Page 1 of 40

Expert on Phone Newsletter September 2008

Popular Links

Service Market Place

From the Service Market

Place Link to get to:

Documentation Resource

Centre Go to:

Support Online

Support - Documentation

Resource Centre Data

Transfer Workbench

(DTW) Landing page

From the Documentation

Resource centre, expand

the required version e.g.

SAP Business One 2007 ->

Data Transfer Workbench

Product Enhancement

Solutions go to:

A-Z Index - Product

Enhancement Solutions

Self Help go to:

Support Self Help

Application

Archive: Expert

Empowerment Sessions

Reconciliation Engine in

2007

Notes

Editorial

Welcome to the September edition of the “Expert on Phone Newsletter”.

For all of you who found this summer to be a bit wet and cold (especially

in Europe) I hope the following Tips and Tricks will help cheer you up.

Tips in this edition include: Calculation of Actual Component and Actual

Product costs in production, and Gross profit in Sales BOM; How to stop

users from creating/updating BOMs; How to populate Prior Period Bal in

Customer Statements and Profit Centres in JE based on marketing docs…

Should you have any comments/feedback please send to d.shah@sap.com.

Index

How are Actual Component and Actual Product Costs computed during a

production process?

Why does an item which is defined as a Sales Bill of Material show 100% as gross

profit in the Gross Profit window?

How to set up alerts for ‘Task’ Activities?

Where does the default ‘House Bank’ come from when using ‘Cheque’ as a means of payment in the ‘Outgoing Payment’ window?

Why are open A/R Invoices not shown in Recommendation Report during the

Dunning Wizard run?

Why can users with ‘Read-Only’ authorisation to Price Lists not create or update Bill of Materials?

How is the field 'Prior Period Balance' populated in the 'Customer Statement' print out?

How is the ‘Info Price’ field used in Goods Issue function under Inventory -> Inventory Transactions?

Why are Profit Centres set in marketing documents not showing in journal entries?

How can we change the number of Invoice lines appearing in the Cheque for

Payment stub?

Page 2 of 40

Contents

How are Actual Component and Actual Product Costs computed during a production process?

Note 1089549

In Production Order -> Summary tab, there are fields for ‘Actual Component Cost’ and ‘Actual Production Cost’. How are these costs computed? Actual Component Cost This cost is the sum of actual issuances for production through the ‘Issue for Production’ window. Actual Production Cost This cost is based on the planned quantity in the production order which is defined in the ‘Bill of Materials’. The difference between the two costs is posted as a production variance in the ‘Total Variance’ field. For example: Consider this scenario: A Bill of Materials for ‘Production’ item has two components, both of which are issued manually:

A1007 – 5 Units A1110 – 8 Units

Page 3 of 40

1. Create a Production Order.

2. Issue only some of the components to production:

A1007 – 4 Units A1110 – 4 Units

Page 4 of 40

At this stage, the ‘Actual Component Cost’ field is updated in the ‘Production Order’:

This value has been computed using this formula: Issued Quantity x Current Cost

Hence:

Component Issued Qty Current Cost Total Cost

A1007 4 GBP 83.34 GBP 333.36

A1110 4 GBP 13.00 GBP 52.00

Total GBP 385.36

Page 5 of 40

3. Receive the finished item through the ‘Receipt from Production’ window.

It is at this stage the ‘Actual Product Cost’ and the Total Variance fields are updated in the ‘Production Order’:

Page 6 of 40

The Actual Product Cost of GBP 520.70 is computed as the ‘Actual Component Cost’ plus any difference between the ‘Planned’ and ‘Issued Quantity’. Hence: Actual Component Cost + Quantity Difference = GBP 385.36 + GBP 135.34 = GBP 520.70 The Quantity Difference of GBP 135.34 is calculated as follows:

The ‘Total Variance’ field is also populated by the sum of the variances that occurred during the production process; in this case it is GBP 135.34.

