Compiere Capabilities Overview - Ali MotallebiCompiere user to choose from the full range of free open software operating systems to proprietary offerings from traditional vendors

Compiere Capabilities Overview

Compiere Learning Services Division

Copyright © 2007 Compiere, inc. All rights reserved www.compiere.com

Compiere Learning Services Copyright © 2007 Compiere Inc. – All rights reserved 2

Table of Contents

1.1 Compiere ERP & CRM – An Introduction 5

1.2 Compiere’s Strengths 5

1.3 Compiere – Hardware & Infrastructure Requirements 5

2.1 Compiere Structure 6

2.2 Compiere Terminology 6

2.3 Compiere Processes 6

3.1 Partner Management 8 3.2 Business Partner 8 3.3 Business Partner Setup 8 3.4 Shared Services 8 3.5 Centrally Maintained Information 9 3.6 Counter Documents 9

4.1 The Material Management Process 10 4.2 Product 10 4.3 Product Catalog 11 4.4 Bill of Materials 11 4.5 Distribution and Multi-Warehouse Control 11 4.6 Materials Management 11

4.7 Product /Services Costing 11

5.1 Pricing 12

5.2 Price Lists 12

5.3 Price List Version 12

5.4 Creating Price Lists 12

5.5 Price List Schema 12

5.6 Source Selection 12 5.7 Base Price List 13 5.8 Purchase Price List 13

1 Compiere Overview 5

2 Compiere ERP and CRM 6

3 Partner Management 8

4 Material Management 10

5 Pricing 12


6.1 The Procurement Process 14

6.2 Requisitions 14

6.3 Purchase Orders 15

6.4 Material Receipts 15

6.5 Vendor Invoices 15

6.6 Payments 15

7.1 The Order Management Process 16 7.2 Quotations 16

7.3 Sales Orders 16

7.4 Shipments 17

7.5 Customer Invoices 17

7.6 Receipts 17

8.1 The Open Item Management Process 18

8.2 Payment Rules (Receivables and Payables) 18

8.3 Payments 19

8.4 Bank Statement 19

8.5 Cash Book 19

8.6 Charges 20

9.1 eCommerce 21 9.2 Online Product Catalog 21 9.3 Online Pricing and Availability 21 9.4 Online Sales Transactions 21 9.5 Supporting Components 21

10.1 Customer Relationship Management 22 10.2 Lead and Activity Tracking 22

10.3 Marketing Campaign Management 22

10.4 Customer Profitability Analysis 22

10.5 Self Service Online Inquiry 22

6 Procurement 14

7 Order Management 16

8 Open Item Management 18

9 eCommerce 21

10 Customer Relationship Management 22


11.1 Project Management 23

11.2 Project Type 24

11.3 Project 24

11.4 Creating Purchase Orders / Sale Orders 24

11.5 Project Reporting 24

12.1 Financial Management 25

12.2 Reliable Data 25

12.3 Standard and Customizable Financial Reports 25

12.4 Comprehensive Financial Management 25

12.5 Customer-Specified Chart of Accounts 25

12.6 Accounting Rule Enforcement 26

12.7 Tax Calculation and External Reporting 26

12.8 Banking Relationship Management 26

13.1 Performance Management 27

13.2 Accounting Rules 27

13.3 General Ledger Journals 28

13.4 General Ledger Distributions 28

13.5 Reporting on Accounting 28

13.6 Financial Reporting 29

14.1 Reporting 30

14.2 Integrated Reporting 30

14.3 Business Views 30

14.4 Reporting Output 30

14.5 Customizing Reports 31

14.6 Archiving Reports 31

15.1 Manufacturing 32

15.2 Planned Manufacturing Extensions 32

11 Project Management 23

12 Financial Management 25

13 Performance Management 27

14 Reporting 30

15 Manufacturing 32



Compiere Overview 1.1 Compiere ERP & CRM – An Introduction

Compiere ERP & CRM is an open source business solution that provides an enterprise level alternative to proprietary solutions.

While Compiere was designed for the distribution, retail, and service industries, it has provided a solution for several other industries as well, large, or small. Compiere also includes features related to material management, basic manufacturing, and planning. More importantly, Compiere was designed to be extended and customized so that users of any industry as well as organizations of any size can truly have a system that will address and adapt to all possible unique business requirements. Compiere is not only a solution for small, medium, or large enterprises, it is also well suited for individual companies, distribution chains, outlets of manufacturers, franchises, etc.

Compiere provides fully integrated and easy to use first tier functionality for any sized market or enterprise. Unlike traditional systems, it is organized to map onto the typical business processes. It provides a complete, integrated system rather than a series of modules coupled with data transfers between them. This integration applies to the Customer Relationship Management, the Web Store data, as well as the traditional ERP information.

1.2 Compiere’s Strengths What sets Compiere apart from other applications are the following features:

Fast Implementation with the idea of no final decisions; users do not need to analyze everything up front, because Compiere is still flexible enough to implement changes at a later point in time. Every decision is reversible.

True Integration means that all data (including CRM, ERP, and Accounting) is driven from the same transactions. There is no need to migrate, merge, or transform data. The user entering documents does not need to worry about what info needs to be entered for CRM, as it is automatically there.

Safe Fail - People usually try to be fail-safe. However, there are no fail-safe environments, since there are too many variables in it. Therefore, users can be sure that there will be bugs and problems. Thus, the idea was to build an environment where users can fail safely, not to mention, recover from an error, as well as restart and deal with the situation.

Rich and Reach - Rich refers to the Client/Server interface meaning that it has all the features required. Reach refers to the Web interface meaning that it can be accessed without anything being deployed to the client.

Global market - It is relatively easy to build in the multi-functions in Compiere, which allows users to act in a global market with different languages, currencies, and accounting methods. Therefore, there is real flexibility for users.

Smart User Interface - Most windows or screens are generated from rules, based on the dictionary. This allows for a very personalized access and gives users what they need. In that way, Compiere fully accounts for the fact that different people have different requirements. The data dictionary-driven approach enables a setup on a per-user-basis. All windows can be customized and reduced to provide only those fields that the user actually needs, which again gives users more flexibility than most other applications.

Extensible and Customizable – Unlike traditional systems, Compiere was designed to allow for easy and sustainable extensions and customizations. Gone are the times of consuming efforts during upgrades or re-applying previous modifications.

