DBA Manufacturing is a manufacturing software for small businesses. The solution replaces traditional forecasts and BOM explosions, reduces time to shipment, uses less inventory with fewer shortages, and reduces your workforce size. The demand driven MRP helps your business replace manual planning methods with a demand driven planning system to boost efficiency.

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Video Overview

DBA is a targeted product. DBA does not try to be all things to all people. It is designed specifically for small manufacturers and job-based businesses. Because manufacturers also distribute their own products, it is also well suited for wholesale distributors.
DBA is for small business. DBA is a small business system designed for companies that need up to 50 computer workstations. It is a big step above low-end accounting systems, but is considerably less complicated than midrange manufacturing and ERP systems.
DBA is a complete solution. DBA provides all the core functions needed to run a small manufacturing or job-based business. This gives you a single, integrated solution without the double entry and inconvenience of working with multiple solutions.
DBA knows its customers. They have been serving small manufacturers since 1992 and have accumulated some pretty good ideas over the years based on their experience and feedback from their customers.
DBA is all about value. The direct sales model, free single-user system, and abundance of self-help resources, enables them to offer the entire system for a single, per-user package price.

DBA Manufacturing Features

The top features of DBA Manufacturing include:

Accounts Payable

The Accounts Payable Module Consists of the Following Elements:

Payment Types ‘Payment types’ are used to classify your payments to suppliers into categories such as ‘Check’, ‘Amex’, ‘Cash’, etc. Whenever you record a supplier payment, you must specify a payment type. The payment type also determines whether payment is made by check, manual check, or file transfer.

Supplier Invoices The Supplier Invoices screen is where all supplier invoices that are not related to purchase orders are entered. Invoice amounts can be distributed across an unlimited number of expense types (and corresponding GL accounts). Invoices can be immediately paid from the screen (such as by manual check).

Purchase Order Invoices Supplier invoices that are related to purchase orders are entered in the Purchase Order Invoices screen. Line items are matched with supplier invoice prices and any discrepancies between PO prices and supplier invoice prices are posted to a Purchase Variance GL account.

Recurring Invoices The Recurring Invoices screen is used to enter and generate supplier invoices that have fixed, recurring amounts, such as rent, loan payments, etc.

Payment Processing The Payment Processing screen is used to select supplier invoices for payment and to process payments and print checks.

Payments Register All past supplier payments are listed in the Payments Register screen, which includes a void payment capability.

Accounts Receivable

The Accounts Receivable Module Is Comprised of the Following Key Elements:

Terms Table You can create a table of standard payment terms that includes the number of days due, a discount percentage and accompanying days due, and whether aging starts at the end of the month or accrues from the invoice date. Each customer can be assigned a standard payment terms or can have his own customized terms.

Credit Checking Each customer can be assigned a credit limit or can be put on complete credit hold to prevent orders from being taken that exceed these limits. A customized warning message can also be maintained that displays during order entry.

Miscellaneous Income Miscellaneous income entries can be made for transactions that occur outside the formal invoicing system, such as adjustments on account.

Customer Payments Customer payments can be recorded against open invoices. Discounts can be deducted and facility is provided for rounding adjustments and handling overpayments.

Customer Deposits Customer deposits can be entered for prepayments and can be automatically applied to invoices once they are printed and posted.

Bank Reconciliation

The Bank Reconciliation Module Is Where You Set Up and Reconcile Your Bank Accounts and Consists of the Following Elements.

Bank Accounts You can set up an unlimited number of bank accounts with user-defined cashbook types. Against each account you can define the next check number (if applicable), the check print format, and GL account code.

Bank Reconciliation Reconciliation with bank statements includes the ability to enter miscellaneous income and expenses on the fly.

Account Transfer Using the Account Transfer screen, you can transfer funds from one bank account to another.

Cashflow Inquiry The Cashflow Inquiry is a powerful tool that helps you estimate future cashflow based on existing income (receivables) and expenses (payables) combined with budgeted income and expenses. You can also manipulate factors for past due collections and payments as well as expected deviations from income and expense due dates.

Bank Balance Inquiries The Total Balance Inquiry gives you a graphical representation of the estimated bank balance, which includes all non-cleared items as well as any miscellaneous expenses or income entered during bank reconciliation. The Bank Balances Inquiry lists the same information broken out by bank account.

