One of the questions we’re often asked surrounds the tricky issue of ‘negative’ stock quantities, and how SQLWorks can help warehousing operations balance flexibility with security.

By default, SQLWorks does not allow what some companies choose to call a ‘negative’ stock quantity. Ordinarily, the only stock that can be invoiced is the actual quantity of stock you hold, the act of invoicing moves it out of stock, and you cannot invoice a customer for stock you don’t have.

This is our recommended model, because it helps ensure business keep an accurate stock valuation and acts as natural protection against errors. While promises can be made to customers about stock owed, these remain only promises, and do not influence the company financials.

This model also makes intuitive sense to end-users: the ‘actual’ quantity will never be less than zero – reflecting the ‘actual’ amount a member of staff will find in a warehouse if they perform a stock check in person (either ‘some’ or ‘none’, but never a negative.)

However there are some instances where this principle runs into real-world difficulties. For example:

 

• In fast-paced business operations or large factory sites, manufactured goods may need to be physically loaded for dispatch before a shopfloor member of staff or office team at another location are able to confirm in the system that the new stock quantity is completed. The negative stock restriction can then become a bottleneck, as a lack of stock quantity seen in the system holds up the dispatch & invoicing process, and delays the delivery of stock that was otherwise ready on time.

• Production runs may not be exact – in some industries (such as printing) including and invoicing a small excess quantity or overrun of finished goods is typical: once again this can create a delay: where dispatch is held up by a tiny excess quantity that isn’t recognised in stock without some minor adjustments to data, and so can’t be invoiced in full.

• Large production runs may have special contract terms or non ad-hoc invoicing arrangements agreed, where invoicing might sometimes run ahead of the production of stock. For this, a company would need to be able to invoice stock they ‘owe’ to a customer, and takes an acceptable level of risk for doing so.

 

SQLWorks offers three different solutions to this kind of ‘negative stock’ problem:

 

Solution #1 – Enabling the Dispatch Note System

Enabling the Dispatch Note system adds one extra step in the progression from Order to Invoice: the Dispatch Note. Before an invoice, the user must issue a dispatch note to a customer, which can contain stock lines selected from multiple orders, even those without stock quantity available to be invoiced yet.

The quantity ‘dispatched but not invoiced’ is logged separately under ‘Pending’ until enough ‘Actual’ stock quantity is identified. Once the user is ready to invoice, the company must invoice from the available lines listed on existing dispatch notes.

This system doesn’t allow stock to go ‘negative’, since the user must always ‘book in’ the actual quantity to eventually cover what was dispatched, before they can finally invoice the customer – but it does allow the customer to receive their goods promptly, while maintaining traceability over what was shipped. The Dispatch Note system is a good solution where the underlying issue is the time delay.

The authority to issue dispatch notes can also be optionally granted to warehousing staff, and this system also works in tandem with the Dispatch Planner.

 

Solution #2 – ‘Flexibility Mode’

The first of two ‘Advance Batch’ modes, this option permits SQLWorks to create synthetic batches of stock it doesn’t have physically available. Doing so allows a company to invoice for stock they don’t have yet – albeit with some important safeguards in place.

Firstly, these artificial advance batches are tagged as such behind the scenes to prevent any errors being introduced into the stock valuation. Secondly, when new stock quantity then arrives in from completed manufacturing or purchase order deliveries, this artificial stock quantity figure is absorbed first – reflecting the fact that the real stock was already invoiced out.

Thirdly, in this mode SQLWorks is only allowed to create as much artificial stock quantity as is already listed on outstanding Purchase Orders or Works Orders. While the user is now allowed to send an invoice for stock that isn’t quite ‘to hand’ yet, there has to be a corresponding entry on the system indicating from where the business was expecting that stock to materialise.

For example: Advance and Adjusted stock quantities shown above, and a marker showing that stock batch 1016576 is an advance batch of x10 quantity that has been created by the system.