1.3 Compiere – Hardware & Infrastructure Requirements 1.3.1 Hardware and network infrastructure Compiere is able to operate on a large selection of hardware and operating systems. This flexibility enables a user to choose the hardware and operating system platform that meets their individual requirements. 1.3.2 Operating System software As with hardware, Compiere will run on a range of operating systems including UNIX, Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X thus allowing the Compiere user to choose from the full range of free open software operating systems to proprietary offerings from traditional vendors. 1.3.3 Application servers Compiere utilizes the JBoss application server for which no fees are applicable. The current development plan also allows Compiere to run on IBM WebSphere and the Oracle Application Server (OAS).



Compiere ERP and CRM 2.1 Compiere Structure The structure of Compiere differs from traditional systems, since the design is driven by business processes rather than by traditional departments. This approach reflects the business conditions in many enterprises or industries, since the same person often handles related processes. Compiere’s flexibility, however, allows users to implement Compiere with module like security. This accompanied by other reasons, support the differences in Compiere from traditional systems. The following section refers to the terms used in Compiere. 2.2 Compiere Terminology In Compiere and in this document, certain words are used which have particular meanings within the context of the Compiere application. They are described below.

A “Tenant” is an entity, most likely a company, or equivalent. It is a Tenant in the sense that the Compiere system is able to provide services to multiple entities and as a result, each one becomes a Tenant of the Compiere system.

An “Organization” is a department or division of an entity that is a Tenant of the Compiere system. An organization may also be a legal entity such as a subsidiary company. Compiere optionally enforces double entry accounting on all transactions that are between Organizations such that a payment by one organization of an expense for another organization automatically results in an inter-organization transaction in both organizations in addition to the payment and expense entry.

A “Business Partner” is an entity with whom the organization transacts business. It could be a customer, supplier, or an employee.

A “Document” is a type of transaction typically initiated by a document such as a sales invoice, a material receipt, a shipping document a payment to a supplier or a receipt from a customer. For each type of document, the user is able to define account consequence caused by the processing of such a document.

2.3 Compiere Processes 2.3.1 Partner Relations Management Partner Relations Management links different customers, vendors, customers, etc. to each other allowing them to manage lead distribution, service requests, collateral distribution, and marketing expenses. It facilitates the provision of shared (centralized) services by one organizational entity to other organizational entities. This functionality enables organizations which manage a number of wholly or partly owned entities (such as a franchise operation) to provide centralized services to the remote operations. 2.3.2 Material Management Material Management covers all material management activities including Products, Price Lists, inventory receipts, shipments, movements and stock take count management and processing. 2.3.3 Pricing Pricing covers pricing for vendors and customers, which is achieved using Price Lists. Compiere allows users to create as many Price Lists as necessary. Using Price Lists users can control what is sold to which customer and the price to be charged 2.3.4 Procurement Procurement covers the business process used for creating purchase orders, processing invoices received from vendors, and generating payments. The functionality is tightly integrated with Material Management. This functionality is typically found in modules entitled purchasing and accounts payable. 2.3.5 Order Management Order Management covers the business processes used for creating quotations for prospects or customers, sales order management, invoicing and cash receipting. The functionality is tightly integrated with the Material Management and the Customer Relationship Management components of Compiere. This functionality is typically found in modules entitled sales order entry and accounts receivable.



Compiere ERP & CRM, (continued)

2.3.6 Open Item Management Open Item Management automates the processes associated with the entry and allocation of cash received from customers and payments made to creditors. Open Item Management also provides for the reconciliation of bank statements and cashbooks. At the time of reconciliation, Compiere provides functions to allow for the reconciliation of in-transit payments and bank charges or the creation of payments for direct debit transfers. 2.3.7 eCommerce eCommerce provides a highly featured web presence for an organization. The information made available on web and in the web store is shared with the standard application. No synchronization or additional integration is required. The eCommerce components may be customized to the have the required look and feel in order to match an existing web site. 2.3.8 Customer Relations Management Customer Relations Management is an integrated module providing a logical view of all customer and prospect related activities. Therefore, there are (in contrast to traditional CRM systems) no batch or synchronization processes with the back office functionality. 2.3.9 Project Management Project Management is a process that is undertaken, which may involve multiple phases and steps. Using Projects, users can track the status and progress of Service Projects, Order Projects, and Sales Opportunities, etc. 2.3.10 Financial Management Financial Management covers the automation of all financial, distribution, sales, and service processes in the application. Compiere also unifies the enterprise data into a single repository. By taking a unified approach to integrating enterprise-wide business processes and data, Compiere provides a business solution with reliable information for accurate financial reporting and informed decision-making 2.3.11 Performance Management Performance Analysis covers the costing and accounting dimension of the application. This module informs the user of the organization’s financial performance. 2.3.12 Reporting Reporting is an integrated module in providing the basic reports that are necessary for analyzing the current position as well as provide details of an entity’s status 2.3.13 Manufacturing Manufacturing covers the ability to automate accounting, materials management, order management, and financial processes. .



Partner Management

3.1 Partner Management Partner Management links different clients to each other allowing them to manage lead distribution, service requests collateral distribution, and marketing expenses. It also allows for the provision of (centralized) services. 3.2 Business Partner In Compiere, a Business Partner is an entity with which to do business. There are three different types of business partners: Vendors, Customers, and Employees. The Compiere concept of the business partner is much more flexible than most applications, since a business partner can be a Vendor, a Customer, an Employee, or any combination of the three. This provides users with a true 360-degree view of the relationship with those who do business with the organization. This approach also eases access control for ‘self-service’ functionality and allows regional analysis and shipping optimization.

A Business Partner has one or more Locations and one or more Contacts, which can optionally be linked to a location. Contacts can have so-called Interest Areas, which form the basis for Customer Relationship Management and allow sales people to manage Email-lists for marketing purposes (for example, newsletters etc.).

A Business Partner also has at least one Bank Account as well as Withholding functionality.

Business Partners may also have relationships with other Business Partners. This allows for a Sales Order to be shipped to one Business Partner, invoiced to a second Business Partner and payment made by a third Business Partner. 3.3 The Business Partner Setup When defining a Business Partner, there are a number of reference records which should be defined prior to adding the Business Partner.

First, it is a good idea for the user to set up a Business Partner Group. Compiere allows users to define the parameters at a group level. Values entered here will default to the individual Business Partners. One way to group, the business partners would be to split them up into Vendors, Customers, and Employees. However, a user could be much more specific, which would be useful in the area of accounting or reporting. Users may want to differentiate between retailers, end users, manufacturers, and export companies, etc.

In the Business Partner Setup workflow, users may also want to define the Greetings and Titles for the business partners and contacts.

Finally, a user may define the Payment Terms, which will be used for the specific business partner or group. For example, a user may have different payment terms for wholesale vs. retail customers. Alternatively, if a Business Partner was both a vendor and a customer there may be different payment terms for Sales vs. Purchases. 3.3.1 Lead Distribution and Tracking Compiere may be used to create leads and distribute them to Business Partners. The system may also be used to follow up and monitor progress and results.

