Functional User Manual

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Revision as of 13:51, 17 January 2007 by Joseph.brower (Talk) (Initial Client Setup)

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This Wiki is read-only for reference purposes to avoid broken links.

Introduction

This Functional Manual is different from the Reference Manual in that it is in narrative form and suited for Business people rather than Techies. This manual is thus highly important for success while using ADempiere. Jorg Janke himself said that ERP is 90% subject matter and 10% coding. Knowing the correct way a process is done is what knowing an ERP is all about. Here we paint the processes in simple language and give links to further technicals under the hood (such as name of java class or process behind them) of the Reference Manual.

Who Should Read Me?

  • Newbies to ERP who want to quickly dive into the thick of things
  • Business Users who want to learn how to use ADempiere
  • Technical People needing to understand the context of the application

Pre-Requisites

  • Patience and Discipline
  • Run AVA at least and do some exploring to give yourself a feel of the appplication.

Help Me!

If you still find yourself at a loss, then it is clear you did not have the pre-requisites. Nevertheless we still allow you to scream your head off <here>.

Login - The Beginning

There are two modes or user interfaces (UI) that you can use to login into ADempiere.

The Web-based UI allows you to login into Webstore, Request (CRM), besides the usual standard application. The notes here are about the Windows-based Java client that logins into the standard application.

  • from your desktop, look for and double-click the ADempiere icon
  • from your explorer, look for and run <drive>:/Adempiere/lib/Adempiere.exe
  • from your explorer, look for and run <drive>:/Adempiere/RUN_Adempiere.bat

When you login from the first dialog window, you choose the role you will enter the system.

  • SystemAdmin - To do Administration and Application Dictionary (AD) stuff
  • ClientAdmin - To run the application. There is a sample client called GardenWorld. So you can select GardenAdmin

When Do You Use System Administrator

  • Creating new Clients for the business
  • Creating or editing the structure of the application
  • Menus, Windows for the look and feel
  • Tables and Fields for the Database structure
  • Processes and Printformats

When Do You Use Client Administrator

  • To manage the other users of the system
    • Create their login accounts, roles and specific configs
    • Security Management of what certain users Access level right up the Window or Field or Process
  • Operate the application as a user
    • Approve requests or confirmations from lesser users under the Workflow
    • Post to accounts if lesser users are not authorized to do it

System Administrator

Here we walk you through from login and usage of each item on the SystemAdmin Menu.

Application Dictionary (AD)

You can find the sub-items on SystemAdmin menu for you to handle the AD. The important ones are

  • Menu
  • Window Tab & Field
  • Table and Column

Report & Process You can go through the others when you are more advanced:

  • Reference
  • Validation Rules
  • Form

Initial Client Setup

When setting up your client, there are a few things that you must keep in mind. You must have a COA written. You can do that by using your favorite csv editor (I used OpenOffice.org.) You should probably start by opening one of the files located in /Adepmiere_Home/data/import/ (I used the file named Accounting_US.csv .) That file contains a perfectly usable COA. You can modify that file to suite the needs of your company.

There are a few things to keep in mind when making the COA file.

  • You must keep every account that has a value in the Default_Account column.
  • You can only have one of every Default_Account.
  • Every account must have an identifier that is unique.

When making your COA, keep in mind a few things:

  • It needs to scale. Have a hierarchy and make it straight forward. Numbering one through to the end probably isn't the best thing to do, you can't put anything in between.
  • Spend time on it, it is easier to resolve problems before you import than to try and resolve them later on.

Basic Concepts

Sales Processes

  • Raising a quotation or proposal
  • Recording orders
  • Sending the goods or performing the services
  • Invoicing the customer

Purchase Processes

  • Raising a purchase requisition from a catalogue
  • Issuing a purchase order
  • Receieving goods and services
  • Receiving supplier invoices.

Inventory Processes

  • Tracking inventory
  • Replenishing warehouses
  • Multiple warehouse sites and locators
  • Stock movements
  • Shipping

Paying Suppliers & Collecting Debts

Accounting Processes

  • Period and year end
  • Financial and managament accounting
  • Charts of accounts
  • VAT/TAX/IVA
  • Reporting for other regulatory bodies


Performance Measurement allows you to:

  • define a series of measures
  • record your performance against those measures
  • set targets for your measures
  • track your performance versus the targets

Migration from other business systems

Such as:


Data that needs updating from time to time

Exchange Rates

Payroll

United Kingdom

  • HMRC Tax Rates (PAYE) and National Insurance (NI)

Depreciation Rates

  • HMRC Tax Depreciation Rates