ORACLE APPLICATIONS ARCHIVES

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COST MANAGEMENT



Average Cost Variance account

Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 13:18:30 -0500
From: "MCAVOY, Brian J." bmcavoy@shl.com
Subject: Average Cost Variance account

Hello, I can't seem to find a way to monitor the balance in the Average Cost Variance account. Does anyone know of a report, form, etc. that I'm missing where this data goes?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Brian McAvoy
Consultant
EDS
pager 888-319-3433
bmcavoy@shl.com


Material Overhead in Average Cost type

Date: Tue, 06 Jul 1999 06:20:33 PDT
From: shawish sababa shawish_sababa@hotmail.com
Subject: Material Overhead in Average Cost type

Hi all

Doe's anyone out there Know if there is any way to applay material overhead element using the "Total Value" basis type on a buy item?

I have tried to use the "Update Average Costing" window with no resutls.

We are on 11.0.2 . Any help is appreciated.

Thanks in advance. Shawish


Average Costing Update

Date: Tue, 6 Jul 1999 15:09:07 -800
From: "Eva Mitchell"meva@flashmail.com
Subject: Re: ORAAPPS-L digest 3381

Hello,

We are using Average Costing for Inventory and Manufacturing. I tried to perform an Average Cost Update (unit level and not cost element level) and was able to save the transaction.

Transaction pocessing profile option for Average Costing has been set up to be "On-Line". All inventory transaction managers are also up and running at 5 minutes interval.

I did not see any change in the cost (both unit and extended) for the item.

Please make any suggestion as to what I might be missing.
Thanks in advance.
Eva Mitchell


Date: 6 Jul 99 16:23:00 MDT
From: JONATHAN BOURNER jbourner@usa.net
I have found that if you can the CST:Costing profile option from Inventory and Work in Progress to Inventory Only this works. Note that this also may have stopped the Costing Manager (it causes errors in the costing manager).

It also may cause rows to be stuck in the table mtl_material_transactions_temp.

Regards, Jon Bourner


Date: Wed, 7 Jul 1999 09:37:23 +0530
From: "Chitti Babu" cbabu@satyam.net.in

Yes. That is true. This profile is meant for weighted average option in Oracle Manufacturing which is controlled release in 10.7 and production option in Release 11. This may require some patches also.

Thanks Chitti



Inventory under-valued for partial WIP completion

Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 12:28:24 +0800
From: "Lee Chee Meng" leecmg@cyberway.com.sg
Subject: MFG: Under-valuation of Inventory from partial WIP completion

I have a pressing problem which has been outstanding for a few months (logged as a TAR) and would appreciate if any of you can offer some explanation or advice.

The problem relates to WIP completion for a job with outside-processing and for which only some quantity is completed. I am using Average Costing on Oracle 10.7SC.

To illustrate, suppose I have a job which makes 10 pieces of an assembly. The job involves a sub-contract operation which is linked to a PO with unit cost of $1,000. Suppose I only WIP-complete 7 pieces of the assembly at the moment. In this instance, assuming I have initiated the PO with a quantity of 7, the Outside-Processing Cost Incurred would be correctly captured as 7 X $1,000 = $7,000. But the Outside-Processing Cost Relieved is only 7 X $1 = $7. As a result, the assembly completed is grossly under-valuated (by $6,993) and it lowers the average cost of the item.

I do not have a problem with full completion. When a job with partial completion is fully completed subsequently, the net value of the job is costed into the item and the under-valuation is sort of corrected. But because many of our jobs involve partial completion and have a long production cycle, it affects our inventory valuation and we have to make the necessary adjustment at month-end.

I do not think it's a setup problem because the cost incurred is captured correctly. Thus far, we have not obtained a satisfactory explanation from Support.

Any explanation or advice is appreciated.
Regards, Kenneth


Date: Sun, 25 Jul 1999 08:24:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ravi Krishnamurthy ravi_krishna@rocketmail.com
Subject: Re: MFG: Under-valuation of Inventory from partial WIP completion

I would assume that your setup is correct, but since I can't think of anything else, could you check if the basis of your outside processing resource is set to 'Item' and not 'lot'.

HTH.
Ravi Krishnamurthy
Senior Consultant
AnswerThink Consulting Group


Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 21:49:11 +0800
From: "Lee Chee Meng" leecmg@cyberway.com.sg
Subject: Re: MFG: Under-valuation of Inventory from partial WIP completion

Yes, the basis for the resource is set to Item. The cost incurred would not be correct if it's Lot.

Regards, Chee Meng


Date: Mon, 26 Jul 1999 10:17:41 +300500
From: Hirak_kayal@india.notes.pwa.co.in
Subject: Re: MFG: Under-valuation of Inventory from partial WIP completion

Hi Lee Chee Meng,

This is really good to know that average cost is working in 10.7SC and in WIP. We tried several times in 10.7 SC but the material cost was not getting averaged. We have used an updateable cost type (average) and made that into a default one for the organization. Could you please tell me what special setup you have done that avergae cost is working in WIP in 10.7SC?