Income Due by Period Inquiry This inquiry gives you a projection of incoming cash based on open customer invoice amounts and payment due dates.

Bill of Materials

Bills of material are used to define the manufacturing specifications for your products or those you make on behalf of others. Any product that will be made more than once, that contains subassemblies, or that has the potential of being stocked in inventory, should be defined with a bill of material.

The Following Are the Major Elements That Comprise the Bill of Materials

Methods You can optionally set up multiple ‘methods’ for each product. Each method can represent a different revision or batch size, each with its own specifications. At time of job creation, you can select your method of choice.
Stock Item Components Each method can include a list of the stock item materials and subassemblies that comprise the product. From/thru effective date ranges are available to control when components become active or inactive. Components can optionally be assigned to approved manufacturers and can be given any number of reference fields to represent drawing references or component locations.
Descriptor Components Each method can include a list of the ‘descriptors’ (non-stock items) that comprise the product, which are used to represent the labor, setup, and subcontract services that go into the product.
Routings Components can optionally be assigned to ‘seq-stages’, which are the sequential ‘routing’ operations that comprise the manufacturing process. Routing sequences can furthermore be broken down into specific ‘tasks’. Unlimited notes can be attached to routing sequences and tasks for printing on the job traveler.
Work Centers Routing sequences are assigned to ‘work centers’. A work center defines the area of the shop or unique machine where the production takes place and can also be used to represent outside work centers for subcontract services such as plating, painting, heat-treating, etc.
Machines Each routing sequence can also be assigned to a particular ‘machine’ within the work center. Interchangeable machines can be pre-assigned to routing sequences or assigned at job time based on machine availability.
Outputs ‘Outputs’ are the finished products that result from the manufacturing process. Multiple outputs are supported, which enable you to produce bi-products or co-products from a single BOM.

General Ledger

The General Ledger is an expanded version of the Manufacturing Ledger that includes all of its transactions (which already includes Accounts Receivable transactions) plus those derived from the Accounts Payable and Bank Reconciliation modules.

GL Architecture The GL account code structure is user-defined and can consist of up to six segments (for breakdowns such as ‘enterprise’, ‘division’, ‘cost center’, ‘department’, ‘sub-account’, etc.) and up to 40-characters (including hyphens). Each GL account is assigned to a ‘type’ (asset, liability, etc.), a ‘class’ (such as current assets), and a ‘group’ (such as cash on hand).

General Ledger data is stored in the GL transactions file. There are no parallel ‘bucket’ or summary files maintained. Financial periods are user-defined. Within the fiscal year you can set up monthly periods, 13 periods, 4-4-5 week periods, or any other scheme or structure you wish. Financial statements are generated from the transactions file and use the accounting periods table to allocate numbers to their proper periods.

Current and Retained Earnings During the year, whenever you run a balance sheet, your current earnings for the year are calculated and displayed on the balance sheet in your Current Earnings GL account. No entries are actually posted to Current Earnings.

At some point in the new fiscal year after you’ve made any final adjusting entries to your prior year, you will run a year-end procedure that zeroes out your new year balances for income and expense accounts and posts an entry to your Retained Earnings account.

If for any reason you need to make additional entries to the prior year after you’ve run the year-end procedure, you can always undo the year-end procedure, make your adjusting entries, and run it again.

GL Mapping Table All system transactions made outside the General Ledger do not get assigned a GL account code until they are batch posted to the General Ledger. At that time, each transaction is compared against the ‘GL mapping table’ to determine which GL accounts and amounts are posted and updated.

This ‘clip-on’ or ‘back-end’ GL architecture is what enables the core DBA manufacturing system to be implemented and used without any mandatory GL setup at all. Only when the time comes to implement the Manufacturing Ledger do you then need to set up your chart of accounts and GL mapping.

Account Assignments or Mapping Setup Options You can use the Account Assignments screen to populate the GL mapping table for you or you can map the GL directly using the Transaction Mapping screen. For most companies, the Account Assignments screen provides all the setup needed. For advanced GL setup requirements, the Account Assignments screen can be used to make the initial settings, then it can be turned off and the Transaction Mapping screen used from that point onward.

Inventory

The Inventory module is where you set up your stock items and includes the ability to enter inventory adjustments and conduct physical inventories (stock takes).

