What are the explanations for the Company Control 4 screen options in my Business Management Software (BMS) System?
When you enter the Company Control 4 level, the screen will appear as follows:
Control Explanations for Company Control 4 Screen:
Comm. Not paid on aged invoices- if this control is set to “Y” for yes, the system will activate a new feature in the Salesperson Payables System module, that allows you to select, clear, but not pay commission on any Invoices that are paid XXX days after invoicing. You then decide how many days the feature will use to make this determination by typing that number in the second field of this control, not to exceed 999 days.
Match customer ship to info- this control, if set to “Y” for yes, will force the “0000” Ship To default on a new Customer to match the data entered in the main Ship To fields.
Lead Module – US/Canadian/Both- this control is tied to the Leads Processing module. It was added to allow customers selling in Canada to access a drop-down menu of Canadian Provinces. You can also set the control to “B” for both, where a business is operating in both the states and in Canada.
Use 80 Character Graphical Doc- this control was added in the event any BMS clients prefer to revert back to the old 20 character graphical customer documents after the switch to the new documents that includes an 80 character style name display. This switch only applies to the graphical Quote, Sales Agreement, and Invoice.
Sort Inventory By Rank- with this control set to “Y” for yes, the system will allow you to determine how inventory prompts when assigning from Order Entry, by both Age and Max/Min size. When you type a “Y” for yes at this control, the system will prompt an Inventory Rank Maintenance screen as follows:
The items in the display screen above have already been programmed. You can right-click or double-click on those items to Edit or Delete. To add a new Rank, start by making a selection at the Product Type (1) field using the down arrow. You can set up a broad ranking system by leaving the default **All** in the Product Type and Product Code (2) fields, or get specific down to every Product Code. The Rank 1 & 2 (3) fields each have two options: Age & Min/Max. If you pick Age for Rank 1, you must select Min/Max for Rank 2 and vice versa. When you select Min/Max, the system will prompt Min and Max fields as follows:
A Rank column in the Inventory Review screen will display the top-ranking inventory choices based on setup completed in this screen.
Use ChargeItPro CC Processor- this control will need to be activated by a BMS Support Team member if/when you add the ChargeItPro functionality and equipment to your system. Otherwise, leave this control set to “N” for no.
Prompt Branch in new Sales- with this control set to “Y” for yes, the system will activate a Branch ID prompt when you create a new Job, Quote, or Property Management Template. This will be used primarily by Multi-Branch operations with central processing locations.
Tax Codes Default from Table- this control, when set to “Y” for yes, allows for selection of Tax Codes by Region, explained under Sales Tax Code Maintenance in the Accounts Receivable manual. Essentially, when adding Customers, Tax Codes will pull the default(s) from the Region (not related to Region Reporting) linked to that State/Province in Region Setup.
Make Inv Adj Comment Required- if set to “Y” for yes, this control makes adding an Inventory Adjustment Comment mandatory.
Default P/M Job Status- at this prompt, if you prefer, you can type a default Job Status in this field that will automatically prompt when converting a Template to a Quote or Job.
Activate A/P Enhanced Cost- can only be enabled by a BMS Trainer. Please send an inquiry to BMSsupport@Broadlume.com for more information concerning this feature. Setup will be completed in this screen by your BMS Trainer who will discuss with you what costs need to be setup. Once complete, these cost items cannot be changed, only disabled.
Use Alt Inventory Receipt Date- in the Edit Inventory Item screen in Inventory Maintenance, if this control has been set to “Y” for yes, it will allow for certain features and reports to utilize the Company Receipt Date, which is the original date inventory was received into the system. The other date is the Branch Receipt Date, which changes when an inventory record is transferred, cut, adjusted, etc. If the Control is set to “N” for no, the system will automatically use the Branch Receipt Date, which is how the system previously worked. The Company Receipt Date, if enabled, will be used for Barcode Label Printing, Order Entry, Build Order Assign Inventory by Age, Outstanding Costs vs Received Inventory, Inventory Purge, Inventory Listing, Inventory Valuation, and the Inventory Valuation (As Of). You will see both dates in the Edit Inventory Item screen, which can only be updated by BMS Support personnel, should there ever be a need. Also, if the Branch Receipt Date is different, you will see a brief notation in green type next to the Company Receipt Date field, for items such as Inventory Transfer, Work Order Return, etc.
A/R Avg Pay Days Months- this control is tied to a new field in the Customer Status Inquiry module titled Average Pay Days. To help determine this value, you can enter a number of months in this field to use for history when averaging this value, such as “9” for nine months of history.
PO Need Date Required- this control allows for recording a Need Date for the material at the time a PO is created. The default setting is “N” for no, so it will need to be set to “Y” for yes to enable. There is also a User Control 5 option, Allow Purchase Order Maintenance, that also controls whether a User can edit the PO Need Date field in PO Maintenance.
Allowed Invoice Margin Minimum % and Allowed Invoice Margin Maximum %.- if a percentage is entered in either of these two fields, the system will prevent invoicing if the margin percentage on the Invoice does not meet these parameters. If these fields are activated, there is a User Control 6 option, Allowed To Invoice Outside Margin Range, that can be enabled to allow certain Users to bypass these settings. Where this is the case, a soft warning will prompt in Order Entry for each User where an Invoice Margin is below the Minimum %, but it will allow them to proceed.
Company Accum Totals (R, B, C)- this control determines at what level capacity limits are met for each type of installation: Region, Branch, or Company. It is used in conjunction with the Install Dates tab in Order Entry and feeds into the Mobile Installation Schedule App.
Use Private PO Notes- with this control set to “Y” for yes, only PO Notes that begin or are prefaced with an “*” will display on the printed PO. This change does not impact PO Line Notes.
