The Metal Center Management System (MCMS) is a fully integrated information management system designed to meet the specific demands of metal service centers and distributors.
Accounts Payable
The MCMS Accounts Payable system simplifies the difficult task of cash management. It breaks down accounts payable processes so that all clerical functions are minimized. Accurate information is provided to assure easy payment of debts.
Entry & Inquiry
- Prevent the entry of duplicate vendor invoices.
- Distribute expenses to pre-defined accounts automatically.
- View paid or unpaid invoices by vendor with the Vendor Inquiry.
- Control payments to a vendor by placing one or all invoices on hold.
- Track discounts and due dates automatically to avoid missing early pay opportunities or paying late fees.
Check Writing
- Create recurring payables automatically for rent, car loans and bank notes.
- Enter a date to project the cash needed to pay due invoices.
- Track outstanding, cleared, or voided checks with Check Reconciliation.
- Allow multiple checking accounts and convert multiple currencies.
Interfaces
- Automatically compare invoices with Purchase Order Receipts, and either post discrepancies to a variance account or back to inventory with the Purchase Order/Accounts Payable interface.
- Update General Ledger journal files automatically.
Reports
- Run a Vendor Analysis report to show current and previous year invoice and payment history.
- Print an ageing by General Ledger date to help with auditing.
- Print an ageing by invoice or due date to monitor future cash outlay.
- Print 1099’s automatically for any vendor.
Accounts Receivable
The MCMS Accounts Receivable system allows the user to effectively control and manage receivables. It assists in collection efforts by providing quick access to account information, producing monthly finance charges and statements, and offering multiple ageing report options.
Inquiries
- View all customer activity, including current orders, quotes, and details about specific invoices and payments.
- Analyze the last 12 months of history with the Credit History Inquiry.
- Cross-reference invoices and sales order numbers with the customer’s purchase order number to find items quickly.
Ageing Reports
- Print by salesperson, by customer, or by branch, in detail or summarized formats.
- Print by invoice date or due date, account and branch to help with auditing.
- Change the ageing days as needed.
Cash Receipts
- Display information automatically by simply entering an invoice number.
- Review balance forward, automatically pay oldest invoices, and make any necessary adjustments in cash receipts.
- Handle over-the-counter sales and other miscellaneous cash.
- Allow other adjustments such as write-offs, credits, etc.
Customer Statements
- Flag customers to optionally receive statements, and/or service charge invoices.
- Optionally exclude customers with current accounts and specify a minimum balance.
- Print aged totals on each statement.
Interfaces
Update Accounts Receivable information automatically to other MCMS programs such as Order Entry and General Ledger.
Other Features
- Summarize detail for specific customers.
- Create custom letters for past-due accounts with the MCMS Prospect Management module, or U/SQL.
- Flag accounts for call-back notification or a future date, and store detailed comments on each call with the Prospect Management module.
- Plan the expected cash receipts with the Expected Cash Flow report.
Fixed Assets
The MCMS Fixed Assets system helps keep track of company assets by updating the status and accurately calculating depreciation. This package not only streamlines asset record keeping, but also prepares detailed reports that enable you to track each asset’s value.
Setup
- Simplify online entries of new acquisitions as well as the sale, transfer, and disposal of existing assets.
- Process and report on multiple company and multiple branch operations.
Depreciation
- Calculate depreciation for capital items by numerous methods including: Straight Line, Declining Balance, Double Declining Balance, Sum-of-the-Year’s Digits and multiple ACRS and MACRS.
- Allow user-definable depreciation schedules with the Custom Depreciation method.
- Depreciate each asset 4 different ways. (Book, Federal, State, and Other)
Monthly Cycle
- Calculate monthly depreciation amounts.
- Automatically recalculate depreciation on each asset’s anniversary.
- Print a monthly activity report, including a General Ledger Transaction Report.
Interfaces
Updates all postings to the General Ledger automatically.
Reports
- Monitor the current value for each asset with the Assets Report. Include the depreciation figures for any or all of the 4 depreciation types.
- Show profits gained or losses taken on the sale of assets with the Gain/Loss on Sale of Fixed Assets Report.
- Budget for future asset management with the Projected Depreciation Report.
- Obtain a list of assets discarded or sold with the Disposed Asset Report.
General Ledger
The MCMS General Ledger system not only simplifies the entire accounting procedure, but also produces financial reports that can help you examine your financial status in detail. The General Ledger can prepare financial statements within minutes, giving a complete financial picture of the company whenever the need arises.
Interfaces
- Interface with all other financial applications including Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Payroll, and Fixed Assets.
- Interface with all MCMS application processes including Inventory Control, Purchase Orders, Work Orders, Order Entry, etc.
- Accept transactions from those applications through an automatic posting feature.
Journal Processing
- Control updating to any given month in the current or previous fiscal year.
