How To Manage Inventory Using Epicor’s

Fulfillment Workbench
by Rory Kling | Oct 30, 2018 | Epicor, Epicor 10, ERP, ERP Consulting, ERP Implementation
Have you ever told a customer that you had product in stock – only to find that you
couldn’t fulfill the order because the inventory was sold or used in production
before you got to it? Or have you ever expedited-in material for an important
customer or job only to have that material used to fulfill a different order or produce
a different job? Or maybe you resorted to hiding parts in your desk so that it
doesn’t get used to “Rob Peter to Pay Paul”. Frustrating, isn’t it? That’s why Epicor
ERP’s Fulfillment Workbench is a critical application for many of my clients.
It’s a common occurrence, in both the retail and
manufacturing world: having too much demand for a
limited supply and seemingly no way to manage the
available inventory. Wouldn’t it be nice to “set-aside”
material so that it’s available when it comes time to ship
or produce the product?
 
Fortunately, Epicor’s Fulfillment Workbench has a great way to manage those
times when demand exceeds supply. Using the concept of Reserve, Allocation,
and Cross-Docking, the Fulfillment Workbench allows management to decide how
to best utilize limited supplies in the face of current and future demand. The
Fulfillment Workbench has the option to do “soft” and “hard” allocation. In Epicor
Parlance, Reserve equates to “Soft Reserve”, and Allocate is equivalent to “Hard
Reserve”. Cross-Docking is, in essence, “Hard Reserves” material that is not yet
received into inventory and keeps it from being used to satisfy demand other than
what it is specifically allocated to.
 
 
The “Reserve” function places a “soft-hold” on available material and keeps it from
being used to satisfy other demand. However, this “reserve” status is easily
removed if that material is needed to satisfy other demand. Whereas material that
is “Hard Allocated” needs management permission to be remove that status so it
can satisfy a different demand.
 
Using the Fulfillment Workbench, you can manage inventory for all three sources
of demand: Sales Orders, Jobs, and Transfer Orders (inventory coming from
another inter-company location). The Fulfillment Workbench provides additional
functionality, like Cross-Docking, sorting by priorities, allocation templates, and
many more. By utilizing this incredibly useful tool, managing your inventory supply
becomes a much less complicated task, and helps make for satisfied customers
and efficient manufacturing personnel.
Ready To Process

Indicates when you both want to update all cost and tax amounts on the current sales
order and then send the updated tax amounts to the Avalara® AvaTax® website.
When you select this check box, you launch several dynamic calculations; only select
this check box when you are ready to complete the sales order. You typically will have
better order entry performance when this check box is clear, as this prevents the
additional processing and Internet data transfer from placing demands against your
network resources.

The following describes what calculations are run when this check box is selected and
the sales order is saved:

 If the record contains updated sales tax amounts, the entire order is
recalculated line by line. When the calculations finish processing a line, the
program automatically launches TaxConnect, uploading the sales tax amount
due on this line to the Avalara AvaTax website. The calculations are then run
against the next detail line, and the process continues against all of the detail
lines on the sales order. When this process is complete, the entire sales order
is updated with current quantities, sales order amounts, and sales tax amounts.
 If the record is a transfer sales order, selecting this check box causes data from
the sales order header record to be recalculated and recorded within the
intermediate sales order header (IMOrderHed) table. The sales order header
information is then available in all of the companies linked to the transfer sales
order. Likewise, when you clear the Ready to Process checkbox, the
intermediate header table is updated again to ensure the transfer order data is
accurate.
 The Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) compliance process is
initiated. The process moves through all of the sales order releases to check for
RoHS compliance. As long as the Ready to Process check box remains
selected, the RoHS compliance process runs every time an order line detail or
order release is changed.
 The process updates the BookOrd, BookDtl, and BookRel tables. All sales
order detail lines (OrderDtl table) are evaluated by the process to determine
whether a BookDtl record needs to be recalculated; if no changes were made,
the detail line is ignored. This process is also the same on sales order releases
(OrderRel table); if no changes were made, the release line is ignored. These
changes are based on the last calculated BookDtl or BookRel record.

Tip: This check box can be automatically selected by default through the Company
Configuration program. You define this option on the Orders Configuration sheet.
To learn how to do this, review the Company Configuration>Orders Configuration
topic. Likewise, to use Tax Connect, you first need to define some parameters within
Company Configuration on the Tax Interface sheet; review the Company
Configuration>Tax Interface topic. For an overview of the Tax Connect functionality,
review the Epicor Tax Connect topic.
Under some conditions, certain calculations automatically run even if the Ready to
Process check box is not selected:

 If a sales order detail line or release was deleted, this change is automatically
recorded within the BookDtl or BookRel table.
 If an order detail or release is closed or reopened, this change is automatically
calculated and recorded.
 If another process, like demand processing, needs to update sales order
amounts, the Epicor application will automatically recalculate these amounts on
the OrderDtl and OrderRel tables

Ready to Fulfill

Indicates that the releases in the sales order are ready to be fulfilled. When you select
all releases as Ready to Fulfill , all release items for the order appear in
the Fulfillment Workbench where you can allocate or reserve material required to
fulfill each release in the order. By default, the Ready to Fulfill check box value in the
parent order applies to all releases in the order but you can override the Ready to
Fulfill check box value for an individual release on the Release > Detail and Release
> List sheets. You can also choose not to update sales order releases when you
update the value on the Ready to Fulfill check box on the parent order. If a sales
order release is not selected as Ready to Fulfill , the release items do not appear in
the Fulfillment Workbench .

Indicates that the releases in the sales order are ready to be fulfilled. This is the default
value for the Ready to Fulfill check box located on the Release > Detail and Release
> List sheets but you can override the default on individual release. When you select
an order release as Ready to Fulfill , the release items load into the Fulfillment
Workbench where you can allocate or reserve material required to fulfill the release. If
a sales order release is not selected as Ready to Fulfill , the release items do not
appear in the Fulfillment Workbench .

You can use this check box to update the values for all sales order releases. When
you change this value and have existing releases, a prompt appears that asks you if
you want to refresh the value for all releases.

 If you click Yes , the Ready to Fulfill check box value for all releases updates
with the value in the parent sales order. If you select the Ready to Fulfill check
box in the parent order and update all releases, all release items for the order
appear in the Fulfillment Workbench . If you clear the Ready to Fulfill check
box in the parent order and update all releases, no release items for the order
appear in the Fulfillment Workbench .
 If you click No , the Ready to Fulfill check box value for all releases does not
change. Only release items with a selected Ready to Fulfill check box on the
release appear in the Fulfillment Workbench . If the Ready to Fulfill check
box for the release is clear, the release items for that release do not appear in
the Fulfillment Workbench .
Note: The check box value defaults from the Ready to Fulfill check box located on
the Company Configuration > Modules > Sales > Order sheet.

Note: This field is available on if you use the Advanced Material

Management module. If you do not use this module, this field appears disabled.