Support Archives - Palladium

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Support Archives - Palladium

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Understanding the Depreciation Calculation and Take-On

When taking on an asset it is important not to get confused when using the ‘Depreciate From’ date. This date is the date from which the asset needs to be depreciated from and is NOT to be confused with a ‘Take-On’ date in Palladium. The only reason the Depreciate From Date would generally differ from the Purchase Date would be when you purchase machinery that only gets commissioned and is put into operation months later.

In terms of take-on – the ONLY value that needs to be updated is the Opening Depreciation as seen below.

From a depreciation calculation point of view, The Depreciation calculated at the Date of the Depreciation Run will first calculate the Total Depreciation from the Depreciate FROM Date (and not the date of Purchase) to the Depreciation RUN date, then less the Accumulated Depreciation to date, Less the Take-On Depreciation.  What this does is offer you the flexibility to run your depreciation, monthly, annually or even daily if you so wish.

To read the full article on Fixed Assets, click here. 

SUP087 – Purchase Order Approvals

Overview

The Purchase Order Approval Function allows for you to create a Purchase Order workflow authorisation function across the business to manage the related spend per Vendor as well as to set specific limits per Employee /Approver.

Setup

Function Activation
To activate the Purchase Order Approval function, access the Company Options function and the Payables / Settings tab, activating the feature and setting the default User Document Limits and Vendor Monthly Limits. Note that once this feature has been activated, you will be unable to create a Purchase Order without first converting it from a Purchase Quote.

Assign User and Vendor Limits
In the Accounts Payable Module, Maintenance Section select the Purchase Order Approver Icon. Here we will assign the various approvers, together with their Document Limit as well as the automated notification method.


You can also assign monthly Vendor limits to manage the spend on a per vendor basis. Should no limit be set then the Vendor will be afforded an unlimited monthly spend.

You can also setup default notification messages for the Email and/or SMS alerts.

Processing

Creating a Purchase Requisition
When you create a purchase Requisition you will need to select the relevant approver. Note that this will only display the relevant approvers based on their requisite Document Limit.

Approving a Purchase Requisition
On selecting the Purchase Order Approvals function each user will be presented with a list of Purchase Requisitions awaiting their approval.


Once you select a document you will be presented with the option to either Accept or Decline the document. On approval the Purchase Requisition will be converted to a Purchase Order.

Declining a Purchase Requisition
Should you decline a Purchase Requisition you will be able to set a Decline Reason code on the Purchase Requisition using the standard Authorisation reason codes.

SUP201 – Multi-Level Inventory Categories

Overview

We have added another 2 levels of Item Category (to 3) in order to facilitate the Inventory Search and reporting functions in the Palladium Enterprise and Palladium Premium editions. This function is available on all Inventory search functions throughout the application and has also been added to the offline PoS module that is available in the Palladium Enterprise Edition only.

Processing

From a processing point of view, you can simply select the category selection below and the system will cascade your selections right down to the last level. Not all levels are mandatory giving the flexibility for you to only see the levels that are optimal for your business.

This functionality has also been incorporated into the Point of Sale and new Offline Point of Sale modules.

Reporting

All these additional fields have been added to the Business Intelligence cubes, allowing you to slice and dice the data as required. You can also start to compare your sales mix across years or months. using a dimension for say bottle size would allow you to view your sales mix of 340ml vs 500ml at a glance.

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SUP034 – Automatic Credit Note Allocation

This feature allows you to automatically match/allocate Credit Notes to Unpaid Sales Invoices on the fly.

How Does This Feature Help Your Business?

  • Accurate credit allocations.
  • Offsets the credit immediately, this eliminates the process to have to manually apply the credit to the Sales Invoice.
  • Saves you time.

Feature Setup

Firstly, to activate the feature, you go to the Control Panel in Company options. On the Receivables tab, ensure that the option below is checked. Should this feature not be activated, then the Credit note will appear on the customer’s account as an unallocated credit.

Feature Functionality

To process a Credit Note, select the invoice then click on the Credit Button (subject to the users requisite security access rights) .
If the full invoice value was credited, the Sales Invoice will not appear in the Outstanding Invoice Feature within the Process Customer Receipts function as it has been automatically been matched to the Credit Note.
General Note 
 If you pass a Credit Note to a Sales Invoice and it is not for the full amount, only the net outstanding amount will appear on the outstanding Receipts above the “Amount Owing” field.

SUP103 – Fixed Assets

The Palladium Fixed Assets module allows you to manage 2 very distinct features. Firstly it allows you to manage and control your assets as required by legislation with the ability to process up to 5 depreciation calculations (commonly known as Asset Registers) per asset. Secondly, you can record all costs against your Assets, record the Usage per asset for a period, then run Efficiency reports per asset.

