Materials is the fifth of the nine Costpoint Domains. This Domain provides the procurement and build-to-order/manufacturing capabilities required of the Government Contractor.
Here is a list of lesser-known features within Materials:
Product Definition > Items > Manage Services (or Goods) > Assigned Standard Text Subtask
As with Parts, both Services and Goods can have Standard Text associated with them. Use this subtask to assign standard text to print on purchase orders for selected services.
Codes must initially be setup in Product Definition > Product Definition Controls > Manage Standard Text, after which you can assign them to services in this subtask so that the text associated with the code will print on any purchase order, requisition, or other specified document that includes the selected service.
Standard Text is a great way to reinforce the qualification required for a specific labor category, for example.
You can define if the Standard Text will autoload every time the service is selected and whether the Standard Text will print to External or Internal Documents or both thereby lending flexibility to the use of these feature.
Procurement Planning > Purchase Requisitions > Manage Simple Purchase Requisitions
The Simple Purchase Requisition streamlines the entry of a purchase requisition through reduction of data fields the optional use of templates.
Templates are created in Materials > Procurement Planning > Procurement Planning Controls > Manage Purchase Requisition Types. The template features several options for charging rules and defaults that restrict selections and reduce the opportunity for error.
When creating a Simple Purchase Requisition, you can select a Requisition Type or load the default (you must create a default).
Simple purchase requisitions use the same approval workflows as the regular Purchase Requisition.
Materials > Procurement Planning > Vendors> Manage Prospective Vendors
Manage Prospective Vendors is now accessible through the Materials Module.
The use of Manage Prospective Vendors allows for segregation of information from active, approved vendors while allowing the prospective vendor to provide and receive information through the Supplier Portal.
Approval of the prospective vendor occurs in the Approve Prospective Vendors Application.
Purchasing > Purchasing Utilities > Reconcile Purchase Orders
Use this utility to sync your Purchase Orders with processed data.
The values on the purchase order line and receipt line of the Purchase Order are compared to the processed values on purchase order vouchers, vendor returns, inspections, and receipts to verify agreement. If the values on the Purchase Order Line or Receipt Line do not agree with these processed values, the utility will bring them into alignment by updating the Purchase Order values.
Receiving > Receiving Controls > Configure Receiving Settings
The Configure Receiving Settings Application provides numerous receiving controls.
There are seven types of controls available on this control screen:
- Refinement of receiving options that include requiring entry of specific information, restriction of entry, enabling edits by the receiver and validation against the purchase order.
- Specification of what prints on the Receipt Traveler.
- Acceptance Location details.
- How Overshipments can be processed.
- When early receipts are allowed.
- The use of auto-assignment for packing slip numbers and receipt IDs.
- Enabling of Auto-Assign Receipt IDs, Inspection/MRB IDs and Vendor Return IDs
The use of these settings can help enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the receiving function.