Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of issues

Yahoo Archive
1
Here is what is strange; if we unreceive an existing receipt then we can
receive it. But 9 won't even show the lines of a PO when attempting a
new receipt.



After converting from 8.03 to 9.0 the following does not work after very
limited testing:



Get Details during job creation

Cannot receive a PO

Cannot print a quote after adding text to a quote line



We have an Epicor 9 review next Wednesday. I'll post all of the issues
that we have found. If you have any suggestions as to why the functions
above do not operate, please let me know. Thanks



Regards,





Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:42 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues





FYI, this is not working on PO's converted from 8.03 or on PO's that are
newly created in 9.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:36 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

Any ideas on this problem?

PO Receiving error: not seeing items on POs that are open and have
items to receive

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:26 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

That fixed it, thanks. It would have been nice for Epicor to let us
know about this.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of advantage
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:43 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

Yes, Run Coversion Program 160. It has to do with activating the sandard
posting rules for all transaction types.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
PM Error "Expense account cannot be determined" while saving a PO line

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Search/Enter PO Release Transaction Type > OK
Verify there is not an Active revision for the current version of the
software.
You will need to import the posting rules for the PO Release Transaction
Type using the following instructions:

1. Actions > Import ACTType
2. Browse and select all files PO_Release.xml from
//server/postingrules/standard.
3. Check all 3 boxes in the lower left corner and Click OK.
4. Select the Book you are mapping the rules to (the Main Book).
5. If importing multiple tran types select the checkbox in the bottom
left
corner to avoid getting prompted for every rule.

If you are unable to import the posting rules with the above
instructions,
you will need to run database conversion programs 9900 and 9980, and
import
again.

VERSION 9.04.504B

-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of
Andrew Best
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:28 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of
issues

Good thing this is only a test.

I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?

Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
2
Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
We are a small sign manufacturing company in the Washington DC Area.
We went live with 803.407 about 7 months ago. Only had an accounting software with shop-floor terminals for labor.
We are having difficulties and wanted to find out how you do it [successful implementation].

Plamen

Systems Administrator

Art Display Co.
3
Wow, that is a HUGE question. How small are you talking about? We have fewer than 100 employees. Does that make us small per your definition?

I will say that our successful (not perfect, but successful) implementation was based on a few things:

1. Planning.

2. Help from Epicor consultants at key stages of the planning process.

3. Planning.

4. Involvement and time commitment from everyone who was needed for successful implementation.

5. Planning.

6. A detailed schedule and list of exactly what need to be accomplished, when it needed to be accomplished, the prerequisites for the task, and who was responsible. That checklist was particularly important during our cutover weekend.

7. Planning.

8. Regular implementation team meetings with status updates.

9. Planning.

10. Envisioning as much as you can think of that might go wrong, and creating a contingency plan for those potential problems.

11. Planning.

12. Be fully prepared to delay implementation if everything is not ready. We delayed implementation two or three times instead of doing it when we first wanted to and botching the whole deal. However, you don't want to delay implementation forever. Our total delay was perhaps 15 months, but everything went well when we finally did it. One of my favorite sayings is from Red Adair, the oil well fire fighter. He would say "I can do it fast. I can do it well. I can do it cheap. Pick any two." We opted for cheap and well and it took us awhile. We could have done the whole thing in a couple of months by hiring a lot of high priced Epicor consultants. We could have done it quickly without much consulting input, and had a truly screwed up implementation. I think doing it well is the most important decision we made, though we did not consciously think about that decision - it just went without saying.

Did I mention how important planning is?

Thom Rose
Controller
Electric Mirror LLC
HOTEL LUXURY

"The World Leader in Back-lit Mirrors & Mirror TV Technology"

T 425 776-4946
A 11831 Beverly Park Rd, Bldg D, Everett, WA 98204 USA
www.electricmirror.com<http://www.electricmirror.com>

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of plamen21
Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 9:59 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?



Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
We are a small sign manufacturing company in the Washington DC Area.
We went live with 803.407 about 7 months ago. Only had an accounting software with shop-floor terminals for labor.
We are having difficulties and wanted to find out how you do it [successful implementation].

