The Power of Process Routing

 

Some things are worth more than the sum of their parts! Not least in manufacturing, where the material costs of components are just the start of the true cost price of your shiny new finished goods. Extensive work, assembly, processing and labour goes into making something special – and this is where many businesses add their most value to the bottom line.

Process Routing is a special SQLWorks tool to help Production Managers organise, track and cost this essential part of the business workflow – ensuring finished goods are not only ‘made’ efficiently, but also priced appropriately.

If you have the Manufacturing module enabled, default Process Routes in SQLWorks can be assigned to the Bills of Material of any stock item, and these become the default process route for all new Works Orders instructing your team to make that item.

 

How Process Routing Works

Each Route is comprised of a series of process steps, each of which is given up to three attributes:

  • Process Type – a ‘type’ of work, from a list defined by your business (mandatory.)
  • Work Centre – a location where work happens, such as a piece of machinery or factory zone.
  • Employee – a specific person, authorised to carry out that step in the process route.

 

process routing

 

To build a process route, simply drag and drop processes, work centres and employees onto a BOM’s process route, building up the chain of default steps needed to make the finished item. The route is automatically added to each new Works Order for that BOM.

(However, if an individual Works Order needs a different route on a specific Works Order, you can either ‘Change’ to a different pre-saved route with different steps, or ‘Edit’ the steps given to that specific Works Order using the default as your starting point, but adding your variations. Future Works Orders for this item will still use the BOM’s default process route, unless it is also updated.)

Each and every step on a Process Route can optionally contain detailed costings – based on labour and setup fees/time expired. In addition to setting your ‘Expected’ costs, you can use progress tracking to generate an ‘Actual’ cost for every step, and compare the two for an accurate picture of profitability.

Your factory may be full of active Works Orders, all taking different Process Routes on their journey to completion.

 

how process routing works

 

Key Benefits

There are several key benefits here:

  • Organised Production

    Use a single pane of glass to define (or re-define) your shopfloor’s master-plan centrally. Redirect works orders and the instructions that appear on them when you need to respond to events, control how and where work should be done, assigning it to the right people for maximum efficiency.

  • Identify Bottlenecks

    With a structured view of types of work, the places where they happen, and the personnel assigned to do them, production reporting allows production managers to instantly shuffle the outstanding schedule of works orders to get an accurate sense of workloads – from any perspective.

  • True Profitability

    The real holy-grail of manufacturing: compare your expected vs actual production costs, factoring in setup and runtime, labour and overheads, for every item of finished goods – to establish exactly how profitable it was to make, and what the true sale price should be.

 

 

Optional Extras

Depending on how you use Production Routing we’ve included extra controls to better fit the different kinds of business operations – and help you make better decisions. You can choose how to use all of these to get the most value from our software – or speak with our software development team, to introduce something entirely new.

Setup vs Runtime

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step – but is this production run worth the effort? Factor in both the setup and runtime cost of each production step for an accurate costing of each stage of the process route, whether you’re making a single widget, or a thousand.

Labour vs Overhead

Personpower and overheads are not the same thing, so why cost them as such? Split your production costs for each step into overhead and labour, and know exactly where your profitability (or unprofitability) for any part of the production route derives from.

Completion %

You’ll finish it on Monday, right? Update any step on the process route with a completion percentage if you need more granular production tracking. Don’t worry about the maths – based on your predicted production costs, SQLWorks will automatically calculate how much cost has been incurred so far.

Role Restriction

Lock certain types of work to the employee with the training, skills and proficiency to do it, by setting defaults on your process routes for those steps. Need to make sure one of the old hands does the tricky bit? Make it part of the standard operating procedure.

Actual vs Expected

The Holy Grail of manufacturing – compare your predicted against actual costs incurred for any step on the process route, generating a forensically-accurate production cost for every stage, of every item of your finished goods. Get a detailed picture of profitability… and know exactly what to quote next time.

Production Reporting

Balance the load across your entire factory and identify bottlenecks at any machine, process type or employee. Production Reporting allows you to see exactly where the biggest burden of outstanding Works Orders will route via, and allow you to plan accordingly.

Thanks for reading! For Production Routing and manufacturing software expertise, please contact our team today.

How MRP Revolutionises Purchasing

 

Good news! You’re in charge of a manufacturing business. Design an amazing finished product, buy its component parts, and set your team to work. Make something incredible and the World will surely beat a path to your door. Like so many industrialists before you, you are destined for greatness. As your finished goods are assembled you can watch your genius turn into innovation, skill into added value, and fame into fortune.

