How to… adjust stock in MultiTAS

This is a very common issue and it usually crops up three or four times in a week. With a little bit of luck, this should help explain how you can go about managing your stock in MultiTAS.

What are Stock Adjustments?

Stock Adjustments are used to adjust stock levels. They can be used for any number of reasons. These could be write-offs, stock takes, location transfers or simply to set an opening balance. Outwith of Sales Orders and Purchase Orders, the only way to adjust stock levels is via a Stock Adjustment. Unless, of course, you are using assemblies in which case you need to use the Build Assembly facility which is whole other kettle of fish.

How do I access Stock Adjustments in MultiTAS?

You can access the Stock Adjustment function from Stock > Stock Adjustments (program 5.2.1)

What can I do using the Stock Adjustment function?

The Stock Adjustment function allows you to process Stock Adjustments by entering a product code, the level the product is to be adjusted by and whether there is a cost involved.

On processing, the stock level of the product(s) is adjusted and – if necessary – a nominal transaction is created to update the product(s) cost of sales and stock nominal accounts.

Anything else I should know

You can’t process a stock adjustment for a product that is set up as a service. Nor for one that is set up as an assembly. Using MultiTAS, you can process stock adjustments en-masse by importing them. You can learn more about importing stock adjustments here.

Advanced

MultiTAS stock adjustments can work in two ways. The default is to adjust BY a particular number (Adjustment mode). But you can also adjust TO a particular number (Actual mode). This is set in the mode field in the top right corner of the form.

How to… set up MultiTAS Trade

So… You’ve bought MultiTAS Plus and the Trade option as managing stock at multiple locations has been a challenge for your business up to now. You’ve downloaded it. You’ve installed it. You’re about to run it for the first time. But wait! Here are some points to consider, plan and action before you go any further. If you have any queries about any of this please contact Support.

You might want to assign an NL department to each Stock Location. If this is the case you need to check that the necessary Chart of Accounts records have been set up in TAS. To do this use TASBooks function 111 Maintain Chart of Accounts to create the extra Sales/Income, Cost of Sales and Stock accounts which you need.

Tip: have a look at your existing Sales/Income chart of accounts to see how they are setup, then copy the various options as needed.

Next, for each extra Stock Location that you are going to create, make sure that a Purchase Delivery Address exists. Use MultiTAS program 7.8.1 Create Purchase Delivery Addresses to add extra Purchase Delivery Addresses. When creating Purchase Orders in TASBooks, make sure that you select one of these delivery addresses. It saves you time by helping to ensure that PO Receipts of Goods are allocated to the correct stock location.

Now, create the extra Stock Locations (Warehouses) that you need. To do this, you should use MultiTAS program 5.1.4 Maintain Warehouses (514) to add extra Stock Locations. If you want to assign them a different default NL Department and default Purchase Delivery Address then enter the relevant details into the provided fields.

If you chose to implement the different NL Departments for warehouses you need to ensure that this setting is switched on! You can do this in MultiTAS program 0.1.1 Maintain Central Information. Look for Stock group and choose the option ‘Assign Departments to Warehouses’.

For your customer records, you may want to change the default location assigned for each customer. You can do this via MultiTAS program 2.1.1 and expand the Analysis group of settings and set the Default Location. When you enter an order for this customer in MultiTAS it will automatically select this stock location.

You can do the same for your suppliers with MultiTAS program 3.1.1.

Next, consider what starting stock levels you want at each location. You can enter these in MultiTAS program 5.2.1 Stock Adjustments. Set the adjustment type according to how you are getting stock to the location.

Everday usage

With Trade, each product is provided a Product Warehouse record for each location. You can view these records by drilling down on a product in MultiTAS program 5.1.1 then clicking on Locations. You’ll see a summary of stock at your locations. Drill down on a location to view that location’s Product Warehouse record.

The Product Warehouse records are created on an as-required basis. If you selected to assign different NL departments for locations then the NL department used for stock in/out and invoicing will be retrieved from the Warehouse record (setup in MultiTAS program 5.1.4).

Essential: If you decide to change a product’s chart of account details (sales/cost/stock accounts), you must ensure it is processed in MultiTAS rather than TASBooks, so that the Product Warehouse records are updated!

And finally… Any movements processed in TASBooks can be ‘assigned’ in MultiTAS using program 5.2.2 Assign Stock Movements. To keep your MultiTAS stock figures as up to date as possible please use MultiTAS for processing where possible!

How to… series

Did you see that post? How to… set up MultiTAS Finance is the first in a (hopefully) long series of posts we’ll be publishing regularly. They are designed to help you out with some common issues and explain the basics of MultiTAS and the Infoplex suite of products. Think of them as… well, MultiTAS for Dummies (but without the bright yellow cover).

Our intention (yes, the road to hell and all that) is that we’ll have a new post in the How to… series every week. That sound you just heard, by the way, is Douglas banging his head on the table. But as we’re still writing down everything we (Douglas) knows it will take a few weeks to get up to speed. In the meantime, if there’s something you want/need/would like to know, you can always send an email to Support or call us.

How to…set up MultiTAS Finance

So, you’ve bought MultiTAS Finance and now… well, now you want to get started. But there’s a problem – all of your business records and transactions are still on your ‘old’ system. What you really want to know is how to import transactions from another business system to TASBooks. Well, here’s what you need to know.

The first time you run MultiTAS, it will do an enhancement of your data. It does this for a couple of reasons. It needs to get some of the MultiTAS data files up and running and it also needs to check the validity of your data. Think of it as a check. When it checks your data, MultiTAS will be looking for any issues that may cause a problem (either right away or in two years’ time). Some of the situations the check is looking for include (but are not limited to):

  • Missing customer records i.e. customers you’ve sold to but whose code no longer exists in your customer list
  • Missing supplier records
  • Missing product codes or those incorrectly configured e.g. invalid chart of accounts in the nominal section

The length of time it takes depends on the amount of data you have. The larger the amount of data, the longer it will take.  If you know (or think) you have a large amount of data, now might be a good time to think about putting the kettle on…  But before you run this enhancement, you will need to ensure a TAS backup is taken and make sure that no-one is logged in.

Once the enhancement has run, MultiTAS will open. So far, so good, but don’t get excited just yet. There are two configuration jobs to do. Both of these jobs are in settings so open Settings – program 0.1.1 – and expand the Paths group of settings.

MultiTAS needs to be told what import file format you are going to choose. Now would probably be a good time to have a look at here and here and see the different options. You should choose the transaction type you are going to be importing (most commonly Sales Ledger Transactions). Select the file format you are using from the dropdown (most commonly TRANS.CSV)

Next, tell MultiTAS where the file is stored. Do this by setting the path to your Import file. You may need to check what this is with your vendor.

If you are using the MTADIF.DAT file format you are done.

If you are using TRANS.CSV then there is one more step. You need to tie the VAT rates in your other system to the TASBooks ones. Do this by expanding the Journal Import group of settings. You should see your TAS VAT rates with a text field next to them. Put the text/number that corresponds to each rate in your other system (you may need to ask the vendor what these are). Commonly, “T1” is used for the standard VAT rate, “T0” for a zero rate. So in the text fields you would enter T1 and T0 respectively.

Click Save to save these settings.

And there you have it. You’re done. Finished. Complete. Ready to go.