Plamen

Systems Administrator

Art Display Co.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
4
Thank you very much for your breakdown.
Yes we are under 100 people also, except all of us in one location, all speaking the same language.
I couldn't agree more on the planning points.
In our case we got to number 4. on your list. Not getting past that delayed implementation for about 15 months without any valid reason ("I am so busy" was the word of the day). We lost "fast" and "cheap" right there (ongoing support contract for all this time). To get over 4. we decided to make the sysadmin and one project manager hold everyone's hand and handle the rest of the implementation. That led to a series of unfortunate events that in turn lessened the perceivable success of the project, and led to some of our current set of difficulties.

You had everyone learn their part ahead of time and then set it up. We didn't have that luxury, so we learned everything for everyone and then we held their hand. But if people are not involved they will go through the motions without going "why?" or "what if?" (your number 10) on their own. Luckily our sysadmin had extensive experience in production and our project manager is currently involved with sales support duties so sales, production, MES, inventory and purchasing were well planned and had very few boo-boos. That left Finance (and Field Service) as the neglected child. Add to that the fact that they are by design on the end of the pipeline and now you got the lest prepared team discovering and having to backtrack to fix anyone's mistakes just to keep up.

So to focus the question on some of our top hurdles:
1. Do you use the shop floor module (MES)? How do you prevent difficulties correcting people's time when they punch in/out wrong?
2. Do you use a BPM that would end activity and punch out everyone at a certain hour?
3. When you have an additional cost to a sales order like permits (GL Permits), procurement (GL Subcontractors), how do you pay and invoice for that and still have cost against it?
We are trying with a part for each (with defined GL in the part), that we add as a SO line, then create a job (to capture cost), add the Procurement part on the job, then enter APInvoice as a Job Miscellaneous Line and Job Miscellaneous Charge. The cost goes on the job, but on the GL it hits WIP, not subcontractors, because it is a part. A manual journal entry then takes it into the correct GL account. I can't believe there isn't a simpler more elegant way to do this, or that nobody else has a need to add cost to a S.O. line.
4. How do you bill service calls?
If we try to pull them in AR from the Field Service module The invoice description cannot be edited, so we just do miscellaneous invoices.

Any input is appreciated.


--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Thomas Rose <t.rose@...> wrote:
>
> Wow, that is a HUGE question. How small are you talking about? We have fewer than 100 employees. Does that make us small per your definition?
>
> I will say that our successful (not perfect, but successful) implementation was based on a few things:
>
> 1. Planning.
>
> 2. Help from Epicor consultants at key stages of the planning process.
>
> 3. Planning.
>
> 4. Involvement and time commitment from everyone who was needed for successful implementation.
>
> 5. Planning.
>
> 6. A detailed schedule and list of exactly what need to be accomplished, when it needed to be accomplished, the prerequisites for the task, and who was responsible. That checklist was particularly important during our cutover weekend.
>
> 7. Planning.
>
> 8. Regular implementation team meetings with status updates.
>
> 9. Planning.
>
> 10. Envisioning as much as you can think of that might go wrong, and creating a contingency plan for those potential problems.
>
> 11. Planning.
>
> 12. Be fully prepared to delay implementation if everything is not ready. We delayed implementation two or three times instead of doing it when we first wanted to and botching the whole deal. However, you don't want to delay implementation forever. Our total delay was perhaps 15 months, but everything went well when we finally did it. One of my favorite sayings is from Red Adair, the oil well fire fighter. He would say "I can do it fast. I can do it well. I can do it cheap. Pick any two." We opted for cheap and well and it took us awhile. We could have done the whole thing in a couple of months by hiring a lot of high priced Epicor consultants. We could have done it quickly without much consulting input, and had a truly screwed up implementation. I think doing it well is the most important decision we made, though we did not consciously think about that decision - it just went without saying.
>
> Did I mention how important planning is?
>
> Thom Rose
> Controller
> Electric Mirror LLC
> HOTEL LUXURY
>
> "The World Leader in Back-lit Mirrors & Mirror TV Technology"
>
> T 425 776-4946
> A 11831 Beverly Park Rd, Bldg D, Everett, WA 98204 USA
> www.electricmirror.com<http://www.electricmirror.com>
>
> From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of plamen21
> Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 9:59 AM
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Vantage] Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
>
>
>
> Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
> We are a small sign manufacturing company in the Washington DC Area.
> We went live with 803.407 about 7 months ago. Only had an accounting software with shop-floor terminals for labor.
> We are having difficulties and wanted to find out how you do it [successful implementation].
>
> Plamen
>
> Systems Administrator
>
> Art Display Co.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
5
Good thing this is only a test.



