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When you assign materials to a work order before the work is done, you estimate what materials you believe the work is likely to require. The materials you specify are then put on reserve. For example, if the scheduled maintenance for a forklift truck requires you to replace certain engine belts, you can put an appropriate number of belts on reserve when you make up the work order.
For the purposes of reordering inventory, stock levels do not include any materials that have been put on reserve. For example, if you currently have six fan belts in a storeroom but two of those belts have been put on reserve, your stock level is reported to be four fan belts with two more on reserve. If the reorder point for this type of item is five belts, MainBoss will recommend that you should order more of the belts, even though you actually have six belts on the shelf—the belts put on reserve are not included in the stock level because they are expected to be used soon.
After a job is done, you should go back to the work order and enter the actual materials used. MainBoss adjusts inventory levels accordingly—items that were initially put on reserve are marked as used, or taken off reserve if it turns out the materials weren't needed after all. For more on recording the actual use of materials, see Recording Materials Used in a Work Order.
| Note: There are two situations in which you reserve materials: when you are creating a corrective work order, and when you are creating a task description that will be used to create preventive maintenance work orders. |
The process of reserving materials for a work order begins when you click Add Estimate in the Material section of the work order. MainBoss will open a window that contains the following:
- W/O Number: This field is displayed when you are assigning materials to a corrective work order. It shows the identification number of the work order.
- Task: This field is displayed when you are assigning materials to a task description that will be used to create preventive maintenance work orders.
- Show items only if: This section of the window controls which items are listed in the "Selected Items" drop-down list.
- all items: Select this if you want the "Selected Items" list to display all items in your inventory.
- listed as SparePart: Select this if you only want the "Selected Items" list to display items that have been recorded as spare parts for the equipment or space being serviced by this work order.
- Inv. Cat.: Lists all the inventory categories in the Inventory Categories table. If you select a category from this table, the "Selected Items" drop-down list (below) will only show inventory items of that type. For example, if you select FILTERS as your "Inv. Cat.", the "Selected Items" list will only show filters. This can make it easier to find a particular item in the list—you only have to look at one type of item, rather than all the items in your inventory.
- Inventoried Items: Checkmark this if you want the "Selected Items" drop-down list to include inventory items.
- Non-inventoried Items: Checkmark this if you want the "Selected Items" drop-down list to include non-inventory items.
- Selected Items: Lists all inventory items that match the criteria specified by the preceding fields ("Show items only if", "Inv. Cat." and so on).
- Pick This Item: Click this button when you have located the appropriate item in the "Selected Items" drop-down list. MainBoss will copy the item into the "Inv. Item" field below.
- Pick New Item: Creates an item description; this can be for a new inventory item (in which case the item is added to your standard inventory list) or for a non-inventory item (in which case the item is considered a one-off item that is only used in this particular work order).
For information on describing a new inventory item, see Describing Items.
- Inv. Item: Specifies an inventory item to be reserved for this work order. This item either comes from the "Selected Items" list or by clicking Pick New Item and specifying a new item.
- Date: The date when you expect the item will be needed.
- On Hand: The quantity of the selected item that is actually available in your inventory.
- Unit Cost: The cost of one unit of the selected item.
- Total Cost: The cost of all such items that are currently in your inventory.
- On Order: The quantity of this item that is currently on order.
- On Reserve: The quantity of this item that is currently on reserve. This includes all such items that have been reserved for use in work orders (possibly including the work order you are editing, if you have already reserved items of this type for the work order).
- Stock Available: The quantity of this item that is freely available for use. This means the actual amount on hand, minus the amount that is currently on reserve.
- Building: The building that contains the storeroom where workers should obtain the materials.
- Storeroom: The storeroom where workers should obtain the materials.
- Storeroom On Hand: The quantity of the item on hand in the specified storeroom. This may be different than the "On Hand" value above, since "On Hand" includes the amount of stock on hand in all your storerooms.
- Location: Specifies a location within the storeroom where the specified materials are found. For example, if the shelves in a storeroom are numbered, this could display the number of the shelf that contains the items.
- Reference: A reference code for this material. This might be a vendor's catalog number, a purchase order number, or any other information that might be useful in connection with a particular inventory item.
- Reserve Quantity: The quantity of this item that you want to put on reserve for this work order.
- Unit Cost: The per-unit-cost of the items beings reserved. This is used to calculate the materials cost that will be used on the work order; it may be different than the unit cost that is actually recorded in your inventory records.
For example, suppose that this work order is being prepared by a rental management company and the cost of the work order will be charged back to the tenant. In this case, you might want to charge the tenant for materials at a price that is different than the actual purchase price of the items.
- Total Cost: Automatically calculated by multiplying "Reserve Quantity" by "Unit Cost".
- Save & New: Saves the current record and clears fields in the window so you can enter a new record.
- Clone: Creates another record, copying information from the current one.
- Delete: Deletes the current record.
- Save: Saves the current record, but leaves all data as is. You can then continue to edit the same record.
- Cancel: Closes the window. MainBoss discards any information that hasn't already been saved with Save.
When you close the window for reserving materials, you return to the Material section of the work order window. The work order window will now list the items you reserved.
For information about creating and editing work orders, see Creating and Editing Work Orders.
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