Microsoft Great Plains IV: Inventory Management
 by: Vincent Ong

Microsoft Business Solutions Great Plains is marketed for mid-size companies as well as Navision (which has very good positions in Europe and emerging markets where it can be easily localized).

Great Plains Inventory Management (IV) module gives your business a competitive edge. By achieving accurate visibility and effective control over inventory, and setting prices on a customer-by-customer basis, you can reduce operating costs and achieve the fast, efficient fulfillment that keeps customers coming back. Inventory Management functions as the foundation of the Inventory and Order Processing side of Great Plains. This is where all order, sold or purchased, gets referenced. As with other Great Plains modules, this one is tightly connected with the General Ledger module as well as some add-ons like Extended Pricing and Bill of Materials.

IV maximizes operational efficiency by empowering employees with advanced search capabilities that provide quick, easy access to the inventory information they need. It also provides one-time stock and pricing entry that provides accurate and timely information throughout the system. With Great Plains and this module’s features, informed decisions will be made instead of “gut-feel” ones. This will give your business a superior competitive advantage especially with its easy-to-use stock analysis tools and flexible reporting capabilities that deliver rich access to detailed, consolidated inventory and ordering information.

Features:

    * Consolidate Lot Numbers – Consolidate like lot numbers in all log number entry windows to gain an accurate view of inventory for a given log number — including Manufactured Date and Expiration Date — without juggling multiple records.

    * Serial/Lot Number Tracking – Initiate traces using an item’s serial or lot number and view where and when the number occurred in bills of materials, customer orders, or any other transaction.

    * Inventory Ranking – Prioritize sales stock with options to rank your inventory items by usage value, actual or project usage quantity, on-hand inventory value, or unit cost.

    * Quality Controls – Maintain complete control over your inventory with quantity tracking at the bin level, cycle counting, stock count calendars, and inventory snapshots.

    * Multi-bin Tracking – Track a single inventory item across multiple bins within the warehouse to optimize picking efficiency.

    * Instant Access to Transaction Information - Get instant information on all transactions related to any item you define in the inquiry windows — including lot number, price levels, and item type — and drill down to specific details as needed.

    * Comprehensive Reporting Tools – Analyze all facets of your inventory with comprehensive standard reports including Item List, Price List, and Turnover, integrated with the flexible reporting power of Microsoft Great Plains modules such as Report Writer and Crystal Reports®.

    * Allocation/on Order Drill Downs – Access supply and demand information using Allocated and On Order drill downs, and view item allocations in existing orders quickly and easily.

    * Stock Card Inquiry – View historical inventory movements in the new Item Stock Card window.

    * Historical Document Print – Keep an accurate watch over sales and purchase order lifecycles with minimal effort, using Print Documents windows to generate document histories.

    * Bill of Materials – Maintain full control over the assembly process with complete bills of materials to accurately define, track, and analyze how your inventory is used as part of your assembly operations. (This is an add-on module)

    * Extended Pricing – Personalize pricing by combining date ranges and quantity break options with special net, percentage-off, or value-off pricing for specific customers or groups of customers. (This is an add-on module)

Good luck with implementation, customization and integration and if you have issues or concerns – we are here to help! If you want us to do the job - give us a call 1-630-961-5918 or 1-866-528-0577! [email protected]

About The Author

Vincent Ong is a Great Plains specialist in Alba Spectrum Technologies (http://www.albaspectrum.com) – USA nationwide Great Plains, Microsoft CRM customization company, serving clients in Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Miami, New Orleans, Toronto, Montreal and having locations in multiple states and internationally