Well… maybe. But as your business scales, it becomes harder and harder to keep track of all the materials you need (and when you need them) to keep manufacturing on schedule. Disruptions begin to bite and there’s costly overheads everywhere you look, even underfoot.

Enter the MRP Run – a powerful process that some of the World’s most efficient manufacturing companies use to control purchasing and production. Using intelligent MRP software, even small businesses can organise sophisticated manufacturing operations without mistakes.

 

How MRP Works

Each time you begin an MRP run, SQLWorks scans through all your Sales (and Works) Orders, looking for demand for stock. It calculates which stock is already available, checks if components and materials are needed, and brings back recommendations. Those recommendations may be draft Purchase Orders (‘we need to buy A from Supplier B’) or Works Orders (We need to make X with Y.’)

For you, the human in the driving seat, things have changed. Your job is no longer the drudgery of compiling dozens of order lines, but to review MRP’s findings carefully, sense-check them, and be the authority that approves the next steps.

 

how mrp works

 

But think big! Unlike a human, MRP can scan through hundreds of orders, through multiple levels of Bill of Materials, cross-checking against tens of thousands of stock lines, bring back exact results in moments, and even prepare the paperwork for you to approve outgoing emails.

That automation potentially saves hundreds, even thousands, of person-hours creating routine purchase orders and works orders manually – and revolutionise the logistics behind manufacturing.

 

Key Benefits

There are several key benefits here:

  • Optimised Buying

    The bigger your business, the harder it becomes for one person to ‘see’ the whole picture themselves. Integrated MRP software has a much clearer visibility of both the stock you hold and the demand that’s coming, and can make clear decisions about quantities needed than even the World’s most perceptive purchasing manager.

  • Better Timing

    As long as your Sales and Production teams are logging demand for stock via Sales Orders and Works Orders, MRP can ‘look ahead’ into the future; warning you of stock shortages before they happen and making sure they are avoided. Delays cost money, so become a scheduling champion.

  • A Stress-Free Life

    Well not entirely, but it’s true that MRP can save many hours of staff time doing routine admin. Like other automation, MRP is particularly good at the ‘mundane’ work: volume purchasing that involves lots of lines and SKU codes. While these are not difficult for a human, it’s often not the best use of their time.

 

 

Optional Extras

Depending on how you use MRP we’ve included extra controls to better fit the different kinds of business operations – and help you make better decisions. You can choose how to use all of these to get the most value from our software – or speak with our SQLWorks team, to introduce something entirely new.

Closer Investigation

SQLWorks MRP answers the eternal question of every Purchasing Manager – ‘why do I need this?’ With our investigation button, the system can serve up an exact answer for where the source of demand for a stock item is coming from, what’s been found in stock, and allow the user to easily drill down to review the underlying Sales Order or Works Order.

Flexible time horizons

Businesses can choose to shorten or extend the timescale for how far ahead SQLWorks ‘looks’ when doing your MRP run. Extending the timescale can give your earlier warning of future peaks in demand, helping you prepare earlier – while shortening the timescale helps bolster your cash flow by ensuring you’re only buying what you need imminently.

Demand Filtering

By default each MRP run looks at all demand for stock – across both new sales orders and outstanding works orders – but you can optionally switch this to ‘Customer Orders Only’ – prioritising customer needs in your calculations over any new in-house demand for reserves.

Warehouse Filtering

Your MRP run can be isolated to a single SQLWorks Warehouse for greater accuracy. This is especially important for companies with multiple warehouses either in the UK or overseas, because it helps avoid costly recommendations to move stock between warehouses where the distances are impractical.

MRP reporting

Your MRP run can also be run as a report – and there’s no obligation to create the Purchase or Works Orders MRP recommends. Even if you’re not quite ready to implement MRP yet, you can still use it as a guide to inform your own purchasing decisions, or to test the feature.

Non-Manufacturing

Wholesale, resale and other kinds of companies can still get value from MRP even they’re not doing any manufacturing – because buying and selling remains essential even if stock doesn’t go through any processing.

Thanks for reading! For MRP and manufacturing software expertise, please contact our team today.

Introduction to Backflushing

Backflushing is an alternative method of allocating components or materials to manufacturing, whereby stock is deducted only after production has been completed.