Inventory also includes user-defined ‘item characteristics’ that can be used to track variations within available stock for characteristics such as lot and serial numbers, multiple dimensions and packing units, expiration dates, grades and conditions, and more.

Stock locations can be set up to represent warehouses, service trucks, or areas within the factory or warehouse. If you want to restrict a location to certain classes of stock, you can do so. Stock can be transferred individually or in sets from one location to another.

Inventory templates enable you set up stocking levels for various sets of inventory items. Each location can be assigned an inventory template and can have its stock replenished via a location transfer. Not only is this handy for replenishing warehouses, but it’s useful for maintaining parts inventories on service trucks.

Inventory also includes a complete consignment tracking system. A stock location can be designated for company stock, customer stock, or supplier stock. You can also track items you lend to customers or borrow from suppliers, such as shipping pallets or perhaps special gauges or tools that are lent to you.

Features:

User-defined transaction types, stock locations, and stock classes
On-hand quantity and cost adjustments
Stock Counts screen provides for counting selected sets of items
Stock Count Sheet lists the stock items selected for counting and provides a worksheet for recording the stock count quantities
Default stock locations are assigned at the stock item level for issues and receipts.
Stock items can be transferred from one stock location to another via the Stock Transfer screen
Inventory templates set stocking levels within stock locations
Location Stock Transfer screen automatically replenishes inventory at stock locations using inventory template stocking levels
Allowable stock classes can be defined at the stock location level for purposes such as guarding against hazardous materials being stored in improper locations
Stock locations can be designated for company stock, customer stock, or supplier stock and can be used for consignment or loan stock tracking

Job Management

Job Management Is Accomplished via the Following System Functions:

Jobs are entered, processed, and reported on within the Jobs module. Two job types are available:

Make Jobs: All products (meaning all items defined with a bill of material) are manufactured using Make Jobs, whether destined for stock or for shipment to customers. The order entry, shipping, and invoicing functions are handled by separate sales orders. Make Jobs produce ‘outputs’, which are finished goods that can be put in stock or shipped directly to customers. Outputs provide for the tracking of item characteristics such as lot and serial control, bin location, etc.
Service Jobs: Service Jobs are used for the service and repair of customer assets or the maintenance of internal assets. Customers are billed directly from the job without using a sales order.

Estimating: An all-new Estimating module is under development that will make it easy to seamlessly transition from estimate, then to a customer quote, to a confirmed sales order, and then to a job.

You will be able to generate estimates for multiple quantities of an item, including multi-level estimates. You will be able to enter routing and component detail using existing items, descriptors, or freeform items, using existing cost tables or manually entered costs. You can apply different markups to different cost categories within the estimate.

On the customer quote you will have control over which items and components are printed.

Once a quote becomes a confirmed order, you will be able to convert it into a sales order and production job.

Estimates can be re-used over and over again, with cost and price refresh options, and estimates can be copied to other estimates or converted into bills of material.

Features:

Multi-quantity estimates can be generated from a single set of specifications
Estimates can be linked to other estimates for estimating multi-level products
Estimate details can include routings and components
Costs can come from supplier price table, item estimated costs, or freeform entry
Components can be stock items, descriptors, or freeform items
Details can be copied from other estimates, bills of material, kitsets, or routing stages
Print flag on details controls level of detail that prints on quotes
Estimates can be converted into sales orders and make jobs
Estimates can be re-used, with optional cost and price refresh
Estimates can be copied to other estimates or converted to bills of material

Manufacturing Ledger

The Manufacturing Ledger Is a Sub-Ledger to Your General Ledger

The Manufacturing Ledger interacts with approximately 15 of your GL accounts and conforms to your accounting system’s financial periods. All manufacturing system financial transactions accumulate in the Manufacturing Ledger, which is used as a sub-ledger to your outside general ledger.

All transaction detail is stored in the Manufacturing Ledger, which provides an audit trail with batch control, a journal report, transaction listing, and inquiries. Summarized batch totals are transferred at period end to your general ledger by batch journal entry or data export. Each batch journal entry typically consists of 15 debit/credit transactions.

Your accounting software will continue handling all financial activities performed outside the DBA base system, including accounts payable, banking, payroll, fixed assets, and general ledger.

