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ManualDoc:Common OBConcepts&Processes

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Contents

Introduction

In this chapter, you can find a very useful and complete list of common Openbravo concepts and processes you will find all along Openbravo.

Each common concept or process is explained here in a "generic" way, however a more "specific" explanation of any concept or process might also be required to be provided as part of the chapter or section of this User Guide.

Common concepts and processes

Language

Openbravo allows to select the language of the application as a user preference.

Obviously the corresponding Openbravo 3 translation module needs to be installed as described in this article.

Active flag

Every Openbravo window and tab has an Active flag which indicates if that record is available for use accross Openbravo or not.

Header-Lines

Most Openbravo 3 Windows have a "Header-Lines" window structure.

Same applies to "Documents" such as Purchase Orders and Sales Invoices.

This structure implies that new records or documents creation requires to create the header first and then the lines.
Same applies in the case of removing a record from a window or removing a document, lines must be removed first.

Lines-Create One

Once header window information has been filled-in and save, it is possible to create lines by:

Mandatory Organization

Openbravo is a multi-organization ERP.
To learn more visit Organization

The Organization is a mandatory field in most Openbravo windows.

While creating a new record Organization field is automatically populated by Openbravo with the "Organization" set as "default" in the "Profile" window.
Openbravo allows the end-user to select another one.

(*) Organization

While creating Master Data such as a new Business Partner or a Product:

Document-Document Nº

Every time a new document is created in Openbravo, a document number must be assigned to it.

Each Openbravo document type is linked to a document number sequence which can be setup as required. A document number can either be automatically provided by the system or manually entered by the end-user.
To learn more visit Document Type and Document Sequence.

Mandatory fields

These type of fields are always shown in yellow, these fields are mandatory therefore can not be left empty.

Defaulted fields

Openbravo populates some fields by default depending on:

however defaulted fields can always be changed.

Draft->Completed/Booked->Closed Document Status

Draft-Completed-Closed Document Status workflow is a very broadly used workflow within Openbravo:

Copy Lines and Copy from Orders

These two buttons can be found in the "Purchase and Sales Order" header windows and help us on creating new order lines:

Copy Lines and Create Lines From

These two buttons can be found in the "Purchase and Sales Invoice" header windows and help us on creating new invoice lines.

Bulbgraph.png   Starting from PR17Q2 "Create Lines From" button is disabled for "Credit Memo" invoice's type to prevent the creation of "Credit Memo" invoice's linked to "Orders" or "Shipments". Only "Reverse" invoice's type should be related to return "Orders" or "Shipments". For additional information, please review Purchase Credit Memo and Sales Credit Memo
Bulbgraph.png   Starting from PR18Q4 The "Create Lines From" button has been replaced by two different buttons in each window: Sales Invoice: “Create Lines From Order”, “Create Lines From Shipment” Purchase Invoice: “Create Lines From Order”, “Create Lines From Receipt”

As part of the Create Invoice Lines From refactor project, since PR18Q4 the "Create Lines From" process is splitted in two new buttons in order to get a better user experience and performance without mixing together orders and shipments/receipts in the Sales Invoice and Purchase Invoice windows.

The “Create Lines From Order” button will just show Sales/Purchase order lines (depending on the window from which it was launched) that are ready to be invoiced. Different lines from different orders can be selected at the same time to be invoiced together.

The “Create Lines From Shipment”/“Create Lines From Receipt” buttons will just show Goods Shipment/Receipt lines (depending on the window from which it was launched) that are ready to be invoiced. Different lines from different shipments/receipts can be selected at the same time to be invoiced together.

An important change introduced is the possibility to filter the records when the P&Es are opened by a date range that can be configurable with a new Preference called Filter by documents processed since N days ago. This preference is used by the process to limit transactions starting from the current date to the defined days ago. If the preference is not defined then queries retrieve all records created since one year ago (365 days), else it will be filtered by the count of days defined as the preference value. User can remove the grid's default filter at any moment to show previous records.

Create Lines From

This button can be found in the "Goods Receipt and Goods Shipment" header windows and help us on creating new receipts and shipments lines.

Document-Reactivate

Documents such as a "Purchase Order" or a "Purchase Invoice" with status "Completed" or "Booked" can not be changed unless they are "Reactivated".
"Reactivate" header process button helps to reactivate and later on change booked documents.

Document-Void

Documents can be voided in case they are not needed anymore. Document void process creates a reversal document analogous to the original one.

For instance, if a purchase invoice for a total gross amount of 100.00€ is voided, document void process create a reversal purchase invoice document for a total gross amount of -100.00€

Document-Post/Unpost

Once a document is posted to the ledger, Openbravo opens a new screen named "Journal Entries Report" which shows the ledger entries created for the document.

