QUICK START – Pallet Tracking

 

 

NOTE:  Public Warehouse Customers that are not using the Coreflex Pallet Tracking Module should use the Quick Start – 3PL Public Warehouse Document.

 

Overview:

 

In Coreflex, the companies for which you manage inventory are called Accounts.  The companies you ship to on behalf of the Accounts are called Customers.

 

Following are the high level steps recommended to integrate Coreflex into your operation and get the first Account setup and billing with Coreflex.  Details for each step follow.

 

·        Understand the Startup Process:

·        Determine how you will physically store and inventory products on a Pallet.

·        Determine how you are going to bill your Pallet Inventory:

·        Understand how Coreflex Billing works

·        Set up an Account and its billing.

·        Set up Printed Output.

·        Set up Custom Screen Prompts

·        Build the Account’s Product Master.

·        Setup Warehouse Locations

·        Load the Account’s Inventory.

·        Understand how to process Receipts, Shipments and Billing in Coreflex:

§         Review Pallet Tracking – Operational Flows High Level.doc

§         Review Pallet Tracking - Shipping High Level Instructions.doc

§         Review Pallet Tracking – Receiving High Level Instructions.doc

§         Review Bill Creation High Level Instructions.doc

 

1.      Understand the Startup Process: (back to top)

 

There are seven high level tasks in a Coreflex 3PL WMS & Billing System startup.  These tasks may be performed by a Customer’s in-house staff or with assistance from Coreflex staff.  The tasks are:

 

Please review the Coreflex 3PL WMS & Billing System Startup Guidelines to understand the standard process recommended by Coreflex for successfully transitioning your company and Accounts onto Coreflex.  It contains worksheets that will help determine how to set up your Accounts and Billing.

 

2.      Determine how you will physically store and inventory products on a pallet? (back to top)

 

2.1.   The way you keep inventory quantities in Coreflex for products stored on pallets will vary based on:

 

2.1.1.      How your Account wants inventory reported. 

2.1.2.      How your Account will be requesting inventory to be shipped. 

2.1.3.      How your Account will be billed.

2.1.4.      How you physically receive and store inventory.

 

2.2.   If you determine that you will store one product / SKU / Item Code on a Pallet then:

 

Using the Setup – System Screen, change the following setting to be “Pallet #”:

 

Pallet Tracking: Physical PalletID Field to “Pallet #”

 

2.3.   If you determine that you will store Multiple Products / SKUs / Item Codes on a Pallet then:

 

Refer to the Pallet Tracking - Setup for Multi-SKU Pallets Document.

 

3.      Determine how you are going to bill your Pallet Inventory: (back to top)

 

Different billing methods require specific data to be set at the product level, inventory level and pallet level.  For example, if you are billing inventory by weight, you must have the weight of each pallet recorded in the database.  However if you are billing inventory by pallet size, you must have the size of each pallet recorded.

 

Since each of your Accounts may bill differently, it is important to specifically identify the way you bill an Account prior to setting up the Account and loading data.  We suggest you complete a New Account Worksheet for each Account that has different billing requirements.  This worksheet is an integral part of the Business Integration step explained in the Coreflex 3PL WMS & Billing System Startup Guidelines.

 

4.      Understand how Coreflex Billing works: (back to top)

 

Coreflex provides four levels of billing: Account, Product Type, Product and Accessorial.  Only the Account Level Billing needs to be set up to begin billing with Coreflex.

 

 

 

 

 

See the Quick Start – 3PL Billing document for a detailed understanding of how to setup billing in Coreflex.

 

5.      Set up an Account and its billing: (back to top)

 

Each of your customers is an Account in Coreflex.  This step gets the critical account information setup.

 

5.1.   Set up Main Account information:

 

5.1.1.      Go to the Setup menu and select Accounts. 

5.1.2.      Click the Add button to add an account. 

5.1.3.      Enter an Account Name, Account Number and Account Prefix. 

5.1.4.      Click OK to close the screen.

5.1.5.      Refer to the Add and Update Account Screen documentation for details

 

5.2.   Assign bill to and ship to addresses to the account.

 

5.2.1.      Go to the Setup menu and select Accounts. 

5.2.2.      Select the account in the top window.

5.2.3.      Select an address type you want to assign in the bottom window.

5.2.4.      Click Assign.

5.2.5.      Refer to the Assign Address Screen documentation for detailed instructions.

 