Setting Up the Assets Module

Before you start processing you need to first Setup the Assets Module. To do this you go to the Assets Module, in the maintenance section.

Creating Locations
The create location function allows you to assign locations to assets and transfer items across locations. This also facilitates the Asset count function.

Disposal Reasons
These reason codes could be Sold or Scrapped and assist in analysing your reasons for disposal.

Expense Types
These expense types relate to the recording of costs against an asset in order to assess the efficiency levels of an asset. This could be fuel costs in Litre or Service Fees etc.

Depreciation Methods
The depreciation methods are the different methods you use to depreciate your asset. These methods include:

  • Straight line method
  • Equal Allowance Method
  • Reducing Balance Method
  • Immediate Write off Method
  • No Depreciation Method
  • Variable % Method – this method will allow you to define the number of years over which to write down the asset with custom-defined percentages set per year (as seen in the screen below)

Asset Types
The Asset Types, or Groups is the way in which the respective assets are maintained in the Ledger Accounts as well as their common methods of depreciation.

We also cater for up to 5 different Depreciation Methods per asset each with the facility to report per Method, or Asset Register. Note that the Asset Registers (Depreciation Methods) can have their own custom name settings that can be found in the Control Panel >> Options >> Naming Conventions.

The Other Ledger Accounts such as, Asset Cost and Repairs & Maintenance are used during the Vendor Invoice Process function when Purchasing and allocating costs to assets.

Asset Master

This section contains all the information related to the individual Assets, split into the various tabs below.

General Tab
This tab contains all the General Information relating to the asset itself.

Purchase Information
This section allows you to set information such as the Purchase information as well as residual values that get used during the depreciation calculation. You can also revalue the assets at any time that will adjust the Depreciable Value dynamically.

Depreciation History
This section allows you to set the opening depreciation per Asset Register, as well as list and allow you to edit the various depreciation runs as seen below. Note that you can process a depreciation run 365 times a year if required.

Repairs and Maintenance
This feature allows you to capture Costs as well as records usage against the various Assets. This allows you to not only control costs, but you can also generate Asset Efficiency reports such as Km/L or Cost per Unit produced for machinery used in production.

Palladium also facilitates the ability to post these costs directly to the Assets from the Vendor processing screens below with the system Displaying all Assets linked to that specific Repairs and Maintenance Account that is used in the Asset Category setup.

Disposals
You can dispose of assets using Disposal reason codes for ease of reporting and analysis.

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SUP045 – Add Value Invoices

This feature allows you to apportion addition costs to a specific batch of received goods. This could be used to assign costs such as Shipping or other transport costs or to apportion import duties for Additional Costs.

How Does This Feature Help Your Business?

This facility allows you to apportion other direct costs to a specific shipment, ensuring that you reflect a correct Cost Of Sales and Gross Profit margins.
This apportionment is applied as an accrual, alleviating the need to have the original Shipping cost invoices at hand.

Feature Option

Select The Original Supplier Invoice
In order to apportion costs to a specific batch of Received Goods, you first have to select the supplier invoice to which the additional costs will be apportioned. You can do this by selecting the Supplier Invoice and Select the Additional Cost option.

Apply Costs
Once you have selected the Landed Cost Adjustment option, the system will display all the Relevant Inventory items on the Supplier Invoice. Here you enter the value with which you would like to apply to the Shipment, and the system will then give you the option to apportion these costs to the Delivery apportioned either by total shipment quantity or by value with the option to apply the apportionment manually. You also have the option to adjust the Additional Costs Control account.

Post Supplier Invoice
When you post the Vendors invoice, you would post this against the control account as shown above. It is recommended that a Cost Of Sale Account be used as a control account in order to ensure that all costs are accounted for appropriately.

Note – We also recommend that this account is reconciled monthly to ensure the accuracy of postings, as the account balance should invariably be Nil.

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SUP035 – Sales Discount Matrix

This feature allows you to tailor default customer discounts by a Customer and Inventory Category pricing Matrix table. This gives you the ability to create and manage discount prices for an unlimited number of combinations due to that fact that you can create an unlimited number of Customer and Inventory Categories as well as an unlimited number of Customer Pricelists.
Note: This feature is currently available on the Palladium Business and Palladium Enterprise versions.

How Does This Feature Help Your Business?

  • Eliminates erroneous or unauthorised discount entries.
  • Allows you to logically group factors that result in price adjustments.
  • Secure, since access to edit discount rates may be granted to specified users only.