In case of posting a purchase invoice for instance, the ledger entries created would look like the ones shown below:

Account Debit Credit
Product Expense Line Net Amount
Tax Credit Tax Amount
Vendor Liability Total Gross Amount

Back in the transactional window where the document was posted the process button "Post" related to the document (purchase invoice) has automatically turned into "Unpost" because the document is already posted to the ledger.

Same would happen in case the Accounting Background process is scheduled. This process automatically post documents if scheduled therefore the "Post" button automatically turns into "Unpost" for those documents automatically posted to the ledger.

Moreover, Openbravo allows to unpost the documents already posted to the ledger.

It is possible to revert or to unpost a document previously posted (manually or automatically) by using the process button "Unpost" related to the document, and then the option "Delete Accounting Entry".

Openbravo will show in the "Journal Entries Report" screen below journal entries in the case of reverting a purchase invoice posting:

Account Debit Credit
Product Expense Line Net Amount
Tax Credit Tax Amount
Vendor Liability Total Gross Amount

If a document automatically posted by the accounting background process needs to be unpost and changed afterwards, it should be as well reactivated, otherwise the accounting background process will automatically post it once again.
That obviously depends on the frequency set while scheduling the accounting background process.

Additionally, it is always possible to review the ledger entries created for a document from the document itself by using the process button "Unpost" and then not selecting the option "Delete Accounting Entry".
That action opens the "Journal Entries Report" screen which shows the ledger entries linked to the document.

Accounting

Once a document is posted to the ledger, Openbravo fills the accounting information of a document in the "Accounting" tab. The "Accounting" tab can be found in any document suitable to be post to the ledger.

The main information displayed in the "Accounting" tab is listed below:

All of these fields are shown in read only mode but description. The description of an accounting entry can be edited and changed as required, same as in the Accounting Transaction Details window.

It is important to remark that if the document is unpost, the accounting information is removed from this tab, therefore if the description was changed that information will obviously be lost.

Document-Accounting Dimensions

A "Dimensions" section can be found in transactional document windows such as:

therefore it is possible to select accounting dimension values to be saved at the time of posting a document to the ledger.
The financial report Accounting Transactions Details is the report to use to review all the dimension values entered in a document post to the ledger.

The dimensions are shown in the header and/or lines of the documents according to what has been configured:

The full list of dimensions available is:

Payment Plan

Every time an order is booked or an invoice is completed a Payment Plan is created for that order / invoice.
An order / invoice "Payment Plan" can be found in the corresponding tab of the Purchase & Sales Order & Invoice windows.

Order's Payment Plan

In the case of Orders this tab displays only one read-only line which reflects information about the total expected amount to be paid or received and information about its fulfillment:

The payment plan of an order cannot be modified.

Note that every prepayment made or received against an order is detailed in the Payment Details tab of the order.

Invoice's Payment Plan

In the case of Invoices this tab might contain several lines, a list of the scheduled payments with their due dates according to the Payment Terms specified for that invoice and also their fulfillment.

If an invoice is created from an order that already has a partial payment received against it the invoice automatically inherits the payment received against the order. For additional information review the How to manage prepaid invoices in payables and the How to manage prepaid invoices in receivables how to articles.

An invoice payment plan contains below relevant information:

An invoice payment plan can be modified if the invoice is not fully paid.
That is an Advanced Feature named Editable Payment Plan which needs to be unhide as described below:

Zero Payments numbering

Zero (0.00) payments are numbered with Payment-Document Nº Sequence and a sufix that is *Z* [i.e. 1000397*Z*], that way "Zero" payments can be distinguished from the rest, as a zero payment cannot be either withdrawn/deposited from/in a Finnacial Account.

A zero payment can be created in Openbravo:

Payment Details

Payment Details tab can be found in the purchase & sales order/invoice windows.

This tab displays the details of the payments made or received against an order or invoice.

Payment Monitor

Payment Monitor section allows to track the purchase & sales invoice payment status directly from the invoice window. In this section it is possible to know whether an invoice is fully paid or not. If the invoice has not been fully paid then the Payment Monitor informs the user how much has been received, how much is pending, the due date of the next payment and the amount that is expected to be received on that date. The status is updated automatically when any payment action happens and by a background process. The date when the payment status was last time calculated is displayed in the form. Grid filtering allows to filter invoices based on fully paid or not criteria.

Costing Server

Costing Server is the process in charge of managing cost calculation according to the "new" Openbravo costing engine.

