
the Job Scheduling Board, the Resource Scheduling Board, and the Multi-Resource Scheduling Board.
Scheduling offers the following tools:
• Base Scheduling - Multiple resource views and online scheduling tools such as the Change Impact Informer
offer the master scheduler and management the ability to visually locate overload problems and slack conditions.
You can use this tool to perform cost and throughput analysis on schedule changes before they are firmly
committed.
• Advanced Scheduling (APS License Required) - An extension of scheduling, APS incorporates the strength
of the Scheduling engine and enhances it with advanced functionality such as multiple constraint scheduling,
a wide range of scheduling methods, visual drag-and-drop scheduling, capability and dependent capability-based
scheduling, real-time capable-to-promise functionality, and advanced material planning functionality.
Define a capability or skill level that can be tied to multiple resources rather than define a resource group or
individual resource in the planning process. The APS engine then determines, based on the available resources,
which individual resource to schedule for the operation.
When you schedule by capability, the Scheduling Engine selects resources by the Priority value defined for each
capability. You can assign a zero value to a capability's priority. Any resource that is defined by this zero priority
will not be selected by the Scheduling Engine. It will, however, be available to use as a resource on the Start
Activity or Labor Entry windows.
Change Impact
View the potential changes for cost and throughput to the schedule after creating what-if scenarios.
Optionally allow the system to perform a forward schedule based on a start date of today when performing a
backward schedule if current date is encountered.
Dependent Capabilities
Link dependent capabilities that the scheduling engine schedules along with the primary capability when operations
require dependent skills to perform the operation.
Drag-and-Drop
Drag-and-drop scheduled load hours forward or backward to alleviate the overload and effectively reschedule
when faced with overload conditions at critical resources or resource groups.
Use a secondary resource constraint (for example, a tool or employee) in finite capacity scheduling in addition to
the primary resource.
Prevent the schedule from making adjustments too far into the future - potentially impacting material purchases
and resource allocations - with finite load horizons (for example, time fences or cutoff dates) for finitely scheduling
load on the resource.
Define each resource as either finite or infinite capacity. When a piece of the schedule is moved, the resource is
rescheduled according to its type.
Finite Scheduling
Schedule and reschedule with flexible, finite real-time schedule capabilities for a single job and plant-wide global
finite capacity.
The Global Scheduling process is divided into three components. You must run these components in the following
order to globally schedule your jobs:
• Calculate Global Scheduling Order - This program is a setup process you must run before the Global
Scheduling process. Each time this process is run, it will schedule any job that is a candidate for the Global
Scheduling process. This process determines if each job will be early or late. This Early Days or Late Days value
is then compared against the Priority code value on the job to determine a job priority sequence. The Global
Scheduling process will then schedule these jobs in using this generated job priority sequence.
• Adjust Global Scheduling Order (optional) - This is an optional component you can run. Launch this
program to review the job priority sequence that was generated through the Calculate Global Scheduling
Order process. You can use this program to manually change the sequence through which these jobs will be
scheduled during Global Scheduling.
• Global Scheduling - Run this process to schedule the jobs. All the jobs selected by the Calculate Global
Scheduling Order process will be placed within the schedule, either on the actual schedule or on a What-If
schedule. The jobs will be scheduled in order using either the sequence generated by the Calculate Global
Scheduling Order process or the modified sequence you changed within the Adjust Global Scheduling Order
program.
Material Constraints
Consider material availability as a scheduling constraint. Integrated directly with Inventory and Purchasing, the
APS system knows when material is due and schedules accordingly.
Both the Multi-Resource Scheduling Board and the Job Scheduling Board indicate which materials are constrained.
On both scheduling boards, the Related Materials grid now contains additional columns that display this
information. One column indicates whether or not the material is constrained. The other columns define the
purchase order, job, and Lead Time linked to the constrained material.
Add memos to a schedule on the Multi-Resource Scheduling Board about any aspect of a current schedule.
Minimize WIP
Use the Minimize WIP feature to have the scheduling engine reduce the gaps that can occur between operations
and assemblies during the Global Scheduling process.
It causes this process to run the scheduling engine an additional time against the jobs that meet a specific
condition.
Resource groups can now be set up to observe production calendar constraints when scheduling Move Time and
Queue Time.
Within Resource Group Maintenance, two check boxes - Use Calendar for Move Time and Use Calendar for
Queue Time - are available on the Detail sheet. When one or both of these check boxes are selected, Move Time
and/or Queue Time periods can only be scheduled during the working hours defined each day within the current
production calendar.
Multi-Level Assemblies
The Job Scheduling Board, Resource Scheduling Board, and Multi-Resource Scheduling Board all have an Operation
Complete Quantity field on their Detail sheets. This field displays the number of parts that are so far complete
on the current operation.
Both the Job Scheduling Board and Resource Scheduling Board display the Operation Complete Time value after
you move an operation. This shows you the amount of time that is left to complete the operation.
Overload Informer
Display each date and resource/resource group, where scheduled hours exceed capacity based on what-if or
actual job schedules. Access resource, resource-group and job scheduling information to review the causes of
an overload and make schedule changes.
Reschedule Delta
Optionally automate the software's response to parts that are planned to be early or late by a threshold number
of days.
Resource-Based Schedule
Resource Group
Define an unlimited number of resources within a resource group. Resource groups can be used in the planning
process with the actual resource assigned automatically based on availability of individual resources. Resources
may have unique calendars, and value for hours/day capacity, queue- and move-time.
Use this functionality to schedule a job that only creates dates on the job and operation records. It ignores resource
and shop load records that are normally included within the scheduling calculation.
Use the Save Resource Load program to add load to jobs that have been scheduled using Rough Cut Scheduling.
This scheduling method lets you infinitely or finitely schedule jobs without placing any load against your resources.
You can now directly affect the relationship between operations scheduled Start to Start
The scheduling offset of the secondary operation is directly related to the offset time calculated (or entered) on
the primary operation. The offset time can be calculated by pieces or percentage of the operation duration, or
entered manually on the primary operation. The secondary operation is scheduled to start after the offset period.
You have the option by plant if the offset will start the setup or production time.
The Scheduling Technical Reference Guide explores how the scheduling engine calculates the schedules for your
jobs. The guide examines, in detail, the primary components that make up the scheduling engine, the base
calculations that run the engine, and the modifiers that can be used to refine the scheduling results.
Start Time
You can define a Start Time for this scheduling process. Use this feature to run Global Scheduling during the
current date, as you can indicate from what specific point in time the global finite scheduling process begins.
Previously this function you could only begin Global Scheduling on the next day.
Visual Alerts
View indicators, such as late status as well as material availability, to proactively alert the master scheduler to
potential problems in the schedule.
Easily manipulate the schedule with drag-and-drop and drill-down techniques for multi-level assemblies and
operation details.
What-If
Schedule jobs in what-if mode, with the ability to analyze potential bottlenecks before finalizing the actual
schedule.
Engineering Overview
The Engineering module (Product Data Management - PDM), serves as a central knowledge repository for process
and product history. It also promotes integration and data exchange among all enterprise users who interact
with the product - including project managers, engineers, salespersons, buyers, and quality assurance
representatives.
Epicor offers a solution for manufacturers that manages the powerful information traditionally contained in
engineering documents, plant floor routings, changes, sales orders, and quality documentation. It does this within
a single online solution easily shared across the enterprise business.
Alternate Methods
Use alternate methods to predefine multiple BOM structures for the same part with perhaps material or component
substitutions. In a multi-plant environment, BOMs at the plant level facilitate choices in where to build the part
using plant appropriate methods. Optionally have several BOMs within a plant for the planner to choose from.
The software supports both traditional BOM management with single-level part formats that recognize the
materials and components required to build end parts, and multi-level BOM management that incorporates not
only single-level components and material requirements, but also internal and external routing steps for complete
end-assembly visibility, planning, scheduling, and costing.
Leverage the Calculate Manufacturing Lead Time process to regularly determine how much additional time is
required before a part quantity can begin the manufacturing process.
This value is used during MRP processing to plan jobs for part components lower down in the assembly
manufacturing structure for each part revision.
You can set up the Calculate Manufacturing Lead Time process so that it regularly determines the lead time for
a single part, a product group, one/multiple plants, and one/multiple parts. You enter an As of Date value to
define a starting date which then filters on the Effective Date values enter for each part revision.
Rough cut scheduling is then run during the process. This functionality calculates the lead time, in days, by pulling
in the Costing Lot Size specified through MRP planning. Then by using the part quantity which needs to be
manufactured, the lead time required for each part revision is calculated and made available to the MRP process.
Capability Planning
With APS you can specify a capability of a resource and allow the scheduling engine to determine the specific
resource based on availability of the capability or skill level
Cost Load
Pull in initial cost from previous cost sets and make changes for easier cost adjustments. Cost sets can be generated
from alternate BOMs or routings for what-if scenarios.
Cost Rollup
Generate a new cost for a product with an automated cost rollup based on the existing routing for the product
and current cost values for material, labor, burden, subcontracting, and material burden.
You use a cost set to share unit cost calculations across multiple plants.
If three plants have the same cost set, they can then use the same costing method (Average, Last, or Standard)
for parts they manufacture.
Costing Workbench
Manage part costs in a single location. Specialized tools pull in the most recent costs and automatically perform
cost rollups.
Costs Stored
Besides material costs, additional costs for manufactured parts (for example, labor, burden and subcontracting)
are stored and monitored within the BOM structure.
Dimensional Planning
Plan by volume and quantity using dimensional planning that is not time constrained.
Document Linking
Link product specific documentation (for example, electronic drawing and machine instructions) for easy access
and document control using document management.
Drag-and-Drop Interface
Use a simple tree interface to easily drag-and-drop components, operations or direct materials from another
BOM, quote, or previously run job.
Achieve control and consistency in your engineering change and revision process.
Engineering Change and Revision Control is designed to enable engineering change management, multiple
revision control of products, engineering workflow management, and offers detailed cost analysis of products
during the engineering process.
Engineering Workbench
Reference Designators are now validated when you select the Approved check box.
Previously the reference designator validation ran during the ECO check in process for the part.
Engineering Workflow
Automatically assign and route the work needed to process changes as well as the process for engineering new
products.
Tasks are tightly embedded into the system ensuring that transactions can only be updated if the task is at the
right status.
Get Details
Manage BOMs easily with "get detail" functionality that enables the user to pull the method of manufacturing
for a product and make modifications for future runs or similar products.
Mass Replace/Delete
Manage multiple cost entries per part with effectivity date per cost set. Optionally generate what-if cost scenarios
and review change analysis prior to posting.
Set up a unique cost set for each plant allowing part cost per plant to be closely defined.
If you need, you can change the Conversion Factor value on part records which do not have a stock or sales unit
of measure (UOM).
To do this, you must customize the interface to display an external check box which then activates this functionality.
The external field, ConvOverride, is included on the PartUOM table. After you add this check box to the interface,
select it to activate the Conversion Factor field. You can then enter the Conversion Factor value you need on this
record.
This functionality works even if the Has Been Used check box is selected. Note, however, this check box is only
available if the Conversion Factor is used as a purchase UOM and the part record does not have either a stock
UOM or sales UOM.
Phantom Structures
Stock assemblies in inventory or maintain phantom assembly structures, giving you the flexibility to process
complex jobs, without having to first establish a complete BOM.
Requirements Reporting
A summarized material option, in addition to the standard indented BOM requirement report, is available to
provide total requirements for each material.
Resource Planning
Allow the system to automatically pick or schedule the resource to be used or call out the specific resource at
the time of planning. Routings can indicate general resource groups needed.
Revision Compare
Dynamically and visually compare product methods for product plans that change before the product is complete.
Easily compare methods of manufacturing for any part to a quote or job for the part and visually see the changes
highlighted in color.
RoHS Compliance
Restrictions on use of certain Hazardous Substances (RoHS) EU directive instructs companies that sell electronic
equipment in the European Union to reduce, under published threshold values, six Hazardous Substances from
certain types of electronic equipment.
The main aim of the RoHS Directive is to prevent hazardous materials entering waste landfill sites. Other legislative
bodies in other regions outside the EU have similar restrictions or are planning to implement a similar system.
With this functionality, parts have a compliance status in accordance with various legislative requirements. You
can then track the consumption and disposal of these targeted parts.
This functionality is equally applicable to distributors and manufacturers; it has significant importance for the
green economy.
Subcontracting Services
Include outside services in routing steps for accurate planning of costs and lead-time.
Conversion factors for a unit of measure (UOM) can be defined as either a multiplier or a divider equation -
increasing the flexibility of the conversions.
For example, a conversion factor between inches and feet can now be set up as either 1 FT = 12 IN or 1 IN =
.0833333FT.
This feature is available within UOM Class Maintenance. A drop down list displays on the Conversion Factor
equation, and the Multiply and Divide options are on it.
Visual Display
Easily see the structure of a product, including multi-level components, subcomponents, and routings.
Where-Used
By displaying every product or assembly in which a specified component is used, you are able to identify those
parts that would be affected by a design change or material substitution being considered.
Use the Material Requirements Planning (MRP) tools to both estimate potential demand and propose the supply
that answers this demand.
The MRP tools do this by generating job, purchase, and transfer order suggestions. MRP is designed primarily for
companies that manufacture make to stock quantities or for mixed-mode manufacturers that run both custom
and stock products. By using MRP, you can anticipate the future demand for your products and ensure materials
are in the right place at the right time.
Available-to-Promise
View running balances with the available-to-promise function. Enter a quantity, and the system will find the
earliest date that quantity will be available. Enter a date, and see how many parts are available on that day.
Bill of Material
MRP checks the revision level and verifies approvals before pulling in a standard Bill of Material (BOM) and routing.
For parts that do not have a current approved revision, a job suggestion is created in the new/change order
queue, reducing the possibility of forgetting about a requirement.
Forecast
Enter general part forecasts or specific customer/part forecasts. MRP consumes the forecast with actual orders
as they are received.
• Manual Forecast Entry - Manually enter forecasts for companies, plants, customers, dates, and parts.
Cut-and-paste from other applications into the forecast system.
• Forecast Export - Historical information can be exported out to third-party applications for the calculation
of forecast.
• Forecast Import - Import forecasts from other applications or customers. Import options allow forecasts to
be broken down by part, customer, plant, date, and company. This import can be additive, update the existing
forecast or a complete clear and re-load.
Log File
Enter production forecasts for specific end parts using the Master Production Schedule (MPS) function. Perform
an iterative process of entering a planned schedule, viewing the effect on your resources, then modifying the
plan until you have achieved an optimal schedule.
Material Planning
Create purchase order suggestions for inventory and purchased parts that are needed to complete production.
Use lead-times and supplier price breaks to determine when the part should be ordered and at what price.
The Material Requirements Planning Technical Reference Guide explores how the MRP engine calculates both
job suggestions and purchase suggestions. The guide examines, in detail, the primary components that make up
the MRP engine, the base calculations that run the engine, and the modifiers used to refine the suggestion results.
The Copy from Forecast functionality is updated; this functionality is an option on the Actions menu within MPS
Entry.
The Copy from Forecast option now totals forecast quantities for the same part that occur on the same day.
Previously these quantities were not totaled because they were considered separate quantity forecasts for different
customers.
MRP Generation
Run MRP with either net change or full MRP regeneration options. The MRP generation process balances the
demand of customer orders and forecasts with the supply of jobs. As orders and forecasts change, MRP
automatically adjusts corresponding jobs so you are in balance.
Multi-Level Pegging
Analyze all the supply and demand in your system; then "peg" each supply against demand, prioritized by due
date.
Multi-Site
Run MRP for all plants or for individual plants within a company. Changed schedule dates roll down to all
subcomponents - even those being manufactured in another plant.
You can now run separate instances of MRP and PO suggestion processing in different plants and companies at
the same time.
Account for production preparation, kit, and receipt and use this time to derive appropriate lead-time for
manufacturing the product in addition to cycle times required to produce a product.
Plan As Assembly
The Plan As Assembly functionality enhances MRP processing by planning lower component manufacturing parts
through a direct relationship with the end part.
These lower manufacturing parts do not have to be included in the assembly structure. the Plan As Assembly
functionality can still account for these demand quantities. It does this by leveraging the multi-level assembly
build structure to correctly synchronize demand requirements.
You can also use its flexibility so that subassembly part quantities can be manufactured to stock or manufactured
on a job directly linked to the parent part requirements. Any jobs generated through the Plan As Assembly
functionality can be automatically given the firm status through the Auto Job Firm Process.
This capability minimizes the impact to standard MRP by using the Pull as Assembly (PAA) logic for creating PAA
assemblies, using Auto-Consume stock during the scheduling process, and creating a new process to firm up
jobs which breaks off PAA assemblies to separate jobs and creates the material demand links.
Planning Horizon
Review the planning horizon of a part or resource and only plan if not beyond the horizon, preventing premature
planning.
Planning Types
Maximize your planning accuracy with multiple types of inventory planning, including minimum/maximum/multiple,
days of supply and run out.
Recycle Jobs
The recycling jobs feature significantly speeds up the MRP process by removing the time spent within the application
while it deletes un-firm jobs at the beginning of a full MRP regeneration.
The goal with this feature is to make MRP more efficient by reusing un-firm jobs rather than deleting and recreating
them.
The Rough Cut Scheduling functionality enables MRP to process demand more quickly by removing the time
spent scheduling jobs beyond a specified time threshold, or Rough Cut Horizon.
The material due dates are derived from a Days Offset value based the Requested Date on the on the job. To
keep the Due Date values accurate, a process populates the Days Offset value by using a part revision and an
alternate revision.
This Rough Cut Horizon value is stored on each part plant record using calendar days. When MRP runs, this
horizon value is used to determine how the scheduling engine will schedule the unfirm job. When the scheduling
engine processes a job outside of the Rough Cut Horizon, it only populates the assembly Start Date and Due
Date values based on the manufacturing Lead Time and the Due Date values defined on each material.
Tip The previous Rough Cut Scheduling functionality available in the Epicor application has now been
renamed to Shop Load Horizon. This name more accurately reflects the purpose of this feature.
To improve MRP performance, a field has been added to the Part Maintenance > Plant Detail sheet. This new
field is Short Horizon Days of Supply. This field defines a material value that is used when MRP determines that
the needed materials falls within the Short Horizon. Here's how this is calculated:
• If that day is <= Schedule Start Date + Short Horizon Days, then the Short Horizon Days of Supply value is
used for the materials.
• If the date is > Schedule Start Date + Short Horizon Days then the Standard Days of Supply value is used.
The Part Maintenance program is now enhanced with Short Horizon Planning functionality. The Part-Plant sheet
contains the following fields:
• Horizon Days
• Min Lot Size
• Max Lot Size
Smart Forecast®
The Smart Forecast® application is now fully integrated with your Epicor application.
Use this third-party application with the MRP forecast functionality.
Sourcing by Plant
Define a unique source per part or plant - whether its default sourcing is purchased, produced or transferred.
What is produced in one location may be purchased - or transferred in - from another.
The Start Minimum Quantity feature enhances MRP to account for situations where you can start manufacturing
before an entire constrained material quantity is received.
For example, if you need a 200,000 quantity to finish a job, but can start after you receive a partial 100,000
quantity, this MRP feature can generate jobs for this partially received quantity.
Each part-plant record now contains the Start Minimum Quantity and a Minimum Lot Buffer values. The
Start Minimum Quantity value indicates the quantity of constrained material which is required as a minimum to
begin generating unfirm jobs.
When the MRP process generates a job, but then discovers a part which has this Start Minimum Quantity value
and the demand falls within the Minimum Lot Buffer days, the process checks for the minimum quantity of the
material. If the material quantity is available, the MRP process creates a new job using the Start Minimum Quantity
value. The quantity which remains is then placed on the original job.
Data Collection
Shop employees use the Data Collection module to enter their labor information directly from the manufacturing
center into the application. As labor information is applied to jobs and as jobs are completed, the shop floor
activity is recorded and monitored through this module.
Users can now launch the Data Collection functionality from an additional location on the Main Menu.
This module also appears below the Material Management folder.
The Work Queue program is enhanced to better dispatch and report labor within a lean environment.
The Work Queue can now handle small run quantities and the required materials available using Kanban or
replenishment bins. Enhanced features:
• You can select multiple operations for work at the same time.
• Each sheet can now be removed from the Work Queue and displayed as a full screen.
• An Active sheet identifies all of the work currently in process.
• You can select multiple activities to end from the Active sheet.
• You can select multiple production activities from the Current, Available, and Expected sheets.
• You can target specific operations for work based on TAKT, Pieces, Hours, and Setup Group definitions.
• Default search selection criteria is available for resources, resource groups, and operations when a search
program first launches. This improves Work Queue performance, as these items are easier to locate.
• The Work Queue is no longer a modal window, so other windows can be accessed while this window is open.
Material Movement
Different movement transactions are available for you to move a job to stock, move stocked material, or perform
different returns to a job or stock.
You now can customize the MES menu by accessing User-Defined Tables. These tables let you create a new
custom maintenance form that you can then launch from the MES menu.
On the Handheld MES - Material Handling sub-menu, a Process by Queue ID option is available.
When you select this option, users are asked to enter a Queue record identifier, which can be done by either
typing or scanning it in. Users can then process this queue record.
MES Menu
The MES menu can be accessed via touch screen, by employees on the shop floor, so that they can enter
information as work is performed.
Shop Warnings
Shop warnings appear in various locations throughout the system when certain conditions exist or certain events
occur. These warnings are intended to keep supervisors informed of a job's status or an employee's performance.
Work Queue
The Work Queue is valuable for monitoring what work needs to be done, and who has which assignments for
work so far.
The Enhanced Quality Assurance module contains a number of features which help you to assess the quality of
received and manufactured parts. Use this module to reduce the cost of goods sold, so you can improve the
financial performance of your products in cost and revenue.
Available functionality within this module are:
• Test Plans - Use Configurator to define the items you wish to monitor through the quality process. You can
leverage this program to create rules to determine whether a part quantity passes or fails inspection. Each
test plan links to a part or operation. Test data is entered against this part or operation, and the Epicor
application determines the results of the inspection. Using the test results data, the application determines if
the inspection process has passed or failed for the part or operation. In the event of a failure a non-conforming
material record is created and handled through standard processing. All test results are stored for future
analysis and review.
• Skip Lot Processing - You leverage this functionality to define how often parts are inspected at the time of
receipt. If the receipt does not require inspection, this receipt quantity is passed directly to stock. If parts
require inspection the receipt is placed on the inspection queue and is evaluated through a test plan. You
define a series of skip lot rules in Configurator. The skipping rules are controlled at the part and supplier levels.
