About Receiving

See Flags That Affect Receiving Functions for details on how company settings affect receiving processing.

In addition, the default location, grade standard, and shipment method for purchased goods is set in the General Company Setup (STCOMP), General tab. For goods received with defects, the default code standard is also set there.

Receiving has these main objectives:

• It adds material to inventory
• It records the Genera Ledger transaction for the value of the inventory received
• Until inventory is received and checked, the invoice for the PO that ordered the materials should not be paid

The receiving menu contains 6 functions:

1. Enter Receipt
2. Enter Consumable Receipts
3. Enter In-Transit Inventory
4. Enter Mill Heat Info
5. Receipt From Consignment
6. Confirmation Receipt

Each of these functions is described in the associated Links

Receipt Types

Receipts of the following types can be generated:

• Purchase Order (receiving material purchased through a PO)
• Customer-Owned Material (receive material owned by the company and received for internal processing or storage)
• Customer Return (receive material sold to a customer as part of a sales order and currently has a claim against it)

• Miscellaneous (receive material for internal purposes such as physical inventory count or opening balance
• Transfer – receive from another company location

Receipt Structure

All receipts have the same structure regardless of order types.  Certain pieces of information may, however, differ or be optional depending on the receipt type. There are also some differences in the way SEMS handles each type of receipt.

Each receipt has a header and one or more line items. The header contains information that applies to all line items. Each line item includes information regarding a single steel product or single consumable item being received.

About Inventory

Use the Inventory module to control the steel products inventories (work in process inventory and finished goods inventory), consumable items inventories, and scrap inventory.

Steel Products: may include merchandise steel products (purchased for resale which form is not altered prior to resale) and job-specific steel products that require further processing before completion and sale. Inventory item is not defined prior to receiving. When received, each item is given a unique tag that becomes the item identifier.

Consumable Items: office supplies, janitorial supplies, shipping supplies, equipment maintenance supplies etc. Inventory Item is completely defined in item setup.

The Company Setup form determines if a reason code is required when inventory item cost is adjusted (on Inventory form) and what the default adjustment codes should be.

Despite a flood of announcements from the US mills scheduling increases for the first quarter 2010, during recent negotiations, some suppliers have lifted strip mill product values, others have lowered them and a number have left them unchanged. It appears that producers are looking to fill their December order books and then aim for rises in January – probably achieving around $US20 per ton. However, there are no indications that demand will be any healthier at the start of next year. Market players are still waiting for the government’s “stimulus package” to really kick in. There are very few foreign offers.

The Canadian mills are using the month of December to clear their delivery backlogs so they can start 2010 with a clean sheet. Many have now closed their December order books and are looking to start to pencil in January business. The producers are attempting to signal that the price erosion that has taken place during the final quarter is over. Increases are being announced for January in the expectation of a good balance between available capacity and demand. However, the value of the Canadian dollar remains a concern to manufacturing competiveness, particularly in central Canada.

Local prices have continued to rally in China over the last few weeks although, more recently, this upward momentum had slowed, or even reversed slightly. Bullish government statements on the economy have helped to maintain market sentiment. Nonetheless, there is still a degree of caution regarding the possibility of overcapacity in the future. The manufacturing sector continues to grow, with export business being particularly healthy.

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