If you have Advance Batches turned on, you can use a quick filter under the Search bar to see all the items that have active advance batches (i.e those with negative stock that will use up future incoming quantity). If you print a stock valuation, advance batches will be treated as a ‘negative’ quantity for valuation purposes.

 

Solution #3 – ‘Unrestricted Mode’

The second of two ‘Advance Batch’ modes, this option permits SQLWorks to create batches of stock it doesn’t have physically available, with fewer restrictions.

Firstly, these artificial batches are tagged as such behind the scenes to prevent any errors being introduced into the stock valuation. Secondly, when new stock quantity then arrives in from completed manufacturing or purchase order deliveries, this artificial stock quantity figure is absorbed first – reflecting the fact that the real stock was already invoiced out.

However, in this mode there is no upper-limit enforced by the quantity outstanding on existing Works Order or Purchase Orders – allowing the company complete freedom to invoice irrespective of actual stock quantity, or even potential stock quantity.

Adopting this setting has important stock valuation and tax implications, so should only be used with great caution.

 

For ERP and stock control expertise, please contact our team today.

According to recent ONS figures, over 30% of businesses in the UK experienced difficulties getting the stock they needed during 2021, as supply chain issues continue to bite. Ensuring goods and materials arrive on time, in the right place, has become an important part of maintaining productivity.

SQLWorks offers a range of optional shipping controls that can help businesses better manage challenging supply chains, including:

 

Consolidations

Consolidations allow a purchasing manager to group individual purchase orders together into a consolidated group (for example representing the contents of a single shipping container) and assign meta-data to that consolidation, such as freight vessel numbers, suppliers, delivery details, docking dates and more.

Each new consolidation can be managed from the Purchase Ledger – simply select the purchase orders that need to be grouped and move them across the screen from left to right to assign them to the container.

Here you can also manage other important information about that container, including actual delivery circumstances, additional on-costs or customs duty, and complete the shipping process.

On-costs can even be automatically split among the contents of that container, allowing a business to factor in the cost of shipping goods into those stock items’ cost-prices, sale-prices, and their eventual profitability.

 

Barcoding

SQLWorks permits stock-handlers to assign a barcode to any stock item, for use elsewhere in the platform. Intelligent Stock Ledger search fields allow the user to also search based on these bar codes, identifying a stock item even if only its bar code is known.

Besides each stock item’s ‘Bar Code’ field you can also generate a preview – this same technology can optionally be used on a company’s templates for orders, pick sheets, delivery notes and many others, to help speed-up stock identification wherever that paperwork needs to be used.

SQLWorks uses EAN13 barcode generation that is accurate, internationalised, and works with a wide range of 3rd-party barcode scanning devices.

 

Dangerous Goods & Tariff Codes

With the need to declare tariff codes for internationally shipped goods, and dangerous goods codes for anything hazardous, these can be assigned to any stock item in SQLWorks under the ‘Advanced’ Tab.

We use formats from the UK Department for International Trade’s published 2021 dataset as our starting point.

Much like pricing or descriptions, shipping codes can be merged wherever stock items appear on documentation – please discuss with the SQLWorks team if your business has any special requirements.

 

Please speak to the SQLWorks Team to learn how our software can transform business operations. Contact us.

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Setting up pricing and discounting rules enables the end user to better manage customer accounts, and stock items.  Rules are restrictions or qualifiers that qualify the rule, and they are only applied if that condition is met.  You can create and set, specific rules for stock item costs and descriptions which are linked to individual customers.  As well as set parameters for when these price and discount rules will be automatically applied.

Managing pricing and discounting rules across multiple customer accounts and stock items can sometimes get quite complicated and tricky to keep on top of.  SQLWorks has made this process easier to set up, control and manage giving you greater flexibility and accuracy ensuring rules are adhered to across the whole of your customer portfolio.

The pricing and discount summary page gives managers and admin personnel the ability to view all rules that have been created, as well as the control to amend and save at a top level, which will automatically apply these rules across the platform.

