Creating Costing Alternatives

To create a costing alternative:

  1. Open the Costing Analysis Workbench form. It can be accessed from the Controller Home form or CloudSuite Industrial Explorer.
  2. Click New.
  3. Specify this information:
    • Costing Alternative: Specify a name for this costing alternative.
    • Description: Specify a description.
    • BOM Type: Specify the routing type to use. If you don't roll costs to standard in CloudSuite Industrial, you should select Current.
    • Warehouse: If your Inventory Parameters form is set to Cost Items at Warehouse, specify which warehouse to use. All costs will come from this warehouse. If you don't cost items at the warehouse level, this option isn't available.
    • Copy Routing: Select this check box to copy the current BOM and routing for items added to the costing alternative.

    The Copy Routing is typically used to create a year-end snapshot of rates for history or to analyze detailed changes to the current BOM and routing. Do not copy the routing if you want to selectively change items' labor, material, and/or overhead rates, and then use your changes to update master records.

  4. On the CloudSuite Industrial toolbar, click Save. After you save this record, you cannot change these values. To make changes, you must delete the record and start again.
  5. Add items to your costing alternative, which you can freeze or for which you can change various costing rates for analysis. You can click Copy Costing to add groups of manufactured items using the Costing Analysis Alternative Copy form. You can also use  the Items tab on the Workbench to add individual items. If you use the copy form, then after you process the copy, return to the Workbench and refresh the record to see added items. Following are several guidelines for adding items:
    • For a year-end snapshot, you would generally add all of your standard costed finished goods to the alternative.
    • For analysis of changes that you plan to roll to current, the items you add should be a representative sample of all items that will be affected by the changes you make to product codes, departments, work centers, and materials. When you roll up costs, you will have the option to add more items than just those in your costing alternative, if you want to check the impact of the new costs on a larger set of items.
  6. After adding items, save the record.
  7. The next step is to roll up new item costs for the changes you have made.

    See Rolling Up Costs for Costing Analysis.

  8. Do one of the following:
    • If the alternative is for a year-end snapshot, click Frozen to freeze the record. This process is complete.
    • If the alternative is for analysis of detailed changes to a copied BOM and routing, you must click Current Materials and/or Current Operations to open forms for making changes to analyze. On those forms, make your changes, and then click Save. Return to the Workbench and refresh the alternative record.
    • If the alternative is for analysis of changes that you plan to roll to current costs, you must use the Product Codes, Departments, Work Centers, and Materials tabs on the Workbench to make changes. Make changes and then click Save.
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