4. When the Production Order is closed, the system automatically creates a journal entry for the ‘Total Variance’ as follows:

Note: The ‘WIP – Variance’ Account is taken from the ‘WIP Inventory Variance Account’ field in the Item Group, Warehouse or Item Level depending on the setting on the ‘Set G/L Accounts By’ field of the Parent item.

Component Planned Issued Qty Difference Current Cost Total Cost

A1007 5 4 1 GBP 83.34 GBP 83.34

A1110 8 4 4 GBP 13.00 GBP 52.00

Total GBP 135.34

Index

Page 7 of 40

Why does an item which is defined as a Sales Bill of Materials show 100% as gross profit in the Gross Profit window?

Business Scenario: In Document Settings -> General tab the display for a bill of materials (BOM) of a sales type is set to ‘Price and Total for Parent Item Only’. This setting allows users to enter a sales price on the parent item instead of setting independent sales prices for the component items. The ‘Base Price Origin’ field is also set at ‘Item Cost’ as basis for gross profit calculation.

Page 8 of 40

The Sales BOM is shown below:

When creating a sales invoice for an item defined as a Sales BOM, the ‘Item Cost’ field in the ‘Gross Profit’ window is empty. Hence, the gross profit is calculated at 100%. Why is this so?

Page 9 of 40

In SAP Business One, an item that is defined as a Sales BOM cannot be defined as a ‘Stock’ item. The logic behind this system definition is that Sales BOM items are regarded as kit items which can be quickly assembled during the sales process. It is then not necessary to maintain physical stocks of such kit items. As an item that is not defined as a stock item in the system does not maintain item cost, the ‘Base Price’ will then show zero when the ‘Item Cost’ is used in the ‘Gross Profit’ window.

To get an estimated gross profit for each ‘Sales Type' BOM, the following workaround can be considered:

1. In the ‘Sales Type’ BOM record, select a ‘Price List’ that will hold the estimated costs of the parent. This is the sum of all its components. In the screenshot shown below, a ‘Price List’ called ‘Estimated Costs’ has been created. Then, for each component line item, select the ‘Last Purchase Price’ (LPP) as ‘Price List’ (PL). The ‘Last Purchase Price’ will be the closest estimated costs of the components. As in the screenshot, the ‘Estimated Costs’ is GBP 43.00.

With respect to data correctness in the LPP, please consider Note 889702: The ‘Last Purchase Price’ is updated automatically by the system when posting specific SAP Business One transactions, where all transactions that update the LPP are listed.

Page 10 of 40

2. When creating sales documents for the Sales Type BOM, in the ‘Gross Profit for Outgoing Invoices’ window,

select the ‘Estimated Costs’ in the ‘Base Price List’ field before adding the document. Then, click on ‘Update’ in the ‘Gross Profit of Outgoing Invoice’ window.

Page 11 of 40

3. Once selected, the ‘Base Price’ will now show the GBP 43.00. The ‘Gross Profit’ will now show the difference between the Unit Price and the Base Price. Hence GBP 100.00 less GBP 43.00 is equal to GBP 57.00. The ‘Profit %’ field is computed based on the ‘Calculate % Gross Profit’ option selected in the ‘Document Settings’ window.

4. Alternatively, if maintaining such an ‘Estimated Costs’ PL is not feasible, the Base Price may be set to ‘Manual’ and the user can enter the appropriate cost.

Page 12 of 40

Index

Page 13 of 40

How to set up alerts for ‘Task’ Activities? Note 870570 When creating an Activity in the Business Partner Master Data -> Activity, SAP Business One allows a user to set a trigger for an alert for a reminder to be sent to the user. This applies to the activities Phone Call, Meeting, Note or Other. Simply place a tick in the checkbox for ‘Reminder’ and define when this reminder should happen.

Note however that a reminder cannot be set when an activity is a ‘Task’.

Page 14 of 40

When an alert is needed for an Activity that is a ‘Task’, the following workaround can be used to achieve this.

1. Create two user-defined fields (UDF) as follows:

U_Hour: ‘Date/Time’ Type and ‘Hour’ Structure This field will hold the length of time prior to the appointment and at which time the reminder should be sent.