3.3.2 Marketing Expense Accounting Compiere allows Business Partners to create charge invoices directly for marketing expense activities directly on the user’s system.

3.3.3 Customer Service Requests and Warranty Requests Compiere provides for the initiation, follow up, and management of service and/or warranty requests. 3.4 Shared Services Compiere facilitates the management and provision of shared services (e.g. Accounting, Help Desk, Shipping, etc.) to associated Business Partners. As a Service Provider, a user has access to just the information needed for tasks across multiple tenants and organizations.



Partner Management, (continued) 3.5 Centrally Maintained Information The system can maintain central data like Products, Price Lists, or Accounting Information for all business partners. Partners can add additional entities, but cannot change the centrally maintained elements for consistency and security. This combination of central and locally maintained information provides for the management of a ‘network of organizations’ typically found in a franchised operation or those organizations that provide central functions for otherwise independent associates. 3.6 Counter Documents Compiere provides functionality, which enables independent but related organizations to automatically generate a ‘counter document’ in another organization. Assume a franchisee (a separate legal entity) places a Purchase Order on the franchisor. The corresponding Sales Order can be automatically created in the franchisor’s ledger. When the franchisor ships to the franchisee a corresponding Material Receipt will be created in the Franchisee’s ledger and so on with each transaction that has been set up to automatically create a counter document.

This functionality ensures that GST is correctly handled between the separate legal entities as well as provides for the products to be recorded at different costs in the franchisor and franchisee accounts. Furthermore, it significantly reduces the effort involved in processing the transactions.

The above is described in simple terms and Compiere provides additional sophistication to allow the recipient of the goods (in this case the franchisee) to ‘confirm’ the receipt of goods. This will allow for the management of goods in transit and to ensure that no invoice is created by the franchisor until the receipt of the goods has been confirmed.



Material Management

4.1 The Material Management Process The Material Management process covers all material management activities including Products, Price Lists, Inventory Receipts, Shipments, Movements, and counts within a Tenant, its organizations, as well as to and from suppliers and customers. The Material Management process is shown in the figure 1 below.

Figure 1: ‘Material Management’ Schematic

4.2 Product A ‘Product’ in Compiere is something that can be sold and/or purchased, (or something that can be stored) and it has to have a Price. The main examples of Products are:

Items

Services

Resources

Expense Types Items are the physical goods that are sold. Services are not restricted in terms of availability whereas Resources are restricted. Expenses can be billed, for example: a consultant who incurs some travel expenses can be invoiced to the customer.

A Product can also be described as a ‘collection of Assets with similar attributes’.

Before defining the Products, some supporting records must be defined first.

First, set up the Warehouse and the Locators. The Warehouse is the Point of Service. It may have more than one Locator (not to be confused with the Location, which is an Address). Each Locator has predefined dimensions

Aisle

Bin

Level

Next, set up the Product Category (which corresponds to the Business Partner Group) for Accounting and Reporting purposes, (as well as price lists.)



Material Management, (continued)

4.3 Product Catalog The Product Catalog lists the user’s Products and Services with optional Bill of Materials and Substitutes. The system allows the user to import and update purchase prices from its vendors. Products are organized in categories and hierarchies and may be searched based on attributes that apply over a number of products, for instance “find me all products that are yellow shirts with short sleeves.”

Multiple price lists are supported for all purchased and sold items. Compiere’s Purchase Price List functionality, allows simple control of discounts from suppliers. The system provides general and customer specific sales price lists. Price lists are date controlled to allow special sales initiatives. 4.4 Bill of Materials A Bill of Material (BOM) contains one or more Products, Services, or Bill of Materials. The number of elements a Bill of Materials may contain is unlimited. A Bill of Materials has to be "cycle-free", which means that a BOM cannot refer to itself or parts (e.g. found in recipes in the chemical industry).

Compiere maintains the following types of Bill of Materials:

Stocked - The available quantity represents what actually is stocked, not what could be produced.

Non-Stocked - The available quantity of any ‘non-stocked’ Bill of Materials is calculated dynamically on an item-to-item basis, and represents what could be available.

4.5 Distribution and Multi-Warehouse Control Compiere supports multiple warehouses with user defined locations within each warehouse for recording stock locations in shelves and bays (Bin Locations). A physical warehouse can be broken into multiple logical warehouses such as receiving, quality assurance and testing, bulk storage and picking. Priorities can be set to ensure that picking takes place from bin locations in a prescribed sequence. Inventory movements can be effected between bin locations and warehouses. Movements between warehouses can be configured to produce appropriate shipping documentation and manage ‘in transit’ stock.

Stock counts and stock valuation adjustments are managed by recording the difference between the book stock quantity and the count quantity and processing any difference so that sales activity can continue in parallel with the ‘stock take’ data entry process.

Stock used for internal purposes can be easily written off to record the stock decrement and consequent financial entries in the Financial Ledger. 4.6 Materials Management Shipment documentation can be created in batches or individually on a per order basis. Goods received from vendors can be compared directly with the purchase order or the vendor invoice. The system shows ‘available to promise’, after allowing for reservations for committed future customer shipments and expected vendor receipts. Material Replenishment lists are created based on inventory replenishment rules, past sales, or targeted inventory levels. Requisitions or Purchase Orders can also be automatically generated from the Material Replenishment report. Optionally, you can also replenish a warehouse from another warehouse. 4.7 Product /Service Costing The Costing functionality in Compiere is flexible and comprehensive. Users can customize it to meet the unique business needs. Users can specify the detail and level of costs in which to track. Users can have multiple parallel costing methods. These can include Standard costs and Actual costs, they may be comprised of Material, and non-Material costs.

Compiere maintains the information for the following costing methods:

Standard Costing

Actual Costing (Last PO, Last Invoice, LIFO, FIFO)

Average (PO, Invoice)



Pricing

5.1 Pricing In Compiere, pricing for vendors and customers is achieved using Price Lists. Compiere allows users to create as many Price Lists as necessary. Using Price Lists users can control what is sold to which customer and the price to be charged. There is a default Price List, which may be overwritten.

5.2 Price Lists Price lists determine what you can sell. If a product is not on a price list, it may not be included on a sales order or customer invoice. As Compiere allows the use of multiple price lists, this determines what is sold to whom.

Usually, there is one default price list. In the Business Partner screen, users can assign a specific price list to a particular business partner

All price lists entries have three prices:

List Price (the official price)

Standard Price (your price)

Limit Price (your lowest price) Price lists are organized in three levels:

The Price List (example: retail, wholesale, customer specific ...)

Price List Version (valid from a specific date)

Price (the actual product or service price)

5.3 Price List Version A price list can have only one version active at a specific time. This date driven control allows users to create price lists for a future date, which become automatically active on the date specified.

5.4 Creating Price Lists In Compiere, users can create or extend a price list manually by adding the product to the price list version. However, in most cases, users create them automatically.

5.5 Price List Schema Users can create price lists from product vendor prices or from other price lists. To automate this, Compiere provides the ability to create Price List Schema Lines. The Schema Lines are executed in the line sequence. This allows users to create general rules followed by rules that are more specific.

Example: In general, there is a 35% discount on items from vendor ‘A,’ but only a 20% discount for a specific product category. In this case, the user would create two entries: one with a 35% discount for vendor ‘A,’ and a second entry with a 20% discount for vendor ‘A’ for the specific product category. The last entry overwrites the general 35% discount, so there is no need to create an entry for all product categories from this vendor. 5.6 Source Selection In Compiere; there are two sources from which to generate price lists.

The following are the two available sources for Price list generation:

Product Vendor Prices (as defined/imported in Product "Vendor Detail" screen or in the Vendor tab of the Product screen.)

Other Price List Versions



Pricing, (continued)

5.7 Base Price List The Base Price List entry in the Version tab is the default for the parameters. By selecting a value, this indicates that the prices should be generated from another price list rather than the vendor prices.

If there are multiple vendors for a product, the price information from the vendor prices of the Current Vendor is used. Prior to creating the price list, is verifying that there is only one current vendor per product; if not, an error message is printed. Vendor prices are mapped as follows: List Price and Standard Price refers to the vendor list price; the Limit refers to the vendor PO price.

5.8 Purchase Price List The major use for price lists is to determine what to sell customers at what price. Users may also use price lists for purchase price control. For this feature, use standard costing.

.



Procurement 6.1 The Procurement Process The Procurement process covers the business processes required for the creation of requisitions, purchase orders, receipt of vendor invoices, and payment processing. The functionality is tightly integrated with Material Management. In traditional systems, this functionality is typically found in modules entitled purchasing and accounts payables.

A schematic showing the Procurement process flow, from the entry of a Requisition to the payment for goods received is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The Procurement Process Schematic

6.2 Requisitions Requisitions may automatically be created from Material Replenishment Reports or alternatively entered manually. A sample workflow implementation comes with the standard product and requires Requisitions in excess of $100 to be approved. Upon approval, a report of approved Requisitions is a prepared and from there purchase orders may be created.

This workflow is provided as an indication of the way that a Document Workflow can be setup. In Compiere, Requisitions automatically generate Purchase Orders.



Purchasing, (continued)

6.3 Purchase Orders Purchase Orders can be generated (and consolidated, if required) from Material Replenishment Reports, Requisitions, Sales Orders, projects, or manually entered.

Compiere supports two-way and three-way matching with receiving and invoicing documentation and following matching Purchase Orders are automatically closed to minimize overhead on the PO screens but remain accessible via reports. 6.4 Material Receipts Material Receipts are processed by creating a material receipt record. Material Receipt records are then matched to the Purchase Order or Vendor Invoice. Material Receipt records can be auto-created and auto-matched, from Purchase Orders or Vendor Invoices to avoid the overhead of additional data entry. 6.5 Vendor Receipts Vendor Invoices are entered based on the vendor’s invoice document or may be created from (and matched with) Purchase Orders or Material Receipts as Recipient Created Tax Invoices. Material Receipts can also be created automatically from the vendor invoice when the invoice and shipment are received concurrently.

6.6 Payments Payments are generated based on payment terms, which allow payment discounts to be optimized. Payments can be made by direct debit transactions or Compiere’s check printing facilities. Payments can also be made by credit card and details can be recorded when entering the Purchase Order or Invoice.



Order Management 7.1 The Order Management Process The Order Management process covers the business processes required for the creation of a quotation for a prospect or customer, sales order management, invoicing and the receipt of cash. The functionality is tightly integrated with Material Management and Customer Relationship Management. In traditional systems, this functionality is likely to be found in modules entitled sales order processing and accounts receivables.

A schematic showing the Order Management process flow from the entry of a Quotation to the receipt of payment is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Order Management Process Schematic

7.2 Quotations Compiere provides for the creation and printing of customer quotations based on general or customer specific price lists. Quotations can be made "binding," in which case they reserve inventory. Quotations may also be modified at any time as well as, and when appropriate, automatically converted to a Sales Order without additional data entry.

7.3 Sales Orders A Sales Order is the "fulfillment control document" and from a Sales Order, shipment and invoicing documentation can be generated automatically. In addition, it is possible to create Vendor Purchase Orders for the items specified on the sales order and directly shipped to the customer if appropriate.



Order Management, (continued)

Different types of sales orders cause different business process behavior. For example, a “Prepaid Order” will not allow shipments to be generated until payment occurs. A “Point of Sale” order assumes the customer is at the counter with the goods in hand and generates all transactions including stock decrement, invoicing, and payment through the entry of a single document. A “Standard Order” by comparison, will check availability before accepting the order then queue the order for fulfillment by the warehouse and then generate an invoice in the next invoice run or otherwise in accordance with the invoice rules for that customer. Compiere supports the following Sales Order Types:

Standard Order - This is used when shipping products by availability. Users can generate the invoice immediately or after the shipment.

POS Order - This is used in 'over the counter' sales situations with anonymous customers. The order generates the shipment and invoice. The payment is received via Cash, Check, Credit Card, etc.

Credit Order - This is used for known (on account) customers, with or without a credit line. The order generates the shipment, invoice, and optionally receives the payment.

Warehouse Order - This is used when creating summary invoices. Users can select the shipments manually or create the invoice based on invoicing rules (e.g. weekly, on the 1st and 15th of a month, etc.).

Prepay Order – This is used in Web Store Transactions. Users can send the shipment and generate the final invoice after receipt of the money.

Return Material Authorization (RMA) – This is used in a return. Users can create a Credit Memo once an item is returned.

7.4 Shipments Based upon the details captured on the Sales Order, one or more shipments can be generated immediately or automatically when inventory subsequently becomes available. Compiere automatically back orders unavailable items. Compiere can be configured to allow shipments to be effected from the shipment documentation, or alternatively provide for a more disciplined warehouse approach by requiring explicit confirmation of picking and/or shipment prior to the generation of invoice documentation. Confirmations can be used to manage movements of inventory from, say, a receiving area to ‘put away’ areas from which it then becomes available for further processing.

