Tell me more about the Chargeback feature in the Catalog Table.

The Chargeback feature is discussed in Chapter 7 of the Bar|Scan User Manual. Here is additional detail:

The calculated average for a new Purchase Cost in the Catalog is determined based on the following rules:

1. All Location History entries with a room tag listed for exclusion in the Company settings screen are excluded from averaging.
2. All Location History entries with a Quantity less than one (1) are excluded from averaging, as inventory withdrawals are not included in a ‘Cost’.
3. All Location History entries that belong to an asset with a total quantity less than one (1) are excluded from averaging as this asset is on back order (whether or not some of the Location History quantities themselves are positive).
4. A Zero value in the Location History Cost per Unit field means that it uses the default Catalog Purchase Cost. Therefore when doing the averaging calculation all Location History items with a Cost per Unit of zero are calculated as if they have a Cost per Unit equal to the Catalog Purchase Cost. For example, if there are four location history entries with Costs per Unit of 0,2,0,4 and the Catalog Purchase Cost is 3, then this would be the equivalent of 3,2,3,4 in the averaging calculation.

No change will be made if:

1. The catalog is not being used in the Asset table.
2. The resulting average is the same as the current Catalog Purchase Cost.

The averaging works for all assets, including Quantity (‘Z’ number) assets, as long as the monetary amounts entered in the ‘Cost per Unit’ field of the Location History is actually a cost per unit and the Catalog Purchase Cost is also a cost per unit number.

The ‘Cost per Unit’ is what is paid for an item on a unit basis.  It is entered into the Transaction table as what is paid for an item when received so that the value goes with a Location History entry once sent to the Asset table. If the amount paid is the default Catalog Purchase Cost then the Transaction entry should have a ‘zero’ value for ‘Cost per Unit’ indicating that the default Catalog Purchase Cost is being used.

The Transaction ‘Cost per Unit’ is not initialized with the value currently held in the Catalog Purchase Cost.  However, if the Cost per Unit is different from the Catalog Purchase Cost then it needs to be hand entered so that it will be tracked accurately.  From a practical standpoint this generally means that customers either always use the Catalog Purchase cost or always enter a Cost per Unit for each Transaction.

From time to time the user will be instructed by Bar|Scan to adjust the amount charged to customers who consume the item.  This is the ‘Charge per Unit’ listed in the Catalog and is either hand entered or automatically calculated FROM THE CATALOG PURCHASE COST.  This ‘Charge per Unit’ is the value that is then entered into the Work Order line item Charge per Unit. The Catalog Purchase Cost value comes either from a hand entry or an averaging calculation as described above.

When doing reports that use Cost per Unit fields the Report Generator must know how these fields are being used in the company. If the costs per unit are always being entered into each Transaction and then moved up to the Location History then use these fields when listing costs per unit and doing calculations with them in reports. If Costs per Unit are not individually tracked in the Location History but are only being entered into the Catalog as a Purchase Cost, then use that field when doing reports. However, if a customer wants to ‘mix and match’ Catalog Purchase Cost and Location History Cost per Unit values then the customer must use the Location History Cost per Unit field with an adjusted expression that takes the Catalog Purchase Cost when the Location History Cost per Unit is zero.  To do this change the Location History ‘Cost Per Unit’ ‘Expression’ entry (under Properties) from:

‘O_CPERU’

To

‘IIF(LH.O_CPERU=0,CA. PL_COST,LH.O_CPERU)

Be sure that at least one Catalog field exists in the report or you will get an error when attempting to print.