The cost of every "Product" related transaction is calculated by this process using a Costing Rule which needs to be configured for the legal entity.
The Costing Rule defines the costing algorithm to use to calculate the cost of the transaction/s and whether the warehouse is going to be used as a costing dimension or not.

Openbravo delivers "Average" and "Standard" costing algorithms.
Other costing algorithms such as FIFO can be implemented using Extension Modules.

Note that it is recommended to schedule the Costing Background process to get that the costs are automatically calculated.

There are two methods to define how the average can be calculated "Moving or Perpetual" and "Weighted or Periodic".

Openbravo current costing engine is based on "Moving or Perpetual Costing" calculation. That means that the average cost of a product is calculated based on the transactions flow, therefore issue transactions impact on the average cost, as described in below example:

a. buy 5 units at 1.05 on 1/01/2015. Total cost of 5.25
b. sell 1 unit on 1/01/2015
a. buy 5 units at 2.99 on 1/01/2015. Total cost of 14.95
b. sell 1 unit on 1/01/2015

A moving average (perpetual) would cost first sale at 1.05 and second sale at 2.13 because of the transaction flow.

A weighted average (periodic average) would cost first sale at 2.02 same as second sale, because the periodic weighted average takes into account all inbound entries.

Finally, it is important to remark that if your Openbravo instance needs to migrate to the new costing engine please review the Costing Migration Process article.

Cost Adjustments

Overall Cost Adjustment feature is in charge of managing adjustments of already calculated "Average" costs, starting from Openbravo 3.0 15Q1 release.

Until this release, the calculated cost of a product's transaction cannot be recalculated or deleted, however and under some circumstances the calculated cost of a transaction would need to be adjusted, for instance the purchase price of a purchase transaction changes after receiving the product. If that is the case the calculated cost of the receipt would need to be adjusted to the new purchase price.

It is important to remark that this feature takes into account the "costing algorithm" used to calculate costs, therefore it behaves differently depending on:

This new feature is supported starting from 3.0PR15Q1
Having said that. Differences between the "actual" cost and the "standard" costs calculated can also happen, normally caused by purchase price differences or landed cost.
Those differences are known as "Variances" and need to be managed as such.
Variances do not change neither the inventory value nor the accounting valued of a product valued at a "Standard" cost.
For instance, variances caused by purchase price differences needs to be post to a "Purchase Price Variance" (PPV) account therefore managers can understand why costs were different from what was planned and take appropriate action to correct the situation and change the standard cost if applicable.
"Cost Adjustments and Landed Cost" functionality delivered in the 15Q1 release does not support use-cases when products are defined with "Standard" cost.
Openbravo team is currently working on the extension of the "Cost Adjustments and Landed Cost" to manage both costing methods correctly

Having said that, the "average" cost of a product would need to be adjusted and therefore changed because of:

Additionally, it is also possible to adjust the cost of a "Product Transaction" by launching:

It is important to remark that cost adjustment feature requires:

Unit of Measure (UOM) & Alternative UOM (AUM)

Openbravo allows to define different types of products, which need to be expressed in a unit of measure ("UOM"), for instance "Unit".

Product's unit of measure (UOM) is always next to either the Ordered Quantity, Movement Quantity or Invoiced Quantity, included in any sales and/or procurement transactions, as well as inventory transaction in case of "Stockable" products.

Starting from Openbravo 3 PR17Q1, a new system Preference named "Enable UOM Management", supports that alternative units of measure can be defined and used besides product's UOM, in procurement and sales flows.
A conversion between product's UOM and each alternative unit of measure (AUM) defined for that product needs to be configured.

Product's alternative UOM (Alternative UOM) will then be shown next to a new field named "Operative Quantity", therefore "Ordered Quantity", "Movement Quantity" and "Invoiced Quantity" always shows the "Operative Quantity" entered by the end-user converted to the product's UOM.

AltUOM PurchaseOrder.jpg

For additional information, please review How to manage alternative UOM wiki article.

Translation tab

"Translation" tabs can be found in many Openbravo windows.
Most type of data can be translated by just selecting the language, entering the translation text and marking it as "Translation".

Linking of documents

It is possible to link documents (orders, receipts or shipments, invoices and payments) in any order that the company might require or even disregard any of these documents in case it is not necessary.
This feature is very useful in business workflows such as procurement and sales, because:

More Information

"More Information" section can be found in windows such as Purchase Order and Sales Order

Attachments

"Attachments" section can also be found in windows such as Purchase Order and Sales Order

Printing documents

There are documents such as a sales invoices which can be printed, by using the "Print Record" action button.