7.5 Customer Invoices Invoices are generated according to the arrangements in place with the customer. Invoices can be generated according to the following:

Immediately after each shipment

When the order is completely shipped

Based on a predefined Invoice Schedule specific to the customer

For example, an invoice schedule could be established to arrange for the creation of a summary invoice including all shipments to the customer over the previous day, week, or month.

7.6 Receipts When entering a Sales Order or Invoice; the payment rules allow flexibility in the automatic generation of receipts:

For cash transactions, a Cashbook entry is automatically generated.

For credit card, check, and direct debit transactions, a payment is created against the appropriate bank account.

Compiere supports merchant payment processors via VeriSign, PayFloPro, and other payment processors are planned for future releases of the software.

Open Items are settled by entering Payments (i.e. receiving a check or creating a direct debit), creating a Cash Book entry (i.e. open invoice paid by petty cash later), or during the process of reconciling Bank Statements (i.e. bank transfers).



Open Item Management

8.1 The Open Item Management Process Compiere automates the management of Open Items using a Payment Rules processor. A schematic of the payment process is shown in Figure 4 below.

Figure 4: ‘Open Item Payment Processing’ Schematic

8.2 Payment Rules (Receivables and Payables)

Depending on the payment rule associated with the vendor invoice, payments are automatically created. Payment rules can be changed at any time to reflect changes in the actual method of payment and in the event that it is decided to pay an invoice using an alternative method. Compiere supports the following payment rules:

Cash

On Account (Payment Term)

Credit Card

Check

Direct Debit transfer



Open Item Management, (continued)

8.2.1 Cash When cash is selected as payment method; an entry is automatically made in the default Cash Book for that day. The cashbook may be changed as well as the day of receipt. The default cashbook is determined by the organization owning this transaction.

8.2.2 On Account (Payment Term) For ‘on account’ customers the payment term defaults to the payment term in the Business Partner definition unless another payment term is specified by the user. Compiere also supports split payment terms (i.e. 50% due in 30 days - 50% in 60 days).

8.2.3 Credit Card Credit card transactions may be entered and processed online. If there is more than one payment processor, the best payment processor is selected based on the calculated change for this payment. The invoice is marked as paid and the charge maintained in the system as an un-reconciled payment.

8.2.4 Check After selection of the appropriate bank account, checks can be entered into the system. If enabled, checks can be processed online (as electronic checks). The associated invoice is marked as paid and the check maintained in the system as an un-reconciled payment.

8.2.5 Transfer Compiere can use the Automatic Clearing House facilities of a specified bank to directly debit a business partner's bank account. The invoice is marked as paid and the transfer maintained in the system is an un-reconciled payment.

8.3 Payments Payments (via Credit Card, Check, Transfer) are created when an invoice being paid by either method is entered into the system or can be entered later. If a payment is for one invoice with the exact amount, there are no additional steps. If the payment is for multiple invoices, or if multiple payments apply to one invoice, or if a payment discount was taken then the payment must be allocated to the relevant invoice.

8.3.1 Allocation The Allocation process links (multiple) payments to (multiple) invoices or credit memos and records payment discounts and receivable write-offs. The user selects the relevant documents and then enters/confirms the difference as a short payment, discount, or write-off.

8.4 Bank Statement Bank Statements can be entered manually or automatically loaded from electronic details supplied by the financial institution. Compiere provides functions to allow for the reconciliation of in-transit payments and bank charges or the creation of payments for direct debit transfers.

8.4.1 Reconciliation Reconciliation is a Process that links a user’s payments to the bank statements and posts the differences. The main source of differences are bank charges, e.g. from the credit card processor.

8.5 Cash Book Petty cash transactions are recorded in the relevant cashbook. Invoices paid by cash are automatically entered in the cash journal. A cash journal is created for each organization for each day.

The Cash Journal is also used to record:

General expenses (for accounts defined in the cashbook)

General revenue (for accounts defined in the cashbook)

Petty Cash differences (for account defined in the cashbook)

Charges

Cash payments of Invoices to a customer or from a supplier Transfers to or from a bank account

The Cash Journal is processed after balancing adjustments are made by creating a new cash journal with the correcting entries.



Open Item Management, (continued)

8.6 Charges

Charges are used in Compiere to allow the user to process non-product related costs and revenues. Examples include freight charges, bank charges, or interest. Charges are linked to general ledger accounts. A number of charge types can point to the same general ledger account so that a charge for “Copy Paper” and a Charge for “Printer Cartridges” could both point to a “Printing and Stationery” natural account.

A charge can refer to either an expense or a revenue item. The charge 'Freight' could be credited to a revenue account if entered on a sales invoice or to an expense account if it appears on a supplier’s invoice. The system determines the type based on the context. A charge in a customer invoice is revenue; a charge in a supplier invoice is an expense. A charge with a positive amount in the Cash Book is revenue and with a negative is a cost item. The user can define the tax status of the charge. If Vendor Invoice lines are allocated to a charge, the tax rate defaults to the tax category defined by the user to be applicable to that charge. Charges can be defined to debit or credit multiple GL accounts in accordance with predefined percentage splits.

The amount of a charge can be predefined to speed data entry. The default amount is not in a specific currency. The currency of the document determines the currency of the charge.



eCommerce

9.1 eCommerce In Compiere, the eCommerce capability provides a highly featured web presence for an organization. The information is shared with the standard application eliminating the need for synchronization or additional integration between the web store and the back end application. The web store components are based on cascading style sheets and can be readily customized to provide the required look and feel. 9.2 Online Product Catalog Users are able to view and search the product catalog. Product images and specifications are stored for each product and can be displayed on the web store at the user’s discretion. The products available on the web are able to be restricted according to the Business Partners’ access rights and once a user has logged into the web store products are ranged and priced according to pricing specific to the customer. Hierarchies can be defined to limit product selection and products are searchable via Product Category and/or Product Attributes. 9.3 Online Product Catalog Compiere allows the option to display product availability as either ‘available’ or the actual quantity. If a user is logged into the Web Store as a Business Partner Contact with a specific price list, these prices are shown; otherwise, the default price list is shown.

9.4 Online Sales Transactions Compiere enables users to add items to the Shopping Basket via the Product Catalog or web form request. Item quantities can be changed and items can be removed from the shopping basket. It is mandatory to sign on with secure access to retrieve stored customer information. The payment information is then entered or confirmed. Currently, the VeriSign payment processor is supported with others due to be supported in the future. Before submitting the payment for authorization, the credit card number can be verified for data entry errors. This ensures that transaction fees are minimized for rejected transactions resulting purely from erroneous data entry. After receiving the payment confirmation, the order is created and the receipt is displayed together with the authorization code received from the payment gateway. An email is sent to the person responsible for Web Orders to notify them of the order and effect further processing. 9.5 Supporting Components 9.5.1 User Management User information can be stored as cookies enabled to allow automatic detection and sign in functionality. Users are required to authorize their email address to reduce the possibility of fraudulent transactions. 9.5.2 Counter The system monitors all web requests, then collects web statistics to analyze web activity, and quickly identifies visitors to the site as well as click counts. 9.5.3 Info Requests A web user ‘Request’ can be forwarded to one or more email addresses for action. A confirmation can also be sent to the requester. The Request becomes part of the Customer Relations Management information base.