• Calibration - You can use this module to enter calibration information against equipment. The calibration
information ensures the values used by the equipment during the quality process are accurate. The calibration
information form is used in conjunction with the Configurator. Calibration information is stored against the
equipment as a resource. This functionality is created to work together with the Maintenance Management
and Asset Management modules.
Configurator
Use the Configurator to define specification requirements during the quality process through the input forms.
You can also use this program to create business rules and determine whether a part quantity passes or fails
inspection.
Each test plan is linked to a part or operation. Test data is entered against this part or operation, and the Epicor
application determines the inspection results using the rules established. Using the results data, the application
determines if the inspection process passed or failed for the part or operation. In the event of a failure, a
non-conforming material record is created and handled through standard processing. All test results are stored
for future analysis and review.
Equipment Calibration
An inspection plan or specification set can be used to record calibration data. In Resource Group Maintenance,
enter calibration information against equipment. This information ensures the values that equipment uses during
the quality process are accurate. The calibration information form is used in conjunction with the Configurator
and is stored against equipment as a resource.
Inspection Attributes
The Epicor application contains a global list of attributes users can tie to specifications. Inspection attributes are
defined in Inspection Attribute Master Maintenance.
There are over 200 variables for each inspection attribute type, such as:
• Numeric
• Check box
• Character
• Date
• Comments
Inspection attribute settings include:
• Minimum and Maximum values
• Incremental value
• Initial Value
• Configuration tool tips
Users can collect, store, and report on inspection results. Collected inspection data is stored in the Epicor application
database.
Inspection Plans
Revision controlled inspection plans control the inspection process and are created in Inspection Plan
Maintenance. An inspection plan can run more than one specification and the generated Configurator screen
will change depending on the specification attributes.
Inspection plan types include:
• Inspection Plan
• Calibration Plan
• Supplier Audits
When users create an inspection plan, they can click the Configure Inspection Plan button to launch
Configurator, which allows users to design the inspection forms. Inspection plans can be specified at the
operations, quotes, the Engineering Workbench, Job Entry, and Purchase Order Entry levels. Users can also
copy an inspection revision to a new revision.
The Inspection Data button is available in Labor Entry, if the operation has an inspection plan. This button is
also available in Inspection Processing Entry, if the part has an inspection plan.
Part Revisions
Parts must be revision controlled in order to allow inspection plan and specification input.
Use Skip Lot Processing to define how often parts are inspected at the time of receipt. If the receipt does not
require inspection, the receipt quantity passes directly to stock. If the receipt requires inspection, the receipt is
placed in the inspection queue and evaluated through a test plan.
Define skip lot rules in Configurator. These rules are controlled at the part and supplier levels. User parameters
at the part level determine the following:
• Soft Directed to Inspection
• Inspect next 5 Receipts / Or Next 30 Items
• Lot Example:
• Inspection X Receipts
• Skip Y Receipts
• Repeat Cycle Z timex
• Definition of what to do on passing or failing skip lot cycle
Specifications
Specifications are revision controlled and established in Specification Maintenance. A specification set is a set
of characteristics to inspect. Specifications control the inspection elements that need to be checked and can be
tied to a part, operation, or equipment.
When the test plan is executed, Configurator reads the specification and sets the following:
• Minimum and Maximum values for each valid input
• Label text
• Valid list of combo box list items
• Help tool tips
• Initial values
• Input increments
• Any input that is not applicable is invisible
Use Inspection Results Entry to collate the inspection information. This program allows multiple inspection plans
and specifications assigned to a part, job, or nonconformance material (NCM).
You can enter and gather inspection data for parts, operations, resources, equipment, or fixed asset item. This
process can be called both from multiple programs and from the menu directly. The data is populated automatically
depending on the program it is called from.
Inspection Results Entry contains three grids:
• Inspection Plans - Displays the available inspection plans and specifications used in the in the inspection
process. For each row in this inspection grid there will be corresponding grid in the other two grids.
Note The Inspection Plan grid is always additive, when you select a subassembly or an operation,
plans for that subassembly or operation are added to any plans already in the grid.
• Inspection Sample Detail - Displays the samples to be inspected for the selected inspection plan.
• Results - Displays the entered results once the inspection results have been entered.
Note The Results grid displays only one result for the selected inspection plan, specification, and
sample.
Handheld Overview
You can now scan in or manually enter serial numbers on a handheld device.
This functionality is added to improve the productivity and data capture for organizations that track items using
serial numbers.
You can now scan in serial numbers on the Handheld Selected Serial Numbers Entry program.
Through your handheld device, you can scan in both existing and new serial numbers. If the scanned serial number
exists in the database and is available, you can select it. If the serial number does not exist and you can add new
serial numbers, this serial number is added to the database. If you cannot add new serial numbers, however, and
a serial number does not exist in the database, an error message displays.
Use the Handheld Part Lookup window to search for a specific warehouse and bin using a selected part and/or
lot. You launch this search program from the Process Material Queue window.
This window also contains a modified Bin Search program. You can use this window to display the inventory
quantities available within each bin.
The Work Queue program is enhanced to better dispatch and report labor within a lean environment.
The Work Queue can now handle small run quantities and the required materials available using Kanban or
replenishment bins. Enhanced features:
• You can select multiple operations for work at the same time.
• Each sheet can now be removed from the Work Queue and displayed as a full screen.
• An Active sheet identifies all of the work currently in process.
• You can select multiple activities to end from the Active sheet.
• You can select multiple production activities from the Current, Available, and Expected sheets.
• You can target specific operations for work based on TAKT, Pieces, Hours, and Setup Group definitions.
• Default search selection criteria is available for resources, resource groups, and operations when a search
program first launches. This improves Work Queue performance, as these items are easier to locate.
• The Work Queue is no longer a modal window, so other windows can be accessed while this window is open.
The RMA Processing and RMA Disposition programs are now added to the MES Menu. These programs are
located on the Shipping/Receiving interface.
The Quality Assurance module ties together all quality functions, whether it is scrapping end parts, rejecting raw
materials, or tracking first article inspections.
Inspectors have queues of items to inspect with full disposition and corrective action follow-up. Shop floor
employees can indicate parts are non-conformant, which moves them into an inspection queue. Parts that fail
inspection may be selected for review by a material review board.
Audit Trails
Capture all the inventory transaction detail that occurs during inspection and DMR processing with the material
transaction detail report.
Certificate of Compliance
Certificates of Compliance can now be defined at the part level. Certification defined separate for inbound and
outbound transactions:
• Purchase Receipts changed to require linked document on save.
• Shipping changed to validate a certificate of compliance to the packing slip.
Corrective Action
Create and track all preventive and corrective actions online. Complete with due dates, audit sign-offs and
unlimited comments, corrective actions provide the detail for follow-up on all quality issues.
Cost of Quality
Generate cost of quality reports that show you how much quality problems are costing you. Whether parts are
scrapped from inventory, a job or receipt inspection, there is a cost to you.
Use Course Request Browse to display the employee course requests for the selected training course.
Debit Memos
Create a debit memo in DMR processing and it is automatically tied to accounts payable.
After failing inspection, create a DMR to provide the MRB with an online queue of parts that need to be
dispositioned.
Employee Training
The Enhanced Quality Assurance module now has the ability to maintain requests, approvals, and results of
employee course training.
Important The following functionality is only available with the purchase of the Enhanced Quality
Assurance module.
Inspection Workbench
Monitor WIP, review all inspections in priority, and automatically take action on those requirements from the
inspection workbench. Inspectors move passed parts back to jobs and failed parts into discrepant material report
(DMR) processing, or they simply scrap them.
Disposition parts to MRB after failing inspection. Online documentation provides a complete audit trail of actions
taken by the MRB.
Non-Conformant Records
Create a non-conformant record (NCR) for all non-conformant parts. From a job, shop floor employees automatically
create an NCR when they scrap an end part or raw material. Inventory personnel create an NCR when they scrap
parts from inventory.
Non-Nettable Bins
Use non-nettable bins to keep parts undergoing inspection or review out of current on-hand quantities.
Packing Slips
Print a customizable packing slip to the supplier for all parts returned.
Linking the trading partners, process and systems that make up your supply chain has become the differentiation
you need to achieve industry leading performance.
Removing processes that do not add value and synchronizing processes within and outside a company enable
you to meet customer demands for lower cost and faster delivery. Epicor provides the most effective coordination
from initial raw materials to the ultimate consumption of the finished product by providing the visibility you need
throughout your value chain.
Use Inventory Management to update and maintain raw materials, WIP, and finished goods inventory quantities
and costs.
MRP creates inventory allocations for jobs entered through Job Management or generated from Order
Management. These allocations are relieved as inventory items are issued to the job or as purchase order receipts
are posted.
Issued inventory reduces quantities on hand, which are continually replenished by processing purchased or
manufactured item receipts into inventory. Receipt processing provides a continual update of inventory average,
last, standard, or FIFO costs for every item. A variety of inquiries provide management analysis of MRP, shortage
monitoring, reorder analysis, stock status, valuation, and other critical items.
Allocation Views
Assign serial numbers to finished parts and raw materials processed throughout the system.
Country of Origin
Country of Origin details are now saved within each part record.
The functionality supports percent of Content by Country - Content requirements that are needed for ISO
extension in Europe.
Cost Tracking
Separately track material cost,material burden, subcontracting, labor, and burden costing.
Cross-Reference
Track relationships between distinct customer part number and internal part number fields.
Format serial numbers as either numeric or alphanumeric and assign the number of characters for the field as
well as a prefix.
Customer and supplier managed inventory is the ability to hold, control, and record inventory items owned by
either a customer or supplier.
The customer managed inventory is primarily aimed at supply chain or distribution users that store inventory on
behalf of their customers and then perform the logistics operation to get the items out to the customer of their
customer.
The supplier managed inventory provides a supplier with the ability to store product in a host facility. When it is
consumed, an actual purchase receipt is produced for supplier payment. If required, you can also self-invoice on
these receipts.
This functionality creates new transactions within the application. The value of the customer inventory items do
not appear in your general ledger, but they are visible as quantities currently in stock. When you consume supplier
stock and effectively receive these items, however, the items do appear in your general ledger.
When you stock these items, both the Supplier Managed Inventory and the Customer Managed Inventory bin
types are available.
Management and control of inventory is critical for both manufacturers and distributors. The control and counting
of inventory on a regular and scheduled basis can help significantly reduce annual audit costs.
To meet the needs of managing and controlling inventory, the cycle counting module is extensive and contains
the functionality and features needed for you to provide:
• Detailed audit control over the selection of items to be counted.
• The frequency over the number of times these items are counted.
• The tracking, recording, and review of variances for the items counted.
Use the functionality to define the number of cycles required, count the zero quantity on-hand, and assign or
designate the items with an appropriate ABC code.
Additionally, you can use the enhancements to the Physical Count processes, new functionality, and associated
reports to gain better control over Slow Moving, Obsolete, and Excess Inventory.
Dimensional Inventory
Know exactly how many partial pieces you have. Whether storing parts in sheets, partial sheets, boxes, partial
boxes or other, your users have control over the dimension and identifier.
Use the FIFO (First in First Out) costing method to record the value of inventory. This method uses the price of
the oldest quantity in the warehouse as the cost for the next quantity to be issued or shipped.
The application tracks the actual cost and quantity records for each received part quantity. As a quantity from
this record is issued or shipped, the cost recorded with this quantity is then used to price the value of the quantity
during the transaction. This price remains active until all of the quantity received at this price is consumed. The
application then uses the cost of the quantity received on the next FIFO queue record.
This costing method is applicable when you produce different batches of similar products. Parts that are not lot
tracked, not consumed on a job, or are not in production, are returned at the average cost method for all the
parts issued to that job. The FIFO cost elements are the same as other costing methods: Material, Labor, Burden,
Subcontract and Material Burden. These cost elements are tracked throughout the application.
Flexible Costing
Maintain average, last and standard costs for each individual part master.
You can now define the global trade standards for a part, including but not limited to Part Master cross references,
like UPC UCC-12, EAN UCC-13, EAN UCC-8, and GTIN-14.
When a Global Trade reference is entered in a field, the application automatically recognizes it and switches the
actual part number to reflect the standards. Create your own cross references for use in any part number field.
When a global trade standard is applied to a part, a global trade standard bar code is scan-able on any part
number field. This feature automatically links the transaction to the correct stocked part.
Inventory Clarification
You can now issue a material quantity to a job that uses up to eight decimal places.
Use this functionality to issue the precise granular quantity you need at a specific point within the bill of materials.
Lot Control
In the support of more detailed and complete lot tracking needs, the application now utilizes additional lot
attributes defined for each part lot.
Examples of the additional lot attributes include Batch, Manufacture Lot, Heat Number, Manufacture Date,
Expiration Date, Firmware Version, Cure Date, Best Before Date, and Original Manufacturing Date.
When users create a new lot, they must define the required lot attributes. Once the lot is in the application with
the configured attributes, they are stored with the lot and stay attached to that part lot. When these lot attributes
are enabled for a part, they are mandatory throughout the application.
Lot Generation
You can now set up part records to generate lot numbers automatically.
Part Maintenance has a Lots - Generate sheet; use this functionality to define how the application generates
lot numbers for the part. You define the prefix value for the lot numbers. You also indicate whether the number
is part specific or uses a global lot sequence, how many digits the lot number contains, and the trailing date
string displayed with the lot numbers.
When lots are generated for this part record, each new lot uses the parameters defined on this sheet.
In order to improve accessibility to the lot functionality, you now enter lot records through Lot Number
Maintenance.
This new setup program is available from the Main Menu within Inventory Management>Setup. Use this program
to enter the lots records you need; you can then select these lots within Part Maintenance. These lots can also
be reviewed within the Lot Number Tracker.
Mass Issue
Quickly issue all planned materials to a particular job instead of entering them individually.
Material Backflush
Backflush materials as quantities are reported complete at the job operation level.
Multiple Warehouses/Bins
Track parts stored in multiple locations through warehouse status inquiry and warehouse transfer audits. In
order to setup more than one warehouse in this system, Advanced Inventory Management must be licensed.
A check box added to the Part Master and Part Plant records enables a part to be set as Quantity Bearing. This
check box works in conjunction with the non-stock check box to enable the part master parts to be setup as
expense items.
• Non Quantity Bearing Parts can be added to Bill of Material, Kits, Orders, and so forth.
• Transactions to Non Quantity Bearing parts will not update the inventory on hand status.
• Non Quantity Bearing Parts can be requisitioned.
Use this functionality to create any number of cross-reference codes to a single inventory part.
These cross-reference codes can be a customer, supplier or manufacturer part number; it could also be an internal
shortcut. When the cross-reference is for a serial tracked part, a serial number format is defined for each
cross-reference. These formats are used when serial numbers are created with the cross-reference item number.
Part Tracker
View parts, purchase orders, sales orders, quotes, and jobs to analyze current requirements and track pending
receipts.
Enter physical counts, print gain/loss reports and update on-hand inventory levels.
Serial Control
You can now mask definitions pertaining to the actual serial number structure on the part or warehouse level.
This ensures product traceability, which gives you greater control over how the user wishes to control serial
tracked parts within the facility.
You can set a directional inventory control of inbound only, outbound only, or a combination at both the part
and warehouse levels. Operate in a full traceability mode, so that when materials are issued to a job the child
serial numbers are recorded against the parent serial number. A record is maintained of the lower level serial
tracked components used in the manufacturing of a part.
You can do this either at the time of issue or after the issue. All movements of serial numbers inside and outside
of the plant record in the serial trace data.
For manufacturing companies with customers in the medical, aerospace, or defense sectors, this functionality is
essential. For distributors, a further serial tracking option is the ability to record serial numbers at the outbound
stage only. This option is designed for supply chain users that need to record what serial numbers are shipped
to which customers and when, but do not want the overhead of having to record the serial numbers as the
inventory moves around the warehouse or between the manufacturing plant and the distribution warehouse.
Serial Documentation
Print serial numbers on all outgoing communication with the customer such as the packing slip and invoice.
Serial number tracker provides an online view into the movement of the product after the serial number was
assigned.
Substitute Parts
Maintain a substitute parts file for easy browsing when primary part shortages exist.
Provide analysis within a user-defined time period on those parts where projected requirements exceed available
quantities.
Base level unit of measure definitions, unit of measure classes, and UOM conversions are now available within
the application. You can also select the unit of measure in which you want a part stored within inventory.
When you define that a part can be tracked in multiple UOMs, you can see how many items are stocked in
different units of measure. A distributor can stock items, for example, as each, in boxes of 10, in cases of 20, or
in pallets of 40 boxes.
This feature is also invaluable to manufacturers who use raw materials purchased in different sizes (for example,
6 x 3 sheets or 8 x 4 sheets). Once a sheet is partially used, it can be returned to inventory as a half sheet, quarter
sheet, or in square feet. Within the inventory, manufacturers have visibility of the quantities of each UOM.
The expanded UOM functionality provides you with much greater control over warehouse and inventory levels,
minimizing on-hand inventory and costs.
Voided Serial
Void serial numbers to ensure they are no longer available in the assignment/selection browser.
Use the Shipping and Receiving module to monitor incoming and outgoing part quantities, whether they are
shipments against an order, subcontract parts sent to a supplier, raw material received from a purchase order to
a job or into inventory, or filling a sales order from stock.
Through this functionality, all activity relating to shipments and receipts can be performed and tracked.
Online transaction processing promotes efficiency and ease of use, while online editing promotes accuracy. With
Shipping/Receiving, a consistent interface processes all shipments and receipts in an efficient, accurate, and
cost-effective manner.
Auto-Invoice
Bill of Lading
Divert planned receipts into inventory to receive directly to a job, or vice versa.
Use Inbound Container Tracking to track container shipments as well as update the status and due dates of all
purchase orders along the way.
Container Landed Cost Entry - When a container is shipped from the supplier, a notification is received with
the actual shipment date, the estimated arrival date, as well as the volume specification of the shipped goods.
Based on this information, the related purchase order releases can be updated with new due dates and quantities.
Landed costs, like duties, indirect costs, and uplift percentages are defined for each shipment and are applied to
the part unit cost when received.
Container Receipt - When an inbound container shipment is received, a PO receipt is automatically generated
based on the information of the container entered at shipment. When the items are received into stock, the
landed costs entered in Container Landed Cost Entry are applied to the part cost information.
Landed Costs
You can now use landed costs to apply duties, indirect costs, AP miscellaneous charges, and uplift percentages
to received items.
Use this functionality to define import tariff rates, percentages, and amounts to calculate the duties for each
received item. You can also use weight, value, volume, or quantity to disburse indirect costs to received items.
Each indirect cost contains definable disburse methods.
Landed cost processing offers significant benefits for those customers who import materials on a regular basis.
The cost of freight, insurance, and import duties can have a big impact on margins. Use this functionality to track
those costs accurately against the parts to which they apply. This ensures that the selling or assembly price reflects
the true cost of the materials, parts, or finished goods.
If your company ships to a distribution center instead of directly to a customer, you can specify the final destination
of the order using the Mark For sheet in Customer Shipment Entry.
Use this sheet to define the Mark For Customer and Ship To Address. After the distribution center receives the
shipment, it will be sent along to the customer defined on this sheet.
If you need, you can also enter a One Time Mark For customer. A shipment will only be sent once to a customer
defined as a one time mark for location.
Mass Ship
Optionally mass release shipping lines from orders with same ship-to addresses.
Miscellaneous Receipts
The Packout functionality adds greater flexibility and control to the shipping process by allowing carton level
packing and grouping.
Carton specific details such as carton weight and exact carton contents are captured with interfaces to allow
manifesting (UPS, FedEx, and so forth). The new packout screen allows for more of a "grocery store" packing
system which requires very little mouse usage for distribution customers who require a very fast and accurate
system of tracking carton contents.
Pack IDs
Pack ID replaces the term "packing slip" throughout this module. Print pack records to fill orders to customers
or ship parts to subcontractors with general or detailed line comments. Pack IDs could be a single package, or
carton, of the contents for an order. It could also be a record for the contents of multiple orders. And Master
Packs can hold more than one pack ID.
Packout
The Packout sheets throughout this module support barcode scanning into the application for easy packing of
shipments.
Payment Vouchers
Create online payment vouchers in Accounts Payable from purchase order receipts.
Phantom Packs
A Phantom pack is a pack whose contents are not necessary to know at a part level. When a Phantom pack case
is sent, the ID, weight, and recipient are important, but its contents are unimportant. This functionality uses the
following logic:
• In order for a pack to be a Phantom pack, its status must be Closed.
• Phantom packs are not supported with international shipping.
• They cannot be entered as master packs or assigned to current master packs.
• Phantom pack shipments do not send order or part information to the freight web service.
• Once a pack is freighted, no further changes can be made to it.
Receipt Tracker
Shipping Labels
Shipping Performance
Generate executive summary of company trends regarding delivery performance, including number of shipments
made, percentage of on-time delivery, and average daily variance between customer promise and delivery.
SSCC Codes
Shipments can now be sent using Serial Shipment Container Codes. Use these codes to both improve the speed
and reduce the costs of shipments.
You use SSCC codes to electronically exchange information about the current state of a shipment. You can track
these shipments through the supply chain by using the SSCC code assigned to the shipment. This data exchange
and tracking process is an application of the GS1 System (originally called the EAN.UCC System). Each SSCC code
provides a concise way to define specific information about the cartons, pallets, trailers, and other containers
used to move shipments.
You set up the SSCC code format within Legal Number Maintenance, and then automatically generate these
codes using functionality in the Shipping/Receiving module. You can generate SSCC codes on both packing slips
and master packs.
Subcontract Parts
Automatically create packing slips from open order releases selected for picking. Designate orders to be picked
based on the staging warehouse and unique bin location, or view all orders available for shipping by staging
warehouse.
You can now indicate whether the Our Quantity or the Supplier Quantity value should default into receipt detail
lines.
When you create a detail line on a receipt, the default value you select becomes the Quantity value on the receipt
line.
You indicate this default value within Company Maintenance on the Modules>Materials>Shipping Receiving
sheet. The Receipt Default Quantity group box contains the Our Quantity and Supplier Quantity radio button
options.
The Purchase Management module handles purchase order writing and the tracking of supplier performance.
Detailed line items indicate planned receipts to inventory or a job, although their destination may be changed at
the time of actual receipt entry.
Purchase order receipt processing updates suggested supplier and detailed purchase history files, which provides
continual reference to aid in making purchasing decisions.
An online time-phased material requirements report provides a strategic planning tool to buy the right amount
of material - at the right time. With Purchase Management, you can reduce inventory levels, improve on-time
deliveries, enhance your cash flow, and increase your profit levels.