I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?



Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.





Regards,





Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
6
Okay, count to 10. Well, that didn't help. It angers me, not just a little bit, that a fellow member of the financial management community would be so cavalier about something as important as a systems implementation that dramatically affects the way one does business. Yeah, I was busy during the time leading up to the conversion. Quite honestly, I let some of my then current work slip (some of it was less than my best work) so that I could help ensure a proper cutover. The future is much more important than the past or present. I don't suppose personnel management is one of your responsibilities, so I won't offer you advice on how I would have handled your Finance person.

I will say this. When you get the excuse that "I don't have time", I would delay the project until the person (or his replacement) does have time. One strategy I used in a previous implementation was to bring in temps to do the existing work to free up people's time to do the conversion work. Ultimately, and only if necessary, I would make it clear in all project status updates to senior management, exactly what or who is blocking the project. We never had to resort to that, because everyone was cooperative and helping to move the project along. Our delays were because the original implementation time estimates were too optimistic once we were on the "Do it well, do it cheap" path. Major project implementation is not something I do everyday, but this was not my first one, either. I learned about doing it well long ago, and the accountant in me likes the do it cheap part.

Now, to answer the questions you asked as best I can:
1. Do you use the shop floor module (MES)? How do you prevent difficulties correcting people's time when they punch in/out wrong?
Yes, we do use MES. We don't prevent. We correct quickly. We have reporting which goes out to each supervisor the day after each workday. The report tells the supervisor exactly what hours and time each employee worked the prior day. It also flags things like clocking out early or late. The supervisor then goes in and corrects the labor record for the day for anything that is wrong.
2. Do you use a BPM that would end activity and punch out everyone at a certain hour?
No.
3. When you have an additional cost to a sales order like permits (GL Permits), procurement (GL Subcontractors), how do you pay and invoice for that and still have cost against it?
We are trying with a part for each (with defined GL in the part), that we add as a SO line, then create a job (to capture cost), add the Procurement part on the job, then enter APInvoice as a Job Miscellaneous Line and Job Miscellaneous Charge. The cost goes on the job, but on the GL it hits WIP, not subcontractors, because it is a part. A manual journal entry then takes it into the correct GL account. I can't believe there isn't a simpler more elegant way to do this, or that nobody else has a need to add cost to a S.O. line.
We are not doing any cost plus type projects. All the pricing and costs to our customer are negotiated before we begin work. Typically, our jobs ship almost immediately after they are complete. So, they ship with whatever costs are associated with them at that time. If any costs come in after we have shipped and posted an invoice for the shipment, those costs end up being manufacturing variances. We do try to get all costs in, though, immediately as the work is done to avoid missed costs. I, too, would like a way to add costs, although higher up on my wish list is a way to ensure that all costs are captured before the job is completed. That last sentence is not meant to imply that I would tolerate keeping a job open for any length of time after it is actually complete. This is actually going to be one of the areas I focus on this year.
4. How do you bill service calls?
We don't. The only time we have service calls is when we have warranty work. All our products' installation is our customers' responsibility. Most warranty claims are settled by sending replacement parts which the customer installs.

HTH.

Thom Rose
Controller
Electric Mirror LLC
HOTEL LUXURY

"The World Leader in Back-lit Mirrors & Mirror TV Technology"

T 425 776-4946
A 11831 Beverly Park Rd, Bldg D, Everett, WA 98204 USA
www.electricmirror.com<http://www.electricmirror.com>

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of plamen21
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 2:07 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Re: Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?