The module can be found on the main nav bar under the Products Extras section.  The rules can be viewed on multiple tabs, and pricing rules can be imported and exported in bulk quickly and efficiently using an xls or csv file.  Discounting rules can be applied as line discount or an order discount, giving you the flexibility and control to apply rules at various stages of the ordering process.

Alternatively, rules can be viewed and managed from the Sales Ledger or Stock Ledger.  In both ledgers the Price & Discounts tab can be found in the top section of the window.  The rules listed apply specifically to the sales account or stock item selected and can be added, deleted and edited from this tab.  Once added the rules are linked to the corresponding ledger automatically and any order created that meets the criteria of one of these set rules, will adjust automatically..

Examples of the different types of rules that can be applied:

1. Qty or value price breaks to reduce cost for higher value orders
2. Limited time promotions
3. Discounts by brand or other custom fields
4. Specific prices or discounts by delivery site or currency
5. Order level discounts based on value
6. Customer specific part names & descriptions
7. Priority based rules for complex ordering systems
8. Rules targeting categories of SL account or product
9. Separate rules for trade or retail customers
10. Combinations of all of the above

To use customer specific part names & description to search for the item when creating a new customer order it is slightly different, using the customer lookup icon – as shown below.  Part names and descriptions automatically adjust on the item line once the criteria of a rule is met.

For more information, please see our full guide on Pricing and discounting features, or contact our team today.

Asset Register

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If a business harnesses important physical assets, keeping track of these over time quickly becomes essential.

Whether it’s your own machinery, or a piece of equipment you maintain for a client, attributing costs to these accurately is an key part of your business financial planning – and helps you make smarter decisions about future investment.

SQLWorks supports this process with a dedicated asset register – allowing the user to save a range of information (including make, model, warranty and more) for both in-house and client assets to aid day-to-day business operations. Asset Register can be found in the Stock Ledger, and helps the user build a centralised and definitive list that can be controlled with permissions groups, like any other SQLWorks Ledger.

For in-house assets, SQLWorks users can also link these assets to Purchase Orders – ensuring that asset’s data contains a detailed maintenance history that includes financials.

Helpfully, this also works across multiple Purchase Ledger suppliers, so that maintenance costs (such as repairs or replacement parts) remain accurate even if an asset’s service contract changes hands. This helps a company stay flexible, since accounting and contract periods may be much shorter than machinery lifecycles.

Assets may also be optionally enabled as a special tab in a customer’s Sales Ledger account – ensuring a service engineer can easily access known information about a client’s asset as a part of routine account maintenance. This might include location, serial numbering for identification, or notes on past repair work.

SQLWorks ensures business managers can properly document and maintain a full asset register – itself an asset to a well-informed team.

 

For expertise and software assistance, please contact our SQLWorks Team today

Dispatch Planner

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Managing outbound goods often requires an overarching view of business operations ‘as-a-whole’ – looking across all sales accounts, orders and products. We’ve given users the power to do this via SQLWorks Dispatch Planner.

Dispatch Planner gives order managers and warehouse teams a comprehensive dashboard to maximise visibility and control over orders. Dispatch Planner is accessible within the Stock Ledger, and (by default) loads a comprehensive list of all outstanding customer sales Orders with key information about each order.

Double clicking on an order allows a drill-down to the exact order, meaning shopfloor teams don’t need to access individual customer sales accounts to understand workloads and even check line-level detail.

Simple ‘traffic-light’ statuses indicate whether the required stock quantity is available for each order to be shipped in full. By selecting an order, dispatch managers can also view the same information for each order line of the order – with the same status indication based on free stock availability. Orders will only be considered ready to ship in full once every line on that order is available to ship.

When ready to ship, dispatches can be sent to dispatch and invoiced (and emailed automatically to the customer) in one smooth workflow, removing the outstanding order from the Dispatch Planner list.