Approved Suppliers
Approve suppliers for general purposes before anything can be ordered from them.
To accommodate customers that need to use specific suppliers, you can also define these relationships. You then
cannot order parts from the wrong supplier for those jobs linked to these customers.
Automate part suggestions, quantities and suppliers to buy from in order to meet material requirements and
on-time delivery schedules. Optionally create new POs automatically.
You can now update the quantity values on purchase orders. The Purchase Order Entry>Lines>Detail sheet
contains the Our Quantity and Supplier Quantity radio button options. When you select either option, you
can change the Quantity value and the Unit of Measure used on the current PO line detail.
You can customize Part Maintenance to add a Conversion Factor Override check box.
Add this check box when you want to give users the ability to change the conversion factor for the Purchasing
unit of measure (UOM) value. Users can only leverage this functionality, however, if the Purchasing UOM is not
also used as either an Inventory UOM or a Sales UOM.
Cross-Referencing
When a supplier's part number differs from the stocking part number, link the cross-reference in the suggested
supplier file for printing on purchase orders.
Customer and supplier managed inventory is the ability to hold, control, and record inventory items owned by
either a customer or supplier.
The customer managed inventory is primarily aimed at supply chain or distribution users that store inventory on
behalf of their customers and then perform the logistics operation to get the items out to the customer of their
customer.
The supplier managed inventory provides a supplier with the ability to store product in a host facility. When it is
consumed, an actual purchase receipt is produced for supplier payment. If required, you can also self-invoice on
these receipts.
This functionality creates new transactions within the application. The value of the customer inventory items do
not appear in your general ledger, but they are visible as quantities currently in stock. When you consume supplier
stock and effectively receive these items, however, the items do appear in your general ledger.
When you stock these items, both the Supplier Managed Inventory and the Customer Managed Inventory bin
types are available.
When an inter-company purchase order (ICPO) is defined as being shipped, both Drop Shipment header and
detail lines automatically generate for the ICPO.
Quickly create receipt details for all lines, all releases for a specific line, or individual lines and releases.
Receive individual lines or line releases to different locations for multi-site organizations with centralized buyers.
Non-Inventory POs
You can now create purchase orders which are not linked to inventory. Leverage this functionality to create POs
which track purchasing costs not tied to inventory quantities.
Create price breaks, including effectivity date per inventory part or supplier.
Within the New PO Suggestion program, you can create new purchase orders for parts that are being phased
out. If you are warned that this part is being phased out, however, and then asked if you wish to continue or
not, continue processing the suggestion.
Purchase History
Access detailed information on purchase orders and receipts over extended periods of time from purchase history.
Print purchase orders directly from PO entry by date, user or purchase order number range. Purchase orders also
may be faxed directly from your computer to your supplier.
Immediately access all purchase order information via screen inquiry, with multiple search capabilities.
Purchase orders are now defined as different types. These types identify purchases created for supplier owned
and customer owned inventories.
When you create a new purchase order, you indicate its type on either the Summary or the Header sheet.
Available PO types:
• Customer Owned PO -- A purchase order created for inventory quantities you store for a customer.
• Standard PO -- A regular purchase order you create to buy materials you need.
• Supplier Owned PO -- A purchase order created for inventory quantities you store for a supplier.
Purchase Requisition
Request purchases from anywhere in the plant. A formal requisition system tracks the status of the requisition,
from initial request to final approval and actual purchase order. The requestor is notified each step of the way.
Optionally redirect purchases made for specific jobs into inventory at the time of receipt. This flexibility is also
offered for items originally purchased for inventory.
Supplier Tracker
Quickly display information about any supplier, including open and historical purchasing transactions.
The Supplier Tracker contains a Logged Invoices sheet. It displays logged invoices for the current supplier record.
Use Tax
A Use Tax calculation is now included as part of the Avalara sales tax integration. This additional tax is automatically
generated whenever sales taxes are calculated through the Avalara® third-party application.
A Use Tax is a type of excise taxation that exists in the United States. It is assessed due to a purchase of a product
by a resident of the state issuing the tax. In most cases, this occurs when a product is purchased by a company
from a supplier that is located in a different state and that state charges Use Tax. This tax is strictly to account
for usage, storage or consumption of the goods in that state (not for resale), regardless of where the purchase
took place.
This typically occurs is when the consumer (buyer) of the products and services did not have a sales tax included
in the purchase transaction by the seller (supplier) on what should have been a taxable purchase. Once this is
assessed, the buyer accrues the liability of the amount of consumer use tax assessed and in turn has to report
and remit the tax to the state and/or local taxing jurisdictions.
Existing functionality within the Epicor application is enhanced to handle Use Tax. On supplier records, the Tax
Liability value determines whether the supplier needs to be included within the Use Tax calculation. On purchase
orders, the Tax Category value can indicate whether a purchased part is eligible for a Use Tax.
The tax engine can then leverage these values to automatically generate the use tax value required for the
purchase order.
Use Purchase Contracts to purchase inventory quantities on a recurring basis. You can establish delivery schedules
to regularly re-issue material against which recurring deliveries are made.
The advantage of this functionality is ease and accuracy. For example, if you need a quantity of Part ABC to be
purchased monthly, you do not need to enter a discrete purchase order each month. Instead, you can set up a
contract PO schedule and maintain this record automatically.
Contract line items can be assigned to purchase orders. These line items automate delivery schedules with delivery
dates, prices, and corresponding quantities.
Requirements determined by Generate PO Suggestions are calculated and realized into delivery schedules. The
schedules can be adjusted manually in order to conform to supplier requirements, inventory control, production
efficiency, and business expediency.
Part Schedule
Use Part Schedule Maintenance to establish the combination of part, plant, and calendar that makes up the part
schedule. This program is useful for assigning a period of frequency and minimum quantity for a part schedule.
Periodicity Code
Use Periodicity Code Maintenance to establish the rules and terms under which orders periodically arrive from
suppliers. The term Periodicity refers to the required intervals for deliveries to be made, for example -- daily,
weekly, monthly. Every Scheduled Item must have a Periodicity Code entered in Scheduled Item Maintenance.
Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) is a toolset used to request quotes for raw materials or subcontract
services from one or multiple suppliers. Request for quotations (RFQs) are generated with one or more lines; each
line has the ability to request pricing from one or more suppliers.
Supplier RFQ responses automatically build or add to existing part price-break tables. They contain current
effectivity dates that are used in other areas of the application.
Buyer's Workbench
Manage all associated purchasing transactions including request for quote, order expediting, purchase order
management, and supplier account management, as well as drill down to all associated information.
Data Mining
Extract data based on any supplier attribute, including ISO certification, location or quality rating.
E-mail Integration
Send and store e-mails related to a supplier, including RFQs, POs and corrective action notices.
Epicor Sourcing is an online auction application. Your buyers can use this functionality to open up their request
for quotes (RFQs) detail lines for electronic bidding.
They do this by turning each RFQ detail line into an auction record.
When a buyer posts an auction record to Sourcing, suppliers can place bids against it. Each record has a time
limit, so when this limit is reached, bidding on the auction record is closed. Buyers can then use the Epicor Sourcing
application to determine which bid to accept.
Note that to use this functionality, you must install the Epicor Sourcing application. Once installed, you activate
the functionality within Company Maintenance. Epicor Sourcing integrates with RFQ Entry.
History Reports
Print history reports and view supplier price or part price history.
Supplier RFQ responses automatically build part price-break tables for use with other applications.
Review Worksheet
Filter and sort RFQ criteria based on your specific needs to find the best match for the needed materials. Sort
criteria includes lead-time, price, quality rating, ISO certification, and on-hand inventory.
Generate RFQs for raw materials or subcontract services. RFQs can include multiple lines or parts per RFQ with
multiple suppliers per line.
Supplier/Part
Maintain unique contacts and due dates for each supplier or part.
Supplier's Workbench
Give your supplier the ability to track RFQs and POs online.
Advanced Material Management (AMM) enables manufacturers to produce electronic requests for materials,
dispatch those materials, and track inventory movements of all inventory including raw materials and work in
process.
Using wireless terminals and bar coding technology, manufacturers are able to track inventory in real-time. A
manufacturer using the application now has complete control and visibility of raw materials and work in process
as it travels throughout the enterprise.
Advanced Shipping
Pick and pack orders ahead of time, then relieve inventory when the order actually ships.
The Material Request Queue now has a new Actions menu program - Assign.
If you log in as a shop employee with Supervisor rights, you can access this program. First select any unassigned
material requests from the queue. Then launch this program to find and select a shop employee that you wish
to link to these unassigned requests. After you save, the shop employee is linked to the selected requests.
Print tags on demand enabling employees to properly label containers or to create custom labels to meet customer
requirements.
Bill of Lading
Divert planned receipts into inventory to receive directly to a job, or vice versa.
Label Printing
Labels can be automatically printed from any transaction that occurs within AMM. The Bartender can also assemble
labels that originate from the Material Queue.
Mass Ship
Optionally mass release shipping lines from orders with same ship-to addresses.
Use an online queue of raw material and WIP parts to manage requests to locate and deliver the right parts to
the correct resource at the appropriate time.
Miscellaneous Receipts
Packing Slips
Print packing slips to fill orders to customers or ship parts to subcontractors with general or detailed line comments.
Part Identification
Quickly and accurately identify WIP and inventory containers with system-generated bar codes.
Payment Vouchers
Create online payment vouchers in Accounts Payable from purchase order receipts.
Pick Face
Set up pick face inventories and manage inventory levels automatically for replenishment.
Prioritizing Orders
Treat your best customers with the highest priority by automatically allocating inventory to the highest priority
orders first. Reserve or allocate materials from stock or directly from a linked job to make certain that you ensure
your highest priority customers the greatest care.
Receipt Tracker
Reporting Scrap
Report pieces to good, scrap, and non-conforming product from one window while still clocked into the job.
Reserving Inventory
Manage sales order allocations with greater efficiency and create more effective picking and shipping.
Scanning
Eliminate data entry mistakes and increase transaction speed by simply scanning a bar code tag to complete an
entire transaction.
Security
Ensure that only the right employees are able to update inventory information, including requesting material and
reporting pieces.
Shipping and Receiving provides a central application within the application to monitor incoming and outgoing
items, whether they are shipments against an order, subcontract parts being sent to a vendor, raw material being
received from a purchase order to a job or into inventory, or filling an order from stock.
All activity relating to shipments and receipts can be performed and tracked. Online transaction processing
promotes efficiency and ease of use, while online editing promotes accuracy. With Shipping/Receiving, a consistent
interface processes all shipments and receipts in an efficient, accurate and cost-effective manner.
Shipping Labels
Optionally print customized shipping labels for each order. Labels include the customer's name and address. They
can also include the purchase order number, sales order number, ship via, number of packages, shipping comment
and weight fields.
Shipping Performance
Generate executive summary of company trends regarding delivery performance, including number of shipments
made, percentage of on-time delivery and average daily variance between customer promise and delivery.
Request raw materials or WIP product to be moved into the materials handler's queue online and in real-time.
Subcontract Parts
Track shipments and receipts of subcontract items online, with graphical, point-and-click entry.
Automatically create packing slips from open order releases selected for picking. Designate orders to be picked
based on the staging warehouse and unique bin location, or view all orders available for shipping by staging
warehouse.
WIP Locations
Display all WIP parts buffered in front of the resource (or resource group) on screen with the ability to zoom in
to container detail.
WIP Staging
Move WIP parts into inventory storage locations or stage WIP at the next resource based on available space and
time. WIP staging provides flexibility and convenience when an operation in a high volume resource is followed
by an operation in a low volume resource, or when the next resource is currently busy running another job.
WIP Traceability
Once inventory becomes WIP, monitor the movement of inventory and access online detailed movement records
as well as current location status. Drill down into the detail for lot and serialized traceability. In addition to
inventory, the application offers this traceability for consumable tooling, semi-finished products and non-stocked
items.
Financial Management
Epicor financial management solutions provide manufacturers with the tools needed to create value through
monitoring financial conditions and timely decision making.
This functionality reduces costs and improves cash flow. Epicor Financials can help improve your ability to drop
more to your bottom line—the ultimate test of your success and competitive advantage.
Use the Accounts Receivable (AR) module to bill your customers as orders are shipped and then track payments
as they are received.
Because you can specify the creation of invoices through the order release process, you can reduce billing for a
different quantity than for what was actually shipped.
Customer invoices may be previewed, printed on laser or continuous preprinted forms, or faxed or emailed directly
to your customer. With Accounts Receivable, you know who is buying what, and who is paying their bills on
time.
You can now change sales accounts on miscellaneous invoice lines within AR Invoice Entry.
The sales of products or services often need to be placed within different sales accounts. AR Invoice Entry now
contains the functionality to override the default sales account within each AR miscellaneous line. This functionality
is similar to the miscellaneous invoice line functionality within AP Invoice Entry.
Adjustments
Aging Information
AR Interest Invoices
Interest invoices can be generated based either on outstanding invoices or by charging interest on late payments
after settlement (this is required in some countries).
AR invoices can be created in one currency and payments can be received against them in another currency.
You activate this functionality within Company Maintenance. Navigate to the AR sheet and select the Allow
Invoice Settlement in Different Currency check box.
AR Invoice Tracker
AR Prepayments
Provides the ability for a customer to maintain a list of Alternate Bill-to (Alt-BT) customers. One of these alternate
addresses is defined as a default.
This alternate bill-to address defaults onto a quote, order, or invoice. It can be changed by the user to a different
authorized bill-to customer before the invoice is posted. If no alternates are set up, then the Alternate Bill-To
customer is the Sold-To customer, but it uses the Bill-To default address on that customer record.
• Customer table will hold a flag for which customers can be used as an alternate bill-to for other customers.
• Customer table will hold, against a customer, a list of authorized alternative bill-to customers with one customer
optionally setup as the default.
• Invoices will store the sold-to customer information.
• Default currency, terms and other fields are generated from the sold-to customer.
• Credit limit checking is performed against the bill-to customer.
• The invoice is posted to the ledger of the bill-to customer and subsequently tracked against that customer.
• Priority Override by Order.
When an invoice is consolidated, both the Sales Analysis Report and the Sales Gross Margin Report group lines
together based on each Sold To customer.
You can generate an AR invoice for each line on a packing slip record.
This creates a series of smaller invoices for large sales orders, reducing the possibility that minor errors prevent
the invoice from being processed.
You activate this functionality within Customer Maintenance. Launch this program and navigate to the Billing -
Detail sheet; select the Invoice Per Packing Line check box. Now during the Get Shipments process, each packing
slip record linked to this customer will generate a new, separate invoice for each detail line it contains.
With the increased use of credit cards to purchase products, it is necessary to have an integrated system to record
and encrypt credit card information as well as process the payment.
When using a credit card in a sales order, the user must authorize the transaction. The funds are charged when
the items are shipped in Customer Shipment Entry.
Use Credit Card Processing to accept credit cards as a form of payment from customers.
This functionality provides the gateway used to create credit transactions for customers. It processes credit card
authorization and payments in real-time for accounts, single transactions, or multiple transactions meeting PA-DSS
requirements.
Credit Holds
Automatically place credit holds on new customers or on those who are past due or over their credit limit.
Customer Receipts
Customer Reminders
Use this functionality to generate and send Reminder (Dunning) letters in advance of late payments.
This functionality also has the ability to calculate interest invoices, finance charges, and late fees. You can then
optionally post these amounts to the AR account for the customer.
Customer Tracker
Perform real-time queries on summary and detailed information per customer, including sales orders, invoices
and quote activity to date.
Debit Notes
Finance Charges
Finance charge invoices can now be generated against a customer's overdue invoice balance.
These finance charges are automatically calculated based on rules defined within the Finance Charge Maintenance
program. The charges can also be reviewed before they are posted.
The Include CM check box is now available on this maintenance program. When selected, this check box indicates
that credit memos are included during the calculation of overdue invoice amounts.
History
Invoice Entry
Enter multiple shipments for an order on a single invoice, and write unlimited comments. Invoice entry supports
advance/progress billing deposits, credit memos and standard invoices.
Invoice Entry no longer holds any credit card information. Users are only able to enter credit card information
against an invoice at the time of the cash receipt.
Invoice Tracker
Invoice/Statement Forms
Letters of Credit
You use letters of credit in situations when you do not want the risk of offering credit to a customer.
Instead, the customer sets up an agreement with a bank where the bank is held liable to pay for specific goods
up to a certain value using some condition – usually a confirmed receipt such as a bill of lading. You are then
assured your organization will be paid, as you then place the AP invoice amounts against credit available at the
bank. The letter becomes its own independent line of credit between the customer and the bank.
You enter and modify customer letters of credit through Letters of Credit Entry.
A Manual Selection button now displays on the Get Shipments, Get Invoices, and Get Recurring Invoices windows
accessible from AR Invoice Entry.
Use this button to select specific or multiple shipments, invoices, or recurring invoices for posting instead of
selecting all available items in these windows.
National Accounts
Payment Instruments
Additional payment instruments are now available within the Epicor application. These instruments account for
transaction methods used in different localities. Examples of countries which commonly use this functionality
include France, Taiwan, Japan, Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
You can create Promissory Notes within the Accounts Receivable module. These legally binding documents
promise to make a payment to your company at a future date. Your company receives payment on these
documents on the Due Date defined within the promissory note. You handle the amount due on a promissory
note by either creating the GL transactions at a later date or by creating an accounting note which moves the
debt value from the AR invoice to the promissory note (payment instrument).
You can also create a variation on this payment instrument called a Wishful Promissory Note. These payment
instruments are generated by the supplier, and they typically are complete checks that just need to be approved
and signed. Like the promissory note described above, you define when you want to track the debt value -- either
at a later date or within an accounting note.
Another available payment instrument is the Post Dated Check. Use this instrument to create a payment that
will be made in the future. This amount is then paid on the future date specified on the payment. In some
countries, these payments can also be deposited earlier than the future post date.
Use these enhancements to track different types of instruments and their corresponding status, from initial
generation or receipt through clearance/settlement. You can also generate General Ledger movements as the
status changes within the application. Customer credit tracking is maintained through the life of the payment
instrument, and it reflects the available credit based on the status and final settlement of the payment instrument.
This enhancement also ensures that settlement-related taxes are correctly handled when payment is made through
payment instruments. Default bank or stamp charges can be defined for each payment type, which in turn you
can update individually as you need. These items can include tracking charges which are deducted from the
issued payment itself.
You can view these payment instruments on the AR Aging report and various financial trackers like the Customer
Tracker and the AR Invoice Tracker.
You can submit various legal reports electronically, which are based on existing reports such as the EU Sales List,
Intrastat, and Tax Reporting. You can then reformat generic reports to meet your local requirements.
Sales Analysis
Sales Commissions
Pay sales commissions at time of invoicing or on receipt of payment. Establish up to five sales representatives per
order line.
Lists invoice totals and tax amounts by customer for codes on file.
Settlement Currencies
You can now record an invoice in one currency, but receive the same invoice in another currency.
Through this functionality, an invoice can be in the base currency for your company, the receipt can be in another
currency, and the payment can be in a third currency. Any gains or losses which occurred at time of settlement
are recorded by the application.
Settlement Taxes
The Epicor application can now handle the calculation of settlement taxes. These are taxes levied when your
company receives the settlement amount.
This functionality is part of the Payment Instrument feature. Once a payment instrument is settled (complete),
this tax is calculated against the settlement amount.
The existing soft format for EFT can be customized for key markets. These formats match bank requirements and
include remittance information.
Storno Accounting
The application supports Storno Accounting, a business practice commonly used in Eastern European countries.
This accounting practice requires that a booking be canceled for a transaction that is already processed by creating
an automatic reversal of the debit and credit amounts - negative debit/credit values. The application can also, as
required by Red Storno, create a negative or positive transaction that is booked to the same account as the
original transaction.
Tax Regimes
The application supports an advanced and flexible tax engine that can be sensitive tax rates, as well as
self-assessment and withholding taxes.
Enter taxable and nontaxable lines. Accounts Receivable allows an unlimited number of sales taxes per order line.
The application supports the most common business practices for terms and conditions used for Accounts
Receivable. Use this system for all price and early settlement discounts.
The functionality provides great flexibility for payment terms -- including the ability for multiple discounts.
Use this report to view the outstanding taxable balances on items that are invoiced, but are not yet fully reported
since they have not been paid.
You can now void invoices and cash receipts in Accounts Receivable as you need. Voiding an invoice creates a
matching cancellation Credit Note.
Use the Accounts Payable (AP) module to enter supplier invoices for purchases that you make and then create
checks for the invoices you want to pay.
The application can generate payments for all invoices due, those for a particular supplier, or only for specific
invoices. If a supplier calls you to discuss an invoice, you have complete information at your fingertips and that
history can be kept indefinitely.
You use the Accounts Payable functionality to update both purchase orders in Purchase Management, as well
as actual job costs. Adjustments are created if the purchase price does not match the invoiced price. With Accounts
Payable, you know how much you owe and when it is due.
AP Prepayments
Central Payment
The Central AP Invoice Payment functionality is designed for companies who pay for subsidiary AP invoices at
the corporate level.
The corporate location than has greater control over the AP process throughout the company, as all AP invoices
flow through the corporate database.
• A global supplier is first defined as being Centrally Paid.
• Defaults this central payment check box on to any AP Invoice or Debit created for such a supplier.
• The local invoice is posted to the supplier account, but flagged immediately as being fully settled by an
inter-company transfer.
• Use of the corresponding inter-company AP account in place of the AP Control account.
• A new single-line invoice is then created at Corporate, and all subsequent management of the debt including
payment is performed from corporate.
Checks
Exchange Rate
Users can now change the Exchange Rate value on the Header sheet.
Changing this value adjusts the exchange rate used on the current payment. It does not, however, adjust the
exchange rate used overall for the currency.
Record and track your future dated payment instruments, including GL movements. You can also change their
status as you need and track final settlement through the bank.
Automatically create and post general ledger entries from accounts payable transactions.
History
Inspection
The Purchase Order Tracker contains an Inspection sheet that displays the Inspection Plan and the Specification
detail.
Use the Detail sheet to select and display an Inspection Plan.
• Inspection Plan - Click this button to search for existing records.
• Inspection Plan Description... - Displays the description of the selected Inspection Plan.
• Rev - Specifies the revision number associated with the selected Inspection Plan.
• Specification ID - Click this button to search for existing records.
• Specification Description - Displays the description of the selected Specification.
• Rev - Specifies the revision number associated with the selected Specification Plan.
The List sheet displays the information of the record you are viewing.
• Ins Plan Num - Displays the Inspection Plan number.