U_Reminder: ‘Date/Time’ Type and ‘Hour’ Structure This will be used to indicate that a reminder must be set for this ‘Task’ Activity.

Page 15 of 40

2. Save the query below in the Query Generator.

Select Distinct T2.ClgCode, T2.CardCode, T2.ContactPer, T2.Tel, T2.Details From OALT T0 Inner join ALT1 T1 On T0.Code = T1.Code Inner Join OCLG T2 on T1.UserSign = T2.AttendUser WHERE T2.Action ='T' and T1.UserSign is not Null and Convert(char,T2.Recontact,104) = Convert(char,getdate(),104) and T2.Closed= 'N'and Convert(char,(T2.U_hour -T2.U_Reminder),108)>= Convert (char,getdate(),108)

Page 16 of 40

3. Set up an Alert using the above query. Indicate the SAP Business One users that should receive the alert.

4. In the Administration -> System Initialisation -> General Settings -> Services tab window:

Tick the ‘Send Alert for Activities Scheduled for Today’ option.

Tick the ‘Display Inbox When New Message Arrives’

The number of minutes in the ‘Update Messages’ field should be set to a minimum to ensure frequent updates.

Page 17 of 40

5. When a reminder for the ‘Task’ becomes due, an alert will appear in the ‘Messages/Alert Overview’ window.

Index

Page 18 of 40

Where does the default ‘House Bank’ come from when using ‘Cheque’ as a means of payment in the ‘Outgoing Payment’ window?

Note 1240747

When selecting the payment method ‘Cheque’ for an outgoing payment, details of one of the House Banks is already shown in the window:

This House Bank does not always correspond with the House Bank that is defined for this Business Partner (BP):

Page 19 of 40

SAP Business One will always pull the details for cheque payments from the bank that is defined as ‘House Bank’ under Administration -> Company Details -> Basic Initialization.

Page 20 of 40

The House Bank may of course be changed manually by selecting another bank from the drop-down menu. If there is no ‘House Bank’ defined under the Company Details, there will be no bank details displayed by default in the Cheque Payments. The user must then select an appropriate ‘House Bank’ and G/L Account from the drop-down menu.

Index

Page 21 of 40

Why are open A/R Invoices not shown in Recommendation Report during the Dunning Wizard run? There are 2 possibilities why open AR invoices are not displayed in the Recommendation Report during a Dunning Wizard run. Possibility 1: Un-reconciled A/R Invoices will only appear in Dunning run when they meet the criteria set for the next Dunning Level. Consider this scenario:

1. Set up Dunning Terms under Administration -> Set up -> Business Partners -> Dunning Terms.

Under these terms, the first dunning letter will be proposed to be sent 30 days after the due date for invoices of a BP whose outstanding balance is a minimum of GBP 100.00, the second letter will then follow after an additional 15 days for any outstanding balance.

Page 22 of 40

2. The Dunning Term is assigned to the Business Partner in the Business Partner Master Data -> Payment Terms tab.

3. In this example, the due date of the A/R invoice is 15.08.2008. A dunning run on 17.09.2008 will hence pick up on that invoice, as long as the BP balance is equal to or more than GBP 100.00 on that date.

Page 23 of 40

4. The above A/R Invoice meets the criteria for the 1st Dunning Level. The calculation is as follows:

Data Range Days

August 16 to 31, 2008 16 September 1 to 17, 2008 17

Total Days Past Due 33

A Dunning Letter for this A/R Invoice may now be printed.

Page 24 of 40

5. If there are two invoices for the same Dunning Terms but with different due dates, 15.08.08 and 15.09.08, only the Invoice with Due Date of 15.08.08 is displayed in the Recommendation Report. The Invoice with Due Date 15.09.08 is not displayed since it does not meet the criteria of the 1st Dunning Level, it is only 2 days past due at the execution date of the wizard.

