Work Orders

A Work Order enables you to build an Assembly based on a Bill of Materials.

There are two types of work orders, although you will most likely only use one or the other.

  1. Single warehouse: All work order activity stays within one warehouse.
    1. BOM components are drawn from the same warehouse that the finished good will be added to.
  2. Multi-warehouse: The system creates automatic warehouse transfers to move inventory between warehouses.
    1. BOM components are transferred from the source warehouse to the work-in-process warehouse.
    2. When the assembly process is completed, the BOM components are drawn from the work-in-process warehouse and the finished good is added to the destination warehouse.  
    3. This approach can be helpful when dealing with long-cycle builds or when you wish to have a clear understanding of the value and quantity of work-in-process inventory.

The following is applicable to either type of Work Order:

  • BOM components & quantities can be adjusted on-the-fly, if necessary.
  • Work Orders can include soft costs such as labor or other non-Inventory items.
  • A "Work Order Process" (e.g. Step 1, Step 2, Step 3) can be added to the Product BOM and passed through to the Work Order.

Setup

GL Accounting settings
  1. Navigate to Administration ➤ System Setup.
  2. Select Inventory & Marketing from the drop-down menu.
  3. There are three GL Accounts to enter:
    • Work Order Setup (optional): The Work Order Setup account allows you to enter a "setup fee" on the BOM. This is a flat fee per work order. It does not change with the number of units being built. This account is not required in order to use the Work Order function.
    • Work Order Passthrough (required): The account will be debited when components are drawn out of inventory and credited when the finished good is added to inventory.
    • Exploded WO Balancing (required for WO explodes): This account functions just as the Work Order Passthrough account does except it only applies to exploding an existing Assembly.
  4. Click OK to save.
System Setup - Inventory & Marketing
Warehouse settings
  1. Navigate to Administration ➤ System Configuration.
  2. Select Work Order from the drop-down menu.
  3. Find the setting Use multiple warehouses:
    • If you want to use a single warehouse on each Work Order, set this to False. This is the default setting.
    • If you want to enable multiple warehouses on each Work Order, set this to True. You will also need to set each of the warehouse settings:
      • Default warehouse: Component: The warehouse where the BOM components will be drawn from.
      • Default warehouse: Finished Good: The warehouse where the Finished Good Assembly will be added to when complete.
      • Default warehouse: Production: The warehouse where BOM components will be transferred to during work-in-process.
  4. Click OK to save.
System Configuration - Work Order

Work Order instructions

1. Create a New Work Order

Navigate to Warehouse Management ➤ Work Order.

Click the Create New Record icon or use the keyboard shortcut Command + N.

Work Order list view

2. Work Order Info (Inventory)

Header area:

  • Part Number & Product Name: This is the Assembly item that will be added to Inventory after this Work Order is posted.
  • Quantity: The quantity of Finished Good items to build. Any shortage of Assembly Components will appear in red in the Qty Avail After Build column in the detail area.
  • Warehouse: The fields you see here are determined by the System Configuration setting above.
    • If you have this set to False, you'll see only a single warehouse field. You can enter the warehouse manually here.
    • If you have this set to True, you'll see three warehouse fields where each corresponds to the warehouses entered in System Configuration.
  • Lot Number & Expiration Date: You can designate a Lot Number & Expiration Date to assign to the Finished Assembly Product.
  • Open Date: The date the Work Order is created (or planned).
  • Required Date: The date that the Assembly build should be completed by.
  • Complete/Post Date: The date that GL Transactions related to the Work Order will be posted.

Status:

CLICK THIS LINK for more information about inventory levels for each work order status below.

  • Planned: The status of a newly created work order is Planned. There is neither any GL activity nor any Inventory activity at this status.
  • In Process: BOM component inventory will be reserved for the Work Order (if this option is selected in System Setup).
  • Picked: BOM component inventory will be drawn from stock. All inventory transactions are in non-posted status. The individual transactions will be posted automatically when the Work Order is posted.
  • Ready to Post: Finished good assembly inventory will be added to stock. All inventory transactions are in non-posted status. The individual transactions will be posted automatically when the Work Order is posted.

Totals:

  • Setup: This is a flat setup fee entered on the Product BOM.
  • Material: Inventory value of the BOM components.
  • GL: Total value of non-inventory work order charges.
  • Total: Total value of the work order including all of the above charges.
  • Per Unit: Total value of one unit including all of the above charges.

Inventory tab:

  1. The warehouse area will display either one or three warehouse fields, depending on your setup.
  2. The line items on the Inventory tab will reflect the Assembly Product's Recipe Components (entered on the Product record). These can be modified if necessary. For example, if you have a shortage of a particular component, you can delete that line item and add a new component as a replacement.
  3. You can change the quantities of each component.
  4. You can designate a Lot/Serial Number to draw from for each component.

2.1. Single Warehouse example

Work Order Info (Inventory tab) - single warehouse

2.2. Multi Warehouse example

Work Order Info (Inventory tab) - multi warehouse

3. Work Order Info (Non-Inventory tab)

If the Product BOM contains non-Inventory GL Accounts, they will appear here.

  • GL Account Code & Name: You can enter a GL account to charge any soft costs for the Work Order.
  • WO BOM Qty: The quantity of the non-Inventory items for the Work Order.
  • Unit Cost: The cost of any non-Inventory items for the Work Order.
  • WO Total Cost: The sum of the items in this column will tie out to the GL amount in the Totals section.
Work Order Info (Non-Inventory tab)

4. Process tab

The Process is derived from the Product BOM. Here on the work order, you can manage the Process tasks as it relates to this work order without affecting the default BOM.

  • Assign: You can assign a Process step to an employee.
  • Start: This assigns the step a start date.
  • Complete: This assigns the step a completed date.

You can also drill into the detail by double-clicking on any step.

Work Order - Process tab

4.1. Work Order Process detail

Upon drilling in to the step detail, you can see more information such as the time/date started, time/date completed and short & long descriptions There are also a number of custom fields that can be leveraged in many different ways.