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Physical Inventory Procedures
This article contains helpful information and documentation regarding procedures for Physical Inventory in TopForm. Follow the steps below.
1. First of all, you will need to verify that all billing has been updated, all inventory transaction entries (IC-T2's) have been updated, and all PO receiving entries have been updated.
2. Since it is not always possible to have every warehouse release updated prior to beginning a physical count, I also recommend that you print an Inventory Status report (I/C-RM-R1). Answer “Yes” to lot detail. If you have any lots that are committed to an order, you will need to take these lot into consideration and count them as though they were still in inventory.
3. Now proceed to Physical Inventory Setup (I/C-PI-P1)
If a count is already in process, you will be prompted to either modify or clear the information that is there. If this is to be your first count, then I would recommend that you clear the information after you verify that no one else is already processing a count.
4. You will then be prompted with 2 different questions, you need to answer as them as follows:
Recommend that you answer “Yes”
Answer “Yes”
5. You will then be brought to your selection screen. If you wish to count everything in every warehouse for every customer, you can or you can be selective in what you wish to count during this count entry.
After you have answered the questions, click on 
6. Print your count sheets, and, of course, count your inventory. The count sheets print in bin location order by warehouse. If you store your inventory strictly by customer, there is also a method to print out the count sheets in customer number order. You also have the option to print the computer count on the count sheets, or you can make this a “blind” count by eliminating this information. *
 7. Proceed to Count Entry. You can just click the right arrow to call up the first entry on your count sheet
(down arrow in character based), enter the count and then follow the prompts to proceed to the next item. If at any time you need to go back to a specific item or wish to begin entering your count at a specific point, you need to be very specific in supplying all the information to locate the item in question.
8. There is an optional report, the Count Checklist which you can use to check your entries. Some operators choose to proceed on to the Physical Count Variance report and use this audit report instead to check their work.
9. If everything has been entered correctly, you can now update your count. If you wish to have the option to update the data, all selection fields must be set First to Last. Make sure you have entered the correct fiscal year and period. Also, I recommend that you check the box “Print additional detail line?.” This will provide you with some very useful information by line item.
If you are counting distributor owned goods, then a journal entry will be created for you to review. Here you will have the option to modify the posting before you update it to the General Ledger or, if appropriate, you may choose to delete the entry entirely.
If you have any further questions on this procedure, you can contact our
support department.
* If you find inventory that is not on your count sheet, we recommend
that you create a write in sheet. From this will then need to determine the cost of the inventory. After you have all information
that you need on these items, you would enter them through Inventory Transaction Entry.
Electronic Document Management and HIPAA Standards
The Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act of 1996 has certainly changed the way that health care providers look at patient files and records and has created many opportunities for service companies like TopForm Document Imaging. The HIPAA policy was developed by the Department of Health and Human Services and adopted by Congress due to the need for national patient privacy standards. The intent of HIPAA is to do four things:
- Ensure health insurance portability
- Improve the efficiency of healthcare
- Reduce healthcare fraud and abuse
- Protect security and privacy of health information
Three rules have been established in HIPAA to make sure the intent comes to fruition:
- Transaction and Code Set – This rule pertains to transactions, including coding standards and outlines minimum required information necessary to settle a claim.
- Security – This rule focuses on covered entity’s (CE) IT department to authenticate users in order to positively identify persons who are allowed access to medical information.
- Privacy – This rules focuses on protecting the patient’s right to privacy. The date that health care providers needed to come into compliance with this rule was April 14, 2003.
This brings up the question – who is impacted by the HIPAA standards?
- Health Care Providers – Any provider or person furnishing health care services or supplies who transmit any health information to electronic form.
- Health Care Plans – Individual or group plan that provides or pays the cost of medical care including Medicare and Medicaid.
- Health Care Clearinghouses – “A public or private entity that processes or facilitates the processing on nonstandard data elements of health information into standard elements.”
- Business Associates – Includes lawyers, consultants, billing forms, business print distributors and any electronic document management provider like TopForm Document Imaging.
TopForm & Document Imaging have been at the forefront of electronic document management providers in ensuring that our software has the controls in place to meet the stringent HIPAA standards for patient privacy. This includes having electronic audit trails, entity authentication, event reporting, integrity controls, message authentication and encryption.
Contact Anthony Mullins at 770.239.5452 to discuss partnering with TopForm Document Imaging to provide the software and services needed by your health care customers to come into compliance with the HIPAA standards. Together, we can expand the value of the services your business offers to your customers. Call today!
Are you running multiple Web.ec Servers?