Customer Relationship Management 10.1 Customer Relationship Management Customer Relationship Management is not an independent module in Compiere, but a logical view of all customer and prospect related activities. The Customer Relationship Management functions are an integral part of the business process. As a result, there are no batch or synchronization processes for the back office functionality as is normally required with traditional CRM systems. 10.2 Lead and Activity Tracking Compiere supports the following types of Requests in the CRM area:

Information - (un)structured requests from web or email sources

Service - structured requests to perform a service at a given time and place

Charge - structured requests to reimburse costs

Account - structured requests concerning a particular customer or Vendor Order, shipment, invoice or payment

Warranty - structured requests concerning a product or service issue

Help - (un)structured customer service requests

Depending on the type of request, it can be automatically converted into a target document (e.g. an offer, order, or invoice). A confirmation email with tracking number can be sent manually or automatically. Requests can be assigned to specific system users for action or follow up.

By utilizing the tracking number, the Request creator can update information in the Request. Request Management capabilities within CRM ensure timely response, escalation in accordance with a defined process, timescale, and closure.

Requests can also be generated based on the account status (e.g. date of last sale, overdue payment, etc.) for customer service or sales to follow up. 10.3 Marketing Campaign Management Customer retention is a crucial mission for every company. Compiere supports this by creating mailings or requests for the sales force to follow up. Criteria for a campaign could be last sale, sales volume, products purchased, or a variety of other triggers. To attract new customers, addresses of prospects can be imported for mailings or requests for the sales force to follow up.

The effectiveness of marketing campaigns can be measured by the revenue or gross profit generated for each campaign by linking each document (e.g. Invoice or Order) to the relevant campaign at the time of invoice creation. This information is then available within Compiere for reporting and analysis.

10.4 Customer Profitability Analysis Reports on revenue and gross profit of specific customers or customer groups over a period of time can be generated using the report writing capability built into Compiere or by using third party report writers and/or OLAP viewers.

10.5 Self Service Online Inquiry The system allows authorized Business Partner Contacts (i.e. customers, vendors or employees) to access the system to view or query information relevant to that Business Partner using a web browser. The information may be used for such purposes as obtaining information on account balances, invoices and the like and to initiate follow-ups and make payments against outstanding open items. Self-service can also be used to allow customers to register to receive permission based marketing material for selected interest areas and to download files such as material data safety sheets or (for example) lists of phone numbers called supporting telephony services invoicing.



Project Management 11.1 Project Management In Compiere a Project is a process that is undertaken which may involve multiple phases and steps. They may also require resources from multiple areas. Using Projects, users can track the status and progress of Service Projects, Order Project, and Sales Opportunities, etc.

There are generally two aspects to Project Management, Financial, and Scheduling. Compiere primarily concentrates on the financial aspects, providing the resulting accounting entries. It does provide some high level scheduling of resources but should not be confused with resource loading, timing, and overall planning.

The following schematic illustrates the Project Structure in Compiere.

Figure 5: ‘Project Structure’ Schematic

Compiere supports the following Project rules:

The Project Type defines the standards (quantities, products, tasks) for a Project.

The Project is the actual work document. Start and End date, Actual products, quantities, amounts.

A Project may have Phases and Tasks and will have Lines associated with the defined level.

A Project may represent the actual creation of a Product (i.e. a Work Order), a Services engagement (i.e. a Consulting Assignment), or a Tracking mechanism (i.e. Sales Funnel), among other uses.

Projects may generate Orders. Orders and Expense Reports may update Projects.

Project Cycles allow for reporting across Projects.

Note: For any given scenario or Project users will not use all Entities.



Project Management, (continued)

11.2 Project Type The Project Type window defines the types of Projects, the Phases in a Project and the Steps in a Phase. The Project Type can be used as a template for actual projects. While users can set up additional Project Categories, the following Project Categories are available in Compiere:

General - no special accounting, e.g. for Presales or general tracking

Service - no special accounting, e.g. for Service/Charge projects

Work Order - creates Project/Job WIP transactions - ability to issue material

Asset - creates Project Asset transactions - ability to issue material

11.3 Project In Compiere, the details of a project can be defined, and through the use of reporting, users can generate reports, which will reveal the current status of a project. This allows the user to remain informed of the financial standing and the overall progress of the project. The Project window defines the actual Project. These Projects will be tracked via documents (e.g. Orders). Projects may include time and materials and have definitive Phases and Tasks or they may be used for tracking tasks like pre-sales.

The Project Line tab defines all of the products associated with a Project. 11.3.1 Phases Each Phase has a ‘Start’ and an ‘End/ Complete.’ This allows users to track the progress of the project. A Project may have several Phases and will have multiple Lines associated with each defined level. 11.3.2 Tasks The Task tab identifies the individual Tasks that must be completed in each Phase.

11.4 Creating Purchase Orders Once Project Lines, Phases and/or Tasks for a Project are established, users can create Purchase Orders for the Project. The Purchase Order that is created can then be maintained and processed as any other Purchase Order.

The Invoiced Amount, Invoiced Quantity, and Purchase Order will be updated as Invoices and Purchase Orders are created which reference this Project. Project Issue will be updated as lines are issued to this Project. 11.5 Project Reporting The Project Reporting window defines the Steps or sub groupings of phases for which users may want reports. For example, if a user would like a report on a Presales Project, the user may want to combine the Initial Contact and Initial Qualification phases. 11.5.1 Project Cycle The Project Cycle is an essential for identifying the Steps or Statuses of multiple Projects for which reports are generated. A Project Cycle Report can be generated to illustrate the progress of a project at specific stages. It uses the Project Cycles to determine the specific Phases reported. The relative weights entered for each Project Phase will be used in the report. 11.5.2 Relative Weight The Relative Weight allows users to report based on probabilities. For example, if there is a 1:10 chance in closing a contract when it is in the prospect stage and a 1:2 chance when it is in the contract stage, it is possible to put a weight of 0.1 and 0.5 on those steps. Then the Cycle Report would reflect which stage is less or more, compared to the other steps. This is an alternative method for a funnel or measures completion of the project.