Thanks and regards. Hirak



Make and Buy Orgs - Cost update in

Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 21:32:29 GMT
From: skondolf@frontiernet.net (Steven C. Kondolf)
Subject: CST: Different Orgs - Make vs. Buy

Hello -

Currently in our 10.7 character environment we have 2 child orgs defined in which we do cost rollups monthly. Many of our part numbers are defined as make in one org and buy in the other as we "purchase" them from the make org. To get the costs updated in the buy org, we copy by a particular category from the make org. Unfortunately this also updates the "based on rollup" flag to YES in the buy org. We've written a custom script to change it back and that works pretty well so far.

However we are now looking into defining 8-10 more orgs as we plan on expanding Oracle into our Distribution sites and need to come up with a better way of maintaining costs centrally without having to go thru this copy across orgs/custom script mess each month.

How do other companies handle this situation? I have to guess it crops up as I've seen other posts here in the past. Is there a built-in solution in Oracle or is it a workaround type of thing? I'm almost thinking of building another cost type called UPDATE and somehow populating this type with the costs we want to copy and then firing off multiple copy programs for each org. However this still doesn't get around the based on rollup flag for items whose make/buy code is different.

Any suggestions?
Peace
Steve
skondolf@hatespam.frontiernet.net


Average Cost update

From: philip@aleytys.pc.my
Reply-To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 10:48:10 -0400 (EDT)

Hi!

Just stupid question that's been niggling me.

Scenario: Average Costing

Receive 10 units at $100,000 into inventory in January. (Total $1M) Issue out 10 units in February. On Hand Quantities becomes 0. Shipping bill comes in March for $10,000.

I do an average cost update by adding $10k absolute value in the cost update screen.

Question: What's the new average (item) cost?

Inquiring minds want to know (Where's Dexter when you need him?).

Philip


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 07:04:31 PDT
From: "shawish sababa" shawish_sababa@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)

Hi Philip

I could not fully understand you so pleace correct me if i'm wrong. if you are doing an update on an item's cost when you have no items, that is updateing by using the average cost update window, you will fill the new cost only if you do a Miss. reciept with no item cost. at this point your inventory will be valued based on this new cost of your's (that is 100K + 10K = 110K). if you do a PO reciept than the new cost will be based on the PO price.

Shawish


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 11:34:39 -0500
From: "Danette Fedock" danette_fedock@ccmail.c-tec.com
Subject: Re[2]: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)

The way I see it, you have one of two choices. Either you can trace where the items went that were associated with the freight and add the the cost to those accounts, or you can wait until you get another receipt and adjust the unit price to add the additional freight dollars. By adjusting the unit price when you have no units - no JE will be made and those dollars will NOT be added to your inventory account.


Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 01:06:12 MYT-8
From: philip@aleytys.pc.my
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Re: Re[2]: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)

I suppose what we can do is to do an account receipt back from the cost centre, do an adjustment and then reissue back to to the same cost centre. I was hoping that we wouldn't have to do this.

The background to this is that we buy some equipment from foreign countries to be used in an internal project. Sometimes there is a dispute with customs and exercise department on tarrif classification and the final resolution and amount to be paid comes months later. By that time the project is completed and the bits have long sinc been issued out.

Since these parts are unlikely to be ordered again (one off project) we can't wait for the possibility of another receipt.

What we are currently doing in 9.4 is to wait until all the charges are known before actaully capturing the transaction in the system. The downside to this procedure are obvious. I was hoping that the Average Cost Update screen in 10.7 would make things easier.

Philip


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 23:25:56 GMT
From: "Ananth Swaminath" ananth999@hotmail.com
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Reply: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10

Hi

You are right here. Unfortunately there is no process where one can record actual shipping/forwarding/customs... costs. And these are important to calculate the landed cost of inventory.

If one were to capture these costs AFTER issuance of the items from stock, then the cost will obviously be understated. Profits will show an incorrect figure (inflated).

One way to solve the problem will be to use the method suggested by Philip. But this method has enormous problems. What if the landed cost takes an unreasonable period of time to crystalise? Will the books of accounts, then, NOT reflect the transaction simply because clearing & forwarding and customs duty is not known? What if, in the interim, you hit a fiscal close? Issues and issues.

Another solution will be to record the "unknown" costs at an arbitrary figure. A figure that is determined out of past experience. Ensure that they are recorded as close to reality as possible. (Yes - in effect simulate a standard here). The actual costs may certainly differ. But atleast one is closer to fact than before. The difference may not be material at all. And when the costs do get known, record the differect as an account receipt.