Backflushing makes it easier to work with quantities that would otherwise be highly impractical to ‘pick’ for use on Works Orders, and is a particularly useful technique when:

    • Components are too small or numerous to be ‘counted out’ in a sensible timeframe. (e.g.: screws, nuts, bolts, other low-cost parts used in volume.)
    • When materials are divisible, liquid, molten, gaseous, in lengths, weights, or otherwise issued ‘approximately.’ (e.g.: paint, ingredients, chemicals etc.)
    • Where a ‘spare’ quantity needs to be returned to stock after manufacturing is finished. (e.g.: scrapings, leftovers, recycled material.)

In SQLWorks every component on a Bill of Material (BOM) has a default allocation method – either ‘Standard’, ‘Backflush’ or ‘Return’ which defines how stock of this item will be ‘used up’ in the Stock Ledger. These work as follows:

    • ‘Standard’ – This is the default, and is used for all items that need to be counted out in advance of production. Components will be removed from stock when the user clicks ‘Take’ on the Works Order, before production begins.
    • ‘Backflush’ – Components will only be removed from stock after the Works Order is built, and the user is then asked to specify how much has been used.
    • ‘Return’ – Similar to backflushing, however components will only be removed from stock after the Works Order is built, and the user is then asked to specify a ‘spare’ quantity that gets returned to stock.

By changing a component stock item to ‘Backflush’ on a BOM, nothing will be removed from stock at the ‘Take’ stage, instead being deducted only after that BOM has been ‘built’ on a Works Order. The user can then specify how much has (or hasn’t) been used.

This is significantly more practical for certain items – although production managers may need to initially estimate the stock quantity of a Backflush item that they expect to use on its BOM (e.g.: how much paint an item typically needs.)

The user can edit a component’s default type by right clicking on it in a BOM, and choosing ‘Change Component Type.’ Components set to Backflush will be marked with a small ‘B’ symbol in the BOM.

When ‘Taken’ within a Works Order, only Standard items will listed as being removed from stock, and Backflush items will always show a taken quantity of zero (with the user then prompted after the ‘build’ stage for the correct quantity used for Backflush, or quantity excess for Return.)

backflushing

For many manufacturers, drawing down stock ‘post-production’ in this way may be the only way to accurately update your usage of resources. Using backflushing is an efficient way of tracking manufacturing using more fluid components, and allows SQLWorks to keep your production precise.

Video: Manufacturing Brilliance

 

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SQLWorks a Made Smarter UK Technology

Made Smarter Update:

Lineal’s SQLWorks Software is officially registered as a specialist UK digital technologies provider for manufacturing.

Made Smarter is a UK-Government backed initiative launched in 2017, following a nationwide review of the manufacturing sector – and includes a number of private and public sector organisations helping to modernise industry and drive adoption of productivity-boosting technology in the sector.

Recognised fields include a wide range of next-generation technologies for manufacturing such as robotics & process control, data and systems integration, mobile and wearable devices, sensor innovations, machine learning, additive manufacturing and augmented reality technology.

sqlworks on made smarter site

“We’re delighted to see SQLWorks listed among some of this country’s most advanced and cutting-edge technology solutions for manufacturing” said Lineal’s Managing Director Mike Matthews. “The Made Smarter review highlights adoption of modern technology as a keystone for industry in this country, and we want SQLWorks to underpin real advancement and strength in the industry.”

Businesses can read the original findings of the Made Smarter Review here, and learn more about Made Smarter UK here.

 

For Business Software expertise and support, please contact our team today.

Introduction to Production Planning

Production Planning


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 planning

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

Using Engineering Documents

SQLWorks Document management has reached the next level, enabling tagging of engineering documents and automated printing alongside Works Orders.

As shown in our Introduction to Document Management, many types of files can be added and stored within SQLWorks, linked to other data, downloaded or referenced whenever required. Our development team have also enabled tagging of specific files as ‘engineering’ documents so they can be automatically transferred through to production.

Saving a .jpeg or .pdf to a stock item’s document tab is a simple drag-and-drop process, supported by tagging with the engineering tag. When a Works order is created for that Bill of Materials, those supporting documents can be pulled through for printing automatically.

engineering documents

This is especially useful for assembly instructions, photographs, blueprints and similar that help guide during the production process.

Setting specific criteria in ‘Accounts preferences’ and ‘Document Analysis’ which can be found on the Navbar, allows a specific ‘tag’ such as one named Engineering, to be selected when saving a document on a stock item. Tagged documents appear in the ‘Documents List’ in the top right of the Works Order automatically, and when printing or previewing your Works Order SQLWorks finds the associated document and asks you to confirm whether you would like to print the engineering documents.

engineering documents

 

This feature is especially useful if you have drawings, assembly instructions or diagrams for example, that need to accompany the Works order when sent to the shopfloor/workshop for the build process.