Feature Setup

Palladium offers the option to disallow specified users access to the Price Discount Matrix setup function and also allows you to set access rights to amending the Document Line-Item Discounts at a user-level.
  

Feature Functionality

Firstly, set up the discount matrix rates accordingly. In the example below, a customer who is set as a Distributor will receive a 12,5% discount on handbags and a 15% discount on Shoes as default.
On the Invoice below, the discount is then applied accordingly i.e. the first 2 items are stock items, therefore, a 20% discount is granted. The next item is a service and a 15% discount is then granted.
Feature Related Q & A’s
Q: If I do not have a discount setup for certain customer and item categories, am still I able to apply a discount at line level?
A: Palladium is not limited to applying discounts through the Discount Matrix only. You are able to apply a line discount to all Account Receivable and Account Payable documents at the time of processing. This would apply in a scenario where a discount is applied at the time of sale or purchase.  In addition to this you have the ability to apply a discount to the total document itself.

SUP036 – Credit Note Authorisation

This feature allows you to Create a Request for Credit Document for items that have been or may have been returned for Credit. Businesses realise that passing a credit note is tantamount to giving someone cash and the additional security level is critical to managing returns.

How Does This Feature Help Your Business? 

  • It adds an additional security step for returns or a state where warranties and/or the condition of goods can be checked before credits are passed.
  • It offers additional security for management to assist in reducing theft and fraud in an organisation.

Feature Setup

The ability to allow for Credit Return Requests is set through the Company Options Setup Function.

Feature Functionality

To Create a Request for Credit all we need to do is to pass a Negative Quantity Sales Order. On saving the system will convert this to a “Request For Credit Document” as seen below.
Once the authenticity of the Credit Request has been established, all the manager needs to do is to Convert the document by simply opening the Credit Notes window and clicking on convert. The following window will appear showing all credit request currently on the system.
 
Once the authenticity of the Credit Request has been established, all the manager needs to do is to Convert the document from the Sales Request and to Record/Update it accordingly.

SUP091 – Delivery Advices

The Delivery Advice feature allows you to create Deliveries without the need to process Invoices, while still affecting the inventory on hand. This feature works in the precise inverse way as GRV’s, wherein GRV’s act as an intermediate process between the receiving of inventory and the processing of the Vendor invoice. The delivery advice acts in the same way as an intermediate step between the delivery of Customer goods, and the invoicing thereof.

This feature is not to be confused with the delivery notes within the system that are available for printing during the Process Invoice function.

Use for the Feature

This feature would generally be used in a number of processes, and often where deliveries are made to customers where you would require a POD before processing the Invoice, normally due to Over or Under Deliveries.

Another use would be where deliveries for a specific order are made in intermittently throughout a period such as deliveries to a Project, where the client only requires one Invoice, so would be used more for an internal rather than external purposes.

Setup

Activating the Function
In order to activate the Delivery Advice feature you need to go to the Control Panel >> Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2. Then activate the feature by selecting the Create Delivery from Sales Order setting, with other settings to prompt or Warn on Open Delivery Advices at time of invoicing, much in the same way as we do with Pick Tickets on converting Sales Orders To Invoices. The other settings are to determine whether you would like to print the Price on the Delivery advice or to display the price on the Delivery Advice processing screen.

Control Account Setup
Because this Delivery Advice feature created a financial Transaction, ie Credit Inventory and Debit the Delivery Advice Control Account you would need to set the Delivery Advice Accrual Account in the Linked Account Setup Screen.

User Rights and Processing icon
Once you have activated the function you now need to set the respective user rights and on logging in, the Delivery Advice Icon will be available for the respective users.

Delivery Advice Processing

Creating Delivery Advices

To begin using this feature you will select the Delivery Advice Icon. In the example below I created a Sales Order for 2 x Bicycles and 2x Bicycle Helmets. Then on processing the Delivery Advice elected to only deliver 1 of each item. You will see that there is also a field for Total Delivery Quantity to add aid the Despatch and Drivers.

When processing the second delivery, the system defaults only the undelivered quantity of the order as seen below.

Processing Invoices
Once you would like to create an invoice simply select the invoicing processing function. If you first select the customer you will be prompted with the open delivery advices. Alternatively, you can click straight on the Delivery Advice Convert Icon as seen below,

And you will then be presented with a list of open deliveries that you can select to invoice as seen below.

What is notable about this feature is that you can convert from Multiple Deliveries to a Sales Invoice. Incidentally, this function works in conjunction with the ability to convert multiple Sales Orders to a single Sales Invoice.

On invoicing you will see that the items are grouped per item per delivery, for easy identification purposes.

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SUP092 – Payment Terms and Tender Types

There are 2 very distinct functions within the product that we need to differentiate between, namely Tender Types and Payment Terms. In addition we will explain how to use the new HP Payment Term Functionality within the application.