Hope this helps.
Ananth
Senior Applications Consultant


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 17:24:21 PDT
From: "Surendranath Muttukuru" surenm@hotmail.com
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Re: Reply: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10

Actual cost cannot be captured in Average Costing in the ideal scenario that has been assumed. It only averages out the cost of same items in respective organizations(not SubInventories). So to simulate some unknown cost which could be added to the cost of the item in future, the only way is to assume "good" material overheads. This will get added to the item cost, the moment the item is received into Inventory. No material overhead cost should be added to the item cost once it has been received - definitely not after being issued to WIP.


Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 23:50:29 -0700 (PDT)
From: Krishnakumar Narasihman chnkrishna@yahoo.com
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Re: ReplyII: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10

hi all,

irrespective of the fact whether you are using standard cost or average cost, one has to standardise the cost of additional costs. even in the case of standard costing, if you standardise the cost on a period to period basis, you may have to do so at least 12 times in an year to get closer to the reality. i would suggest to work out a percentage based on the past experience and pre define them as the overheads. system will add this costs at PO Receipt.

nkrishnakumar


Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 09:18:48 GMT
From: "Ananth Swaminath" ananth999@hotmail.com
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Reply(2): INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10

Hi:

From an accounting perspective, material overheads are not treated as item costs. Rather they are those costs which are incurred AFTER the receipt of items into inventory. They, usually, have no impact in bringing items to an inventoried state. Hence the only possible way of capturing these costs is to treat them as item costs. Yes average costing does not "record" actual costs. Absolutely. But the method uses actuals to calculate the average. And if one does not have the actuals recorded, the average gets skewed - thereby protraying an incorrect picture of the cots of goods sold. Since item costs will mean procurement cost + other direct costs incurred/accrued to ensure receipt of items in innventory. These in the aggregate will constitute the landed cost of inventory. Overheads are incurred after this stage. Average Costing is Oraganisation specfic. The system does not calculate subinventory level average costs. And further, there is no rational process where one can capture costs such as customs duty etc., which will actually record them as item costs. The only possible workaround seems to be to record them as you have suggested. But, record these costs as a percentage of the material cost. The "overheads" absorbed will then be calculated by the system at the time of receipt of items. This will result in a more realistic portrayal of the transaction. To recotd material overheads after issues to WIP or Sales is incorrect. But then, when actual costs are available after this stage, one will have to record the difference between the overheads recorded earlier and the actuals incurred/accrued. This is where we have a serious limitation.

The limitation is further compounded when you don't have any quantity of the item in inventory. Average Cost updates cannot be performed. Therefore, if one were to use a ballpark figure to capture uncertain costs - thereby ensure that the inventory is valued as close to reality as possible, wouldn't it result in more correct view of the state of affairs of the business as at any particular date? And once the costs are actually known, perform adjustments. Unfortunately, these adjustments may not be retrospective and therein lies the limitation.

In my opinion, the above logic holds for manufacturing and trading organisations. Either way, inventory costs should record the fairest, practicable accounting reflection of the reality.

Ananth
Senior Applications Consultant


Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999 09:27:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Ravi Krishnamurthy ravi_krishna@rocketmail.com
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Re[2]: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)

Since there is no balance in inventory, it would not hurt if you pass the shipping costs into expense/COGS. You may do this by creating a PO invoice for a service item.

Bye. Ravi K.


Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 15:47:10 MYT-8
From: philip@aleytys.pc.my
To: oraapps-l@cpa.qc.ca
Subject: Re: INV/CST: Average Cost Updates (10.7SC)

Hi!

Thanks to all for your valuable feedback. I'll pass all the suggestions to the accountants.

Philip



Consts - sharing across organizations

Date: Thu, 26 Aug 1999 12:17:37 -0500
From: "Greg Hoffman" hoffmg@torrington.com
Subject: Is anyone sharing costs accross organizations ???

We want to share cost between to MFG organizations. For example one of our MFG plants makes rings used by others. We would like the consuming plants costs to change when the suppling plants cost changes... We don't use Oracle Order Entry. And we don't like the idea of using the cost copy functionality......

Thanks,
Gregory T. Hoffman
The Torrington Company
Industrial Division
Div. Database Administrator
(860) 626-2385 (Office)
(860) 496-3641 (Fax)
hoffmg@torrington.com (E-mail)


Date: Fri, 27 Aug 1999 09:54:27 +0200
From: Clive Calder CliveC@langeberg.co.za
Subject: RE: Is anyone sharing costs across organizations ???

We had a similar scenario and found in 10.7 NCA we were forced to implement Standard costing as WIP can only function in the Std costing master organisation. In practice the std cost copy with 21 organisations has proved to be a hassle but provided the controls of costs are in place and new products are not being added all the time it has not proved to be too bad.

Clive Calder