General rules
When creating the system, it was decided to separate the functionality of sales and purchase management from that of warehouse management. Thus, the two functionalities are available in separate tabs. In tab Sales, there are the following options available: Sales Invoices (SI), Receipts (R), Sales Orders (SO), Sales Quotes (SQ), Sales Inquiries (SOI), Statement of Retail Sale (SRS), Credit Memos (CM), Cost Corrections (CC), Commission Invoices (CI), price lists and discounts. Options available in tab Purchase are the following: Purchase Invoices (PI), Purchase Orders (PO), Purchase Quotes (PQ), Purchase Inquiries (POI), Debit Memos (DM) and price lists. Warehouse documents are the following: SO Releases (SOR), Internal Releases (IR-), Warehouse Movements (WM- and WM+), PO Receipts (POR), Internal Receipts (IR+), Packages (PC), Item Quantity Calculation (IQC), Inventories (I), Demand Forecast (DF).
Every trade document should be assigned to proper warehouse document: e.g. Sales Invoice – to SOR document, Purchase Invoice to POR document. Only warehouse documents cause merchandise flow.
In Comarch ALTUM, there are three work models available:
1) model 1:1 – SOR/POR document is issued and on the basis of that document SI/PI document is generated (e.g.: the user takes receipt of an item to warehouse by making out POR document and then PI document is generated) or SI/PI document is issued and then SOR/POR document is generated
2) model n:1 – one trade document is generated out of several warehouse documents (e.g. the user issues several SOR documents and then generates one Sales Invoice) or one warehouse document is generated out of several trade documents (providing that certain conditions have been fulfilled)
3) model 1:n – several documents can be generated from one document (e.g. from one purchase quote, it is possible to generate several sales quotes for different customers)
With regard to two separated functionalities: trade and warehouse, there are the following functions in the system:
Item quantity – quantity resulting from warehouse documents
Reserved quantity – quantity blocked for sale
Ordered quantity – quantity resulting from trade documents – purchase invoice, but not accepted yet, that is not converted to a warehouse document yet
Shortages – quantity resulting from release documents (e.g. SI, R) which have not been covered by available resources
Documents are registered in Comarch ALTUM as unconfirmed and confirmed. Unconfirmed documents are modifiable unlike confirmed documents. Trade documents do not affect the stock levels. They only affect the ordered and reserved quantities.
Quotes and orders do not affect the stock levels, regardless of their status. They affect, however, the ordered and reserved quantities. Confirmed purchase orders increase the orderes quantities, whereas sales orders increase the reserved quantities.
Unconfirmed and confirmed trade documents affect the reserved and ordered quantities. The ordered quantities are controlled by purchase documents and the reserved quantities are controlled by sales documents.
Warehouse documents affect the ordered and reserved quantities, but only those which are unconfirmed. Uncofirmed IR+, POR, and WM+ affect the ordered quantities and unconfirmed IR-, SOR, and WM- change the reserved quantities. Confirmed warehouse documents increase or decrease the stock levels. Those which increase the stock levels are POR, IR+, and WM+ and those which decrease the stock are SOR, IR-, and WM-.
Note that in the system, it is possible to not confirm the documents. The documents are saved but not approved (they can still be modified). The documents of receipt type (PI, IR+,POR) which are not confirmed influence ordered quantity, whereas the documents of release type (SI, IR-, SOR) reserve stocked items.
Warehouse stock is represented by resources and lots. Resource represents quantity and value of a merchandise derived from one item of the document by which it was created (“delivered”). Resource is created by warehouse documents, e.g. IR+, POR, WM. For each resource quantity and value are saved. Resources are not merged. If new POR document delivers the same item with the same price, it is not added to the previously created resource, but a new resource is created.