If you would like to find out more about how SQLWorks can make the Manufacturing processes more efficient and less time consuming, please get in touch with our SQLWorks team via email [email protected] or call 01271 441570.

SQLWorks Manufacturing Launches

 

Announcing Version 10:


Lineal Software Solutions are excited to announced the public release of our next generation of SQLWorks software.

Version 10 of our flagship business management suite harnesses more advanced manufacturing capabilities for the first time – introducing brand new material requirements planning (MRP) capabilities into our existing integrated accounting, CRM & stock control platform.

Automation is critical to productivity. SQLWorks MRP allows businesses to instantly gauge future demand for stock items & materials based on a flexible time horizon and existing stock availability, automatically generate purchase orders for approved suppliers, automatically roll-up part and cost changes through bills of material, and automatically create works orders for production centres on the factory floor.

 

MRP software

“… We are clear that the faster adoption of technology will result in greater investment and in more manufacturing taking place in the UK.”

 

UK Gov ‘Made Smarter’ Manufacturing Review

 

 

These hotly-anticipated new features will help drive real business benefits, especially among manufacturing and logistics companies: including more intelligent and cost-effective purchasing, optimised stock holding, and coordinated forward planning of production.

Factory managers can now backflush manufactured items, auto-attach engineering documents, optionally roll-up updated part-costings from purchasing through the relevant kits, and even import new assemblies from popular engineering CAD software via drag-and-drop.

 

 “… British manufacturing needs a factory reset.”

Mike Matthews, Lineal Software Solutions

 

MRP is an immensely powerful tool for running a business – and we’ve given users the ability to drill-right down into purchasing and production recommendations – finding the exact source of demand from potentially thousands of orders, to line level, with a simple double-click.

SQLWorks manufacturing abilities integrate seamlessly with other business processes across accounting, CRM and stock control – and we’re planning further extensions to functionality for release later in 2020: including detailed capacity planning, support for ‘Just-In-Time’ (JIT) style manufacturing, and more complex ad-hoc report building.

 

sqlworks versions

 

We’ve also made some updates to the visual identity of SQLWorks with this iteration to help make our software feel smoother and more accessible to new users, and expanded Lineal’s UK Software Development Team of Omnis developers to hasten our development cycle.

Mike Matthews, Lineal’s Managing Director, explained: “This is a terrific new leap forward for our SQLWorks software. The new release is our most advanced ever, and introduces powerful new manufacturing and logistical control to our existing business management tools.”

 

manufacturing

Measurable Business Benefits


  • One, fully-integrated platform
  • Heightened financial visibility
  • Hours of work duplication saved by automation
  • Greater manufacturing control
  • Optimised spending & stock holding
  • Genuine support for business continuity

 

 

“We believe the ability for industry to automatically complete important engineering tasks – like importing newly-designed assemblies, production planning, updating part costs and forecasting future operations – will prove a popular choice among manufacturers.”

“Post-lockdown many firms will be doing some serious soul-searching about whether their systems are really up to scratch. British manufacturing needs a factory reset. If you can’t innovate then you’re at a dead end, and modernisation will be an important part of the UK’s economic recovery.”

SQLWorks Version 10 with MRP is available NOW


 

sqlworks contact

Discover More


Simple, fast and intuitive data entry. Detailed, responsive and targeted data analysis.

 

 

 

Learn more at www.sqlworks.co.uk or by contacting our UK Software Development Team today.

Fact Sheet: Security Permissions

SQLWorks includes two levels of security permissions: Group and User security.

  1. User security states which parts of SQLWorks a user has access to (visible within menus) and does not have access to.
  2. Group Security sets permissions for groups of users, including every user in that group and overrides an individual’s security settings.

To review your SQLWorks users, click the ‘System Administration’ button on the main navbar. If you wish to review your users, click ‘Users.’ This displays a table with every valid SQLWorks user at your company, and administrators can double click to view or edit an individual’s user settings.

To review your SQLWorks groups, click ‘Groups.’ This displays a table with your saved Groups of users. You can also add a new group, copy or edit any existing group from this table.

To change your security settings, click ‘Security’ (1). This loads your list of groups in the left hand list, with the users contained within any selected group in the right hand list. By clicking the ‘Add’ or ‘Remove’ buttons you can add or remove individual users to the correct group.