5.3.   Setup Account Level Billing:

 

5.3.1.      Go to the Setup menu and select Accounts. 

5.3.2.      Select the Account in the top window.

5.3.3.      Click the Update button to update he account.

5.3.4.      Complete the billing fields on the screen as needed.

5.3.5.      Refer to the Billing Pallet Receipts and Storage Weekly for an example.

5.3.6.      Refer to the Billing Setup Examples document for more examples.

 

5.4.   Set Account Preferences for Pallet Account:

 

5.4.1.      Go to the Setup menu and select Account Preferences. 

5.4.2.      Select the Account in the top drop down and click on the Pallet group.

5.4.3.     Set the Pallet Account (Y or N) setting to Y.

5.4.4.     Click the Update Setting button.

 

5.      Set Up Printed Output: (back to top)

 

5.1.   Setup your return address which will print on various documents. Use the Setup Menu ... Customized Packing list option. You must restart Coreflex for the change to take affect.

 

5.2.  Each Account can use a different print format for Pick Sheet, Packing Slip and Bills of Lading (BOL). Refer to the Printed Output section of the table of contents to select your printed output. Once selected, use the Setup Account Preference screen to set the print forms.

 

6.      Set up Custom Screen Prompts: (back to top)

 

6.1.   Coreflex has several user-configurable Pallet Prompts which can be set to make the system easier to use.  This step will show you how to customize those Pallet Prompts for use when receiving and shipping pallets.

 

6.2.   See the FAQ “Pallet Tracking – How to set up pallet prompts.

 

7.      Build Product master: (back to top)

 

7.1.   The quickest way to load in your product definitions to the Product Master is to create an Excel Spreadsheet with the necessary information.  This section shows reviews the steps for creating the spreadsheet and loading into the Coreflex Product Master.

 

7.2.   See the FAQ “Product Master Load” for instructions on creating, importing, and applying a product file into Coreflex.

 

8.      Setup locations: (back to top)

 

8.1.   The quickest way to load in your warehouse locations is to create an Excel Spreadsheet with the necessary information.  This section shows reviews the steps for creating the spreadsheet and loading the locations into Coreflex.

 

8.2.   See the FAQ “Bin Location Load” for instructions on creating, importing, and applying a product file into Coreflex.

 

9.      Load Pallet Inventory: (back to top)

 

The quickest way to load in your existing Pallet Inventory is to create an Excel Spreadsheet with the necessary information.  This section shows the steps for creating the spreadsheet and loading the Pallet Inventory into Coreflex.

 

9.1.   Open the file “PalletImport.csv” in Excel.

 

9.2.   Fill in the fields in the spreadsheet.

 

9.2.1.      Any unused and unnecessary fields may be removed by completely removing the column from the spreadsheet.

 

9.2.2.      Note that the import spreadsheet column headers are database field names.  Therefore to have data map into a specific custom screen prompt, you must use the screen prompt’s DB Field name.  Refer to the Database Field Name Table in the FAQ “Pallet Tracking – How to set up pallet prompts.

 

9.3.   Save the spreadsheet in a CSV (comma delimited) format in Excel using the save as function.

 

9.4.   In Coreflex, go to the Import menu and select Pallets.  The Import Pallets Dialog will appear.

 

9.5.   Set the Import Type dialog to “Per File TnxType field.

 

9.6.   Click the Import Pallets button and a dialog will open allowing you to search for the Pallet Import file you created.  Highlight the file and click Open.  The file will be imported.  If there are problems with loading the file, a message will appear with the line number in the file that caused the problem.

 

9.7.   After the file has been imported successfully, click the Close Button on the Import Pallets File Dialog.

 

9.8.   Go to the Import menu and select Apply Pallets.  The Apply Imported Pallets Dialog will appear.

 

9.9.   Select “Show Only Unapplied New” from the drop-down menu at the top of the dialog and click the Refresh button.  The Pallets loaded from the file should appear.

 

9.10.                    Highlight all of the Pallets and click the Apply button.  Pallets which applied properly will be removed from the screen.  Click the View Errors button to any Pallets which cannot be applied.

 

9.11.                    When all Pallets are Applied, click the Close button.  The Pallets are now in Coreflex in a Pre-Received Status.

 

9.12.                    The Pallet Inventory is now pre-received into Coreflex.  Refer to the Pallet Tracking – Receive Pallet Screen document for instructions on Receiving the Pallets.