Distribution Help and User Guide | Container Management

1. Changes to Standard Sage screens

In addition to the new menu options described later in this help and user guide, there are also changes to standard Sage screens, which are detailed in this section.

1.1. SC - Enter New/Amend Stock Item Details

The Distribution setting relating to the stock item can be found in the Sicon tab.

1.2. SC – View Balances

By clicking the Distribution button at the bottom of the View Stock Item Balances screen, you can access the standard Sage View Stock History screen.

1.3. SC - View Monthly Trading Figures

By clicking the Distribution button at the bottom of the screen, you can access the standard Sage View Stock History and View Item Balances screens.

1.4. POP - Enter New/Amend Order

Tracking Dates tab – When enabled in Distribution Settings, this allows you to track the shipment of the Purchase Order using a PO Tracking Profile, defined in the Tracking Profile Maintenance screen within the Distribution Maintenance menu.

Vessel Name and Forwarder can be entered manually or selected from pre-defined lists set in Distribution Maintenance.

Each stage will have a provisional date calculated back from the Requested Delivery date of the Purchase Order.  The Actual dates can be amended and marked as confirmed as updates on the progress of the order are received.

For more details on the Notes and Problem buttons see section below.

Default container – A previously defined container can be selected, or a new container can be created.  This will be used to add each Purchase Order Line to the container.

The Container within the Purchase Order line can be amended or removed if required.

2. Container Manager Menu

2.1. Container Management List

The Container Management List displays all previously created containers.

There is also the ability to create a New Container, Amend, View, Receive and Complete Containers from this screen.

The Current Tracking and Next Tracking are pulled through from the Tracking Info tab.  Once the last Tracking Stage has been Confirmed, both columns will be displayed as Completed.

The Status will remain as ‘New’ until the first stage of the Tracking Profile has been Confirmed, at which time it will move to ‘In Progress’. Once the container has been received, the status will change to ‘Received’.

The Complete button can only be used once the container has been received.  This will change the status to ‘Complete’.  Please note: That once a container has been completed it is not possible to amend the details on the Tracking Info tab.

Columns can be added to the container list e.g. container analysis codes. N.B. only the 1^st 20 analysis codes can be added.

2.2. New Container

New containers can be created here or within the Container Management list.

Internal container number – This will be automatically created on saving the container.

Actual container number – Where known, the actual container number can be entered.

Container size – These can be selected from a drop-down list of container sizes created in Container Size Maintenance.

Requested Delivery Date – This date will be used to calculate the Provisional dates in the Tracking Profile.  The Requested Date of Purchase Order lines added to the container, can also be updated to reflect this date.

Volume/Weight – These fields will display the total volume and weight of items added to the container, where the values have been added in the Stock Item Details.  If either value takes the container over its capacity, the field will be highlighted in red.

Add Container Line – Purchase order lines can be linked to the container by using the Add Container Lines button.

Search – Clicking on the Search button, within the Add Container Lines screen, will display all undelivered Purchase Order lines.  This screen can be filtered by Supplier Code, Stock Item and Purchase Order, and can also be sorted by clicking on the relevant column header.  Order lines in red have already been assigned to a container and cannot been selected.

Add Lines – Items required for the container can be added by ticking the relevant line, or the Select All button can be used.  Purchase Order Lines that are already associated with a container are displayed in red and cannot be selected.  The Add Lines button will then save the lines to the container.

Quantity for Container column – The Quantity for Container value can be reduced if the full quantity is not required in the container.  On saving the container a screen will be displayed and the user has the opportunity to create a new order line for the balance, which can then be added to a future container.  If No is selected, the balance on the order line will not be available to add to a container, and the Purchase Order line will not show the split between what is in a container and what is outstanding.

The screenshot below, shows the item split out between the quantity in a container and the balance remaining.

Once a line has been added to a container, the Internal Container number will show on the Purchase Order line, within Purchase Order Processing.  The Container Tracking can also be viewed here.

Values button – This changes the screen to display the order line values. The Unit Price can be amended and any change will be reflected in the relevant Purchase Order.

Tracking Info tab – This can be used to add a new Tracking Profile, (created in Distribution Maintenance). A Vessel Name and Freight Forwarder can be selected from the drop-down list (created in Distribution Maintenance) or entered as free text.

The ‘Docs to forwarder’ and ‘Processed?’ tick boxes can be used for information purposes.

When adding a new Tracking Profile, if the Container Requested Delivery Date cannot be met by the timeline required for the Tracking Profile, a warning screen will be shown and a new date will be set on the Container Summary screen.

