Exclude Non inventory Sales Part from shipment

Hi All,

Is there anyone with any tips on how to exclude non-inventory items so they do not become part of a ‘Shipment’?

best Regards

Roel

​@Timmermans Roel what version was it used in the past?
I just had a quick check in APP10 UPD 13. Same behaviour as Cloud latest. 

Hi ​@Vimukthi Mahakumbura 

Sorry, I have no idea. My statement is purely made from memory working with Apps 10 between 2015 and 2020. 

Regardless of this fact, it’s still counter-intuitive that a ‘non-inventory sales part’ would automatically be added to a shipment, and also automatically would be set to ‘delivered’ when I deliver these goods.

A very common bussiness case would be where we sell parts + installation and payment terms are ‘parts paid on delivery’ and ‘service paid after execution’. From that perspective it would be easy when all physical items are included in the shipment and get delivered normally. Their status would go to ‘Delivered’ and automatically be invoiced in the next ‘Batch Invoicing’. But I don’t want my Installation to be included with this. Because there will be time between shipping and installation and customer does not want to get invoiced for Installation that did not yet happen.

So either I have to delete it from my shipment (which is a frustrating job because it should never have been included in the shipment to start with, and it’s a manual job so it could be forgotten), or I have to change my Shipment type to ‘NA’ for this specific line (Default is set to NR on Customer Record). This will prevent my line from being added to the shipment but again is a manual job which can be forgotten.

Our customer really expresses discontent with this approach so I am really wondering if I am missing something here. What other methods do we have to make sure ‘Non-inventory items’ do not get added to a shipment together with the physical inventory parts?

Best Regards

Roel

​@Timmermans Roel Your scenario seems bit specific, cz I can see some other business wanting to include the service also in the same CO where they would consider job done only after the delivery of both. Ideally, then there should be a Consolidation Parameter in the Shipment Type to leave out based on the part type. However, looking at the currently available Consolidation Parameters, I wonder if you could consolidate the shipment lines based on the ship date of the delivery date. Cz you (seem) execute/deliver the service later, so the CO line date should be different in the service line vs inventory part line. 

Maybe there was some parameter in the previous instance you remember like this which left out the service/non-inventory parts. ​

Hi ​@Vimukthi Mahakumbura ,

Thanks for your respone! I very much appreciate the time you took to brainstorm with me.

Personally, I do not think this is a very specific business case. Every machine manufacturer I’ve worked with uses this as a standard invoicing method. As soon as the goods leave the manufacturers premises, they want to take that revenue and send that invoice to the client. After all, sea transport can take weeks/months, and possible delays @client site to put the machine in place into their production line can take quite some time. So this has to be invoiced as soon as the goods are shipped (= CO Line status ‘Delivered’) so we can report the revenue in the same month as the goods went out of inventory.

On the other hand, it is also logical that the client does not (yet) pay for “Installation and Commissioning” when the goods are shipped. They also want to protect their business and will only pay once Commissioning has been performed. So the ‘Non-inventory line’ on my Customer Order should only reach ‘Delivered’ after the manufacturer has sent a technician to the clients site to execute ‘Installation and Commisioning’ and client has approved.

Additionally - leaving the Non-inventory Line on ‘Released’ is a clear message to the Finance department that this revenue is still ongoing. We do not want such a line to go to ‘Delivered’ before that customer approval since this might cause confusion on the exact Sales Revenue that has already been generated and what is still Work In Progress. That’s the reasoning behind this request.

Anyway, I thank you very much for you help but it seems there currently is no decent way in IFS to execute what I want at this stage. 

Best Regards

Roel

​@Timmermans Roel , since there is no standard parameter available to exclude Non-Inventory Sales Part from Shipment, business requirement can be achieved with some custom configuration.

I would have proceeded with following configuration:

1. Custom Event that enforce user to set Shipment Creation Method to Not  Automatic, if Sales Part Type is Non-Inventory Part.
2. Shipment Creation Method field would become Read Only once record get saved for Customer Order line having Sales Part Type Non-Inventory Part.

Regard

Abdul Rehman