Use the Customer > Demand sheet to assign a trading partner identification number and define demand processing parameters that specify how the Epicor application should evaluate incoming EDI shipping transactions received from your customer.
The demand processing parameters you enter for your customer trading partner in this sheet include: • Assigning a trading partner identification number.
• Defining demand processing parameters for a specific customer. This includes assign periodicity, delivery days and date type parameters for used by the Epicor application for calculating Ship By or Need By dates for demand schedules.
• Indicating how differences in unit price and part records and revision levels should be evaluated by the Epicor application during demand processing.
• Specifying the lead times required to evaluate and process certain types of action requests (for example, adding new demand schedule lines, changing or cancelling existing demand schedule lines) on incoming EDI transactions received from this customer trading partner. For each type of action request, you specify the actions that should take place in the Epicor application (stop transaction or process transaction and display a warning message) when incoming EDI transactions are received with insufficient lead times with respect to the parameters you have specified for that type of transaction.
• Entering lead time values used with firm shipping schedules. Each lead time value defines a date range during which the Epicor application notifies you when various actions occur on a firm shipping schedule currently linked to this customer record.
Programs and Their Modifiers
The following section describes the Customer Maintenance values you can change.
Menu Path
Navigate to this program from the Main Menu:
• Financial Management > Accounts Receivable > Setup > Customer
• Financial Management > Deferred Revenue Accounting > Setup > Customer • Financial Management > Multi-Site > Setup > Customer
• Production Management > Material Requirements Planning > Setup > Customer • Sales Management > Customer Relationship Management > Setup > Customer • Sales Management > EDI > Setup > Customer
• Sales Management > Order Management > Setup > Customer • Sales Management > Quote Management > Setup > Customer • Service Management > Field Service > Setup > Customer For CRM users, the Main Menu appears as:
• Customer Relationship Management > Sales and Marketing Management > Setup > Customer • Customer Relationship Management > EDI > Setup > Customer
• Customer Relationship Management > Order Management > Setup > Customer • Customer Relationship Management > Quote Management > Setup > Customer
To create a new customer, select New Customer and enter customer information as needed into the Customer > Detail sheet. To enter trading partner demand parameters for a new customer or for an existing customer, access the Customer > Demand sheet by selecting the Customer sheet, and then select the Demand sheet. These are the values you can modify for the sheet:
• Trading Partner - Specifies the unique trading partner identifier for this customer. It is a universal code required on EDI transactions that uniquely identifies the business entity. The trading partner identifier must be entered in this field exactly as it will appear in inbound EDI files received from this customer trading partner. This identifier is used to validate EDI documents sent and received between your company and this customer trading partner.
• Delivery Days - Specifies the number of days required to ship a part quantity from your manufacturing center to this customer trading partner. The Epicor application uses this date interval as a buffer when calculating Ship By dates when you have specified that you use the Need By date type in the Date Type field. The manner in which the Epicor application uses the specified delivery days factor for the delivery date calculation is dependent on the setting of the Consider Working Days ship to customer trading partner Calculation check box for the associated company in the Company Configuration > Modules > Sales > Demand sheet.
• If the Consider Working Days ship to customer trading partner Calculation check box has been selected, this factor represents actual working days. To calculate a Ship By date, the Epicor application subtracts this factor from the Need By date designated in a demand schedule received from the customer trading partner, taking into consideration any dates that are designated as non-working days in the associated site calendar.
Note For this scenario, the Epicor application performs the following calculations:
• The associated site calendar is configured for a standard Monday through Friday work schedule. • The Delivery Days field is set to 5 for this customer trading partner.
• When a demand schedule is received from this customer trading partner with a Need By date of
11/17/11 (a Thursday), the Epicor application subtracts five actual working days to calculate a Ship By date of 11/10/11 (a Thursday) when generating shipping schedules (demand entries) for this customer trading partner.
• It calculates this Ship By date because Saturday 11/12 and Sunday 11/13 are both designated as non-working days in the site calendar.
• If the Consider Working Days ship to customer trading partner Calculation check box has been cleared, this factor represents delivery days. To calculate a Ship By date, the Epicor application subtracts this factor from the Need By date designated in a demand schedule received from the customer trading partner, and then determines if the calculated Ship By date is a working day.
Note For this scenario, the Epicor application performs the following calculations:
• The associated site calendar is configured for a standard Monday through Friday work schedule. • The Delivery Days field is set to 5 for this customer trading partner.
• When a demand schedule is received from this customer trading partner with a Need By date of
11/17/11 (a Thursday), the Epicor application subtracts five delivery days to calculate a Ship By date of 11/12/11 (a Saturday). However, since Saturday is a non-working day in the site calendar, it sets the final Ship By Date to 11/11/2011 (a Friday).
Tip If this customer trading partner also uses periodicity rules, and you specify a periodicity interval in the Periodicity field, the Ship By date is further adjusted to match the shipping frequency set up within the periodicity rule selected in the Periodicity field. For example, if an Nth Day of the Month periodicity rule has been specified in the Periodicity field, and the periodicity rule (as defined in Customer Periodicity Maintenance) has the 25th as the day of the month, a Ship By date of July 25 would be calculated when generating shipping schedules.