Notes – A Note can be added to the container tracking stage.  If a note has been added, the button will be displayed as ‘*Notes*’.

Problems – When a Problem is added, the subsequent Problem buttons are greyed out and the container cannot be moved onto the next stage until the Problem has been resolved.

The text will be displayed in the POP Order Line List and, where Sicon MRP is installed, the Future Stock Movement screen.

Attachments tab – Can be used for saving attachments against the container.

Memos tab – This can be used to save general information against the container.

Analysis Codes tab – Analysis Codes created within the Distribution Settings screen can be selected here.

Save Container – On saving the Container, a screen will pop up asking the user if they would like to update the PO lines.  If yes is selected the PO lines will be updated with the Actual Date on the Tracking Info tab.

History button – Once the Container has been saved, the History button will display all the transactions that have been processed against the Container. Where an adjustment has been made after the initial creation, a Reason can be added to the history line. In order to add a Reason, the setting of ‘Enable container history reasons’ must be enabled in Distribution Settings.

2.3. Amend Container

The Amend Container sub section, can be used to display a list of containers, highlight those that are overloaded and those that have requested delivery dates that will not be met. The tracking status can also be seen in this window.

Amend Container – A container can be amended by highlighting the line and clicking Amend Container.

Delete Container – A container can be deleted by highlighting the line and clicking Delete Container.

Once the container has been deleted, the container will no longer be linked to any Purchase Order lines that were associated with it.

2.4. Receive Containers

This allows all Purchase Orders in the container to be received in one screen.  Receiving the container in this screen will also set the container status to Complete.

Filters can be applied for Container and Supplier.  Clicking Display will list all containers with a status of New or InProgress, and where PO lines have been added.

The containers are split by Supplier, and the individual Purchase Order numbers displayed in the POP Order Nos column.

Highlighting a container in the Containers section will display all Purchase Order lines, for that Supplier, in the Container Lines section.

Tick any containers that require receipting.

Here the Quantity received can be amended, and the destination Bin including bins from another warehouse can be selected.

In the below example, the Bin has been changed and the Quantity reduced to 80. A new PO line will be created for the balance not received, enabling the balance to be added to a future container.

Before clicking Receive Containers, the Supplier GRN will need to be populated, for all containers that have been ticked in the top section of the screen.

Where the Part Received option is ticked on the line, additional lines will not be created on the PO for remaining balances.  Instead the line will still be available to receive on the original container.

Ticking the Complete box will complete the container after booking in.  Once the container has a status of Complete, no PO Container lines or Tracking Info can be amended.

2.5. Tracking Enquiry

Allows enquiry and maintenance of tracking stages linked to purchase orders or containers.

For purchase orders, select the purchase order tab, then select the vessel and tracking stage, purchase orders linked to the vessel at this stage then show.

The tracking stage date, delivery date and booked in time can be amended for all purchase orders on the vessel.

Clicking on update, then updates the tracking dates and booked in time linked to the purchase order.

Docs to Forwarder and Stage Confirmed can also be updated from this screen.

For containers, select the containers tab, then select the vessel and tracking stage, containers linked to the vessel at this stage then show.

The tracking stage date, delivery date and booked in time can be amended for all containers on the vessel.

2.6. POP Order Line List

This displays Purchase Orders by order line.

Container No.’s associated with the PO line are displayed, with the Quantity and Requested Delivery Date. Where a Container Tracking Profile has been added, the current and next status are displayed.

The Tracking Profile Status for both PO Tracking Dates and Container Tracking Info, is displayed. If a ‘Problem’ has been added to the profile line, this text will also be displayed in the column.

Where the Sicon Preallocations module is installed, the preallocated quantity is also displayed.

2.7. Maintenance

Container Size Maintenance – The two most common container sizes have been added as default, but additional sizes (e.g. High Cube) can be added here.

Tracking Profile Maintenance – Tracking Profiles for Purchase Orders and Containers can be created here. An existing Tracking Profile can be copied by highlighting the profile and clicking ‘Copy’.

A total of 8 stages can be added to each profile. Each stage can be given a Description, the number of Days Until Next Stage, whether the days are to include Working Days Only and what the POP Status for each stage is. Where a POP Status is not changing, it does not need to be repeated for each line as the last status will be used.

The total number of days for each profile will calculate back from the Requested Delivery Date and populate the date fields accordingly, showing when each stage needs to be started.

The status is used on the Tracking Info tab to show what stage the container is at.

Once the ‘Confirmed’ box is ticked it shows the status line has been completed, and has moved on to the next stage in the Amend Container screen and the POP Order Line List.

