Inventory Management - Archiving

• Overview
• The Archiving Process

Overview

The Archiving process applies to both Inventory Documents and Transactions.

A document is used as a mechanism for the entry of physical movements of stock onto the Inventory system.

The types of Inventory documents that are supported and are eligible for archive are:

• Stock Adjustment In
• Return to Store
• Stock Adjustment Out
• Store Transfer
• Bin Transfer
• Picking List
• Stock Disposal
• Stock Take
• Material Issue

NOTE The following documents are also created within the Inventory system to mirror stock-related Requisitions and Orders that are created within the Purchasing Management module. These documents are created in the Inventory system solely to enable the User to view this information directly via the Inventory enquiry screens. These documents will not be processed by the Inventory archive as once their status within Purchasing Management becomes either complete or cancelled they will automatically be removed from the Inventory system.

• Replenishment Requisition In
• Purchase Requisition
• Replenishment Requisition Out
• Purchase Order
• Store Requisition

A Transaction is an entity that is automatically created by the system whenever physical movements of stock take place (via the entry of a movement document) and whenever value only changes take place as is the case, for example, when stock related lines are invoiced.

Transactions hold historical information related to the movements including changes in quantity and value.

Examples of physical transactions:

• Goods Receipt
• Stock Adjustment In

Examples of value transactions:

• Invoice
• Standard Cost Revaluation

The Archiving Process

There are two steps to the archiving of IM data from the system. In the first stage the data is removed from the current tables and placed on archive tables, where through the use of a BI tool or other utility the user can still enquire upon them if needed.

The second step removes the entries from these archive tables completely and removes them from the system. 

In both of theses cases the archiving process can be split into three principle components. The following text gives a overview of each component involved in the Archiving of a document. These components represent the main processes that occur when a document(s)/transaction(s) is submitted for Archiving.

• The extraction of archivable data.

At the start of the Archiving process the system will access the appropriate document table and extract the appropriate table entries that comply with the conditions defined by the IM Archiving Parameters.

The extraction of the selected table entries is an automatic background process.

2. The deletion of archivable data.

After the table entries, defined by the parameters, have been extracted the system will delete this data from the tables.

The deletion of the selected table entries is an automatic background process.

3. The reporting of archived data.

After the deletion of the table entries the system will report on the archiving action taken.

Archiving Reports are produced that all archived documents and transactions. Plus, for the first stage, entries are written to the Archive tables, which hold all data from the deleted table entries ready to be transferred to the storage media of your choice e.g. floppy disk, magnetic tape etc.

The creation of an archiving report represents the end of the Business Cycle for Inventory Documents and Transaction.

The processes in question are HV1 (IM Document Archive), HV2 (IM Transaction Archive), HV3 (IM Document Archive Delete) and HV4 (IM Transaction Archive Delete)

See also

Inventory Management Home Page