- Automatically generate recurring journal entries for selected frequency and duration.
- Automatically create reversing journal entries for subsequent periods (accrual entries).
- Dual-Year Capability allows two fiscal years to be open, permitting processing in the new year to continue while the final year-end closing figures are being gathered.
Multi-Company/Branch/Department Capability
- Process transactions for independent companies.
- Combine financial reports from multiple companies if needed.
- Isolate branch and departmental income statements with special sorting.
Financial Reports
- Analyze entries with an on-demand report or inquiry for any account or range of accounts.
- Generate balance sheets or income statements at any time.
- Create custom financial statement formats or select standard formats.
- Standard Balance Sheet formats include: Current Year Balances and Current Balances with Budget Comparison.
Standard Income Statement formats include: current period and year-to-date amounts with percentage of sales, current period and year-to-date amounts with budget comparisons, and current period and year-to-date amounts with previous period and year-to-date comparisons.
Inventory Control
The MCMS Inventory Control system provides you with a means to simultaneously simplify your inventory bookkeeping requirements, improve service to your customers, create valuable management reports, and give salespeople all of the information they need to increase business.
Industry Compatibility
- Use industry standard nomenclature and material dimensions to identify items, and accommodate various alloys, shapes, and sizes.
- Purchase, stock, and sell items by different units of measure including: pieces, pounds, hundredweight, square feet, feet, inches, lot, metric, etc.
- Schedule transfers and display demand for material in the ‘shipping’ warehouse, and future availability of material in the ýreceivingý warehouse through the Stock Transfer module. Generates all shipping and receiving documents if desired. Additional costs (e.g. freight) can be incorporated in cost of received material.
- Cost material for General Ledger purposes using average, standard, last cost, costing by warehouse or actual cost.
- Identify specific lots of material using an inventory tagging system. Tag information includes grade, mill, vendor, weight, heat number, country of origin, warehouse number, bin location, etc.
- Store chemical and mechanical property information by heat number and produce a ‘house’ certification.
- Track parent/child tags to see where and when a tag was used.
Inquiries
- Access the Inventory Inquiry program from Inventory Control, Quotation, Order Entry, Purchasing, Production, and the Prospect Management systems.
- Make inquiries by item, and show activity for all dimensions, including remnants. Track multiple legs and keep a sketch for plate remnants.
- Check stock-on-hand, in-process, on-order, and allocated, as well as access a cardex-type file showing individual lots (tags), and open purchase orders, sales orders, and work order usage and production for an item.
- Enter a grade/spec, and view all lots that meet that spec based on its chemical properties.
- Review past sales and purchase histories quickly.
Interfaces
- Interface with other MCMS modules including General Ledger, Purchasing, Order Entry, MC File, MC BarCode, etc.
- Keep cardex and accounting ledgers automatically current with multi-warehouse capabilities.
- Reduce disruption of day-to-day business with the Physical Inventory module.
Reports
- Rank inventory by several criteria and evaluate item movement with the ABC and Inventory Turns reports.
- These reports are useful for determining new purchasing and inventory decisions.
- Show the current value of all inventory with the Costed Inventory report.
- Calculate reorder information based on usage, lead times, carrying costs, EOQ, etc. with the Inventory Usage report.
Order Entry
The MCMS Order Entry system provides quick and accurate processing of sales orders and invoices. The system streamlines the entire process of generating an order, shipping the material, and invoicing your customer.
Interfaces
- Update other interfaced modules like Inventory, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Sales Analysis.
- Print MTR’s automatically for flagged orders with Compusource’s MC File, or provide your own House Certification form.
- Provide multiple branch and warehouse accounting, controls, and reports.
Customer Service
- Update the Open Orders file, print a picking/processing order and packing list, and then print an invoice when the order is shipped with just a single entry.
- Provide all the information necessary for the sales staff to get the order the first time a customer calls.
- Show quotes, orders and invoices, as well as stock levels, when an item is entered on an order.
- Display the customer’s price matrix automatically.
- Access inventory availability, customer credit and sales, and purchasing histories within one inquiry program.
- Flag orders needing authorization for customers over their credit limit, past due, or under gross profit level. Send the information to users or groups by electronic-mail (E-mail).
Quote Entry
- Check stock and credit, enter a quote, turn it into an order and create the purchase order for any buyouts with one simple procedure.
- Create an accurate quotation by rolling up additional prices and costs for processing, freight, and material handling charges on item quotes.
- Fax quotes direct from any workstation with Compusource’s MC Fax module.
Flexible Entries
- Calculate theoretical pieces, length, and weight automatically when entering items, dimensions, and quantities.
- Create special comments and shop instructions, as well as allocated material, heat numbers, and location on shop orders.
- Override default units of measure and automatically recalculate prices and costs based on the new unit of measure.