Tender Types

The primary purpose behind Tender Types is to assist in in the Cash-up process with the ability to define as many Tender Types as required, each with their own clearing account. One of these Tender Types is “On Account” and when using “On Account” you will activate the Terms function.

Setting up Tender Types
The tender types at setup in the Control Panel >> Tender Types option as seen below.

Once you have done this you then need to set the default Tender Type on the Customer or Vendor Account under the Settings tab. (refer below under Define Default Customer and Vendor Terms)

Activating the Use of Tender Types During Sales or Purchase Document Processing
In most “Traditional” cases, businesses process Invoices and Capture the payments, or receipts as a separate function, but with Palladium we have the ability to capture the Receipt at time of processing. To activate this go to Control Panel >> Company Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2 tab.

Once activated, you will have the ability to change the Tender Type in the Sales Document Header and select the respective tender method with its respective Tender Method Clearing account, effectively like having PoS Functionality in the generic invoicing function.

Splitting Payments
We have also incorporated the ability to Split Payments, for multiple tender types, that we have in the PoS function, into the general Sales Invoice processing feature. In addition you can set this to Automatically Invoke on the invoicing screen for businesses that are more Cash-Sale oriented. To set this you go to Control Panel >> Company Options >> Receivables >> Settings 2.

Using Tender Types during Sales or Purchase Document Processing
Once the feature is active you will be able to select the different bank, or tender control account, on the processing documents. You also have the option to change the Clearing Bank Account at any time. You will also notice that there is a warning at the foot of the document that this is a Non-Account Payment option.

When we Record/Save the document, the Tender Type Options invoke per the setting above.

Journal Entries
With the Cash Tender options you will see that there are no entries processed to the Accounts Receivable account and the Receipt Transaction is processed with the Sale.

Terms

Overview
Terms are the period, or the amount in days, that you have to pay a specific document, and is defined by the document Due Date. The terms function within Palladium is very powerful with the ability to set default terms per Customer or Vendor, with the ability to amend these per Document (a function that is governed by user-rights)

Setting up Terms
To setup Terms, go to Control Panel >> Terms.

Step 1 – Select Term Type
Standard Term (Days term) – i.e. that the invoice is due X days from Date of Invoice or from Date of Statement.

Calendar term (monthly term) – this is where the invoice is due at the end of a Month, i.e. Current Month, Next Month, etc.

Instalment Sale Term (HP) – this is where clients can pay off an amount over a specific period.

Step 2 – Define the Early Settlement Discount
The early settlement discounts are the discounts that will be applied during the Receipting/Payment process should the payments be made within the specified period. These discounts are automatically calculated at time of Payment or Receipt Processing. Note that this early settlement Discount feature does not apply to the Instalment Sale (HP) payment method as reflected in the screen above.

Step 3 – Set the “Calculation of Statement Date”
This setting only applies to the Standard Terms where we have elected to use x Days from Statement Date as well as with the Hire Purchase terms. This allows you to set the statement, or due, date to any day in the month and could be the 25th as is particularly common in a number of Specific Industries.

Setup Instalment Sale (HP) Tender Methods

Group Parameter Settings
Once you have setup the required tender types, you then need to activate the various HP Contract settings per Customer Group.  To do this we have set the different contract parameters for Deposit %, Finance Charge Rate, Penalty Charges and Insurance Rate all at the Customer Category Setting. To activate this, you just need to set this as a Hire Purchase Customer Category and the relevant settings will be available.

Link Terms to Customers
You now need to assign both the HP Parameters as well as the default Terms to the Customer. On editing or creating the customer you first need to select the relevant Customer Category and default Terms. Once you have selected an HP Customer Category, only HP Payment terms will be available for this Customer.

Remember that the terms can be adjusted on a per Transaction (or Invoice) level, provided the user has the requisite user-access to adjust these.

Processing HP Transactions
Once you have processed an invoice with the HP Terms, you will be presented with the Contract Summary Screen below. Thereafter you have the ability to adjust the Insurance Cost, Deposit as well as the Monthly Instalment field. Should you wish to adjust the Monthly instalment for rounding purposes, the balance will be allocated to the “Last Instalment”.

When you have all the required details, you can then print the Contract Agreement, with the system merging all the relevant information into the Document.


Interest on Overdue Accounts
The Interest Billing function has been enhanced to incorporate the penalty interest on the overdue contracts.

Early Account Settlement
Clients wishing to settle Hire Purchase Accounts Early can do so with the system automatically calculating the interest recoupment and posting this as a Settlement Discount at time of receipting.

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