Thank you very much for your breakdown.
Yes we are under 100 people also, except all of us in one location, all speaking the same language.
I couldn't agree more on the planning points.
In our case we got to number 4. on your list. Not getting past that delayed implementation for about 15 months without any valid reason ("I am so busy" was the word of the day). We lost "fast" and "cheap" right there (ongoing support contract for all this time). To get over 4. we decided to make the sysadmin and one project manager hold everyone's hand and handle the rest of the implementation. That led to a series of unfortunate events that in turn lessened the perceivable success of the project, and led to some of our current set of difficulties.

You had everyone learn their part ahead of time and then set it up. We didn't have that luxury, so we learned everything for everyone and then we held their hand. But if people are not involved they will go through the motions without going "why?" or "what if?" (your number 10) on their own. Luckily our sysadmin had extensive experience in production and our project manager is currently involved with sales support duties so sales, production, MES, inventory and purchasing were well planned and had very few boo-boos. That left Finance (and Field Service) as the neglected child. Add to that the fact that they are by design on the end of the pipeline and now you got the lest prepared team discovering and having to backtrack to fix anyone's mistakes just to keep up.

So to focus the question on some of our top hurdles:
1. Do you use the shop floor module (MES)? How do you prevent difficulties correcting people's time when they punch in/out wrong?
2. Do you use a BPM that would end activity and punch out everyone at a certain hour?
3. When you have an additional cost to a sales order like permits (GL Permits), procurement (GL Subcontractors), how do you pay and invoice for that and still have cost against it?
We are trying with a part for each (with defined GL in the part), that we add as a SO line, then create a job (to capture cost), add the Procurement part on the job, then enter APInvoice as a Job Miscellaneous Line and Job Miscellaneous Charge. The cost goes on the job, but on the GL it hits WIP, not subcontractors, because it is a part. A manual journal entry then takes it into the correct GL account. I can't believe there isn't a simpler more elegant way to do this, or that nobody else has a need to add cost to a S.O. line.
4. How do you bill service calls?
If we try to pull them in AR from the Field Service module The invoice description cannot be edited, so we just do miscellaneous invoices.

Any input is appreciated.

--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>, Thomas Rose <t.rose@...> wrote:
>
> Wow, that is a HUGE question. How small are you talking about? We have fewer than 100 employees. Does that make us small per your definition?
>
> I will say that our successful (not perfect, but successful) implementation was based on a few things:
>
> 1. Planning.
>
> 2. Help from Epicor consultants at key stages of the planning process.
>
> 3. Planning.
>
> 4. Involvement and time commitment from everyone who was needed for successful implementation.
>
> 5. Planning.
>
> 6. A detailed schedule and list of exactly what need to be accomplished, when it needed to be accomplished, the prerequisites for the task, and who was responsible. That checklist was particularly important during our cutover weekend.
>
> 7. Planning.
>
> 8. Regular implementation team meetings with status updates.
>
> 9. Planning.
>
> 10. Envisioning as much as you can think of that might go wrong, and creating a contingency plan for those potential problems.
>
> 11. Planning.
>
> 12. Be fully prepared to delay implementation if everything is not ready. We delayed implementation two or three times instead of doing it when we first wanted to and botching the whole deal. However, you don't want to delay implementation forever. Our total delay was perhaps 15 months, but everything went well when we finally did it. One of my favorite sayings is from Red Adair, the oil well fire fighter. He would say "I can do it fast. I can do it well. I can do it cheap. Pick any two." We opted for cheap and well and it took us awhile. We could have done the whole thing in a couple of months by hiring a lot of high priced Epicor consultants. We could have done it quickly without much consulting input, and had a truly screwed up implementation. I think doing it well is the most important decision we made, though we did not consciously think about that decision - it just went without saying.
>
> Did I mention how important planning is?
>
> Thom Rose
> Controller
> Electric Mirror LLC
> HOTEL LUXURY
>
> "The World Leader in Back-lit Mirrors & Mirror TV Technology"
>
> T 425 776-4946
> A 11831 Beverly Park Rd, Bldg D, Everett, WA 98204 USA
> www.electricmirror.com<http://www.electricmirror.com>
>
> From: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>] On Behalf Of plamen21
> Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 9:59 AM
> To: vantage@yahoogroups.com<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [Vantage] Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
>
>
>
> Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
> We are a small sign manufacturing company in the Washington DC Area.
> We went live with 803.407 about 7 months ago. Only had an accounting software with shop-floor terminals for labor.
> We are having difficulties and wanted to find out how you do it [successful implementation].
>
> Plamen
>
> Systems Administrator
>
> Art Display Co.
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
7
Yes, Run Coversion Program 160. It has to do with activating the sandard
posting rules for all transaction types.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
PM Error "Expense account cannot be determined" while saving a PO line