- Interfaces with the MC Fab module, which assists salespeople in quoting/selling virtually any shape that can be defined by an equation (e.g. circles, rings, ring segments, trepanned bar, etc.). Includes user definable processing matrix to automatically calculate costs and sell prices for processing charges (e.g. sawing, burning, freight, etc.).
- Create cut lists for processing orders that calculate material required (including Kerf-loss) for the quantity and dimensions ordered.
Reports and Inquiries
- Open order reports by promise date, item, customer, etc.
- Daily, month-to-date and year-to-date bookings, reports, and flexible Invoice Journals.
Payroll
The MCMS Payroll system effectively manages the entire payroll process. It allows control to stay inside the company by having all payroll information accessible and secure.
Flexibility
- Define multiple divisions and departments for processing and reporting.
- Provide multiple earnings and deduction categories for special types of pay and deductions.
- Handle flexible benefits (cafeteria) and company sponsored pension plans (401K).
- Support companies with employees in multiple states.
Check Processing
- Calculate pay and standard deductions automatically.
- Enter labor against jobs for Labor Distribution reporting.
- Calculate all applicable taxes automatically. User-definable check format.
- Print the Payroll Register to detail pay, taxes, deductions, and net check amount.
- Other reports include: Deductions Register, Detail Tax Register, Labor Distribution and Check History report.
Interfaces
Update all postings to the General Ledger system automatically.
Tax Compliance
- Compute taxes for different federal, state and local tax authorities.
- Change tax parameters without programming knowledge.
- Report weeks worked for states requiring it.
- Print quarterly reports for tax filing.
- User-definable W2 forms.
- Report W2’s on magnetic media.
- Manage and control workers’ compensation premiums automatically through the Workers’ Compensation set up and reporting.
Security
- Payroll history screens and pay information cannot be accessed unless the operator uses a high security sign-on and password.
- Set up limited security for users to enter hours.
- Users with limited security cannot view pay rates and pay history.
Plate Fabrication
The MC Fab module provides value-added processors the ability to quickly and accurately quote and sell processed material. Most shapes or items that can be defined by an equation can be quoted quickly and easily. In addition, the quote can automatically include multiple pre-defined charges for inside or outside processing, freight, etc.
Features
- Create fabrication codes to define shapes that can be defined by an equation, (e.g. circles, rings, ring segments, rectangles, cut-to-length items, etc.), and then use the fab codes to quote/sell these items in the MCMS Order Entry and Quotation modules.
- Fab codes can also accommodate factors like kerf, test parts, etc.
- Create value-add charge codes (e.g. sawing, burning, freight, etc.) which can automatically, or manually be factored into the selling cost and price of the fabricated parts. These charges can utilize user-defined tables which consider factors like thickness, diameter, lineal inches, number of cuts, and so on. In addition, charge codes can have their own ledger accounts for financial reporting.
- Charge codes can be designated for both internal and external processing. If external processing is required for an item, the integrated Quick PO function can be used to create any purchase orders required.
- Whenever a fab code is utilized, the forms (e.g. sales order, invoice, etc.) programs can print the fab code description, (e.g. 1ý HR Plate, 4ýOD x 3ýID Ring Segment), and the quantity and weight of the fabricated parts. In addition, MC Fab will notify you of, and bill for, the estimated material that will be required (e.g. 1ý HR Plate, 4.25ý x 4.25ý).
Benefits
- Save time, eliminate miscalculations and oversights, and improve customer service by quickly and accurately quoting fabricated parts.
- Improve value-add profitability by automatically including all factors (e.g. material, inside and outside processing, freight, skid charges, etc.) that contribute to the actual cost of a fabricated item.
- Evaluate the profitability of your value-add activity by utilizing available report generating tools to create financial reports on each charge code.
- Significantly decrease inaccurate quotations due to manual miscalculations, and/or failure to consider all relevant internal and external costs.
- Streamline the process required to create the quote, turn it into an order, and create any required purchase orders for both material and/or processing.
Interfaces
- MC Fab is integrated with the MCMS Inventory, Quotations, Order Entry, Purchasing and General Ledger modules.
- Value-add activity created through MC Fab can be analyzed with the standard MCMS reporting tools, and/or 3rd party tools (e.g. MS Excel, Crystal Reports, Access, etc.), with the optional MCMS ODBC database.
Prospect Manager
The MCMS Prospect Management system assists sales with response to leads, coordinates direct mail campaigns, manages the current customer base, and provides fast and efficient follow-up. This system can help organize and manage any metal center prospect database.
Entry and Inquiry
- Customize user-defined fields and default entries, giving the ability to create databases comprised of specific prospect/customer characteristics.
- Once the prospect/customer is identified, the user can immediately jump to the Quote or Order Entry function, check stock, review open orders, etc.
- Record unlimited notes in a comment file that automatically displays the date and time of the entry.