High volume companies may lengthen or shorten the time horizon of the viewed orders, or filter by warehouse. Where goods are not ‘Ready to Ship’, SQLWorks will make the user aware of why an order is delayed – for example, showing Purchasing Delays.

For companies that use Delivery/Dispatch Notes prior to invoice, the Dispatch Planner will also allow the generation of new delivery notes from here, list any valid delivery note numbers for each order for cross-referencing, and require the user to select an existing delivery note before invoicing a previous dispatch.

Dispatch Planner shows the real power of SQLWorks: as the ability to cross-reference stock control and ordering globally across the business allows you to manage operations quickly, efficiently, and with confidence.

 

You can find more detail about how to use Dispatch Planner here

Production Planning

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We’ve extended SQLWorks to include more powerful production planning/process routing in Version 10 – allowing Production Managers to masterplan working spaces, types of work, and employee skills to organise manufacturing capacity more effectively.

Workshop Map can be opened via the Products module in the NavBar, and uses three key elements:

Work Centres	These are places where work is done – normally a specific location or tooling area on the factory floor, and remember important data such as available working hours, setup/lag costs and more.
Processes	This is a type of manufacturing process – such as assembly, welding, mixing, painting etc, and can be restricted to specific work centres or employees.
Employees	This is the employee table used in SQLWorks CRM – listing your company’s available staff.

Each Process Route has a series of numbered steps (carried out in a specific order) called a Work Flow. To organise the Work Flow, the production manager simply chooses the Work Centre, Process, and Employee that is assigned at each step – by dragging and dropping them into the Workflow builder.

Workflow steps each carry associated costs and manufacturing times, allowing the system to build a comprehensive picture of the process route a finished product must follow to be completed in full.

Production managers can save Template Process Routes and assign these to Bills of Material – with the right default process routes being loaded automatically on new Works Orders to save time. Expected completion times are estimated automatically, and progress can be logged as each step of the Workflow is underway

Any Process Routes that are currently in use will be shown in the ‘Active Process Routes’ table, along with the details of the BOMs being produced which follow that process route.

Production Managers can also use this part of SQLWorks to generate reports (either from the perspective of Work Centres, Processes or Employee) to see outstanding and current Works Orders, and to gauge capacity from each.

This helps inform staffing decisions, shift patterns or identify production bottlenecks. Where there is a clash (for example, if a ‘Welding’ process employee has more welding hours due on Works Orders than is available in the calendar), SQLWorks will display ‘CLASH’ in red next to that Bill of Materials.

Overall SQLWorks’ Production Planning gives Production Managers the power to coordinate working spaces/resources, types of work, and personnel for maximum control. Production Routes help structure and streamline the manufacturing process, and organise manufacturing capacity more intelligently.

 

For expertise and software assistance, please contact our SQLWorks Team today

To compliment SQLWorks manufacturing and kitting, Stock Ledger allows users to create and manage manufacturing works orders to different degrees of detail.

(For an introduction to SQLWorks manufacturing and kitting, click here.)

Works Orders are accessible from the Stock Ledger screen, under the ‘Products’ module, in the main NavBar (1), by clicking the ‘Works Orders’ tab for a chosen stock item.

The two tables on the left-hand side show ‘Active Word Orders’ still being worked upon, and ‘Completed Works Orders’ which have been finished (2.)

To the right the ‘Build Quantity’ (3) Panel shows the parts needed for that stock item, how many are available in the default warehouse to use for this works order, and the maximum finished items that can be built from these parts.

The lower right panels (4) show a summary of the scheduled builds on a selected works order, and the parts required for each of these scheduled builds (in case the Works Orders vary between builds.)

 

Quick Build

Users can complete a simple works order by right clicking in the ‘Active Works Orders’ and choosing ‘Quick Build.’ This simplified option checks the correct parts out of stock from their default warehouses, completes a Works Order immediately, and checks in the finished item into stock in its default warehouse.

This is useful for simple builds where no extra works order detail is required and the works order doesn’t need to be drafted in advance.