• Ins Plan Rev - Displays the revision number associated with the selected Inspection Plan.
• Description - Displays the description of the selected Inspection Plan.
• Spec ID - Displays the Specification identifier.
• Spec Rev - Displays the revision number associated with the Specification.
• Description - Displays the description of the selected Specification.
Update jobs created in Job Management directly by material and subcontract costs entered through Accounts
Payable.
Legal Numbers
Some countries require you use unique identifiers (or legal numbers) for transactions. These identifiers have
controls to prevent gaps in sequence and provide an additional tracking method.
You can now use the legal number functionality within the Accounts Payable module for payment, void payment,
and bank fund transfer operations.
Letters of Credit
Letters of Credit are a standard way to provide credit in some countries, and these items are also used in
international trade to cover credit risks.
You agree with a bank that the bank will be held liable to pay for specific goods up to a certain value using some
condition - usually a confirmed receipt such as a bill of lading. The supplier is then assured they will be paid, as
the supplier places the AP invoice amounts against the bank. The letter becomes its own independent line of
credit between your organization and the bank.
You enter and modify letters of credit through Letters of Credit Entry.
Payment Entry
The domestic bank value or exchange rate applied to a payment can be entered as part of the payment process.
Purchasing Variance
View variances between planned and actual purchase price to allow cost adjustments and analysis.
Recurring Entries
The existing soft format for EFT can be customized for key markets. These formats match bank requirements and
include remittance information.
Subcontractor Invoices
Supplier Tracker
Show online inquiries for open invoices, outstanding balances and payment detail.
The application supports the most common business practices for terms and conditions used for Accounts Payable.
Use this system for all price and early settlement discounts.
The functionality provides great flexibility for payment terms -- including the ability for multiple discounts.
Three-Way Match
Use Tax
You can generate use tax amounts within AP Invoice Entry. This additional tax is automatically generated whenever
sales taxes are calculated through the Avalara® third-party application.
A Use Tax is a type of excise taxation that exists in the United States. It is assessed when purchase of a product
is made by a resident of the state issuing the tax. In most cases, this occurs when a product is purchased by a
company from a supplier located in a different state -- and that state charges Use Tax. When a business purchases
goods or services from a supplier who is not required to charge and collect sales tax in the buyer's state, the
buyer must accrue and pay use tax to their state. This tax is strictly to account for usage, storage or consumption
of the goods in that state (not for resale), regardless of where the purchase took place. In most cases, the buyer
of goods is required to accrue the liability of the amount of consumer use tax assessed and in turn report and
remit the tax to the state and/or local taxing jurisdictions.
Epicor Tax Connect UT (Use Tax) is companion functionality to Epicor Tax Connect ST (Sales Tax); functionality
released with the Epicor 9 application. Both features provide tax calculations and reporting on-demand through
current Internet updates. This functionality is maintained by Avalara®, the leading provider of Web-based sales
tax automation solutions for businesses of all sizes.
This functionality automatically populates the required use tax values assessed for an AP invoice. You can configure
which parts and suppliers will launch use tax processing. The functionality then sends this information to the
Avalara service, which in turn sends the appropriate tax values to the Accounts Payable feature set.
Use this report to view the outstanding taxable balances on items that are invoiced, but are not yet fully reported
since they have not been paid.
Voided Numbers
You can track or reuse voided or unused numbers or transactions that are not committed to a database. You are
then accountable for all numbers and have no sequence gaps.
Your Epicor application contains enhanced functionality for distributing allocations to specific target GL accounts.
Use this functionality to set up, distribute, review, and (in some situations) reverse the allocations you generate.
Many organizations need a sophisticated method to allocate cost and revenue across multiple projects, departments,
and locations. Use the Advanced Allocation functionality to create, execute, retain, and reuse allocations for your
entire organization. This functionality allocates costs and revenue based on either static or dynamic calculations.
It is designed to work together with the Project Billing functionality; this functionality is also released with Epicor
9.05.
Available functionality:
• Allocate an amount from a single account to one or multiple accounts.
• Group accounts together for pooling and allocation.
• Create allocations based on statistical data like square feet, headcount, rooms, and so on.
• Base allocations on Business Activity Query (BAQ) data. BAQs are dynamic query tools you can use to pull the
data you need out of the database. This dynamic data can help you pull in items like monthly revenue, help
desk service calls, and so on.
• Structure tiered allocations which run sequentially following a sequence you define.
• Create and post allocation journals.
• Use the output of the calculations elsewhere within the application.
• Reverse allocations when you need.
Allocation Codes
To set up GL allocations, you first must define the allocation codes you need to use.
Each allocation code contains the following elements:
• GL Book -- Select the book inside which the allocations will occur.
• Allocation Type -- Each allocation code can either be balance-based or transactional.
• Source Accounts -- You define selection criteria which pulls in the specific accounts you need. You define
selection criteria through account categories, journal codes, account masks, and ranges of account segment
values.
• Offset Account -- An account which records offset amounts you may need as part of the allocation.
• Target Accounts -- These accounts will receive the allocation amounts. The value received depends on the
Ratio percentage assigned to each target account.
• Ratios -- Ratios can be defined as either fixed values or as formulas. You can define the formulas you need.
The fixed values can come from the balances of specific GL accounts, a summarized value across several GL
accounts, and the data results from a BAQ (Business Activity Query).
Allocation Processing
You process allocation codes through batches; each batch distributes the allocations as needed. Within each
batch, the allocation codes are further organized into different levels, or tiers.
When the Epicor application processes an allocation batch, each tier processes -- one after the other. All the tiers
processed after the first tier access the results of the allocations made within the previous tier.
When the application processes an allocation batch, tiers are processed one after another -- starting with Tier 1.
For each allocation code within Tier 1, the application selects source accounts and calculates source amounts. It
then calculates ratios, generating the partial amounts and creating the GL transactions required to distribute the
amounts across the target accounts.
When the application finishes processing Tier 1, it then repeats these steps for Tier 2. When Tier 2 is complete,
it moves on to Tier 3 and so on.
The Asset Management module (previously called Fixed Assets) is designed to handle complex calculations of
asset depreciation and asset valuation. You can use either the depreciation methods included with the module,
or create custom depreciation methods to reflect the standards required in your locality.
In business and accounting, assets are everything of value owned by a person or company. This module handles
the needs of companies involved in the buying, selling, depreciation, and management of fixed assets. The
functionality matches the global requirements for managing and accounting for assets. When your organization
leverages this module, balance sheets display the monetary value of the assets owned by the company.
Use the Asset Management module to set up assets using various depreciation methods and conventions. You
can record asset additions, impairments, and disposals, and calculate and post depreciations.
Asset Activities
The Asset Management module now provides the Addition, Depreciation, Disposal, and Impairment activities.
Asset Register
Asset Registers give you the ability to have parallel asset valuations. By using asset registers, you can assign
different attributes to an asset such as depreciation methods, service dates, and estimated life. You use this
functionality for both analysis and reporting. Asset registers can also be linked to one or multiple GL books.
Conventions
Depreciation conventions determine how the application handles the first year of an asset's depreciation. Several
conventions are now available, including Mid-Month, Half-Year, Quarter, and Full-Month.
Depreciation Methods
Several default deprecation calculation methods are now available, including Rate Straight Line, Life Straight Line,
Sum of Years Digits, Declining Balance, Declining Balance to Straight Line, Fixed Amount Per Month, and Fixed
Amount Per Year. You can also create custom depreciation methods to reflect the depreciation schedule required
in your locality.
Module Integration
The enhanced Asset Management module integrates with the Accounts Payable, Inventory, Project Management,
and Maintenance Management modules to streamline the broader processes needed for acquiring, maintaining,
and disposing of company assets.
Multi-Currency Support
Asset Management provides full multi-currency support. It contains the ability to track the original cost,
depreciation, and other activities in both transactional and reporting currencies.
Each asset is saved using a physical asset identifier tag. You use this tag to track the asset throughout your
company.
Improve cash management through the automatic handling and reporting of discounts available, payment due
dates and payment selection methods.
Bank Reconciliation
Reconcile your bank statement with entries generated in Accounts Payable and Payroll.
Petty Cash
Use this set of cash management features to enter and track petty cash transactions.
This functionality set enables you to create petty cash document forms; these forms are in compliance with the
requirements needed by various government organizations. You can also create cash issues and receipts against
AR and AP invoices.
You leverage the Petty Cash functionality to create daily summary reports and print cash documents. You can
maintain petty cash transactions in both local and international currencies as well as handle unauthorized petty
cash documents. You can also use this functionality to automatically post transactions to the General Ledger and
update sales (AR) and purchase (AP) invoices with payment information.
The Petty Cash functionality requires you purchase an additional license from Epicor. These programs are then
available within the Cash Management module on the Main Menu.
Use the Currency Management module to automate the process of conducting transactions internationally
through multiple currencies.
You can use this module to create multiple currency records. The module automatically pairs each currency with
the other currencies to create source and target currency relationships. Through rate types, you define the
conversion rules for each currency pair.
You can then enter and update exchange rates as often as you need. The Epicor application automatically applies
these exchange rates against the international transactions generated through the current company. If required,
rates can be overidden and locked for specific transactions.
Accounts Payable
Print checks in the currency defined for a supplier. The checks use amounts automatically converted from the
base currency.
Bank Accounts
Specify the currency used by the bank for each of your accounts.
Cash Receipts
Automatically convert cash received in the specific currency for a customer back to the base currency upon receipt.
Currency Hierarchy
Streamline data entry by specifying a default currency for each country, which then defaults to all customers and
suppliers linked to each specific country.
Customer Orders
Automatically default a sales order to the currency defined on each customer. If you need, you can change the
currency used on the sales order at any time.
Assign a default currency to each price list when price lists are defined for various customers.
Exchange Rates
Update exchange rates as frequently as daily to support last minute exchange rate changes.
Gain/Loss Calculations
Create and post gain or loss calculations automatically to the General Ledger.
Invoicing
Automatically default invoices to the currency selected on the customer record. You can change the currency on
the AR invoice at any time.
Multi Currency
The Global Multi Currency engine supports an unlimited number of currencies. Different currencies can be
used for all records and books.
Default currencies can be applied at the account, user, customer, and supplier levels. A currency can also be
changed at the transaction level.
You can create rate types which hold the conversion rules used for all currencies defined for the company. You
can then update the exchange rates for each currency as often as you need while still using the original conversion
rules defined within the rate type. If you need, you can create multiple rate types, and select a different rate type
for a different transaction area, such as sales, purchases, and fixed assets.
Each company can have up to three reporting currencies. A reporting currency is one you use to record, or
report, financial transactions. You can have an unlimited number of transactional currencies, which gives you
the ability to conduct business all over the world.
Purchase Orders
Automatically default invoices to the currency selected on the supplier record. You can change the currency on
the AP invoice at any time.
Quotations
Send quotations calculated in the default currency defined for your prospect or customer.
Reporting
Convert reports to base currency so there is no need for recalculations when determining profitability or cash
requirements.
Revaluation Options
Revalue balances and transactions in General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Recievable.
You can manually journal the currency gains and losses or automatically post a summary currency revaluation
gain and loss reversing journal based on the revaluation calculations. You can run the report only for analysis
purposes.
You can separate different financial elements, such as order processing and purchasing, and decide which to
revalue using an updated exchange rate and which to report using the original exchange rate. Revaluation routines
and reports then run separately on different portions of the database. Accounts that represent actual values for
revaluation are defined accordingly.
Service Contracts
Support the currency selected for a specific supplier using price break tables.
As required by some currencies, the Epicor application can record transactions using up to three decimal places.
You can configure a currency record to handle from zero to three decimal places. You can also further configure
this decimal information for display within Crystal reports.
Deferred revenue is a revenue recognition procedure; through this procedure revenues are recognized only when
the earnings process is complete.
If funds are received and no goods or services have been provided, the process is not complete and revenue
cannot be recognized. In this case, a deferred revenue liability is recorded. Specifically, the deferred revenue
account is credited and cash, or other assets, are debited.
Through the Deferred Revenue Accounting module, you can activate deferred revenue billing for customers,
product groups, service contracts, and specific Accounts Receivable invoice lines. You can define a fiscal calendar
to structure amortization dates. Select the fiscal calendar on the revenue amortization code to generate appropriate
amortization periods and dates.
After you post a deferred revenue invoice, recognize revenue based on the defined amortization code and
schedule. If necessary, place amortization periods on hold or update posted invoice details.
Use the module's reports to review amortization and revenue recognition details.
Programs within the Deferred Revenue Accounting module include:
• Revenue Amortization Maintenance
• Hold/Unhold Amortization Periods
• Revenue Recognition
• DRA Forecast Report
• DRA Reconciliation Report
Revenue Amortization
Use Revenue Amortization Maintenance to define the duration of amortization, frequency of amortization
periods, and recognition amount for each period.
Various amortization calculation methods are available.
Use Fiscal Calendar Maintenance to create a calendar that structures amortization recognition dates.
Example If you want to recognize revenue on a weekly basis, you can set up a fiscal calendar with weeks
as periods. Revenue will then be recognized at the end of every week.
Revenue Recognition
Use Revenue Recognition to record the revenue for selected amortization periods.
From this program's Actions menu, select Get Amortizations to populate the Amortizations grid with available
invoices. You can highlight invoices for which you want to post amortization amounts. When the process is
submitted, the appropriate GL journals are created and revenue moves from the deferred revenue account to
the corresponding sales account.
Use the Hold / Unhold Amortization Periods program to place a number of amortization periods on hold. Revenue
is not recognized for periods that are on hold.
General Ledger (GL) processes and posts entries created by Job Management, AR, AP and Payroll, as well as
manual entries made directly in the general ledger.
A chart of accounts is easily established to control how you want the application to report on your business. You
can even export your general ledger data to a spreadsheet to handle any special requirements.
Account Tracker
Show the current activity and balances for the period you specify. Locate an account through word search
capabilities. Summarize view with options to drill down to account detail and supporting journal entries.
Adjustments
With proper security, make prior year adjustments, and all balances forward are adjusted.
The Epicor Advanced Financial Reporting (AFR) application builds upon the existing Financial Report Designer
located within the General Ledger module. This new program contains enhanced functionality that integrates
your financial reporting with the capabilities of Epicor 9.05 and other Epicor applications.
Available functionality:
• Support for multi-company consolidation (soft consolidations).
• Reporting across multiple GL books.
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• Ability to deliver reports as Microsoft and Office Excel spreadsheets. XBRL reporting can then be
accommodated through third-party products or services using the AFR-generated Excel spreadsheets. Future
releases of the AFR are planned to deliver full and direct XBRL output.
• Other reporting options like desktop, Web, printer, XML, xlsx, docx, pptx, PDF, or file.
• The ability to send reports as email attachments in secure .pdf and .jpg formats. You can also send reports
as a direct URL link users can access.
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• Microsoft Office integration at the report level. The report preserves its format (numbers, currency, date
fields, underlines) as required.
• Ability to save report selections and templates -- then attach these items to menus.
• Provides run-time parameters selected by the application when the report is run -- including user, date,
company, and cost center.
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AFR makes use of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). All report designs can be managed using
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SSRS Report Designer and reports can be published to the Web or Microsoft SharePoint . Additional components
include the ability to import/export report definitions and the ability to schedule and distribute reports.
AFR requires a license for Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and, for customers using a Progress database, a license for
Epicor Replication Server. Epicor AFR is planned as a multi-release deliverable designed as an alternative to
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Microsoft FRx and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Management Reporter, which in the interim will remain
available to customers currently using these solutions. Additionally, a conversion tool is planned for a future
release; this conversion tool will take existing FRx and Management Reporter report structures and automatically
convert them to AFR structures.
Note New AFR features are documented in the separate Epicor Advanced Financial Reporting Feature
Summary. This document is available to view and download from EPICWeb.
Allocations
Use this report to review a summary of total debits and credits from each General Ledger journal.
Auto-Export GL Data
The application has an open database design so that you can easily export of general ledger data to third-party
software packages for additional graphing and reporting analysis.
Balance Control
Budgets
Enter figures for any account and year. Globally update budgets by percentage. Enhanced capabilities for budgets
are allowed with the integration to other third party financial application.
COA Generation
Use a Chart of Accounts' controlled segments and the segment values to create general ledger accounts. To save
time, you can use this command rather than creating accounts manually.
The modality of the generation determines how values are generated.
• In a simple account generation, you generate accounts based on defined segment values. You can select
specific segment values or value ranges for use in the generation.
• In a generation with copying, you copy specific combinations of segment values.
Consolidation
Transfer subsidiary account balances to a consolidated COA for use in financial reports.
Consolidations are run at the detail transaction level from books or companies who have a defined relationship.
You can also map multiple details to one parent account.
Transfers require the configuration, generation, validation, adjustment, and posting of consolidation journals.
Typically, the journals transfer balances from a source book owned by a subsidiary to a consolidated book owned
by its parent.
This functionality is enhanced by using a intermediate consolidation book to analyze and report the data before
the consolidation is committed to the parent book. If the data changes, you can also reverse the consolidated
information through a full reversing journal.
A source currency is also converted to a target currency before the transactions are consolidated within the
intermediate book. The converted data is then sent to the parent.
Correspondence Accounting
You can specify the credited and debited account for each line in a journal entry with correspondence accounting.
This functionality is for countries that require each individual line of a journal to have matching debit and credit
entries. You can specify corresponding pairs of accounts for each value entry within the posting engine.
The application now supports a more complex chart of accounts. Some segments can be generated dynamically,
and balance options are also available at the segment level.
COA segments can contain as many as 20 segments, each of which contains as many as 50 characters. An
account code can contain up to 200 characters - including delimiters.
Controlled segments require you to define values and combinations of accounts. Dynamic segments can be either
defined or generated automatically. This type of segment can be used to define the sub-ledger or to allow the
use of a reference type.
Each book can have its own chart of accounts, so you can apply a chart appropriate for the financial activities
recorded within each specific book.
The application provides an enhanced, integrated financial report writer that can report on transactions across
multiple books.
This reporting tool can also extract, manage, and calculate against the data set. You can format the reports based
on requirements you define. This functionality also can export the reports to Microsoft® Excel®.
Post entries to any period in the current year, next year or any year, even while a period is still open.
This user-customizable tool creates income statements, balance sheets or any other financial report containing
data from specified accounts. Customized formatting includes font, size, layout, and comparatives. Enhanced
report writing capabilities are allowed with the integration to Microsoft® Management Reporter®.
GL Controls
Instead of using system-imposed accounting rules to define which parameters drive the specific accounts to use,
you can modify the installed configuration to record transactions within different segments more applicable to
your company.
GL controls define the accounts and journal codes available to application posting processes. All posting accounts
used in the application are set in this program.
You can associate one or more GL controls with a business entity in the application. The association allows the
use of control values when the record applies to a posted transaction. Controls provide centralized control over
accounts in journals.
During posting, posting rules use control values to create journal details. The rules access account values through
references to their account contexts. Often, control accounts lack values for one or more segments. Rules use
data in posted transactions to define the segment values.
The GL Distribution Report contains a Book filter field. You can limit this report to only display general ledger
values for a specific book.
Use the GL Transaction Detail tracker to review any general ledger transaction placed against a specific record.
Launch this tracker from any identifier field for a record which contains general ledger details; the tracker displays
as an option on the context menus for these fields.
You can configure the Global Rounding engine to create rounding rules at the country, company, or customer
level. The rounding engine can also be configured to round AR invoice totals.
These rules include the rounding decimal place, calculation, and differences between raw and rounded amounts.
You can then select these rules in various programs throughout the application.
The Global Tax engine incorporates your required tax parameters and rounding facilities and provides a single
location for subsequent maintenance.
You can call the tax engine from various modules and configure it to include or exclude taxes on various transaction
documents. The functionality handles recoverable, non-recoverable, and withholding taxes.
Use the Journal Detail Tracker to display an entire journal entry to see all of the affected accounts and amounts
for a specific journal.
Launch this tracker from any program which contains a general ledger journal detail record; examples of programs
that have the tracker include the GL Journal Detail Tracker, the Chart Tracker, and the Journal Tracker. The Journal
Detail Tracker displays as an option both on the Actions menu and the context menus within these programs.
Legal Numbering
Control legal numbering formats, masks, and numbered sequences assigned to specific modules, document
types, and transactions .
Stamp and track every transaction back to its source. You can assign a legal number at the end of a particular
tax reporting period so that all transactions are reported with a new centralized number in sequential order and
stored for audit purposes.
Multiple Books
Companies can use multiple books to display the same financial information in multiple contexts. Multiple books
allow companies to reflect items differently for analysis and reporting.
Each book can have its own chart, fiscal calendar, and currency. it can also have its own validation rules.
Two types of books are available :
• Standard - A traditional financial book that can be used independently from another book.
• Consolidated - A book used to store consolidation results before sending to its parent book. Use a consolidated
book to contain data from a subsidiary company. This facilitates local reporting.
Multiple Company
Multiple company general ledgers give the option for using the same interactive system within the company or
enterprise.
Define error handling for journals posted to a GL book and created by posting rules. Books and rules can ignore,
block, and log posting errors.
The following validations are available:
• Error - The transaction in error is saved in the Review journal.
• Warning - The user is notified that the transaction may be in error, but the application records it as correct.
• Ignore - The transaction is recorded as correct.
• Auto-Correct - The application automatically makes an adjustment to the transaction.
Posting Engine
Use the Posting Engine to post into multiple books and provide greater flexibility and control over the process of
creating financial transactions.
The posting engine is a flexible rules based mechanism that defines what accounts to hit with what amounts
and in what books. The posting engine unifies the posting process for all business transactions and provides
automatic handling of currency conversions and rounding differences.
It also has the ability to use predefined posting or out of the box rules. You can also create custom rules for use
with a specific business requirement.
Statements
Reference Rules
There is a new type of posting rule named Reference Rule in GL Transaction Type Maintenance.
The Reference Rule supports the correspondence accounting in the form of generating strictly bi-line general
ledger (GL) transactions. This rule works similarly to the way pre-posting rules currently works and is used only
to populate a GL control that would be linked to a post entity for future use without populating any amounts
or debit/credit accounts.
Correspondingly, this rule type does not create any GL details. However, unlike pre-posting rules, this new rule
type is still run during the normal posting process and has a property that indicates the specific posting entity
the outgoing GL control is attached to.
Note For more information, refer to the GL Transaction Type Maintenance topic in the Application Help.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Important This program is not available in the ®Epicor Web Access™ interface. You can launch this
program from an Epicor Smart Client (Windows ) interface.
Multi-Site Overview
Use the Multi-Site Management module to synchronize distribution of goods across multiple sites.