- Access a prospect/customer file quickly to immediately recall previous conversations.
Monitor Sales Functions
- Record all contacts and special notes, and automatically determine the next date the prospect/customer should be contacted based on a user defined frequency.
- Print a hot list of prospects to be called each day, along with the contact name, title and any special comments noted during past contacts.
- Outside sales personnel can login from remote locations to record call information, and update the file for follow-up by inside sales.
- Prevent discrepancies among individual salespeople by securing each prospect/customer base.
- Measure advertising effectiveness by entering the source of sales leads, and tracking the overall responses.
- Flag multiple prospects/customers to receive form letters based on user-selected criteria.
Letters
- Prepare personalized form letters to print, store, and recall them as needed.
- Automatically address the appropriate contact with the proper salutation and closing.
- Design letters to be consistent with your current company form letter.
- Coordinate direct mail campaigns for selected groups of prospects/customers based on several different criteria.
- Print mailing labels with contact names to accompany letters or mass mailings.
Accounts Receivable
- Prospect Management can also be utilized as a telecredit module.
- Tailor call tracking and letter writing to enhance credit and collection efforts by creating a separate database for credit personnel.
Purchasing
The MCMS Purchasing system helps you buy material at the best times and prices. More effective purchasing can increase profits significantly. This system is designed to track pricing changes and vendor performance, allowing you to maximize the profitability of daily buying tasks.
Streamline Procedures
- Simplify routine functions such as purchase order entry and maintenance.
- Accept regular, buyout and drop ship purchase orders.
- Utilize the Quick PO feature in Order Entry and/or create a purchase order directly from a sales order to streamline ýbuyoutý procedures.
- Multiple comment lines are available throughout the system to provide special instructions, notes, etc.
- Manage import material on which ownership has been taken, but not physically received, with the ýin transitý interface to the General Ledger and Inventory Control systems.
Interfaces
- Provide real-time updates of inventory on hand and on order as soon as material is ordered or received.
- Suggest items that need to be considered for purchase. The usage factors inventory usage including history, lead times, carrying costs, times out, and current on hand and on order quantities to help make optimal purchases.
- Integrate with Accounts Payable to run a Discrepancy report. Reconcile differences between receipts and Accounts Payable invoices, as well as identify accrued payables from Purchasing. This interface posts back to Order Entry, Inventory Control and General Ledger.
- Fax purchase orders and requests for quotation with MC Fax.
- Use MC BarCode module to receive barcoded tags from the mill, or to generate internal barcode labels for received material.
Flexibility
- Allow for average, standard, last cost, costing by warehouse, or actual costing methods.
- Update average and last costs immediately after an item is received, keeping item information current.
- Track additional costs such as freight, duty, wharfage, processing, etc., to reflect true on order and landed costs.
- Change information at any time, as well as reprint a hard copy, with on-line editing.
- Spread out deliveries with staggered receipt date orders. This allows the user to keep items on order with the vendor, know the arrival dates, but not keep the actual material in the inventory.
Reports and Inquiries
- Track purchase orders in a variety of ways, including by due date, PO number, item code, job number and vendor. See at a glance which items have or have not been received.
- Allow inquiry into open and closed PO’s by item code, PO number, job number, or vendor number.
- Provide 24 months of purchasing history within the Inventory Control inquiry.
- Show previous purchases from a particular vendor.
Work Order
The MCMS Work Order system provides the ability to schedule production in advance, notify sales and inventory personnel, and cost finished goods production including material, labor and overhead (burden) costs.
Inventory Status
- Integrate with the MCMS Inventory module to provide updated information as work orders are scheduled and produced.
- Display inventory status that reflects what will be produced and when, so sales orders (or other work orders) can be allocated to the material scheduled for production.
- Show material chosen to be processed (source material) as no longer being available for other orders.
- Automatically reduce the appropriate quantity of the source material, and create the proper amount of finished material as soon as production is completed.
Scheduling
- Estimate the material required and expected costs when work orders are scheduled for a specific operation/machine, and based on default run speeds, burden costs, etc.
- Schedule material to be produced for stock, or for specific sales orders.
- Allocate material to the work order and the produced material will remain allocated to the sales order throughout the shipping and billing process-- assuring properly costed invoices.
- Print scheduled work order documents to userdefined specifications, including any special instructions, material allocations, etc.
Production
- Provide properly costed finished goods after production with actual labor and material usage information.
- Report on variances against the estimated material, labor and burden.
Reports
- Print extensive reports with information on Production History, including reports by Work Order, by Item, by Crew, and by Machine/Operation.
- Create user-definable reports with MCMS’ report writer products (Application Manager, U/SQL) in addition to the standard reports that are available.
Interfaces
- Interface with General Ledger to provide work-inprocess accounting.
- Integrated with MC BarCode package to provide for laser scanning of allocated material tags, and printing of labels upon completion of production.