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Search/Enter PO Release Transaction Type > OK
Verify there is not an Active revision for the current version of the
software.
You will need to import the posting rules for the PO Release Transaction
Type using the following instructions:

1. Actions > Import ACTType
2. Browse and select all files PO_Release.xml from
//server/postingrules/standard.
3. Check all 3 boxes in the lower left corner and Click OK.
4. Select the Book you are mapping the rules to (the Main Book).
5. If importing multiple tran types select the checkbox in the bottom left
corner to avoid getting prompted for every rule.

If you are unable to import the posting rules with the above instructions,
you will need to run database conversion programs 9900 and 9980, and import
again.


VERSION 9.04.504B




-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
Andrew Best
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:28 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of issues




Good thing this is only a test.

I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?

Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
8
We are a small manufacturing company (25 users). I can sympathize with your unfortunate approach of 1 or 2 people learning everything and then teaching the rest of the organization. We just went live on 8.03.408 with the same scenario. Fortunately, I did have support from the top of the organization that at least forced some managers to consider the "why" and "what if's". Buy-in from the top was key for us.

In response to your specific questions:
1. Do you use the shop floor module (MES)? How do you prevent difficulties correcting people's time when they punch in/out wrong?

We do use MES. Each morning Labor Edit reportsare printed for the previous day. The reports are given to the department managers and they are responsible for reviewing and correcting errors and returning the report by 11:00 so the errors can be corrected by 1:00.

This was a long process for us because if you don't have support from the top of the organization so that the managers know the importance of having this information correct, or if their performance compensation is not somehow impacted by the inaccuracy/accuracy of this information, it is too easy for them to use the "too busy" excuse.

> 2. Do you use a BPM that would end activity and punch out everyone at a certain hour?

No, it comes down to training, training, training. Or as Brian Spolarich so eloquently put it, "Pink slips"... Correctly usage of MES by our machinists is not an option and is a job requirement. It is the responsibility of the plant managers/supervisors to train their employees to end activities when they complete the activity and clock out of the system at the end of their shift.

> 3. When you have an additional cost to a sales order like permits (GL Permits), procurement (GL Subcontractors), how do you pay and invoice for that and still have cost against it?

This can be a lengthy conversation, please feel free to contact me directly and I would be happy to discuss with you how we handle this.

> 4. How do you bill service calls?

We do not do service calls so I will not be much help on this one.

Virginia Joseph
IT & Strategic Initiatives
Deep Hole Specialists
vjoseph@...
440-543-8157



--- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, "plamen21" <plamen21@...> wrote:
>
> Thank you very much for your breakdown.
> Yes we are under 100 people also, except all of us in one location, all speaking the same language.
> I couldn't agree more on the planning points.
> In our case we got to number 4. on your list. Not getting past that delayed implementation for about 15 months without any valid reason ("I am so busy" was the word of the day). We lost "fast" and "cheap" right there (ongoing support contract for all this time). To get over 4. we decided to make the sysadmin and one project manager hold everyone's hand and handle the rest of the implementation. That led to a series of unfortunate events that in turn lessened the perceivable success of the project, and led to some of our current set of difficulties.
>
> You had everyone learn their part ahead of time and then set it up. We didn't have that luxury, so we learned everything for everyone and then we held their hand. But if people are not involved they will go through the motions without going "why?" or "what if?" (your number 10) on their own. Luckily our sysadmin had extensive experience in production and our project manager is currently involved with sales support duties so sales, production, MES, inventory and purchasing were well planned and had very few boo-boos. That left Finance (and Field Service) as the neglected child. Add to that the fact that they are by design on the end of the pipeline and now you got the lest prepared team discovering and having to backtrack to fix anyone's mistakes just to keep up.
>
> So to focus the question on some of our top hurdles:
> 1. Do you use the shop floor module (MES)? How do you prevent difficulties correcting people's time when they punch in/out wrong?
> 2. Do you use a BPM that would end activity and punch out everyone at a certain hour?
> 3. When you have an additional cost to a sales order like permits (GL Permits), procurement (GL Subcontractors), how do you pay and invoice for that and still have cost against it?
> We are trying with a part for each (with defined GL in the part), that we add as a SO line, then create a job (to capture cost), add the Procurement part on the job, then enter APInvoice as a Job Miscellaneous Line and Job Miscellaneous Charge. The cost goes on the job, but on the GL it hits WIP, not subcontractors, because it is a part. A manual journal entry then takes it into the correct GL account. I can't believe there isn't a simpler more elegant way to do this, or that nobody else has a need to add cost to a S.O. line.
> 4. How do you bill service calls?
> If we try to pull them in AR from the Field Service module The invoice description cannot be edited, so we just do miscellaneous invoices.
>
> Any input is appreciated.
>
>
> --- In vantage@yahoogroups.com, Thomas Rose <t.rose@> wrote:
> >
> > Wow, that is a HUGE question. How small are you talking about? We have fewer than 100 employees. Does that make us small per your definition?
> >
> > I will say that our successful (not perfect, but successful) implementation was based on a few things:
> >
> > 1. Planning.
> >
> > 2. Help from Epicor consultants at key stages of the planning process.
> >
> > 3. Planning.
> >
> > 4. Involvement and time commitment from everyone who was needed for successful implementation.
> >
> > 5. Planning.
> >
> > 6. A detailed schedule and list of exactly what need to be accomplished, when it needed to be accomplished, the prerequisites for the task, and who was responsible. That checklist was particularly important during our cutover weekend.
> >
> > 7. Planning.
> >
> > 8. Regular implementation team meetings with status updates.
> >
> > 9. Planning.
> >
> > 10. Envisioning as much as you can think of that might go wrong, and creating a contingency plan for those potential problems.
> >
> > 11. Planning.
> >
> > 12. Be fully prepared to delay implementation if everything is not ready. We delayed implementation two or three times instead of doing it when we first wanted to and botching the whole deal. However, you don't want to delay implementation forever. Our total delay was perhaps 15 months, but everything went well when we finally did it. One of my favorite sayings is from Red Adair, the oil well fire fighter. He would say "I can do it fast. I can do it well. I can do it cheap. Pick any two." We opted for cheap and well and it took us awhile. We could have done the whole thing in a couple of months by hiring a lot of high priced Epicor consultants. We could have done it quickly without much consulting input, and had a truly screwed up implementation. I think doing it well is the most important decision we made, though we did not consciously think about that decision - it just went without saying.
> >
> > Did I mention how important planning is?
> >
> > Thom Rose
> > Controller
> > Electric Mirror LLC
> > HOTEL LUXURY
> >
> > "The World Leader in Back-lit Mirrors & Mirror TV Technology"
> >
> > T 425 776-4946
> > A 11831 Beverly Park Rd, Bldg D, Everett, WA 98204 USA
> > www.electricmirror.com<http://www.electricmirror.com>
> >
> > From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of plamen21
> > Sent: Friday, January 08, 2010 9:59 AM
> > To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [Vantage] Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
> >
> >
> >
> > Any Sign companies or other small Custom Manufacturing Companies out there?
> > We are a small sign manufacturing company in the Washington DC Area.
> > We went live with 803.407 about 7 months ago. Only had an accounting software with shop-floor terminals for labor.
> > We are having difficulties and wanted to find out how you do it [successful implementation].
> >
> > Plamen
> >
> > Systems Administrator
> >
> > Art Display Co.
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
9
That fixed it, thanks. It would have been nice for Epicor to let us
know about this.



