About the MS Batch Process Form

Use this form to process batches created in Material Sales. You can access this from by selecting File > Batch Process from any of the posting forms in MS.

Once you have specified the month and batch to process, the Info section of the screen displays the batch’s creator and creation date, the batch source, and the batch’s status, which is typically “open”.

Audit Reports

The next step in batch processing is to validate the information in the batch. Do this by clicking the Validate button. The form runs through all the data in the batch and creates Audit Reports that you can preview and/or print before you proceed with posting the batch. It is recommended that you print the audit reports before posting a batch; audit reports are no longer available after posting.

Available audit reports for this module:

  • Batch List - The name of the batch list will differ depending on the batch type (i.e. Ticket Entry Audit List, Haul Entry Audit List, Haul Worksheet Audit List, Invoice Audit List, etc.). Prints the entries in the batch in sequence order.  As long as entries exist in the batch, this report can be printed.

Note: If you are using the surcharges functionality, surcharges will only appear on this report after you validate the batch.

  • Job Cost Distributions - Prints the MS Job Cost Distribution List. Detail shown will differ based on the batch type. Some of the information shown may include haul line (if haul batch), the phase/cost type, material, U/M, Units, tax code, ticket number, GL account, JC unit of measure, units, and unit cost.

  • Equipment Usage - Prints the MS Equipment Usage Audit List, showing the equipment, from location, material, unit of measure, and revenue code, basis, rate, and total.

  • Inventory Distributions - Prints the MS Ticket IN Distribution List, showing for each location, the transaction number and type, the material, ticket, unit price, sales price, stocked and posted unit of measure, stocked and posted units, stocked and posted, unit cost, and stocked and posted total cost.

  • Auto Production - Prints the MS Ticket Production Audit, showing for each production location, the transaction number and type, material, inventory location, unit of measure, units, unit cost, unit price, and total cost and price.

  • Invoice Distributions - Prints the A/R Interface Audit List, showing by invoice and invoice line, the customer job, customer PO, from location, GL company and account, invoice amount, tax code, basis, and total, the discount amount, line total, and invoice total.

  • General Ledger Distributions - The GL distribution list will differ based on the type of batch being posted (i.e. MS GL Entry Distribution List, MS GL Invoice Distribution, etc.). Prints a list of each GL account that will be updated, along with the debit/credit amounts updated to each account.

  • Error List - Lists the sequence number and the error message for any entries where errors were found in the validation process.

Users who have access to batch processing forms do not automatically have access to the related audit reports. It is recommended that if they will be processing batches, you give them access to the related audit reports using VA Report Security. If users do not have access, they will receive an error message when trying to preview/print those reports to which they do not have access. In addition, if using the ‘Attach Batch Report to HQ Batch Control’ feature (assigned in MS Company Parameters), restricted access to one or more audit reports will prevent the user from posting the batch.

Once the batch is ready for processing, enter the posting date and click the Post button at the bottom of the screen.

Updates

Updating a batch takes each batch entry and makes all the necessary transaction updates. This may involve posting transactions to other modules as well as in MS. The following is a list of the updates that occurs when an MS batch posts. You can change update settings in MS Company Parameters, Ticket Updates tab.

  • JC Interface

  • EM Interface

  • GL Interface

  • IN Sales & Purchases

  • IN Auto Production

  • AR Interface

Once the batch is ready for processing, enter the posting date and click the Post button at the bottom of the screen. The system clears all entries and closes the batch.

About Clearing the Batch

When you create a batch, the system adds the data to a batch table and stores it until you are ready to post the batch. Data is not updated online; therefore, you can delete it completely without affecting any modules, including the module in which you created the batch. To clear a batch table of stored data, select ‘Clear Batch’ from the File menu. The system will clear/delete all data from the batch. Previously posted transactions added to the batch are only cleared from the batch—they are not deleted.

Note: The system creates an audit record each time you clear a batch. For information about cleared batches (i.e. user who cleared batch, as well as the date and time the batch was cleared), use the VA 'Other Events' Statistics report.

The Clear Batch option is disabled if the batch’s status is 4 (Posting in Progress). This is to prevent partially updated batches from being deleted should the update process be interrupted (i.e. power outage, system failure, etc.). When a batch update is interrupted, only a portion of the intended updates may occur. If a user later clears the batch, there is no way to determine the updated data.