Forwarder Maintenance – A list of Freight Forwarders can be created here.

These can used in the Tracking Info tab for additional information.

Vessel Maintenance – This allows for the creation of vessels that will appear in the drop-down list in the Tracking Info screen.

POP Order Status Maintenance – The Purchase Order/Container statuses can be added and amended in this screen. There are 4 default statuses, for which the colour can be amended. An additional status can be added by clicking on the Add button, and then selecting a status colour. Where Sicon MRP is installed, these are also used in the Container Status and PO Line Status columns in the Future Stock Movements screen.

Import Containers – Container details can be imported via a .csv file, rather than being created manually in section 2.2. Clicking on the ‘Example Import File’ button provides the user with the Excel sheet to populate, and subsequently save as a .csv file.

The Check File button will check the data for any errors.  Lines with errors will be highlighted in red.

Once all the data is correct, the Import button will no longer be greyed out and the data can be imported.

NB

• If the import has an actual container number, and a container has already been created with that number, the import will use that container.
• If the import contains items that have already been assigned to the same container it will not duplicate them
• An import with no Actual container number will use a previously created empty container if there is one
• Where there are no empty containers created, an import with no Actual container number will create a new one
• If the import has a mixture of actual container numbers and no container numbers, the import will split them out

3. Dashboards

3.1. General Distribution Dashboards

There are 5 Dashboard panels available for use.   These can be populated with pre-configured panels by clicking on Settings and selecting from the drop down list.

3.2. Maintain Dashboard Panels

Pre-configured dashboards can be edited here, and new ones created.

4. Reports

Consignment Transfer – Only available with Warehouse Replenishment

Purchase Orders and Returns Linked to Sales Orders – Only available with POP Management module

Purchase Orders Outstanding Tracking Dates – Shows any Purchase Order tracking dates that are still outstanding (yet to be confirmed).

Purchase Orders Awaiting Confirmation Detail – Only available with POP Management.

Purchase Orders Awaiting Confirmation Summary – Only available with POP Management.

Discontinued Stock Items – Only available with SOP Management.

5. Utilities Menu

5.1. Settings

Enable Purchase Order Tracking – Enabling this will display the Tracking Dates tab on the Purchase Order screen, allowing the user to add a PO Tracking profile.

Use actual date when updating purchase order – When using the option to update the PO lines in the Tracking Dates tab, the actual date set by the Tracking Profile will be used.

Enable container history reasons – This allows for users to add a reason when making any adjustments to a container.  The reason will be displayed against the line in the History screen of the container.

Maintain reasons – This screen displays the types of adjustments that can be recorded against the container, and whether they need to be tracked and a reason entered.

Use multiple delivery dates on purchase order lines – This allows for multiple delivery dated to be printed on a Purchase Order.

NB: these dates are for supplier information only.  They will not be shown as separate lines for a Container or when using Sicon MRP.

Auto complete container when receiving the container in – Will automatically set the container status to Complete when the container has been received.  Once the container has a status of Complete, no PO Container lines or Tracking Info can be amended.

Analysis Codes – These will be displayed in the Analysis Codes tab of the New/Amend Container screens. They can also be added to the container list.

5.2. Sage to Sicon SO Fulfilment

This screen allows you to update existing Sales and Purchase Orders to use the new fulfilment methods in Distribution. You can click the Run button to apply the switch to all live and on hold orders, or alternatively specify individual sales or purchase order numbers and click the relevant run button next to the order number field.

5.3. Import Stock Item Settings

The Distribution Settings, required within the Stock Item Details screen, can be imported via a .csv file. Clicking on the ‘Example Import File’ button provides the user with the Excel sheet to populate, and subsequently save as a .csv file.

The Check File button will check the data for any errors. Lines with errors will be highlighted in red. Hovering the mouse over the Stock Item will display the reason for the error. Please note, the Stock Item data must be in the exact format as the data in Sage, i.e. capitals/lowercase/spaces.

Once all the data is correct, the Import button will no longer be greyed out and the data can be imported.

5.4. Enable Module

The Enable Strings supplied by Sicon are displayed here.

6. Help & User Guide Menu Option

This menu option provides access to this Help & User Guide.

7. Release Notes

The release notes page shows which release of the system includes new features or issues resolved.

At the release of Sicon v21 we announced that going forward, we will only be supporting Sage 200c and as such we are able to drop the year from our version numbers. We moved from 201.201.0.0 to 210.0.0.

New features detailed in the Release Notes relating to Pre-Release versions will not be detailed in the current Help and User Guide until the end of development phase.

8. New Features & Important Information