You may already have experienced this or received feedback from your customers regarding a delay in processing some Web.ec requests. As you can probably imagine, some Web.ec requests take a significant amount of time to process. For example, Order Status may take longer if there are a lot of records in the file. As you know, you can limit, how far back orders are displayed on the Order Status page, but even then, a large and active buyer can have hundreds or even thousands of records. Also displaying print management reports can result in a delay for the same reason. Reporting may also need to query records from multiple files.
During that time, the server is unresponsive to other requests and everyone is experiencing the same “delay” even thought their query could be a simple one.
This is where multiple Web.ec servers come into play. No, we are not taking about multiple computers, but actually multiple Web.ec processes running simultaneously. If one server is busy with a long running request the other servers can process other requests. Also, changes have been made to allow the servers to cooperate in processing the same files.
Use E/C-X1 to setup multiple servers. Setup WIP2, WIP3, etc using the same parameters as WIP1 with a different name. Be sure to specify a different log file name as well. It would be typical to run 3 or 4 Web.ec servers and only 1 email server as email requests are more consistent in processing time since they are sending already processed files and users are not waiting for the response before they proceed.
For more information on setting up multiple Web.ec servers, please contact support.
Work Order Procedures
First of all, you should submit your Work Order request to support. The best way to do this is via our website. Be certain to include as much detail as to what functionality you are looking for, as well as an explanation of what you are trying to accomplish.
After support reviews your request, our staff may be aware of a solution that already exists. If not, our programming staff will confirm that you do in fact need to have a work order quoted.
Following a review of your request, one of the TopForm programmers will assign a estimate of the number of hours to complete the work. A brief description of the work order will be faxed to you. Please note that this is an estimate. You will see on the work order the following statement:
In order to expedite the quoting process and thereby respond to your custom programming requests in a more timely manner, we are implementing a policy of providing estimates for the work to be done. We will guarantee that the final charges will not exceed this estimate by more than 25%. Should you require a firm quote, we will be happy to perform the research necessary. Depending upon the scope of the research required, there will be advance engagement fee of $200, $400 or $800 to perform this research. This fee will be applied toward the work order total upon approval.
If you decide to go ahead with the work order, please sign it, and fax it to 770.448.3949 to the attention of Karyn Ibert. Also, please remit any deposit that may be required. Once we have received the approved work order and applicable deposit, a programmer will be assigned and you will be notified of the estimated delivery date.
If you have any questions regarding this procedure, or if you have any work order requests, either pending or future that you would like to discuss, please talk to a TopForm support representative.
TopForm Now Offers Web Based Training For Web.ec
With e-commerce changing so rapidly, it is important to stay on top of our latest features available through Web.ec. Web.ec allows flexibility and customization so you can offer your customers a premier ordering environment with features that meet their needs.
With our new web based training, you can keep up on the how-to's related to maintaining and upgrading your site. This is a very inexpensive way to expand your knowledge of your Web.ec programs.
The current schedules are as follows:
- Understanding Catalogs – July 7th – 3pm est.
It is important to have an understanding of how to create and maintain on-line catalogs. This session will review definitions, the catalogs structure and automated creation.
- Order Maximums – July 7th – 4pm est.
Do you have customers that want to be assured that ordering limits are in place to prevent cost centers from depleting inventory. Do you have operators that are prone to data entry errors? This session will cover how to establish maximums, controlling messaging and ordering limitations.
- User Definitions – July 14th – 3pm est.
This topic will cover the core user defined functions that are currently
available. These functions include customer ship-to drop down lists, ship-via lists, email subject line definition and order status sorting controls.
- Warehousing and Web.ec – July 14th – 4pm est.
Do you use Web.ec to allow clients to requisition their products out of one of your warehouses? This session will cover all options relating to warehouse selection, including the standard electronic ordering controls and e-Logistics.
For registration and more information on classes and future topics, view our website at
www.topform.com.
TopForm Adds "Favorites" to TOPS
Recent development has added two new features to the TopForm
Office Products Solution. Creation and maintenance of a Favorites
list and the ability to search using the stationery catalog number
have been added.
Now the buyer can search from catalog item number, or use the key
word search or the catalog menu to locate the products they need and
then add them to their favorites list. From the Favorites List, they
just check the items they wish to order and then click Select. This
add the items to their order list. When they click continue, they
see the following order summery which includes their pricing.
After they enter the quantities, and click the order button, the
items are added to their shopping cart. Orders entered via the TOPS
module automatically transmit to United Stationers. For more
information on the TOPS module call TopForm Sales and Marketing, or
visit our website for a live demo.
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