• Periodicity - Specifies the periodicity interval for this customer trading partner. This designates how often this customer trading partner wishes to receive shipments from you.
• Periodicity rules define the intervals for the deliveries (daily, weekly, specific day of the week, or monthly) being used to calculate shipping schedules for this customer trading partner from inbound EDI transactions. • Select the specific periodicity rule that applies to this customer, or select Not Used if periodicity rules are
not being used to calculate Ship By dates for this customer trading partner. All periodicity intervals (or rules) that have been previously defined in Customer Periodicity Maintenance for the current customer trading partner appear on this list.
• If you select Not Used, the Epicor application calculates Ship By dates for shipping schedules for the customer trading partner based on the Need By dates specified in incoming EDI transactions, and the time factor specified in the Delivery Days field.
• Date Type - Specifies the default calculation method being used by the Epicor application to generate Need By and Ship By dates on each order release schedule for this customer trading partner.
• Shipping - Creates Ship By Dates; these are the dates by which parts must be shipped in order to arrive on the required (Need By) dates specified on shipping schedules generated from demand entries that have been manually entered into Demand Entry.
• Need By - Creates Need By Dates; these are the dates on which the customer trading partner requires the part quantities.
Selecting this option causes the Epicor application to subtract the delivery days factor specified in the
Delivery Days field from each Need By date to calculate the Ship By date on each release. If this customer trading partner also uses periodicity rules, the Ship By date is further adjusted to match the shipping frequency set up within the periodicity rule selected in the Periodicity field.
Example If the Date Type field is set to Need By, this trading partner needs parts on an order release delivered to them by August 1 and you have specified 5 in the Delivery Date field, the Epicor application subtracts five days from the August 1 Need By date to calculate a Ship By date of July 27 when generating shipping schedules (demand entries) from inbound EDI transactions received from this customer trading partner.
However, if an Nth Day of the Month periodicity rule has been specified in the Periodicity field, and the periodicity rule (as defined in Customer Periodicity Maintenance) has the 25th as the day of the month, a Ship By date of July 25 would be calculated when generating shipping schedules.
• Pricing - Specifies if internal or customer pricing should be used for demand entries generated from inbound EDI transactions received from this customer trading partner. This becomes the default for this customer trading partner in the Pricing field in the Demand Contract Entry > Line > Detail sheet and can be overridden for specific demand contract lines.
• Customer Pricing - The customer price that appears on the inbound EDI document should be used to populate the EDIUnitPrice field in the Demand_Detail file. In this scenario, the Epicor application uses the customer price on demand entries (and sales order lines generated from the demand entries) generated from demand contract lines for this customer trading partner.
Refer to Appendix A: Demand Management / Order Management Pricing Flowchart for a graphical decision and processing flowchart for Demand Management pricing,
• Internal Pricing - The internal price calculated within the Epicor application should be used to populate the EDIUnitPrice field in the Demand_Detail file. In this scenario, the Epicor application uses the internal price on demand entries (and sales order lines generated from the demand entries) generated from demand contract lines for this customer trading partner.
• Locked Demand Contract Pricing - Pricing determined manually on a demand contract can be used instead of Customer or Internal Pricing
• Hold Orders for Review - Specifies if the Epicor application should place sales orders created for this customer trading partner from demand contracts in Demand Entry on hold for review before being released for shipping. • Select the check box to place sales orders created in Demand Entry for this customer trading partner on
hold for review.
• Clear the check box to skip placing of sales orders on hold for this customer trading partner before they are released for shipment.
The setting in this check box becomes the default value for the Hold Orders for Review check box in the Demand Contact Entry Header and Summary sheets and can be overridden for individual demand contracts. • The Epicor application places demand entries created against the demand contract on hold based on the setting in the demand contract itself, not based on the Hold Orders for Review setting specified for the customer trading partner in the Customer Maintenance > Customer > Demand sheet.
• An order placed on hold must usually be released before it can be shipped to the customer trading partner using Customer Shipment Entry or Master Pack Shipment Entry.
• Close Rejected Schedules - Specifies if rejected demand schedules for this customer trading partner should automatically be closed when you run the Process Demands selection (on the Actions menu in Demand Entry or Demand Mass Review).
• Select the check box to automatically close demand schedules that have been rejected for this customer trading partner.
• Clear the check box to skip automatic closure of rejected demand schedules for this customer trading partner.
Important Care should be taken when you set this control. If you select the check box, the Epicor application automatically closes rejected demand schedules received from this customer trading partner.
By clearing the check box, you can first review the reasons for rejection of a demand schedule, enter manual adjustments as needed in Demand Entry, or simply close the demand schedule. For example, if a demand schedule has been rejected because it contains a shipping date just outside of an allowable lead time, the shipping date could be adjusted in Demand Entry, allowing the previously rejected demand schedule to be processed into a sales order or forecast.