Sending documents by email

There are documents (such as a Orders, Invoices and many others) which can be send by e-mail using Email action button:

When the Email button is clicked, a popup which can be used to customize the email is shown. This popup contains information which comes from different places:

Emailpopup.png

Tree structure

There are some windows that have a tree icon Icon.png available. It represents that the records displayed in that window can be arranged into a hierarchical structure.

When pressing this button, a tree view of the records is displayed, allowing the user to drag & drop them inside the tree structure.

Organization tree.png

As you can see in the screenshot, there are two types of records: parents, which are represented with a folder icon, and children, represented by a leaf. The type of record is always controlled by the Summary Level flag available for each record. If the Summary Level flag is set, the record is represented as a folder and it can obviously contain child records; on the other hand, if the Summary Level flag is unset, the record will be displayed as a leaf. Remember that you must previously define whether the record is a parent or a leaf before trying to move them into the tree.

Examples of tree structures can be found in the following windows:

Advanced Features

An Advanced Feature is an Openbravo feature hidden in the default "Configuration Script" because it is not commonly used however, it is always possible to unhide an advance feature by using the "System Administrator" role.

There could be advanced features which require to unhide

Depending on the feature show it is recommended to compile the application and clean the cache.

As a first step configuration template module has to be created to hold below changes. If the template already exists this step is not needed but it might be required to set this module In Development (see previous link).

In general:

Each advanced feature is part of a given application area where what needs to be unhide for that advanced feature to work is described.
Review as an example Volume Discount advanced feature.

Product Selector

As any other selector in Openbravo, the "Product" selector is used to easily select products on transactional windows.

The goal of having a "Product" selector is to allow filtering products by using different criteria. This selector also allows to see product information before the product is selected in an order or in an invoice line for instance.

Products can be managed by different points of view. There are two of them which are the most frecuently used:

Aiming to support both requirements, Openbravo includes two different product selectors as explained later on.

Anyway, although Openbravo includes two product selector types, it is possible to develop new ones on demand. Furthermore, it would be possible to use any product related field as part of the product selector.

Finally, the product selector is not a mandatory tool as it is always possible to select a product without using it.

Product Selector for "Commercial" purpose

This product selector is used in several windows such as:

while selecting a product in either order lines or invoices lines.

The way to get it launched is by pressing the magnifying glass icon located in the Product field of the order/invoice lines.

The main feature of this product selector is the product "commercial" information shown in it.

Product Selector 01.png

Commercial information such as:

For instance, if there are 10 units of product physically present in stock and there exist a sales order which contains 6 units and a purchase order which contains 2 units of the same product then Warehouse Qty: = 10, Available: = 4 and Ordered Qty: = 2.

Product Selector for "Warehouse" purpose

This product selector is used in several windows such as:

The way to get it launched is by pressing the "magnifiying glass" icon located in the "Product" field of the physical inventory or goods movement lines for instance.

Instead of showing commercial information, this version of the product selector shows warehouse related information as well as product attribute information.

Product Selector 02.png

The main columns in this version of the product selector are:

The "Stocked" filter value changes depending on the window type where the product selector is being launched. The window type is defined on the Application Dictionary:
It is always possible to change the defaulted value of the filter.
For instance, it's usual to set it to "No" in a Physical Inventory window for entering the "initial" physical inventory of a given set of products or even for all of them.

Project Selector

The project selector allows to easily select any project previously created at the Multiphase Project window.

As usual this selector can display the records either inside a drop down list or inside a grid view where you can easily filter by the available columns.

Project selector grid.png

Apart from that, the user can directly type in the selector and it will be filtering the records as you type.

Project selector list.png

This selector can be found in several windows, like for example:

Business Partner Selector

Locator (Storage Bin) Selector

Analysis Tools

Dimensional Reports

Significant number of reports in Openbravo are multidimensional. This means that the user can select which type of information to include into the report, how to group and sort it and is able to filter out results.

In addition to this a comparative analysis can be made (with variations percentage), by combining in one report information from different periods.

Dimensional report allows to narrow down the information by filling in the available filters. Common Primary Filters parameters are:

Secondary Filters section normally contains Organization, Business Partner / Product Group fields, multiple selector of Business Partner and Product and few other fields which are specific for a particular report.

PS800184.png

Filtered out information can contain and be grouped by just one or by several Dimensions or all of them. It is possible to add and sort those Dimensions as required. Common Dimensions are:

It is possible to Sort the outcome data in a Standard way (normally alphabetically), By Ascending or By Descending Amounts.

Finally set Currency for the amounts in the report. The field is defaulted to the system currency.

Report outcome can be viewed at least in HTML and PDF formats (XLS export is available for some reports).

Sales Dim Report.png



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