Tax Type Warnings- this control is tied to the two ways Tax can be charged on a Job: Contract (Use Tax) and Invoice (Sales Tax). Typically, Jobs without Labor are assessed Sales Tax that the customer sees and pays, and alternately, Use Tax is assessed on Jobs with Labor that is charged based on the cost of material and not typically seen by the customer. This control has three settings. A “0” is the default and will leave this control disabled. A “1” will prompt a warning in Order Entry to check the Tax setting. And a “2” will activate a hard stop and halt processing of the Job until the Tax Type is changed.
Activate Written Business Report- this control, if set to “Y” for yes, will activate a new report in Order Entry that appears as follows: Written Sales Report. You will see this report option in the main Order Entry screen as follows:
This report was programmed to generate a transactional “Written Business” report, as opposed to the Job Cost Margin report that doesn’t take into account cancelled orders or increases/decreases to existing Jobs. This report writes a new file for Sale, Cost, and Margin each time a User exits a Job and a change was made to impact any of those three figures. As an example, if a Job was entered on the 30th of the previous month for 10K, but then cancelled 20-30 days later, when that cancellation happens, the 10K will hit the Written Business Report on that day. There is also a User Control 6 option to determine who is allowed to override the transaction date or exit date for this report. Please be aware that you can NEVER turn this report off once it has been enabled so please be sure this is a feature you want before doing so.
Activate All Invoices to Date Com- the default setting for this control is “N” for no so that no change will occur unless enabled. If enabled, the way the system calculates commissions will change. Instead of calculating commission on each Invoice generated on a Job, when this control is set to “Y” for yes, the system will calculate based on Invoices on the Job to date. If there are multiple Invoices on a Job, the first Invoice will calculate based on the lines on only that Invoice. On the second Invoice, and subsequent Invoices, the system will take the lines on any previous Invoices into account and if adjustments to the Commission need to be made, those will be made to the most recent Invoice.
Allow Multiple Cat Priv Labels- this applies to single and multi-Branch operations to allow for multiple (up to 10) Catalog Private Label names per Catalog item within a Branch, if this control is set to “Y” for yes.
Allow Multiple Cat Priv Labels- this applies to single and multi-Branch operations to allow for multiple (up to 10) Catalog Private Label names per Catalog item within a Branch, if this control is set to “Y” for yes.
Prevent Double Booking Installer- if this control is enabled, it will force the use of the Install Dates tab in Order Entry, and no longer allow setting of an Install Date in the Job Detail box. Further, the control works to prevent double-booking of an Installer at any time on a given day. This works in conjunction with the Time Maintenance module. A checkbox has been added to the Add/Edit screen of that module as follows: All Day Time Slot. With completed setup, the system won’t allow an Installer to be assigned an “All Day Time Slot” if he or she is already assigned an AM or PM, etc., time, and vice versa.
Allow Multilingual Translation- the default setting for this control is “N” for no so that no change will occur unless enabled. If enabled, a Translate Notes checkbox will appear on server-side graphical customer facing documents. Please see the Sales Processing manual for more details on the checkbox from print documents. You can also set a default language for the Translate Notes checkbox when you enable this control. A Language Maintenance box will appear as follows:
You can check all the languages that apply to your business; any unchecked will not display in the system. Also, in the Default Language field, you can select a language to default to within the system. Click Save to keep your changes.
Activate Projects Module- this option will activate the Projects Module in Sales Processing to allow for tracking cost, margin, profit and billing for several Jobs, including Quotes, tied to a specific Project. There are also a couple of User Control 7 controls to consider when activating this module.
THE FOLLOWING TWO CONTROLS CAN ONLY BE ACCESSED BY TMS SUPPORT:
Activate Cat Br Override Pricing- Branch override pricing has been added to the system. This was added for companies who share Catalog, but wish to have unique pricing between Branches to override standard Item Costs. This must first be turned by a BMS Support Agent, and is only accessible if the Company is sharing Catalog. Additionally, at the User Control 7 level screen, a control has been added to allow override/interactive mode with this feature, provided User can also see Cost. That control appears as follows: Allowed to Select Cat Br Override Pricing. Set this control to “Y” for yes to enable. Further, an import/export option has been added to facilitate updating Branch Override Pricing. The import option and sample spreadsheet are accessible from the Customer Facing CSV Imports module in the Special Functions menu. The export option is located in the Catalog Selection screen as follows:
There is a Branch filter for the export. With the User Control 7 option enabled, in the Cost tab of the Edit Existing Catalog screen, you will see a Br Override Pricing button to the right of the Item Costs fields. When you click that button, the system will prompt a Catalog Branch Override Pricing screen as follows:
This screen will display any existing Branch Override Pricing and allow for editing/adding. With regard to Freight and Overbill, in the Special Catalog Mtc. (By Product Code) module, if those first two options—Freight and Overbill—are edited, when you hit the Continue button, a Select Branch for Override Pricing screen will prompt for you to select the applicable Branches for the change.
Activate Comp. to Comp. Cat Copy- this option was added for a specific customer, but is available to all, though it may only be applicable to a very few. Where more than one Company exists, this control can be set up to copy the catalog from one company to another. There are three settings available for this control as follows: (Blank) Inactive, (S) Source Company, and (D) Destination Company. The company where the catalog to be copied is considered the source company and should be set with an “S”. The company where the catalog will be copied is the destination company and should be set with a “D”. If another company should not be included in the copy, you will leave this blank to keep it inactive. Start by designating the Destination companies. Then, when you designate the Source company or companies, a box will pop up to allow for selecting the Destination companies as follows:
When you have entered through the last field of options, the system will prompt the following: Save Changes (Y,N): _. You will need to type a “Y” for yes at this prompt to save any changes that were made in this screen. The system will then place the cursor back at the Select Option menu.