Using the Purchasing Interface

Contact your AssetPoint account manager for more information on the use of this feature.

TabWare provides functionality in the areas of Maintenance Management, Work Order Planning and Scheduling, Inventory Management, Requisitions, Purchasing, and Invoice Matching. In some cases, the client may already have installed, or desire to install, enterprise-wide systems that provide some of the same modules that are contained in TabWare. Examples of the modules are Requisitioning, Purchasing, and Invoice Matching. Often these modules are provided by an enterprise-wide financial and manufacturing system such as PeopleSoft, Baan, SAP, and others.

Most enterprise-wide systems provide extensive integration capabilities to their financial systems, such as General Ledger and Accounts Payable. Therefore the client may wish to use the existing Requisitioning, Purchasing, and Invoicing modules within the enterprise-wide solution to capitalize on the integration of these modules to the financial systems.

To meet this need, AssetPoint offers a solution through the TabWare Purchasing Interface. In this environment, the client utilizes the Inventory, Requisitioning, and Stores Reorders capabilities within TabWare and passes approved requisitions to the enterprise-wide system for Purchasing and Invoicing capabilities.

To accomplish this interface, the client:

• Modifies existing enterprise-wide system to accept approved requisitions from TabWare.

• Continues to operate the existing enterprise-wide systems for Purchasing and Invoice Matching.

• Uses TabWare capabilities to process Requisitions, Inventory, and Stores Reorders.

• Modifies existing enterprise-wide systems to pass information to TabWare whenever significant purchasing related events occur.

The major benefits realized from using the Purchasing Interface are:

• Processing in the Purchasing, Invoicing, and Accounts Payable areas remain stable, using systems that have been tailored to the plant's particular requirements. There is no disruption to users by having to learn another system or possibly operate two systems that perform the same functions.

• The interface provides a smooth and timely flow of information between the various systems. The benefits from online processing are not compromised. TabWare information for Maintenance/Inventory has the same accuracy as a system operating without the interface.

• AssetPoint maintains the Purchasing Interface as part of the TabWare standard system. The client has minimal work, if any, to support future TabWare releases. Information passing through the interface has basic content that should not be subject to future alteration.

Overview of Interface Processing

As events occur within the Purchasing and Invoice Matching systems, the enterprise-wide system sends information to TabWare, updating the original Requisition (purchase order and cost information), Work Order (cost information), Inventory (quantities, costs, etc.), and Supplier information (purchase order number, costs, dates, etc.). The process is as follows:

Using the TabWare Requisition Notebook, users enter and review requisitions online, or TabWare automatically creates reorder requisitions whenever permanent inventory items reach their reorder points.

Accessing the Requisition Approval screen, authorized individuals approve the requisition for transfer to the enterprise-wide purchasing system.

A purchasing agent or buyer uses the Requisition Approval function to indicate that the requisition is ready for transfer to Interface File #1. TabWare has the ability to add the approved requisition to Interface File #1 by:

• Passing the approved requisition to Interface File #1 immediately after approval of the requisition.

• Passing approved requisitions to Interface File #1 periodically throughout the day using the JobCop function.

A client-written interface program can be used to retrieve approved requisitions from Interface File #1. It is also recommended, but not required, that the client develop a program to pass information to Interface File #2 whenever transactions are processed or removed from Interface File #1. Examples of these transaction types are:

• Removal of information from Interface File #1

• Assignment of a purchase order number to a requisition in Interface File #1

• Additional purchasing information which may be applied

• Canceling the order request item

• Changing an item's status from approved to unapproved status.

Records added to Interface File #2 notify TabWare of actions taken by Purchasing. For the normal transfer, this includes assignment of purchase order number and transmittal of ordering information.

After issue of a purchase order, the interface assumes a life cycle that can have the following events:

• Purchase order cancellation

• Purchase order item cancellation

• Receipt of items

• Return of items to a vendor (following receipt)

• Posting of a vendor's invoice

• Processing of a vendor invoice where there is a price variance

All of these events require the creation of records added to Interface File #2.

Startup of the Purchasing Interface to TabWare occurs automatically to process records that are in Interface File #2. The interface performs updates on Requisitions, Inventory, and Work Order information.

As required, the client's system administrator accesses a TabWare function to edit information that has been processed from Interface File #2. Information included in the Interface Records table are those transactions that did not pass edit routines by the update programs. The administrator has access to the exception information and can make corrections that allow processing of a record to abort or continue.

Additionally, the Purchasing Interface can accept purchase orders that did not originate from TabWare requisitions. For these types of purchase orders, the purchasing interface number will be set to External. A transaction for an External order must include the item, item_type, account, area, and department values on the record uploaded to the in_trans_from_purch table. The item_type specified on the record must be defined in the in_control_types table.

To Correct Transaction Errors:

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