By using the ‘Group Windows Security’ Tab along the top, you can also set the permissions for that group (and therefore the users contained within it.) Grant access by clicking the checkboxes next to each area of the system, and  give ‘Basic’ (find, add new or edit) or ‘All’ permissions (find, add new, edit, edit multiple or delete.) (2)

There are no limits on the size or number of groups users can be assigned to, so your permissions structure can be as simple or complex as your internal company policies require. Please ask the SQLWorks team if you need help or advice on setting up security permissions settings, or on IT security best practice.

By default, SQLWorks has one ‘Admin’ group which has administration permissions for the Sales/Purchase Ledgers, Stock Ledger, Finance and CRM sections. This can be changed to different groups in larger organisations – for example to designate a different administrator for sales/purchasing.

Once you have your users and groups configured correctly, simply close the System Administration window, and your SQLWorks security permissions will be in place when each user next logs on.

 

SQLWorks Security Permissions


Bank Ledger – Security permissions for managing Bank accounts and cash accounting

Bank Accounts – Lets users see Bank accounts within the Bank Ledger.

Bank Transactions –  Lets users access options for bank transactions within the Bank Ledger.

Petty Cash Accounts – Lets users access any petty cash accounts.

Sundry Cash Ledger – Lets users access the sundry cash ledger for cash payments.

Sundry Cash List –  Lets users access the global table listing all sundry cash payments.

 

CRM System – Security permissions for ‘SQLWorks CRM’ functions

Actions – Gives access to the Actions Table.

CRM Links – Admin Only. Allows users to link CRM items, for example: attaching a document to a lead.

CRM Prefs – Allows users access to edit system-wide CRM preferences under ‘Preferences.’

Diary Calendar – Allows users access to the diary window.

Diary Entries – Lets users access entries to the diary.

Layers – Lets users edit types of appointment, e.g.: Meeting, Visit etc.

Lead Categories – Lets users use custom checkbox categories to categorise leads.

Lead Sources – Allows users to use the editable dropdown noting where a lead originated from.

Leads – Allows users access to the Leads window.

Phone Logs – Lets users access the phone logs table.

Project Types – Admin only. Lets users access project types.

Projects –  Gives users access to the Project window.

Tasks – Gives users access to the task tables.

 

ISSAccountsPrefs – Security permissions for setting SQLWorks ‘Accounts’ preferences

Accounts Prefs – Financial Management ONLY. Gives users access to system-wide accounting preferences under ‘Preferences.’

Day Book – Gives users access to the day book.

ForX – Gives users access to amend system currencies and foreign exchange rates (multiple currency) accounting.

Message Sets – Gives users access to edit various option lists – eg: ‘why a quote is cancelled’ field answers.

VAT Ledger – Gives users access to the VAT Ledger for calculating VAT submissions to HMRC.

 

Documents – Security permissions for ‘Document Management’ functions

Crystal Reports – Deprecated feature. Lets users import Crystal Reporting.

Document Analysis – Gives users access to edit the custom document type category checkboxes when uploading a new file.

Documents – Gives users access to files uploaded to SQLWorks.

Emails – Gives users access to emails linked into SQLWorks.

Email Browser – Gives users access to the email browser which synchronises to their email account.

Icons – Gives users access to amend the preview icons which load on screen when using Documents within SQLWorks.

Letters – Currently unavailable. Gives users access to SQLWorks letter writing tool.

 

IssPRList – Security permissions for the main ‘Companies’ list and associated data management tools

Address Editor – Gives users access to the full table of recorded addresses.

Client Lists – Allows users access to SQLWorks fixed and dynamic list building tools.

Client Types – Allows users to set custom checkbox categories for categorising companies.

Companies – Allows users access to the Companies List.

Contact Data – Allows users access to the contacts table (listing each company’s recorded contacts.)

 

IssPurchase Ledger – Security permissions for Purchasing

Purchase Accounts – Lets users see their Purchase Accounts with recorded suppliers.

Purchase Ledger – Grants users access to the Purchase Ledger.

Purchase Orders – Gives users access to Purchase Orders.

Purchase Transactions – Gives users access to Purchase Transactions.

Purchase Transaction List – Allows users access to the global table listing all purchase transactions.

 

IssQuotesOrderSales – Security permissions for Sales

Contracts – Lets users access contracts system.

Customer Order –  Allows users access to the Sales Orders panel within the Sales Ledger.