• Cancel Non Matched - Specifies if the Epicor application should automatically cancel all sales releases for this customer trading partner that have not been matched by the Demand Schedule Matching process (located on the Demand Schedule section of the Demand Entry Actions menu). This sets the default for the Cancel Non Matched field in the Demand Contract Entry > Header > Matching sheet for this customer trading partner; this can be overridden for specific demand contracts.
• Select the check box if the Epicor application should automatically cancel all sales releases for this customer trading partner that have not been matched by the Demand Schedule Matching process.
• Clear the check box if the Epicor application should not automatically cancel all sales releases for this customer trading partner that have not been matched by the Demand Schedule Matching process. Refer to the Header > Matching Sheet section in Entering Demand Contracts for more information on how the Demand Schedule Matching process matches update requests on inbound EDI transactions to existing demand schedules and order releases.
• Unit Price Difference - Specifies if the Epicor application should validate if there is a difference between the current unit price in your Epicor application database and the unit price in an incoming EDI file received from this customer trading partner.
Example You receive an inbound EDI file from this trading partner, requesting you ship 100 units of a widget at a unit price of $1.90. However, your current unit price in the Epicor application is set at $2.00.
Using the Unit Price Difference check box, you can choose to perform this unit price validation for this customer trading partner, or skip the validation.
• Select the check box if the Epicor application should perform this validation when you run the Process Demands selection (on the Actions menu in Demand Entry). If you select this check box, use the associated
Action field to specify how the Epicor application should process demand schedules when unit price validations fail.
• Clear the check box to skip this validation when importing part demand from this customer trading partner.
• Tolerance - If the Unit Price Difference check box has been selected, specify the allowable price difference tolerance percentage, if any. For example, enter 10.50 into this field for a 10.5% tolerance.
Example You receive an inbound EDI file from this trading partner, requesting you ship 100 units of a widget at a unit price of $1.90. However, your current unit price in the Epicor application is set at $2.00. If you set the Tolerance field to 10.00, the Epicor application would accept a unit price minus 10% of the internal price. In this example, it would consider $1.90 as an acceptable price, because would be within 10% of the $2.00 internal price. Conversely, it would not consider $1.75 or $1.50 acceptable prices, because they are outside of the 10% tolerance range (from $1.80 to $2.00).
• Action (Unit Price Difference) - If the Unit Price Difference check box has been selected, specify the action that should take place (when you run the Process Demands selection on the Demand Entry Actions menu) if there is a difference between the current unit price in your Epicor application database and the unit price in an incoming EDI file received from this customer trading partner:
• Stop - Designates that inbound demand received from this customer trading partner should not be accepted and processed if there is a difference between the current unit price in your Epicor application database and the unit price in the inbound EDI file.
The Epicor application marks the demand line as System Rejected in Demand Entry; however, you can manually accept the incoming demand by selecting the Override System Reject check box if you wish.
This allows you to designate that the demand schedule/line/demand header can be processed to generate an order or forecast in the Epicor application. Error messages appear on the Demand Log (on the Demand Entry Actions menu) or on the Demand Review Report, explaining why the Epicor application rejected and did not process the demand.
• Warning - Designates that inbound demand received from this customer trading partner should be automatically accepted and processed even if there is a difference between the current unit price in your Epicor application database and the unit price in the inbound EDI file. Warning messages display on the Demand Log or on the Demand Review Report informing you that the incoming demand contains differences in unit pricing from your current price.
• Check For Part - Specifies if the Epicor application should validate if corresponding part records exist in your Epicor application database for inbound demand received from this customer trading partner. Using the Check For Part check box, you can choose to perform this part number validation for this customer trading partner, or skip the validation.
Refer to Appendix B: Demand Management Part Validation Processing Flowchart for a graphical decision and processing flowchart for part validation processing in Demand Management.
• Select the check box if the Epicor application should perform this validation. If you select this check box, use the associated Action field to specify how the Epicor application should process demand schedules when part number validations fail. By performing this validation, it helps to ensure that the Epicor application is not accepted invalid part numbers on inbound EDI transactions received from this customer trading partner.
• If you clear the check box, all parts listed on an incoming shipping schedule are automatically included on the shipping schedule. This lets you generate demand suggestions for parts that are "on the fly." However, by skipping this validation, you cannot ensure that invalid part numbers on inbound EDI transactions are not being accepted from this customer trading partner.
• Action (Check For Part) - If the Check For Part check box has been selected, specify the action that should take place (when you run the Process Demands selection on the Demand Entry Actions menu) if a part record does not exist in your database for inbound demand received from this customer trading partner:
• Stop - Designates that inbound demand received from this customer trading partner should not be accepted and processed if it contains a part number for which a corresponding part record does not exist within your Epicor application database.
The Epicor application marks the demand record as System Rejected in Demand Entry; however, you can manually accept the incoming demand by selecting the Override System Reject check box if you