Regards,





Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of advantage
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:43 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues





Yes, Run Coversion Program 160. It has to do with activating the sandard
posting rules for all transaction types.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
PM Error "Expense account cannot be determined" while saving a PO line

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Search/Enter PO Release Transaction Type > OK
Verify there is not an Active revision for the current version of the
software.
You will need to import the posting rules for the PO Release Transaction
Type using the following instructions:

1. Actions > Import ACTType
2. Browse and select all files PO_Release.xml from
//server/postingrules/standard.
3. Check all 3 boxes in the lower left corner and Click OK.
4. Select the Book you are mapping the rules to (the Main Book).
5. If importing multiple tran types select the checkbox in the bottom
left
corner to avoid getting prompted for every rule.

If you are unable to import the posting rules with the above
instructions,
you will need to run database conversion programs 9900 and 9980, and
import
again.

VERSION 9.04.504B

-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of
Andrew Best
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:28 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of
issues

Good thing this is only a test.

I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?

Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
10
Any ideas on this problem?



PO Receiving error: not seeing items on POs that are open and have
items to receive



Regards,





Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:26 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues





That fixed it, thanks. It would have been nice for Epicor to let us
know about this.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of advantage
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:43 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

Yes, Run Coversion Program 160. It has to do with activating the sandard
posting rules for all transaction types.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
PM Error "Expense account cannot be determined" while saving a PO line

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Search/Enter PO Release Transaction Type > OK
Verify there is not an Active revision for the current version of the
software.
You will need to import the posting rules for the PO Release Transaction
Type using the following instructions:

1. Actions > Import ACTType
2. Browse and select all files PO_Release.xml from
//server/postingrules/standard.
3. Check all 3 boxes in the lower left corner and Click OK.
4. Select the Book you are mapping the rules to (the Main Book).
5. If importing multiple tran types select the checkbox in the bottom
left
corner to avoid getting prompted for every rule.

If you are unable to import the posting rules with the above
instructions,
you will need to run database conversion programs 9900 and 9980, and
import
again.

VERSION 9.04.504B

-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of
Andrew Best
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:28 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of
issues

Good thing this is only a test.

I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?

Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
11
FYI, this is not working on PO's converted from 8.03 or on PO's that are
newly created in 9.



Regards,





Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412



From: vantage@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:36 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues





Any ideas on this problem?

PO Receiving error: not seeing items on POs that are open and have
items to receive

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of Andrew Best
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 10:26 AM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

That fixed it, thanks. It would have been nice for Epicor to let us
know about this.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf
Of advantage
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 6:43 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: RE: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots
of issues

Yes, Run Coversion Program 160. It has to do with activating the sandard
posting rules for all transaction types.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
PM Error "Expense account cannot be determined" while saving a PO line

PROBLEM RESOLUTION
Financial Management > General Ledger > Setup > GL Transaction Type
Search/Enter PO Release Transaction Type > OK
Verify there is not an Active revision for the current version of the
software.
You will need to import the posting rules for the PO Release Transaction
Type using the following instructions:

1. Actions > Import ACTType
2. Browse and select all files PO_Release.xml from
//server/postingrules/standard.
3. Check all 3 boxes in the lower left corner and Click OK.
4. Select the Book you are mapping the rules to (the Main Book).
5. If importing multiple tran types select the checkbox in the bottom
left
corner to avoid getting prompted for every rule.

If you are unable to import the posting rules with the above
instructions,
you will need to run database conversion programs 9900 and 9980, and
import
again.

VERSION 9.04.504B

-----Original Message-----
From: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
[mailto:vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com> ] On
Behalf Of
Andrew Best
Sent: Wednesday, January 13, 2010 5:28 PM
To: vantage@yahoogroups.com <mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
<mailto:vantage%40yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [Vantage] Just converted to Epicor and we are having Lots of
issues

Good thing this is only a test.

I am receiving this error when trying to create a PO. Any ideas?

Transaction Type "PO Release" was not found.

Expense account cannot be determined.

Regards,

Andrew Best

Kice Industries, Inc.

P(316)744-7151

F(316)295-2412

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]