The Manufacturing Ledger Provides WIP-Based Manufacturing Accounting

The Manufacturing Ledger provides WIP-based manufacturing accounting that properly absorbs the costs of labor, material, subcontract services, and overhead into the cost of the items you make. Expenses only occur when items are sold, in the form of cost of goods sold. This process aligns your income with expenses and gives you an accurate profit picture that helps you make better business decisions.

Manufacturing Ledger Features:

Enables you to continue using your existing accounting system until manufacturing is fully up and running
Enables you to implement the system in a 2-step process rather than all at once
Ideal for departmental solutions that must provide information to another accounting system
Provides a sub-ledger to any outside general ledger
Stores all accounting transactional detail generated by the manufacturing system
Requires the setup of only 15 GL accounts
Provides true WIP-based accounting that absorbs the cost of manufacturing into your inventory and realizes expenses when goods are sold
Summarized GL account totals can be exported or manually posted to your general ledger (approximately 15 journal entries)

MRP & Scheduling

MRP(manufacturing requirements planning) is a process that involves the planning and scheduling of jobs and purchase orders and the management of inventory to fulfill customer orders.

Scheduling not only occurs when planned jobs are created, but also when jobs need to be rescheduled to meet changing dates and conditions. At the work center and machine level, scheduling occurs daily when determining job assignments.

Here Are Some of the Key Features of DBA’s MRP and Scheduling System:

Push and Pull Planning

You can use any combination of push and pull planning styles to manage your inventory.

For push style planning where inventory levels are set to anticipate demand, you can establish reorder levels, minimum order quantities, and enter forecasts.

For pull style planning where you only manufacture or purchase in response to actual demand, you can set reorder levels to zero and designate selected items to be made or ordered only in response to actual requirements.

You can freely mix the two styles and use push planning for some items and pull planning for others.

Variable Planning Period by Item During MRP generation, each item is assigned its own planning period based on the sum of its Lead Days plus Job Days plus the interval days between MRP runs. Variable planning periods significantly reduce the number of items to be planned for and focuses attention on just those items that need it.

With the efficient supply chains of today, many items can be replenished quickly and are therefore excluded from the MRP generation until shortly before they are actually needed.

Dynamic Job Scheduling within MRP The multi-level MRP generation of planned jobs pauses at each level so that jobs can be dynamically scheduled backward from required dates. This combines MRP and scheduling into one process and produces accurate job schedules down through all levels of your product structures.

Transparency of Numbers Within each item’s Drill-Down and Job Days Calculator screens, all the numbers that were used to generate the planned job and PO details are fully transparent and traceable.

Work Center Job Prioritization Daily Work Center Dispatch Lists are created and sent to the shop floor for work assignments. Jobs are prioritized using a Critical Ratio, which assures that jobs running behind schedule are given priority over jobs that are running ahead of schedule. When you schedule the entire factory in this manner, more jobs will get completed on time with fewer bottlenecks and less expediting.

Screens and Reports

MRP Settings This screen is used to maintain MRP-related settings for your stock items, including reorder level, minimum order, lead days, and job days.
Forecasts Forecasts are used to plan for demand that is expected to materialize in the future for orders that have not yet been received. Forecasts (outside an exclusion window) are included in the total demand within each item’s planning period.
MRP This screen is used to generate planned jobs and PO’s and to schedule and convert them into actual jobs and purchase orders.
Buy-for-Job This screen is used to generate PO’s directly from jobs for ‘to-order’ items and for non-stock items such as subcontract services (painting, plating, heat-treating, etc.).
Work Center Scheduling This screen is used to prioritize jobs within work centers and machines and to generate a daily dispatch list that is used out on the shop floor for work assignments. You can also use this screen to maintain scheduling-related settings such as daily capacity, queue time, and safety buffer. Job Scheduling** This screen is used to reschedule jobs and sales orders when required dates change or jobs are running early or late.
Delivery Date Estimator Use this screen to calculate a projected delivery date for any stock item and quantity.
Planning Worksheets Planning worksheets provide a listing of items that need planned orders and enable you to do your planning on paper as an alternative to doing so on the screen. Each item’s MRP settings and existing and projected demand and supply are listed on the reports so that all the planning information you need is at your fingertips.
Scheduling Reports A set of scheduling reports are available, including a master job schedule, work center schedule, machine schedule, and subcontract service schedule.