6. To display all open items, including all open A/R Invoices, the ‘Display All Open Items’ option may be ticked in Step 4 of 6 of the wizard.

Page 25 of 40

Open items that do not match the criteria set in the dunning terms are displayed with a dunning level of ‘0’; here IN 132/1 with due date of 15.09.08 falls into that category. Therefore, if the box ‘Display All Open Items’ in Step 4 of 6 of the Dunning Wizard is not ticked, only open items that match the criteria in the dunning terms are displayed in the Recommendation Report.

Page 26 of 40

Possibility 2: A particular invoice has been excluded from dunning runs by manually placing a tick in the checkbox ‘Block Dunning Letters’ on the Logistics tab in the A/R Invoice.

To identify such A/R Invoices, this query may be used:

SELECT T0.[DocNum], T0.[CardCode], T0.[CardName] FROM OINV T0 WHERE T0.[BlockDunn] = 'Y'

Index

Page 27 of 40

Why can users with ‘Read-Only’ authorisation to Price Lists not create or update Bill of Materials? Note 1251003 If a user has been defined with ‘Read-Only’ access to ‘Price Lists’ an error message appears 'You are not authorised to perform this action [200-30]' when creating or updating a Bill of Materials (BOM). Why is this so? Consider the authorisation for user ‘Andy’ and the error he receives when attempting to update a BOM:

Page 28 of 40

SAP Business One is very versatile in granting or not granting usersusers access to modules and submodules. When a user is defined to have ‘Read only’ access to price lists, then s/he will not be able to perform any action that will lead to a change in any of the pricelists. This includes the creation of a BOM, from which the parent price can be changed in the pricelists and similarly, it includes the update of a BOM. Any changes in the BOM components can affect the parent price. Consider this example, where a user with full authorisation updates a BOM: When a user creates a Bill of Materials (BOM), the price of the parent item defined in the header is automatically updated when the triangle icon next to the 'Product Price' field is clicked. Hence, a user who has 'read-only' authorisation for price lists cannot create or update a BOM.

In the above screenshot, the Selling Price is updated to GBP 255.00 when the triangle icon is clicked.

If the ‘Selling Price’ Price List is assigned to an ‘Authorisation Group’ and the user does not have authorisation to the Price List Group, the user will not be able to update the specific price list of the BOM.

Page 29 of 40

Hence, if ‘Selling Price’ is assigned to ‘Authorisation Group 2’ and the user ‘Peter’ does not have access to Price List Group 2 in the ‘Authorisation’ window; Peter cannot update the ‘Selling Price’ in the BOM; but he can update the other Price Lists.

Index

Page 30 of 40

How is the field 'Prior Period Balance' populated in the 'Customer Statement' print out? Note 1228195 The 'Prior Period Balance' field, which appears in the 'Customer Statement Report' printout, displays the cumulative open balance for that customer prior to the starting posting/due/document date range defined in the 'Customer Receivable Aging' selection criteria window. The printout is launched through Financials -> Financial Reports -> Accounting -> Aging -> Customer Receivables Aging. In the toolbar click Tools -> Print Layout Designer.

The 'Prior Period Balance' value ensures that the ending balance in the 'Customer Receivables Aging' report always matches the account balance of the customer in the BP Master Data window. The 'Prior Period Balance' will display a cumulative total in the 'Customer Statement' print out, as long as there are values defined in the 'To' and 'From' date fields in any one of the 'Posting Date', 'Due Date' or 'Document Date' in the 'Customer Receivables Aging' report - selection criteria and if there are open invoices prior to the defined date range.

Page 31 of 40

For example, consider this scenario where BP C1000 at the precise point of the aging date has a balance of GBP 1,194.09 as shown below. The last transaction before the above defined ‘From’ Posting Date took place on 20.05.2008. The cumulative balance at that point was GBP 868.09, which will now be automatically inserted in the ‘Prior Period Balance’ field. If the ‘From’ date was prior to 15.05.08, the ‘Prior Period Balance’ would be GBP 343.09.