 

Full Works Order

Users can create a full new works order by right clicking in the ‘Active Works Orders’ and selecting ‘New Works Order’.

This opens a new works order window for the chosen stock item– these can be given header information including a Total Build Quantity. Parts for kitting will be taken from the ‘Take Stock From’ Warehouse code, and (via the designated build bin) the finished item will be checked into the ‘Build Product Where?’ Warehouse code and Bin number.

Each line on the Works Order represents one ‘schedule’ for building a given quantity of the kit – with the quantity of that schedule enterable on the left hand side. A component list is also shown here, to help inform production numbers.

The middle column (‘Cost Groups’) displays advanced Construction Time / Cost Centre additions for this kit if this feature is turned on in SQLWorks.*

The ‘Build Group Column’ is used for the actual building of the works order: typing a quantity into the ‘Take’ field and clicking ‘Take’ removes the required parts from the ‘Take Stock From’ warehouse, and doing the same in the ‘Build’ field and clicking ‘Build’ assembles the new kitted item and moves it to your designated ‘Build Product Where?’ Warehouse and Bin.

You can also cancel quantity’s from the Works Order by typing a quantity into the ‘Cancel Qty’ field.

On the right hand side of each line the ‘Inspection Group’ allows you to enter up to four custom quality testing/inspection checkpoints for each works order schedule, date-stamped for approval.

Works Orders can be saved without being built (to schedule future work), but when the ‘built’ quantity within the works order and any cancelled quantity added together equal the ‘Total Quantity’ required, the works order will automatically be moved to the ‘Completed Works Order’ list.

 

*Construction Time / Cost Centres

Advanced users can turn on ‘Default Construction Costs (per Hour)’ and ‘Default Construction Times (per Hour)’ which will appear at the top of the Works Order Tab if used.

This allows the user to save details for time taken, and costs expended, as the finished kit is processed through up to a maximum of six stages to complete the Works Order, and can be factored into sales costs accordingly.

 

SQLWorks calculates a number of different stock quantities for measuring how much stock you have.

These allow you to measure how much of each stock item are at different stages of your stock control process, and can be found displayed in the Stock Ledger for each stock item as follows. Scroll down for more information about each.

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Actual

‘What I own now’

• Actual Stock is the quantity of an item you currently own within your warehouse(s.)

 

 

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Pending

‘What I own which is temporarily unavailable’

• Pending Stock is the quantity of an item you currently own which is not to hand – for example Stock you own which is in ‘Transit’ internally, or stock currently waiting in ‘Make’ Bins for manufacturing.*

*The exact nature of Pending stock may vary between individual SQLWorks companies, and may represent stock dispatched but not processed, if this setting is applied – please contact your account manager to clarify.

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Allocated

‘What’s been sold to a specific customer’

• Allocated Stock is the quantity of an item you currently own which has been reserved to fulfil a specific customer’s order.

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Free

‘What’s really in hand’

• Free Stock is your Actual Stock minus any stock currently Pending or Allocated. This count typically represents the amount of stock you own that’s on hand, and does not include anything currently in transit, or already allocated to fulfil specific sales orders.

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SOP

‘What’s been ordered’

• SOP stock is the quantity of a stock item which is wanted by your customers (currently outstanding on your sales orders.) This includes any Allocated stock already reserved to fulfil specific sales orders.

SQLWorks can be configured to exclude Forward Orders from this number.

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Available

‘What would I have left’

Available stock is your Actual Stock minus your SOP. This count represents the maximum quantity of a stock item you own which could still be sold if all your sales orders were fulfilled.

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WoP

‘What’s needed for parts / to be made from parts’

• WoP Stock is the quantity of an item currently listed on outstanding works orders – to be made from other stock items, or used to make other stock items.

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POP

‘What’s on order’

• POP stock is the quantity of an item currently listed on outstanding purchase orders. This is stock you are expecting to be delivered by suppliers.

SQLWorks can be configured to exclude Forward Orders from this number.