Purchasing

Purchasing is an integral part of the manufacturing process. You are offered a variety of options to help you purchase materials, outside processing services, and other items for your jobs and inventory. Purchasing system elements include:

Purchase Orders Purchase orders can be manually entered via the Purchase Order Screen or automatically generated from jobs or inventory. Each line item has its own due date and can be tied to specific jobs and routing sequences.
PO Receiving Line items are received through the Purchase Receipts screen, which is optimized for batch receiving of multiple line item receipts. Line items can also be received one-by-one within the Purchase Order Screen,
PO Generation from Jobs You can use the Buy-for-Job screen to automatically generate PO’s from jobs for stock items and subcontract services, including the transfer of job detail notes to the PO.

Sales Management

Sales Management Is Accomplished via the Following System Functions.

Customers interact with sales orders, jobs, and accounts receivable.

Features:

50-character Customer Name also serves as ID code
Trading Name is the name that prints on documents such as quotes, order acknowledgements, packing slips, and invoices
Unlimited delivery addresses
Optional Billing Name if invoices are to be handled by a central office
Customer payment terms table includes days due, % discount, discount days, and whether aging days due is from the invoice date or end of the month
Sales tax options include USA or GST style taxation, non-taxable, or an advanced tax code matrix
Optional customer statements
User-defined customer types, contact types, sales regions, and lead sources
Unlimited contacts, including a primary contact person
E-mailing documents option
Broadcast e-mail from List screen to groups of selected customers
Unlimited notes
Credit limit, warning message, and credit hold status
PO required option
Foreign currency designation
Service contracts listing
Up to six user-defined fields can be added to the customer table in date, text, or pre-defined selection formats
Consignment stock tracking
Linked documents can be attached that transfer to jobs or sales orders
Activity notes integration
Customer aging inquiry
Customer labels can be printed from the List screen for selected groups of customers
Customer Inquiry screen displays open quotes, make to-order jobs, sales orders, and activity notes
Customers can be assigned to a single or group of salespersons
Customer item ID’s and descriptions can be cross-referenced with stock items

Sales Module

The Sales module consists of the following elements:

Sales Orders: Customer orders are entered as sales orders and can be shipped from stock or converted to Make Jobs for made-to-order products.
Sales Quotes: Sales quotes enable you to quote prices to customers and, should the customer confirm the order, converts the sales quote to a sales order.
Pricing & Discount Tables: Product prices and customer discount tables interact with sales orders and include Base Prices, Price Levels, Discounts, and Contract Prices.
Sales Commissions: Sales commissions can be generated from invoices and can be mapped by percentage or formulas.

Activity Notes

Activity notes provide a contact manager type capability whereby you can record contact events and schedule follow-up events. Unlike contact managers, which are usually confined to customers and prospects, you can use activity notes with suppliers and to record events associated with sales orders, jobs, purchase orders, stock items, and descriptors.

Features:

Integration with jobs, customers, suppliers, stock items, descriptors, and employees
Can be used to delegate tasks to other personnel
User defined note types and analysis codes
Unlimited history text
Automatic expiration of open notes at specified number of days

Service Management

Service and Maintenance of Internal and Customer Assets Is Accomplished via the Following System Functions.

The Service & Maintenance module is used to manage the service and maintenance of assets such as machines, tools, facilities, vehicles, etc. Assets can be internal assets or assets you maintain and service on behalf of customers. The Service & Maintenance module consists of the following elements:

Assets: A variety of information can be entered against each Asset, including the customer to whom it belongs (if applicable), its acquisition date and value, serial number, and more, including unlimited user-defined fields (referred to as ‘Service Characteristics’).
Service Events: Service events are planned maintenance events that eventually can be converted into service jobs. Future service events can be scheduled based on frequency of usage (such as mileage or hits on a machine) or can be scheduled by date.
Service Events Generation: This function translates scheduled service events into suggested service jobs.
Suggested Service Jobs: This screen provides a list of suggested service jobs and enables you to convert list items into actual service jobs or generate reminder letters or e-mails to customers.
Service Jobs: Service jobs are special job type optimized for service-related jobs and are linked to service events and automatically get logged into each asset’s service history.
Knowledge Base: This provides you a means to store and retrieve questions and answers to common service questions. You can index each entry with a searchable Type, Category, and Description.