Customer Quote – Allows users access to the Sales Quotes panel within the Sales Ledger.

Directors – Lets users access the recorded list of directors for each company.

Disbursements – Gives users control over sales disbursements (e.g.: expenses, mileage etc.)

Sales Account – Gives users access to each customer’s sales account details.

Sales Account List – Gives users access to their list of customer sales accounts in the Sales Ledger.

Sales Ledger – Allows users to access the Sales Ledger window within Accounts.

Sales Ledger Detail –  Gives users access to unlocked detail lines on Sales Ledger quotes, orders and invoices.

Sales Ledger Transaction – Allows users access to the Sales Transactions panel (Invoices, payments and credit notes) within the Sales Ledger.

Sales Order List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales orders.

Sales Quote List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales quotes.

Sales Runs –  REDUNDANT

Sales Transaction Archives – Allows users access to the global table listing all archives customer sales transactions.

Sales Transaction List – Allows users access to the global table listing all customer sales transactions.

SL Web List – (Top Secret Work in Progress. Shhhh!)

 

IssSQLWorksMain – Security permissions for managing SQLWorks itself

Audit Logs – Gives users access to the ‘audit log’ of users actions within SQLWorks.

Binary Objects –  Controls template images and more. Should be enabled by default.

Database Table Viewer – For Lineal Use Only

DB Sessions – Lets users see logged-in SQLWorks sessions.

Employees – Lets users see the recorded list of company employees.

External Databases – For Lineal Use Only. Allows access to secondary databases if required for external document stores or alternate companies.

Help – Gives users help shortcut to SQLWorks online assistance. Please see www.sqlworks.co.uk/help

Label Prefs – Allows system admin to define system-wide user-defined fields. Should be locked by default.

Refs – Lets users access reference lookup lists and set start points, e.g.: first invoice number.

Server Logs – For Lineal Use Only.

SQLWorks Prefs – Management ONLY. Lets users access system-wide SQLWorks Preferences.

System Monitor – For Lineal Use Only.

User Logs – Lets users access the recorded log of user logins.

User Prefs – Lets users set the user preferences of their own SQLWorks account.

Years – REDUNDANT.

 

Nominal – Security permissions for the Nominal accounting and company finances.

Analysis – Lets users access the accounts ordered by analysis code.

Audit By Code – Lets users audit by nominal code and run nominal reporting.

Audit By Year – Lets users audit by financial year and run nominal reporting.

Budget By Year – Lets users access and compare against recorded financial budgets.

Dashboard – Lets users access the SQLWorks account dashboard.

Departments – Lets users access the accounts ordered by department.

Financial Years – Lets users set system-wide financial year start/end dates.

Nominal Journals – Gives users access to Nominal Journals.

Nominal Ledger – Lets users access the accounts ordered by Nominal Code.

Nominal Audit List – Grants users access to ‘audited’ data calculated from the nominal ledger for financial years.

Nominal Code List – Allows users access to the list of nominal codes defined within the nominal Ledger.

Nominal Journals – Allows users access to Nominal Journals within the Accounts.

Nominal Ledger – Allows users access to the Nominal Ledger (General Ledger) Window within Accounts.

Standing Journal Items – Allows users access to standing journal entry line details for each journal.

Standing Journals –  Allows users access to the Standing Journals window.

Standing Journals Group – Allows users access to standing journal entries.

 

Products – Security permissions for managing Stock

Assets –  Lets users access the ‘Assets’ tab of equipment linked to a company.

Bin Locations – Allows users access to stock ‘bin’ locations within each warehouse.

Dealers – Allows users access to set dealerships, defining both approved suppliers and customers for a stock item, and cross reference the two (eg: for hazardous materials.)

Order Allocation –  Allows users access to SQLWorks stock ‘Order Allocation’ tab in for reserving stock for specific customer orders.

Pricing and Discounting – Allows users permission to set current and future price break rules for stock items.

Stock Allowed –  Gives users access to approvals list, restricting warehouse bins to holding only specific stock items.

Stock Audit – Gives users access to Stock Audit to perform stock takes.

Stock Browser – Allows users access to the stock browser table of all stock items.

Stock Groups – Allows users access to stock groups, to which any stock item can be assigned.

Stock Ledger – Allows users access to the Stock Ledger.

Warehouse Map – Allows users access to the Warehouse Map displaying warehouses, bin locations within these, and stock items within those bins.

 

Fact Sheet: Works Orders

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.