Financial Management 12.1 Financial Management Compiere automates all financial, distribution, sales, and service processes and unifies the enterprise data into a single repository. By taking a unified approach to integrating enterprise-wide business processes and data, Compiere provides a business solution with reliable information for accurate financial reporting and informed decision-making.

12.2 Reliable Data In Compiere, users input customer, vendor, and transaction data only once. Compiere shares this information across all departments and users authorized to access the information. When it is time to update this data, Compiere ensures that the information becomes available immediately throughout the entire application. Compiere's intelligent architecture ensures that users are getting the most up-to-date information available whenever needed.

12.3 Standard and Customizable Financial Reports Generate standard financial and managerial reports including Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss, Statement of Cash Flows and many others. Additional reporting options include customizing reports with Compiere's internal report writer, data access using 3rd party report writers, or data exports for analysis in spreadsheet or OLAP tools.

Reporting is possible across any user-defined dimension in addition to the following pre-configured dimensions:

Balance sheet organization

Transacting organization

Natural Account

Date & Time

Transaction

Accounting

Product

Product Category

Business Partner

Project

Marketing

Channel

Campaign

Location (Warehouse, Business Partner)

From

To

Activity (for activity based costing

12.4 Comprehensive Financial Management Compiere offers comprehensive financial management capabilities. All functional elements of Compiere are global-ready, supporting the complexities of businesses that span multiple organizations, currencies, accounting schema, tax laws and languages. Compiere enables users to customize the system as needed without risking violation of accepted accounting and tax rules.

12.5 Customer Specified Chart of Accounts At the heart of every financial accounting system is a chart of accounts. Compiere ships with several charts of accounts ready to use. It also provides a streamlined process in order to continue using the current chart of accounts.



Financial Management, (continued)

12.6 Accounting Rule Enforcement Compiere strictly enforces base accounting rules to ensure balanced accounting entries and overall system integrity. An example of a base rule is that the system will reject an entry if the accounting date is in a closed period.

12.7 Tax Calculation and External Reporting Most tax entries are created by the transaction. Compiere calculates, manages, and applies multiple taxes (e.g. GST/PST) as well as local tax. Tax rules create correcting tax entries for Sales Tax and VAT systems. Compiere automates the preparation of reporting to external tax agencies

12.8 Banking Relationship Management Compiere automates the management of any banking relationships and accounts. Compiere supports the import and export of bank statements using OFX, IFX and SWIFT formats.



Performance Management 13.1 Performance Management Performance Management covers the costing and accounting dimension of the application. In traditional systems, this functionality usually appears in modules called Reporting and General Ledger as well as those modules, which generate accounting entries. A diagrammatic representation of Performance Management is shown in the schematic below.

Figure 6: ‘Performance Management’ Schematic

13.2 Accounting Rules In Compiere, accounting entries are automatically generated based on rules, which apply to Document transaction types defined by the system, which can be extended by the user. The rules define the natural account codes for each group of transactions generated by an accounting document. As a result, most transactions are entered into the system without the user’s staff needing to know anything about account numbers. The system also allows manual entries to generate additional postings (actual, budget, and statistical). Compiere allows users to define more than one Accounting Schema, which provides the ability to maintain books for financial reporting and data for management decision making in parallel. It also eliminates the cumbersome tasks of conversion, transformation, and consolidation of foreign subsidiaries and allows for the easy separation of management and legal reporting.



Performance Management, (continued) 13.2.1 Calendar Year and Period The Calendar Year and Period window allows users to define the Calendars that will be used for Reporting and Period Control. Each Tenant has a one or many Calendars and all Organizations for that Tenant use the same Calendars. 13.2.2 Accounting Element The Account Element window allows users to define the Account values and parameters that will be used for Posting. The Account Element is required in each Account Schema and all values to be used must be defined here. 13.2.3 Accounting Schema An Accounting Schema defines several parameters for General Ledger processing. These include the type of error handling and method of currency balancing to use. Additionally, the accounts used for Retained Earnings, Inter-Company and Balancing are defined.

The Accounting Schema window allows users to define the Accounting Method and the Elements that will define the accounting structure. While Account and Organization are required, other elements such as Business Partner, Product, Project, and Campaign can be included to provide for more detailed tracking and reporting. The Primary Accounting Schema is defined as part of the Initial Tenant Setup, but it can be modified and additional Accounting Schemas may be added.

13.3 General Ledger Journals Documents in Compiere automatically generate the appropriate accounting entries. Therefore, in most instances there will be no need to enter manual GL Journals. Compiere automatically generates and posts the accounting consequences or Journals for every document processed; including inventory moves and/or product sales. This minimizes the number of manual GL journals entries to be completed and reduces the opportunities for errors. Some instances will require manual GL journals, For instance, Fixed Asset Depreciation, Year End, Budgets, and Payroll, etc. In these situations, users may enter the Journals using the GL Journal Window or using Journal Import The recording of individual transactions in multiple accounting schemas is still possible. The accounting entries use the default accounts defined throughout the system. Manual GL journals simply allow for the creation of accounting entries for a specific accounting schema. 13.4 General Ledger Distributions In Compiere, General Ledger Distribution is used to distribute or allocate the amount for a transaction line to multiple accounts based on pre-defined percentages. The system provides for the creation of user-defined rules to cause amounts debited or credited to the system by any document to be spread over multiple General Ledger accounts. This may be used for overhead charges such as Rent, Utilities, and Salaries, which are generally allocated to different Organizations, Business Partners, or Projects.

13.5 Reporting on Accounting Compiere provides a number of predefined reports for analyzing the Accounting details and balances. Like all reports in Compiere, users can modify the layout and content to meet specific business needs.

The following reports on Accounting Facts are available in Compiere under Performance Analysis in the main menu:

Accounting Fact Details: This report displays details of posted transactions.

Accounting Fact Daily: This report displays details of posted transactions summarized by Accounting Date.

Accounting Fact Period: This report displays a summary of posted transactions. The amounts are summarized by period based on the Calendar defined for the Tenant.



Performance Management, (continued)

13.6 Financial Reporting Financial Reports are used to generate controlling reports like Balance Sheet and Income Statement. They are comprised of two distinct entities, Report Column Set and Report Line Set. These two entities are combined to generate a Financial Report. This definition allows users to combine entities to produce new reports.

There is a Report Column Set window where users will define the data that will appear as columns in the report.