This single set of tools provides visibility and consolidation of resources in multiple facilities. It also supports
running business functions centralized with separate production functions, or running them separately with the
ability to consolidate financials at month-end or quarter-end.
Multi-Site Management also provides support for centralized accounting and purchasing. At the same time,
however, it also ensures the separation of these production facilities.
Important The Multi-Site Management module is only available for organizations who purchase the
Enterprise edition of the Epicor application.
Define alternate BOMs per part, per plant. When the same part is produced at multiple facilities, each plant can
generate a BOM inclusive of their processes and configuration.
Define alternate routings per part, per plant. When the same part is produced at multiple facilities, each plant
can execute a routing inclusive of their processes and configuration. You retain visibility and control, as plant-specific
routings are maintained as sub-revisions of the base revision.
Cost by Plant
Hold average, actual, and last costs per part, per plant, ensuring the same costs apply to all plants.
Financial Consolidation
Set up multi-company consolidation between any companies within the Epicor database. Financial rollups can
even be done with companies outside Epicor.
Forecasts
Automatically send raw material forecasts to the supply companies. Later, these forecasts can be firmed up by
creating inter-company purchase orders.
Define global customers, parts and suppliers. Global customers, suppliers, and parts can now have records
transferred and maintained between companies. Based on a set of user-defined rules and mappings, automatically
ensure that new and changed records are sent to all companies within your enterprise.
Send agreements to all companies by setting up global price agreements for key raw materials to ensure materials
are purchased from the correct supplier at the appropriate global price.
Information Sharing
A robust messaging engine ensures the transfer of information whether your companies are on a single database,
multiple databases, or multiple servers.
Inter-Company Eliminations
Map accounts between companies for smooth inter-company eliminations. With frequent mergers and acquisitions,
the general ledger account structure between parent and child companies may not be the same.
Inter-Company Trading
Additionally, all changes from the purchasing company are immediately visible to the selling company, and any
changes made by the selling company are automatically sent to the supplying company.
Multi-Company
Provide for multiple companies to be managed in a single database, multiple databases, or a combination of
both.
You dictate whether to hold all companies in a single database or each company in individual databases, where
each company can have its own chart(s), base currency, and calendars. Note, however, that companies contain
chart, currency, and calendar information, and so multiple databases are not required to record this data.
Multi-Company Purchasing
Multi-Company Security
Authorize each user to view only information about specific companies to which they have access.
The Sonic MQ Adapter application is now required to pass data between multiple companies and databases.
Because of this, you must install the Sonic application before you run Consolidation processing. For more
information, review the Epicor 9 Installation Guide; the Install SonicMQ Appendix describes the Sonic installation
process. You can also review the Multi-Site Technical Reference Guide for this information. This guide is
located within the application help under the Multi-Site Management>Working With>Multi-Site Technical
Reference Guide topic.
Multiple Currencies
Consolidate financials in any currency. Each company in the hierarchy has its own currency, and the top-level
corporation may have a different currency not shared with any other company.
Identify groups to automatically receive e-mail alerts when important project transactions occur (for example,
when a particular project milestone is completed) in addition to identifying critical project personnel.
View jobs for one plant or all plants, depending on security. This provides control and flexibility to each production
facility, which often has its own production planner and scheduler.
Production Plants
Gain visibility to separate each plant's resource groups, inventory levels and jobs.
Project Analysis
With over 150 predefined project cost analytics, plus user-defined analysis codes, consolidate and extract any
project cost metric - including complete rollups of all cost transactions related to the project (for example, job
materials, job operations, quote estimates, and sales order information).
Begin cost analysis with the quote. Quoting allows project analysis of potential projects in the design stage, before
the project even begins.
The Project tracker displays real-time costs for all associated transactions, at any stage in the project. Combined
with VBI, you have a powerful engine for cost analysis as it offers user-defined costing buckets available per
project, customer, and product group, as well as for each part, all materials and labor.
Project Budgets
Dynamically calculate quoted costs and current estimated costs based on the work breakdown structure.
Alternatively, the project manager can enter a budget manually.
Project Generation
Define all project components as part of a logical, cohesive plan. A project can be generated at any time, both
before and after the contract has been signed with the customer.
Project Invoicing
Generate progress and milestone billing, so you can invoice your customer and optionally defer the revenue and
cost of sale, recognizing them at various stages in the project.
Invoices can be generated based on a fixed date, fixed amount, user-defined stage of project completion, or
user-defined cost-to-date.
Project Management
Epicor Project Management integrates cost-effective management, tracking, revision, review, and analysis to
simplify and streamline all aspects of project administration.
Projects can be generated, modified, reviewed and analyzed - at any time. And project functionality is entirely
embedded within Epicor, eliminating the need for additional project management software.
Project Schedule
Calculate project start and due dates by project, by jobs within a project or by job assembly, all the way down
to individual job operations.
A task bar on the scheduling window displays the job operation's current percent complete. Labor reported
against the job operation incrementally increases the percent complete total and decreases the remaining total
hours. Projects can be scheduled using either the Epicor Scheduling system or Microsoft Project.
Modify a project at any time, offering ultimate flexibility to the project manager. User-defined workflows and
check off/approval requirements are standard. Throughout its lifetime, all aspects of the project are entirely
transparent.
Revenue Analysis
Easily perform revenue analysis for progress/milestone billing. VBI streamlines the process with user-defined
buckets for revenue analysis (for example, quoted revenue, current revenue, quoted margin, and current margin).
VBI provides a thorough cash flow analysis in a straightforward view that is entirely user-defined.
Shared Warehouses
Share one or more warehouses per plant to reflect the way each company conducts its business.
Define each company with its own credit limit against a customer, or you can deploy a global credit limit consumed
by all of a customer's sales across all your companies.
Sourcing by Plant
Define a unique source per part or plant - whether its default sourcing is purchased, produced or transferred.
What is produced in one location may be purchased - or transferred in - from another.
Unique Accounts
Establish individual accounts, including inter-company elimination accounts, for each plant and company.
Define the parent-child relationships between companies in an unlimited hierarchy. Each organization can have
a parent company, which may also have a child company which is the parent to another company, and so on.
Divide single sites with multiple production lines into multiple sites for virtual plants.
Payroll Overview
Use the Payroll functionality to handle the processing of all employee paychecks and provide necessary company
and governmental reporting.
Leverage the comprehensive employee information and memo fields to track employee personnel information
-- like performance reviews and outside training.
Because payroll is tightly integrated with Job Management and Data Collection, you normally only have to review
your payroll entries, make adjustments, print your checks, and then post the resulting records. If you use the
payroll module, you no longer need to have your payroll done through an outside service, as you can now easily
run payroll internally.
General ledger entries are automatically created through the payroll process.
Auto-Pay
Check History
Checks
Preview, print on standard check forms, or reprint in the event of a forms jam.
Departments/Shifts
Direct Deposit
Set up employees for direct deposit. Checks are then non-negotiable, and a direct deposit file is automatically
created every time a payroll run is generated.
Employees
Set up employees as hourly or salaried. Pay employees weekly, biweekly, semimonthly, or monthly.
Year-end reporting optionally creates an electronic W-2 file suitable for federal filing.
Pay Types
Maintain regular, overtime, double time, holiday, vacation and sick, plus unlimited user-defined pay types.
You can now summarize payroll checks by batch during the posting process.
Payroll Taxes
Personnel Information
Tax Deductions
Voluntary Deduction
W-2 Forms
Use the Rebates, Promotions, and Royalties module to enter, update, and review any rebate program your
company runs with your customers.
Through this module, you accumulate rebates and pay a designated sold to customer, bill to customer, or another
designated customer. These rebate amounts are based on part and product group sales during a specified date
range.
Use this module to define the active rebate programs for your company. You can then generate the rebate
transactions. Lastly, run this functionality to pay the rebate amounts to your customers through either an invoice
check or a credit memo.
Important This module currently only handles rebate programs. Promotion and royalty functionality is
planned for release in a future version.
Use the Generate Rebate Transaction Process to generate all the rebate transactions that occur within a
defined date range.
Get Rebates
Use the Get Rebates command to turn the rebate transactions into AP invoices or credit memos. This Actions
menu command is found both in AR Invoice Entry and AP Invoice Entry.
Use the Rebate Contract Entry to enter rebate information for a single customer or a group of customers.
You define the product groups or specific parts that are included during the rebate offer as well as the rebate
breaks that the customer or customer group receives.
Rebate Trackers
Use the Rebate Contract Tracker and Rebate Contract Status to follow the progress of the rebate programs.
Finding the right information quickly is the key element to the success of using any software package. That's
why Epicor offers several tools that allow you to tailor your system to meet your specific needs. It's an amazing
characteristic of Epicor that will help you find any information you need, when you need it.
There are several enhancements that impact the system as a whole, and not just a single module or program. In
addition, there are many changes in our third party applications.
The Executive Dashboard is a single application that encompasses multiple capabilities such as inquiries, ad-hoc
reports, workbenches, graphical analysis, alerts, and business monitoring. It is a robust, one-stop interface that
replaces traditional menu systems with a personalized role or context based views that link into core transactions
of the system.
The Executive Dashboard also puts the visual indicators and functions that you use the most right at your fingertips.
The Executive Dashboard enables you to develop your own workbenches using a series of online views of
information - such as a Tracker. From a Tracker, "open with" technology lets you drill into any part of the system:
whether to enter a new order, modify an existing job, or update a customer record. The power of the Dashboard
is in how it enables you to specify your work preferences, then tailor Epicor to match your needs.
Administration Console
Epicor Administration Console is Microsoft Management Console (MMC) application used to manage Epicor
application servers.
Epicor Administration Console can be installed on one or more computers and enables you to manage:
• Licensing
• Companies
• Sessions
• Users
The Epicor Administration Console also hosts the consoles for Replication Server and Enterprise Search Manager.
You can import Windows users from your Active Directory domain to create Epicor users. You can set defaults
both by settings used in a template user record and by entering data during the import wizard.
Prerequisites:
• Your company network must use Windows Active Directory.
• Set up template users. A template user is a standard user record whose user account settings are configured
to match what you want when importing a particular group of Windows users. For example, you might have
a user record set up for accounting users and another for executive users and so on. Open the Epicor client
to add template users (System Management > Company Maintenance > User). Template user records do not
have to be enabled to use them during an import, and disabling a template user record is the best practice.
To import Active Directory users to create Epicor users:
1. In Epicor Administration Console, under the server installation to which you want to add users, click Users.
4. For User, enter the user ID of the template user you would like to use for this import to filter the list. Highlight
the template user record and click Next.
5. In the text box left of Add, enter a Windows user name or a Windows group name, then click Add. If users
came in that you did not want to add, highlight them and click Remove. When you are ready with the list
of users and/or groups to import, click Next.
6. Review the list of users about to be imported. You can see what information is being brought over from
the Windows account(s). You can type missing information in if you wish. If you wish for all of the user
being imported to be enabled upon import select Enable imported users. When you are ready, click Finish.
Users who successfully import disappear from the list. Users who did not import due to a conflict stay in the
list with an exclamation point icon. Hover over the icon for error message. If all users/groups imported
successfully the wizard closes.
Advanced Print Management integrates doc-link software with the application, which is made by the Altec
company. Advanced Print Management is an "out of the box" efficiency tool that transforms paper documents,
forms, and reports into electronic documents that can be delivered in a multitude of formats.
Documents can be delivered via email, fax, or FTP. Electronic deployment of quotes, invoices and purchase orders
eliminates expensive administrative downtime.
Advanced Print Management Plus provides repository capabilities to index and easily locate previously distributed
documents. Advanced Print Management also provides supplemental document linking to streamline distribution;
for example, when a packet of documents - such as a job traveler and corresponding documentation - need to
be distributed concurrently. Additional features include:
• Archive Documents - Electronically archive distributed documents for easy retrieval.
• Document Links - Link core documents together for easy distribution and printing of multiple docs at the
same time. For example, a traveler or packing slip can be distributed with associated certifications and drawings.
Additionally, the AR invoice can be emailed along with the associated packing slip.
• Document Search - Scan documents and link to existing records in the application. This provides the ability
to easily place external documents such as certifications or vendor paperwork in the repository for searching
or using as a supplemental document.
You can print both application documents and scanned documents in color.
Document Distribution
Dynamically distribute documents, as Advanced Print Management reads the email or fax number directly from
the virtual document to determine distribution method and delivery.
Document Management
Easily fulfill customer requirements for documentation by specifying per document receipt method.
Document Splitting
When printing multiple invoices at a time, let APM individually analyze and manage each invoice by preferred
distribution method.
More features from the Altec application are now supported. The Office Integration feature set can be leveraged
for more document management efficiency.
Multiple data formats, including HTML, CSV, XML, text, and PCL.
A variety of output methods, including fax, email, FTP, print, and file.
Advanced Quality Management (AQM) is powered by the IQS company. This software is a third-party application
useful for collating data that pertains to quality information on your products.
Advanced Quality Management provides the foundation for significant productivity improvements and cost
reductions across your entire enterprise. This solution includes Product and Process Documentation, Customer
and Supplier Management, Nonconformance and Corrective Action capability.
Keep track of audits, audit results, quality costs, and cost categories using Advanced Quality.
Customer Communications
Manage customer contact and communications, such as complaints, questions, suggestions, surveys, and emails
using the integration with Microsoft Outlook.
Employee Database
Manage employee-related items, such as job descriptions, skills, training, change requests, revision history,
projects, injuries, infractions, and surveys all in one location.
Epicor 9 Integration
The Advance Quality Management application is integrated for use with Epicor 9.
Manage Documentation
Use Advanced Quality to manage documents, products, and processes, as well as equipment and devices, all in
one application.
Move WIP
Use the Move WIP program to move a work in progress (WIP) part from one job operation to another. This
program has been significantly enhanced; after specifying a "from" job number, assembly part, operation,
warehouse bin and part, the Epicor application now validates that a matching record exists in the PartWIP table.
When you save this transaction, it updates the quantity and operation assignment in the PartWIP table record,
and if the job contains a serial tracked part, the Epicor application updates the appropriate serial number and
serial tracing tables to reflect the newly assigned operation.
Quality Management
Track your data collection, nonconformances and corrective actions using Advanced Quality.
Supplier Communications
Manage supplier contact and communications, such as complaints, questions, suggestions, audits, and emails
using the integration with Microsoft Outlook.
AutoVue Overview
Cimitry-Autovue Integration
The Cimitry - Autovue application is fully integrated with the Epicor application.
The BAQ Report Designer enables you to turn a Business Activity Query (BAQ) into a Crystal Report. You create
these personalized queries through Business Activity Query; you design each query to pull in a customized set of
information from your database.
You then use the BAQ Report Designer to select this BAQ as the base for a report -- and also define the option
fields, filters, and sort by options that will appear on the report interface. To finish the report, you use the Crystal
Reports application to define its layout.
Important In order to effectively use the BAQ Report Designer, you should have solid knowledge of both
Business Activity Queries and Crystal Reports.
The reports you create through this tool are flat reports; they are restricted to only pulling data from the table
defined on their selected BAQs.
The data definition indicates the specific fields that will appear on the report; you can edit this definition within
the Report Data Maintenance program.
BAQ Directives
The Business Process Management (BPM) functionality is extended to include BAQ directives. Use this additional
set of BPM directives to monitor data entered through updatable BAQs.
You can set up a variety of conditions and actions for each updatable BAQ you create. As users enter data through
their client and mobile devices, these BAQ directives can help validate the data, trigger email notifications, and
run other actions you need.
Use the BAQ Report Designer to test the report form, generate sample data, design the report using Crystal
Reports, and deploy the final report to the servers for general use. Access these tools from the Actions menu of
the program's interface.
Create a new BAQ Report through the copy feature, and modify an existing report. Also create a new BAQ Report
from scratch using standard or customized Business Activity Queries (BAQs). Design the reports interface
components, including the report options, field labels, filters, and sorting criteria.
After you design or modify a report, the final step is to deploy it to the Main Menu for general use. This is easily
done through the Menu Maintenance program.
You can export the current BAQ Report out of the local reports directory to another location, or pull a BAQ Report
back into the application when you use the export and import commands in the BAQ Report Designer.
A new external update method (UpdateExt) has been added to all transactional business objects to support bulk
updates via integration engines such as Epicor Service Connect.
This method implements the functionality previously incorporated in the Epicor Web Service Update method to
accept a complete dataset containing hierarchical data and multiple records and to call the base Update method
of each business object repeatedly for each row in the dataset and for all records in the dataset. Since all processing
is conducted on the server within one login session, the use of this method eliminates much of the latency within
the Web services and improves performance for bulk updates.
There are several standard BAQ Reports that you may use in that system that were created with the BAQ Report
Designer program. These are:
• Employee Efficiency Report
• Rebate Transactions
• Resource Group Efficiency
• Rebate Contract Summary
Previously Business Activity Queries (BAQs) could only pull in data selected through the query tool. Now, however,
you can create a BAQs through which users can enter data.
Use this tool to create updatable BAQs you can then place on customized dashboards. These dashboards can
either be displayed on the standard Epicor client or modified for display on a mobile device like an iPhone. Users
can then launch these custom dashboards to enter and save data needed within your business flow.
Leverage this functionality to create custom entry programs for any aspect of your business you need.
Bartender Overview
Bartender software is made by the Seagull Scientific company. Within the Bartender application, you can create
custom labels and save them in a directory that is available to machines that run the Manufacturing software.
Labels can consist of fixed data or database data. The format can be human readable or barcode format or both.
Auto-Print Integration
To be compatible with Bartender, some enhancements have been added to the Manufacturing software. This
functionality is valuable for automatically printing barcode labels upon the completion of defined transactions in
the Business Activity Manager program.
Label Printing
The Business Activity Management module contains several dynamic tools that lets you pull the specific data you
need.
The functionality within this module lets you create queries that are specific to your business and/or role within
your company. You can also define custom global alerts that will keep your company on top of nearly every
situation that occurs.
The Auto-Print functionality lets you automatically print out reports and labels when changes you define occur
within the table. This data is automatically sent to a printer – giving users either a preview or a hard copy print
out of the labels or reports.
BAM Rules
You can define when these BAM events are triggered by setting up a series of rules. These rules define conditions
that limit how often change logs are updated, global alerts are sent and auto-printing is activated.
This program allows you to select the tables and fields you want to monitor as well as the comunnication method
you use to display the information.
As you enter and update data, an event is triggered. BAM communicates this event through change logs, global
alerts, and automatically printed reports. You can also set parameters for when events are triggered in order to
limit the scenarios that generate logs, alerts, or reports.
Change Logs
Use the Change Log option to view changes that were made to records throughout the database. These logs let
you track a list of data updates that were made to pre-selected areas of sales orders, purchase orders, jobs, parts,
and so on. You define which fields from these records you want to monitor, so only changes that are important
to your business processes are tracked.
Global Alerts are email messages that are automatically sent to a specific user or a defined group of users when
certain events occur within your company’s database. For example, you can set up a global alert that sends an
email out to your sales staff when a sales order is placed on hold. Global Alerts can also create system memos
when these events occur. Several default global alerts are provided by the application, but you can use BAM to
create your own custom alerts.
Custom Procedures
You can extend BAM global alert functionality by creating procedure (.p) programs. These programs let you
automatically generate tasks, create .xml files from the changed data, and update data within multiple records.
Dashboard
A dashboard is your personalized information and command center. It is a visualization tool that displays the
current information and processes that help you perform your tasks more efficiently. The data you choose to
display is refreshed periodically, so you are able to act on changes as they occur.
The following topics discuss available dashboard features.
Executive Dashboard
Executive dashboards provide a high-level view of current data and a visual representation of any aspect of your
company's performance.
Data displays through multiple dimensions in both grid and graph formats, which you can refresh and reuse.
Executive dashboards can be modified or printed as desired.
Use this functionality to build large queries that capture data across several modules. You can use this functionality
to customize your cash flow analysis, shipping performance, and other large data analysis tasks.
Use the Business Activity Query (BAQ) Designer to create personalized queries (BAQs) and to copy system queries
so you can modify them. Queries can be accessed in different ways throughout the Epicor application.
Queries can be used to generate a Crystal Report, included in Quick and BAQ searches, viewed and updated
through a dashboard, and viewed and updated through a mobile device. Queries can also be exported as .xml
or ASCII files, so you can edit their data in third party applications as well. The functionality has some security
options, as you can create queries only available for your personal use, or create shared queries available to
everyone within your company.
Example You are in charge of your company's security. You need to build one query that lists all security
IDs in the system for the current company. Since this item is a sensitive query, you do not select it as a
shared query.
You next create a query that summarizes the status of current orders. Because you want everyone to be
aware about the progress of the sales orders, you define this query as a shared query.
Leveraging this functionality does require some fundamental knowledge of database concepts such as table
relationships, records, and field types. This knowledge helps you create queries that have good performance and
display the results you want. You start by defining the information to display through your BAQ, and then finding
out which database tables contain the appropriate columns which hold this data. Some application tools are
available which can help you find the database information you need.
Once you determine the information you want to display, you can begin creating the query through the Business
Activity Query Designer. The Phrase Builder sheets define which tables you want to include in your query and
what relationship each table has with each other. The Display sheets indicate which columns appear for the end
user. You can also test your queries on the Analyze sheets, correcting any errors before you use this query on a
dashboard or mobile device.
Advanced Features
Advanced features are available for more BAQ functionality. You can create updatable BAQs for data entry,
executive queries that pull in complex views of data for dashboard display, and global BAQs that pull in data
from several companies at the same time.
Queries can be read only tools which you can later place on a smart client dashboard for display on the Main
Menu. You can also create an updatable BAQ. These BAQs can be placed on a smart client dashboard and/or
used on a mobile device, such as an iPhone or a Blackberry. Users then enter data through either the dashboard
or the mobile device, and this new data updates records within the main database. Business Process Management
(BPM) directives can be created which monitor the data entered through an updatable BAQ. Based on the
conditions defined in the BPM directive, various actions run automatically. For example, you could use this
functionality to verify data is being correctly entered into the database.
If you have the Executive Dashboard module, you can create advanced displays for a Business Activity Query's
data by creating multiple executive queries. These queries can display a BAQ's data through various graph formats.
To learn more, review the Executive Query and Executive Dashboards topics.
If you have the Multi-Site module, you can also create global queries which display data across multiple companies.
You can then place these global BAQ's on multi-company dashboards to view the records generated by companies
throughout your organization. Review the Multi-Site Technical Reference Guide for more information.
Tip You can periodically export a query as either an .xml file or an ASCII file. To do this, first create your
query and then export it using Business Activity Query Export Process. For more information, refer to the
Business Activity Query Export Process topic.