 

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Potential

‘What I could have’

• Potential Stock is all your potential stock added together. This count represents the maximum amount of stock you would have if you fulfilled all outstanding customer orders, received all outstanding purchase orders and build all outstanding works orders.
• If you are using SQLWorks MRP, the Potential stock is the quantity that will be compared to your re-order level for each stock item (within your chosen time horizon) to inform whether additional stock needs to be purchased or manufactured.

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Stock Quantities Overall:

 

For help and advice on SQLWorks’ Stock Control capabilities, please contact our team today.

 

Consignments –

If you sell consignment stock through the premises of another company, SQLWorks can help you keep track of your consignments.

Stock locations can be managed in a number of ways, but the easiest way to hold your stock at another location is to create a new warehouse to represent this, named after the customer who holds this stock as a consignment.

To add a consignments warehouse, open ‘Products’ from the main nabvbar (1), open your Warehouse Map (2) and click the ‘New’ button on the top left to add a new warehouse to your list of warehouses. Name this warehouse after the consignment location, or the name of the consignment customer.

When creating the new warehouse, remember to check the correct radio button on the right hand side before saving, tagging the new consignment warehouse as ‘consignment wh’ or ‘retail store.’

You can treat this warehouse like any other – moving stock to or from the premises of your seller, raising customer orders and invoices against that company, and performing stock valuations.

If your consignment is large, you can also divide it into multiple ‘Bin’ locations, as you might for one of your own warehouses, and assign stock to the correct bins accordingly.

You can choose to change a customers’ default order type to ‘IWT’ (Inter-warehouse transfer) or CONS (Consignment) under the ‘Print and Orders’ Tab in a customers’ Sales Ledger account.

This function allows you to specify your (actually their) new consignment stock warehouse under “Warehouse to” for stock, to be moved into by default. In the case of IWT and Consignment stock, this order will then be removed to prevent invoicing a consignment stock re-seller or similar for the consignment before sale.

At all times SQLWorks treats consignment stock exactly as what it is: your stock, temporarily stored with someone else.

 

For help with stock control and warehousing: contact the SQLWorks team today.

manufacture

SQLWorks includes a manufacture and kitting tool able to budget for and build manufactured products using a selection of saved kits.

Manufacturing is accessible to users of the SQLWorks Advanced Stock, and can be found within the Stock Ledger screen under the ‘Products’ module in the main Navbar (1).

Clicking the ‘Kit Details’ Tab opens the kitting information for the selected stock item (2), and users should click the ‘Setup’ button if using these tools for a given stock item for the first time. By default, SQLWorks saves up to 3 alternate builds for each manufactured item (although more are available) with saved descriptions for each build (3).

Each stock item in your SQLWorks stock ledger can be both a ‘parent’ (made from its stock item ‘children’ – its components) or a ‘child’ of another stock item ‘parent’. Right-clicking opens options to ‘add child’ (component part) including values for both the components and associated labour costs.

Saved builds can include many components, sub components, and more levels as needed.

On the right hand side of the panel (4) are fields displaying the ‘Base Component Cost’ (the total value of the component parts as worked out by your saved SQLWorks stock valuation model) the ‘Marked Up Component Cost’ (the total markup value once percentage markups such as labour or assembly costs have been applied to each component for this build) and the ‘Current Kit Cost’ with your assigned sale cost for the finished product.

The kit price will be re-calculated automatically as component parts change, or if you have disabled this feature, by pressing the ‘Re-calculate’ button. Users can update the cost details for a build, allowing for any recent changes to stock ledger components, their value or assembly markup costs. You can also use saved shortcuts in the quick select menu of the Stock Ledger to view ‘Parent Items’ and ‘Child Items’ for easy searching.

SQLWorks manufacturing gives you a toolkit to organize the manufacture of kits from countless components, and to keep track of costs at every stage of the production line.

 

For specialist manufacture and kitting tools – speak to us about SQLWorks Stock Control today.