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Merit Solutions Advanced Lot Management (ALM) is the application that allows efficient control of lot tracked materials (raw or finished goods) within Microsoft Dynamics GP (versions 9 and 10).

The system requirements correspond to requirements of Microsoft Dynamics GP. ALM version 9 requires Dynamics GP’s Manufacturing module to run, while ALM version 10 does not require the Manufacturing module.

Lot Attribute Maintenance

The Lot Attribute Maintenance window is arguably the most used window of the ALM application. Its main purpose is to provide information on the lot properties of an item, including the Lot Status, Expiration Date, and Vendor Lot, as well as other lot attributes defined in the Lot Category for the item (Cards > Inventory > Item (Maintenance) > Item Maintenance Options > Lot Category) and provide a place for editing those attributes.

In the Lot Attribute Maintenance window, both types of lot tracked Items (Cards > Inventory > Item (Maintenance) > Item Maintenance Options > Track), Non-QA Controlled and QA-Controlled (Cards > Inventory > Item (Maintenance) > Additional > ALM Item QA Control Setup), are listed.

For Non-QA Controlled items, the default Lot Status always will be set to Approved and default Expiration Date always will be set to 0/0/0000. These settings for Non-QA Controlled (but lot tracked) items can be changed on Lot Attribute Maintenance window.

For QA Controlled items, the default Lot Status will be inherited from the Advanced Lot Management Configuration window > Default Lot Status for New Lots () option.

On the same window, the default value for Lot Status Attribute can be changed. The Expiration Date is by default set to the value of: System Date minus one day (for example: for all lots received on 5/7/2009, default expiration date will be 5/6/2009). This means that Item Lots can’t be forwarded along, before their attributes are reviewed by QA personnel, and the Expiration Date is at least changed to the present or any date in future.

Filter By option on the Lot Attribute Maintenance window affects only QA Controlled items. Set the Filter By value to “Rejected”, click Refresh and check lots of both QA Controlled and Non-QA Controlled items.

By the way, any changes made on this window to Lot Attributes, have to be saved by clicking Save button. Simple leaving or closing the Lot Attribute Maintenance window is not enough.

Merit Solutions Advanced Lot Management (ALM) is the application that allows efficient control of lot tracked materials (raw or finished goods) within Microsoft Dynamics GP (versions 9 and 10).

The system requirements correspond to requirements of Microsoft Dynamics GP. ALM version 9 requires Dynamics GP’s Manufacturing module to run, while ALM version 10 does not require Manufacturing module.

Expiration Date

Expiration Date is one of lot attributes tracked with ALM 10. In case the expiration date of a lot is in the past, then that lot can’t be used. Users should be careful with this, since every newly accepted lot automatically receives (expired) expiration date – the system date minus one day. This was made on purpose, to force QA users to manually enter valid expiration dates for each lot.

Once entered, these dates can be changed by QA users at any time. On the Lot Attribute Maintenance window, when selecting a lot, it’s Expiration Date is shown in the corresponding field. Simply overwriting the existing value with the new one and saving new setting is enough.

In case value in the Expiration Date field is empty, i.e. ‘00000000’ it means that the selected lot was accepted more than once, and that each time a different expiration date was set for it. By opening the Change Expiration Date window, a complete list of existing Expiration Dates for the lot will be listed. These values can be changed one by one on the Change Expiration Date window. On the Lot Attribute Maintenance window, the common Expiration Date can be set as already described above. A Warning message will inform the user that the previously set dates will be lost.

Merit Solutions Advanced Lot Management (ALM) is the application that allows efficient control of lot tracked materials (raw or finished goods) within Microsoft Dynamics GP (versions 9 and 10).
The system requirements correspond to requirements of Microsoft Dynamics GP. ALM version 9 requires GP’s Manufacturing module to run, while ALM version 10 does not require Manufacturing module.

ALM is focused on two pieces of information: Lot Status and Expiration Date. These information affect when and how material can be used.