Page 32 of 40

Note: If the ‘Prior Period Balance’ does not match the figure in the ‘Cumulative Balance’ column in the BP account balance window, untick the checkbox for ‘Display Unreconciled Trans. Only’ and ascertain that the date in the ‘Posting Date From’ field is prior to the ‘From’ Posting Date defined in the selection criteria for the aging report.

Access the Financials -> Financial Reports -> Accounting -> Aging -> to open the 'Customer Receivables Aging' report. Define a posting date range from 12.09.2008 to 19.09.2008 with the 'Aging' date as 19.09.2008.

When the customer statement is printed, the 'Prior Balance Due' field will show the value of GBP 868.09.

Page 33 of 40

Index

Page 34 of 40

How is the ‘Info Price’ field used in Goods Issue function under Inventory -> Inventory Transactions? Business Scenario: When doing ‘Goods Issue’ transaction, the system automatically uses the current valuation cost when posting the stock release. Once added, the Goods Issue document will then show this current cost in the ‘Item Cost’ field. In instances where the ‘Goods Issue’ function is used to generate an external document, users may need to show a reference price for the item that is not necessarily the ‘Item Cost’. For example, when shipping free items or replacement units to customers, the ‘Info Price’ field can be used for this purpose. When using the ‘Info Price’ field:

The default value in this field comes from the ‘Price List’ in the ‘Goods Issue’ header. This default value can be changed. In the screenshot below, the GBP 75.00 comes from ‘Price List 05’.

Page 35 of 40

The journal entry behind the transaction still uses the current item cost and not the price in the ‘Info Price’ column.

This ‘Info Price’ is shown in the default print out template of the Goods Issue.

Index

Page 36 of 40

Why are Profit Centres set in marketing documents not showing in journal entries? Note 1085205 When creating a service type marketing document with profit centres defined for each line item row, the corresponding journal entries do not have a ‘Distribution Rule’ in each line. How can this be rectified?

Solution: Check the definition of the G/L Account in the Chart of Accounts window. If the G/L Account’s ‘Account type’ is defined as 'Other', the profit centre assigned to it in the document will not be copied to the respective row in the journal entry. The profit centre will only be copied if the G/L Account in the respective row in the journal entry is defined in Chart of Account as ‘Sales’ or ‘Expenditure’ type. In the above example, the G/L Account 605020 was initially set as ‘Other’ in the ‘Account Type’ field; hence the journal entry lines did not have the profit centres. Changing this G/L Account to ‘Expenditure’ will only affect the transactions created after the change. Accordingly, the journal entry for AP Invoice 102 will not be updated despite of the change.

Page 37 of 40

After changing the ‘Account Type’ to ‘Expenditure’ and a new AP Invoice is created, the journal entry lines have the profit centres as shown below:

Index

Page 38 of 40

How can we change the number of Invoice lines appearing in the Cheque for Payment stub?

The number of invoice lines that are printed on each page in the Cheque for Payment stub depends on the setting in the ‘House Bank Accounts – Setup’ window. If the ‘Maximum Line’ column is blank for a specific bank, the systems will obtain the ‘Maximum Lines’ setting from the ‘Print Preferences’ window. To set the maximum invoice lines for all banks, proceed as follows:

1. Go to Administration -> System Initializations -> Print Preferences -> Per Document -> Select 'Cheque for Payment’ in the ‘Document’ field.

2. Enter the required number of lines in 'Maximum Lines' field. 3. Click on ‘Update’.

To set the maximum invoice lines for individual banks, proceed as follows:

1. Go to Administration -> Setup -> Banking -> House Bank Accounts – Setup. 2. Enter the required number of lines in 'Maximum Lines' field. 3. Click on ‘Update’.

Page 39 of 40

When printing a cheque stub for a payment using Bank Code 201030 as ‘House Bank’, there will be 7 lines appearing on each page in the layout as defined in the ‘House Bank Accounts – Setup’ window. Hence:

Page 40 of 40

The remaining invoice lines will appear on page 2 of the cheque stub.

Index