There is also Report Line Set window where users will define the data that will appear as lines in the report

The following Features are available in Compiere for Financial Reporting:

Ability to import Financial Report Structure

Define and create Financial Reports

Financial report writer, i.e., for balance sheet, profit and loss, cash flow reports

Report on any combination of the financial dimensions and their hierarchy trees (organization, account, product, project, business partner, activity, marketing campaign, location from/to, sales region, as well as user defined dimensions/trees)

13.6.1 Statement of Accounts The Statement of Account Report displays the beginning balance, transactions and ending balance for an account for a specific period. It displays the document, which the transaction refers to as well as the date. It can be used for account analysis to determine how amounts have moved in and out of an account.

13.6.2 Trial Balance A Trial Balance allows users to see the current status for an Organization, Business Partner, Product, Project, or any combination of the elements defined in the accounting schema. The Trial Balance displays the beginning balance and the period activity for each account. The Trial Balance uses a print format so you can modify it and create the desired display for the report



Reporting 14.1 Reporting Compiere provides the basic Reports that are necessary for analyzing the current position as well as provide the details of an entity’s status.

For most applications, Reporting is a separate or add-on entity. Compiere's reporting is based on the data dictionary. As the report viewer has access to the definitions, this enables the ability to drill -down to any referenced material and to drill -across to entities in any report (refer to sections 10.3.1and 10.3.2 below). The links are automatically generated and highlighted on the screen. The drill -down and drill -across functionality adheres to the security and access definitions.

14.2 Integrated Reporting In Compiere a user may create reports from every document in the system. A user may define the layout, sorting, labels, etc. in order to customize it according to the organizations standards. Reporting Views enable analytical and summary reporting.

The reporting facility can drill down to contained elements (e.g. from order to business partner, payment rules, etc.) or drill across to referenced items (e.g. from order to invoices, shipments, etc. linked to that order).

For multidimensional entries, users can select the dimensions, on which to report.

All information can be printed or exported to Excel, Word, XML, PDF, etc. for further processing. Secure Business Views allow users to extend the reporting to external dedicated SQL based reporting tools.

14.3 Business Views Business Views are designed for end users, to allow access to information using standard SQL based tools without the need to create SQL table joins. The majority of Business Views are generated based on the Application Dictionary.

14.4 Reporting Output Reports in Compiere are pre-defined and comprised of two components: parameters and a print format. If desired, users can modify the print format used in a Report. All reporting output can be viewed on screen before sending it to a printer or generating files in many different formats (e.g. Excel, HTML, XML, Word, and PDF). 14.4.1 Drill-Down When Drill -down is used, a new report is generated based on the entity selected. A Report for that specific element is generated. For example, in an order report, it is possible to drill -down to the order lines by double clicking on the order header line.

Additionally drill -down is available by source transaction. Examples are:

Reports where a displayed number is an addition of numbers

Drill -down from a summarized monthly amount to the original transactions

14.4.2 Drill-Across Drill -across allows the user to create a new report where a specific entity is used. For example, in a Product report, a user may select a specific line (product); then drill across to an Order Line or Invoice Line Report to display only the lines, where that product is referenced. Compiere enables three types of reporting facility

Lists reports from each window

Financial reports

OLAP views (using the Oracle OLAP tools or other third party OLAP tools)

Lists are based on Window information and multiple reports can be generated for each window in the system. Any of these reports may be initiated from within a particular window. Alternatively, they may be placed on the menu with selection parameters defined by the system administrator.



Reporting, (continued)

14.4.3 Reports and Report Views Reports are used to display summarized information, which are based on Report Views.

OLAP viewers provide different dimensions (such as accounts, products or customers) to be viewed in a tabular or graphical format. Compiere supplies the necessary information for display in a third party OLAP viewer of the user’s choice. Data can also be warehoused in third party data warehouses of the users’ choice. 14.5 Customizing Reports Compiere allows the user to customize a Report and adapt it to the user’s needs.

In Compiere, a number of standard views are provided; but additional views of the data can be created with a user provided SQL Select statement. In contrast to other applications, the user does not need to resolve foreign key references (which require knowledge of the data model) or worry about data security since Compiere automatically resolves these issues. Compiere allows the user to define reports at the System, Tenant, Organization, or User level. The following elements can be changed:

Report columns

Column heading

Report sorting

Display order

Format item

› Field, Image, Text, Print Format

› Alignment% Width/Height

› Calculate Sum - Average – Count

› Minimum, maximum, mean, deviation and variance (for numeric columns) › Group by (requires Order by sorting)

The language of the report is based on the user's language selected at logon time. Each user can have a different language. The structure of the report is copied from the lower of System, Tenant, or Organizational level.

Data selection is via Report Parameters entered when initiating the report, or via the advanced Query panel allowing the user to enter criteria in an enhanced 'query by example' style. 14.6 Archiving Reports Compiere provides the ability to archive documents and reports. They are stored in the database and be retrieved either from the source record (e.g. Vendor Invoice in the case of documents) or by using the Archive Viewer. Users may have all Documents and Reports automatically archived or users may elect to archive only specific Documents and Reports.

14.6.1 Auto Archive As mentioned, users may automatically archive all documents and reports or optionally can allow archives to be done on a document-by-document basis. The Archive Option is defined at the Tenant level. Select an Auto Archive option of All (Reports, Documents), Documents, External Documents or None. If only ‘Documents’ is selected, then all of the internal Documents (e.g. Inventory, Material Receipt) will be archived. If ‘External Documents’ is selected, then all documents sent to a Business Partner (e.g. Invoices, Dunning Letters) are archived. If an option other than ‘None’ is selected, then the documents or reports are archived when they are printed.

14.6.2 Manual Archive Users can also Archive selected documents or reports. This is done from the Print Preview window, so it is important to must have ‘Always Preview Print’ selected in Preferences.



Manufacturing 15.1 Manufacturing Manufacturing organizations are using Compiere today to automate accounting, materials management, order management, and financial processes. Additionally, Compiere currently offers strong foundational building blocks for automating manufacturing processes. The current product supports complex, nested bills of material; flexible costing models, accounting processes for managing work-in-process and finished goods inventory, and workflow processing.

15.2 Planned Manufacturing Extensions The Compiere product roadmap includes investments in expanding the manufacturing capabilities in Compiere. Compiere Manufacturing will enable users to plan raw material purchases effectively by creating a forecast schedule & a material requirements plan (MRP). The planning process will allow planners to trigger planned purchases and work orders. The tight integration between planning and shop floor execution allows efficient supply and demand management, reduced inventory levels, reduced costs, and increased operational efficiency.

The planned Manufacturing capabilities will integrate with existing materials management, order processing, purchasing, and accounting capabilities. It will leverage the Compiere Model-driven Application Platform to provide your manufacturing business with the ability to implement Compiere quickly, easily and affordably. Compiere's Model-driven Application Platform enables users to customize the manufacturing rules to address changing business requirements, typically without programming.