Configuration

 Configuration of ALM should start in Advanced Lot Management Configuration window, the same one in which module was enabled for the company. Two options can be set on this window:

- Lot Status Missing Icon
- Default Lot Status for New Lots

 
The first option, “Lot Status Missing Icon”, defines the icon that will be shown in the Lot Status Maintenance window for new lots created (received) in situations when ALM was installed, but was not enabled for the company. Ten options are available to user, including: black, blue green, light blue, orange, pink, red and yellow dots, yellow triangle (named Warning) or empty field. The yellow triangle (Warning) is default value for the Lot Status Missing Icon.

The second option “Default Lot Status for New Lots” defines which status newly received lot will get by default. Four options are pre-created and available for the user: Approved, Hold, Quarantined and Rejected. The Quarantined option is the default value for the Default Lot Status for New Lots.

The Lot Status Maintenance window should be the second stop during the configuration process. Pre-created Lot Statuses can be found here and new statuses can be created.

 More importantly, on this window, the user can define for which transactions ALM can automatically assign a Status to a Lot. It is done by simply checking (un-checking) Allow boxes in the right side of the grid.

The QA User Setup window contains the list of all users of the company currently running Dynamics GP. In order to allow users to fully utilize all of ALM’s functionalities, the QA users should be defined. In QA User Setup window, double click on users name. The empty dot, left of the user name, should turn to a green dot. When finished click DONE button. The same procedure should be followed for assigning user classes. QA User Setup is company specific.

A User ID may have different privileges to Advanced Lot Management in different companies.

Finally, lot tracked items should be defined as ALM QA controlled. That way, for transactions defined in the Lot Status Maintenance window, new lot numbers for the item will receive the defined default lot status. Open the Item Maintenance window (Cards > Inventory > Item) and browse for the inventory item that will be ALM QA Controlled. Then open the QA Item Setup window (Item Maintenance window > Additional (menu) > ALM Item QA Control Setup) option.

On QA Item Setup window select Item is QA Controlled check box.

Merit Solutions Advanced Lot Management (ALM) is the application that allows efficient control of lot tracked materials (raw or finished goods) within Microsoft Dynamics GP (versions 9 and 10).

The system requirements correspond to requirements of Microsoft Dynamics GP. ALM version 9 requires GP’s Manufacturing module to run, while ALM version 10 does not require Manufacturing module.

ALM is focused on two pieces of information: Lot Status and Expiration Date. These information affect when and how material can be used.

Setup

Setting up ALM properly will allow easy and full use of all its functionalities. Adding necessary window shortcuts should always be users’ first choice. Just repeat some steps already seen during installation:

1. Login to GP as “sa” user, or corresponding power user.

2. When Microsoft Dynamics GP loads, open Shortcuts menu and select Add > Add Window

3. On Add Window Shortcut screen, expand Advanced Lot Management item > expand 3rd Party item > select windows that should be added. For starters, I suggest the following:

- Merit Registration
- Advanced Lot Management Configuration
- Lot Category Setup
- QA User Setup

To be able to work properly enter registration keys to Merit Registration window, acquired from Merit Solutions, Inc.

Enabling the module switches ALM and from that point on all Lot Tracked items will depend on it.

1. Open Advanced Lot Management Configuration window.

2. On Advanced Lot Management Configuration window select Enable Module for <company name>

3. On Advanced Lot Management Configuration window select option to True.

4. On Advanced Lot Management Configuration window > click Save button

ALM will not be working properly if Lot Category Setup is not properly defined. The window is GP native and can be opened from: Microsoft Dynamics GP > Tools > Setup > Inventory > Lot Category. The first attribute should be pre-populated and should contain value Lot Status. The field is not editable.

As long as ALM is enabled for the company Attribute 1, cant’ be changed. And whatever value is entered to these attributes fields, will appear as labels on Lot Attribute Maintenance window:

Keep in mind, as soon as ALM is enabled for the company, on Sales Invoicing and Sales Order Processing Options window, option “Auto-Assign Lot Numbers” will be unchecked. The idea is to make user manually select Lot Number in order to fulfill an Invoice or a Sales Order. If user tries to select the option, as long as ALM is enabled, message will appear: