Running the Suggested Auto Transfer Program

The Suggested Auto Transfer program determines which branches should be replenished, according to the product procurement group assignments. The program determines the suggested transfers, stores the data, and creates a report. You can review the report and then convert a suggested transfer to an actual transfer. The data generated for a suggested transfer remains in the system until the next time the program runs for that transfer.

The program can suggest different types of return transfers between any branches. The report shows the suggested transfers from each selected branch to the others. In addition to the location, description, and unit of measure for each product, the report shows the quantity to be transferred to each branch and the projected inventory level in that branch following the transfer.

Important: The Suggested Auto Transfer program may take several hours to complete. We recommend running it during non-business hours as it could affect system performance.

Scheduling the Run

You can run the program as needed or schedule it to run on a regular basis. How often you run the program for any transfer depends on the size and configuration of your company. We recommend you schedule return transfers to run less frequently than standard transfers. By running return transfers monthly, or even quarterly, you can avoid transferring items back and forth between parent and child branches when demand in a child branch fluctuates. You do not want to overwhelm the central warehouse with a sudden influx of items being returned from all of your child branches.

Note: If you run the program for multiple auto-transfers for the same warehouse, the system locks all needed branches for the warehouse it is processing before trying to process additional transfers. Therefore, the system waits to process the second job until the first one completes the task for all the branches in that warehouse.

System Determinations

By default, the system determines the amount of product to transfer from the parent branch to the child branch and does not transfer a quantity that takes the parent branch's on-hand quantity below the order point, unless there is an immediate need by the child branch. However, the parent branch must stay at least at line point. If the parent branch is at the line point, a transfer will not be suggested even in an emergency situation.

In addition, only the parent's stock quantities are considered when making the suggestion calculation. You can use the Percentage Of Mother Branch's OP Protected In Suggested Transfer control maintenance record to indicate if you want to protect a percentage of the parent branch's order point. You can also set this from Buy Line Maintenance using the Addl hot key. The system will ignore package quantities if the baby branch's minimum is set to zero (0) or if there is no minimum and the transfer point is zero (0).

Note: The system does not automatically procure items from sales orders that are locked. A locked sales order indicates that the user is editing it and it should not be selected for auto procurement.

The Suggested Auto Transfer screen lists each combination of transfer branches and types as a line item as follows:

Column	Description
From	Branch from which to make the transfer. Note: The From branch in the set up is the From branch used by the Suggested Transfer program when the system creates the transfer order.
To	Branch to which to make the transfer.
Transfer Type	Type of transfer for which to select products. For descriptions see, Transfer Types.
Cycle	Default cycle for transfers between these branches. For example, 7 indicates a weekly transfer. If you override the default to 5, then an asterisk displays (5*) to alert you that the value is an override.
Addl Lead	Default additional days required to transfer products from one branch to the other. If you override the default, an asterisk (*) displays beside the value.
Ship Via	Default ship via for transfers between these branches. If you override the default, an asterisk displays beside the value.

To create Suggested Auto Transfer reports:

From the Xfers menu, select Suggested Auto Transfer to display the Add Transfer Branches screen.
In the From (Br/Tr/All) and To (Br/Tr/All) fields, enter the branches for which to create a suggested transfer report.

In the Transfer Type field, select the type of transfer for which to create the report.

Note: When choosing a Return Transfer Type, the system used the From branch as the To branch when creating the transfer order.

Press Esc to generate the report. The Suggested Auto Transfer screen displays.

For each transfer report you want to generate, use the Add Transfer Branches screen. To display the screen again from the report, use the Add Branches hot key.

Set options, if needed, and generate the report, using the other hot keys as needed.

To...	Use this hot key...
Create an audit report showing the transfers associated with a product.	Audit
Limit the report to selected buy lines. By default the report runs for all buy lines.	BuyLine
Add additional transfer branches to the report.	Add Branches
Copy the selected value to all other transfers.	Set All
Display default information for the selected transfer and the dates when it was last suggested and converted. You can edit the Normal Cycle, Addl Lead Days, and Ship Via fields.	Edit Defaults
Save the currently displayed settings in the Cycle, Addl Lead, and Ship Via columns as defaults for all the branch transfers.	Save Settings as Defaults
Open a new transfer for the suggestions without having to use the Convert to Actual Transfer screen. This transfer matches the Suggested Auto Transfer report which is generated. If a product is no longer available for transfer, the item is not added to the created transfer order and a message displays on the report as "Items not Available for Transfer."	Create Xfer
Drill in to the product details that display on the report including the History Ledger and Future Ledger for the product.	View

Press Esc to return to the main menu.