BAQ Designer
The BAQ Designer has been redesigned for Epicor 9. Changes include a visual phrase builder, criteria wizard, and
calculated field wizard.
Phrase Builder
The new Phrase Builder allows you to drag and drop tables onto a design area. The table properties appear to
the right of the design area. To create a relationship between two tables, add them to the design area and use
your mouse to draw a connection between them. The list of tables can be filtered so that you can more easily
find a table.
The Phrase Builder also contains a tree view that shows an expandable hierarchy of the tables included in the
query. For each table you can see all of the tables associated with the tables in the query. The associated tables
can show you additional information that can be included in the query.
Criteria Wizard
You can use the criteria wizard to filter the data returned by the BAQ without editing the ABL code used in the
query. The filter criteria can be applied to any table in the query.
The following image shows filter criteria applied to the Part table. The criteria specifies that the query should
include only orders where the part's Classed is equal to COM.
BAQ Printing
Enabled printing of BAQ output through Crystal runtime engine. This effectively eliminates complications with
ODBC access in the smart client environment and enables Reports to be created directly from a BAQ.
BAQ Searches
BAQ to XML
Ability to change author for each business activity query (BAQ), which can only be edited by a single user. This
Actions Menu command, however, lets you assign the current business activity query to another user. This new
user can then edit the BAQ as needed.
Custom Queries
You can create custom queries from the ground up using the Business Activity Query program. This program
contains multiple sheets through which you define the query criteria and indicate how the data displays through
the executed query.
Business Activity Queries (BAQs) may be exported from your application and saved on a personal directory, and
then imported back into the application at any time. This is helpful for backup purposes, or for BAQs still in
progress.
A new external update method (UpdateExt) has been added to all transactional business objects to support bulk
updates via integration engines such as Epicor Service Connect.
This method implements the functionality previously incorporated in the Epicor Web Service Update method to
accept a complete dataset containing hierarchical data and multiple records and to call the base Update method
of each business object repeatedly for each row in the dataset and for all records in the dataset. Since all processing
is conducted on the server within one login session, the use of this method eliminates much of the latency within
the Web services and improves performance for bulk updates.
Generate ASP
Once you have created or modified a Business Activity Query, you can use the Generate ASP program to turn a
query into an .asp page. This page can then be displayed on your web site, and can be updated with current
information from your database.
BAQ Zone
A BAQ (Business Activity Query) zone is an embedded query you can link to a specific field on a program interface.
When you activate a BAQ zone, it displays as a linked tool tip window. The data that populates this window
depends on both the business activity query and current value, if any, within the linked field.
After you create or modify the BAQ you will use for the BAQ zone, you then link the BAQ to a specific field by
either using Extended Property Maintenance or embedding the BAQ zone in a customization. When you launch
the program that contains the customized field, you will see a BAQ zone indicator on the field. You can then
modify the color used to display this indicator and define a shortcut key combination that will activate the BAQ
zone. You define these personalization features on the Options window; this window is located under the Tools
menu.
When a BAQ zone is linked to a field, a zone indicator displays on a program interface during Rune Mode. These
zone indicators display as arrow buttons next to the field. Users move their mouse pointer over the BAQ zone
indicator to display the tooltip window. For example:
Depending on the columns the BAQ zone returns, different behaviors are available. For example, you could have
a BAQ zone that has a query linking the Customer.CustID and Customer.CustURL fields. When a user holds the
mouse pointer over the zone indicator, the tooltip display a view of the web page for the current customer. Or
the BAQ Zone can return standard grid data; users can then select a record from the generated data.
Standard Queries
There are many standard queries that Epicor develops and delivers with the application. These queries all begin
with the letter "z", so that you can easily differentiate them from queries you create. You can use these queries
for dashboards or reports, or copy and modify them to create custom queries.
Previously Business Activity Queries (BAQs) could only pull in data selected through the query tool. Now, however,
you can create a BAQs through which users can enter data.
Use this tool to create updatable BAQs you can then place on customized dashboards. These dashboards can
either be displayed on the standard Epicor client or modified for display on a mobile device like an iPhone. Users
can then launch these custom dashboards to enter and save data needed within your business flow.
Leverage this functionality to create custom entry programs for any aspect of your business you need.
The links between loaded tables are displayed automatically. Within the Business Objects window, you may use
the filter box at the top to quickly locate a business entity of your interest.
The ODBC query execution is sent as a single statement, that is generated during a query design. It doesn't need
to be regenerated on each query execution.
Use the BAQ Search form to quickly locate the query of your interest.
On the Basic sheet, use the following options to narrow down your search.
• System - Use this option to allow searching for system (delivered) BAQs.
• Updatable - Use this option to allow searching for updatable BAQs.
• Cross-Company - Use this option to allow searching for cross-company BAQs.
• Shared - Use this option to allow searching for shared BAQs.
• External - Use this option to allow searching for external (ODBC) BAQs.
• Global - Use this option to allow searching for global BAQs.
• Query ID Starts With - Use this option to search for a query based on first characters of a Query ID.
• Author - Use this option to search for a query based on its author.
• Description Substring - Use this option to search for a query based on its description. A wildcard matching
is supported.
BAQ Zone
A BAQ (Business Activity Query) zone is an embedded query you can link to a specific field on a program interface.
When you activate a BAQ zone, it displays as a linked tool tip window. The data that populates this window
depends on both the business activity query and current value, if any, within the linked field.
After you create or modify the BAQ you will use for the BAQ zone, you then link the BAQ to a specific field by
either using Extended Property Maintenance or embedding the BAQ zone in a customization. When you launch
the program that contains the customized field, you will see a BAQ zone indicator on the field. You can then
modify the color used to display this indicator and define a shortcut key combination that will activate the BAQ
zone. You define these personalization features on the Options window; this window is located under the Tools
menu.
When a BAQ zone is linked to a field, a zone indicator displays on a program interface during Rune Mode. These
zone indicators display as arrow buttons next to the field. Users move their mouse pointer over the BAQ zone
indicator to display the tooltip window. For example:
Depending on the columns the BAQ zone returns, different behaviors are available. For example, you could have
a BAQ zone that has a query linking the Customer.CustID and Customer.CustURL fields. When a user holds the
mouse pointer over the zone indicator, the tooltip display a view of the web page for the current customer. Or
the BAQ Zone can return standard grid data; users can then select a record from the generated data.
Business Process Management (BPM) allows you to create workflows that automate, execute and monitor business
processes. The workflows extend your system's base functionality without requiring customizations or affecting
your ability to take future releases of the software.
.NET Action Content The CallContext object is now extended to support these properties:
• string MfgSysType {get;}
• string PlantID {get;}
• string CompanyID {get;}
• string UserID {get;}
• string SessionID {get;}
• string LanguageID {get;}
• string DefaultUnitOfMeasure {get;}
• IPropertyBag PropertyBag {get;}
Actions
An action is an operation that is executed when the specified conditions have been met. Like the condition
statements, actions are predefined templates that allow you to choose how the Method Directive affects the
system.
Condition Statements
A condition statement is a template that tests for a certain condition, but allows you to fill in the blanks so that
you can control when the system will execute the Method Directive. Next, you can add one or more pre-defined
actions.
Data Directives
Data directives focus on table data directly. By applying the directive to the table, data directives are useful for
controlling data that might be affected by several business objects.
Most of the conditions and actions that can be applied to method directives can also be applied to data directives,
except in cases where the condition or action depends upon information available from the business object that
is not available from the data itself.
Data directives are available in two types:
• In-Transaction can affect data committed to the database. Processes one row at a time.
• Standard does not affect data in the database. Executes after a data transaction. Processes affected rows at
one time.
The program used to create data directives functions very similarly to the program used to create method directives.
If you are familiar with method directives, you can begin creating data directives quickly.
Use the BPM Data Form Designer to create forms invoked by BPM method directives.
BPM data forms are intended to capture data or button actions that can control the flow of BPM processing.
This feature can be used to present a form—for example, only for a specific customer—to capture the specific
data required for a transaction.
The range of forms can vary from a simple dialog box with two buttons to a dynamically generated form that
allows entry of auxiliary data which BPM can use to assign to data fields in the main dataset.
The form designer program provides an intuitive interface for designing the form.
From the Actions menu, you can preview the form before calling it from a method directive.
Holds
Set a flag on a record. By itself, a hold does nothing. However, method directives can check for a hold on a
record. If the hold is present, they can execute a variety of actions, including cancelling the execution of a base
method.
Informational Messages
An action is now available for method directives. This action is "show informational message based on the
designed template". When you use this action, it will display a message in a separate window. If an exception
is raised, however, the informational message is not displayed.
Method Directives
Intercept methods. Add custom logic to perform actions before, after or in place of a method. Most of the power
of BPM comes from Method Directives. You can create Method Directives using an interface that is similar to the
Microsoft Outlook® Rules Wizard. As you create the Method Directive, you can add one or more pre-defined
condition statements.
Method directives now support the business objects that simultaneously update multiple rows during a single
transaction.
This functionality is a collection of string values. Each value is identified with a string key, and can be leveraged
to pass user-defined information among directives with the same business object method.
Users can create an empty template Service Connect workflow to the client. To do this, users click the Create
New button on the Select Workflow window.
Customization Overview
You can customize nearly every program within the Epicor application. A powerful tool, Customization, can save
you time and money as you use these modifications to directly match the Epicor application to your business
needs.
The Epicor application offers you a variety of customization tools. You can add controls such as text boxes and
lists, which are then linked to a data source you can select. You can also create new sheets and make them
available to all users, specific users, and even different companies. You can also activate your own customized
code through events or new buttons and use this feature to run processes that are unique for your company.
Note Customizations can potentially be used by everyone within your company, so you need to make
sure these customizations work properly. If you want to significantly customize the application, consider
getting assistance from your consultant.
You can build custom programs which you then deploy to a web based application like Epicor Express.
This feature is part of the Epicor Everywhere® functionality. Within the customization tools, you indicate whether
the custom program is available for display within a web application. You can then add this customization to the
Main Menu of Epicor Express or another web-based Epicor application.
Customization Wizards
Customization wizards have been improved so to make programming more intuitive. They behave less like
development tools and more like standard wizards that guide you through the development processes.
The wizards are available from the Tools menu of the Customization Tool Dialog and include:
• Business Logic Assembly References Adds BL assembly logic references to custom code assembly that you
can use to call BL adapter methods.
• Extended Properties Generates code to set extended properties on data columns.
• Simple Search Generates code to perform a ListData search. This wizard can be used to fill custom
EpiUltraCombo controls or launch a search dialog box.
• Business Object Method Call Generates code to call BO methods, pass in data, and retrieve data from any
public adapter.
• User Defined Table Add/Edit/Delete Generates code to view/add/edit/delete user-defined table data from
a program.
The following shows an example of how to generate a Business Object Method Call using the wizard. First, access
the wizard dialog box and launch the BO Method Call wizard.
Then load and select the adapter that you want to use.
Select from the adapter's public methods. The wizards shows you the parameters accepted by the method.
Map the parameters. You can pass parameters in, set to the value of a data field or specify a value.
The Script Editor contains the custom code and automatically adds the required assembly references. The application
automatically creates parameters for values that are passed into the method. Parameters that are inside the
method are generated as variables. You can then add code to complete the method call functionality.
If you have Microsoft Visual Studio, you can debug customizations and step through code.
Microsoft Visual Studio 2010™ any version except Express must be installed on the computer where you are
running the Epicor client. You should have C# or VB.NET (or both) installed in Visual Studio for complete debugging
functionality.
To debug a customization:
4. In the Select Customization window, select the Debug in Visual Studio check box, click the customization
layer you want to debug, and click OK.
Visual Studio is launched into a source code file and stopped at a break point on the first line of the
InitializeGlobalVariables method (this may take some time). At this point you can use the debugging features
of Visual Studio to step though lines, set other break points, evaluate values etc. To get past the first break
point that was set for you and to run the form, press F5. Now if you complete actions on the form that
reach a break point that you set, Visual Studio again becomes the active application (you may have to click
its flashing item on the taskbar).
Note Remember the following:
• You cannot make code changes in the debugger. Stop the debugger (Shift + F5), and use the
Epicor customization environment to make your code changes. Then debug again as needed.
• Each time you debug a new source code file is opened in Visual Studio. Closing no longer active
code files is ok. However, if you close Visual Studio, you have to exit Epicor and restart Epicor to
debug again.
The Extended Properties Maintenance program allows you to apply properties to data definitions that will then
be applied dynamically to user interface controls. Several extended properties can also be used by the Business
Rules Engine on the server for data integrity checking.
The extended properties include:
Property Description
Format Provides a display format.
Label Used to define the caption for grid columns. Especially useful for user-defined data
columns.
Like This property was available as a user interface customization. By providing Custom
Like as an Extended Property, it is easier to define data characteristics—very useful
for user defined data columns.
Linked Column Keeps grid columns together. If a column is moved, the linked column will move
with it.
Read Only Prevents a field from being updated.
Required This property is applied on the server and can be used on the client to provide a
visual indicator for fields that are mandatory.
UD Code Type Applies a user-defined code to the field.
The following graphic shows the Extended Properties Maintenance program where the label for the Count
Frequency field has been changed. The information about the dataset appears at the top of the sheet and the
field properties appear at the bottom.
Extended properties are cached so that they can be applied the next time the dataset is accessed.
Epicor 9 supports a range of user defined fields in all primary tables in the database.
At this release we have added the capability to extend the Epicor schema via customization to include any number
of additional User Defined fields against such tables thus allowing unlimited growth in usage of these fields which
may be used for both customer installations and for Epicor Localizations.
The Sheet Wizard has a tool that lets you place a dashboard within a new sheet. This tool is the Embedded
Dashboard Panel Wizard. Use this wizard lets to find and select the dashboard you want to place on your new
sheet. When you switch your customization to Run Mode, the dashboard will be displayed on the new sheet.
Export Customizations
When you export customizations outside of the application, you make this customization available to anyone
you want outside of your network. If you have a relationship with another company that uses Epicor that would
like this customization, you can send it to them.
Grid Customization
Adjust grid sizes and turn on Snap to Grid functionality. These features are available in two locations:
• The Options program - These features are located on the Designer Grid tab. This is a personalization feature.
• The Customization Tools Dialog - These features are accessed by clicking on the Tools menu, highlighting the
Options sub-menu, and selecting the Grid Settings command. This is a customization feature.
The Image Column Row Rule Wizard lets you both create an image column and then add the row rules you need
to the column. This step by step tool can be used instead of the Image Column Wizard to add an image column
to a selected grid. It is available both on the Rule Wizard and on the Tools menu.
The Image Column Wizard allows you to add an image column to a selected grid. You will first create the column,
give it a name and label, and then select the default image that will then be displayed on the grid.
Multiple Customizations
You can develop multiple customizations for the same program. This lets you create customizations for specific
users; you later set up each user account so that the specific user can view and use this customization. For
example, you have two users that purchase specific items. One user purchases spare parts, while the other user
hires subcontractors. You can customize the Purchase Entry program so that one user will have a spare parts
purchasing sheet, while the other user will have a subcontracting purchase sheet.
Non-Customizable Forms
The Epicor application now contains some forms which you cannot modify through the customization tools.
These programs are essential areas of the application which should not be modified. An example of a
non-customizable form is Menu Maintenance.
If your customization does not work or if you no longer need it, you can always revert the program back to its
original standard configuration. You and your consultant should spend some time analyzing the needs of your
company and then customize the application to match these needs.
More standalone user-defined tables are now available within the application.
In addition to the original twenty tables, twenty new tables, UD21-UD40, can be customized by users as needed.
- Click this tool to create a frame that can then display a graphics file. You can then write custom code that will
display the image you want within the picture box.
If you customize a dialog box (for example the Scheduling dialog box within Job Entry), you can also generate a
web form for the customization.
To do this, right-click on the customized dialog box and, from the content menu, select Generate Web Form.
You can save your customizations as Work in Process stages. This feature lets you save at different levels of
development, so you can reload a previous stage if your customization is not working correctly. Your customizations
are also initially available in a test environment, so you can make sure the customization works properly before
you release it to users.
Dashboards Overview
Dashboards are flexible, powerful tools that provide easy access to critical information in a real-time environment.
In addition to the standard dashboards provided with the application, you can also create custom dashboards
that display specific data you need and updatable dashboards to enter data that matches your business needs.
Think of a dashboard as your personalized information and command center. Much like your car's dashboard
gives you current information and controls to run the car, the dashboard displays the current information and
processes you need to more efficiently perform your tasks. The data you choose to display can be refreshed
automatically or manually, so you are able to act on changes as they immediately occur.
The dashboard displays data by using Business Activity Queries (BAQs); these queries can be custom, complex
data views that display the data you need, or updatable queries users leverage to enter data specific to your
business process. Several display options are available. For example, you can present data in a grid, a Chart (or
graph), or even a graph. You can add a Tracker View (to display an advanced search) where you define the fields
by which users can search data.
In addition, you can add a URL link to display web pages or web parts on the dashboard. You can also add a
report or link out to a report or process.
The functionality also provides a way for you to export and import your custom dashboard for use in other
companies within your organization.
Custom Dashboards
Copy and modify an existing dashboard definition, or create a new dashboard in the Dashboard program. Pull
in standard or customized queries to display the information you need on your custom dashboard.
Dashboard Assemblies
Build dashboards into assemblies and deploy them to the server in a few clicks. Compiled dashboards perform
better than previous dashboards, which were only interpreted. Also compiled dashboards allow personalization
and can be viewed using Epicor Web Access forms.
Most of the dashboard development process is unchanged, except new Tools menu options allow you to:
• Build a test assembly
• Deploy a dashboard assembly to the server with the option to add it to the favorites menu
• Build application source code that can be edited in the future
Build an Assembly
Use the Application Builder options on the Tools menu to test the dashboard, deploy it to the server, or generate
source code.
When you deploy the assembly to the server, the application gives you the option to automatically add the
dashboard to your favorites in the menu and to add a tab to the menu area. You can also use Developer mode
to drag and drop the dashboard to a menu group in the main menu so that the dashboard is available to all
users.
Tree View
The tree view check box in the Dashboard Properties dialog box allows you to add a tree view to the left of a
dashboard.
Dashboard Charts
The Dashboard Chart functionality uses the new Infragistics Chart Types. There are now over 40 types of charts
that can be displayed through a dashboard. The charting functionality now also contains improvements for
filtering, data building, labeling and scaling.
You can link Crystal Reports to a dashboard. Within the Tools menu on a dashboard, there is a new Report Tools
sub-menu. Here are the commands on this sub-menu that let you use Crystal Reports:
• Report Options - Select this command to display the Report Options window. Use this window to change the
path to the Crystal Report executable (.exe) file. You can also change the Sample Data Directory path and the
Local Reports Directory path.
• Design Crystal Report - Use this command to launch the Crystal Report Designer Tool.
• Download Report - Run this command to find and select a Crystal Report to download onto your system. You
download files from a Server Reports Directory to a Local Reports Directory
• Upload Report - Run this command to find and select a Crystal Report to upload to the Server Reports Directory
on your system.
The Dashboard Grid Properties window now has an Image Column tab. Use this tab to create an image column
within the current grid. You can assign a default image that will display in this column. You can also use the
View Rules tab to create one or more rules that define when selected images will appear within this column.
The Dashboard designer now contains functionality which defines the interface output for each dashboard.
Available dashboard interface types:
• Smart Client Dashboards -- Previously the only option. These dashboards display within a standard Epicor
smart client installation.
• Epicor Web Application Dashboards -- These dashboards display within a web-based application like Epicor
Express.
• Mobile Device Dashboards -- These dashboards display within a mobile device like an iPhone or a Blackberry.
In order for updatable dashboards to pull in large amounts of new data, the Mass Update functionality is available.
When you run this feature, a dashboard can pull in potentially thousands of rows of data. Typically you will only
pull in several rows, but this functionality is created to allow for better performance in most situations.
The Dashboard Properties window has a check box called the Disable Refresh All check box. When you select
this check box, the Refresh All button is removed from the current dashboard. In some situations, like dashboards
with many queries and lots of data, the Refresh All button can cause performance issues while retrieving data
from the server. Disabling this button improves performance of the dashboard.
You can link .xslt style sheets to a Dashboard. These style sheets are linked by using the New URL /XSLT View
command from the New menu. When you have the WebAddress field link to an .xslt file, you can then bind the
Dashboard query to the style sheet.
There are comments fields where you can document modified and custom Dashboards, or you can flag the
Dashboard so the system, as well as the end user, knows which dashboards are delivered.
After you design or modify a dashboard, the final step is to deploy it to the Main Menu for general use. This is
easily done through the Menu Maintenance program.
Executive Dashboards
If you have the Executive Dashboard module, you can display executive queries that show data through pie and
other chart views, or bar and line graph formats.
Once you have created or modified a dashboard, you can export the dashboard to a local or network location
to archive a copy of your work. You can then import a dashboard definition back into any database or company
in the application.
Add a Grid, Chart, or Tracker view to customize how query results display data on a dashboard.
Process Links
Access process functionality by setting up a link to programs both internal and external to the application, such
as Sales Order Entry or Microsoft Excel.
The unique framework of the dashboard publishes data from one query and subscribes to data from another
query, which enables you to see related information when you select a record in the dashboard.
You can now publish any dashboard view for reuse on another dashboard. To do this, right-click the View node
in the dashboard Tree View and selecting the Publish option. Now when you are creating a new dashboard, use
the Dashboard Query Properties window to select the published dashboard. The published dashboard is then
pulled into your current dashboard, and you can modify it as you need. Within the Dashboard program, you can
view all of the available published dashboards from the View menu.
Queries
Add one or multiple queries to the dashboard to modify the information that appears.
Display a report directly on the dashboard through the Report View, or set up a link to a report through Report
Link.
Standard Dashboards
Many standard dashboards are provided with the application, and are typically in the General Operations folder
of each module. The dashboard framework provides you with the opportunity to tailor the way information is
presented. Additional features include:
• Totally customizable
• Dashboard components synchronize with system entry programs (publish and subscribe functionality)
• Copy and past enabled
• Right-click and print enabled
• Display information in graphs and charts
• Conditional formatting based on user-defined rules
• Import and export dashboard definitions
Updatable Dashboards
Use the Updatable Dashboard functionality to place updatable BAQs on either a client dashboard or a mobile
device dashboard.
When you create a dashboard for a mobile device, you select a mobile device profile which specifies the available
dimensions (height and width) for the program. It then modifies the design interface to match this profile, so
you can preview what the custom dashboard looks like in the mobile device.
When you create a dashboard for an EWA form, it creates a lightweight base form so that most of the processing
is handled on the server. If you create an EWA form to use on a mobile device, the application first creates the
lightweight form and sets up the mobile device definition.
Examples of updatable dashboards you could make include:
• A form consisting of one updatable BAQ which displays Detail and List sheets. Users would use this updatable
dashboard to enter and edit simple records.
• A complex dashboard which contains multiple views, graphs, URL pages and so on. Some of the sheets or
panels on this complex dashboard are updatable.
• A mobile application which is sized appropriately for a specific mobile device. One or more sheets can be
updated, and these sheets are either tabbed or sequentially paged to organize the flow of data entry.
• A simple or complex application which has sheets and panels that support multiple dirty rows. You can then
make a number of changes to a record, like selecting a series of check boxes across different rows, before
you save all of these records to the database.
The Updatable Dashboard functionality integrates with Microsoft® Excel® so users can add new records and
update existing records through a spreadsheet.
The Uptake from Excel is only available to use with Updatable Queries on an Updatable Dashboard.
The Uptake from Excel functionality allows you to add new records or update existing ones using a Microsoft®
Excel® spreadsheet.
The Uptake from Excel functionality uses an Open XML, which is an XML-based file format developed by Microsoft.
It is the default document format for saving applications in Microsoft® Office® starting with Office 2007.
To perform any data transactions using Uptake from Excel, the Excel spreadsheet needs to be saved in Office
2007 format (*.xlsx).
Important If you use previous versions of Microsoft Office, install the Microsoft Office Open XML
compatibility pack.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101686761033.aspx
Uptake from Excel supports multithreaded updates. Use this function to specify how many threads to use at a
time to make updates. You can specify up to 10 submission threads.
Copy to Excel
Use this function to automatically copy all data from a dashboard grid into Microsoft® Excel®.
This feature is available in all dashboard grids, except in Dashboard runtime.
If you apply any Group By settings in the grid, these will be retained in Microsoft Excel.
Important To use this feature, you must have Microsoft Excel installed in your environment.
Use the URL/XSLT View to display a website in the dashboard using a URL address or attach an XSLT style sheet
to customize how data displays on your dashboard.
The new new capability of the Dashboard allows a URL to change based on data values published within the
Dashboard. This featue is particularly useful for referencing pictures, specifications, or other static content without
having to add a specific URL as a UD field in numerous records.
While adding a new query to a Dashboard, publish a field that you will later use as a query phrase subscriber.
Use the Dashboard URL / XSLT Properties window to set a publisher to a specific replacement token on a URL
phrase.
Example Use the Dashboard Query Properties window to publish a field from a query, for example,
Part.PartNum. On your local drive, create a folder that includes pictures of parts you wish to display in a
Dashboard. Make sure the naming of pictures is equal to application part names. Add a New URL/XLST
View. In the URL/XSLT Address field, specify a path to a folder and replace a name of a picture with token.
For example, c:\PartPictures\[MyParts].
In the Query Phrase Subscribers section, set a publisher to Part.PartNum and in the Token field, enter
[MyParts]. As you change rows in a grid, the URL pannel displays a picture of a selected part.
Use the new capability to add a Performance Canvas dashboard as an embedded URL panel on Epicor dashboard.
Note Before you create a new reference, on the Company Configuration > System > Epicor
Everywhere sheet, enter a valid Performance Canvas URL address.
Within an Epicor dashboard, use the New URL/XSLT View to create a reference to an existing Canvas.
Use the Query Phrase Subscriber section to set a Performance Canvas subscriber, where Canvas Slicer will
respond to Query publications.
This functionality is currently available in Dashboard runtime, deployed Dashboard assembly and Epicor Web
Access™.
Use this functionality to display dashboards as web parts in the Microsoft® SharePoint® environment.
Epicor SharePoint Publisher (ESP) supports the creation of SharePoint web parts that directly link to Epicor 9.xx
dashboards and business activity queries (BAQs). Web Parts are integrated sets of controls for creating web sites
that enable end users to modify the content, appearance, and behavior of web pages directly from a browser.
All dashboard web parts access the Epicor application server directly; no web services or other intermediate layers
are used to improve performance.
ESP supports publish and subscribe between views, updatable dashboards and links to Performance Canvas for
embedded EEPM functionality. ESP capability can eliminate the need to use Epicor Portal and supports most
functionality available in the portal.
The main ESP features include:
• WinClient identical data render.
• Data updatability supported.
• Connection information and properties set up in Edit mode.
• OrderBy and GroupBy functionality in grids.
• "Open with" functionality (Epicor Web Access must be installed and deployed in your environment ).
• Links between Grid-Tracker-Chart-Gauge.
• DSP (Epicor Performance Canvas) integration.
• Customizable web part settings.
• Single Sign-On for Windows machines in domain.
• Asynchronous Grid/Chart/Gauge update.
• A single click dashboard deployment (autoconnect feature).
• Supports SharePoint 2010
• ESP supports all modern browsers (Microsoft® Internet Explorer®, Safari®, Mozilla Firefox®, Google Chrome™
).
• Web Dasher utility allowing you to manipulate SharePoint pages and web parts.
Use the Handheld Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to view deployed dashboards.
To display a dashboard on the MES menu, first create a dashboard using a smart client. Once finished, deploy a
dashboard as a smart application. In the MES developer mode, use the Customization Tools Dialog window to
hang a dashboard on one of the available buttons.
Leverage the data tagging functionality to mark records with a unique condition. You can then use these unique
tags to gain better search results and launch BPM directives.
You can apply both personal or shared group tags to any record. To facilitate this functionality, the following
features are available:
• Tag Maintenance -- This set up program is available on context menus throughout the application. Use this
program to create the personal and group tags you want to apply to records.
• Search Programs -- All search programs now contain functionality to select records by unique tags.
• Enterprise Search -- Use this global search application to search across all records by tags.
• Business Process Management (BPM) -- A new directive condition is added which monitors data linked to
a specific tag. Use this condition to launch actions you need on tagged data.
You can now attach data tags to records created through the Epicor web client interface.
Use this functionality so that any records created through the web client interface can be included in data tag
search results.
Documentation and Education includes online help, courses, and application features that are desiged to help
support your productivity as you use the software.
Embedded Courses
Courses, which used to be available from EPICWeb, are now installed with the software and can be run directly
from the Epicor application.
Embedding courses allows a tighter integration between the educational materials and the application. Updated
and New courses are delivered with new versions of the application or when service packs are released. You can
access courses based on your education materials licensing agreement with Epicor.
You can open the courses from the Education Courses program, which can be accessed from a button in the
Standard toolbar. The program shows a tree view of all the courses organized by module. For each module, the
program shows licensed and unlicensed courses. Selecting a course displays a description in the right side of the
program. You can launch licensed courses using the Launch button.
Epicor also provides a fully populated demonstration database designed to make your education experience with
the hands on exercises more meaningful. The demonstration database is available for download when new
versions of the application and service packs are released.
Field Help
You can access field descriptions and data dictionary information about a field from Epicor application programs.
After opening a program, select Field Help from the Help menu. The field help opens in a sheet on the left side
of the program. The field description is pulled from the online help and appears in the panel. If you have security
permissions, you can also view the technical details for the field.
The online help search is available in two varieties: client-side script search and server-side indexed search. Both
types of search offer improved results over the previous version of the online help. The searches return more
meaningful results and the search results are sorted by relevance instead of alphabetically.
The client-side script-based search is installed with the help system by default. This type of search can be used
for Epicor application configurations on a local or wide-area network. Search results appear in the right side of
the help viewer. Most search matches show a short description of each matched topic so that you can better
determine whether the target of the topic contains the information that you want.
The server-side indexed search is available when the online help is hosted in a Windows IIS (Internet Information
Services) Web site. The server-side search offers improved performance over the client-side search because all of
the search operations are performed on the server. It also uses the power of Windows Index Server to locate
information.
Both the courses and help contain links that can open Epicor application programs. Use the links to open programs
directly from educational or reference materials. However, you must have appropriate security to access the
program.
The help content has been restructured in a more granular, topic-oriented format. For example, the previous
help system contains a help topic for each sheet on a program. The help topic would contain all the information
related to the sheet: a brief description, tasks, field descriptions, and related links. The new help system divides
the information into separate topics so that each piece of information is shorter and more easily scanned. Links
to other relevant information are included at the end of the topic or are available in the table of contents.
The reorganization of the help provides a more consistent information structure which allows information to be
referenced more quickly.
The Enterprise Content Management functionality contains the features you use to manage and link outside
documents to specific Epicor records. These attached documents can be stored on your network either within a
server file location or within a Microsoft® SharePoint® sit library.
Once you define where your source documents will be stored, you can then indicate which file formats are
available to attach onto Epicor records within the current company. To prevent these file formats from being
used everywhere, however, you can also restrict which formats can be attached to which specific Epicor records.
You can then further define how these files interact with the SharePoint library and/or the external file system.
To complete the setup, you then indicate which third-party programs automatically launch when users select the
attached file.
Email Attachments
You can directly attach email message files (.msg format) to Epicor records. You do this by clicking and dragging
email message files to the Epicor records.
The .msg files are automatically attached to the Epicor record. This feature eliminates the previous process where
you had to place .msg files on your desktop before you could attach them to records within your Epicor application.
Performance Canvas
Several enhancements are available with the server the cube connect tools:
• EPM Glossary Designer. Use this tool, which is similar to Object Designer, to create new EPM glossaries which
support customized systems or modifications to existing glossaries.
• Portable EPM glossary installation. This tool help ease both the upgrade and modification of glossaries without
the need to release a new version of EPM Server.
• Ability to process cubes more frequently through a user-defined refresh schedule.
• Localization and translation support.
• Easier Content Pack deployment and cube editing and streamlined EPM Server administration.
• Usability enhancements.
Information Worker allows Microsoft Office users to view and update Epicor data from Office applications.
Information Worker (IW) gives employees that depend on enterprise data ("information workers") direct access
to Epicor data from inside Microsoft Outlook, Word and Excel.
Once Epicor data is imported into Office, users can keep the data synchronized between Office and Epicor, and
can work either in online or offline (disconnected) modes.
This topic list the data entities that can be imported and synchronized by Information Worker.
The following Epicor data can be accessed in IW:
• Appointments
• Bills of Lading
• Contacts
• CRM Calls
• Customers
• HelpDesk Cases
• Invoices
• Leads, Opportunities and Quotes
• Marketing Lists
• Master Packs
• Miscellaneous Shipments
• RMAs
• Sales Orders
• Service Calls
• Service Contracts
• Ship To's
• Shipments
• Tasks
Use Information Worker to access and update Epicor records in Microsoft Excel.
Information Worker (IW) users can do the following in Microsoft Excel:
• Import Epicor data into Excel tables.
• Edit Epicor data.
• Refresh data brought into tables as needed and at document open.
Use Information Worker to access and update Epicor records in Microsoft Outlook.
Information Worker (IW) users can do the following in Microsoft Outlook:
• View and add records from within Outlook using standard Outlook forms (like Contacts) and IW forms.
• Launch Epicor from Outlook to view and add records.
• Create a CRM call from an outgoing email.
• Keep accessed records synchronized between Outlook and Epicor on user-defined schedule.
Use Information Worker to access and update Epicor records in Microsoft Word.
Information Worker (IW) users can do the following in Microsoft Word:
• Import Epicor data by field or by list.
• Edit Epicor data.
• Refresh data as needed.
• Launch Epicor forms related to a currently selected record.
• Launch a Word mail merge based on imported tables.
Information Worker requires a lightweight server installation to which clients connect using Microsoft Office
applications.
The Information Worker (IW) server components can be installed on the Epicor application server or another
Windows server that has network access to the Epicor application server. The Information Worker server hosts
a web application to which IW clients need only their Microsoft Office applications and http access. More
functionality is enabled for IW clients if they also have the Epicor client on the same computer.
The client install is deployed via the IW web site and updated IW configurations can be pushed out to clients.
See the Epicor installation guide for instructions on installing Information Worker.
Epicor Information Worker provides access to Epicor data from Microsoft Office applications-- specifically Microsoft
Outlook®, Excel®, and Word®.
The underlying architecture has been modified to eliminate the need for Epicor Portal and Service Connect and
instead accesses business objects directly and through updatable BAQs. Installation and implementation have
been simplified as a result. See feature summary under Systems and Tools for more information on Information
Worker.
Service Connect provides a powerful and flexible environment to support specific collaborative processes,
connecting different business entities, applications, or users. Service Connect harnesses the power of XML,
electronic message transfer and transaction based processing environments to deliver reliability with ease of use.
For example, EDI applications like TIE Commerce™ or a similar provider are linked to your application through
Service Connect, letting you pull in sales order demand from both customers and purchasing schedules from
suppliers.
This application improves your company's efficiency by reducing repetitive data entry and re-entry tasks. For
example, processing sales orders typically involves multiple availability inquiries, reviews, inventory release decisions,
and so on. Moving this process within the Service Connect can eliminate many of these steps by routing processes
to automated tasks, such as order-submit-direct-to-pick for specific inventory items or order fulfillment for your
customers.
Note The documents that will be exported out of your application will use the .xml format. If your EDI
provider cannot read .xml files, you may need to customize your documents. These customized documents
must use the same format as the EDI Mapper. Service Connect will then be able to use the files.
Convert Data
Create conversions to transform a set of data from a specific source format to a specific target format.
Custom Workflows
Use the Workflow Designer to define custom workflows, which allow employees to focus on value-added activities
and management by exception, instead of repetitive data re-entry tasks.
One-Stop Administration
Work with the Administration Console to define the connectivity processing options for Epicor Service Connect
(ESC).
The Supplier Portal menu now contains additional part record information and functionality. These additional
fields and functions are available on the Part Listing and Part Detail windows.
New Part Listing fields and functions:
• All Part Cross References Numbers (includes Supplier and Qualified Manufacturer part numbers)
• Wild Card Searching on all Part Cross Reference Number fields
• Effective Date field -- added search options
• Expiration Date field -- added search options
• Currency field
New Part Detail fields and functions:
• All Part Cross References Numbers (includes Supplier and Qualified Manufacturer part numbers)
• Unit of Measure (UOM) conversion between the Base UOM and the Supplier UOM values
Transform Data
Use the mapper tool to generate XSLT code used by the data conversion.
Unified Processes
Service Connect is built to support processes connecting different business entities, applications, and users. It
also automates tasks and processes within the application to promote lean principles, continuous performance
initiatives, and quality for an organization or across the supply-chain.
Epicor Tax Connect eliminates the tedious work and complexity of determining sales tax jurisdictions of ship-to
addresses, maintaining tax codes and rates, and dealing with jurisdiction-specific and commodity-specific taxation
rules. The service also provides for automated generation of sales tax return reports. The Epicor Tax Connect
service provides these capabilities for the United States and Canada.
Epicor Tax Connect provides hosted, on-demand address validation, sales tax calculation, and sales tax reporting
® ®
and returns generation. The service is powered by Avalara AvaTax , the leading on-demand sales tax management
®
service. Vanatage 8.03.400 includes the ability to enable an interface to the AvaTax service.
Activation
Activation and subscription fees are required for this service and are determined based on the number of AR
invoices you process and on the number of sales tax returns you submit to taxing authorities.
Notifications
When the AR invoice is posted to GL, the service is notified for sales tax reporting purposes and for subscription
accounting of the transaction.
When generating an AR invoice, the verified address and line item information is passed to the service in real-time
to calculate sales tax based on jurisdiction and any applicable taxability rules. The resulting tax information is
stored with the invoice in the Epicor database.
Use the integration to Avalara AvaTax, both on-demand and on-premise, which includes real-time address
validation, tax rate lookup, and tax calculation.
The Epicor Web Access displays programs as web forms within a browser window and is significant part of the
Epicor Everywhere™ Framework.
These forms are generated from Epicor 9 programs. Because of this, the appearance and functionality of the
Epicor Web Access forms is nearly identical to the Epicor smart client programs, but do not require the installation
of the Epicor client. You can run Epicor Web Access programs on multiple operating systems and on multiple
devices including handheld devices.
Appearance
Epicor Web Access forms (AJAX) generated by the Epicor Everywhere™ Framework appear almost identical to
standard Windows forms (C#.NET). Although sheets cannot be "torn away" from the main form, all other aspects
of the form, such as tree views, tabs, menus, buttons, and searches function identically to the standard Epicor
smart client Windows forms.
The following images shows two programs open: Job Entry and Part Maintenance. Each program appears as a
tab in the browser. The Main Menu appears on the left; it can be hidden to save space.
Browser Support
Epicor Web Access forms generated by the Epicor Everywhere™ Framework can be opened in several common
web browsers.
Browser support includes:
®
• Internet Explorer 7 (or higher)
®
• FireFox 3 (or higher)
®
• Safari 3 (or higher)
System managers give users permission to launch the Epicor Everywhere (web based) interface through User
Maintenance.
The Security sheet contains the Epicor Web Access check box; select this check box and the current user has
rights to log into the web-based interface.
If you are a Web user, you now have the option of switching to the Windows smart client for certain forms. You
can then run a hybrid application designed to improve performance and user flexibility.
In addition to this key feature, Epicor ICE 2.5 introduces Group By (for grids) and Personalization functionality
for Epicor Web Access forms similar to that found in the Windows smart client version.
Because Epicor Web Access forms generated from the Epicor Everywhere™ Framework are based on the same
XML metadata as Windows forms, they have full support for the personalization and customization carried out
in the Windows form environment.
To personalize or customize a web form, create and deploy a personalized or customized Windows form, then
regenerate the web form from the updated XML metadata using the Epicor Everywhere™ Framework.
Localization Overview
The application contains translation tools that allow you to select the language displayed throughout the interface.
You can change the language that appears during each session. You can also assign a default language for a
selected user or a specific program.
Leverage this flexibility to use the language that best fits your personnel in specific locations and workstations.
Several Country Specific Functionality (CSF) packs are available. These packs localize the Epicor application to
match the legal requirements needed in a specific country.
Available CSF packs:
• Australia
• China
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Estonia
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Japan
• Malaysia
• Mexico
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Poland
• Romania
• Russia
• South Korea
• Sweden
• Taiwan
• Thailand
Available Languages
Several language files are available for installation on your Epicor application. These files change the language
displayed on the interface.
Contact your Customer Account Manager for more information about purchasing language files. The following
languages are available:
• Arabic
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Chinese (Traditional for Taiwan)
• Czech
• Dutch
• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Estonian
• Finnish
• French (Canadian)
• French (France)
• German
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Russian
• Spanish (Latin)
• Swedish
• Thai
You can modify each form within the Epicor application for a specific locality. These forms display the text and
functionality required for use within this country or geographical area.
Each localized program can be defined as a Country Group, like Europe or Southeast Asia. It can also be defined
for a specific Country code, like Germany or Thailand. This list of country group and country codes install through
the Administration Workbench and are then available for use on each company within your organization.
You select these codes within companies as you need, and any localizations defined for the Country Group/Country
combination are then available for display on the Main Menu within that specific company.
Language Maintenance
Use the Language Maintenance program to install the language on your application server. You then deploy this
language to your client installations. When the language is added to your application, you can display it wherever
you need it.
The program has Action menu commands to generate a complete set of resource assemblies and to import and
export XML files that contain localized strings. The XML format is easy to edit, and when you import the XML,
you can indicate that the localization is for a customization.
Multi Language
Initially, translations cover screens, forms, reports and windows. The current release supports the following 21
languages:
• English (United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Indonesia)
• Chinese/Mandarin/Cantonese (China, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia)
• German (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy)
• Swedish (Sweden, Finland)
• Spanish (Mexico, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Colombia)
• Russian (Russia)
• Japanese (Japan)
• French (France, Belgium, Canada, Switzerland, Africa, Italy)
• Finnish (Finland)
• Korean (Korea)
• Polish (Poland)
• Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil)
• Italian (Italy)
• Dutch (Netherlands, Belgium)
• Thai (Thailand)
• Danish (Denmark)
• Norwegian (Norway)
• Romanian (Romania)
• Czech (Czech Republic, Slovakia)
The user interface supports text formatted from right to left. Text is formatted left-to-right or right-to-left based
on the selected language and culture code associated with the logged in user.
Satellite Assemblies
Localized text strings are stored in satellite assemblies and applied at runtime by the .NET Framework. The result
is improved system performance.
Satellite assemblies fully conform to the .Net localization methodology and are based on culture codes. The
assemblies will reside in a subfolder that reflects the culture ID.
Translation Utility
You can further update a translation through the Translation Utility. This tool allows you to translate selected
strings or labels within the current program. This functionality is also where you can enter regional, localized
terms that were not installed with the imported language file.
To accommodate multi-lingual countries, you may enter and maintain descriptions, such as part descriptions and
terms and conditions, in multiple languages throughout the system.
Management Reporter is a financial reporting tool, made by Microsoft, that is quick and easy to learn and use,
increases productivity and efficiency, and helps you stay on top of trends.
Inaccuracies can be minimized, and data integrity supported, through integration to your GL data and the support
of wildcards and ranges. The ability to close the books faster is supported through the many report design
templates and integration to the GL.
Any difficulty distributing reports is reduced through scheduled generation and user-specific report access to
deliver the right report to the right person. Reliance on others for report generation is all but eliminated through
the GL integration, and through a user interface that makes sense to accountants and their colleagues.
Management Reporter
You can use Microsoft Office Performance Point Professional 2007 Management Reporter with your Epicor
application.
Essentially the new version of Microsoft Management Reporter, this program is is a new report writer designed
to help finance groups create and generate financial reports that can be distributed across the organization.
Management Reporter works directly with Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 as well as with the Epicor 9
General Ledger to ensure real-time accurate data comes directly from the source.
A helpful wizard guides finance professionals through the creation and generation of trial balance reports, income
statements and balance sheets. Additionally, flexible report templates are provided, which can be adapted to
accommodate your chart of accounts or dimensions in order to accelerate the report design process.
Finished reports can also be quickly updated to eliminate the need to constantly create new reports. Reports can
be quickly organized into folders and multiple versions can be managed all from a single location- a SQL
Server-based report library.
Security can also be defined at the report level so that you can define access rights specific to each individual
report. Users can quickly access the reports to view summarized data, or they can drill down into account or
transaction-level details for immediate interactive analysis.
OPEN4 Overview
OPEN4 is made by the OPEN4 company. OPEN4 is a payroll management system that integrates with your Epicor
application. The goal of the this software is to coordinate hiring, termination, and employee change from within
OPEN4; and then have that information propagated to the Epicor employee records.
Data established in Employee Maintenance is in an OPEN4 category named Epicor. As a result, complete
maintenance of employee data can be done from OPEN4.
Epicor Integration
With the OPEN4 integration, information about new hires, terminations, or employee changes can be passed to
your Epicor application.
GL Information Extraction
General Ledger information can be extracted from Epicor according to the your specifications, for a generic
general ledger transaction load.
Shop floor productive time can be extracted from Epicor into the OPEN4 payroll transaction file.
The Epicor application is upgraded to handle the PayPal Payflow Gateway Service 4.3 Update.
Personalization Overview
Each user has different needs. Some users want the columns on a grid placed in a different sequence. Others
need different options available on a program status bar. Still others need a program to verify data after they
perform specific actions. You set up the application to reflect your individual needs.
Use the Epicor Personalization Tools to modify each program interface. You can personalize every program you
use in order to refine the interface to better match the tasks you perform every day.
Note Personalizations are saved with your User ID and do not affect other users within the application.
If you wish to change a program interface and make it available to multiple users within the company,
you must customize the program. Review the Customization topics in the Application Help for complete
information.
Favorite Groups
All shortcuts are organized by Favorite Groups. The application comes with some default groups, but you are
able to add and remove the groups to reflect your needs.
Interface Layouts
Each Epicor program has an interface made up of sheets, toolbars, and grids. Personalization tools allow you to
change the default positions of both sheets and toolbars. You can modify what is displayed on each toolbar, and
even create your own custom toolbars. You can also modify grids to display information in any format you choose.
Options Window
The Options window is the main center for creating and maintaining your personalizations. Use this program to
save your toolbar, sheet, tree view, and grid personalizations. There are several preferences within each program
that you can define and select from the Options window. To access this window, launch the program you wish
to personalize. Once the program displays, click on the Tools menu, and select Options.
Each program has a command that will undo all your modifications. To return the program to its original interface,
select the Tools menu, and select Reset Layouts to Base.
Save Personalizations
To record your personalizations periodically, click the Tools menu and select Save Layouts. Before you close
the program, make sure the Save Settings on Exit check box is selected on the Options window. The next time
you launch the program, your personalizations display.
Shortcut Bar
The Shortcut bar is displayed on the left side of the main interface. This toolbar displays shortcut icons to both
Epicor programs and external programs. When you double-click the icon, the program is launched. You can add
and remove shortcuts on this bar.
View Menu
The View menu allows you to personalize the main interface and select what elements are displayed when you
launch the application. You can hide various panes in the main window, as well as select different program icons.
Product LifeCycle Management (PLM) is made by the PROCAD company. PLM includes storage, administration
and supply of all product-related as well as all supplement data during the entire operational order processing
and thereafter.
PLM is the product data management system that supervises the entire process, the product life history. It interacts
with project managers, engineers as well as employees in quality assurance. Foremost support is given to the
design department. It provides all required functions for design management, including those for passing work
results from the technical designers to the neighboring departments. Workflow management, scan and plot
management as well as document viewing in large heterogeneous networks and over the Internet complete the
range of powerful PLM features employed.
Most modern knowledge management solutions evolve from a comprehensive embedding of a consistent product
data management. PLM meets all requirements for a comprehensive product life cycle management. PLM's
modular structure makes it an extremely flexible instrument, which can easily be adapted to the respective
requirements in an enterprise.
Document Management
Documents are usually drafted in a context that is specific to a project or design process. They are part of the
product data or the project documentation. Epicor PLM connects product data management with the traditional
document management.
Documents can be retrieved from Epicor PLM’s protected electronic vault for external processing. At any time
later they can be checked in again. While checked out, drawings are labeled as ‘locked’, avoiding any modification
conflicts.
PLM records documents at their place of origin and works fully integrated in Microsoft Word, Excel and other
Office applications. Text documents or spreadsheets that have been drafted using these applications are directly
stored in the database.
Workflow Management
Epicor PLM provides configuration functions that describe the rules for workflow state transitions.
Use the Replication Server to duplicate transactions from the Application Server to single or multiple production
servers.
This functionality is designed to offload processing from the main Application Server to support EPM requirements.
Functions it supports:
• Offline reporting
• Offline access to archived as well as live data
• Offline Ad Hoc Queries generated by Epicor Portal and Information Worker
• Offload of external system processing like Mobile Connect and Sales Connect
• Aggregated database holding records from multiple companies across multiple servers
• Data transfer for additional business intelligence
The Replication Server has fast data capture based on file triggers, extraction, and load; this information is placed
into a Progress Sonic queue that is then transferred to the replication databases.
Epicor EPM is supported as a listener for the Progress Sonic queue.
Report Tools
You use alternate report styles to automatically print out report versions based on criteria you define. When the
data values on the report/form match criteria defined for an alternate style, the report/form prints or generates
using this alternate style.
You can set up this functionality globally across all the companies in your organization or create alternate report
versions for use in specific companies. You can create alternate styles for every report within the Epicor application.
Use this functionality after you have created alternate report files within Crystal Reports or an SSRS report writer.
Then use Report Data Maintenance to define the routing fields the Epicor application will monitor through
this functionality. You then enter the various styles you wish to use within Report Style Maintenance. To
complete the setup, you define the data criteria you want to automatically activate each alternate report within
Alternate Report Style Maintenance.
You can now generate reports using SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).
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This feature does not replace Crystal Reports ; it expands the existing reporting technology by giving you additional
option. The optional SSRS report writer functionality includes:
• Emailing reports
• Faxing reports
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• Storing reports within SharePoint
In order to use this functionality, you indicate whether printers within your company can print SSRS reports. You
also define how a report should be printed, Crystal, SSRS, or both. When you print an SSRS report, the SSRS print
window displays, giving you additional options for both previewing and printing out the report.
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You can also create custom SSRS reports through the Microsoft SQL Server Report Builder .
Searches Overview
Search programs are available throughout the application. Use these programs to find and select specific records
to open within another program.
Use each search program to filter and organize the search results through record-specific criteria.
You can launch search programs by clicking a button found next to a key field or on the Navigation toolbar.
Within Customer Maintenance, for example, you click the Customer button to launch the Customer Search
program. Within Sales Order Entry, you click the Sales Order button. On either program, you can also click the
Search (Binoculars icon) button on the Navigation toolbar to display their respective search programs.
Some fields also have a Triangle icon in their top right corners. If you right-click these fields, you display a context
menu that contains an Open With... sub-menu. This sub-menu displays links to the various search and entry
programs related to the selected field. You can launch a search program by selecting the appropriate link.
Regardless of the way you launch the search program, each program has identical functionality you can leverage
to locate the records you want. The Basic tab contains the primary search fields available for each program. The
Quick Search tab displays any user-defined configurable searches available; you can create quick search options
exclusively for your user account or share them publically throughout your company. The BAQ tab contains a list
of business activity queries you can use to generate search results; these queries are either system or custom
queries. The Advanced Search tab gives you access to related dashboards that each contain a complex series of
searchable fields which return precise search results. Other functionality, like Data Tag Searches and Named
Searches are also available to improve the accuracy and performance of searches. Leverage this powerful
functionality to return the records you need.
Example You are searching for sales order 3014. You launch Sales Order Entry and click the Sales Order
button. In the Sort By field, you select the Sales Order option. In the Starting At field, you enter 3000.
Click Search, and the search grid returns all the sales orders that start with 3000. These records are also
sorted by sales order number, so you quickly find sales order 3014.
If the record for which you are searching has multiple tables like orders, jobs, customers, suppliers, and so on,
and you select multiple records in the Search window, the program's Tree View only shows the one record in
context. Use the navigation functionality within the Tree View to go between tables or pages within that record.
The Navigation toolbar contains a list of all the records you selected in the Search window.
Advanced Searches
An Advanced Search is a dashboard that you can access to search for related date from a standard search window.
This is similar to the "Like" fields in the BAQ Searches, but the data displays as a dashboard, and opens in a
separate window on your workstation. Use the dashboard to search for specific data, select a record, and pull
the record back into the original program from which you initiate the search.
You can also use Business Activity Query (BAQ) Searches throughout the system to search for related data. These
searches are created in the BAQ program by selecting "Like" columns. When fields in your query are "Like"
column, and the same field is used for searching in various system programs, the BAQ displays as a search option
within the search program.
Any field that supports searching can be configured to use Enterprise Search. You can then search for records
and return a record of the appropriate type to the search field.
You can set up these configurations per each user or share this functionality across the entire company.
Enterprise Search
Enterprise Search allows users to perform free-form text (not module specific) searches of Epicor data. The
Enterprise Search index is created by sets of Business Activity Queries (BAQs).
With the default Enterprise Search index, users can search nearly all of the Epicor data to which they have access.
Results are presented either in paged results typical of web search engines or in grid format. Either results
presentation allows you to open results (Epicor records) with appropriate Epicor programs.
When Enterprise Search is installed and configured, the Enterprise Search toolbar can be displayed as part of the
main window interface (Windows or web client).
Administrators can create multiple search indexes, and limit indexes to certain companies. Users can be directed
to using a particular index by company or at the user level. Enterprise Search consists of a server component and
an administrative console (Enterprise Search Management console).
Use the Epicor Search Anywhere program to trigger Epicor Enterprise searches from any application through
keystroke combinations. You launch this program by clicking an icon in the system tray.
Use Epicor Search Anywhere to search Enterprise Search from a spreadsheet application, a word processing
application, or an email. Search Anywhere also contains functionality that returns search results to the application
from where you started the search.
Named Searches
Create a series of pre-set search options using the Named Search functionality. You launch these searches manually
from the Named Search drop-down list found within each search program, or set up a specific Named Search
option as the default for the search program. You can also automatically populate data within either the search
program or its parent entry or maintenance program using Named Searches.
Quick Searches
The Quick Search functionality is a dynamic tool useful in improving the productivity of searches. You create
configurable searches that you can then use within your own user account, or share publicly with other users.
Standard Searches
Search programs are accessible throughout the application. Easily locate and organize records using filters and
specific criteria in any available search program. Define sorting or starting values, as well as specific terms, when
performing a basic search.
Security Overview
Security for your application is defined through a few key programs. The Security Group Maintenance program
should be used first to setup security groups. Next, use the User Account Maintenance program to create accounts
for all of your system users, and then assign each user to the appropriate security group(s).
Assigning users to security groups makes setting system security quicker and easier. For example, you may want
to disallow access to Payroll programs for most users. If you have setup security groups, you can quickly tell the
software to only allow access to Payroll programs to the security group called Payroll.
Use the other security programsto set security privileges at specific levels in the software. The highest level would
be at the Main Menu. If you want a program to not display on the Main Menu for a user or group of users, use
Menu Maintenance.
If you want to block access to a program from wherever that program may be launched (Main Menu or from
within another program), use Process Security Maintenance. This same process also allows you to block groups
and users from the ability to perform certain functions within a program like Get New, Update, and Delete.
At the lowest level, you can block group/user access to a specific field in a table. Use the Field Security Maintenance
program to do this.
Use this report to review the current access users and security groups have on the Main Menu, as well as to
evaluate the security that is currently set up for your programs.
ShopVision Overview
The ShopVision module displays strategic data required for critical short-term and long-term decision making.
The data displays in a dynamic graphic tool that allows you to sort, group, and view data in a grid, pie chart, bar
chart, or graph.
Cash Flow
Use this program to review the cash flow throughout the application in terms of cash buckets.
Use this program to review aggregated shipping data in a dashboard format. This dashboard displays high-level
summaries of data to enable executives to monitor and analyze shipping performance by different parameters
such as part, plant, and shipping method.
Plant Performance
Use this program to review aggregated plant data in a dashboard format. This dashboard displays high-level
summaries of data to enable executives to monitor plants by different parameters such as expense code, labor
type, resource group, shift, and supervisor.
Use this program to review aggregated backlog order data in a dashboard format. This dashboard displays
high-level summaries of data to enable executives to monitor open orders by different parameters such as
customer, order, part, plant, ship-to, and sales territory.
Supplier Performance
Use this program to review aggregated supplier data in a dashboard format. This dashboard displays high-level
summaries of data to enable executives to monitor supplier performance by different parameters such as customer,
part, plant, ship-to, and sales territory.
Sourcing Overview
Sourcing Integration
The Styling and Themes functionality gives you complete control over the look and feel of the entire user interface
(UI). Set this tool to display a pre-built design or theme and access it from the options installed with the Epicor
application. Use this tool to edit an existing theme and create a new theme.
Use the styling functionality to manipulate the look of each item or component within the interface, including
buttons, check boxes, and fields. It gives you complete control over the look of each component, as you can
update the different states in which they display. For example, you can create multiple button states - normal,
selected, or pressed - in a graphics program and then add these various states as the default look for all buttons
within the Epicor application. Since you are updating one user interface definition, or UI role, the changes you
make are displayed globally throughout the interface.
Your updated or new theme can then be made available to everyone within your organization. This tool set
contains export and import functions so you can pass along your revised or new theme to anyone.
Use the styling functionality to create a user interface that is unique to your company, departments, or users. By
refining the look of existing themes or creating new themes, you can transform the Epicor application to display
an entirely different look and feel.
Use this program to quickly preview the look and feel of the interface by loading in any pre-built, new, or updated
Theme during the current session of the application.
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Microsoft Office 2007 Style
The application can be styled to reflect the look and feel of Microsoft Office 2007.
RunTime Styler
This is the primary tool of the Styling functionality. This tool lets you change the appearance of every component
within the user interface. You can then see this change immediately, as the interface is updated while the
application runs. This will help you decide if you like, or do not like, the change to the interface.
Style Tracking
This is a tracking mode you activate that lets you find out the details for a specific interface component. This tool
will help you complete your new or updated theme.
This tool lets you manage all the themes available for your client installation. Use this tool to add, activate, and
delete themes. You can also select a specific theme to be the default for your client installation.
Use this area of functionality to maintain system-wide maintenance information. Examples of maintenance areas
include custom field maps, database records, menus, process calling, report data, report styles, sub process
menus, system agent and system monitor applications.
Use the /RPT argument to give the application multiple printer options. When active, the application first checks
to see if a default printer is selected on a Crystal Report definition. If it is, this printer and its settings are
automatically used to print out the report.
Administration Console
The Administration Console is a MMC (Microsoft Management Console) snap-in for the Epicor 9.0 Application.
The Administration Console replaces the Progress Data Administration Menu that used to be used to configure
license and company information, and to provide license and session information.
Features of the Administration Console include:
• Support for multiple server installations
• License file import
• Organization and company definition
• User maintenance across companies and servers
• Replication server
• Session information
BI Web Parts
This functionality supports the Performance Canvas capability from DSP. Use this feature to create dashboards
and publish data mart information created with Epicor Cube Connect.
The published information can be delivered through Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) web parts, Web
2.0 AJAX, or HTML forms with search and for Mobile devices such as Blackberry and Cymbian.
Company Configuration
Use this module to setup your company configuration information. Examples of configurations include accounts
payable, accounts receivable, asset management, general ledger, company records, CRM, data collection, field
service, help desk, internationalization, inventory, job, MRP, orders, payroll, purchasing, quality assurance, quote,
shipping and receiving.
Compression
Application data between the client and application server can be compressed to improve performance.
You can enable data compression between the client and application server on a per user basis. Using compression
may increase application performance, especially when data transmission distances between the client and
application server are significant.
To enable compression for a user, launch User Maintenance, navigate to the Options sheet, and select Enable
network compression. The setting takes effect the next time the user logs on.
There are three entries in the .mfgsys file that affect compression. The CompressionEnabled setting is controlled
as described above in User Maintenance. The value set on the user record always overrides the CompressionEnabled
value in the .mfgsys file. The other two entries are maintained in the .mfgsys file. They are <CompressionLevel
value="7" /> and <CompressionThreshold value="512" />. Both are set at recommended values. Compression
level, as it is adjusted higher, compresses data into smaller packets but takes more processing time to do the
compression. Compression threshold is the point (in kilobytes) at which any compression is done at all. For
example, at the default setting any data set smaller than 512k is not compressed.
The Context Menu Maintenance program lets you both personalize and customize context menus throughout
the Epicor Application. These menus appear when you right-click on specific fields; they are frequently used as
a short cut to launch related entry programs, trackers, and search programs. With this customization tool you
can:
• Add new program menu items to a selected context menu.
• Add new search menu items to a selected context menu.
• Initially the context menu changes are saved as personalizations to your user account. If you need, however,
you can update this context menu throughout your Epicor Application.
• Create new context menus that you can then attach to fields when you are in customization mode.
• Report Style and Report Data Definition - The Report Style Maintenance program now lets you specify
an Output Location. This location will override the default location for Bartender and EDI reports. If an Output
Location is not defined, the reports are automatically printed to these locations:
• MfgSysData/Bartender
• MfgSysData/EDI
The Report Data Definition window now lets users specify a Report Style for a Rule, instead of the Report
Template. This means that some Report Style parameters are applied when rules evaluate to TRUE - like the
Report Template Location, the Output Location, and the Report Options.
Cube Connect
Use Cube Connect to create and manipulate Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) standard star schemas.
You can insert a correct security model into online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes. If a user can only see one
company and a number of projects, this condition is reflected in the OLAP cubes.
This functionality also updates the VBI dynaMarts so that work with Cube Connect.
Customization/Personalization Maintenance
The Customization/Personalization Maintenance program lets you manage all the customizations and
personalizations on your system. With this program you can:
• Review the details on each customization or personalization, including the Product ID, Version, Last Updated
By, Form Name, and Parent Layer.
• Delete the customizations that you no longer need.
• Delete all the personalizations that were created for a specific employee. This feature is useful, for example,
when an employee has left your company.
• Select a customization as being a Work in Progress. This prevents the customization from being used within
the Epicor Application before it is ready.
• Export a customization that you wish to use elsewhere.
• Import a customization that you want to incorporate into your Epicor Application.
• Verify Customizations - This functionality lets you test if your customizations and personalizations work
properly. This verification tool can review all the custom fields and code within a selected
customization/personalization or a group of customizations and personalizations. It then informs you whether
or not the customization/personalization is valid.
• Run Mode/Developer Mode Access - You can immediately launch a customization/personalization in both
Run Mode and Developer Mode within Customization/Personalization Maintenance. You can use these
functions, for example, to discover why a selected personalization or customization is not working properly.
• Verification Warning - When users attempt to launch a customized or personalized program that is not
compatible, an error message is displayed that prevents the user from launching the program.
Customization/Personalization Maintenance can then be used to upgrade the program. If the customized or
personalized program is compatible, however, no error message will appear and the user can run the program
as expected.
Document Attachments
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In addition to document links, the application supports SharePoint document library attachments with support
for application metadata, document versions, and collaboration.
The following attachment types are supported:
• SharePoint Document (documents stored in a sharepoint document list)
• File System Document (documents stored in a defined file system location
• Attachment Link specific document link to a file location
• Collaboration Link Specific link to SharePoint Document List
The Attachments sheet on the Company Configuration program allows you to define the default attachment
type and to create a SharePoint document library.
Set up multiple attachment types using the Document Type Maintenance program. Optionally, document types
can be reserved for specific tables. Each document type will appear in a program's tree view using an icon that
you specify. Users can drag documents to the icon to add an attachment to a record. The document types are
added to the New menu on the SharePoint document library, so that you can create attachments on the SharePoint
site.
Use the Document Type Control program to identify the tables that will be associated with attachments that are
reserved for a specific table. This program also allows you to set whether the icon for a document type will be
exposed in the tree view regardless of whether attachments are present on a record. For each record added, this
program creates a folder in the SharePoint document library for the appropriate company.
Add metadata to attachments using information from the associated application record using the Document
Type Metadata program. The metadata appears as columns in the SharePoint site along with the attachment
file. In SharePoint, you can sort and filter the attachment records by the metadata and create custom library
views.
The following shows the attachment folder in the tree view of the Customer Maintenance program.
Functionality is available on the Actions menu within External Company Maintenance. This menu option is Initialize
all Global Parts, Customers, and Suppliers. When you select this option, all global records are updated to display
current information within the application.
Implementation Checklist
The Implementation Checklist program is enhanced to let you search for a specific form; you launch this search
function from either a button or a context menu. When you define a form, the selected program (form) can then
be launched directly from this section of the checklist. To previously set up this feature, users would need to
directly enter the specific Form ID.
Multi-Company Menu
Define all companies within the organization and user security and access rights by function for each.
Moving between companies becomes as simple as selecting the company and function from the left hand menu
hierarchy. In this manner a user can switch between order entry in one company to any number of other companies
by selecting that option on the menu. This can significantly increase user productivity by removing the need to
log in and out of different companies.
You can set up multiple system agents based on your requirements for generating reports and processes. With
multiple system agents, you can send reports to different AppServers based on a set of rules you define. For
example, a system agent can be defined using AppServers with different schedules so various processes and
reports run at times that make better use of your available network resources. System agents could also be located
on servers in different time zones so that multiple sites in these different time zones can all share one common
database. Use System Agent Maintenance to set up multiple system agents; this program is located in the System
Management > Utilities folder on the main menu.
System Tasks
Use this module to view system-wide information, such as the Data Dictionary, Integrated Table Workbench, and
the Implementation Checklist.
Two new technical reference guides are now available - The Performance Tuning Technical Reference Guide
(SQL) and Performance Tuning Technical Reference Guide (Progress).
Use these guides to improve the performance of SQL and Progress databases. The guides each contain a series
of instructions; each set of instructions documents a potential performance tuning option. Implement the options
which best match the configuration of your system.
These guides are located within the online help as .pdf files. To display these files using the Table of Contents
pane within the help system, navigate to the System Management > Advanced Topic section.
Use Plant Configuration Control to define how each plant interacts with various modules within the application.
You first create plant records within Plant Maintenance. This program contains default manufacturing information,
like MRP parameters, that you define for each plant. You can then open this plant record within Plant Configuration
Control to indicate how this plant handles inventory, shipping and receiving, and other key business functions.
Processes
Use this module to setup system-wide server processes. Examples of processes include BAQ exports, credit card
keys, eurofinancial server, fill shop capacity, generic integration, global alerts/email server and multi-company
server.
You can define the output format each report uses for EDI.
You define this setting within Report Maintenance; the Styles - Detail sheet contains the Output EDI drop down
list. You can either output the report to EDI as either plain text or as an .xml file. The data contained on this
report can then be transmitted using Service Connect.
Sales Connect
Within the Sales Connect application, you can add Alternate Bill To locations to customer records.
Set the status balloon properties to enable or disable balloon notifications from being displayed by the System
Monitor icon.
Users can choose whether or not to receive balloon notifications for tasks tracked in their System Monitor.
Example of a balloon notification:
The TIE Commerce application is fully integrated with both the Epicor and Service Connect applications.